A destitute coal locomotive

Just like that object in the title, I've kind of lost my steam. In amongst working on papers for several classes and various school trips around the midwest, I have neglected my dictionary. So I decided to do something simple just to keep my streak of having blogged semi-regularly alive. When people post these, I'll usually do them but not submit them. So here's one I decided to actually share. I did it twice, as you can see.

Rules: It's harder than it looks! Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real ... nothing made up! You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

1. What is your name? Lorin
2. A four-letter word: Limp
3. A boy's name: Lance
4. A girl's name: Leticia
5. An occupation: Lawyer
6. A color: Lemon
7. Something you wear: LAA Staff Shirt
8. A food: Limburger
9. Something found in the bathroom: Lotion
10. A place: Lagos, Nigeria
11. A reason for being late: Lost lunch
12. Something you shout: “Loser!”
13. A movie title: Love, Actually
14. Something you drink: Lemon Lime Soda
15. A musical group: Ladysmith Black Mambazo
16. An animal: Lemur
17. A street name: Lovers’ Lane
18. A type of car: Lincoln
19. A song title: “Let it Be”
20. A verb: Live

1. What is your name? Koch
2. A four-letter word: Kill
3. A boy's name: Kenneth
4. A girl's name: Katrina
5. An occupation: King
6. A color: Kelly
7. Something you wear: Kilt
8. A food: Kale
9. Something found in the bathroom: Knitting needles
10. A place: Kingston
11. A reason for being late: Katamari Damacy addiction
12. Something you shout: “Kitchen Knives for sale!”
13. A movie title: (the) King and I
14. Something you drink: Kiwi Strawberry Snapple
15. A musical group: (Israel) Kamakawiwo’ole
16. An animal: Kangaroo
17. A street name: Killingsworth
18. A type of car: Kaiser (1947-1955)
19. A song title: “Kiss Me”
20. A verb: Know

Dig - Dz

This last week I found an "old" typewriter (probably less than 20 years old) sitting around in the library and I put it out on a table. I had been having some students coming in and complaining that one or another of the computers didn't work, and so I decided that if they really needed to do homework, they could type on the typewriter. :)
Several of them were so fascinated by the thing. A couple of them decided they wanted to use it, and so they typed whole paragraphs. It was funny seeing their reactions: "It's like a whole new world." (to which I replied, "actually, it's like an old world renewed.")

Digamy: a second marriage, after the death or divorce of the first husband or wife; deuterogamy.
Dight: to dress; adorn. (I had a picture in my head of dight being like blight.)
Dilemma: (I have never thought of this before, but a dilemma is a di-lemma. (A lemma being an idea introduced in proving some other proposition.) A dilemma therefore is literally two ideas to solve one problem. I love words.)
Dirty old man: a mature or elderly man with lewd or obscene preoccupations. (I can’t believe this is in the dictionary!)
Discalced: without shoes; unshod; barefoot.
Discriminate: (Shouldn’t this be to undo crimination? (that being to charge with a crime.))
Disembogue: to discharge water, as at the mouth of a stream: a river that disembogues into the ocean.
Disinfest: to rid of insects, rodents, etc. (I think that the pest control aisle at the store should be called “disinfestants.”)
Divagate: To wander, stray; or to digress in speech. (My guess was that this had something to do with the relationship between Alex Rodriguez and Madonna.)
Doggo: in concealment; out of sight. (One of many briticisms that I just have never heard.)
Dogie: a motherless calf in a cattle herd. ("Git along little motherless calf in a cattle herd.")
Donjon: the inner tower, keep, or stronghold of a castle. (Pronounced “dungeon,” strangely)
Doss: a place to sleep, esp. in a cheap lodging house.
Douceur: a gratuity; tip. (Pronounced doo-sir. “Should I leave you a tip?” “Do, sir.”)
Doxy: opinion; doctrine. (These were kind of dangerous in Harry Potter books.)
Dragoman: a professional interpreter. (“Trogdor was a man… No, he was a dragon man… Actually he was just a dragoman! But he was still TROGDOR!!!”)
Dray: a low, strong cart without fixed sides, for carrying heavy loads.
Droshky: a light, low, four-wheeled, open vehicle used mainly in Russia, in which the passengers sit astride or sideways on a long, narrow bench.
(What’s with all the DR- carts?)
Druthers: one's own way, choice, or preference. 1870–75; pl. of druther, (I, you, etc.) 'd rather (contr. of would rather)
Ducking stool: The drawing for this one is really spectacular.
Dudeen: a short clay tobacco pipe.
Dundrearies: long, full sideburns or muttonchop whiskers.
Durance: incarceration or imprisonment. (endurable as long as you have good endurance.)
Dyscalculia: inability or loss of the ability to perform arithmetic operations. (Sounds like some many teenagers I know.)

