nostalgia

en-noun

nostalgia (countable and uncountable, plural nostalgias)

/nəˈstæɫd͡ʒə/

From New Latin nostalgia, coined from Ancient Greek νόστος (nóstos, “returning home”) + ἄλγος (álgos, “pain”), translating German Heimweh. Ancient Greek *νοσταλγία (*nostalgía) is unattested. Transferred sense probably influenced by French nostalgie, especially in literature.
Compare Italian nostalgia, Spanish nostalgia, Portuguese nostalgia and French nostalgie.

der

I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not.

1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter L, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

(now uncommon) A longing for home or familiar surroundings; homesickness.


enjoyment

en-noun

enjoyment (countable and uncountable, plural enjoyments)

/ɪnˈd͡ʒɔɪmənt/

/ənˈd͡ʒɔɪmənt/

/ɛnˈd͡ʒɔɪmənt/

Few activities better the enjoyment of a hearty meal eaten in good company.

Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

Our Republic continues to increase in the enjoyment of freedom within its borders, and to offer strength and encouragement to all those who love freedom throughout the world.

1950 January 4, Harry S. Truman, Fifth State of the Union Address:

(uncountable) The condition of enjoying anything.


ghastly

en-adj

ghastly (comparative ghastlier, superlative ghastliest)

ghastlier (comparative)
ghastliest (superlative)

From a conflation of a derivation of Old English gǣstan (“to torment, frighten”) with the suffix -lic, and ghostly (which was also spelt "gastlich" in Middle English). Equivalent to ghast/gast + -ly. Spelling with 'gh' developed 16th century due to the conflation.

der

Each turned his face with a ghastly pang.

1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], published 1798, →OCLC:

His face was so ghastly that it could scarcely be recognized.

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 11, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

"My men grow mutinous day by day; / My men grow ghastly wan and weak." / The stout mate thought of home; a spray / Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.

They gathered soberly in the farthest recess of the ward and gossiped about him in malicious, offended undertones, rebelling against his presence as a ghastly imposition and resenting him malevolently for the nauseating truth of which he was bright reminder.

1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 169:

Like a ghost in appearance; death-like; pale; pallid; dismal.

мъртвешки

Mangled with ghastly wounds through plate and mail.

1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:


edgy

en-adj

edgy (comparative edgier, superlative edgiest)

edgier (comparative)
edgiest (superlative)

From edge + -y. Compare German eckig (“angular, edgy”).

an edgy temper


effusive

effusive (comparative more effusive, superlative most effusive)

more effusive (comparative)
most effusive (superlative)

From the stem of Latin effundēre + -ive, from ex- (“out of”) + fundō (“pour”), 1660s.

All week I’ve found myself doing everything I can to distance myself in the crew’s eyes from the bovine herd I’m part of, to somehow unimplicate myself: I eschew cameras and sunglasses and pastel Caribbeanwear; I make a big deal of carrying my own cafeteria tray and am effusive in my thanks for the slightest service.

1997, David Foster Wallace, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Kindle edition, Little, Brown Book Group:

While he is reasonably effusive about inter-city travel, he is heavily disparaging of all types of stopping service, including those on otherwise busy main lines. His analysis is not entirely unsound, and he tackles some of the questions head on.

2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 47:

Gushy; unrestrained, extravagant or excessive (in emotional expression).

(geology, of igneous rock) Extrusive; having solidified after being poured out as molten lava.

ekstrusiivinen

extrusive; having solidified after being poured out as molten lava


lovely

lovely (comparative lovelier, superlative loveliest)

lovelier (comparative)
loveliest (superlative)

From Middle English lovely, luvelich, lufli, from Old English luflīċ, luflīc (“amiable, loving, lovable”), equivalent to love + -ly.

seal the title with a lovely kiss

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:


cowardly

cowardly (comparative cowardlier or more cowardly, superlative cowardliest or most cowardly)

cowardlier (comparative)
more cowardly (comparative)
cowardliest (superlative)
most cowardly (superlative)

From Middle English *cowardly (adjective) and cowardly (adverb), equivalent to coward + -ly. Displaced native Old English earg.

The cowardly rascals that ran from the battle.

1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii]:

1780, Edmund Burke, speech at The Guildhall, in Bristol
The cowardly rashness of those who dare not look danger in the face.

Showing cowardice; lacking in courage; weakly fearful.


sympathy

en-noun

sympathy (countable and uncountable, plural sympathies)

Borrowed from Middle French sympathie, from Late Latin sympathīa (“feeling in common”), from Ancient Greek σῠμπᾰ́θειᾰ (sumpátheia, “fellow feeling”), from σῠμπᾰθής (sumpathḗs, “affected by like feelings; exerting mutual influence, interacting”) + -ῐᾰ (-ia, “-y”, nominal suffix). Equivalent to sym- (“acting or considered together”) + -pathy (“feeling”). Displaced native Old English efnþrōwung (literally “suffering with or together”).

تَعَاطُف

feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another — see also compassion

A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another.

The ability to share the feelings of another.

keqardhje

ability to share the feelings of another; empathy


make love

en-verb

make love (third-person singular simple present makes love, present participle making love, simple past and past participle made love)

makes love (present singular third-person)
making love (participle present)
made love (participle past)
made love (past)

Calque of Old Occitan far amor, Middle French faire l'amour.

So from thenceforth, when loue he to her made, / VVith better tearmes ſhe did him entertaine, / VVhich gaue him hope, and did him halfe perſvvade, / That he iunb time her ioyaunce ſhould obtaine.

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 7, page 494:

[S]carcely had they passed the sweep-gate and joined the other carriage, than she found her subject cut up–her hand seized–her attention demanded, and Mr. Elton actually making violent love to her: availing himself of the precious opportunity, declaring sentiments which must already be well known, […]

1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 275:

About a week afterwards she said to him, point-blank, “Are you seriously making love to your little cousin?”

1878, Henry James, chapter VIII, in The Europeans, Macmillan and Co.:

After all, the chief charm is in the fact of being made love to. You are making love to me, aren't you?

1910, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Baker’s Dozen”, in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 107:

The first stage we tackled was just about as rickety as it could very well be and I had to sit with the driver, who was a Mormon and so handsome that I was not a bit offended when he insisted on making love all the way, especially after he told me that he was a widower Mormon.

1914, Elinore Pruitt Stewart, Letters of a Woman Homesteader, Houghton Mifflin Company, pages 3–4:

‘Ever since I was sixteen men have been making love to me.’

1941, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, Up at the Villa, Vintage, published 2004, page 24:

He's making violent love to me, Mother.

1946, It's a Wonderful Life, spoken by Mary Hatch (Donna Reed):

1953, C.S.Lewis, The Silver Chair, page 107:

(archaic) To make amorous approaches (to); to woo, romance, court.


apathy

en-noun

apathy (usually uncountable, plural apathies)

From French apathie, from Latin apathīa, from Ancient Greek ἀπάθεια (apátheia, “impassibility”, “insensibility”, “freedom from emotion”), from ἀπαθής (apathḗs, “not suffering or having suffered”, “without experience of”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + πάθος (páthos, “anything that befalls one”, “incident”, “emotion”, “passion”). Doublet of apatheia, which was borrowed directly from Ancient Greek.

der

I opened it with apathy; the theory which he attempts to demonstrate and the wonderful facts which he relates soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm.

1818, Mary Shelley, chapter 2, in Frankenstein, archived from the original on 2012-04-03:

Lack of emotion or motivation; lack of interest or enthusiasm towards something; disinterest (in something).


giggle

en-verb

giggle (third-person singular simple present giggles, present participle giggling, simple past and past participle giggled)

giggles (present singular third-person)
giggling (participle present)
giggled (participle past)
giggled (past)

Early 16th century, probably of imitative origin.
Or, perhaps a frequentative based on dialectal English gig (“to creak”), from Middle English gigen (“to make a creaking sound”) + -le; or perhaps of Dutch or Low German origin: compare Saterland Frisian güüchelje (“to giggle”), West Frisian giechelje (“to giggle”), Dutch giechelen (“to giggle”), German Low German giecheln (“to giggle”), dialectal German giggln, gigglen (“to giggle”), German gickeln (“to giggle”). All of these words are likely onomatopoeic as well. Also compare Alemannic German Guege (“fiddle”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

cog

The jokes had them giggling like little girls all evening.

To laugh gently in a playful, nervous, or affected manner.


giggle

onomatopoeic

imitative

My audience to this not-too-easy operation was a small group of Scottish school lasses, who seemed (perhaps naturally) to find the proceedings somewhat mysterious, but at any rate amusing. I wished they would go away, but they didn't, so I had to get on with the job to the accompaniment of a background of giggles!

1952 February, H. C. Casserley, “Permanent Wayfarings”, in Railway Magazine, page 77:

We put itching powder down his shirt for giggles.

The women thought it would be quite a giggle to have a strippergram at the bride's hen party.

For my first English breakfast I had kippers and pink champagne - what a combination, still it was a bit of a giggle and I know I've really arrived.

2013, Patricia Newell-Dunkley, Letters of a Travelling Lady, page 16:


surly

en-adj

surly (comparative surlier, superlative surliest)

surlier (comparative)
surliest (superlative)

16th-century alteration of sirly, from sir + -ly.

(obsolete) Lordly, arrogant, supercilious.

傲慢的

(obsolete) lordly, arrogant, supercilious


ichthyophobia

Ichthyophobia, defined as the fear of fish, is especially strong in the Navajo Indians, who will not eat fish nor have anything to do with articles made in the shape of fish.

1898, Current Literature, volume 23, page 521:

Such ichthyophobia occurred at the time of first European contact among the Tasmanian Aborigines.

1994, Frederick J. Simoons, Eat Not This Flesh: Food Avoidances from Prehistory to the Present, University of Wisconsin Press, published 1994, →ISBN, page 253:

'How dreadful. I could never go under the water. The fish frighten me.'
'My wife has ichthyophobia, you see,' Al-Nassar chimed in. 'The unfortunate condition confines her to swimming pools.'

