Word Buzz Friday: Top 25 German Words

Hello everyone! I hope your week has been a little less hectic and chaotic than my own. I was just thinking recently that the last time I was in German was exactly two years ago. While I wish I could travel there more frequently, I will just have to settle for German online for now. That is why I discovered this list of the top 25 German nouns. Can you see how many of them are cognates? (Remember my last post?) For more German words click here. Bis Bald!

1. das Jahr, -e year	14. die Leute (pl.) people
2. das Mal, -e time (as in number of times)	15. die Arbeit, -en work, job
3. das Beispiel, -e example	16. das Prozent, -e percent
4. die Zeit time	17. die Hand, -¨e hand
5. die Frau, -en woman, wife, Mrs.	18. die Stadt, -¨e city
6. der Mensch, -en human being, man	19. der Herr, -en man, gentleman, Mr.
7. das Kind, -er child	20. der/das Teil, -e part
8. der Tag, -e day	21. das Problem, -e problem
9. der Mann, -¨er man	22. die Welt, -en world
10. das Land, -¨er country, land	23. das Recht, -e right, law
11. die Frage, -n question	24. das Ende, -n end
12. das Haus, -¨er house	25. die Million (Mio.), -en million
13. der Fall, -¨e fall, case

Word Buzz Friday

Yesterday's post was all about the one millionth word of the English language. Today's word buzz will be similar with some more of the newest words to make it into the Oxford dictionary as supplied by www.askoxford.com.

aerobicized or aerobicised

adj. (of a person's body) toned by aerobic exercise: aerobicized Hollywood women.

agroterrorism

n. terrorist acts intended to disrupt or damage a country's agriculture.

– derivatives

agroterrorist n.

blowback

n.

2. chiefly US the unintended adverse results of a political action or situation.

celebutante

n. a celebrity who is well known in fashionable society.

– origin 1930s: blend of celebrity and debutante.

crunk

n. a type of hip-hop or rap music characterized by repeated shouted catchphrases and elements typical of electronic dance music, such as prominent bass.

adj. US, chiefly black slang (of a person) very excited or full of energy.

– origin 1990s: perh. an alt. past part. of crank¹ or a blend of crazy and drunk.

elephant

– phrases

the elephant in the room a major problem or controversial issue which is obviously present but avoided as a subject for discussion because it is more comfortable to do so.

Yogalates (also trademark Yogilates)

n. a fitness routine that combines Pilates exercises with the postures and breathing techniques of yoga.

– origin 1990s: blend of yoga and Pilates.

zombie

n.

3. a computer controlled by a hacker without the owner's knowledge, which is made to send large quantities of data to a website, making it inaccessible to other users.

Have a great weekend!

Word Buzz Friday: Wine Vocab

This Friday's word buzz has been on my mind a lot as I have been sampling more than my fair share of the delicious Chilean wines. Obviously, there is much more wine vocabulary as entire books have been written on the subject, but this is your weekend crash course. (The vocabulary was taken from http://www.wineschool.com/vocabulary.html.)

Aroma: that portion of the smell of a wine derived specifically from the grape variety,such as Cabernet-Sauvignon or Chardonnay, as opposed to that portion of the smell derived from other sources (see Bouquet).

Balance: a balanced wine is one whose constituents--sugar, acids, tannins, alcohols, etc.--are evident but do not mask one another. A young red wine--tannic and acidic-- is not considered balanced because these two characteristics mask the other flavor elements of the wine, which, given time, may display themselves.

Body: English wine authority Michael Broadbent puts it well in his Wine Tasting: "the weight of the wine in the mouth due to its alcoholic content and to its other physical components. These in turn are due to the quality of the wine, to the vintage, its geographical origin, and general style. Wines from hotter climates tend to have more body than those from the north (compare the Rhône with the Mosel, for example)."

Character: a wine of good character is one which doesn’t just slip down the throat and say "bye-bye"; it says "stop a while, friend. You have just come upon an above-average liquid. Think on it".

Complex: a complex wine is many-faceted; it contains not only acids, alcohols, tannins, etc., but more. Each sip brings another flavor, reveals another nuance.

Legs: a wine’s body or viscosity can be determined, often, by the way rivulets (or sheets, or "tears") of wine descend the inner glass after swirling. It has to deal with the surface tension and other technical stuff; but a look at the legs will give you tips on the wine’s nature: in a dry wine, slow falling legs indicate a full-bodied-wine; quick-falling indicate a light wine.

Tannin: a natural constituent of wines, especially reds. It is a bitter-tasting material which is partially responsible for preserving wines during their sometimes long aging periods. Bite a grape seed to experience the flavor of tannin or have a cup of tea, neat.

