Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Highfalutin

Pompous or pretentious: “highfalutin reasons for denying direct federal assistance to the unemployed”

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Parabulia

Abnormality of volition or will, as when one impulse is checked and replaced by another.

Monday, May 09, 2005

Simulacrum

(1) An image or representation.
(2) An unreal or vague semblance.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Spoonerism

The transposition of usually initial sounds in a pair of words.

Some examples:
-- The Lord is a shoving leopard ["loving shepherd"].
-- It is kisstomary to cuss ["customary to kiss"] the bride.
-- Is the bean dizzy ["dean busy"]?
-- Let me sew you to your sheet ["show you to your seat"].

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Osculate

(1) To kiss.
(2) Mathematics. To have three or more points coincident with.
(3) To come together; contact.

Monday, May 02, 2005

Complicit

Associated with or participating in a questionable act or a crime; having complicity: newspapers complicit with the propaganda arm of a dictatorship.