2011, Miranda Darling, The Siren's Sting, Allen & Unwin, published 2011, →ISBN:


seduce

en-verb

seduce (third-person singular simple present seduces, present participle seducing, simple past and past participle seduced)

seduces (present singular third-person)
seducing (participle present)
seduced (participle past)
seduced (past)

Borrowed from Latin sēdūcō (“to lead apart or astray”), from sē- (“aside, away, astray”) + dūcō (“to lead”); see duct. Compare adduce, conduce, deduce, etc. and Middle English seduct.

bor

He was seduced by the bright lights and glamour of the city.


valentine

From Saint Valentine's Day (“day of celebration of romantic love”).

Such an extravagant valentine was unexpected.

An expression of affection, especially romantic affection, usually in the form of greeting card, gift, or message given the object of one's affection, especially on February 14th.

валенти́нка

an expression of affection, especially romantic

valentine

old word; used only for cards or envelopes


nostalgic

But of course every well-brought-up person to-day knows that the Victorians were sentimentalists, nostalgics, escapists, self-deceivers.

1933 January, Gilbert Armitage, “Were these Victorians?”, in The Bookman, volume LXXXIII, number 496:

In Bow Street court next morning, the slapper proved to be a paid agent of a group of nostalgics who call themselves The League of Empire Loyalists.

FA Cup Centenary 1872-1972. One for the football nostalgics.

2009 February 28, Steven Morris, “Brought to books: bibliophiles and traders enjoy giveaway bonanza”, in The Guardian:

A person who displays nostalgia for something.


depression

en-noun

depression (countable and uncountable, plural depressions)

From Middle English depression, depressioun, from Old French depression, from Latin dēpressiō.

I used to suffer from depression, but now I'm mostly content with my life.

It is that Mr. Levi's death could not be dissociated from the major depression with which he was afflicted, and that indeed his suicide proceeded directly from that illness.

1988 December 19, William Styron, “Why Primo Levi Need Not Have Died”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(psychology, usually uncountable) A state of mind producing serious, long-term lowering of enjoyment of life or inability to visualize a happy future.


Cupid

From Latin Cupīdō, personification of cupīdō (“desire, desire of love”), from cupidus (“eager, greedy, passionate”), from cupere (“to desire”).

The myth of Cupid and Psyche was one of the most influential romances in European culture.

(Roman mythology) The god of love, son of Venus; sometimes depicted as a putto (a naked, winged boy with bow and arrow). The Roman counterpart of Eros.

He was just walking down the street minding his own business when Cupid struck.

(poetic) Sudden love or desire; the personification of falling in love.

Cupid is so small and far away that it can only be seen with the Hubble Space Telescope.


satisfaction

satisfaction (countable and uncountable, plural satisfactions)

From Middle English satisfaccioun, from Old French satisfaccion and Latin satisfactiō, satisfactiōnis.

November 4, 1860, Henry David Thoreau, letter to Mr. D. R.
This life is not for complaint, but for satisfaction.

Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked around at the sudden rustle of skirts to catch a glimpse of a vanishing figure—a glimmer of ruddy hair and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff.

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

The pleasure obtained by such fulfillment.

The count demanded satisfaction in the form of a duel at dawn.

He is knight dubb'd with vnhatche'd Rapier, and on carpet conſideration, but he is a diuell in priuate brall, soules and bodies hath he diuorc'd three, and his incenſement at this moment is ſo implacable, that ſatisfaction can be none, but by pangs of death and ſepulcher: Hob, nob, is his word: giu't or take't.

c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], page 269:


allo

en-adj

allo (comparative more allo, superlative most allo)

more allo (comparative)
most allo (superlative)

Asking a person to work on themself to have more sex seems natural and intuitive, but imagine asking the allo partner to be celibate.

2020, Angela Chen, Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex, page 83:

However, being aro adds another layer of urgency. As we get older, a lot of our monogamous allo friends will find their life partner, get married, and have kids.

2021, Izzy, "Live While We're Young: Aromantic Frienships, Youth and Futures", CAMP Magazine (University of Melbourne), Volume 4 (2021), page 20

I would say that it'd help so much if the ace characters would be explicitly acknowledged by the creators, but this doesn't always fix things. In the case of Jughead Jones, his asexuality and aromanticism were explicitly stated, but that didn't stop people from completely disregarding it, to the point where most fanart and fanfiction of him makes him allo.

2021, anonymous, quoted in "Questions Of The Month", AVENues Newsletters, July-September 2021, pages 14-15

(informal) Allosexual and/or alloromantic; experiencing sexual and/or romantic attraction.


allo

Allos might feel infatuated with a new acquaintance or be more attached to their best friend than to any romantic partner, yet they can deny the possibility of romantic feeling because of the lack of sexual attraction. Allos can wave their hand and say, "There are people I want to sleep with, and I don't want to sleep with you, so it's only platonic."

2020, Angela Chen, Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex, page 108:

Then maybe asexuals wouldn't face negative responses ("You're a late bloomer" or You haven't met the right person" etc.) when they come out to allos.

2021, "Will", quoted in "Member Highlight: Multi-Member Question And Answer", AVENues Newsletter, January-March 2021, page 19

Part of why I’m writing this essay is to tell allos we exist, to make them aware of our struggle and our pain.

2021, Adam Key, "The Silent A: A Critical Soundtrack of Asexuality", Journal of Autoethnography, Volume 2, Issue 4, Fall 2021

(informal) One who is allosexual and/or alloromantic.


horror

en-noun

horror (countable and uncountable, plural horrors)

hoar (some rhotic American accents with the horse–hoarse merger)

From Middle English horer, horrour, from Old French horror, from Latin horror (“a bristling, a shaking, trembling as with cold or fear, terror”), from horrere (“to bristle, shake, be terrified”). Displaced native Old English ōga.

der

Their swarthy Hosts wou'd darken all our Plains, / Doubling the native Horror of the War, / And making Death more grim.

1712, Joseph Addison, Cato: A tragedy, published 1750, page 44:

(countable, uncountable) An intense distressing emotion of fear or repugnance.

I saw many horrors during the war.

The Home Magazine for July (Binghamton and New York) contains ‘The Patriots' War Chant,’ a poem by Douglas Malloch; ‘The Story of the War,’ by Theodore Waters; ‘A Horseman in the Sky,’ by Ambrose Bierce, with a portrait of Mr. Bierce, whose tales of horror are horrible of themselves, not as war is horrible; ‘A Yankee Hero,’ by W. L. Calver; ‘The Warfare of the Future,’ by Louis Seemuller; ‘Florence Nightingale,’ by Susan E. Dickenson, with two rare portraits, etc.

1898 July 3, Philadelphia Inquirer, page 22:

Could there be stories with more horror than these?

2009, Devin Watson, Horror Screenwriting:

(countable, uncountable) Something horrible; that which excites horror.

“Mrs. Yule's chagrin and horror at what she called her son's base ingratitude knew no bounds ; at first it was even thought that she would never get over it. […] ”

1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tragedy in Dartmoor Terrace”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

(countable, uncountable) Intense dislike or aversion; an abhorrence.

Those who enjoy horror, stories overflowing with blood and black mystery, will be grateful to Richard Marsh for writing ‘The Beetle.’

1917 February 11, New York Times, Book reviews, page 52:

(uncountable) A genre of fiction designed to evoke a feeling of fear and suspense.

The neighbour's kids are a pack of little horrors!

(countable, colloquial) A nasty or ill-behaved person; a rascal or terror.

(informal) An intense anxiety or a nervous depression; often the horrors.

`My belief is that he had the horrors without knowin' it.'

1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 53:

Delirium tremens
delirium tremens#English

(in the plural, informal) Delirium tremens.


contempt

en-noun

contempt (countable and uncountable, plural contempts)

From Latin contemptus (“scorn”), from contemnō (“I scorn, despise”), from com- + temnō (“I despise”). Displaced native Old English forsewennes.

And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

Transport Minister Marples, meanwhile, used arrogant rhetoric and showed his personal contempt for railways when confirming in Parliament that a third of the network was to be closed even before the survey results were known.

2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 53:

(uncountable) The state or act of contemning; the feeling or attitude of regarding someone or something as inferior, base, or worthless; scorn, disdain.

The state of being despised or dishonored; disgrace.

(chess, uncountable) Ellipsis of contempt factor.


umbrage

umbrage (countable and uncountable, plural umbrages)

/ˈʌm.bɹɪd͡ʒ/

From Middle French ombrage (“umbrage”), from Old French ombrage, from Latin umbrāticus (“in the shade”), from umbra (“shadow, shade”).

Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur.

1796, George Washington, "Farewell Address", American Daily Advertiser

—He took umbrage at something or other, that muchinjured but on the whole eventempered person declared, I let slip.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 16]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

She looked very neurotic, moving in a jerky way, her body giving little twitches of habitual umbrage.

1960, Muriel Spark, chapter 10, in The Bachelors, London: Macmillan:

If she knew [a psychiatrist was] observing her son with a view to finding out if he was foggy between the ears, there would be umbrage on her part, or even dudgeon.

1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VI:

When the call is over, Cooper thanks her — for leashing the dog, but for also endangering him, for living down to herself, for quite a performance of umbrage.

2020 June 3, Wesley Morris, “The Videos That Rocked America. The Song That Knows Our Rage.”, in New York Times:

A feeling of anger or annoyance caused by something offensive.


bogeyman

/ˈbəʊ.ɡɪˌmæn/

Before the Internet it was television. And, if not that, it was radio, films, or games. All have taken their turn as the popular bogeyman, blighting the minds of the young.

2013, Frances Booth, The Distraction Trap:

(by extension) Any make-believe threat, especially one used to intimidate or distract.


risible

en-adj

risible (comparative more risible, superlative most risible)

more risible (comparative)
most risible (superlative)

From Middle French risible and directly from Late Latin rīsibilis, from Latin rīsus (“laughter”) + -ibilis, from the perfect passive participle of rīdeō (“laugh”).

the risible muscles

A joke merely affected her with silent convulsive twitchings, as though the risible faculties struggled somewhere within her but could not bring the laugh to birth.

1912, Arthur Quiller-Couch, chapter 20, in Hocken and Hunken:

"[…] I hope you find nothing risible in my complaisance?" replied his companion, something jealously.

1822, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 277:

Do you find it risible when I say the name, 'Biggus Dickus'?

