Plait

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Plait: Fold.

Plate: Flat thing; superficial surface or skin; denture; dish.

Played: Performed or used, had fun.

Plaid: In Scotland, a blanket; in America, a tartan.

Pled: Argued a case, begged.

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Pike

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Pike: Fish; long stick for soldiers, amusement park

Picture this: A fish carrying a long stick through an amusement park.

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Sop

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Sop: Something to dip into something wet; the wet stuff.

See the poem: No Possum, No Sop, No Taters. By Wallace Stevens

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Watchdog

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Watchdog: One who oversees; dog for scaring off the unwelcome. Congressional committee.

A watchdog is a dog that fits on your wrist or in your watchpocket. It is powered by a spring or a battery. The spring must be wound up daily; the battery must be replaced once in awhile. The most reliable watchdogs are regulated by a quartz crystal. Straps and fobs vary according to taste. Once a year a best-in-show meet is held to determine which watchdog has the most erect tail. The Spanish word for tail is cola. Coca-Cola is one of those terms that defies translation.

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Lull

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Lull: Quiet time between brouhahas.

Rhymes with all sorts of unrelated words:

Bull, cull, dull, full, gull, hull, mull, null, pull.

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Meandros

Paltry

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Paltry: Small amount or worthless item.

A modest, unassuming bird.
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My income is so paltry I can only afford to eat poultry.


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Perish

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Perish: Die

Homonyms:

Parish: Zone

Pear-ish: Like a pear

Parrish: Mitchell, famous songwriter, often with Hoagy Carmichael

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Hyacinth

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Hyacinth: A flower; A mythical Greek hero killed by a Frisbee thrown by Apollo.


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Squadron

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Squadron: A bunch of people or things with a purpose in mind.

I had the notion that a squadron was a passle of airplanes organized for combat. It appears to be much more general a word.

Squad: A small military unit of squares, similar to Graham crackers.

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Hack

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Hack: A kind of cough. To mess with a computer program. Chop up.

A hacker is thought of these days as someone who maliciously attacks computers by infiltrating the programs that are used by the processing devices. Earlier (first seen in 1984) it meant an expert at things computer. Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak were early-on hackers.

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SED

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SED: There are dozens, maybe hundreds of definitions for this acronym. In Spanish it means thirst. If you say tengo sed to a Spanish-speaking doctor, you may get a glass of water or a prescription for a SubErythemalDose of medicine. Watch what you say.

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Fell

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Fell: Terrible.

Fell Swoop: The swoop or stoop of a falcon or similar bird of prey, resulting in terror and death for the target. My family thought it hilarious to transmogrify or Spoonerize the words into "swell foop".

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Sine

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Sushi

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Sushi: It’s sour.

Sushi is not raw fish, it is vinegared rice topped with something, usually raw fish.

Sashimi is raw fish.

Sashimi: Pierced body.

Whatever you may think about vinegared rice and raw fish, sushi is a funny word

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Ruck

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Ruck: Efforts to possess a football.

Rucksack: Sack to keep ruck in.

knapsack: Sack for keeping snapping noises in.

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Millisecond

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Millisecond:one thousandth of a second.

The amount of time between buying a new item to replace the one that has been absolutely, for certain, beyond dispute never to be found again, and the time you find it.
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Pill

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Pill: Pellet

My sister and I went on a boat trip around the harbor. She was sitting in front of me. I reached over her shoulder and handed her a tic-tac mint as we were starting out. After the trip, as we walked to the car, she remarked at how effective the seasickness pill had been.

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Tapdance

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Tapdance: Dance noisily to patterns. Skirt the issue.

Skirt: Dodge the truth. Garment hung from the waist.

Skort: Shorts with a skirt in one garment.

Politicians and other people often skirt the issue, tapdancing around the truth in their mini-skorts.


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Woody

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Woody Allen
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Pass

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Pass: A narrow path through a mountainous area. Hit on. An apparently resented show of interest by a man toward a woman. Click on title for many more definitions.

A woman may complain about a man hitting on her or making a pass. I guess that means he made unwanted advances. What if the advances are welcome? What is he doing then? What does he need to know in order to show interest without being offensive. Sometimes women seem to be upset if a man does not make a pass at her. Can a woman hit on a man? If the answer is yes, how should he feel about it? The term "womanizer" is often heard. Is there a term "manizer"?

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Arm

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Arm: Something that sticks out; a weapon.

Soldier: One who serves for pay.

I learned recently that an army's foot soldiers are called infantry because they are little more than children in age and experience. Really.

Arm is one of those words with many uses; firearm, human arm with elbow and fingers, to prepare for a fight, to prepare for anything, an offshoot of a river, a branch of a tree. I could go on.

Let's see; if you give arms to a soldier who serves for pay and he shoots someone he is told to shoot, he is a hero, if he is in the army of his country. If he is in another country's army he is a mercenary. If he joins the enemy's army for pay, he is a traitor. If he joins the enemy's army because he believes the enemy is right, he is an idealist and a traitor and a mercenary.

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Serge

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Serge: noun: a twilled woolen fabric

As I understand it, we improved our situation in Iraq by sending in a twilled woolen fabric consisting of a whole bunch more troops. Let's hear it for the serge!

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Klepsydra

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Klepsydra: Water Thief*, A slope in Greece, a water clock for timing speeches.

*"Klepsydra really does mean water thief. It's from the Greek words kleptes and hydro, kleptes meaning steal (Kleptomania, Kleptocracy?) and hydra meaning water (Hydrophobia, Hydraulics?)".

As far as I know, a wristwatch version of a klepsydra has never been attempted.


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Redux

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Redux: Return

verb: Revive, bring back
noun: Revival

I can't think of any reason to ever use this word in a conversation or in writing. On page 76, Strunk and White's Elements of style (Fourth Edition) suggests that you avoid fancy words. How magniloquatious!


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Kerfuffel

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Kerfuffle: Dust-up, Commotion, fuss.

Kerfuffle seems to me such a delightful word that it is worth creating a
commotion just to be able to use the word.

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Complex

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Complex: Not simple; a grouping; a collection of neuroses.

As a noun, pronounced CAHM-pleks; as an adjective pronounced cum-PLEKS.

I think I have a complex about the adjectival pronunciation. It always sounds ignorant to me. It is all so complicated.

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