Da-Dia

I have found one thing that I really don't like about living in the eastern time zone. All my life I've woken up on Sunday morning in the fall and not had to wait too long before football started. Now it doesn't start until 1 p.m. This is really distressing. When we were looking at jobs here, our old principal told me, "you don't want to move to eastern time. Night football games don't get over until almost midnight." How right he was. Alas.
Regardless, the fall is here and the trees are just starting to be beautiful. Perhaps tomorrow I'll post a random picture Monday picture of a changing tree. We'll see.

Darby and Joan - a happily married elderly couple who lead a placid, uneventful life. (Weird.)
Darkle - to appear dark; show indistinctly. (Apparently a back-formation of darkling, such as the Darkling Thrush)
Debouch - to march out from a narrow or confined place into open country, as a body of troops.
Debridement - surgical removal of foreign matter and dead tissue from a wound. (The obvious joke would be rather sexist, so I’ll avoid it.)
Decimate – (I find it interesting that the original meaning of this word meant to take a tenth of or from. Tithing literally decimates your paycheck.)
(By the way, if deci- is a root meaning 10, then making a decision is actually creating tension.)
Deck tennis - a game played on a small court, usually on the deck of a ship, in which a ring, generally of rubber or Manila rope, is alternately thrown and caught, using only one hand, by two opponents standing on opposite sides of a net. (I guess you play what you can when you’re ON A BOAT.)
Decoct - to extract the flavor or essence of by boiling. (Opposite of concoct?)
Decollate - to behead; decapitate. (If your copier has a collate setting, be careful that you don’t accidentally put it in decollate mode.)
Decorticate - to remove the bark, husk, or outer covering from. (I assume that buzzing your hair would be decortication.)
Decretory - pertaining to or following a decree. (So this is similar to “titular,” in more ways than one.)
Defenestration – the act of throwing a thing or esp. a person out of a window. (Ever since I learned this word a few years back, I have been waiting for an opportunity to use it. I mean, actually physically use it. Strangely, none have arrived.)
Deliquesce - to melt away.
Dells/Dalles - the rapids of a river running between the walls of a canyon or gorge. (Now I know why Wisconsin and Oregon would use such names for cities.)
Demimonde - a class of women who have lost their standing in respectable society because of indiscreet behavior or sexual promiscuity.
Dentigerous/Dentulous - having teeth.
Denudate - to make bare; strip. (In my (and Chaucer’s) opinion, to nake is the infinitive for this process.)
Depilate - to remove the hair from (hides, skin, etc.). (so it’s NOT actually decortication!)
Depredate - to plunder or lay waste to; prey upon; pillage; ravage. (A great word for Talk Like a Pirate Day.)
Deracinate - to pull up by the roots; uproot; extirpate; eradicate. (Esp. that related to uprooting of 17th century French dramatists.)
Dernier cri - the latest fashion; last word.
Desorb - to remove an absorbate or adsorbate from. (It looks like we can antithesize any word that starts with "ab-" by changing it to "de-". Let's try it: Absquatulate, Desquatulate. Hmm. Abnormal, Denormal. Hmm. Abdominal, Dedominal. Hmm.)
Desquamate - to come off in scales, as the skin in certain diseases; peel off.
Detector – Awesome picture on page 378. It looks as though she’s trying to flip you the bird, but I think she’s probably holding up something that she found.
Desuetude – The state of being no longer used or practiced. (Let’s some time have a conversation on the topic of the dichotomy between desuetude and dernier cri.)
Desultory - lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful. (I always thought this had connotations of impropriety.)
De trop - too much; too many. (like the amount of time I spend reading the dictionary)
Dexter - on the right side; right. (So, while it may be true that lefties are the only people in their right mind, this proves that they cannot be dexterous.)
Dharna - the practice of exacting justice or compliance with a just demand by sitting and fasting at the doorstep of an offender until death or until the demand is granted. (All dh- words seem to be from India. I find the idea of fasting for reaction to be very interesting. It would probably never work in America.)
Charles Dickens – (I found that one of the Word 2007 templates is a MASH sheet—remember playing MASH in junior high? Well, I printed one off, and determined that Katrina should actually be married to Charles Dickens. She didn’t think she would actually like that. But I bet that her brother would like having Dickens as a brother-in-law.)
Diamante – A sequin, rhinestone, or other glittery ornamentation on a garment. (Another strange car name. By the way, my car is a Matrix, which apparently means “womb.”)
Diaphoresis - perspiration, esp. when artificially induced. (Combine this with a carminative and you have yourself a lovely afternoon!)
Diatessaron - a combining of the four Gospels of the Bible into a single narrative. (That’s kind of cool.)

