Wednesday Word: stentorian

[trellia-chan.livejournal.com]

stentorian: [sten-tohr-ee-uh n]

adjective: Very loud or powerful in sound, such as a stentorian voice.

etymology: Coined around 1600. From Stentor, the Greek herald in the Trojan War, described in "The Iliad" to have a voice as loud as 50 men. His name comes from the Greek word stenein meaning "groan, moan."

Thursday word: dictionatical

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

dictionatical (dik-shun-NAY-ti-kuhl) - adj., authorized or approved by dictionaries.


This word is not self-describing, as it cannot be found in dictionaries: the only citation that can be found (aside from people citing the citation) is a 1914 Kansas newspaper, "I don't think that word is dictionatical," which was picked up by an American dialect dictionary a few years later. The obligatory comment is to claim it ought to be a natural for use by Scrabble players:

"That play's not dictionatical!"

---L.