The Wordsmith Thread

Insuperable (in-SOO-pur-uh-bul ) (adjective)

: Incapable of being passed over, surmounted, or overcome

SYNONYMS: * insurmountable
* steadfast
* indomitable

WORD WISE: Insuperable comes from Latin insuperabilis, from
in-, "not" + superare, "to go above or over, to surmount,"
from super, "above, over."

"Man is still the most extraordinary computor of all"


JFK

"If you only do what you know you can do - you never do very much"


Robert Watt Watson

"They may forget what you said,but thet will never forget how you made them feel"


Carl W. Buechner

"If you want children to keep their feet on the ground,put some responsibility on their shoulders"


Abigail Van Buren

Pronouns refer to nouns. In the sentence, "Francis touched the beggar and cured him," we can “unpack” the pronoun him by replacing it with its referent, the beggar: "Francis touched the beggar and cured the beggar."

But what if a sentence has two phrases that refer to each other? "The pilot that shot at it hit the Mig that chased him." Now there’s an infinite regress:

"The pilot that shot at the Mig that chased the pilot that shot at it hit the Mig that chased the pilot that shot at it."

It seems that no amount of unpacking can resolve these pronouns. Yet most readers can understand the sentence immediately. How are they able to do so?

"New Year's Day;now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.
The next day you can begin paving Hell with them as usual"


Mark Twain

"He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; He who makes one is a Fool"


F.M. Knowles

"Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start of old habits"


--Unknown

"It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air."



W.T. Ellis

"In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield."


Warren Buffett

Quote:

Originally posted by EricLindros

Sisyphean is a good word to use. It means very difficult, yet futile.

"Bailing out that boat a thimble at a time is a Sisyphean task."

Good one!

mephistophelean - showing the cunning or ingenuity or wickedness typical of a devil; e.g., "devilish schemes"; "the cold calculation and diabolic art of some statesmen"; "the diabolical expression on his face"; "a mephistophelian glint in his eye."

Nice. Any word that references Mephistopheles is ok in my book!

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A newspaper reporter submitted a story about the theft of 2,025 pigs.

His editor, struck at the size of the theft, called the farmer to confirm.

“Is it true that you lost two thousand twenty-five pigs?” he asked.

“Yeth,” said the farmer.

The editor thanked him, hung up, and changed the phrase to “two sows and 25 pigs.”

“We request that every hen lay 130 to 140 eggs a year. The increase cannot be achieved by the bastard hens (non-Aryan) which now populate German farmyards. Slaughter these undesirables and replace them.” — Nazi Party news agency, April 3, 1937

“Quite a number of people … describe the German classical author, Shakespeare, as belonging to English literature, because — quite accidentally born at Stratford-on-Avon — he was forced by the authorities of that country to write in English.” — New York National Socialist organ Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter, quoted in The American Mercury, July 1940

“The rabbit, it is certain, is no German animal, if only for its painful timidity. It is an immigrant who enjoys a guest’s privilege. As for the lion, one sees in him indisputably German fundamental characteristics. Thus one could call him a German abroad.” — Gen. Erich Ludendorff in Am Quell Deutscher Kraft

“Proper breathing is a means of acquiring heroic national mentality. The art of breathing was formerly characteristic of true Aryanism and known to all Aryan leaders.” — Weltpolitische Rundschau, Berlin

OBSCURE AND UNUSUAL WORDS
*************************

papuliferous (pap ue lif' er es) (adjective)
: pimply

molybdomancy (mo lib do man se) (noun)
: fortune telling by dropping molten lead on water

mortress (mor' tres) (noun)
: a strange dish; hodgepodge

brimborion (brim bor' i en) (noun)
: something useless or nonsensical

blague (blag) (noun)
: joking; trickery

siserara (sis-ur-er'a) (noun)
: a severe blow or violent reproach

zetetic (zet-et'ik) (adjective)
: asking; questioning

illaqueate (il-ak'we-at) (verb)
: to catch or trap

clishmaclaver (klish' me klae" ver) (noun)
: foolish gossip

tautegorical (tot e gor' i kel) (adjective)
: saying the same thing with different words

iatromisia (i-at"ro-me'zi-e) (noun)
: dislike of doctors

halsen (hol'sen) (verb)
: to predict


nucivorous (noo siv' or es) (adjective)
: nut-eating

bovarism (boe' ve riz" em) (noun)
: man's romantic conception of himself (from Flaubert's
"Madame Bovary"

The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.
Bill Watterson

It has been recorded by reliable authority that near the graves of Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, and his wife, there stood a venerable apple-tree which had sent two of its roots into the graves of Mr. and Mrs. Williams. The larger root had pushed its way through the earth till it reached the precise spot occupied by the skull of Roger Williams. There, making a turn, as if going round the skull, it followed the direction of the backbone to the hips. Here it divided into two branches, sending one of them along each leg to the heel, where both turned upward to the toes. One of these roots formed a slight crook at the knee, which made the whole bear close resemblance to a human form. There were the graves, emptied of every particle of human dust. Not a trace of any thing was left. There stood the guilty ‘apple-tree,’ as it was said at the time, caught in the very act of ‘robbing the grave.’ The fact proved conclusively that bones, even of human beings, are an excellent fertilizer for fruit-trees; and the fact must be admitted that the organic matter of Roger Williams had been transmitted into the apple-tree; it had passed into the woody fibre, and was capable of propelling a steam-engine; it had bloomed in the apple-blossoms, and had become pleasant to the eye; and more, it had gone into the fruit from year to year, so that the question might be asked, Who ate Roger Williams?

– Sereno Edwards Todd, The Apple Culturist, 1871