Random Picture Monday

I am posting this on Tuesday but I took it yesterday. A morning shot of the moon behind our dirty water tower. If I work at it, I might just make a habit of this Random Picture Monday thing. But don't count on it.

COQ-CZ

A shout out to the newly-minted Alice Kakazu! She's looking in mint condition. I bet that having her around must be more comforting than ice cream and sweeter than chocolate. Remember that when the chips are down.

(Or, like someone once said one time somewhere, when the chips are down, the buffalo is empty.)

Coquille: any of various seafood or chicken dishes baked with a sauce and usually served in a scallop shell or a shell-shaped serving dish. (I didn’t know what this town was named after.)
Corn-fed: Healthy and strong, but provincial and unsophisticated. (Have heard this term, but did not know what it meant, though I kind of had the basic idea.)
Corolla: the inner envelope of floral leaves of a flower. (Man, some cars are named after some strange things. Mine is named after a womb.)
Corrigenda: a list of corrections of errors in a book or other publication. (The pre-Internet Fail Blog.)
Corrigible: capable of being corrected or reformed. (Awesome! The opposite of incorrigible!)
Corvette: a warship of the old sailing class, having a flush deck and usually one tier of guns. (Another strange car name. “Boat” has a different connotation for cars.)
Cotquean: a man who busies himself with traditionally women's household duties. (I’ll be right back… I’m just going to go do the laundry…)
Couvade: a practice among some peoples in which a man, immediately preceding the birth of his child, takes to his bed in an enactment of the birth experience and subjects himself to various taboos usually associated with pregnancy. (Ronn? Have you done this yet?)
Crambo: a game in which one person or side must find a rhyme to a word or a line of verse given by another. (“…anybody want a peanut?”)
Crapulence: sick from gross excess in drinking or eating. (… Wow. Just, wow. I have nothing to add.)
Crepuscular: (I know this word; I just wanted to mention it because it’s a great way to describe the “Twilight” series with a derisive tone, without actually insulting anyone. “That Stephanie Meyer, man, she writes such crepuscular stuff.”)
Cuddy: a small room, cabin, or enclosed space. (I find this interesting because of its pertinence to House. Is she a small part of him? … yes, I have mentioned House twice now. If I watched any other TV show, I’d probably mention them too.)
Cullion: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cullion
Cumshaw: a present; gratuity; tip. (Confuse your next waiter by telling him, “I left a cumshaw on the table.”)
Cunctation: delay; tardiness. (“I’m sorry, Mr. Kakazu, my tardy should be excused. I had a cunctation in my bed this morning.”)
Cupulate: shaped like a cup. (Not what you were thinking.)
Curette: a scoop-shaped surgical instrument for removing tissue from body cavities. (Daniel Greenlaw once told me the story of how doctors removed one of his toenails. Disturbing story, but I think they must have used something like a curette.)
Cutler: a person who makes, sells, or repairs knives and other cutting instruments. (Alas, it fits that Jay Cutler should cut up the Seahawks secondary.)
Cybernate: to control by cybernation. (I thought cybernation was going offline for the winter.)