milky

en-adj

milky (comparative milkier, superlative milkiest)

milkier (comparative)
milkiest (superlative)

From Middle English mylky, melky, equivalent to milk + -y. Cognate with German milchig (“milky”), Swedish mjölkig (“milky”). Doublet of milchig.

Has friendship such a faint and milky heart?

c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

‘Who said there was going to be any killing?’ The lightning flared up and showed his tight shabby jacket, the bunch of soft hair at the nape. ‘I’ve got a date, that’s all. You be careful what you say, Spicer. You aren’t milky, are you?’
‘I’m not milky. You got me wrong, Pinkie. I just don’t want another killing […]’

1938, Graham Greene, Brighton Rock, Vintage, published 2002, Part , Chapter , pp. 45-46:

The boycott of Florida orange juice, while coming from genuine feelings, is basically a milky-liberal response to an issue that needs united, vocal, public action.

1977 April 23, Ken Withers, “No Boycott”, in Gay Community News, page 5:


fluff

en-noun

fluff (countable and uncountable, plural fluffs)

From earlier floow (“woolly substance, down, nap, lint”), also spelt flough, flue, and flew, from West Flemish vluwe,
of uncertain ultimate origin:
* Compare Old English flōh (“that which is flown off, fragment, piece”) - see flaw
* Possibly representing a blend of flue + puff; compare Middle Dutch vloe, or perhaps onomatopoeic; compare dialectal English floose, flooze, fleeze (“particles of wool or cotton; fluff; loose threads or fibres”), Danish fnug (“down, fluff”), Swedish fnugg (“speck, flake”).
* Alternatively, West Flemish vluwe may derive from French velu (“hairy, furry”), from Latin villūtus (“having shaggy hair”), from villus (“shaggy hair, tuft of hair”).
For words of similar sound and meaning in other languages, compare Japanese フワフワ (fuwafuwa, “lightly, softly”), Hungarian puha (“soft, fluffy”), Polish puchaty (“soft, fluffy”),Romanian puf (“down, peachfuzz, soft hair of some animals, powderpuff”).

onomatopoeic

onomatopoeic

cog

And when something triggers, I can close the window and go read fluff for hours until I calm down.

2011, anonymous, quoted in Katherine Larsen & Lynn Zubernis, Fandom at the Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/producer Relationships, page 138

Fans prefer fluff to other types of fic. But angst (dramatic stories where characters have a wide range of emotions, including...angsty ones) comes in close second.

2017, "Flourish Kink", quoted in Ashley J. Barner, The Case for Fanfiction: Exploring the Pleasures and Practices of a Maligned Craft, page 67

Ah, fluff. My happy place. These fics are dedicated to feel-good feelings, which are the very best type of feelings.

2017, Carrie DiRisio, Brooding YA Hero: Becoming a Main Character (Almost) as Awesome as Me, unnumbered page:

(fandom slang) Fan fiction, or part of a fan fiction, which is sweet and feel-good in tone, usually involving romance.


eleutherophobia

From Ancient Greek ἐλευθερία (eleuthería, “freedom”) + -phobia.


hippophobia

An irrational fear of horses or other hoofed animals like ponies, donkeys, or mules.


bathophobia

/ˌbæθəˈfəʊbiə/

The fear of volumes with large depths such as stairways and deep caves.


emetophobia

Faryl Zaklin, 38, of San Diego, California, is still overcoming a lifelong phobia that has given her numerous panic attacks; part of her recovery involved watching episodes of "Jackass" and "Family Guy." She has emetophobia: fear of vomit.

2010 June 15, Elizabeth Landau, “Who's afraid of snakes, spiders, vomit?”, in CNN:

Ignorant about vomiting before the incident, I was now terrified of it. I self-diagnosed myself with emetophobia – fear of vomiting.

2011 July 15, Dakshana Bascaramurty, “I had never vomited. Ever.”, in The Globe and Mail:

Not many people have heard of the condition emetophobia but I’ve lived with it for over 30 years and it was a worry when I was pregnant with my son, Hunter, last year.

2012 November 6, Sarah Cawood, Nilufer Atik, “Sarah Cawood: Having a baby helped me get over sick phobia”, in Daily Mirror:

An inordinate fear of vomit or vomiting, especially in public.


lonesome

en-adj

lonesome (comparative more lonesome, superlative most lonesome)

more lonesome (comparative)
most lonesome (superlative)

'Where'er the sun shakes out his spears, and the lonesome waters mirror up the moon, where'er storms roll [...] there shall thy power pass and thy dominion find a home.'

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:


lonesome

I sat and watched the cars pass all by my lonesome.


hopping mad

He was hopping mad when he came home and discovered that she had bought a new car without consulting him.

"And you hit him? dear old Father Bhaer?" […]
"I was hopping mad at the time, and thought I shouldn't mind a bit, rather like it perhaps. But when I'd hit uncle one good crack […] I couldn't go on. […] I felt so mean."

1871, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 4, in Little Men: […], Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:

Dora wouldn't help me make pies 'cause she was afraid of messing her clo'es and that made me hopping mad.

1909 September, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “Marilla Adopts Twins”, in Anne of Avonlea, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, →OCLC, page 84:

The biggest press news in Washington last week was that the "White House gang" — the little group of reporters whose beat is covering the President — was hopping mad at Franklin Roosevelt. Most of them felt that the President had played them for suckers and they were no happier when other newsmen rubbed it in.

1941 September 15, “The Press: End of a White House Friendship”, in Time, retrieved 2018-12-05:

Rhonda L. Gaynier, a New York lawyer, is hopping mad because, she says, getting on an airplane these days means being groped by a stranger.

2004 November 2, Joe Sharkey, “When a Pat-Down Seems Like Groping”, in New York Times, retrieved 2018-12-05:

(idiomatic) Extremely angry; furious to the point of outburst.


high spirits

They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups. The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits.

1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC, page 9:

Apart from yachting and the cross-Channel steamer it was her first experience of being at sea and she was in high spirits.

2000, Mary S. Lovell, A Rage to Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 415:

gleusta

"cheerful", translating "in high spirits"


madden

en-verb

madden (third-person singular simple present maddens, present participle maddening, simple past and past participle maddened)

maddens (present singular third-person)
maddening (participle present)
maddened (participle past)
maddened (past)

The rascal saw his advantage, and began a fierce harangue against the heretic strangers. As he maddened, his hearers maddened; the savage nature, capricious as a child's, flashed out in wild suspicion. Women yelled, men scowled, and ran hastily to their huts for bows and blow-guns.

1855, Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!, published 1898, page 353:

And as he maddened at the thought, honest Fergus, too, forgot himself, and added in an excited strain, " I wish one end o' the hog's puddin' was sthuck in yer nose, you foolish craythur!"

1870, John O'Hanlon, Irish folk lore, page 71:

(intransitive, obsolete) To become furious.


displeased

en-adj

displeased (comparative more displeased, superlative most displeased)

more displeased (comparative)
most displeased (superlative)

a displeased customer


nose out of joint

en-noun

nose out of joint (plural noses out of joint)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-nose out of joint.wav

I think he got his nose out of joint when they promoted his friend but not him.

(idiomatic) An emotional state where someone is in a bad mood because they have been offended by or taken exception (objected) to some action, usually involving being seen in an inferior light to another person.


Francophobia

Today, francophobia has donned new clothes: those of populism. Under the simplistic discourse of budgetary rigour, deficit reduction, and common sense, the new populist apostles see bilingualism not as an advantage but as a frill … In times like these, one may only remember the cri du coeur launched in 1913 by Franco-Ontarians against those who sought to strip their children’s access to French-language education — https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-francophobia-is-donning-new-populist-clothes-in-canada

The hatred or fear of the presence of the French language and its native speakers.


grouchy

en-adj

grouchy (comparative grouchier, superlative grouchiest)

grouchier (comparative)
grouchiest (superlative)

US 1895. From grouch + -y. Originally US college student slang.

His boss gets grouchy when deadlines draw near.

Not that young Pat had a nasty temper, or was grouchy as his father had feared.

1911, Jack London, chapter III, in The Abysmal Brute:

He went in to mumble that he was "sorry, didn't mean to be grouchy," and to inquire as to her interest in movies.

1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXXI, in Babbitt:

In Berlin I once heard Susie Clemens—ill-fated, talented girl, who died so young—say to her father: "Grouchy again! They do say that you can be funny when company is around—too bad that you don't consider Henry Fisher company."

1922, Henry William Fischer, “Author's Preface”, in Abroad with Mark Twain and Eugene Field:

(originally university slang) Irritable; easily upset; angry; tending to complain.

knorrig

irritable; easily upset; angry; tending to complain


eggy

eggy (comparative eggier, superlative eggiest)

eggier (comparative)
eggiest (superlative)

an eggy smell/taste


stony

stony (comparative stonier, superlative stoniest)

stonier (comparative)
stoniest (superlative)

From Middle English stony, stoni, stani, from Old English stāniġ, stǣniġ (“stony, rocky”), from Proto-Germanic *stainagaz (“stony”), equivalent to stone + -y. Cognate with Scots stany (“stony”), West Frisian stienich (“stony”), Dutch stenig (“stony, metalled”), German steinig (“stony, rocky, gravelly”), Swedish stenig (“stony, rocky, pebbly”).

cog

When Victor Laszlo leads the demoralized French in the “Marseilles^([sic – meaning Marseillaise]),” and even Yvonne, the chippy who is sleeping with a Nazi officer, joins in, the stoniest intellectual collapses in tears.

2012 March 19, David Denby, “Everybody Comes to Rick’s: “Casablanca” on the Big Screen”, in The New Yorker:

(figuratively) Of a person, lacking warmth and emotion.


chickenshit

en-adj

chickenshit (comparative more chickenshit, superlative most chickenshit)

more chickenshit (comparative)
most chickenshit (superlative)

How chickenshit of that girl to just stand there and do nothing.

"How chickenshit do you have to be to go after an old man in a wheelchair?"


thrilled

thrilled (comparative more thrilled, superlative most thrilled)

more thrilled (comparative)
most thrilled (superlative)

On the phone, he sounded thrilled about the baby.

Ben was thrilled to lead the game.


chrometophobia

He suffered from chrometophobia, the fear of money, a clinically documented disorder.

2006, Klaus W. Bender, Moneymakers: The Secret World of Banknote Printing, →ISBN, page 17:

The proof seems to be in a strange phobia he developed later in life, a condition called chrometophobia. Carnegie went George Soros's noted disdain for money one better: He would reportedly suffer anxiety attacks at the sight or even the smell of money — and so he refused to carry cash.