1979, Monty Python's Life of Brian, spoken by Pontius Pilate (Michael Palin):

Whelan called the offer "risible", describing it as a "land grab for all the terms and conditions we have negotiating over the years". He demanded a no-strings pay offer that recognises the "significant cost of living increases" since the last pay rise in 2019.

2024 May 1, Mel Holley, “Network News: New action from ASLEF to hit Bank Holiday services”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 14:

Provoking laughter; ludicrous; ridiculous; humorously insignificant

We are got indeed into a merry world, Laughing is our main buſiniſs; as if becauſe it has bin made part of the Definition of man, that he his Riſible, his man-hood conſiſted in nothing elſe.

1674, Anonymous [Richard Allestree?], “Of Scoffing and Deriſion”, in The Government of the Tongue, At the Theater in Oxford, page 119:

She was half risible, half concerned.

1897, Thomas Hardy, chapter 8, in The Well-Beloved:

(of a person) Easily laughing; prone to laughter


catoptrophobia

From Ancient Greek κάτοπτρον (kátoptron, “mirror”) + -phobia.

uder

I wondered what was at the root of Shingo's catoptrophobia - his irrational dread of mirrors.

1999 June 28, Vctr113062 [username], “[TK3 fanfic] "Phoenix" Ch. 17, 2/3”, in rec.games.video.sony (Usenet):

Pundit Bill O'Reilly grapples with "panophobia" (the fear of everything) while, strangely, Rush Limbaugh battles both "catoptrophobia," the fear of mirrors and "Walloonphobia," the fear of the Walloons.

2008 February 6, Gordon (quoting Ed Naha), “We have nothing to fear...but these bozos”, in misc.news.internet.discuss (Usenet):

If someone suffers from catoptrophobia (fear of mirrors), he sees mirrors, and their reflections, as dangerous.

2013, Macalester Bell, Hard Feelings: The Moral Psychology of Contempt, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 72:


tickle

en-verb

tickle (third-person singular simple present tickles, present participle tickling, simple past and past participle tickled)

tickles (present singular third-person)
tickling (participle present)
tickled (participle past)
tickled (past)

From Middle English tiklen, tikelen, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a frequentative form of Middle English tikken (“to touch lightly”), thus equivalent to tick + -le; or perhaps related to Old English tinclian (“to tickle”). Compare North Frisian tigele (“to tickle”) (Hallig dialect), and tiikle (“to tickle”) (Amrum dialect), German dialectal zicklen (“to excite; stir up”).
Alternatively, from a metathetic alteration of Middle English kitelen ("to tickle"; see kittle).

gloss

"to tickle"; see <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">kittle</i>

kielie

to touch in a manner that causes tingling sensation

He tickled Nancy's tummy, and she started to giggle.

If you tickle us, do we not laugh?

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

(transitive) To touch repeatedly or stroke delicately in a manner which causes laughter, pleasure and twitching.

A stranger tickled Nancy's tummy, causing her to scream in fear.

(transitive) To unexpectedly touch or stroke delicately in a manner which causes displeasure or withdrawal.

(transitive) To appeal to someone's taste, curiosity etc.

kiinnostaa

to appeal to someone's taste, curiosity etc.

(transitive) To catch fish in the hand (usually in rivers or smaller streams) by manually stimulating the fins.

ловя с ръце

to catch fish in the hand by stimulating the fins


tickle

en-adv

tickle (comparative more tickle, superlative most tickle)

more tickle (comparative)
most tickle (superlative)

Lucio. I warrant it is: And thy head stands so tickle on
thy shoulders, that a milke-maid, if she be in loue, may
sigh it off: Send after the Duke, and appeale to him.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:


randy

en-adj

randy (comparative randier, superlative randiest)

randier (comparative)
randiest (superlative)

First use appears c. 1665 in a letter by the Earl of Argyll. From Scottish randy (“boisterous, aggressive”), of uncertain origin. Probably from rand (“to storm, rave”, verb), a variant of rant, see rant; or from rand (“edge”, noun), in the sense of "edgy, on edge", from Middle English rand (“edge, brink, margin, border”), from Old English rand (“edge, border, margin, rim”). Related to randan.

inh

If you're feeling randy, give me a call and I'll come round and give you some lovin'.

(chiefly Scotland) Rude or coarse in manner.


discontent

en-noun

discontent (countable and uncountable, plural discontents)

Another source of discontent with the Phase I stock has been obviated by relocation of the interior heating elements and the introduction of thermostatic control; this has eradicated the searing blasts of hot air passengers used to feel about their calves [...].

1961 February, “Talking of Trains: Phase II units in service”, in Trains Illustrated, page 69:

Now is the winter of our diſcontent, / Made glorious ſummer by this ſonne of Yorke: / And all the cloudes that lowrd vpon our houſe, / In the deepe boſome of the Ocean buried.

c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.

1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 1:

(uncountable) A longing for better times or circumstances.

(countable) A discontented person; a malcontent.


discontent

en-verb

discontent (third-person singular simple present discontents, present participle discontenting, simple past and past participle discontented)

discontents (present singular third-person)
discontenting (participle present)
discontented (participle past)
discontented (past)

To deprive of contentment; to make uneasy; to dissatisfy.


discontent

en-adj

discontent (comparative more discontent, superlative most discontent)

more discontent (comparative)
most discontent (superlative)

[...] Paſſion seemed to be much diſcontent, but Patience was very quiet. Then Chriſtian aſked, What is the reaſon of the diſcontent of Paſſion.

1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 22:

Not content; discontented; dissatisfied.


unhappy

unhappy (comparative unhappier or more unhappy, superlative unhappiest or most unhappy)

unhappier (comparative)
more unhappy (comparative)
unhappiest (superlative)
most unhappy (superlative)

From Middle English unhappy; equivalent to un- + happy.

An unhappy customer is unlikely to return to your shop.


katzenjammer

Borrowed from German Katzenjammer (“hangover”, literally “the wailing of cats”); a determinative compound formed from Katze (“cat”) + -n- + Jammer (“wailing; lamentation”).


dejection

en-noun

dejection (countable and uncountable, plural dejections)

/dɪˈdʒɛkʃən/

/dəˈd͡ʒɛkʃən/

From Old French dejection, from Latin dejectio (“a casting down”).

A state of melancholy or depression; low spirits, the blues.


muahahaha

Comes from the natural sound mu and the laughing sound hahaha, repeating.

(onomatopoeia) A conventionally evil laugh, as used by a supervillain.


snicker

(cricket, rare) A player who snicks the ball.


macrophilia

"This guy's into microphilia — or is it macrophilia? He gets off on being made to feel that he's really small."
"You're joking," I replied.
"No, I'm not."
"And I thought my fantasies about gladiators were kinky."

2006, David Stukas, Biceps Of Death, page 14:

The giantess fetish, whether it's macrophilia or microphilia, is a pretty unique one. What y'all want is to be made to feel tiny by a bigger, stronger, superior woman.

2010, Diamond, “Black BBW Goddess Fulfills All Your Giantess Fetish Fantasies”, in alt.sex.telephone.alt (Usenet):

(paraphilia) A paraphilia involving sexual attraction to giants.


ablutophobe

From Latin ablutio (“a washing”) + Ancient Greek φόβος (phóbos, “fear”).


jealousy

jealousy (countable and uncountable, plural jealousies)

From Middle English jalousie, from Old French jalousie, see jealous, -y. Doublet of jalousie. Related also to zeal, zealous.

zili

jealous attitude (e.g. fear of infidelity)

xhelozi

a resentment towards someone for a perceived advantage or superiority they hold

Coordinate term: envy

Jealousy was, however, aroused among the English nobility at the favouritism shown the Dutch newcomer.

1907, Charles J. Archard, The Portland Peerage Romance:

[…]the jealousy of his foes of each other's share in the booty[…].

1891, Louis Antoine Fauvelet De Bourrienne, R. W. Phipps, transl., Memoirs Of Napoleon Bonaparte:

He knew what it was like to feel jealousy over the possessions of others... he'd never thought he could make someone feel the same. He didn't want to make someone feel the same. [...] "I want one for myself." Quentin's smile faded.

2010 September 10, Scott Sigler, THE STARTER: Space Opera Adventure, Empty Set Entertainment, →ISBN:

(countable, uncountable) A state of being jealous; a jealous attitude.

For euer I supoosed that he had ben to yonge and to tendyr to take vpon hym these aduentures / And therfore by my wille I wold haue dryuen hym aweye for Ialousy that I had of his lyf / for it maye be no yong knyghtes dede that shal enchyeue this aduenture to the ende

1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “vij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book VIII:

(archaic) A close concern for someone or something, solicitude, vigilance.


grudge

A variant of grutch (mid 15th-century, younger than begrudge), from Middle English grucchen (“to murmur, complain, feel envy, begrudge”), from Old French grouchier, groucier (“to murmur, grumble”), of Germanic origin, probably ultimately imitative.
Akin to Middle High German grogezen (“to howl, wail”), German grocken (“to croak”). Compare also Old Norse krytja (“to murmur”), Old High German grunzen (“to grunt”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

cog

to have, hold, or bear a grudge against someone

Bag. And if I do not my good Lord damme me for it
I haue an old grudge at him cole black curre,

1607, Barnabe Barnes, THE DIVILS CHARTER: A TRAGÆDIE Conteining the Life and Death of Pope Alexander the ſixt, ACTVS. 5, SCÆ. 1

He ſhall haue two ſteele bullets ſtrongly charg’d

I have never mentioned it to a human creature; I have kept my grudge to myself. I daresay I have been wicked, but my grudge has grown old with me.

1877 March, Henry James, Jr., chapter XXII, in The American, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, […], published 5 May 1877, →OCLC, page 389:

It is towards Saduko that he bears a grudge, for you know, my father, one should never pull a drowning man out of the stream — which is what Saduko did, for had it not been for his treachery, Cetewayo would have sunk beneath the water of Death — especially if it is only to spite a woman who hates him.

1913, H[enry] Rider Haggard, chapter XV, in Child of Storm:

(countable) Deep-seated and/or long-term animosity or ill will about something or someone, especially due to perceived mistreatment.


despondent

en-adj

despondent (comparative more despondent, superlative most despondent)

more despondent (comparative)
most despondent (superlative)

From Latin dēspondēns, from the verb despondere (“to give up, to abandon”).

Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.

1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0056:

“Last year, I was despondent that it was so hard to dislodge the iron grip of Google,” said Sridhar Ramaswamy, who previously oversaw advertising for Google, including Search ads, and now runs Neeva. “But technological moments like this create an opportunity for more competition.”

2022 December 21, Nico Grant, Cade Metz, quoting Sridhar Ramaswamy, “A New Chat Bot Is a ‘Code Red’ for Google’s Search Business”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

In low spirits from loss of hope or courage.

قَانِط

in low spirits from loss of hope or courage


joyful

joyful (comparative joyfuller or more joyful, superlative joyfullest or most joyful)

joyfuller (comparative)
more joyful (comparative)
joyfullest (superlative)
most joyful (superlative)


bugbear

From obsolete meaning of bug (“something terrifying”) + bear. See Middle English bugge, modern bogey.

What has this Bugbear Death to frighten Man,
If Souls can die, as well as Bodies can?

1709, John Dryden, "Lucretius: A Poem against the Fear of Death" (lines 1-2), published in a pamphlet of the same name with an Ode in Memory of Mrs. Ann Killebrew

But, to the world no bugbear is so great
As want of figure and a small estate.

1738, Alexander Pope, Epistle I of the First Book of Horace; to Lord Bolingbroke:

What have I done to be made a bugbear of, and to be shunned and dreaded as if I brought the plague?

1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC:

A source of dread; resentment; or irritation.

плашило

source of dread, resentment or irritation

Ha, ha: alas poore wretch: a poore Chipochia, haſt not ſlept to night? would he not (a naughty man) let it ſleepe: a bug-beare take him.

c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

“How could you lie so glaringly as to affirm I hated the ‘poor child’? and invent bugbear stories to terrify her from my door-stones?[…]”

1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XXII, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:

"My young friends," quietly replied Jason, "I do not wonder that you think the dragon very terrible. You have grown up from infancy in the fear of this monster, and therefore still regard him with the awe that children feel for the bugbears and hobgoblins which their nurses have talked to them about.[…]"

1853, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Golden Fleece”, in Tanglewood Tales:

The partisans of the Administration object to the word “imperialism,” calling it a mere bugbear having no real existence.

1900, Carl Schurz, For Truth, Justice and Liberty:

(folklore, fantasy) A generic creature, often described as a large goblin, meant to inspire fear in children.


bugbear

en-verb

bugbear (third-person singular simple present bugbears, present participle bugbearing, simple past and past participle bugbeared)

bugbears (present singular third-person)
bugbearing (participle present)
bugbeared (participle past)
bugbeared (past)

(transitive) To alarm with idle phantoms.


cheerful

en-adj

cheerful (comparative more cheerful, superlative most cheerful)

more cheerful (comparative)
most cheerful (superlative)

/ˈt͡ʃɪə(ɹ)fəl/

/ˈt͡ʃɪə(ɹ)fʊl/

/ˈt͡ʃɜː(ɹ)fəl/

/ˈt͡ʃɜː(ɹ)fʊl/

From Middle English chereful, cherful, equivalent to cheer + -ful.


vivacious

vivacious (comparative more vivacious, superlative most vivacious)

more vivacious (comparative)
most vivacious (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin vīvāx (“lively, vigorous”) (with the suffix -ious), from vīvere (“to live”).

Lively and animated; full of life and energy.


chutzpah

en-noun

chutzpah (usually uncountable, plural chutzpahs)

Originated 1890–95 from Yiddish חוצפּה (khutspe), from Mishnaic Hebrew חוֹצְפָּה (ḥôṣǝpâ) (Sotah 9:15 in MSS Kaufmann A50), from חָצַף (ḥāṣap̄, “to be insolent”). Ultimately from Aramaic חֲצִיפָא (ḥăṣîp̄āʾ), חֲצַף (ḥăṣap̄, “to be barefaced, insolent”).

der

Hebrew חוֹצְפָּה (ḥôṣǝpâ)

Aramaic חֲצִיפָא (ḥăṣîp̄āʾ)

If the service is rotten and the meal a disaster, we should withhold a tip and explain why we are doing so. Few of us have the chutzpah to do this.

2007 January 22, Philip Howard, “Modern Manners”, in The Times:

But seriously, the ability to just come out and put on a placard that the Jurassic era is temporally contiguous with the Fifth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt — well, there’s a word for that, and that word is chutzpah.

2007 December 11, John Scalzi, “Your Creation Museum Report”, in Whatever:

Okay, okay, okay… First of all, “shutspah” is actually pronounced “khootspah”. But, but-but-but the idea, the idea that daily fantasy sites are using this law to claim they’re not gambling is not chutzpah, it’s khorseshit!

2015, Tim Carvell [et al.], “Daily Fantasy Sports”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 2, episode 34, John Oliver (actor), Warner Bros. Television, via HBO:

(informal) Nearly arrogant courage; utter audacity, effrontery or impudence; supreme self-confidence; exaggerated self-opinion.


lethargy

en-noun

lethargy (countable and uncountable, plural lethargies)

From Middle English litargie, from Medieval Latin litargia, from Late Latin lēthārgia, borrowed from Ancient Greek ληθᾱργῐ́ᾱ (lēthārgíā, “drowsiness”), from λήθᾱργος (lḗthārgos, “forgetful, lethargic”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-íā, adjectival suffix).

af

Europe lay then under a deep lethargy.

1687, Francis Atterbury, An Answer to Some Considerations on the Spirit of Martin Luther and the Original of the Reformation at Oxford, page 42:

Gradually the darkened room seems to emerge from its shadows; familiar objects strike upon the senses—and memory is never so terribly distinct as on its first reviving from such momentary lethargy.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 285:

As already indicated, timekeeping is very poor. Point-to-point times are not kept, even with a clear road, and whilst fast running has never been a feature of the route because of the large number of junctions and speed restrictions, this Sunday night lethargy is hard to explain.

1959 March, D. Bertram, “An old friend - the 9.7”, in Trains Illustrated, page 141:

Yakovlev, one of the architects of the reforms put in place by Mikhail Gorbachev, says he too is "amazed" at the government's lethargy.

1995 March 20, Bruce W. Nelan, “Crime and Punishment”, in Time:

The increase in mining stocks helped the FTSE 100 shake off some earlier lethargy and close 9.8 points higher at 6270.8, despite the disappointment of unchanged UK interest rates.

2008 May 9, Nick Fletcher, “Lethargic FTSE lifted by hopes of mining move”, in The Guardian:

A state of extreme torpor, sopor or apathy, especially with lack of emotion, energy or enthusiasm; (loosely) sluggishness, laziness.


hysterical

en-adj

hysterical (comparative more hysterical, superlative most hysterical)

more hysterical (comparative)
most hysterical (superlative)

From hysteric + -al, from Latin hystericus, from Ancient Greek ὑστερικός (husterikós, “suffering in the womb, hysterical”), from ῠ̔στέρᾱ (hustérā, “womb”).

der

She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid,[…]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

There is a certain irony in all of this because in their hysterical use of charge of “double standard” – that Israel is being “singled out for criticism”– it is Israel’s supporters who are themselves guilty of a “double standard”, since, if they were to have their way, it is Israel that would be singled out as the only country that cannot be criticised.

2016 February 6, James Zogby, “Israel’s prickliness blocks the long quest for peace”, in The National:


suspicion

en-verb

suspicion (third-person singular simple present suspicions, present participle suspicioning, simple past and past participle suspicioned)

suspicions (present singular third-person)
suspicioning (participle present)
suspicioned (participle past)
suspicioned (past)

From Middle English suspecioun, borrowed from Latin suspīciō, suspīciōnem, from suspicere, from sub- (“up to”) with specere (“to look at”). Perhaps partly through the influence of Old French sospeçon (or rather the Anglo-Norman form suspecioun). Equivalent to suspect + -ion.

“Well, what’s more dangerous than coming here in the day time!—anybody would suspicion us that saw us.”

1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXVI, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 202:

Mulvaney continued— "Whin I was full awake the palanquin was set down in a street, I suspicioned, for I cud hear people passin' an' talkin'. But I knew well I was far from home. […]

1891, Rudyard Kipling, “The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney”, in Life's Handicap:

"I've been suspicioning here was where they got their information right along," the sheriff commented, and slipped the handcuffs on the landlord.

2012, B. M. Bower, Cow-Country, page 195:

(dialect) To suspect; to have suspicions.


depressed

en-adj

depressed (comparative more depressed, superlative most depressed)

more depressed (comparative)
most depressed (superlative)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

nonlemma

Unhappy; despondent.
Suffering from clinical depression.


downcast

en-adj

downcast (comparative more downcast, superlative most downcast)

more downcast (comparative)
most downcast (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Middle English doun-casten, *adoun-casten (“(adjective) cast down, dejected; (verb) to break down (something); to overcome (someone); to overturn (something)”), from down (“in a downward direction; (figurative) to destruction”), adoun (“downward”) + casten (“to throw (something), fling, hurl; to overcome (someone), defeat, overpower; [etc.]”) (from Old Norse kasta (“to cast, throw”), from Proto-Germanic *kastōną (“to throw”), from *kas- (“to throw, toss; to bring up”); further etymology uncertain), modelled similarly to other constructions in Middle English such as adoun-throwen (“to throw down”) and adoun-werpen (“to throw down”)). The English word is analysable as down- (prefix meaning ‘lower direction or position’) + cast (“that has been thrown”, adjective).
The noun is derived from the adjective.

отчаян

of a person: feeling despondent or discouraged — see also despondent, discouraged

Of a person or thing: defeated, overthrown; also, destroyed, ruined.


erotic

en-adj

erotic (comparative more erotic, superlative most erotic)

more erotic (comparative)
most erotic (superlative)

From French érotique, from Ancient Greek ἐρωτικός (erōtikós, “related to love”), from ἔρως (érōs, “sexual love”).

der

erotic entertainment and services

I had an erotic dream last night.

There's a local cinema that only shows erotic movies.

