Word of the Day!

highfalutin, highfalutin' [hahy-fuh-loot-n]

adjective:
(informal) seeming or trying to seem superior, important, etc; pompous; pretentious

Examples:

When you study English Literature you're given this highfalutin poetry that you really have to get into - that once you understand, you can really appreciate. But actually getting to that point takes a while. (Stories for unsettling times, chosen by Anita Rani, Jo Brand, Richard Armitage and Rob Delaney, The State Journal-Register, November 2023)

The only thing not funny about it is that it's essentially a shibboleth, a secret handshake for the vainglorious highfalutin pseuds who use it. (James Gingell, How to write the shortest joke in the world, The Guardian, February 2016)

If it seems strange to hold a fast-food company to such highfalutin standards, it may also be just what Burger King is going for with its new 'thick, hardwood-smoked bacon'-garnished creation. (Rachel Arons, Why Does Fancy Fast Food Make Us Mad?, The New Yorker, October 2012)

He had been prepared to find her a most difficult young woman to get acquainted with. Yet here it was proving so simple. There was nothing highfalutin about her company manners - it was by this homely phrase that he differentiated this Dede on horseback from the Dede with the office manners whom he had always known. (Jack London, Burning Daylight)

I'm glad you didn't load him down with some highfalutin, romantic name that he'd be ashamed of when he gets to be a grandfather. ( L M Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams)

Origin:

1839, US slang, possibly from high-flying or high-flown, or even fluting. As a noun from 1848 (Online Etymology Dictionary)

humdinger [huhm-ding-er]

noun:
a person, thing, action, or statement of remarkable excellence or effect; a striking or extraordinary person or thing

Examples:

Do you prefer biographies? Neil Baldwin's Martha Graham: When Dance Became Modern is a real humdinger. (Kristofer Collins, Pittsburgh Lit: What We're Reading in December, The Pittsburgh Magazine, November 2023)

But Bellew found a second wind and hurt Cleverly with some big right hands as the fight developed into a humdinger. (Nick Canepacolumnist, Nathan Cleverly beats Bellew to retain WBO light-heavyweight belt, BBC Sport, October 2011)

His marriage to Lauren Bacall was a happy one (after failures with Helen Menken and Mary Philips, then a real humdinger with Mayo Methot, an alcoholic harpy who threw tantrums, threw bottles and at one point literally stabbed him in the back), but Kanfer doesn’t try to fathom how Bacall, barely beyond girlhood, put up with her depressive, hard-drinking, middle-aged and, apparently, philandering mate. (Craig Seligman, Tough Without a Gun: Book Review, The Hollywood Reporter, February 2011)

He says he knows your mine; it's the Golden Prize, and it's a bonanza; regular humdinger! (Edwin L Sabin, The Pike's Peak Rush)

Origin:

1883, American English, probably from dinger, an early 19c slang word for anything superlative (Online Etymology Dictionary)

hangry [hang-gree]

adjective:
feeling irritable or irrationally angry as a result of being hungry

Examples:

If you've ever felt hangry, consider this: Brown bears in Alaska woke up this spring after not eating for about 6 months. And no, 'hangry' might not be a technical term. But in this case, it's apt. (Bill Chappell, Fat Bear Week would be postponed by a government shutdown, BBC News, September 2023)

In one of the first studies to explore how hunger affects emotions as people go about their daily lives, psychologists found that the more hungry people felt, the more angry - or hangry - they became. (Ian Sample, 'Hangry is a real thing': psychologists find link between hunger and emotions, The Guardian, July 2022)

You probably know what it’s like to be hangry. It’s often the perfect storm of low blood sugar and fatigue coming together to bring out the monster within. If it can happen to us, it makes sense animals could feel this way too. (Mandi Jacewicz, Orange Cat's Behavior Before and After Eating Proves Animals Get Hangry Too, ParadePets, September 2023)

Even friends and family are fair game, perhaps because damage to a set of brain regions called the core face network means they can no longer distinguish a friend from a potentially tasty stranger. That insatiable appetite is a clue that the hypothalamus has gone haywire and is overproducing the hunger-stimulating hormone ghrelin, dooming them to be perpetually hangry. (Bonnie Berkowitz and Shelly Tan, Craving brains and hangry: Zombie behavior demystified by scientists, The Washington Post, October 2023)

A new study shows Americans need to be better about snacking, as three-fourths say they get 'hangry' five times a week. (Study: 75% of Americans get 'hangry' five times a week, CBS News Minnesota, September 2022)

and a video of a grumpy, hangry dog :)

First recorded in 1915–20; h(ungry) + angry. (Dictionary.com)

The earliest known use of the adjective hangry is in the 1910s. OED's earliest evidence for hangry is from 1918, in a letter by Arthur Ransome, journalist and writer. (Oxford Online Dictionary)

hellscape [hel-skeyp]

noun:
1 a bleak landscape or one that resembles hell
2 a place or time that is hopeless, unbearable, or irredeemable

Examples:

The planet is a toxic hellscape, but upon scanning its atmosphere a compound called phosphine was detected, which can originate from organic processes. (Mike Wehner, Signs of life on Venus may have been found decades ago, BGR, October 2020)

Much of the energy comes from the way De Kretser lets us piece together the precise nature of her climate-ravaged hellscape, as when Lyle speaks casually of prepping his cattle prod before walking to his car at night. (Anthony Cummins, Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser review – anger, alarm and satirical glee, BGR, January 2022)

The founders claim the product was named for a soy and lentil foodstuff from the novel 'Make Room! Make Room!', which portrays an apocalyptic hellscape of overpopulation. (Kory Stamper, Fake meat needs a better name, Boston Globe, November 2018)

Origin:

First recorded in 1890–95; hell + -scape (Dictionary.com)