My Peccadillo

So many words, so little time!

I was asked to be the grammarian for my club and come up with an inspiring word. The Toastmaster complimented me on my previous choice of words, so the pressure is on to choose judiciously, without plaigarizing another.

I am the philologue. I can do this. But there are so many choices! I wanted to pick "impeccable." Yet I suspect most members are already famliar with it. So I'm going with a related word, "peccadillo." Now how do I illustrate it?

Peccadillo comes to us from Latin, through Spanish, peccadillo means a little sin in Spanish.

My pocket dictionary says "a slight or trifling sin."

Underneath that is peccant, which means sinful.

And of course, the pecc in impeccable comes from the same root, and means without error, flaw or fault.

Thes words are all related and a point will be given to anyone for using any of these 3 words.

So what is my peccadillo? I love words. It is impossible to choose just one!

Hero vs. Heroine

Heroine. A hallucinogenic, illegal drug.

Hero. An elongated sandwich.

Heroine is more powerful, but still too many negative connotations.

We could of course, go with She-ro....

Too childish.

Where are the feminine role models?

Women are so aggressive in the movies now. There is definitely too much violence overall. Isn't there anything else to watch? My son likes to watch Crush, Kill, Destroy.

There are lots of shows that destroy or blow things up. And they are educational. Why can't peacemaking be so appealing as a good explosion?

Why can't a heroine be more compassionate than a hero?

Blow my Mind

Blow my Mind

I want to write an article about this expression.

You don't hear it much anymore, though it was once popular. I guess that was when recreational drug usage was more poplular. I think there is more drug usage now, but prescriptive, not recreational. Either way people still use drugs to feel happy.

Blow off, Blow up, blowout, Blow over,

There are many expressions using the word blow. Blow as a verb means:
to move in a current of air, emit a jet of air, to be in motion, to play (a bugle), or to inflate.

Dunderhead

On the same page as dubious is another powerful word, dunderhead.

Dunderhead comes from a Scottish dialect and means a stupid person. It is unequivocal and unambiguous, not dubious at all, perfectly clear. What's the word for that? Perspicuous?

Yes! I like it.

Perspicuous means having clarity of expression or style; lucid. From Latin.

So a dunderhead would rarely be perspicuous, though the meaning of the word is always crystal clear.

Dubious Implications

Dubious is an insidious, double-dealing word. Related to double? Probably Latin.

It means doubtful, equivocal, or suspicious. It comes from Dubium, Latin for doubt.

Equivocal means ambiguous, doubtful, or suspicious.

Insidious means subtly cunning or deceitful.

So dubious is less insidious than insidious. Insidious is more egregious.

Egregious is conspicuously bad, flagrant. From Latin also.

Whether somone is dubious or insidious would depend on whether they were intentionally ambiguous or just innocently unclear.

Facetious

Facetious comes to us from Latin via French. It means jocular, waggish, merry, or jocose. It also means jocose at an inappropriate time. Jocular and jocose apparently share etymology with the word "joke."

Waggish is a synonym for facetious. Droll also. Waggish has a bit more pizzazz, though. Waggish means like a wag.

Wag means someone who likes jokes and humorous antics, a merry rogue.

Rogue means a vagabond, rascal, scoundrel, or someone who is mischievous or fun-loving.

And now back to the beginning:

Facetious is also an unusual word, in that it has all of the vowels of our alphabet in alphabetical order! I wonder if there are any others? Readers, let me know if you are aware of any.

Dishabille

That was the word for the Day on Thursday, at the Toastmasters meeting.

I had to look it up. My pocket dictionary, said,
"partially or improperly dressed."

The first thing that came to my mind was the teenagers at the High School where I used to work. I would say almost all of them were dishabille. The boys wore huge long Tee shirts to hide the fact that the gymn shorts or jeans they had on were hanging off their butts. I call that imPROPERly dressed.
And the girls had on strapless tops (not allowed in the dress code) and tiny shorts or skirts (not allowed either, but usually ignored. At least they had shorts or a skirt on.) I call that partially dressed or scantily clad.

Scantily Clad??!! Scantily? CLAD?!

Scantily--the adverb form of the adjective scanty. (Actually that is not in my dictionary, but I'm sticking with it. "Scantly" does not sound right to me. And it may be a typo.)

Clad-- clad? what is that? Is that a word? I know I have heard it, but is it in the dictionary??? Yes, it is! Adjective, meaning covered or clothed.

At the meeting, it was defined as wearing casual clothing, or perhaps too casual.

And the pronunciation is dis uh BEEL. From the French word meaning undressed.
Not "dish" as in disheveled.

The official dictionary says, the state of being dressed in a casual or careless style.

So I can definitely say that I never go to work dishabille.
I can also tell my child not to go to school dishabille.
And I can call those high school students dishabille.

Also think of a child when they learn how to dress themselves, but can't match up the buttons properly, find things that match, or maybe leave something out. Children like to be dishabille, in the sense of not completely covered up, barefoot or topless.

I can really use this word in Florida, where people spend most of the year dishabille. Especially at the beach, but not just at the beach.

My advice, Don't leave home dishabille! Bring a sweater, just in case.