2008, Bruce Grierson, U-Turn: What If You Woke Up One Morning and Realized You Were Living the Wrong Life?, →ISBN, page 49:

A 2003 study by Cambridge University in England found that 20 percent of people suffer from chrometophobia—a fear of money. In most cases, chrometophobes fear opening envelopes that appear to be bills.

2008, Hal Marcovitz, Phobias, →ISBN, page 32:


asexuality

en-noun

asexuality (usually uncountable, plural asexualities)

From a- (“lacking, without”) + sexuality, equivalent to asexual + -ity.

aseksualitet

state of not experiencing sexual attraction

Coordinate term: allosexuality

The quality of experiencing little or no sexual attraction.


yellow-bellied

en-adj

yellow-bellied (comparative more yellow-bellied, superlative most yellow-bellied)

more yellow-bellied (comparative)
most yellow-bellied (superlative)

covard

uncourageous, cowardly — see also cowardly


paraskevidekatriaphobia

Alternative form of paraskavedekatriaphobia


coulrophobia

Coined in the late 1980s or 1990s, of unknown origin, appearing first, without further explanation, in lists of phobias circulating on the Internet. First use appears c. 1997 according to the OED. According to a widespread theory the term is supposedly based on Ancient Greek κωλοβαθριστής (kōlobathristḗs, “one who goes on stilts”) (from κωλόβαθρον (kōlóbathron, “stilt”), from κῶλον (kôlon, “limb”) + βάθρον (báthron, “something to stand on”), allegedly chosen for lack of an obvious Ancient Greek equivalent of "clown", or with some supposed sense of "stilt-walker" (because earlier clowns used to walk on stilts in their performances), + -phobia (“fear of”) suffix. If true, the literal meaning of coulrophobia would be either "fear of limbs" or "fear of stilt-walkers". This theory fails to explain the substitution of ou for o and of lro for lo.

der

κωλοβαθριστής

[…] to develop coulrophobia. On the seventh, clowns from around the world […] congregate at London's Holy Trinity Church for the annual Grimaldi Memorial Service.

1999 February, “February: This month's marvels, musts, and misses”, in Condé Nast Traveler, volume 34, page 103:

Clowns are no laughing matter to Sean "Puffy" Combs. The swaggering rap royal is widely reported to suffer from coulrophobia, an irrational fear of the red-nosed, versized-shoe-wearing, greasepainted circus buffoons.

2002 Jared Paul Stern, with Paula Froelich and Chris Wilson, "Send out the Clowns", Page Six (NYT)

⁵Unfortunately, the first time they attempted the study, the clown accidentally burst one of the balloons. The noise frightened the children and they associated that fear response with the clown. All 15 children are currently in therapy for coulrophobia!

2003, Andy Field, Graham Hole, How to Design and Report Experiments, page 257:

After you plug in your wish list and dating criteria, search results spit out matches; it’s like scanning a room of a thousand and pinpointing the ten who share your favorite author and chronic coulrophobia (fear of clowns).

2004, Phineas Mollod, Jason Tesauro, The Modern Lover: A Playbook for Suitors, Spouses & Ringless Carousers, page 39:

The ironic twist is that he recently admitted to a possible onset of coulrophobia.

2006, Crimson de la Voire, Crimson’s Erotica: Volume One — A Collection of Stories About Submission and Pleasure, page 35:


snappish

en-adj

snappish (comparative more snappish, superlative most snappish)

more snappish (comparative)
most snappish (superlative)

The past fortnight had been one of sullenness, cold black looks, short snappish words, and those ingenious contradictions which sometimes vary the halcyon calm of domestic felicity.

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 222:

She heard her own voice, snappish and rude, and pressed a hand to her head.

1990, Nora Roberts, Taming Natasha, Silhouette Books, published 2011, →ISBN:

Even though the woman didn't work closely with Barsade, so palpable was her complaining and snappish temperament that it had infected everyone who worked around her.

2011, Lynne McTaggart, The Bond, Simon & Schuster, published 2011, →ISBN, page 91:

There was something underneath her snappish belligerence that made him feel protective and tolerant.

2011, Mary Doria Russell, Doc, Random House, published 2011, →ISBN, page 173:

Exhibiting irritation or impatience; curt; irascible.


blast from the past

en-noun

blast from the past (plural blasts from the past)

Now there's a golden oldie, a blast from the past, when the heavyweight division was still strong and vibrant and unified (...)

1981 May 9, Bill Lyon, “An Old Warhorse Still Has His Dream”, in The Evening Independent:

In the process, he managed to make the Republican tax cut sound like a blast from the past.

1996 August 31, “Mr. Clinton's Bridge”, in The New York Times:

"Ellie!" he shouted. "What a blast from the past! This is just like old times, when you used to walk in that very door!"

2002, Hillary Frank, Better Than Running at Night, →ISBN, page 227:

But their early celebration was interrupted by a blast from the past: gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell's controversial 1989 graduate-school thesis (...)

2009 September 6, Jeff E. Schapiro, “Thesis fracas may not give Deeds the boost he needs”, in Richmond Times-Dispatch, archived from the original on 2009-09-08:

(colloquial, idiomatic) Something or someone that a person has not seen for a long time that evokes nostalgic feelings.

madeleine de Proust

something long unseen evoking nostalgic feelings


have butterflies in one's stomach

en-verb

have<has,,had> butterflies in one's stomach

have butterflies in one's stomach (third-person singular simple present has butterflies in one's stomach, present participle having butterflies in one's stomach, simple past and past participle had butterflies in one's stomach)

has butterflies in one's stomach (present singular third-person)
having butterflies in one's stomach (participle present)
had butterflies in one's stomach (participle past)
had butterflies in one's stomach (past)

en-au-have butterflies in one's stomach.ogg

Kevin had butterflies in his stomach every time he saw Chrissy.

To experience a certain “fluttery” physical sensation in one's stomach, associated with nervousness, uncertainty, anxiety, apprehension, or excitement.


heartstrings

en-noun

heartstrings pl (normally plural, singular heartstring)

/ˈhɑɹtˌstɹɪŋz/

PIE word
 *ḱḗr
From Late Middle English hartestrynges, hert strynges, from Middle English herte (“heart”) + strenges, strynges (“cords, strings”). The English word is analysable as heart + strings.

Harte ſtrynges uenies de cuevr.

[1530 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), Iohan Palsgraue [i.e., John Palsgrave], “The Table of Substantyues”, in Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse⸝ […], [London]: […] [Richard Pynson] fynnysshed by Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, 3rd boke, folio xxxix, recto, column 1; reprinted Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, October 1972, →OCLC:

The Ueynes are ſpred foorth throughout the whole bodie, howbeit from one welhead, that is to ſay from the Liuer: ſo be the Sinews, howbeit from the Brayne; So likewiſe are the Heartſtrings, howbeit from the Heart.

1587, Philip of Mornay [i.e., Philippe de Mornay], “That there is but Onely One God”, in Philip Sidney, Arthur Golding, transl., A Woorke Concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion, […], London: […] [John Charlewood and] George Robinson for Thomas Cadman, […], →OCLC, page 18:

The midriffe and heart-ſtrings do burn and beat very fearfully, and vvhen this vapour or fume is ſtirred, flyeth upvvard, the heart it ſelf beats, is ſore grieved, and faints, […]

1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Symptomes of Maids, Nunnes, and Widows Melancholy”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 3, member 2, subsection 4, page 202:

Once she sprang as the heifer springs / With the wolf's teeth at its red heart-strings: / First 'twas fire in her breast and brain, / And then scarce hers but the whole world's pain, / As she gave one shriek and sank again.

1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Rose Mary”, in Ballads and Sonnets, London: Ellis and White, […], →OCLC, part II, page 33:

(historical) The tendons or other structures resembling cords once thought to be attached to, or to brace, the heart; especially the aorta, pulmonary artery, and other large arteries connected to them; also, the diaphragm.

心弦

The atrioventricular valves are prevented from turning inside out by strands of connective tissue, which run from their underside to the walls of the ventricle. These are the so-called heartstrings or chordae tendin[e]ae.

2002, “Applied Physiology A”, in Beryl Stretch, editor, BTEC National Health Studies, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Heinemann Educational Publishers, →ISBN, page 481:

Joined to the free ends of the AV [atrioventricular] valves are a number of cords called chordae tendineae (heart strings) attaching them to muscles in the wall of the ventricle. The heart strings keep the AV flaps pointing in the direction of the blood flow, stopping them being turned "inside out" and forced through the atria. The semilunar valves do not have heart strings. Blood flowing the wrong way makes the cusps balloon out so that their edges seal tight.

2005, “Section 2: Heart”, in The Facts on File Illustrated Guide to the Human Body: Heart and Circulatory System, New York, N.Y.: Facts on File, →ISBN, page 40:

[M]y precious Toby Chihuahua, soon to be twelve years old, had a heart attack. As a result, one or more of his chordae tendineae, or heartstrings, ruptured. Until very recently, this condition was curtains for a dog, but new meds are keeping him alive for now.

2014 February 15, Crissy Shreve, chapter 5, in BMom: Lovely Weeds, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 56:

chordae tendineae
chordae tendineae#English

(by extension) Synonym of chordae tendineae (“the cord-like tendons that connect the papillary muscles to the tricuspid valve and the mitral valve in the heart”)

chordae tendineae

The sad eyes of the orphan tugged at my heartstrings.

Soone as ſhe heard the name of Artegall, / Her hart did leape, and all her hart-ſtrings tremble, / For ſudden ioy, and ſecret feare vvithall, […]

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 29, page 88:

For thee thou faireſt, yet the falſeſt vvoman, / That ever broke mans heart-ſtrings.

c. 1615–1616, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher, “The Nice Valour, or, The Passionate Mad-man”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 151, column 1:

She's gone, and pull'd my heart-ſtrings as ſhe vvent.

