With my apologies to Adragayle, I will briefly derail this thread by mentioning a word that was recently added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) this year, and that word is gigil.
Gigil is a Tagalog word that describes the emotional reaction to overwhelming cuteness.
With only a single mention in these forums back in July 2022, I'm really surprised gigil hasn't gained more traction here, especially given all the threads featuring cutie patootie pet pics. For my part, I will start using the word gigil quite gratuitously from now on.
I'm so gigil over an agouti I googled.
I now return you back to the M-W Word of the Day.
@TxTom no apologies needed. I love that others are adding words to this thread. New words are always fun to learn about. Thank you for this one. It seems that Merriam-Webster and Dictionary dot com have not yet added it to their dictionary. I had to Google search it for more info and how to pronounce it.
What is gigil Tagalog slang?
Gigil, extracted from the Philippines' Tagalog language, refers to what psychologists describe as cute aggression: “[a] feeling so intense that it gives us the irresistible urge to tightly clench our hands, grit our teeth, and pinch or squeeze whomever or whatever it is we find so adorable”. Sourced from www.theguardian.com
How to pronounce gigil
Agouti (noun | ə-ˈgü-tē)
1: any of a genus (Dasyprocta) of tropical American rodents about the size of a rabbit
Penchant (noun | PEN-chunt)
Penchant refers to a strong liking for something, or a strong tendency to behave in a certain way. It is usually used with for.
// My penchant for mathematics helped me become an engineer.
Did You Know?
English has multiple p-words that imply a strong instinct or liking for something, including propensity and proclivity, but to keep things precise, penchant is the proper word for implying a pronounced, persistent taste in a person ("a penchant for pretty pendants") or a predominant predilection for performing particular actions ("a penchant for petting penguins"). Penchant traces back all the way to the Latin verb pendere, meaning "to weigh," but is more immediately preceded in English by the French word penchant, from the present participle of pencher, meaning "to incline."
Cynosure A cynosure is a person or thing that attracts a lot of attention or interest. As a proper noun, Cynosure may refer to the North Star or its constellation Ursa Minor.
Ancient mariners noted that all the stars in the heavens seemed to revolve around a particular star, and they relied on that star to guide their navigation. The constellation that this bright star appears in is known to English speakers today as Ursa Minor, or the Little Dipper, but the Ancient Greeks called it Kynósoura, a term that comes from a phrase meaning "dog's tail." Kynósoura passed into Latin and Middle French, becoming cynosure. When English speakers adopted the term in the 16th century, they used it as a name for both the constellation and the star (which is also known as the North Star or Polaris) and also to identify a guide of any kind. By the 17th century, cynosure was also being used figuratively for anything or anyone that, like the North Star, is the focus of attention or observation.
One of those words that you learn, and then hear like seven times the rest of your life…
@CharlesGrove True story, lol
Effusive (adjective | ih-FYOO-siv) Someone or something described as effusive is expressing or showing a lot of emotion or enthusiasm.
// Jay positively glowed as effusive compliments on the meal echoed around the table.
Did You Know
English speakers have used effusive to describe excessive outpourings since the 17th century. Its oldest and still most common sense relates to the expression of abundant emotion or enthusiasm, but in the 1800s, geologists adopted a specific sense characterizing flowing lava, or hardened rock formed from flowing lava. Effusive can be traced, via the Medieval Latin adjective effūsīvus ("generating profusely, lavish"), to the Latin verb effundere ("to pour out"), which itself comes from fundere ("to pour") plus a modification of the prefix ex- ("out"). Our verb effuse has the same Latin ancestors. A person effuses when speaking effusively. Liquids can effuse as well, as in "water effusing from a pipe."
Remember, to the English a smile, in and of itself, is effusive.
Snark (noun | SNAHRK)
Snark is an informal word that refers to an attitude or expression of mocking irreverence and sarcasm.
// The stand-up comedian’s set was full of snark about current events, which had the audience rolling in the aisles.
Credit for snark is often given to Lewis Carroll, on the basis of his having written a poem with this word in the title, back in the 1870s. The modern snark, however, is a back-formation (“a word formed by subtraction of a real or supposed affix from an already existing longer word”), a class of words that includes burgle and back-stab. It comes from taking the longer word snarky and subtracting the -y. Snarky emerged in English around the turn of the 20th century, initially with the meaning of “snappish, crotchety,” and then later took on the sense of “sarcastic, impertinent, or irreverent in tone or manner.” The noun snark is a much more recent addition to the language, arising in the 1990s. It was preceded by the verb snark, “to make an irreverent or sarcastic comment, to say something snarky,” which dates to the late 1980s.
Hew (verb | HYOO)
Hew is commonly used with to to mean "to conform to or adhere to (something)." Hew on its own has several meanings having to do with cutting or shaping with a sharp tool, such as an ax. Both hewed and hewn are past participles of hew.
// The senator has always hewed closely to the party line.
// The explorers hewed logs for building cabins.
Without context, the contrasting meanings of hew may seem arbitrary. What does shaping something with an ax have to do with conforming or adhering to something? If you're not a lumberjack, that's okay, we'll explain. The connection lies in the woodworking phrase "hew to the line," where line refers to the mark along the length of a log indicating where to chop in order to shape a beam. "Hewing to the line," literally, is cutting along the mark—adhering to it—until the side of the log is squared. In the 1800s, "hew to the line" was used figuratively as half of the idiom "hew to the line, let the chips fall where they may," to advise someone to stay true to a course of action, whatever the consequences may be. Over time the latter half of the phrase has been, well, hewn off.
adjective | bih-NYNE
Benign describes something that does not cause harm or damage. In medical contexts it is used to describe something that does not threaten life or health (as in "a benign tumor"). Additional meanings include "mild and pleasant" (as in "benign weather conditions") and "showing kindness and gentleness" (as in "a benign outlook").