Relating to or tending to arouse sexual desire or excitement.


hysteria

en-noun

hysteria (usually uncountable, plural hysterias or hysteriae or hysteriæ)

hysterias (plural)
hysteriae (plural)
hysteriæ (plural)

From New Latin hysteria, a back-formation from Latin hystericus, from Ancient Greek ὑστερικός (husterikós, “suffering in the uterus, hysterical”), from ὑστέρα (hustéra, “womb”). Compare French hystérie.

der

Zinoviev was unwell and feverish. He was told he was to be transferred to another cell. But when he saw the guards he at once understood. All accounts agree that he collapsed, yelling in a high-pitched voice a desperate appeal to Stalin to keep his word. He gave the impression of hysteria, but this is probably not fair, as his voice was always very piercing when he was excited, and he was perhaps trying to make a last speech. He was, in addition, still suffering from heart and liver trouble, so that some sort of collapse is understandable.

1968, Robert Conquest, “Old Bolsheviks Confess”, in The Great Terror: Stalin's Purge of the Thirties, Macmillan Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 117:

Behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotions, in a wide range from joy to panic but usually including anxiety or fear.

histeria

behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion

The typical cases of hysteria cited by Freud thus involved a moral conflict—a conflict about what the young women in question wanted to do with themselves. Did they want to prove that they were good daughters by taking care of their sick fathers? Or did they want to become independent of their parents, by having a family of their own, or in some other way? I believe it was the tension between these conflicting aspirations that was the crucial issue in these cases. The sexual problem—say, of the daughter's incestuous cravings for her father—was secondary (if that important); it was stimulated, perhaps, by the interpersonal situation in which the one had to attend to the other's body. Moreover, it was probably easier to admit the sexual problem to consciousness and to worry about it than to raise the ethical problem indicated. In the final analysis, the latter is a vastly difficult problem in living. It cannot be "solved" by any particular maneuver but requires rather decision making about basic goals, and, having made the decisions, dedicated efforts to attain them.

1974, Thomas S. Szasz, M.D., chapter 13, in The Myth of Mental Illness, →ISBN, page 218:

(medicine, nosologically dated) A mental disorder characterized by emotional excitability etc. without an organic cause.

conversion disorder
conversion disorder#English

(informal, psychopathology) Synonym of conversion disorder

(psychiatry, until early 20th century, now historical) Any disorder of women with some psychiatric symptoms without other diagnosis, ascribed to uterine influences on the female body, lack of pregnancy, or lack of sex.


ecstasy

en-noun

ecstasy (countable and uncountable, plural ecstasies)

From Old French estaise (“ecstasy, rapture”), from Latin ecstasis, from Ancient Greek ἔκστασις (ékstasis), from ἐξίστημι (exístēmi, “I displace”), from ἐκ (ek, “out”) and ἵστημι (hístēmi, “I stand”).

(slang) The drug MDMA, a synthetic entactogen of the methylenedioxyphenethylamine family, especially in a tablet form.


paddy

paddy (countable and uncountable, plural paddies)

Borrowed from Malay padi (“paddy plant”). Doublet of palay.

bor+

(countable) A paddy field, a rice paddy; an irrigated or flooded field where rice is grown.


paddy

Krio: pàdí

throw a paddy etc.

I like the story of the Emperor Frederick who got into a paddy with his cook, and shouted: 'I am the Emperor, and I want dumplings.'

2013, Mike Brown, Adventures with Czech George, page 17:

(African-American Vernacular, slang) A white person.


paranoia

en-noun

paranoia (countable and uncountable, plural paranoias or (archaic) paranoiæ)

paranoias (plural)
paranoiæ (archaic plural)

/ˌpæɹ.əˈnɔɪ.ə/

/ˌpæɹ.əˈnɔɪ.ə/

/ˌpɛɹ.əˈnɔɪ.ə/

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek παράνοια (paránoia, “madness”), from παράνοος (paránoos, “demented”), from παρά (pará, “beyond, beside”) + νόος (nóos, “mind, spirit”).
By surface analysis, para- (“abnormal, beyond”) + nous (“mind”) + -ia (“(medical) condition”).

surf

The obsolete name for a psychotic disorder, now called delusional disorder, often (in one of 6 subtypes) characterized by delusions of persecution and perceived threat against the individual affected with the disorder, and often associated with false accusations and general mistrust of others

paranojë

a psychotic disorder characterized by delusions of persecution


kink

From Middle English kinken, kynken, from Old English *cincian (attested in cincung), from Proto-West Germanic *kinkōn, from Proto-Germanic *kinkōną (“to laugh”), from Proto-Indo-European *gang- (“to mock, jeer, deride”), related to Old English canc (“jeering, scorn, derision”). Cognate with Dutch kinken (“to kink, cough”).

cog

(Scotland, dialect) A convulsive fit of coughing or laughter; a sonorous indraft of breath; a whoop; a gasp of breath caused by laughing, coughing, or crying.


terrible

en-adj

terrible (comparative terribler or more terrible, superlative terriblest or most terrible)

terribler (comparative)
more terrible (comparative)
terriblest (superlative)
most terrible (superlative)

tearable (with /ə/ and merry-Mary merger)

From Middle English terrible, from Old French terrible, from Latin terribilis (“frightful”), from terreō (“I frighten, terrify, alarm; I deter by terror, scare (away)”). Compare terror, deter. Equivalent to terror + -ible.

The witch laid a terrible curse on him.

People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan's face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn't look at him and went all trembly.

1950, C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:

Dreadful; causing terror, alarm and fear; awesome


spook

Borrowed from Dutch spook (“ghost”), from Middle Dutch spooc (“spook, ghost”). Cognate with Middle Low German spôk, spûk (“apparition, ghost”), Middle High German gespük (“a haunting”), German Spuk, Danish spøge (“to haunt”), Swedish spöke (“ghost”). Doublet of puck.

cog

The big spider gave me a spook.

(blackjack, slang) A player who engages in hole carding by attempting to glimpse the dealer's hole card when the dealer checks under an ace or a 10 to see if a blackjack is present.


spook

en-verb

spook (third-person singular simple present spooks, present participle spooking, simple past and past participle spooked)

spooks (present singular third-person)
spooking (participle present)
spooked (participle past)
spooked (past)

The hunters were spooked when the black cat crossed their path. The movement in the bushes spooked the deer and they ran.

As that was happening, an East Midlands train came through at 90mph. George [a Labrador] was spooked as the train went past him and ran backwards across the neighbouring slow lines and off towards the sidings.

2022 August 10, “Stop & Examine”, in RAIL, number 963, page 71:

(transitive) To frighten or make nervous (especially by startling).

The deer spooked at the sound of the dogs.

(intransitive) To become frightened (by something startling).


blissful

en-adj

blissful (comparative more blissful, superlative most blissful)

more blissful (comparative)
most blissful (superlative)

From Middle English blisful, bislvol, equivalent to bliss + -ful.

In pleasing dreams the blissful age renew,
And call Britannia's glories back to view;

1738, Samuel Johnson, London: A Poem in Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal, lines 25–26:

She ... led a blissful life, unconscious of want, care, or bad weather, while she sat safe and happy in an imaginary world.

1868, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 27, in Little Women:

New England carvers between the 1720s and the 1750s transformed, step by step, the winged skull into the winged face, adding flesh to bare bone and turning the toothy grin of death into the blissful smile of a saved soul.

1983, James Hijiya, “American Gravestones and Attitudes toward Death: A Brief History,”, in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, volume 127, number 5, page 349:

Extremely happy; full of joy; experiencing, indicating, causing, or characterized by bliss.


apoplectic

From French apoplectique, from Late Latin apoplēcticus, from Ancient Greek ἀποπληκτικός (apoplēktikós), from ἀπόπληκτος (apóplēktos), from ἀποπλήσσω (apoplḗssō), from ἀπό (apó, “of, from”) + πλήσσω (plḗssō, “I strike”).

der

ἀποπληκτικός


irritable

en-adj

irritable (comparative more irritable, superlative most irritable)

more irritable (comparative)
most irritable (superlative)

Borrowed from French irritable, from Latin irritabilis.

an irritable old man


ecstatic

ecstatic (comparative more ecstatic, superlative most ecstatic)

more ecstatic (comparative)
most ecstatic (superlative)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐκστατικός (ekstatikós). By surface analysis, ecstasy + -tic.

[W]hilſt he heſitated there, the criſis of pleaſure overtook him, and the cloſe compreſſure of the vvarm ſurrounding fold, drevv from him the extatic guſh, even before mine vvas ready to meet it, kept up by the pain I had endur'd in the courſe of the engagement, from the unſufferable ſize of his vveapon, tho' it vvas not as yet in above half its length.

1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC, page 194:

The moment of ejaculation in mammiferous animals is accompanied by universal excitement of the whole body, a kind of slight convulsion, which terminates in a comatose or exstatic state.

1837, Michael Ryan, The Philosophy of Marriage, in Its Social, Moral, and Physical Relations; with an Account of the Diseases of the Genito-urinary Organs which Impair or Destroy the Reproductive Function; and Induce a Variety of Complaints; with the Physiology of Generation in the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms …, London: John Churchill, Princes' Street, Soho, →OCLC, page 191:


elated

elated (comparative more elated, superlative most elated)

more elated (comparative)
most elated (superlative)

She was elated with her new car.

Extremely happy and excited; delighted; pleased, euphoric.


lovelorn

lovelorn (comparative more lovelorn, superlative most lovelorn)

more lovelorn (comparative)
most lovelorn (superlative)

Ye lovesick bards! repay her scorn for scorn; / Ye artists lovelorn! madmen that ye are, / Make your best bow to her and bid adieu / Then, if she likes it, she will follow you.

A soft-breasted bird from the sea / Fell in love with the light-house flame; / And it wheeled round the tower on its airiest wing, / And floated and cried like a lovelorn thing;

1890, John Boyle O'Reilly, “A Tragedy”, in In Bohemia:

Abandoned or forsaken by one's lover; having constant bad luck in romance; desperate for love.


enrapture

en-verb

enrapture (third-person singular simple present enraptures, present participle enrapturing, simple past and past participle enraptured)

enraptures (present singular third-person)
enrapturing (participle present)
enraptured (participle past)
enraptured (past)

/ɪnˈɹæpt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

/ɛnˈɹæpt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

Her song enraptured the audience with vivid images of the Scandinavian landscapes.