1669 June (first performance), John Dryden, Tyrannick Love, or, The Royal Martyr. […], London: […] H[enry] Herringman, […], published 1670, →OCLC, Act V, page 57:

[T]he Regret of parting vvith a young VVoman, vvhom he loved as tenderly as he did his Heartſtrings […]

1742, Henry Fielding, “What Happened to Joseph during His Sickness at the Inn, with the Curious Discourse between Him and Mr. Barnabas the Parson of the Parish”, in The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. […], volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book I, page 79:

And that thing made of ſound and ſhovv / VVhich mortals have miſnamed A Beau, / (But in the language of the ſky / Is call'd a tvvolegg'd butterfly) / VVill make your very heartſtrings ake / VVith loud and everlaſting clack, […]

1766, James Beattie, “[Miscellany Poems.] The Wolf and Shepherds, a Fable.”, in Poems on Several Subjects. […], new edition, London: […] W. Johnston, […], →OCLC, stanza 3, pages 113–114:

Heaven ſend your heart-ſtrings ay in tune, / And ſcrew your temper-pins aboon / A fifth or mair, […]

1786 October 30 (date written), Robert Burns, “Epistle to Major [William] Logan”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume III (Posthumous Poems), Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, published 1869, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 290:

[M]y father remained at home, and, though too conscientious ever to become rich as a small tea-dealer, by his kindliness of manner and winning ways he made the heartstrings of his children twine around him as firmly as if he had possessed, and could have bestowed upon them, every worldly advantage.

1857, David Livingstone, “Introduction”, in Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 3:

If I'm all agitato, / Ev'ry heartstring vibrato, / Ev'ry look passionato— / Who but you made me so?

1964 September, Ira Gershwin, “Sophia”, in Robert Kimball, editor, The Complete Lyrics of Ira Gershwin (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, published 1993, →ISBN, page 383, column 1:

Okay, okay. Untie him before Hannelore busts a heartstring.

2011 April 21, Jeph Jacques, “Sob Story”, in Questionable Content, number 1909 (webcomic), archived from the original on 2024-08-17:

The source of one's deepest emotions or inner feelings, especially compassion or love.

心弦

source of one’s deepest emotions or inner feelings


fraught

fraught (usually uncountable, plural fraughts)

From Middle English fraught, fraght, freght (“transport of goods or people (usually by water); charge for such transport; facilities for such transport; cargo or passengers of a ship; ballast of a ship; goods in general; (figurative) burden; charge”), from Middle Dutch vracht, vrecht, or Middle Low German vracht, vrecht (“cargo, freight; charge for transport of goods”), from Proto-Germanic *fra-aihtiz, from *fra- (intensifying prefix) + Proto-Germanic *aihtiz (“acquisition; possessions, property”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyḱ- (“to come into possession of, obtain; to own, possess”)). Doublet of freight.
cognates
* Danish fragt
* Old English ǣht (“livestock; property; possession; power”)
* Old High German frēht (“earnings”) (modern German fracht)
* Swedish frakt

cog

The manse […] is reached […] by a wide, straight path, so rough that to carry a fraught of water to the manse without spilling was to be superlatively good at one thing.

1891, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “The Night-watchers”, in The Little Minister. […], volume I, London, Paris: Cassell and Company, […], →OCLC, pages 32–33:

(obsolete except Scotland)
Two bucketfuls.


fraught

en-verb

fraught (third-person singular simple present fraughts, present participle fraughting, simple past and past participle fraught or fraughted)

fraughts (present singular third-person)
fraughting (participle present)
fraught (participle past)
fraught (past)
fraughted (participle past)
fraughted (past)
fraught (infinitive)

The verb is derived from Middle English fraughten, fraghten, freghten (“to hire (a ship, etc.) for transporting goods; to load (a ship, etc.) with cargo or passengers; to store, stow away; (figurative) to provide an ample supply of (goods, income, etc.)”), from Middle Dutch vrachten, vrechten, from vracht, vrecht (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming infinitives of verbs).
The adjective is derived from Middle English fraught, fraght (“burdened, loaded”), the past participle of fraughten, fraghten (verb) (see above).

Therefore in ſayinge that he ſeeketh to none in heauẽ ſaue only god, he reiecteth all the counterfet Gods with which the comon errour & foly of yͤ world fraughteth heauen.

1571, John Calvin, “[Commentary on Psalm 73:25]”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The Psalmes of Dauid and Others. With M. Iohn Caluin’s Commentaries, London: […] Thomas East and Henry Middelton; for Lucas Harison, and G[e]orge Byshop, →OCLC, 1st part, folio 279, verso, column 1:

[H]ee [Henry I of England] tooke chiefe pleaſure to reſide in his nevv Palace, vvhich himſelfe built at Oxford, both for the delight he had in learned men, himſelfe being very learned, and for the vicinity of his nevv Parke at VVoodſtocke, vvhich hee had fraught vvith all kind of ſtrange beaſts, vvherein hee much delighted, as Lyons, Leopards, Lynces, Camels, Porcupines, and the like.

1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 59, page 442, column 2:

[W]hen his better earnings have fraught his trencher vvith a vvarm and pleaſing morſell, and his cup vvith a ſtronger liquor, hovv chearfully is he affected vvith that happy variety; and in the ſtrength of it digeſts many of his thinner meales?

1645, Jos[eph] Hall, “Sect[ion] XII. Consideration of the Benefits of Poverty.”, in The Remedy of Discontentment: Or, A Treatise of Contentation in whatsoever Condition: […], London: […] J. G. for Nath[aniel] Brooks, […], published 1652, →OCLC, pages 60–61:

[…] King Henry [VIII] full fraught all thoſe vvith vvealth and revvards, vvhom he retained in his imployment.

a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, “Cornwall”, in The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC, page 202:

(figurative, archaic or obsolete) Followed by with: to furnish or provide (something).


fraught

en-adj

fraught (comparative more fraught or (rare) fraughter, superlative most fraught or (rare) fraughtest)

more fraught (comparative)
fraughter (comparative rare)
most fraught (superlative)
fraughtest (rare superlative)

[O]ne the other fiercely did encounter, / Like Lions two yfraught with boyling wrath, […]

1566, Euripides, “Iocasta: A Tragedie Written in Greke by Euripides, […]”, in George Gascoigne, Francis Kinwelmershe, transl., A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres Bounde up in One Small Poesie. […], London: […] [Henry Bynneman and Henry Middleton for] Richarde Smith, published 1573, →OCLC, Act V, scene ii, page 148:

Fayre boſome fraught vvith vertues richeſt treſure, / The neaſt of loue, the lodging of delight: / the bovvre of bliſſe, the paradice of pleaſure, / the ſacred harbour of that heuenly ſpright.

1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet LXXVI”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, signature [E7], recto:

In this Chapter vve have a large Diſcourſe from the great Preacher of Righteouſneſs; A Diſcourſe fraught vvith all the commending Excellencies of Speech; […]

1660 August 8 (Gregorian calendar); first published 1715, Robert South, “A Discourse Preached at St. Mary’s Church in Oxon, before the University, on the 29th of July 1660, being the Time of the King’s Commissioners Meeting there, soon after the Restauration, for the Visitation of that University”, in Twelve Sermons Preached at Several Times, and upon Several Occasions, volume IV, London: […] G. James, for Jonah Bowyer […], →OCLC, page 3:

Liberty, fraught vvith bleſſings as it is, vvhen unabuſed, has, perhaps been abuſed to our deſtruction.

1755, [Edward Young], “Letter V. The Conclusion.”, in The Centaur Not Fabulous. […], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar […]; [a]nd R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], →OCLC, page 367:

That which promised happiness when we were one in heart, is fraught with misery now that we are two.

1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Two. The First of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 66:

The government and the legislature, each in its own sphere, is deeply responsible for the continuance of a state of things which is fraught with danger to the State.

1844 February 19 (date delivered), [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “[Speeches.] A Speech Delivered in the House of Commons on the 19th of February 1844.”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC, page 658:

He is a man of the meditative claſs:—he walks the ſtreets abſtractedly:—as he goes he digeſts enterpriſes, fraught with world-wide benefits.

1860, Isaac Taylor, “Essay V. Epidemic Whims.”, in Ultimate Civilization and Other Essays, London: Bell and Daldy […], →OCLC, section I, page 257:

The simplest action was fraught with danger, and could only be accomplished with the aid of talismans and counter-spells, and people lived in constant dread of the unknown.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, “The Earliest Records of Black Magic”, in The Black Art, London: Senate, Studio Editions, published 1994, →ISBN, part I, page 22:

Followed by with: carrying, or charged or loaded up with (usually something negative); accompanied by; entailing.

مَمْلُوء

a fraught relationship    a fraught process

Nor less her son the like encouraged she / To party bitterness, that was in her, / Ev'n of the fraughtest growth that well could be, / Surpassing most of men's, […]

1878, Benj[amin] G. Herre, “Wyman’s Ordeal. A Partisan Tale.”, in Eratics: Or, Love Stories, Lancaster, Pa.: Jno. [Jon.?] H. Pearsol, […], →OCLC, scene iii, stanza XXI, page 180:

In all of those respects it was a vocabulary that accommodated within itself (so to speak) the fraught transition from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft, or 'community' to 'society'. This transition was only made fraughter for contemporaries – and muddier for historians – by the politicization of commonwealth after 1640 and its sequestration by ideologues and partisans.

2010, Philip Withington, “The Rise and Fall of ‘Commonwealth’”, in Society in Early Modern England: The Vernacular Origins of Some Powerful Ideas, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; Malden, Mass.: Polity Press, →ISBN, part II (Keywords), page 166:

But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low. With [Oscar] Pistorius, that task is fraught.

2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities: Bladerunner’s punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp is but a frippery when set against the burden that her bereft parents, June and Barry, must carry [print version: No room for sentimentality in this tragedy, 13 September 2014, page S22]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport section), London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-11-24:

Installing lift shafts in station buildings which were not originally designed to accommodate them can be a fraught exercise, but a necessary one if the legitimate aspiration of the travelling public for step-free access is to be achieved. At Sudbury Hill, on London Underground's Piccadilly Line extension out to the north-western suburbs, Transport for London has achieved this with aplomb.

2022 December 14, Robin Leleux, “A Royal Occasion as Heritage Projects Honoured: Sudbury Hill”, in Rail, number 972, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 57:

(specifically) Carrying or loaded with anxiety, fear, or stress, for example, due to complexity or difficulty; distressed; also, causing distress; distressing.

загрижен

carrying or loaded with anxiety, fear, or stress — see also distressed

[W]hen the worlde is fraughted with ſo manye varlettes, that it will be a long time ere a man ſhall diſcerne the faythful from the Hipocrites.

