word for the lexically inclined
floccinaucinihilipilification
far be it from me to spoil the reader's pleasure by providing a definition. but if you need a hint, it's something i tend to do.
far be it from me to spoil the reader's pleasure by providing a definition. but if you need a hint, it's something i tend to do.
posted by yitwail at 4:16 PM
4 Comments:
something to do with snakes is bout the best i can do. if you made it multiple choice, i'll take nother crack at it.
Wayull, ah wuz wrong; here's the real daffynishn:
"Contemplating one’s navel as an aid to meditation." [That sowns tipicull fer meditashn.]
This word seems to be relatively new, at least the Merriam-Webster “Word of the Day” column claims it to have been invented only in the 1920s. [Thass new? Hooray! Thin ah iz yung!] It turns up in only a few dictionaries and seems to be a word that survives more for the chance to show off one’s erudition than as a real aid to communication [yup, that's whut moss hi-falootin wurdz iz fer]. If so, this article is a further perpetuation of its unreal status. It is formed from two Greek words, omphalos [when he wuz a boy, mah pappy called elefunts "umpalumps"], “navel, boss, hub”, and skepsis, “the act of looking; enquiry”. The former turns up in words such as omphalotomy, “cutting of the umbilical cord”, in the related omphalopsychic for one of a group of mystics who practised gazing at the navel as a means of inducing hypnotic reverie, and omphalomancy, an ancient form of divination in which the number of children a woman would bear was determined from counting the knots in her umbilical cord at birth.
thank you, anonymous--you're not related to FG by any chance, are you?--for the enlightening etymology. i've learned a new (to me) word. :)
Oh, fiddle, MasserMahn, ah dunno how ah manijd ta cum out az "uhnoneemuss," but YES, 'at poss wuz FG, o corse! (The spellin' wuz a dayud give-away, woontcho say?) :)
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