The pace came off the match as the first half continued, with the occasional frenetic moment down the flanks enlivening what otherwise became a chess-like tactical battle. But as is the magic of football, this beautiful game that enraptures so many of us, that it only took one of those split-second moments to change everything.

2023 August 7, Kieran Pender, “Caitlin Foord and Hayley Raso fire Australia into quarter-finals with win over Denmark”, in The Guardian:

(transitive) To fill with great delight or joy; to fascinate or captivate.

очаровам

to fill with great delight or joy; to fascinate


vex

vex (third-person singular simple present vexes, present participle vexing, simple past and past participle vexed or (archaic) vext)

vexes (present singular third-person)
vexing (participle present)
vexed (participle past)
vexed (past)
vext (archaic participle past)
vext (archaic past)

→ Welsh: becso

From Middle English vexen, from Old French vexer, from Latin vexāre (“disturb, agitate, annoy”). Doublet of quake. Displaced native Old English dreċċan and gremman.

der

Billy's professor was vexed by his continued failure to improve his grades.

दिमाग खाना (dimāg khānā, literally “to eat [someone's] brain”)

दिमाग चाटना (dimāg cāṭnā, literally “to lick [someone's] brain”)

I will not again vex her ear with words of love, however true, however deep: ours is an evil destiny, and we may not control it!

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 151:

I vex my heart with fancies dim:
He still outstript me in the race;
It was but unity of place
That made me dream I rank’d with him.

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XLI, page 64:

(transitive) To cause (mental) suffering to; to distress.

खून पीना (khūn pīnā, literally “to drink [someone's] blood”)

White curl the waves, and the vexed ocean roars.

1725, Homer, “Book IV”, in [Elijah Fenton], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:

(transitive) To toss back and forth; to agitate; to disquiet.


sensitive

en-adj

sensitive (comparative more sensitive, superlative most sensitive)

more sensitive (comparative)
most sensitive (superlative)

From Middle French sensitif, from Medieval Latin sensitivus.

The engine seemed a little sensitive to wet rails, and in consequence the uphill work was not so good north of Dundee as it had been earlier. But I have noted this same "touchiness" on the part of the "A4s", and other modern British 4-6-2s, so that in this respect No. 2006 proved no exception.

1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 9:

Max is very sensitive; he cried today because of the bad news.

(of a person) Easily offended, upset, or hurt.

These are highly sensitive documents.

Xeltan: I cannot speak more about this problem; it is too sensitive. Suffice it to say, she has compromised my authority as a diplomat.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel:

Thank you for being sensitive.

Being aware of the feelings of others and taking care not to offend them.

(archaic) Having paranormal abilities that can be controlled through mesmerism.


irate

irate (comparative irater, superlative iratest)

irater (comparative)
iratest (superlative)

From Latin īrātus (“angered, angry”), from īrāscī (“to be angry”), from īra (“anger, wrath”).


disappointed

disappointed (comparative more disappointed, superlative most disappointed)

more disappointed (comparative)
most disappointed (superlative)

After all his anticipation, the trip left him deeply disappointed.

If they came to hear me beg, they will be disappointed.

2004 November 9, Bungie, Halo 2, spoken by Thel 'Vadamee (Keith David), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox, level/area: Cairo Station:

Defeated of expectations or hope; experiencing disappointment; let down.

Scattered here and there amongst the steerage passengers were men of a different class: men whose previous lives had not fitted them for the hard and uncertain lot that certainly lay before them - pale-faced boys from Melbourne shops; middle-aged and disappointed men; one and all hoping for a turn of luck in the lottery of the newly-discovered goldfield.

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 141:

Having had a marriage proposal rejected.

a disappointed tone / face / silence

Expressing or indicating disappointment.


vehement

vehement (comparative more vehement, superlative most vehement)

more vehement (comparative)
most vehement (superlative)

Borrowed from Middle French vehement (modern French véhément; compare Italian veemente, Portuguese veemente, Spanish vehemente); or from Latin vehemēns (“vehement; very eager; ardent, furious, impetuous; emphatic”), probably from vē- (“lacking, too little”) + mēns (“mind; intellect; judgment, reasoning”).

der

Yet the Fiends ſeemed to come nearer and nearer, but when they were come even almoſt at him, he cried out with a moſt vehement voice, I will walk in the ſtrength of the Lord God; ſo they gave back, and came no further.

1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which is to Come: Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream wherein is Discovered, the Manner of His Setting Out, His Dangerous Journey; and Safe Arrival at the Desired Countrey, London: Printed for Nath[aniel] Ponder at the Peacock in the Poultrey near Cornhill, →OCLC, page 79:

Amy shook her head, vehement. "The vine didn't kill them. The Mayans did. They tried to flee and the Mayans shot them. The vine just claimed their bodies once they'd been shot. There's no thought involved in that. No—"

2006, Scott [Bechtel] Smith, The Ruins: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 236:

Showing strong feelings; passionate; forceful or intense.

բուռն

showing strong feelings; passionate; forceful or intense


camaraderie

en-noun

camaraderie (countable and uncountable, plural camaraderies)

/ˌkɑm(ə)ˈɹɑdəɹi/

/ˌkæm(ə)ˈɹɑdəɹi/

/ˌkæməˈɹɑːdəɹi/

/ˌkæməˈɹædəɹi/

Unadapted borrowing from French camaraderie.
Recent American pronunciations such as /ˌkɑməˈɹɑdəɹi/ and /ˌkɑmˈɹɑdəɹi/ are influenced by the cognate comrade.

ubor

And regardless of their differences, they always act with such camaraderie and complicity among themselves.

2016 February 8, Marwan Bishara, “Why Obama fails the leadership test in the Middle East”, in Al Jazeera English:

Close friendship in a group of friends or teammates.


torment

en-noun

torment (countable and uncountable, plural torments)

From Middle English torment, from Old French torment, from Latin tormentum (“something operated by twisting”), from torquere (“to twist”).

der

Torture, originally as inflicted by an instrument of torture.

He was bitter from the torments of the divorce.

They brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 4:24:

Any extreme pain, anguish or misery, either physical or mental.


torment

en-verb

torment (third-person singular simple present torments, present participle tormenting, simple past and past participle tormented)

torments (present singular third-person)
tormenting (participle present)
tormented (participle past)
tormented (past)

The child tormented the flies by pulling their wings off.

Moyes, who never won a derby at Liverpool in 11 years as Everton manager, did not find the Etihad any more forgiving as City picked United apart in midfield, where Toure looked in a different class to United's £27.5m new boy Marouane Fellaini, and in defence as Aguero tormented Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand.

2013 September 22, Phil McNulty, “Man City 4-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:

But the divine children were both noisy and mischievous. They tormented their venerable grandmother with their shrill uproar and tricky behaviour.

1913, Lewis Spence, chapter V, in The Myths of Mexico and Peru:

(transitive) To cause severe suffering to (stronger than to vex but weaker than to torture.)


chuffed

en-adj

chuffed (comparative more chuffed, superlative most chuffed)

more chuffed (comparative)
most chuffed (superlative)

From chuff, "a coarse or stupid fellow".

(UK, Ireland, dialect) Displeased; gruff.


merry

merry (comparative merrier, superlative merriest)

merrier (comparative)
merriest (superlative)

From Middle English mery, merie, mirie, myrie, murie, murȝe, from Old English meriġe, miriġe, myriġe, myreġe, myrġe (“pleasing, agreeable; pleasant, sweet, delightful; melodious”), from Proto-West Germanic *murgī (“short, slow, leisurely”), from Proto-Germanic *murguz (“short, slow”), from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (“short”). Cognate with Scots mery, mirry (“merry”), Middle Dutch mergelijc (“pleasant, agreeable, joyful”), Norwegian dialectal myrjel (“small object, figurine”), Latin brevis (“short, small, narrow, shallow”), Ancient Greek βραχύς (brakhús, “short”). Doublet of brief.

cog

We had a very merry Christmas.

I am neuer merry when I heare ſweet muſique.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

I felt comforted by the song of the redbreast, and I thought I felt less lonely and deserted as long as I heard the merry notes of the thrush.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 281:


avoid like the plague

en-verb

avoid like the plague (third-person singular simple present avoids like the plague, present participle avoiding like the plague, simple past and past participle avoided like the plague)

avoids like the plague (present singular third-person)
avoiding like the plague (participle present)
avoided like the plague (participle past)
avoided like the plague (past)

/əˈvɔɪd laɪk ðə ˈpleɪɡ/

From the deadliness of the plague and the need to avoid it. Commonly attributed to similar phrases in Latin used by the priest and theologian Saint Jerome (c. 347–420) in his letters, for example:
:
His igitur quasi quibusdam pestibus exterminatis veniamus ad eos,[…]
Avoiding these [the Remnuoth, a class of monks in Egypt] then as though they were the plague, […]
:
[N]egotiatorem clericum et ex inope divitem et ex ignobili gloriosum quasi quandem pestem fuge
Avoid, as you would the plague, a clergyman who is also a man of business, one who has risen from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to a high position

quote

His igitur quasi quibusdam pestibus exterminatis veniamus ad eos, […]

Avoiding these 􂀿the Remnuoth, a class of monks in Egypt􂁀 then as though they were the plague, […]

􂀿N􂁀egotiatorem clericum et ex inope divitem et ex ignobili gloriosum quasi quandem pestem fuge

Cliché should be avoided like the plague.

I’m one of those people who avoids confrontations like the plague.

It is the country of countries where the people pass their lives in enjoying the dolce far niente. Hard work is a thing they hate, and carefully avoid like the plague.

1872 April, “A Ramble in Peru”, in I[saac] W[illiam] Wiley, editor, The Ladies’ Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature and Religion, volume XXXII (New Series, volume IX), number 16, Cincinnati, Oh.: Hitchcock and Walden; New York, N.Y.: Carlton and Lanahan, →OCLC, page 263, column 2:

Without posing as experts, we believe that the first essential to the efficient teacher of the young is a sense of direction, and that the danger to avoid like the plague is the patronage of the child. In both these respects, musicians in charge of orchestral concerts for children in this country fail miserably.