[1574, Augustine Marlorate [i.e., Augustin Marlorat], “[Revelation 2:2]”, in Arthur Golding, transl., A Catholike Exposition vpon the Reuelation of Sainct Iohn. […], London: […] H[enry] Binneman, for L[ucas] Harison, and G[eorge] Bishop, →OCLC, folio 32, recto:

Hovv vvondrouſly vvould he her face commend, / Aboue that Idole of his fayning thought, / That all the vvorld ſhold vvith his rimes be fraught?

1596, Edm[und] Spenser, “An Hymne of Heavenly Beautie”, in Fovvre Hymnes, London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 43:

Come ſir, I vvould you vvould make vſe of that good vviſedome vvhereof I knovv you are fraught, and put avvay theſe diſpoſitions, that of late tranſforme you from vvhat you rightly are.

c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], signature D, verso:

So, in naturall Hiſtorie, vvee ſee there hath not beene that choiſe and iudgement vſed, as ought to haue beene, as may appeare in the vvritings of Plinius, Cardanus, Albertus, and diuers of the Arabians, being fraught vvith much fabulous matter, a great part, not onely vntryed, but notoriouſly vntrue, to the great derogation of the credite of naturall Philoſophie, […]

1605, Francis Bacon, “The First Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC, folios 21, verso – 22, recto:

Mules after theſe, Camels and Dromedaries, / And VVaggons fraught vvith Utenſils of vvar.

1671, John Milton, “The Third Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 72, lines 334–335:

The firſt Ingredient, tovvards the Art of Canting, is a competent Share of Invvard Light: that is to ſay, a large Memory, plentifully fraught vvith Theological Polyſyllables, and myſterious Texts from holy VVrit, applied and digeſted by thoſe Methods, and Mechanical Operations already related: […]

1704, [Jonathan Swift], “A Discourse Concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit. In a Letter to a Friend. A Fragment.. Sect[ion] II.”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], published 1705, →OCLC, page 307:

The desert Pelican had built her nest / In that deep solitude. / And now returned from distant flight / Fraught with the river stream, / Her load of water had disburthened there. / Her young in the refreshing bath / Sported all wantonness; […]

1801, Robert Southey, “The Fifth Book”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume I, London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC, pages 258–259:

(figurative)
Followed by with: furnished, provided.


terrify

en-verb

terrify (third-person singular simple present terrifies, present participle terrifying, simple past and past participle terrified)

terrifies (present singular third-person)
terrifying (participle present)
terrified (participle past)
terrified (past)

From Middle French terrifier, from Latin terrificare.

To frighten greatly; to fill with terror.

плаша

to frighten greatly; to fill with terror


contentment

en-noun

contentment (usually uncountable, plural contentments)

From Middle French contentement. By surface analysis, content + -ment.

The neurophysiological experience of satisfaction and being at ease in one's situation, body, and/or mind.


sapphist

From sapphic + -ist, by analogy with Sapphist (“admirer or student of Sappho”).


sybarite

en-adj

sybarite (comparative more sybarite, superlative most sybarite)

more sybarite (comparative)
most sybarite (superlative)

/ˈsɪbəˌɹaɪt/

The noun is a learned borrowing from Latin Sybarīta + English -ite (suffix forming demonyms). Sybarīta is derived from Ancient Greek Σῠβᾰρῑ́της (Subarī́tēs, “(noun) inhabitant of Sybaris; (adjective) decadent; self-indulgent”), from Σῠ́βᾰρῐς (Súbaris, “Sybaris”) + -ῑ́της (-ī́tēs, suffix forming demonyms)). Sybaris, a city of Magna Graecia (the coastal parts of Sicily and southern Italy once colonized by Greek settlers), was known for its wealth and the excesses and hedonism of its inhabitants.
The adjective is derived from the noun.

der

Synonym of sybaritic (“of or having the qualities of a sybarite; dedicated to excessive comfort and enjoyment; decadent, hedonistic, self-indulgent”)


lassitude

en-noun

lassitude (countable and uncountable, plural lassitudes)

Borrowed from French lassitude, from Latin lassitūdō (“faintness, weariness”), from lassus (“faint, weary”), perhaps for *ladtus, and thus akin to English late.


love-in

The summer in between wasn't a total love-in of hugs and sweet family times, for us and other families.

2018, Carol Kuykendall, Krista Gilbert, Give Them Wings: Preparing for the Time Your Teen Leaves Home:

(by extension, colloquial) A situation characterized by (possibly insincere) friendship and affection.


polygamous

/pəˈlɪɡəməs/


seethe

en-verb

seethe (third-person singular simple present seethes, present participle seething, simple past and past participle seethed)

seethes (present singular third-person)
seething (participle present)
seethed (participle past)
seethed (past)
seethe (infinitive)

The verb is derived from Middle English sethen, seeth (“to boil, seethe; to cook; etc.”) [and other forms], from Old English sēoþan (“to boil, seethe; to cook; etc.”), from Proto-Germanic *seuþaną (“to boil, seethe”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂sewt-, *h₂sew-, *h₂sut- (“to move about, roil, seethe”).
The noun is derived from the verb.
cognates
* Albanian zjej (“to boil, seethe”)
* Danish syde (“to seethe, boil”)
* Dutch zieden (“to boil, seethe”)
* German sieden (“to boil, seethe”)
* Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌿𐌸𐍃 (sauþs, “burnt offering, sacrifice”)
* Icelandic sjóða (“to boil, seethe”)
* Low German seden (“to seethe”)
* Norwegian Bokmål syde (“to boil, seethe”)
* Norwegian Nynorsk sjoda, syda (“to boil, seethe”)
* Scots seth, seith (“to seethe”)
* Swedish sjuda (“to boil, seethe”)
* West Frisian siede (“to boil”)

nb...

cethen, cethyn, sede, seden, seethe, seith, seithe, seth, sethe, sethene, syede, sith, sithe, sithen, zeoth, zeothen, zeotheon, (chiefly Early Middle English) seþe, seþen, seoth, seothe, seothen, seoþe, seoþen, (Early Middle English) seit, seod, soð

cog

Yee come t'encounter vvith a valiant Foe; / […] ſuch as ſhrinke not / To haue their bloods ſod vvith the dog-dayes heate, / Nor to be crudled vvith cold Saturnes Rod: […]

c. 1592 (date written), Thomas Heywood, The Foure Prentises of London, […], revised edition, London: […] Nicholas Okes, published 1632, →OCLC, signature K, recto:

[F]oorthvvith her eyes bred her eye-ſore, the firſt vvhite vvhereon their tranſpiercing arrovves ſtuck, being the breathleſſe corps of Leander: vvith the ſodaine contemplation of this piteous ſpectacle of her loue, ſodden to haddocks meate, her ſorrovve could not chooſe but be indefinite, […]

1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 45:

Floriſhing vvits and men of good parts, good faſhion, good vvorth, baſely proſtitute themſelues to euery rogues company, to take Tobacco, and drinke, to ſing ſcurrile ſongs. […] They drovvn their vvits, ſeeth their braines in ale, […]

1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Mirth and Merry Company Remedies”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 2, member 6, subsection 4, page 380:

'Tis a poor Ideot Boy, / Who sits in the Sun, and twirls a Bough about, / His weak eyes seeth'd in most unmeaning tears.

1813, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, Remorse. A Tragedy, […], 2nd edition, London: […] W. Pople, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 25:

To overboil (something) so that it loses its flavour or texture; hence (figurative), to cause (the body, the mind, the spirit, etc.) to become dull through too much alcoholic drink or heat.

turruttaa

to cause (the body, the mind, etc.) to become dull through too much alcoholic drink or heat


impetuosity

en-noun

impetuosity (usually uncountable, plural impetuosities)

From English impetuous + -ity, from Middle French impétuosité, from Old French.


heartbreak

heartbreak (countable and uncountable, plural heartbreaks)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-heartbreak.wav

From heart + break. Compare heartache § Etymology.

So while Ralph generally seems to inhabit a different, more glorious and joyful universe than everyone else here his yearning and heartbreak are eminently relateable. Ralph sometimes appears to be a magically demented sprite who has assumed the form of a boy, but he’s never been more poignantly, nakedly, movingly human than he is here.

2012 August 5, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

overwhelming mental anguish or grief, especially that caused by loss or disappointment.


biophilia

/ˌbaɪəʊˈfɪlɪ.ə/

Our deepest needs stem from ancient and still poorly understood biological adaptations. Among them is biophilia: the rich, natural pleasure that comes from being surrounded by living organisms, not just other human beings but a diversity of ...

1979, E. O. Wilson, New York Times Saturday Review of Books and Art, volume 84, page xxxii:

The love of or empathy with nature and all living things.


chary

en-adj

chary (comparative charier, superlative chariest)

charier (comparative)
chariest (superlative)

General American, Mary–marry–merry merger

From Middle English chari, charre, charri, chary, Early Middle English cearig, chariȝ (“concerned with, diligent; sad, sorrowful; of a person: cherished, loved”), from Old English ċeariġ (“careful; pensive; chary, wary; anxious, sad, sorrowful; dire, grievous”), from Proto-West Germanic *karag (“anxious; sad”), from Proto-Germanic *karō + *-gaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵeh₂r- (“exclamation; voice”) + *-kos (suffix forming adjectives with the meaning ‘pertaining to; typical of’)); analysable as care + -y.
The English word is cognate with Danish karrig (“miserly, stingy”), Dutch karig (“austere, scant, sparing”), Norwegian karrig (“barren; meagre; poor”), Old High German charag, karag (“sparing”) (modern German karg (“barren; meagre, poor”)), Old Saxon carag, karag, Swedish karg (“austere; barren; hungry; needy, poor”). See further at care.

cog

The Charieſt maide is prodigall enough, / If ſhe vnmaske hir beautie to the Moone.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and Iohn Trundell, published 1603, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], lines 35–36:

[E]ls is he chary and wary to lay himſelfe open to any daunger, if the finall end of his endeauour and toile bee not plauſible in his demurring judgement.

1607, T[homas] W[alkington], “Of a Sanguine Temperature”, in The Optick Glasse of Hvmors. Or The Touchstone of a Golden Temperature, or the Philosophers Stone to Make a Golden Temper, […], London: Imprinted by Iohn Windet for Martin Clerke, […], →OCLC, folio 60, verso:

[Y]our Women of Honour, as you call 'em, are only chary of their reputations, not their Perſons, and 'tis ſcandal they wou'd avoid, not Men: [...]