¡SALUD! CHEERS! PROST!

Word Buzz Friday: Hot For Words

Hey Everyone! Happy Friday, or maybe if you are reading this from Australia, it's already Saturday so you're one up on me.

Today for your weekly word buzz, I am posting two videos from the Youtube made famous Marina Orlova who appears scantily clad on her website and Youtube channel to teach people like us new vocab words. She even takes requests. Here are her definitions for swine flu and antidisestablishmentarianism.

Antidisestablishmentarianism:



Swine Flu:



Peace out language nerds!

Word Buzz Friday: Learn A Language

Instead if the normal vocab today, I decided to try something new. I found these videos doing a simple search on YouTube. They are a bit slow, but the pronunciations are easy to follow. Here's you chance to try your tongue at a new language when you have nothing to do this Memorial Day Weekend!

German



Japanese



Italian



Portuguese





Spanish



Turkish

Word Buzz Friday

The language nerds, in words.

Tasha, for reasons that are probably obvious: wanderlust - a strong desire to wander or travel.

Miyaunna, for her film-making, website designing, and lovely songs posted on her blog: virtuoso - a person skilled in the techniques of an art, esp. playing a musical instrument; by extension, a person with a cultivated appreciation of artistry.

Kyle, because I know he does it: quaff - to drink a beverage, esp. an intoxicating one, copiously and with hearty enjoyment.

Sara, for being one of the few blonds in Chile: recherche - uncommon; exotic; rare.

And myself, because I once used this word to describe myself and in some ways it is still true: fastidious - hard to please; extremely refined or critical.

(all definitions were taken from dictionary.com)

Word Buzz Friday

Bet you never heard of some of these ones before. Or, if I am underestimating your intelligence, let me know. My vocabulary has been sadly waning in Chile, maybe do to the fact that I speak either Spanish or my own version of Spanglish everyday. Suerte!

bivouac \BIV-wak, BIV-uh-wak\ , noun:

1. An encampment for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

intransitive verb:
1. To encamp for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

"Rob had made his emergency bivouac just below the South Summit."
-- David Breashears, "Death on the mountain", The Observer, March 30, 2003

coruscate \KOR-uh-skayt\
1. To give off or reflect bright beams or flashes of light; to sparkle.
2. To exhibit brilliant, sparkling technique or style.

"They pulled up at the farthest end of a loop path that looked out over the great basin of the Rio Grande under brilliant, coruscating stars."
-- Bill Roorbach, "Big Bend", The Atlantic, March 2001

thaumaturgy \THAW-muh-tuhr-jee\ , noun:
The performance of miracles or magic.

"Of course, none of these improbable meetings ever took place in reality. But within the realm of showbiz thaumaturgy, they're perfectly acceptable examples of latter-day digital compositing, wherein it's possible to have anything share a frame of film or video with practically anything else."
-- John Voland, "Prez presses tech buttons", Variety

umbrage \UHM-brij\ , noun:

1. Shade; shadow; hence, something that affords a shade, as a screen of trees or foliage.
2. a. A vague or indistinct indication or suggestion; a hint.
3. b. Reason for doubt; suspicion.
4. Suspicion of injury or wrong; offense; resentment.

Burr finally took umbrage, and challenged him to a duel.
-- Richard A. Samuelson, "Alexander Hamilton: American", Commentary, June 1999

The source for today's words is http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/.

Word Buzz Friday: Swine Flu Edition

Hey all! I hope you are staying warm (for those of you here in the southern hemisphere) and staying cool for those of you in the northern hemisphere ;). Speaking of cold, and colds and well...flu (plural of flu=flus??). I hope you all have been avoiding the swine flu...or wait the "H1N1 Influenza A" (can't call it swine flu anymore according to the WHO). Who the h--- is going to call it that, I don't know. That brings me around to my new vocab today:

Ms. Piggy Flu:
A suggested name for the "swine" flu.

Dr. Google:
A person medically qualified by Google's search engine to diagnose symptoms of sickness.

Mrs. Smith: My son has the swine flu. I searched it on Google.

Dr. James: Really? That's what Google says? Send him to emergency immediately!

Dr. James: *note to self* Mrs. Smith's Son is fine. Mrs. Smith however has a case of Dr Google.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse here comes....

Swine Mono:
The mono you get from pigs.

Dude, Madelyn got swine mono from Chris.

Have a great weekend!!!

Word Buzz Friday

Hey Language Nerds!

I don't know if you are as obsessed with twitter as I am, but did you know there is a name for what your friends who constantly tweet celebrities? Yes. That's right there it. Maybe now, it will become a disorder like Facebook addiction. Only time will tell.

