Weird Word Wednesday - Antepenultimate

 Antepenultimate

I know that this word is similar to another one I wrote about a few months ago, Penultimate. However, I just couldn't pass it up. Antepenultimate is making my head spin. 

Penultimate means second to last. Which I thought was odd, but I could justify it's use in certain situations. Antepenultimate, as you English Majors may have deduced noticing the prefix "ante", means third from the last.

WHY - EVER would someone use this word? Aside from no one knowing what you meant when you said it. And the fact that you would have to use a wordy explanation once you flopped out "antepenultimate", WHY? Just why?

Can ANYONE give me ANY instance where this word would be helpful or useful? Have any of you actually used the word "antepenultimate"? Is it JUST me? I can't even think of a situation where I explained that someone or something was third from the last. "Near the end" seems close enough.

Anyways, if you can come up with some great ways to work "antepenultimate" into a conversation, let me know!

 

an·te·pe·nul·ti·mate

 [an-tee-pi-nuhl-tuh-mit] 

adjective

1. third from the end.

2. of or pertaining to an antepenult. 

 

 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/antepenultimate

Monday Vent - A Mother's Quandary

To Pee or Not To Pee... Right THERE!

Picture this:  it's the middle of the night and I was asleep.  A light went on in the hallway and it took me a moment to get up and investigate.  I walk into the light, and there is my 5 year old, with his pants down, urinating on a step-stool in the corner. 

I know that he is sleep-walking (or sleep-peeing in this moment).  I am stuck in a quandary. I have three choices: Do I pick him up to move him to the bathroom which is literally three feet away from where he is standing?  Do I attempt to wake him up so he stops peeing and then get him into the bathroom?  Or, do I just let him finish his business and keep the mess confined to one area.  No matter what, I have a mess to clean up. 

If I move him, he will spray over a larger area of wall and carpet.  If I wake him up, he is likely to begin crying uncontrollably and be scared/disoriented which has happened before.  If I let him finish, I am fighting against my instinct to stop this child from treating the carpet/stepstool/wall as if it were a urinal.  And the choice was................. 

I let him finish.  I then cleaned him up and put him into dry pajamas and led him back to bed.  He never woke up.  I started the clean up and then realized I never had him wash his hands.  Technically, he didn't "use" the bathroom, so, other than pulling his pants down, his hands weren't actually dirty...right? 

I sure hope no one's keeping score on my skills as a mother!!!

S-)

Weird Word Wednesday - Ultracrepidarian

 ultracrepidarian

Today's weird word is ultracrepidarian. When I saw this one, I KNEW I had to use it. It's another one of those words that sounds complimentary, but isn't.

Ironically, when looking it up, www.merriam-webster.com didn't know the word. Congratulations to them for NOT being an ultracrepidarian site. This is a compliment. Seriously.

My younger brother IS always making ultracrepidarian comments/rants/speeches/etc. It is SO annoying! Even when he really does know what he is talking about, it is normally something that EVERYONE ELSE knows too. It comes off as if he thinks we are all idiots and his instructional jabbering is something we have never heard of before. Grrrr!

So now, when he starts up, and I walk away mid-sentence, just to make it stop, and so I don't actually resort to telling him to "SHUT THE F**K UP!" I can "thank" him for his ultracrepidarian comments, and smile.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ultracrepidarian

Main Entry:	ultracrepidarian
Part of Speech:	n, adj
Definition:	beyond one's knowledge or province; pertaining to opinions given on matters beyond one's knowledge; also written ultra-crepidarian
Etymology:	from Latin 'beyond the sole'

Weird Word Wednesday - Zaftig

ZAFTIG 

 

Today's weird word is ZAFTIG. It means "having a full rounded figure: pleasingly plump." 

Zaftig sounds WONDERFUL! It sounds hot and cool at the same time! 

If I heard "Hey, that chick is zaftig!" 

I would think "they are TOTALLY complimenting me!" 

If I heard "Hey, that chick is plump!" 

I would go over and punch them in the face. 

Just saying.

zaf·tig

adj \ˈzäf-tig, ˈzȯf-\

Definition of ZAFTIG

of a woman

: having a full rounded figure : pleasingly plump

See zaftig defined for English-language learners »

Variants of ZAFTIG

zaf·tig also zof·tig

Examples of ZAFTIG

1. The actress playing the lead role was a zaftig blonde.

Origin of ZAFTIG

Yiddish zaftik juicy, succulent, from zaft juice, sap, from Middle High German saf, saft, from Old High German saf — more at sap

First Known Use: circa 1936

 

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zaftig