Laughter is a good medicine. Laughter is also interesting for some.
More interesting to them, that they make a career studying humor and laughter.
Gelotology is the study of laughter.Gelos in Greek means laughter and hence the word Gelotology.
Gelotologists study the effect of humor and laughter on the human body. They study psychological treatments relating to humor and laughter like humor therapy , clown therapy , laughter therapy etc.There is well documented and ongoing research in this field of study.
All of us chance into something once in a while.Sometimes its awful to have discovered something and sometimes its so good that we actually found it.The word to use when you accidently find something and that something is good and a fortunate discover, you call it serendipity.We use serendipity when we actually find something that we were not expecting at all in the first place.
Ex. There have been many serendipitous discoveries in science. Here its used as an adjective.It could also be used as an adverb.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity : Use this link to find a list of serendipitous discoveries made in science.Its really interesting to know how many such discoveries have changed our lives so much.
Ghostwriter is a professional writer who writes for somebody else.
There are many who require some documents , reports , essays or some biography to be written.These people may be pressed for time or they may not be capable of expressing themselves as a professional writer.Hence, they hire ghostwriters.The person may or may not acknowledge the ghostwriter for the work.The ghostwriter is paid but the name of the ghostwriter never appears in the work.Hence the word ghostwriter.
Many professional writers use ghostwriting as a source of income.It is lucrative but the writer must be able to compromise the fact that his name would never appear in the work.
When a person is made to walk head held down and his hands held behind (like how cops make the culprits to walk) he is said to frog march.
When a person or group of people eat voraciously they are said to pig out.
When you ruin someone's plan, you are said to cook someone's goose.
A coward is called a chicken.
When a person takes back his word or admits his mistake he is said to be an eating crow.
Animals have been a man's best friend,companion, threat,food,inspiration,tool to hunt and what not.With time there have been many words in any language that is derived from animals,describing their qualities or a word of comparison etc.As sly as a fox, as faithful as a dog, drink like a fish are examples of common idioms in English.
There are also words/phrases with animal names;these are the animal names that we are going to see today.
A stubborn person is a pig head.
A stupid person is a birdbrain.
A person who takes the blame for others mistakes or is a target is called a scapegoat. An illegitimate child is called a brush colt.
When a person quits an addiction/habit all at once , he is said to quit like a cold turkey.
A troublesome person is called a black sheep.
An easy target or vulnerable person is called a sitting duck.
Anything easy to do is called a duck soup.
Interesting, is it not?
There are many more such words.I will post them in my next post.
A love letter is an age old tradition of writing a personal letter to express affection for your loved one.
Billet Doux is obtained from the French language.It means a love letter!
Ex. of a sentence using billet doux: She kept the billet-doux in a box on the dresser.
There are a few attracted to the life of luxury, mirth , joy and just fun. Pleasure seeking souls;they want all the luxury and pleasure they can afford and more.Such people are called Sybarites.
Sybarite is derived from Greek Sybarites, from Sybaris, an ancient Greek city noted for the luxurious, pleasure-seeking habits of many of its inhabitants.
Did you associate the word literally to a side kick??
No,I dont intend some violence in my blog.
Can you take a wild guess what a Sidekick could mean??
a blow?a hit? smashing something? a kick in the side? some kind of thrill/adventure/violent act?? No
Well, it is rather contrary to the above guesses.
Sidekick means a close pal, friend,accomplice,companion From wikipedia
A sidekick is a stock character, a close companion who assists a partner in a superior position.
Examples of sidekicks : Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, Batman's companion Robin, and Xena's partner, Gabrielle are some well-known sidekicks in fiction.
So now you are enlightened about the word sidekick. Sounds funny though!
Well, it is not uncommon that we give excuses based on our health or forged illness to skip some work or meeting.Sometimes, it may be unavoidable but some people use this very frequently to avoid their duty.
English has not spared people who feign illness or other incapacity in order to avoid duty or work.
They are said to Malinger
Malingering is a medical term that refers to fabricating or exaggerating the symptoms of mental or physical disorders for a variety of "secondary gain" motives, which may include financial compensation (often tied to fraud); avoiding school, work or military service; obtaining drugs; getting lighter criminal sentences; or simply to attract attention or sympathy
Dont malinger...malingering is a disease by itself!
