garrettperks.com » Word of the Day http://garrettperks.com Sun, 11 Jul 2010 09:35:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 7/13/09 Word of the day: pimpmobile http://garrettperks.com/2009/07/13/71309-word-of-the-day-pimpmobile/ http://garrettperks.com/2009/07/13/71309-word-of-the-day-pimpmobile/#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:54:10 +0000 G.T. http://garrettperks.com/?p=227 It’s a word. A real one. In the midst of a conversation about how I mispronounce “pin” I looked it up in the online dictionary I most frequently use, the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. The reference immediately before pin is pimpmobile. So that brings us to the Word of the Day.

pimp·mo·bile:

NOUN, Slang: A flashy oversize automobile used by or deemed suitable for use by a pimp.

I’m not making this up. I’m not that funny.

]]> http://garrettperks.com/2009/07/13/71309-word-of-the-day-pimpmobile/feed/ 0 5/18/2009 Word of the day: fund http://garrettperks.com/2009/05/18/5182009-word-of-the-day-fund/ http://garrettperks.com/2009/05/18/5182009-word-of-the-day-fund/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 23:32:21 +0000 G.T. http://garrettperks.com/?p=224 Ran into this one in a context where it clearly meant ‘bottom.’ I didn’t know it could mean that. Turns out it comes from Latin, fundus, meaning either a bottom or a piece of land.

fund:

NOUN, 1. A source of supply; a stock: a fund of goodwill. 2a. A sum of money or other resources set aside for a specific purpose: a pension fund. 2b. funds Available money; ready cash: short on funds. 3. funds The stock of the British permanent national debt, considered as public securities. Used with the. 4. An organization established to administer and manage a sum of money.

TRANSITIVE VERB: 1.To provide money for paying off the interest or principal of (a debt). 2. To convert into a long-term or floating debt with fixed interest payments.  3. To place in a fund for accumulation. 4. To furnish a fund for: funded the space program.

ETYMOLOGY: Latin fundus, bottom, piece of land.

]]> http://garrettperks.com/2009/05/18/5182009-word-of-the-day-fund/feed/ 0 5/12/2009 Word of the Day: batten http://garrettperks.com/2009/05/12/5122009-word-of-the-day-batten/ http://garrettperks.com/2009/05/12/5122009-word-of-the-day-batten/#comments Tue, 12 May 2009 08:46:08 +0000 G.T. http://garrettperks.com/?p=221 There’s also batten down the hatches, but that’s one a lot of folks know. This is the one I had to look up. The hatches one refers to a slat of wood for holding a hatch cover, keeping a sail flat, construction work, etc.

bat·ten:

INTRANSITIVE VERB:  1. To become fat. 2. To thrive and prosper, especially at another’s expense:  “[She] battens like a leech on the lives of famous people, . . . a professional retailer of falsehoods”  (George F. Will).

TRANSITIVE VERB: To fatten; overfeed.

]]> http://garrettperks.com/2009/05/12/5122009-word-of-the-day-batten/feed/ 0 5/9/09 Word of the Day: Picaresque http://garrettperks.com/2009/05/09/5909-word-of-the-day-picaresque/ http://garrettperks.com/2009/05/09/5909-word-of-the-day-picaresque/#comments Sun, 10 May 2009 02:08:50 +0000 G.T. http://garrettperks.com/?p=216

pic·a·resque:

ADJECTIVE: 1. Of or involving clever rogues or adventurers.  2. Of or relating to a genre of usually satiric prose fiction originating in Spain and depicting in realistic, often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social degree living by his or her wits in a corrupt society.

NOUN: One that is picaresque.

ETYMOLOGY: French, from Spanish picaresco, from pícaro,

Online Etymological Dictionary

American Heritage Dictionary

Picaresque Novel at Wikipedia

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