Tweet Dropping:

When a twitter user has a one-way conversation with a celebrity so that to the users followers, it seems like they are talking to a celebrity and thus are instantly über-cool in the eyes of their followers, when in fact they are a loser with nothing better to do than have a fake conversation with themselves.

Similar to name dropping IRL, but even more annoying and even less likely to be true.

Tweet-Dropper: @BritneySpears How did the barbecue go? I heard Justin Timberlake was there too >.< awkward?

Tweet-Dropper (A few minutes later, without a reply from Britney): @BritneySpears Haha yes, I suppose after a while it got pretty normal for both of you, you must go to loads of the same things!

Have a great weekend! I'm outta here!

Word Buzz Friday: Scrabble Edition

I've decided to take a different approach to the Word Buzz today. Today is the Scrabble (or Literati) edition! What to do with those hard to use letters? Well now, I have your solution. The good part is that these words actually exist and they won't leave you scratching your head while you try to explain to your friends that you are just sure you've seen the word "qwobyx" before. (Although it if it did exist you would have 10+4+1+4+8=27 points at least!)

I did the digging for you in the Dictionary of Difficult Words. The points are as follows:

• 2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points)
• 1 point: E ×12, A ×9, I ×9, O ×8, N ×6, R ×6, T ×6, L ×4, S ×4, U ×4
• 2 points: D ×4, G ×3
• 3 points: B ×2, C ×2, M ×2, P ×2
• 4 points: F ×2, H ×2, V ×2, W ×2, Y ×2
• 5 points: K ×1
• 8 points: J ×1, X ×1
• 10 points: Q ×1, Z ×1

Some of my favs are:

1. Quaff (10+1+1+4+4= 20 points at least):
v.t. drink deeply; drink in long draughts; n. a long draught.

2. Quixotic (10+1+1+8+1+1+1+3=24 pts at least):
a. idealistic; altruistic; unpractical. quixotism, quixotry, n.

3. Kabbadi (5+1+3+3+1+2+1= 16 at least):
n. Indian game of tag, played by two teams.

4. Jalousie (8+1+1+1+1+1+1+1= 15 at least):
n. blind or shutter with slats slanting upwards and inwards.

5. Xenogamy (8+1+1+1+2+1+3+4= 21 at least):
n. cross-fertilization. xenogenesis, n. production of offspring unlike the parent. xenograft, n. heterograft. xenolith, n. rock particle included in another rock. xenomorphic a. with a form not its own.

6. Zollverein (10+1+1+1+4+1+1+1+1= 21 at least):
n. 'customs-union' as organized by Prussia in the 1830s.

7. Zymosis (10+4+3+1+1+1+1= 21 at least):
n. fermentation; process resembling fermentation in development of infectious disease.

Now go forth and kick some buttocks (2+1+1+1+1+1+5+1) at Scrabble!

Word Buzz Friday

Hello all. Since Sara is currently on vacation in Montevideo, you get me. I'm a poor substitute, but bear with me and I'm sure you'll survive.

For last week's word buzz, Sara featured snarf, a word which I thought sounded like a combination of sneeze and barf. Coincidentally, my linguistics assignment for the week was to read a chapter on language processing, in which word blends were covered. Have you ever tried to say two words at once and it came out mushed together? I know I have. Those mushed up words are called blends. One fine example of a blend? Spanglish.

Here are my two favorite blend words, both of which I mangled all on my own:

Rememory: a combination of recall and memory. Example: "I would do better on my tests if I had good rememory, because those cheat sheets are hard to recall with my poor memory."

Dipsy: a combination of ditsy and tipsy. And yes, I was dipsy when I came up with this word.

What are some word blends that you know of, or have come up with?

Word Buzz Friday

I was writing something last week on Twitter, I believe, when I used the word snarf without thinking. Amanda responded that she liked the sound of it. What did it mean? I replied that it must mean throw up or vomit, because that's the only context I've ever heard it used in. She twittered back that it looks like sneeze + barf= snarf. Genius!

Then, I did some research and found this. However, if you are like me, you rarely ever click on links. So the best of the definitions is here:

snarf

/snarf/ 1. To grab, especially to grab a large document or
file for the purpose of using it with or without the author's
permission.

See also BLT.

2. (Unix) To fetch a file or set of files across a network.

See also blast.

3. To acquire, with little concern for legal forms or
politesse (but not quite by stealing). "They were giving away
samples, so I snarfed a bunch of them."

4. Synonym for slurp. "This program starts by snarfing the
entire database into core."

5. (GEnie) To spray food or programming fluids due to
laughing at the wrong moment. This sense appears to be
widespread among mundane teenagers - ESR.

