Embedded Files
TERS, adjective
From the Latin tersus, meaning "clean and neat." We use it to refer to a communication that is clean and neat, i.e., brief and concise, not wordy or flowery. Here in the Dojo, terseness is a virtue.
Although Esther appreciated the letters her son sent her, she often felt cheated by his terse writing style.
BROHCH, verb
To approach or introduce a topic for discussion.*
Lester wanted to tell Esther that he had won a lot of money at the track, but because he'd skipped work to do it, he wasn't sure how to broach the boast.
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* Yes, broach a topic and broach a subject are trite expressions. But, as with all members of the tritery, which are phrases, the constituent words themselves can serve honorably in your passive vocabulary.KAHRP, verb
To carp is to complain or find fault.
Carpe diem – Seize the day.
Carpe carp – Catch the fish...or...Never pass up an opportunity to complain.
STAYD, adjective
This is actually a form of the word stayed. To be staid is to be unmoved, typically in an emotional sense.
Esther couldn’t tell from Lester’s staid expression if he liked her new haircut.
LAYZ, verb
This is the rarely seen verb form of the adjective lazy. Interestingly, it’s considered an action verb.
Don’t you just love televised sports? Nothing inspires a man to laze away an afternoon more than watching highly motivated humans engage in vigorous physical activity.
LAYV, verb
Laving is what goes on in a lavatory. To lave is to wash.
When Lester rushed home from work, he figured he had 10 minutes to lave and shave before his hot date.
WEHND, verb
A novel way of saying that one is journeying from here to there.
To show Esther that he wasn’t a complete couch potato, Lester would wend to the refrigerator and back during commercial breaks.
FAYN, verb
To feign is to deceive by faking an action or condition.
Esther suspects that Lester feigns incompetence whenever she needs something fixed around the house. (Esther’s mother insists, however, that it’s true.)
FAYN, adverb
Here’s a fun little word. Substitute it for the word gladly to elevate your conversations to Shakespearean levels.
“Fain would I help free thee from thy wet gown,” offered the Bard.
DRAHS, noun
An alternative term for waste and excrement.
Although Esther told Lester that she loved the poem he’d written for her, she actually thought it naught but dross and drivel.
SPLAY, verb
Splay means to spread out.
Although Lester’s work was splayed haphazardly throughout the office, he knew exactly where everything was.
PRAHG, verb
To look or snoop around. Forage.
I hate VIP visits. I can never get anything done with all those people progging about, asking stupid questions.
KWAHSH, verb
Another fun little word, because it sounds like "squash" and means something similar. To quash is to put a stop to something.
Nothing quashes a good time like having to drag your wife along, thought Lester when asked why he never brings Esther to the track with him.
MEEN, noun
Your personal bearing or demeanor. It’s how you carry yourself.
Esther wondered why Lester always assumed this mock aristocratic mien whenever he met local community big shots.
KUHL, verb
To cull is to pick out certain members of a group of something, to choose carefully.
When Esther finally got around to enjoying the chocolates her mother had sent, she discovered that Lester had culled all the best pieces from the assortment.
DRUHB, verb
To beat as if a drum. I think that perhaps the word comes from saying “drum” with a stopped-up nose—like a radio announcer who’s trying too hard.
Lester swore he would never watch the home team again after the thorough and humiliating drubbing they got in this year’s playoffs.
GAM, noun or verb
This one comes by way of the sea. It seems that whalers are a lonely lot. Those occasions when they are able to get together produce some colorful vocabulary, e.g., gam and mallemaroking. A gam is a social gathering of whales or whalers. The verb form describes the act of gathering in a gam.
Whenever Esther was off visiting her mother, Lester would gam with the boys down at O’Conner’s.
TRIYT, adjective
From the Latin for “worn out,” it refers to something that is overused. Here in the Dojo, we guard against the use of trite expressions.
After taking over as manager, Lester fed his employees a stale but steady diet of buzzwords and trite motivational phrases.
RIYF, adjective
Abundant, full of.
Lester's words seemed polite enough, but they were rife with sarcasm and insincerity.
REHST, verb
To wrestle something away from someone or something.
Lester won it big in the state lottery, only to have online poker wrest his fortune away within a few weeks.
TOWT, verb
To praise or brag about something.
After his first week on the air, Lester’s mother touted him as the greatest thing to happen to radio since Marconi first made waves.
DIHNT, noun
A cute replacement for power or force. Typically used in the form “by dint of...”
The mere dint of Lester's social connections all but guarantees him the position.
DERTH, noun
A lack or shortage of something.
The extent of our liabilities is exceeded only by a dearth of talent.
KLAK, noun
Claquing is what a French audience does to show their appreciation. A claque is a group of people one keeps nearby to applaud nearly everything he or she does.
Planning a lunch for the CEO wouldn’t be so hard if it weren’t for the large claque he’ll be towing along with him.
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Note: I guess that when the French say claque in modern usage, it means to slap someone. I find that delightfully useful.PAYST, verb
To whoop thoroughly, to drub.
Lester actually enjoys hearing from telemarketers. He says there's nothing like baiting and verbally pasting strangers to work out the day’s frustrations.
STIHNT, verb
To stint is to cut costs, to spend sparingly.
Lester tries to get Esther not to stint on things for the house. It seems like he is always fixing or replacing them shortly after she buys them.
ROYL, verb
To stir up or rile.
Esther always felt these violent urges roiling within her whenever Lester's friends started carping about their wives.
LAHL, verb
Another action verb that means inaction. Lolling means moving around in a lazy manner.
Lester spent the weekend lolling around the house, not really getting much of anything done.
TWEE, adjective
It’s baby talk for “sweet.” Something is twee when it’s really cute.
Oblivious to the popular notion that 60-year-old women as a rule do not look cute in miniskirts, Esther reveled in the delusion that she looked quite twee in hers.
DEHFT, adjective
Better to be deft than daft. To be deft is to be able to do something with the utmost skill and coordination.
Lester is usually a social slug when it comes to the ladies, but he was uncharacteristically deft in successfully lobbying Esther for a date.
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