1675, [William] Wycherley, The Country-wife, a Comedy, […], London: Printed for Thomas Dring, […], →OCLC; republished London: Printed for T[homas] Dring, and sold by R. Bentley, and S. Magnes […], 1688, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 4:

However, the moſt Solid and Apprehenſive ſort of Men cannot be perſwaded, that thoſe two Monarchs [Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and Charles II of Spain], being more Chary of their Honour and their Reputation, then the Duke of Savoy [Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia], who ſo ignominouſly abandon'd the Confederates, Innocent XII. will not find that Eaſineſs in them to be wrought upon, which he met with in the King of Cyprus; [...]

1696 December, “Advice from Rome and Italy”, in The Present State of Europe: Or, The Historical and Political Monthly Mercury, […], volume VII, number 12, London: Printed for Henry Rhodes […], and John Harris […], published 1697, →OCLC, page 383:

Of ſpotleſs fame, be chary as your lives! / Keep wide of proof, and you're the beſt of wives!

1775, Colly Cibber [i.e., Colley Cibber], “Epilogue”, in Henry Fielding, The Modern Husband. A Comedy. […] (The Works of Henry Fielding, Esq.; […]; II), London: Printed for John Bell, […], →OCLC, page 333:

I should have been chary of discussing my guardian too freely with her; but I should have gone on with the subject so far as to describe the dinner in Gerrard-street, if we had not then come into a sudden glare of gas.

1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XIV, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 233:

They [Roman Catholics] had learned to hate government, and glory in the violation of law; they had become suspicious of everyone, even of their friends; they had contracted a habit of equivocation, and were chary of telling the truth; their manliness of character was to some extent undermined, and they had learned the attitude and the language of slaves.

1910, E[dward] A[lfred] d’Alton, “The Penal Laws”, in History of Ireland from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, volume IV (1649 to 1782), London: The Gresham Publishing Company […], →OCLC, page 485:

The latter of these conceptions of law is the one that prevails in current science such as avoids metaphysical insinuation, and, chary as to a priori principles and methods, proceeds empirically and inductively.

1930, F. R. Tennant, “The Conformity of the World to Law”, in Philosophical Theology, Cambridge University Press library edition, volumes II (The World, the Soul, and God), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, London: At the University Press, published 1968, →ISBN, page 13:

When Lord Berek speaks with you and your companions alone, as he must, be chary in your replies. If you are at any time uncertain of what may be said, permit me to answer in your stead.

2007, Stephen R[eeder] Donaldson, Fatal Revenant (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant; 2), New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN, page 182:

предпазлив

careful, cautious — see also careful, cautious

True, the wreath might have been improved with a little more care; [...] Though, after all, we are, perhaps, too chary; for in nature every leaf is not ironed out to a form, nor propped up with a wiry precision; but blown and ruffled by the refreshing breezes, and looking as easy, and careless, and unaffected, as a child that bounds along with its silken locks tossed to and fro just as the wind uplifts them. Page after page of this volume have we perused with a feeling of pleasure and admiration.

1839 March 9, [Edgar Allan Poe], “A Wreath of Wild Flowers from New England. By Frances Sargent Osgood. 12mo. pp. 364. London, 1839. Churton. [book review]”, in The Literary Gazette; and Journal of the Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c., number 1155, London: Printed by Moyes and Barclay, […]; published for the proprietors, at the Literary Gazette office, […], →OCLC, page 148, column 3:

Excessively particular or fussy about details; fastidious.

Oh! look not thus o'erjoy'd, for if I thought / We e'er could meet again this side the grave, / Trust me, I had been charier of my tenderness.

1820, H[enry] H[art] Milman, “Fountain of Siloe—Night—An Approaching Storm”, in The Fall of Jerusalem: A Dramatic Poem, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 97:

The house had a projecting window, where the poet [Percy Bysshe Shelley] loved to sit with book in hand, and catch, according to his custom, the maximum of sunlight granted by a chary English summer.

1895, John Addington Symonds, “[Shelley] Second Residence in London, and Separation from Harriet”, in James [Augustus] Cotter Morison, [Thomas Henry] Huxley, John A. Symonds, Gibbon […] Also Hume […] Shelley […], New York, N.Y.: Arkel Weekly Company, →OCLC, page 51:

Virginia had been somewhat chary of favors to her distinguished son, and it was from a son of Massachusetts that his highest honors came, for President John Adams, in recognition of his great ability, made [John] Marshall secretary of state after having offered him an appointment to the supreme bench, which he declined.

1901 February 2, Roger P. Barnum, “Centenary of Chief Justice Marshall’s installation”, in Evening Report, volume XI, number 79, Lebanon, Pa.: Report Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 2, columns 6–7:

We instinctively know that nature supplied the form but, ever chary of favors, has passed on to give the beautiful fare perhaps, to a woman of unlovely form.

1910 March 19, “For the care of the face”, in Spokane Daily Chronicle, Spokane, Wash.: Chronicle Pub. Co., →OCLC:

American forces on the west of the Soissons salient stopped a German advance and the French, who are chary of compliments, declared that our "lightning trained" men conducted themselves as veterans.

1918 June 9, “Checking the Teutons on the Western Front”, in The Spokesman-Review, number 26, Spokane, Wash.: Review Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 4, column 6:

Not disposed to give freely; not lavish; frugal, sparing.

The bounty so much delighted mine host, that he ran to fill the stirrup-cup (for which no charge was ever made) from a butt yet charier than that which he had pierced for the former stoup.

1820 March, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Monastery. A Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Co., and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, pages 112–113:

(obsolete) Cared for, regarded as precious; cherished.


chary

en-adv

chary (comparative more chary, superlative most chary)

more chary (comparative)
most chary (superlative)

O therefore loue be of thy ſelfe ſo wary, / As I not for my ſelfe, but for thee will, / Bearing thy heart, which I will keep ſo chary / As tender nurſe her babe from faring ill, [...]

1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 22”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC, lines 11–12:

Synonym of charily: carefully, cautiously, warily.


distraught

en-adj

distraught (comparative more distraught, superlative most distraught)

more distraught (comparative)
most distraught (superlative)

From Middle English distraught, merger of distract (“distracted”) and straught (“stretched, distraught”), past participle of strecchen (“to stretch”). Compare also bestraught, extraught, forstraught, etc. More at distract, stretch.

His distraught widow cried for days, feeling very alone.

[…]Karius was a danger to his own team, responsible for Madrid’s two other goals and last seen wandering aimlessly around the pitch – alone, distraught and clearly traumatised – to ask forgiveness, hands clasped, from the thousands of Liverpool supporters.

2018 May 26, Daniel Taylor, “Liverpool go through after Mohamed Salah stops Manchester City fightback”, in The Guardian (London):

Deeply hurt, saddened, or worried; incapacitated by distress.


dissatisfaction

en-noun

dissatisfaction (countable and uncountable, plural dissatisfactions)


golden age

/ˈɡəʊl.dən eɪd͡ʒ/


old school

Almost certainly a shortening of "the old school of thinking", "an old school of thinking", "an old school of thought" or some similar phrase.

Family experts are advocating a change away from the old school, advising parents not to medicate behavioral problems.

My mom's a good baker because she's of the old school. She'd never buy ready-made cookie dough.

Pathetic as its passing is, one cannot honestly regret the old school. I was looking last night at the programme of my very first hall, and received a terrible shock to my time-sense. Where are the snows of yesteryear? Where are the entertainers of 1895?

1918 [1915], Thomas Burke, Nights in London, New York: Henry Holt and Company:

The amount of external pipework is also unusual in a British locomotive, though apparent in the most recent L.M.S.R. designs, such as the Class "4" 2-6-0s; but while lacking the tidiness of the old school of British locomotive engineering, this has obvious application for maintenance purposes in present circumstances.

1951 April, Stirling Everard, “A Matter of Pedigree”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 274:

(informal, idiomatic) A style, way of thinking, or method for accomplishing a task that was employed in a former era, remembered either for its inferiority to the current method, or for its time-honored superiority over the new way.

oude stempel

a style, way of thinking, or method for accomplishing a task that was employed in a former era


amaxophobia

Formed in English from the Ancient Greek ἅμαξα (hámaxa, “waggon”) + the -phobia, the latter element itself deriving from the Ancient Greek -φοβία (-phobía). The etymologically consistent spelling is *hamaxophobia, but that spelling is not attested outside word-lists and dictionaries.

I have known of at least two well marked instances of amaxophobia originating in the fright of being run away with and the effect of the shock abiding with them throughout the after life[…]

1908, Charles Hamilton Hughes, The Alienist and Neurologist, volume 29, page 65:

Fear of being in or riding in a vehicle.


teratophilia

The paraphilia, or abnormal sexual attraction, to people with disabilities or deformities, has been classified as teratophilia.

2017, Jessica L. Williams, Media, Performative Identity, and the New American Freak Show, page 120:

The paraphilia characterized by sexual attraction to deformed or monstrous people.


pleased

en-adj

pleased (comparative more pleased, superlative most pleased)

more pleased (comparative)
most pleased (superlative)

From Middle English plesed, iplesed (past participle) and Middle English plesede (preterit), both equivalent to please + -ed.

usually expressed by a construction with the noun áthas m

is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me


dolour

en-noun

dolour (countable and uncountable, plural dolours)

From Middle English dolour (“physical pain, agony, suffering; painful disease; anguish, grief, misery, sorrow; grieving for sins, contrition; hardship, misery, trouble; cause of grief or suffering, affliction”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman dolour, Old French dolour, dolor, dulur (“pain”) (modern French douleur (“pain; distress”)), from Latin dolor (“ache, hurt, pain; anguish, grief, sorrow; anger, indignation, resentment”), from doleō (“to hurt, suffer physical pain; to deplore, grieve, lament”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *delh₁- (“to divide, split”)) + -or (suffix forming third-declension masculine abstract nouns). The English word is a doublet of dol.

der

Who dyes the vtmoſt dolor doth abye, / But who that liues, is lefte to waile his loſſe: / So life is loſſe, and death felicity.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 38, page 455:

But for all this thou ſhalt haue as many Dolors for thy Daughters, as thou canſt tell in a yeare.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv], page 293, column 2:

Gon[zalo]. When euery greefe is entertaind, / That's offer'd comes to th'entertainer. / Seb[astian]. A dollor. / Gon. Dolour comes to him indeed, you haue ſpoken truer then you purpos'd / Seb. You haue taken it wiſelier then I meant you ſhould.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 6, column 2:

This Duke (ſaith [Richard] Grafton) being an aged man, and fortunate before in all his vvarres, vpon this diſtaſture impreſſed ſuch dolour of mind, that for verie griefe thereof he liued not long after.