6. This term was mainstream in the late 1960s, meaning "to eat
piggishly". It may still have this connotation in context.

7. A creature on the Thundercats, fond of eating, usually
covertly.

Who knew that snarf had sooo many meanings???

Word Buzz Friday

Hey everyone! I'm back to add a few new words to your vocab like I do every Friday!

Okay, admit it. We all have that one friend where it seems no matter what we do we will never have as many friends as they do on Facebook. Face it, they have over 1,000 and you just aren't sure if your "friend" even knows all of those people. Maybe your "friend" is you. There is a word for that. Facebookemon March 23

The term used for the collection of people, on your Facebook friends list, that you don’t actually talk to or know in real life. Related to popular tv program and game Pokemon, where the aim is to collect as many different Pocket Monsters as possible.

Dave - "Hey, my friends collection is getting up to two hundred"

Steve - "How many do you really know? go admit it, most of them are Facebookemon"

John - "Gotta catch em all, gotta catch em all"

This next one was said to me by a friend after I told her how much time I had recently spent with a special someone.

Wifed up

When a man (or woman in my case) is held down or in check by a female (*ahem* male in my case) counterpart so as to not engage in social situations with other members of the general public.

Our good buddy John is wifed up this weekend and can't come out with the guys.

What she actually said was "Oh, I forgot that you've been wifed up recently."

There you have it folks! Two new words to add to your slangcabulary. Have a super awesome weekend!

Word Buzz Friday

Hey all!

Time for another word buzz! It looks like POP! (that along with "my favorite isn't listed") happened to be the favorite onomatopoeia from last week. I wonder why I didn't put "buzz"?

Today's word is:

Zombie Company

1. A technically bankrupt company that is kept alive with large infusions of government money for the sake of "stability" in the U.S. financial system. 2. A large financial company with negative net worth that continues to operate, despite having no clear path to solvency. 3. The UnDead of Wall Street.

"AIG is the premier example of a zombie company -- kept alive only by $120 billion in federal bailout money. Apparently, it's considered too large to fail."

Haha! I haven't heard this mentioned on CNN. Actually, I haven't been watching so much CNN since I can't figure out what channel it's on this cable plan in Chile. Oh well...

Anyways, Happy Friday!

Word Buzz Friday

The word of the day is Onomatopoeia! Most of you language nerds know what onomatopoeia means, I'm sure. It is a long word that simply means the word you are saying says it's own name. I'm sure you learned about this in grades school right as your teacher asked you to write down the sounds that your favorite animals make. Now, onomatopoeia is not limited to just animal sounds. Other sounds as well, like pop,bang, boom, snap, even crackle fit nicely into the onomatopoeia family.

However, for today's word buzz we are going to focus mainly on sounds that animals make in different languages.

Bird- English tweet-tweet Spanish pío German Piep Piep

Cat- English meow Spanish miau German miau

Dog- English woof Spanish guau German wau-wau

Rooster- English cock-a-doodle-doo Spanish kikiriki German kikiriki

Notice how the German and the Spanish are more similar than the English? Why do you think that is? What other animal sounds can you think of in any of the countries you've visited or languages you've learned? Or, simply what are your favorite onomatopoeia words? (You can also vote in our new poll on the left hand side!)

Word Buzz Friday

It's Friday and that means it's time for a new word or phrase. The two I chose this week are from the urban dictionary again. They were just too good to pass up!

Rebooty:

1. A booty call made with an ex.

2. A renewed relationship with an ex.

After they broke up, Joe still called Kate for some rebooty on weekends.

Parade Maker:

(n). A driver and/or car that goes consistently under the speed limit, causing a backup of 20+ cars, creating frustration and your ability to be where you want to be on time.

Gee boss, I'm very sorry that I'm 10 minutes late, but I was in a long line of cars stuck behind this parade maker.

It was a double line for several miles. no one could even attempt to pass the parade maker.

Hope you enjoy these new editions to your vocabulary. Have a great weekend!

Word Buzz Friday

The English language is constantly inventing new words and phrases. Some of them make sense and some of them are ridiculous. Urban dictionary tries to keep up with the thousands of new words and slang being created every year.

Some of their words for this week are:

Yellular: The loudness one adopts in response to a bad cell-phone connection, in the misguided hope that talking louder will improve the connection. "I'm so embarrassed. I went totally yellular at a restaurant last night." Laundry Limbo: Intentionally rewashing clothing simply because you don't feel like putting it away "I had a shirt I knew was clean, but I was too lazy to hang it up so I just kept it in laundry limbo"

I'm guilty of both of those! How about you?

Then, do you remember my post on calling women chicks? We found this from the comic strip Pearls Before Swine.