1925, Musical News and Herald, London: The Musical News Syndicate, →OCLC, page 389, column 1:

Evening dress was barred, because you were all "good pals" and didn't want to look like the "boring people" who were to be avoided like the plague and only asked to the big evenings, which were given as seldom as possible and then only if it would amuse the painter or make the musician better known.

1992, Marcel Proust, C[harles] K[enneth] Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin and D[ennis] J[oseph] Enright, transl., “Part Two: Swann in Love”, in In Search of Lost Time: Volume 1: Swann’s Way, New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, →ISBN, page 267:

A lot of things I'd like to talk about and I'm avoiding like the plague.

1996, Elizabeth Smither, “The Journal of the Thirty-third Year: September 1975 – August 1976”, in The Journal Box, Auckland: Auckland University Press, →ISBN, page 4:

[A] movement has historic meaning only insofar as it puts itself on the side of human dignity and the protection of life, even of the lives most unworthy of such respect. A revolution is interesting insofar as it avoids like the plague the plague it promised to heal.

2003, Daniel J[oseph] Berrigan, “Letter to the Weathermen”, in Joy James, editor, Imprisoned Intellectuals: America’s Political Prisoners Write on Life, Liberation, and Rebellion (Transformative Politics Series), Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, part II (Internationalists and Anti-imperialists), page 245:

(simile) To evade or shun, if at all possible.

G. P. Putnam's Sons
Loeb Classical Library
Plague (disease)

бежа́ть, как чёрт от ла́дана (bežátʹ, kak čort ot ládana, literally “run away like devil from frankincense”)


becalm

en-verb

becalm (third-person singular simple present becalms, present participle becalming, simple past and past participle becalmed)

becalms (present singular third-person)
becalming (participle present)
becalmed (participle past)
becalmed (past)

1555, Richard Eden (translator), The decades of the newe worlde or west India conteynyng the nauigations and conquestes of the Spanyardes by Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, London: Edward Sutton, “The seconde v[o]yage to Guinea,” p. 351,
[…] there we were becalmed the .xx. day of Nouember from .vi. of the clocke in the mornynge vntyll foure of the clocke at after none.

In the following two days, they made fast progress, strong easterly winds driving them down the Channel to where it opened out into the Atlantic; there, they were briefly becalmed.

2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 214:

(transitive, nautical) To deprive (a ship) of wind, so that it cannot move (usually in passive).


over the moon

From the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle.

Winemakers are over the moon to be able to showcase the individual nuances within their vineyards.

2003 December 14, Kate Drake, “Champagne Supernova”, in Time, archived from the original on 2012-03-29:

Well, I’ve liked Star Wars since the late ’70s. I liked it a lot. But I’m now over the moon about Star Wars, and I think a couple things happened.

2016 June 2, Alex McLevy, quoting Cass Sunstein, “Cass Sunstein explains why Star Wars is like America”, in AV Club:


quick-tempered

en-adj

quick-tempered (comparative more quick-tempered, superlative most quick-tempered)

more quick-tempered (comparative)
most quick-tempered (superlative)

He was a quick-tempered fellow who was generally avoided by his co-workers.

Easily or quickly angered or frustrated.


mournful

mournful (comparative mournfuller or more mournful, superlative mournfullest or most mournful)

mournfuller (comparative)
more mournful (comparative)
mournfullest (superlative)
most mournful (superlative)

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

Filled with grief or sadness; being in a state in which one mourns.


claustrophilia

Based on the Latin claustrum (“a shut in place”), from claudere (“to close”) + -philia ("love").

The love of, or arousal from, enclosed, tight places.


odious

odious (comparative more odious, superlative most odious)

more odious (comparative)
most odious (superlative)

From Middle English odious, from Old French odieus, from Latin odiōsus, from odium (“hate”).

Scrubbing the toilets in the bar at the end of a Saturday night is an odious task.

You told a lie, an odious damned lie: / Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie!

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], lines 179-80:

I own no crime, unless it be a crime to've hindered you from perpetrating that which would have made you odious to mankind, at least the fairest half.

1750, “Theodora”, Thomas Morell (lyrics), George Frideric Handel (music):

He looks upon study as an odious fetter; his time is spent in the open air, climbing the hills or rowing on the lake.

1818, Mary Shelley, chapter 6, in Frankenstein, archived from the original on 2013-05-08:

He always detested the trade, and it was only necessity, and the offer of his mother’s brother, a London apothecary of low family, into which Pendennis’s father had demeaned himself by marrying, that forced John Pendennis into so odious a calling.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

"He was a dreadful person, a bully to everyone else, but to me something infinitely worse. He made odious love to me, boasted of his wealth, said that if I married him I would have the finest diamonds in London, and finally, when I would have nothing to do with him, he seized me in his arms one day after dinner—he was hideously strong—and he swore that he would not let me go until I had kissed him."

1903 December 26, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:

Gedeon Van Rompay had the dubious distinction of being the only Site employee personally hired by Edwin Falkirk, former All Sections Chief and perennial piece of human trash. Lillian had found it easy not to hold this against the man, but only because there were so many other odious things about him to choose from. He was misogynist, he was chauvinistic, he was boorish, he was violent. Just about the only metric on which she rated Van Rompay higher than Falkirk was transphobia; the big man made no distinction between varieties of womanhood, feeling superior to all of them equally.

2023 September 16, HarryBlank, “Borrowing Trouble”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 2024-06-15:

Arousing or meriting strong dislike, aversion, or intense displeasure.


endearment

Every step of that walk led Jeff deeper into an excursion of endearment. It was amazingly true that he trod beside her an acknowledged friend, a secret lover.

1913, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 20, in The Vision Splendid:

The act or process of endearing, of causing (something or someone) to be loved or to be the object of affection.

He could not forget the fond and earnest look that had passed between her and some other man—the attitude of familiar confidence, if not of positive endearment.

1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 38, in North and South:

The state or characteristic of being endeared.

When they were alone he called him "my boy," an endearment he never gave another.

1902, Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton, chapter 18, in The Conqueror:


fury

en-noun

fury (countable and uncountable, plural furies)

From Middle English furie, from Old French furie, from Latin furia (“rage”).

Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.

1697, [William] Congreve, The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act III, page 39:

The building of the railway in this notable beauty spot roused the great Victorian writer John Ruskin to fury.

1960 March, J. P. Wilson, E. N. C. Haywood, “The route through the Peak - Derby to Manchester: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 155:


horrible

en-adj

horrible (comparative horribler or more horrible, superlative horriblest or most horrible)

horribler (comparative)
more horrible (comparative)
horriblest (superlative)
most horrible (superlative)

First attested in Middle English (alternately as horrible and orrible) in 1303: from Old French horrible, orrible, orible, from Latin horribilis, from horr(ēre) (“tremble”) + -ibilis (“-ible”).

Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.

1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

Strangers fainted dead away at the sight of the Laughing Man's horrible face. Acquaintances shunned him.

Some of us have had plastic surgery on our faces and fingerprints. Right now we have a horrible job; we're waiting for the war to begin and, as quickly, end.

Her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.

1933, James Thurber, My Life and Hard Times:


MLM

multi-level marketing
multi-level marketing#English

(business) Initialism of multi-level marketing.

[In] the responses from participants above, it can be noted how these particular Christian MLM bring their daily experiences in their approach to the Bible. […], refusing to be addressed as men who have sex with other men (MSM) but opting to be known as men who love other men […] Second, Christian MLM also underline the need for the churches in Zambia to contextualize biblical texts […]

2016, Ezra Chitando, Adriaan van Klinken, Christianity and Controversies over Homosexuality in Contemporary Africa, Routledge, →ISBN:

(fourth meaning)

(LGBT) Initialism of men loving men or men who love men.


MLM

Muslim Lives Matter
w:Muslim Lives Matter

(politics) Initialism of Muslim Lives Matter.


puppy love

They're only teenagers; it's hard to take their puppy love seriously.

How does a little girl in the second grade who was raised upper-middle class begin to explain that she's fallen into undeniable puppy love with her second grade teacher, Mrs. Dawson?

1984 December 15, Cindy Rivas, “With a Little Help...”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 22, page 12:

(informal, derogatory) A childish or youthful infatuation with another person.


head over heels

Attested from the 14ᵗʰ century onwards, originally as heels over head, which better rendered the notion of things being upside down (head over heels is the standard state of being).

Something happens and I'm head over heels / Ah, don't take my heart, don't break my heart / Don't, don't, don't throw it away

1985, Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith (lyrics and music), “Head Over Heels”, performed by Tears for Fears:

Steve is the hottest, smartest, funniest, and most athletic boy in all of Edison High. Who knew a jock could be captain of the math team? He is also the guy that every girl is head over heels for.

2011, Martina Manicastri, Climb into My Mind: A Book of Poems, Essays, and Short Stories, →ISBN, page 74:

Not to mention the young man that I was head over heels with was the jock at the school he attended. He played football and was damned good at it!

2012, Dressed up Garbage Can, →ISBN, page 9:

From what it appeared to most everyone on the set, including Presley right down to the lowly stagehands, Ireland was head over heels with the impish young actress Weld from the start.

2012, James Prickette, Actors of the Spaghetti Westerns, →ISBN, page 237:

Obviously at my age my interest was purely paternal but my younger self was head over heels.

2013, Dennis Coughlin, Passport to Life, →ISBN, page 155:


complacent

complacent (comparative more complacent, superlative most complacent)

more complacent (comparative)
most complacent (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin complacēns (“very pleasing”), present participle of complacēre (“to please at the same time, be very pleasing”), from com- (“together”) + placēre (“to please”); see please and compare complaisant.

He grew complacent as the years rolled on and the money rolled in.

England will feel confident but not complacent against Ukraine, and the shock exit of France to Switzerland shows no-one can be taken lightly.

2021 June 29, Phil McNulty, “England 2-0 Germany”, in BBC Sport:

Uncritically satisfied with oneself or one's achievements; smug.

complaent

uncritically satisfied with oneself or one's achievements

He tried to paint his audience as complacent, yelling that if they weren't mad as hell then they weren't paying enough attention.