1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Marie Queene of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. The Sixtieth Monarch of the English, Her Raigne, Mariage, Acts, and Death.”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 32, page 819, column 1:

[E]very ſentence of that Book, every groan of that Man [Francesco Spiera], with all the reſt of his actions in his dolours, […] was as knives and daggers in my Soul; […]

1692, John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: […], 7th edition, London: […] Robert Ponder, […], →OCLC, paragraph 164, page 78:

[T]o think that I am going to leave her—and to leave her in distress and dolour—No, Miss Lucy, you need never think it!

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter XV, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, page 240:

Perchance a congregation to fulfil / Solemnities of silence in this doom, / Mysterious rites of dolour and despair / Permitting not a breath or chant of prayer?

1870–1874, James Thomson, “The City of Dreadful Night”, in The City of Dreadful Night and Other Poems, London: Reeves and Turner, […], published 1880, →OCLC, part X, stanza 2, pages 25–26:

(chiefly uncountable, literary) Anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow.

печал

anguish, grief, misery, or sorrow — see also sorrow


suffering

en-noun

suffering (countable and uncountable, plural sufferings)

Robins, of Torquay, had denied a single charge of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal. She claimed the microwave was accidentally turned on by one of the cats after the kitten got inside. But Knutton said the kitten was too small to even get onto the work surface.

2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in Guardian:

The condition of someone who suffers; a state of pain or distress.


contemn

en-verb

contemn (third-person singular simple present contemns, present participle contemning, simple past and past participle contemned)

contemns (present singular third-person)
contemning (participle present)
contemned (participle past)
contemned (past)

From Middle English contempnen, from Old French contemner, from Latin contemnere (“to scorn”). See also contempt.

(law) To commit an offence of contempt, such as contempt of court; to unlawfully flout (e.g. a ruling).


lamentation

en-noun

lamentation (countable and uncountable, plural lamentations)

Recorded since 1375, from Latin lāmentātiō (“wailing, moaning, weeping”), from the deponent verb lāmentor, from lāmentum (“wail; wailing”), itself from a Proto-Indo-European *leh₂- (“to howl”), presumed ultimately imitative. Replaced Old English cwiþan. Lament is a 16th-century back-formation.

der

Bernhard Strigel
descent from the Cross
lamentation of Christ

lamentatio, (part of) a liturgical Bible text (from the book of Job) and its musical settings, usually in the plural; hence, any dirge


creepy

en-adj

creepy (comparative creepier, superlative creepiest)

creepier (comparative)
creepiest (superlative)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ-der.
Proto-Germanic *kreupaną
Proto-West Germanic *kreupan
Old English crēopan
Middle English crepen
English creep
Proto-Indo-European *-kos
Proto-Germanic *-gaz
Proto-West Germanic *-g
Old English -iġ
Middle English -y
English -y
English creepy
From creep + -y.

etymon

creepy ghosts

(informal) Producing an uneasy fearful sensation, as of things crawling over one's skin.

(informal) Causing discomfort or repulsion due to strange or eccentric behavior.

That creepy old man keeps leering at me!

"He doesn't look creepy," I said. "Kind of nerdy, in a harmless way.
"Looks can be deceiving. See that camera? He was always going around with that camera, snapping pictures. Some girls caught him trying to get 'up skirt' shots while they sat at their desks.[…]"

2022, Scott Bell, Pest Cemetery, page 235:

(informal, especially) Causing discomfort through exhibiting sexually inappropriate behavior.

“I felt creepy and afraid,” continued the other, with conviction. “I had the sensation of being seen by someone—as if someone, I mean, was watching me. […]

(informal, uncommon) Feeling an uneasy fearful sensation; creeped out.


somber

en-adj

somber (comparative somberer, superlative somberest)

somberer (comparative)
somberest (superlative)

My mother prepared herself for the evening with the same somber deliberateness of the gladiators in Spartacus.

(American spelling) Alternative form of sombre


somber

en-verb

somber (third-person singular simple present sombers, present participle sombering, simple past and past participle sombered)

sombers (present singular third-person)
sombering (participle present)
sombered (participle past)
sombered (past)


dysphoric

en-adj

dysphoric (comparative more dysphoric, superlative most dysphoric)

more dysphoric (comparative)
most dysphoric (superlative)


miffed

miffed (comparative more miffed, superlative most miffed)

more miffed (comparative)
most miffed (superlative)

(UK, regional) Confused; unable to understand.


quake in one's boots

en-verb

quake in one's boots (third-person singular simple present quakes in one's boots, present participle quaking in one's boots, simple past and past participle quaked in one's boots)

quakes in one's boots (present singular third-person)
quaking in one's boots (participle present)
quaked in one's boots (participle past)
quaked in one's boots (past)

The thought of climbing that high had him quaking in his boots.

(informal, idiomatic) To be very frightened, scared, or nervous.


glum

en-adj

glum (comparative glummer, superlative glummest)

glummer (comparative)
glummest (superlative)

Probably from Middle Low German glum (“glum”), related to German dialectal glumm (“gloomy, troubled, turbid”). More at gloomy.

I[…]frighten people by my glum face.

1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859, →OCLC:

[…] and the prospect of three more days of teaching before the weekend break, Mr. MacPherson felt unusually glum.

1959, Mordecai Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz:

A glummer look replaced the already glum look on Arthur Dent's face.

1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 23:

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who had sought to save Chevron during hours of argument in January, looks slightly glum in her seat at the counsel tables.

2024 June 28, Mark Walsh, “Consider the wild gray squirrel, Kagan rebukes her colleagues as court overrules Chevron”, in SCOTUSblog:


thrill

From Old English þȳrlian (“to pierce”), derived from þȳrel (“hole”) (archaic English thirl). Doublet of thirl (verb).

She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.

1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:

A trembling or quivering, especially one caused by emotion; a frisson.


unhappiness

en-noun

unhappiness (countable and uncountable, plural unhappinesses)


exhausted

en-adj

exhausted (comparative more exhausted, superlative most exhausted)

more exhausted (comparative)
most exhausted (superlative)

/ɪɡˈzɔːstɪd/

A man can live in thick air, but perishes in an exhausted receiver.

1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford, published 2008, page 839:

(sciences, now historical) Emptied of contents, especially of air; that has been made into a vacuum.


distressed

distressed (comparative more distressed, superlative most distressed)

more distressed (comparative)
most distressed (superlative)

I'm distressed that sexy John hasn't answered my calls. I hope nothing bad happened to him on the way here.

Oh that thou wer't not, poore distreſſed ſoule.

c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:

Wee are troubled on euery side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despaire,

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Corinthians 4:8:

Now, I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was, as he was wont, reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and, as he read, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, "What shall I do to be saved?"

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

(of a property) Offered for sale after foreclosure.


sullen

sullen (comparative sullener, superlative sullenest)

sullener (comparative)
sullenest (superlative)

From Middle English solein, from Anglo-Norman soleyn (“alone”), from Old French sole (“single, sole, alone”), from Latin sōlus (“by oneself alone”). The change in meaning from "single" to morose occurred in Middle English.

Such sullen planets at my birth did shine.

1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC, (please specify the page number):

(obsolete) Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious.


nostalgically

en-adv

nostalgically (comparative more nostalgically, superlative most nostalgically)

more nostalgically (comparative)
most nostalgically (superlative)


harrow

From Middle English harrow, harrowe, haro, from Old French haro, harou, harau, harol, from Frankish *harot, *hara (“here; hither”), from *hēr. Akin to Old Saxon herod, Old High German herot, Middle Dutch hare.

Harrow, the flames, which me consume (said hee) / Ne can be quencht, within my secret bowels bee.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

(obsolete) A call for help, or of distress, alarm etc.


shyness

en-noun

shyness (usually uncountable, plural shynesses)

Her shyness kept her from asking him to the prom.

The quality of being shy; a fear of social interactions.


disheartened

en-adj

disheartened (comparative more disheartened, superlative most disheartened)

more disheartened (comparative)
most disheartened (superlative)

He refused to get disheartened, even when all 50 writers polled by Newsweek predicted he would lose.

2004, Chris Wallace, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage:


zestful

zestful (comparative more zestful, superlative most zestful)

more zestful (comparative)
most zestful (superlative)

From zest + -ful (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, with the sense of being full of, tending to, or thoroughly possessing the quality expressed by the noun).

suffix

[T]here appeared a narrowly patriotic government, which presently developed into an aggressive, vindictive and pitiless dictatorship, and set itself at once to the zestful persecution of the unfortunate ethnic minorities (about a third of the entire population) caught in the net of its all too ample boundaries.

1933 September, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Versailles: Seed Bed of Disasters”, in The Shape of Things to Come, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, 1st book (Today and Tomorrow: The Age of Frustration Dawns), page 86:

[T]he former priest, by now habituated to military life, and even zestful for it, enlisted under the new young king, with the rank of captain.

1968, Donald Barthelme, “The Dolt”, in Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →OCLC, page 66:

Full of zest.
(figurative) Eager, enthusiastic.


worried

en-adj

worried (comparative more worried, superlative most worried)

more worried (comparative)
most worried (superlative)

She was worried about her son who had been sent off to fight in the war.

Thinking about unpleasant things that have happened or that might happen; feeling afraid and unhappy.

قَلِق

thinking about unpleasant things that have happened or that might happen


acrophilia

(sexuality) Sexual arousal from heights or high altitudes.


despondency

en-noun

despondency (countable and uncountable, plural despondencies)

From Latin dēspondentia, from dēspondēns + -ia. Equivalent to despondent + -ency.

The loss of hope or confidence; despair or dejection.


bashful

en-adj

bashful (comparative more bashful, superlative most bashful)

more bashful (comparative)
most bashful (superlative)

16th-century apheresis of abashed + -ful (“full of”).

a bashful look

“Have you done something to your hair?”
“I just ran a comb through it,” shrugged the vicar.
“Well, it looks delightful.”
“How delightful of you to say so.” Auntie Flip and the vicar shared bashful grins. Frank had never witnessed his babysitter behave like this before.

2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:


disdainful

disdainful (comparative more disdainful, superlative most disdainful)

more disdainful (comparative)
most disdainful (superlative)

He was disdainful of those he thought of as the little people. He openly sneered at them. They mocked him behind his back.

She glimpsed at the people whom she had left behind, and smirked in the most disdainful manner towards them.

Showing contempt or scorn; having a pronounced lack of concern for others viewed as unworthy.


scare someone out of their wits

en-verb

scare someone out of their wits (third-person singular simple present scares someone out of their wits, present participle scaring someone out of their wits, simple past and past participle scared someone out of their wits)

scares someone out of their wits (present singular third-person)
scaring someone out of their wits (participle present)
scared someone out of their wits (participle past)
scared someone out of their wits (past)

He scared me out of my wits, sneaking up behind me in the dark like that.

(transitive, informal) To frighten someone to such an extent that they behave irrationally.


moody

en-adj

moody (comparative moodier, superlative moodiest)

moodier (comparative)
moodiest (superlative)

From Middle English mody, modi, from Old English mōdiġ (“brave”), from Proto-Germanic *mōdagaz (“courageous”). By surface analysis, mood + -y.

How now? moodie? / What is't thou canſt demand?

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4:

Given to sudden or frequent changes of mind; temperamental.


feared

feared (comparative more feared, superlative most feared)

more feared (comparative)
most feared (superlative)

Regarded with fear, respect, or reverence.


astraphobia

From Ancient Greek ἀστραπή (astrapḗ, “lightning”) + -phobia.

der

thunder and lightning
thunder and lightning

An abnormal fear of thunder and lightning.


scared shitless

(idiomatic, vulgar, slang) Very frightened, terrified.


sitophobia

From sito- + -phobia < Ancient Greek, σῖτος (sîtos, “wheat, bread”) + -φοβία (-phobía, “fear”).

(pathology) A morbid or insane dread of eating. An aversion to food.


scare the pants off

en-verb

scare the pants off (third-person singular simple present scares the pants off, present participle scaring the pants off, simple past and past participle scared the pants off)

scares the pants off (present singular third-person)
scaring the pants off (participle present)
scared the pants off (participle past)
scared the pants off (past)

He liked the water rides, but the big roller-coaster scared the pants off him.

(slang, idiomatic) To scare or startle someone thoroughly.


complaining

Elizabeth […] wished he were beside her, and was so glad to think he would soon be beside her always, with all his humours and weaknesses, all his little crossnesses and complainings[…]

1863, Dinah Maria Craik, Mistress and maid:

The act by which someone complains; a complaint.


nyctophilia

which disdains psychological analysis—"the obscurities that one encounters in Herman Melville or in Franz Kafka are not due to lack of resources for illumination, to artifices, or even to nyctophilia; they derive from the ultimate mystery of existence"; […]

1971, Americas (English Ed.), volume 23:

Manilal Desai died at a very young age. His posthumous collection edited by his friends manifests modern lyricism, nyctophilia and death obsessions.

1972, Contemporary Gujarati Poetry, Surat : Western India Publishing Company, page 6:

Getting Lost: Lovers engaged in nyctophilia can become disoriented in near-total darkness. It's easy […] Use your voice to locate your partner, then move slowly toward the voice. […]

2014, Felicia Zopol, The Sex Instruction Manual: Essential Information and Techniques for Optimum Performance, Quirk Books, page 174

It was late. The clock had just struck midnight and Thomas was distracting himself with another virtual reality horror game. Maybe it was a simple case of nyctophilia, but he found a certain level of comfort in scary games, especially the ones that involved Bigfoot. It was officially Halloween; and anything was better than thinking about that damned photograph […]

2020, Ethan Blake, Into the Hollow, first page of chapter 4

Love of the night; attraction (sometimes sexual) to night or darkness.


exuberance

en-noun

exuberance (countable and uncountable, plural exuberances)

/ˈɛɡ.ʒuː.bɜːɹ.əns/

From French exubérance, from Latin exuberantia (“superabundance”), from exuberare (“to grow thickly, to abound”); from ex- (“out”) + uber (“udder”), which would have originally referred to a cow or she-goat which was making so much milk that it naturally dripped or sprayed from the udder.

Tottenham's desire for a win against a Norwich side playing with energy and exuberance made for an enthralling, end-to-end game.

2012 April 9, Mandeep Sanghera, “Tottenham 1 - 2 Norwich”, in BBC Sport:

(uncountable) The quality of being exuberant; cheerful or vigorous enthusiasm; liveliness.


happy-go-lucky

en-adj

happy-go-lucky (comparative happy-go-luckier, superlative happy-go-luckiest)

happy-go-luckier (comparative)
happy-go-luckiest (superlative)

Hill says the shows began to morph from happy-go-lucky, fun series to production-line star-makers, which subconsciously changed the tone of the series: "Reality talent shows made it easier and quicker for audiences to pay to vote for the winner and loser, and to comment positively and negatively on contestants in social media."

2021 September 15, Laura Martin, “How talent shows became TV's most bizarre programmes”, in BBC:


heterophobia

Taguieff writes synonimically^([sic]) of racism and heterophobia (resentment of the different). […] Heterophobia seems to be a focused manifestation of a still wider phenomenon of anxiety aroused by the feeling that one has no control over the situation, […]

2013, Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, →ISBN, page 116:

Fear or resentment of what is different.

[…] a panel of teenagers of LGBT parents […] voiced concern about what they called "heterophobia"—they wished their parents weren't so negative and distrusting of straight people. Even suggesting that heterophobia exists for these children understandably evokes angry and skeptical responses because homo-hostile people have used the same word to support a bogus claim that gay rights discrimination against heterosexuals.

2004/2005, Abigail Garner, Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It Is, pages 213–214

Accusing a gay person of heterophobia is like accusing a Jew of Naziphobia.

2008 January 20, "Chief Thracian" (username), "Re: Under Attack", in alt.religion.shamanism and other newsgroups, Usenet

Some gay and lesbian counselors may need to reflect on another bias referred to as heterophobia, which is fear or dislike of heterosexuals […]

2011, Mark S. Kiselica, Matt Englar-Carlson, Arthur M. Horne, Counseling Troubled Boys: A Guidebook for Professionals, page 253:

Fear or resentment of heterosexuals or heterosexuality.

heterofòbia

fear or resentment of heterosexuals or heterosexuality


loathing

en-noun

loathing (countable and uncountable, plural loathings)

The man's loathing of his former friend was palpable; you could feel how much he now hated him.

Sense of revulsion, distaste, detestation, extreme hatred or dislike.

নফরৎ

sense of revulsion, distaste, detestation, extreme hatred or dislike


Valentine's Day

en-proper noun

Valentine's Day (plural Valentine's Days)

On the long time line of the so-human search for a profound and lasting happiness, many of us will still have our romances. Of the senses and the mind. We will have our spring dances, our candlelight dinners, our Valentine’s Days, our ear when we need to talk, our moonlit hand-holdings, our horizon gazings. our car rides in sensual silence.

1994, Wynton Marsalis, Frank Stewart, Sweet Swing Blues on the Road, New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 90:

Valentine’s Day is a time for love and affection. I do not know anyone who wants to spend Valentine’s Day alone. I love to spend my Valentine’s Days with the person I am dating or my family. I love buying and giving gifts during this holiday but the most important thing is being with the people I care about and love. [F, Diary]

2006, Cornelia Pechmann, Linda L. Price, editors, ACR in San Antonio 2005 (Advances in Consumer Research; XXXIII), Association for Consumer Research, →ISBN, page 361, column 1:

The idea of matching outfits suddenly seems like a great way to show our compatibility, so we eat breakfast in heart-covered pajamas, but this willingness to embarrass ourselves for amour is what makes our Valentine’s Days truly romantic.

2013, Mike Bender, Doug Chernack, “Valentine’s Day”, in Awkward Family Holiday Photos, New York, N.Y.: Three Rivers Press, →ISBN, page 13:

Saint Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day


hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia

/ˌhɪ.pəˌpɒ.tə(ʊ)ˈmɒn.stɹə(ʊ)ˌsɛs.kwɪ.pɪˌdɑːl.ɪ.ə(ʊ)ˈfəʊ.bɪ.ə/

From hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian, an extension of sesquipedalian with ad hoc combining forms of Latin monstrum (“monster”) and hippopotamus (intended to exaggerate the length of the word itself and the idea of the size of the words being feared), + -phobia.

Ben suffers from hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, so he seldom uses words of more than three syllables.

However, we assume that despite the best endeavours of science, some phobias will always remain. These include paraskavedekatriaphobia, or fear of Friday the 13th. And hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, which is fear of long words.

2002 April 19, anonymous author, The Scotsman, page 13:

Those who find this column troubling are suffering from hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia—the fear of long words. Or, more likely, rupophobia—a fear of rubbish.

2002 December 14, Chris Lloyd, The Northern Echo, page 10:

Coincidentally there is a masochistic PCP with hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of long words) curled up in an alleyway across the street. He has been whispering “Antidisestablishmentarianism” to himself over and over for two days now, experiencing up to one orgasm every three hours as a result of The Pain […]

2005 September 30, D. Harlan Wilson, Pseudo-City, Raw Dog Screaming Press, →ISBN, page 183:

hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

perhaps on purpose, to make the word even longer


Saint Valentine's Day

Tomorrow is S. Valentines day, all in the morning betime, / And I a Maid at your Window, to be your Valentine.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v], page 273:

A holiday in remembrance of Saint Valentine, February 14th, celebrated by sending cards or similar tokens of love.

عِيد اَلْحُبّ m (ʕīd al-ḥubb, literally “festival of love”)

день влюблённых m (denʹ vljubljónnyx, literally “lovers' day”)


ferocity

en-noun

ferocity (countable and uncountable, plural ferocities)

Borrowed from Middle French férocité, from Latin ferocitas, from ferox (“fierce”), from ferus (“wild, savage, fierce”).


lolicon

lolicon (usually uncountable, plural lolicons)

Borrowed from Japanese ロリコン (rorikon), clipping of ロリータ・コンプレックス (“Lolita complex”), from the Vladimir Nabokov novel Lolita and English complex (not from English Lolita complex, which comes from the Japanese term). Lolita comes from Spanish Lolita, diminutive of Lola, from the given name Dolores. By surface analysis, loli + -con (“abnormal sexual attraction”).

clipping

ロリータ・コンプレックス

surf

Innocence’s story—about female sex androids that kill their owners—is possible only in a Lolicon country like Japan. The androids are modeled after little girls[.]

2004, Patrick Macias, Tomohiro Machiyama, Cruising The Anime City: An Otaku Guide to Neo Tokyo, Stone Bridge Press, page 48:

A Japanese term derived from the English phrase “Lolita complex,” lolicon describes a fascination with cartoons of very young-looking girls engaged in varying degrees of erotic behavior.