Kiss is a lovely 4 letter word and i guess it is one of the most widely used words or widely desired words i must say!!
Well, I was curious what other words can be used to mean kiss.
Here is the list of words which could mean a kiss...its always good to know!
pucker up : means to kiss , to pursue the lips to give a kiss osculate : means to kiss butterfly : I gave her a butterfly on her cheeks, means a butterfly kiss. Butterfly kiss : means a kiss that does not involve the lips.Its like a pecker on the cheeks or while fondling children etc. French : when used in the context, it would mean a French kiss Peck : is a brief kiss mostly on the cheeks, it would signify a platonic relationship or a brief kiss that may not be sexual Endearment : is a display of affection generally a caress or by a small peck Osculation : is the act of kissing or denotes a kiss Smooch : is an enthusiastic kiss To spoon : would mean to kiss and cuddle Smack : could also mean a peck or a smooch but be careful of the context because it could also mean a spank Graze : would mean a light and momentary contact of the lips or skin
Yesterday , my husband and me watched an Oscar winning movie called the Last Emperor. It was about the Last Emperor of China , Puyin . The story was a biography of the emperor and the word biopic came to my mind.
What is a biopic?
We've heard of biographies where the life of a person is written by another person.
We've heard of autobiographies where the life of a person is written by himself/herself.
Biopics is actually biographical motion picture
Biographical Motion Picture (Biopic)
It is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their lives.
Example of Biopics : Man on the Moon is a biopic on the American Entertainer Andy Kauffman played by Jim Carrey. , The Last Emperor is a biopic on the last emperor of China , Meryl Streep plays the part of Julia in Julie and Julia .
It is a disorder that occurs when a person walks or does another activity while they are still asleep. Sleepwalking is called Somnambulism or Noctambulism.
Somn : It is the Latin root word for sleep. Other words from the same root word are cacosomnia , insomnia etc
Noct : is the root word to indicate night
Other words from Noct are nocturnal
Well,today's baby carriages were actually called perambulator in the yesteryears.
Pram , the word to denote a baby carriage is also derived from the word perambulator.
Perambulator: It can be broken up into per + ambulate , per is used to show free movement like permissable, permeate,perculate etc and ambulate is to walk from place to place; move about.
These are pictures of the early perambulators.
Perambulator is also known as baby buggy, baby carriage, pram, pushchair, stroller, go-cart, pusher, carriage,bassinet
Interestingly , there is one of a kind perambulator museum in the world : VICTORIAN PERAMBULATOR MUSEUMIt has more than 200 different kinds of these perambulators.
The picture below shows a pram of today
Can you beleive that thee is a magazine called the Perambulator Times !! It was called Perambulator madness before.
Offcourse!How can i write a blog without having to say anything about the word used to describe the blog.
My previous post says about the phobia's.The antonym for phobia is philia meaning love or attracted to.
I couldnt deny the fact that I have a philia for words.So here it is wordophilia!
There is many a mention of the usage of words like wordophilia, wordophillic etc but i havent been able to find out if the word officially exists.
One of the most fascinating words are different phobia's or fear of something.These phobia words have always caught my attention. English has a word for almost all kinds of fear.
Some interesting phobia's are listed below:
Agyrophobia- Fear of streets or crossing the street. Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth ( WOW!) Bathmophobia- Fear of stairs or steep slopes. Chronomentrophobia- Fear of clocks. Dishabiliophobia- Fear of undressing in front of someone. Eisoptrophobia- Fear of mirrors or of seeing oneself in a mirror. Frigophobia- Fear of cold or cold things.(Cheimaphobia, Cheimatophobia, Psychrophobia) Gynephobia or Gynophobia- Fear of women. Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia- Fear of long words. Iatrophobia- Fear of going to the doctor or of doctors Kainolophobia or Kainophobia- Fear of anything new, novelty.
Usually phobia words are coined from root words and suffixing "phobia". Ex Altophobia : fear of heights [Alt is the root word for heights] Euphobia : phobia of hearing good things [Eu :means good saying , praise ...like in Euphism]
Some words like Ombraphobia donot originate from root words.
Ombrophobia- Fear of rain or of being rained on
There is a website in which the author has accumulated all the different phobia's, which I found to be vey interesting. Click here to see the website. Its exciting to know how many phobia's we all have.Check them out. Happy Phobia hunting!