// The project required that we manage some inconvenient but ultimately benign conditions.
Benign traces back to the Latin adjective benignus, which was formed from bene, meaning "well," and the verb gignere, "to beget"—that is, "to produce or create." Gignere is also the root of such English words as genius and germ, and even shares distant ancestry with kin. The meanings of benign range from describing an absence of danger or harm to that which shows kindness or is gracious or wholesome.
Impresario (noun | im-pruh-SAHR-ee-oh)
An impresario is a person who manages, puts on, or sponsors a performance or other entertainment, such as a concert, play, or sporting event.
// The former heavyweight retired from the ring and later became a boxing impresario.
Concerts, music festivals, television series, professional wrestling matches—these are quite the undertakings. Luckily, there’s a word for the impressive individuals responsible for organizing and overseeing such productions: impresario. In the 1700s, English borrowed impresario directly from Italian, whose noun impresa means “undertaking.” (A close relative is the English word emprise, “an adventurous, daring, or chivalric enterprise,” which, like impresario, traces back to the Latin verb prehendere, meaning “to seize.”) At first English speakers used impresario as the Italians did, to refer to opera company managers, though today it is used much more broadly. It should be noted that, despite their apparent similarities, impress and impresario are not related. Impress is a descendant of the Latin verb pressare, a form of the word premere, meaning “to press.”
Malleable (adjective | MAL-ee-uh-bul)
Something described as malleable is capable of being stretched or bent into different shapes, or capable of being easily changed or influenced.
// Let the cookie dough thaw until it becomes malleable enough to thinly roll.
// Students' minds are malleable and they need positive influences and guidance.
Language is constantly evolving; the meanings, spellings, and pronunciations of words are reshaped over time. Take, for example, the Latin noun malleus, meaning "hammer." This word was adapted to create the Latin verb malleare, meaning "to hammer," which led eventually to the English adjective malleable. Malleable originally meant "capable of being extended or shaped by beating with a hammer," and over time adopted the broader sense "capable of being shaped, altered, or controlled." If you guessed that maul and mallet, other English words for specific types of hammers, are also modeled from malleus, you have hit the nail on the head.
Apparatchik (noun | ah-puh-RAH-chik)
Apparatchik is used disapprovingly to refer to a blindly devoted official, follower, or member of an organization, such as a corporation or political party.
// This generation of graduates wants more out of life than to become establishment apparatchiks.
The apparat in apparatchik (a term English speakers borrowed from Russian) essentially means "party machine," with machine referring to a highly organized political group under the leadership of a boss or small group of individuals: apparatchik originally referred to someone functioning as a cog in the system of the Communist Party. The term is not a flattering one, and its negative connotations reflect the perception of some Communists as obedient drones in the great Party machine. In current use, however, a person doesn't have to be a member of the Communist Party to be called an apparatchik; they just have to be someone who mindlessly follows orders in an organization or bureaucracy.
Chary (adjective | CHAIR-ee)
Chary is usually used with about or of to describe someone who is cautious about doing something.
// The director is chary about spending money.
// I’ve always been chary of travelling alone.
How did chary, which began as the opposite of cheery, become a synonym of wary? Don’t worry, there’s no need to be chary—the answer is not dreary. Chary’s Middle English predecessor, charri, meant “sorrowful,” a sense that harks back to the Old English word cearig, meaning “troubled, troublesome, taking care,” which ultimately comes from an assumed-but-unattested Germanic word, karō, meaning “sorrow” or “worry,” that is also an ancestor of the word care. It’s perhaps unsurprising then, that chary was once used to mean “dear” or “cherished.” Both sorrow and affection have largely faded from chary, and today the word is most often used as a synonym of careful.
Kitsch (noun | KITCH)
Kitsch refers to something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often cheap or tacky. Kitsch also refers to a tacky or lowbrow quality or condition.
// The restaurant is decorated with 1950s furniture and kitsch from old TV shows.
// The critic opined that the movie, despite its lofty ambitions, at times descended into kitsch.
Have you ever browsed through a flea market or thrift shop? If so, chances are you’re well-acquainted with kitsch, the various bits and bobs of popular culture—fuzzy dice, plastic flamingos, cartoon-themed plastic lunchboxes, etc.—that enjoy widespread popularity but don’t hold much cultural esteem. Or maybe you’re a fan of (what some might call) cheesy movies—action movies and rom-coms that score big at the box office but are panned by critics—kitsch often applies to them, too, as well as to “lowbrow” art of all kinds. English users borrowed kitsch in the early 20th century from German; according to scholars the word was popularized by Munich painters and art dealers in the 1860s and 1870s who used it to refer to popular and cheap artwork. The word’s earlier origins are found in the German verb kitschen, meaning “to slap something (such as a work of art) together” as well as “to scrape up mud from the street.” Despite these muddy origins and the disapproving tone with which kitsch is often deployed, kitsch is not quite the “dirty” word it once was—kitsch today is as likely to be celebrated as it is to be derided.
Kitschen (ˈkɪtʃ.ᵊn)
Kitschen is a trend in interior design that combines the elements of kitsch (gaudy, tacky, or overly eccentric) with a kitchen, creating a unique, playful, and characterful space. It's about embracing a maximalist style, using bold colors, and incorporating quirky, vintage, or unexpected items to make the kitchen feel more personal and fun.
In the context of "kitschen," kitsch is not necessarily seen as negative. Instead, it's embraced as a source of fun, individuality, and a way to express one's personality.