2014 October 15, Matt Alt, “Pharrell Williams’s Lolicon Video”, in The New Yorker:

(uncountable, anime and manga) Attraction (often erotic) to young or young-looking female characters.


see red

en-verb

see red (third-person singular simple present sees red, present participle seeing red, simple past saw red, past participle seen red)

sees red (present singular third-person)
seeing red (participle present)
saw red (past)
seen red (participle past)

Possibly from the red flag used in some historic armies to signal the imminence of battle, or from the red cloth used to enrage bulls in Spanish bullfighting, or more generally from the idea of red as a colour of warning and danger. Compare corresponding idioms in several European languages: Danish se rødt, German rotsehen, French voir rouge, etc.

Diop, sometimes criticized for passive play, saw red once this season when he lashed out at a foe who kicked away his legs.

2005 January 26, Rob Hughes, “Soccer: Trio from Senegal is having a ball”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-11-14:

Kalinic later saw red for a rash tackle on Paul Scharner before Gabriel Tamas was dismissed for bringing down Diouf.

2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin, “West Brom 1 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC:

(idiomatic, soccer) To receive a red card, and be dismissed from the playing field.


enamor

enamor (third-person singular simple present enamors, present participle enamoring, simple past and past participle enamored)

enamors (present singular third-person)
enamoring (participle present)
enamored (participle past)
enamored (past)

From Middle English enamouren, a late back-formation from enamoured, itself a partial calque of Old French enamore, past participle of enamorer, enamourer, equivalent to prefix en- + amor + -er. See amour, and compare inamorato.

Me-thought I was enamoured of an Asse.

1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act IV, Scene I:

By Phœbus, here's a moſt neate fine ſtreete; is't not? I proteſt to thee, I am enamord of this ſtreete now, more then of halfe the ſtreetes of Rome, againe; tis ſo polite, and terſe; [...]

1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act III:

He was offered a chair in the university and a course abroad. But he hesitated. There was a girl of whom he became enamored, so he contemplated marriage and political activity.

1900, Leo Tolstoy, chapter 86, in William E. Smith, transl., The Awakening: The Resurrection:

(mostly in the passive, followed by "of" or "with") To cause to be in love.


emote

emote (third-person singular simple present emotes, present participle emoting, simple past and past participle emoted)

emotes (present singular third-person)
emoting (participle present)
emoted (participle past)
emoted (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-emote.wav

The verb is a back-formation from emotion. The noun is derived from the verb.

In the Latin category, dancers begin the round in carnival mode, bouncing and curving voltas traveling down the length of the floor, emoting happy celebration in a Brazilianesque samba.

2017, Laurie Frederik, “Painting the Body Brown and Other Lessons on How to Dance Latin”, in Laurie Frederik, Kim Marra, Catherine Schuler, Showing Off, Showing Up: Studies of Hype, Heightened Performance, and Cultural Power, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 55:

To display or express (emotions, mental states, etc.) openly, particularly while acting, and especially in an excessive manner.

přehrávat

to display or express (emotions, mental states, etc.) openly, particularly while acting, and especially in an excessive manner


rueful

en-adj

rueful (comparative more rueful, superlative most rueful)

more rueful (comparative)
most rueful (superlative)

From Middle English ruful, rewful; equivalent to rue + -ful.

Merely, he received it with the rueful indulgence that he would show towards Tom when he came through with one of his solutions for ending world poverty or the arms race.

Causing, feeling, or expressing regret or sorrow, especially in a wry or humorous way.

печален

causing, feeling, or expressing regret or sorrow


huffy

huffy (comparative huffier, superlative huffiest)

huffier (comparative)
huffiest (superlative)

(informal) Easily offended; thin-skinned or touchy.


atheophobia

At many institutions, I have found atheophobia to be rampant among students; and religiophobia to be common among faculty.

2003 Spring, Robert J. Nash, “Inviting Atheists to the Table: A Modest Proposal for Higher Education”, in Religion & Education, volume 30, number 1, New York, →DOI, →ISSN:

Atheophobia leads to invisibility for many atheists, who find it is best to keep their nonbelief hidden for their own good.

2009 Spring, Kathleen M. Goodman with John A. Mueller, “Invisible, marginalized, and stigmatized: Understanding and addressing the needs of atheist students”, in New Directions for Student Services, number 125, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 55–63:

Atheophobia should be just as unacceptable as homophobia, anti-Semitism, or racism.

2011 January 25, Dan Barker, The Good Atheist: Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God, Berkeley: Ulysses Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 42:

無神論恐怖症

むしんろんきょうふしょう


empathic

empathic (comparative more empathic, superlative most empathic)

more empathic (comparative)
most empathic (superlative)

(science fiction) Of, pertaining to, or being an empath: of or having the capability of sensing the emotions of others.


penthos

He watched with a chill of wonder the basalt mask splotched with ivy shadow whose round eyes stared back with Kolonian penthos, Dushara with his face among leaves.


hemophobia

en-noun

hemophobia (usually uncountable, plural hemophobias)


vorarephilia

From Latin vorare (“to devour”) + -philia.

1998, Karl Xydexx Jorgensen, in alt.fan.furry http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.furry/msg/1a213152a9bb5836?dmode=source&hl=en
Ooh, vorarephilia. What's eating me? A big wolfy, prolly. I'm everyone's favorite chew-toy.

1999, Kevin Alexander Cosmic, in alt.fan.vore http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.vore/msg/b0833972db5377ca?dmode=source&hl=en
A place to discuss vorarephilia... Why, I am right on topic here, my kind of place, and not even any competing predators to snatch my prey away while I play with it, harrr harrr harrrr!

2004, Cecil Adams, The Straight Dope 2 July https://web.archive.org/web/20080512084711/http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040702.html
Vore (short for vorarephilia) is a code word for a sexual interest in things eating other things.

A paraphilia or fetish in role-playing, involving the devouring of or being devoured by another person or creature—whether alive and whole ("soft vore"), or with gore or killing ("hard vore").

voraphilia

vore; probably by influence from the clipped form


limerent

en-adj

limerent (comparative more limerent, superlative most limerent)

more limerent (comparative)
most limerent (superlative)


tropophobia

The fear of moving or of making changes.


splenetic

splenetic (comparative more splenetic, superlative most splenetic)

more splenetic (comparative)
most splenetic (superlative)

The adjective form of spleen, borrowed from Late Latin spleneticus, from Latin splen. Anger was traditionally believed to originate from the fluids of the spleen.

A sect, whose chief devotion lies / In odd perverse antipathies; / […] / More peevish, cross, and splenetick, / Than dog distract, or monkey sick.

1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:

Horace seems to have purg'd himself from those Splenetick Reflections in those Odes and Epodes, before he undertook the Noble Work of Satires; which were properly so call'd.

1692, John Dryden, “A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire,”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis:

[…] here were no Gibers, Cenſurers, Backbiters, Pick-pockets, Highwaymen, Houſebreakers, Attorneys, Bawds, Buffoons, Gameſters, Politicians, Wits, ſplenetick tedious Talkers, Controvertiſts, Raviſhers, Murderers, Robbers, Virtuoſo's; […]

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Oeconomy and Happy Life among the Houyhnhnms. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 301:

Laura was at a loss to account for her cousin’s sulky behaviour, and ignorant in what she had offended him; however, she was not angry in her turn at Pen’s splenetic mood, for she was the most good-natured and forgiving of women, and besides, an exhibition of jealousy on a man’s part is not always disagreeable to a lady.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 27, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

In fact, Gwendolen, not intending it, but intending the contrary, had offended her hostess, who, though not a splenetic or vindictive woman, had her susceptibilities.

1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Daniel Deronda, volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:

In 1979 he published Contre le cinéma situationniste, néo-nazi (Against Neo-Nazi Situationist Cinema), a pamphlet on Hurlements and Debord's later films so splenetic that Isou was unable to bring himself to mention Debord by name; […]

1989, Greil Marcus, “The Attack on Charlie Chaplin”, in Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009:

Bad-tempered, irritable, peevish, spiteful, habitually angry.

I have already described the general protuberance of the abdomen among the children throughout the Messaria and the Carpas districts, all of whom are more or less affected by splenetic diseases.

1879, Sir Samuel White Baker, Cyprus, as I Saw it in 1879


splenetic

(archaic) A person affected with spleen.


tomophobia

Tomophobia is the fear of surgical procedures or medical intervention.

2020 May 15, “What is tomophobia?”, in Tomophobia: When the Fear of Surgery and Other Medical Procedures Becomes a Phobia:

If you have tomophobia, it might be hard to get to the doctor at all; it’s the fear of surgical procedures and medical interventions.

2020 December 29, “Tomophobia: fear of medical procedures”, in Five common medical phobias:

Tomophobia refers to fear or anxiety caused by forthcoming surgical procedures and/or medical interventions.

2009 November 18, “Introduction”, in Tomophobia, the phobic fear caused by an invasive medical procedure - an emerging anxiety disorder: a case report:

Tomophobia is the fear or anxiety caused by forthcoming surgical procedures and/or medical interventions.

2021 February 16, Tomophobia - the fear that isn’t:

“Uncle, tomophobia is in your mind. Doctor is your friend. Trust them and let them give you anesthesia and after that you won't even feel a thing. And then Karan bhaiya will be present there too. How many people can boast of having a relative with them in the operation theater? You will be perfectly fine,” Rishabh said, like 50th time in the last hour that he was sitting in Raizada Mansion, but boy’s energy level refused to go down.

2015 March 22, Anamika G. K., Making Khushi Mine, volume 2, Indic Publication, Incorporated, →ISBN, page 236, →ISBN:

He wasn't keen on spiders and snakes, but his major one, the one that had always haunted and taunted him is referred to medically as tomophobia; the fear of surgical operations.

2015 February 11, Michael Foxx, Spiteful Jack 2: Vengeance, Paragon Publishing, →ISBN, page 111, →ISBN:

Don't you mean tomophobia? I mean, why use magic when there's a perfectly good scalpel at hand? :)

2003, Spuddie, “You read it first here”, in alt.penpals.forty-plus-yrs (Usenet):

(neologism, rare) An unusual fear of surgeries or medical procedures involving cutting.


trepid

trepid (comparative more trepid, superlative most trepid)

more trepid (comparative)
most trepid (superlative)

the trepid mouse