Unduly unworried or apathetic with regard to an apparent need or problem.


panophobia

From Pan (“god who inspired fears”) + -phobia or from pano- (“all”) + -phobia.

suffix

(by confusion) Panphobia, pantophobia: fear of everything.


pantophobia

(by confusion) Panophobia, a condition of groundless fears.


panphobia

I would say that I’ve probably encountered more disbelief/disrespect/panphobia from the queer community than from my straight friends, which I think is really interesting.

2013, anonymous, quoted in Ayisigi Hale Gonel, "Pansexual Identification in Online Communities: Employing a Collaborative Queer Method to Study Pansexuality", Graduate Journal of Social Science, Volume 10, Issue 1 (2013), pages 51-52

Panphobia has arisen via accusations they're trying to 'one up' bisexuals, […]

2016 February 15, Zoe Godden, “What Is Pansexuality?”, in The Courier, Newcastle University, page 13:

Biphobia / panphobia is still very real and alive today. As a pansexual woman, my identity and experiences have been denied many times […]

2020, Hope, quoted in Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: A Guide for LGBTQ+ Christian Teens (ed. Leigh Finke), page 197

(neologism) Fear, dislike, or hatred of pansexual people and/or pansexuality.

panphobie

fear, dislike, or hatred of pansexual people


on edge

Waiting to see who had been chosen, we were all on edge.

(idiomatic) Tense, nervous; consequently irritable.


apprehensive

en-adj

apprehensive (comparative more apprehensive, superlative most apprehensive)

more apprehensive (comparative)
most apprehensive (superlative)

/ˌæpɹɪˈhɛnsɪv/

From Latin apprehensīvus, from apprehensus, perfect passive participle of apprehendō (“to apprehend, understand, learn”) + -īvus (“-ive”).

This convinc'd me that there was no going on Shore for us in the Night upon that Coaſt, and how to venture on Shore in the Day was another Queſtion too; for to have fallen into the Hands of any of the Savages, had been as bad as to have fallen into the Hands of Lyons and Tygers; at leaſt we were equally apprehenſive of the Danger of it.

1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 28:

But Claggart's was no vulgar form of the passion. Nor, as directed toward Billy Budd, did it partake of that streak of apprehensive jealousy that marred Saul's visage perturbedly brooding on the comely young David. Claggart's envy struck deeper.

1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter XI.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC, pages 256–257:

Never before in his life had Dan Holland feared anything, but now he was apprehensive for the safety of this trim blond creature before him.

1947 August, “Death Thumbs A Ride”, in Crime Does Not Pay, number 54, page 45:

Anticipating something with anxiety, fear, or doubt; reluctant.

тревожен

anticipating something with anxiety or fear


nervous

nervous (comparative more nervous, superlative most nervous)

more nervous (comparative)
most nervous (superlative)

Baths of Caracalla
Farnese Hercules
National Archaeological Museum, Naples

From Middle English nervous (“composed of or incorporating nerves”), from Latin nervōsus (“nervous; sinewy; energetic, vigorous”), from nervus (“nerve; muscle; sinew, tendon; (figuratively) energy, power; nerve; force, strength, vigour”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *snéh₁wr̥ (“sinew, tendon”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of, prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). The English word is analysable as nerve + -ous.

refn

From R. Lawton Roberts (1888) “Lecture I”, in Illustrated Lectures on Ambulance Work, 3rd edition, London: H. K. Lewis, […], →OCLC, figure 3, page 20.

From the collection of the National Archaeological Museum, Naples in Italy.

der

nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs

Of sinews and tendons.
(obsolete) Full of sinews.

CANNACORUS, […] It hath a knobbed tuberoſe Root: The Leaves are long and nervous: […]

1733, Philip Miller, “CANNACORUS”, in The Gardeners Dictionary: […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […], →OCLC, column 1:

Being in a crowd of strangers makes me nervous.

I can only assure you here that there is such a thing as a nervous child; whose nervous system is unstable; who is easily upset; whose pulse is apt to "run away" at any excitement; who blushes and pales and sweats easily; who tires easily; and who may be subject to headache and eye strain.

1928 November, Norman B. Cole, “Present Day Opinion Regarding the Relationship between Athletics and the Heart”, in James Huff McCurdy, editor, American Physical Education Review, volume XXXIII, number 9 (number 241 overall), Springfield, Mass.: American Physical Education Association, page 575, column 2:

Easily agitated or alarmed; edgy, on edge.

şaşkın ördek (colloquial) literally a confused duck.

deli tavuk (colloquial) literally a crazy chicken.

They were looking at the table (which was spread out in great array); for these young housekeepers are always nervous on such points, and like to see that everything is right.

1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Five. The End of It.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 161:

Various harbours fit to receive settlers are now enumerated by the author; and as for the cold, of which some, through report, entertained a nervous dread, he invites his readers to reflect on "the great colde that is at times in Muſcouia, Sweidon, Norway, Spruceland, Poland, Denmarke, and other Eaſterne and Northerne parts of the world, where the people liue well and grow rich;" […]

1870, Richard Whitbourne, “A Relation of the New-found-land, with a More Ample Discouery of that Countrey, […]”, in T. Whitburn, editor, Westward Hoe for Avalon in the New-found-land: As described by Captain Richard Whitbourne, of Exmouth, Devon, 1622, London: Sampson Low, Son, and Marston, […]; Field and Tuer, […], →OCLC, page 25:

"My baby is a perfect bundle of nerves," said one mother to another. "She is so sensitive, she starts at the slightest sound. She sleeps only a few minutes at a time, and has to be walked or rocked to get her off again. She won't go to strangers, and I am a nervous wreck taking care of her."

1915, Cecilia Farwell, “The Nervous Child”, in The Child Welfare Manual […], volume 1, New York, N.Y.: The University Society, →OCLC, page 331, column 1:

Apprehensive, anxious, hesitant, worried.


colorphobia

Fear, hate, or dislike of people of a particular skin color.


serenity

en-noun

serenity (countable and uncountable, plural serenities)

From Middle English serenyte, from Old French serenité, from Latin serēnitās, equivalent to serene + -ity.

Forthwith a change came over the waters, and the serenity became less brilliant but more profound.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 193:

There is no passion, there is serenity.

1987, Greg Costikyan, “The Jedi Code”, in Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, page 69, line 3:

The state of being serene; calmness; peacefulness.


chicken out

en-verb

chicken out (third-person singular simple present chickens out, present participle chickening out, simple past and past participle chickened out)

chickens out (present singular third-person)
chickening out (participle present)
chickened out (participle past)
chickened out (past)

We almost convinced his dad to ride the roller coaster, but he chickened out when he saw how high it went.

I dismiss Reporters Without Borders. Completely nonsensical. We invited them in for a select committee hearing, and in the true heritage of free speech, they chickened out.

2022 June 29, K Shanmugam, “Hard Talk: K. Shanmugam: Will Singapore have to choose between the US and China?”, in BBC:

(idiomatic) To shy away from a daring task; to decline, refuse, or avoid something due to fear or uncertainty.


romantic

en-adj

romantic (comparative more romantic, superlative most romantic)

more romantic (comparative)
most romantic (superlative)

/ɹəʊˈmæntɪk/

From romant + -ic, or borrowed from Late Latin romanticus (“(of a poem) having qualities of a romance”). Compare French romantique, which is borrowed from English. Also compare Spanish romántico, Portuguese romântico, Italian romantico, Dutch romantisch, and German romantisch and Romantiker (“a composer of Romantic music”), all of which are borrowed from English or French.

romanties

concerned with, or conducive to, romance and love

(chiefly historical) Of a work of literature, a writer etc.: being like or having the characteristics of a romance, or poetic tale of a mythic or quasi-historical time; fantastic.

Mary sighed, knowing her ideals were far too romantic to work in reality.

R. Jeeves: In my experience, ladies who spell Gladys with a W are seldom noted for their reliability, sir. It gives them romantic notions.
B.W. Wooster: With a W, Jeeves? No, no, no, no. You spell it with a G.
R. Jeeves: If I might draw your attention to the signature on the portrait, sir.
B.W. Wooster: Good Lord! G-W?
R. Jeeves: I blame Alfred Lord Tennyson and his Idylls of the King. It also accounts for Kathryn, Ysabel, and Ethyl, all spelt with a Y, but Gwladys is a particularly virulent form, sir.

1993 May 16, “Return to New York”, in Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 6:

Fantastic, unrealistic (of an idea etc.); fanciful, sentimental, impractical (of a person).

But here is an artist. He desires to paint you the dreamiest, shadiest, quietest, most enchanting bit of romantic landscape in all the valley of the Saco.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 1, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

Somehow she wasn't a real sister, but that only made her the more romantic.

Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.

2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71:

Having the qualities of romance (in the sense of something appealing deeply to the imagination); invoking on a powerfully sentimental idea of life; evocative, atmospheric.

Their kiss started casually, but it slowly turned romantic.

Pertaining to an idealised form of love (originally, as might be felt by the heroes of a romance); conducive to romance; loving, affectionate.

Elsewhere, I describe that, in addition to an asexual identity, another salient identity for asexual individuals may be a romantic or aromantic identity, which designates an interest (or lack thereof) in monogamous, intimate relationships (Scherrer, 2008).

2010, Kristin S. Scherrer, “Asexual Relationships: What Does Asexuality Have to Do with Polyamory?”, in Meg Barker, Darren Langdridge, editors, Understanding Non-Monogamies, New York, N.Y., London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 154:

What is relatively “new” is the formation of communities around the common language of asexuality as it is understood today—communities in which new categories exist around the concept of asexuality or “being ace,” where people can discuss romantic or aromantic orientations in relation to or apart from sexual desires or non-desires.

2014, Karli June Cerankowski, Megan Milks, “Introduction: Why Asexuality? Why Now?”, in Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives (Routledge Research in Gender and Society), New York, N.Y., London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 2:

Grayromantic asexual people are between romantic and aromantic and less likely to experience romantic attraction compared to most people.

2019, Julie Xuemei Hu, Shondrah Tarrezz Nash, “Sexuality and Sexual Relationships throughout Life”, in Marriage and the Family: Mirror of a Diverse Global Society, Routledge, →ISBN: