From the posting

In Play: Tartuffery is fake piety

To me, this image epitomizes the word.

Q: What is the difference between an optimist, a pessimist, and a cynic?
A: An optimist will let his teen-aged son borrow his new sports car; a pessimist won't let his son borrow the sports car; and the cynic has let his son borrow his brand new sports car.

One of two words with five vowels in order. The other is abstemious.

This word had a precise meaning at one time predominately associated with earthquakes. The center of the earthquake could be several miles underground; the epicenter was the point on the earth's surface directly above it. But now I hear it frequently used more generally in phases like "Florida ...

I have been intrigued by the etymology of this word. From lexico.com: Late Middle English from the Trojan warrior Hector. Originally denoting a hero, the sense later became ‘braggart or bully’ ( applied in the late 17th century to a member of a gang of London youths ), hence ‘talk to in a bullying w...

The meaning of "win" is so strong that the meaning of "to celebrate a good situation" is almost lost. At the office, June McBride triumphed to her work colleagues showing off the engagement ring that William Arami had surprised her with the night before. Rejoice, the Lord is King...

I think this word is timely. I also get the sense that the meaning is expanding beyond "to wrap for protection" to a more general "to isolate oneself". After breaking up with her fiancé, June McBride sat on the couch cocooned in afghans while eating ice-cream and watching "I...

I have always thought that triage came for "tri" meaning three. As I understood, it originated in a battlefield situation as a method of prioritizing medical care. the multitudinous patients were categorized into three groups: those who would likely to recover without treatment those who w...

A first generation Canadian of Italian ancestry shared a story of a visit with her parents to relatives in Italy when she was a young teen. She was very conscious of her limited abilities in Italian and resolved to make an effort. When her very hospitable aunt was pressing yet more food on the girl,...

As the husband of a nurse and as a person who has taken first aid, I have mostly heard of crepitus in the context of broken bones, arthritic joints, stab wounds, and pneumonia. Hence for me, the word has a forlorn aspect, and I would be unlikely to associate it with pleasant things like rustling lea...

Not found in the goodword discussion.

I had only heard this word from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and considered it archaic. A quick web search to ensure my memory was correct turned up many other references including video game quests and book titles. Evidently, it still has modern use.

I associate this word with "susurrous", which I think is one of the most beautiful words in the English language. In my mind, sibilant is the more strident of the two words; I would not use "susurrous" to describe the spitting of an alarmed cat or the steam released from a steam ...

I am intrigued by the common Latin root for Gentile and genteel —words which can have very different connotations. Gentile can be used neutrally to distinguish a person who is not Jewish. However it can also be used pejoratively: "Such boastings as the Gentiles use, Or lesser breeds without the...

I suggest that the first two definitions are incomplete or that a definition is missing. I don't think of admission tickets—which can be pricy—as small retail items. Regarding the dispensing of information, the function of a computerized information kiosk is similar to one that is staffed, but the c...

Let me wish you all a hygge holidays and a sanguine New Year.