The Language Barrier

An awkward, ungainly and/or bad-mannered adolescent boy.

manda_x

1. The Random House Unabridged Dictionary for 2006 declares it to be a variant of hoberdyhoy -- an alliterative compound, consisting of hoberd (from Roberd, Robert) + -y + -hoy for boy (the b's changing to h's for purposes of alliteration).



2. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, however, considers it to derive from the English term hobbledygee, with a limping movement; another possibility might have been the French hobereau (country squire) combining with the Old French hoi, today, inviting speculation that the original sense of the word was something like "an upstart of today."



3. Lastly, Douglas Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary claims it's a compound based on hob in its sense of clown, prankster (as in hobgoblin), with the second element coming from the Medieval French de haye, translating as worthless, untamed, wild -- literally, of the hedge.

A base, wretched coward; a craven.

Scanty; meager; small; slender.

Surgical excision of dead, devitalized, or contaminated tissue and removal of foreign matter from a wound.

letsgomiah

Don't mind me, I'm just: full

New England. Used to express surprise.

New Englanders sometimes express surprise by saying, "Well, I vum!" This odd-sounding word is in fact an alteration of the verb vow that goes back to the days of the American Revolution. It is also heard simply as "Vum!" or as a sort of past participle: "I'll be vummed!"

A Southern equivalent is swan or swanny, also meaning "swear": "Now, I swanny!" According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word swanny derives from the dialect of the north of England: I s' wan ye, "I shall warrant ye."

Disturbed digestion; indigestion.

1. A vessel, usually propelled by sail, formed of two hulls or floats held side by side by a frame above them. Compare trimaran.


2. A float or sailing raft formed of a number of logs lashed together, used in certain parts of India, South America, etc.


3. A quarrelsome person, esp. a woman.


4. Canadian Dialect. A wooden sled.

Before 1846, an animal or article that, having been the immediate cause of the death of a human being, was forfeited to the crown to be applied to pious uses.

A fog of ice particles that forms in the mountain valleys of the western U.S.

letsgomiah

Speaking or expressed in a lofty or grandiose style; pompous; bombastic; boastful.

letsgomiah

1. Serving to contract organic tissue; astringent; binding.


2. Serving to check hemorrhage or bleeding, as a drug; hemostatic.

A styptic agent or substance.

naked_irish

byrneout

errforce1

A blunt wooden javelin used in games played on horseback in certain Muslim countries in the Middle East.

The experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.

• Lincoln was elected President in 1860; Kennedy was elected President in 1960.


• Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846; Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.


• Both Lincoln and Kennedy were succeeded in the presidency by Southerners named Johnson.


• Both John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, and Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, have names comprised of exactly 15 letters.

A walled ditch or sunken obstacle, such as a hedge, serving especially as a barrier to livestock without impairing the view or scenic appeal. See also sunk fence.

It contained the hoho, which is like a haha only deeper. A haha is a concealed ditch and wall designed to allow landowners to look out across rolling vistas without getting cattle and inconvenient poor people wandering across the lawn. Under Bloody Stupid's errant pencil it was dug fifty feet deep and had claimed three gardeners already.

A slope of loose rock debris at the base of a steep incline or cliff.

1. Of or characteristic of the countryside or its people; rustic. See Synonyms at rural.


2. Of or characteristic of shepherds or flocks; pastoral.

1. A pastoral poem.


2. Archaic. A farmer or shepherd; a rustic.

1. A decorative inlaid pattern in a surface, especially a mosaic worked in wood.


2. A knitted design resembling a mosaic that is visible on both sides of a fabric.


3. The art or practice of making intarsias.

manda_x

. .

1. One of the carts used during the French Revolution to convey victims to the guillotine.


2. A farmer's cart, esp. one for hauling manure, that can be tilted to discharge its load.


3. Obsolete. A two-wheeled covered cart accompanying artillery for carrying tools, ammunition, etc.

kristinemigh

1. A petty falsehood; a fib.


2. Silly pretentious speech or writing; twaddle.

The act or an instance of belching.

1. The small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber, used in pickling.


2. Also called bur gherkin, gooseberry gourd, West Indian gherkin. The small, spiny fruit of a tropical vine, Cucumis anguria, of the gourd family, used in pickling..

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1. Inclined to silence; reserved in speech; reluctant to join in conversation.


2. Dour, stern, and silent in expression and manner.

wurdsome

misskaz

1. Expert or nimble in the use of the hands or body.


2. Cleverly skillful, resourceful, or ingenious.

The heart, liver, gizzard, and the like, of a fowl, often cooked separately.

alivicwil