Word of the Day!

val·e·tu·di·nar·i·an [ vàllə tood'n érree ən ] or val·e·tu·di·nar·y [ vàllə tood'n èrree ]
noun (plural val·e·tu·di·nar·i·ans) (plural val·e·tu·di·nar·ies)
Definition:
1. somebody with poor health: somebody who has persistent ill health
2. somebody obsessed with health: somebody who is excessively concerned with his or her own health

adjective
Definition:
1. of valetudinarian: relating to or being a valetudinarian
2. of poor health: relating to, characterized by, or arising from poor health

[Late 16th century. < Latin valetudinarius "in ill health" < valetudo "state of health" < valere "be well"]

health. Encarta® World English Dictionary [North American Edition] © & (P)2009 Microsoft Corporation. http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/health.html (accessed: August 7, 2009).

Example:
The Dr. sighed, not this guy again!
"Dr. are you sure there is nothing else you can do? I noticed my pulse is now three beats per minute higher than the last time I checked five minutes ago - at this rate of change my heart might explode within the next half hour. Also I have been noticing a slight change in my skin color the past few days, I worry with all the solar flare activity I have been reading about that this could be related."
"Bob, please calm down. Your pulse is within a normal range, and you have a sun tan. I keep telling you to use sun block, but you won't because you are concerned you are allergic to 'SPF' even though it is not an actual ingredient. I can however give you a referral to a specialist, a psychiatrist, tell him you have an acute case of valetudinarian's disease".

zeug·ma [ zoogmə ] (plural zeug·mas)
noun
Definition:
A figure of speech in which an adjective or verb is used with two nouns but is appropriate to only one of them or has a different sense with each, as in "During the race he broke the record and his leg"

[Late 16th century. Via Latin < Greek, "joining"]

zeugma. Encarta® World English Dictionary [North American Edition] © & (P)2009 Microsoft Corporation. http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/zeugma.html (accessed: July 24, 2009).

Example zeugma:
Bob used to be a circus clown. Until one day he just refused to perform the spectacular finalé. That day he was not fired from the cannon, but from his job.

pas⋅ti⋅cheur  [pas-tee-shœr]
–noun, plural -cheurs  
French.
1. a person who makes, composes, or concocts a pastiche.
2. a person who imitates the work of others.

pas⋅ti⋅cheuse  [pas-tee-shœz]
–noun, plural -cheuses
French.
a woman who makes or composes a pastiche.

(bonus)
pas⋅tiche [pa-steesh, pah-]
–noun
1. a literary, musical, or artistic piece consisting wholly or chiefly of motifs or techniques borrowed from one or more sources.
2. an incongruous combination of materials, forms, motifs, etc., taken from different sources; hodgepodge.

pasticheur, pasticheuse. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pasticheur http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pasticheuse (accessed: June 19, 2009).

Example:
Bob scratched his head; usually he was good at language questions, but this had him stumped. This was a quintessential drag queen show. The various elements comprising it, he had seen in other drag shows over the years. Still the quandary: should the mustachioed Liz Taylor impersonator be referred to as a pasticheuse or simply as a pasticheur.

quon·dam [ kwóndəm, kwón dàm ]
adjective
Definition: former: of an earlier time ( archaic or literary )

[Mid-16th century. < Latin, < quom "when"]

Quondam. Encarta® World English Dictionary [North American Edition] © & (P)2009 Microsoft Corporation. http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/quondam.html (accessed: April 17, 2009).


Example:
Bob had a deep wistful yearning for his youth; life was simpler in those quondam days, no mortgage, no utility bills and certainly no robotic alien sniper zombies trying to kill him. Oh, and of course, no psychiatric medication which he could never remember to take.

cerumen - [si-roo-muhn]
noun
Definition:
earwax: the waxy secretion of glands lining the canal of the external ear ( technical )

[Late 17th century. < modern Latin< Latin cera "wax"]

Cerumen. Encarta® World English Dictionary [North American Edition] © & (P)2009 Microsoft Corporation. http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/cerumen.html (accessed: March 20, 2009).

Example:
There was a popping sound as Bob removed his finger from his ear and the light caused his cerumen encrusted nail to glisten; "Shake on it?".
Bob was unable to seal many deals with a handshake.

Pyr·rhic vic·to·ry (plural Pyr·rhic vic·to·ries)
noun
Definition:
bitter victory: a victory won at such great cost to the victor that it is tantamount to a defeat.

[Late 19th century. <Pyrrhus]

msn.com. Encarta® World English Dictionary http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/pyrrhic%20victory.html (accessed: October 10, 2008).

Example:
George W. Bush's Machiavellian machinations led him to be elected for a third term and declared Emperor of America (and Grand Pooh-Bah of Texas). His victory, however, was a pyrrhic victory. Everyone in America immediately moved to Canada seeking, jobs, free health care and tasty caribou burgers.

pis·mire [pis-mahy-r, piz-]
–noun
an ant.

[Origin: 1350–1400; ME pissemyre, equiv. to pisse to urinate + obs. mire ant, perh. < Scand (cf. Dan myre, Sw myra), c. D mier; pejorative name from stench of formic acid proper to ants]

pismire. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pismire (accessed: August 29, 2008).

Sing along if you like:

Just what makes that little ole pismire
Think he'll move that worn rubber tire?
Anyone knows a pismire would tire
Trying to move a worn rubber tire.

But he's got hi-i-igh hopes, he's got hi-i-igh hopes
He's got high apple pi-i-ie-in-the-sk-y-y hopes
So, any time you're gettin' low, 'stead of lettin' go, just remember that pismire
Oops, there goes another worn rubber tire
Oops, there goes another worn rubber tire
Oops, there goes another worn rubber tire