ubiquinpotaqueous

u•biq•uin•po•taq•ue•ous

|yoo bik win po tak' wee us|
adjective
the state of water in which it is everywhere, and yet there is not a drop of it to drink : he grew increasingly worried by the ubiquinpotaqueous liquid surrounding his boat | the water was fine, if a bit ubiquinpotaqueous.

DERIVATIVES
u•biq•uin•po•taq•ue•ous•ly adverb
u•biq•uin•po•taq•ue•ous•ness noun

ORIGIN early 21st cent.: from modern Latin ubiquitas + in- + French potable + medieval Latin aqueus.

courtesy Erin McKean's fantastic Word Lovers' Bootcamp at GEL today. Erin's really the best thing to happen for dictionaries since thumb notches, and I'm glad I had a chance to get a closer look at how she relishes the English language and loves watching it mature.

Interesting that I also got to walk the city with Paul Shaw on his Letters of New York tour, thinking about the meaning, structure, and development of letters after luxuriating in the meaning, structure, and development of syllables and words with Erin. I hope to complete the trifecta tomorrow at a session with Ira Glass, who clearly loves sentences and stories as much as anybody on the air today, and who is--as Erin and Paul are--infectiously thrilled by what he does [bonus! pre-GEL-talk clip of Ira talking stories via coudal]

by tangentialist at 4:19 PM on 19 Apr 07 | Perm-a-link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Question.

In the above photograph of myself as a child, was my mother making me pose like a bridge-and-tunnel lout who just got cheek-punched, or was I really, at that young age, sitting under the roses, actually a cheek-punched bridge-and-tunnel lout?

I'm conflicted about this space, in case you hadn't guessed. While I resolve these conflicts, I am posting trivial tidbits like these at tangentialism.vox.com. Of course, there's also flickr and, occasionally, periphery for less wit and more color.

confusion-ish , photo-ish by tangentialist at 6:53 PM on 14 Feb 07 | Perm-a-link

Redux

Five years ago:

  • Crowded streets
  • Sirens everywhere, silence besides
  • Buildings descending
  • The smell of smoke
  • Phone calls from friends, apartments full of dust
  • Buildings descending on TV, over and over and over
  • Beautiful blue skies

Today:

  • Crowded streets
  • Sirens everywhere, silence besides
  • The lavishly-airbrushed American Pride SUV, revving its engines on the West Side Highway
  • Beautiful blue skies

september11-ish by tangentialist at 9:58 AM on 11 Sep 06 | Perm-a-link | Comments (0)

Late Night Revelation

It occurred to me just now that "The Three Little Pigs" is really just a sneaky pitch by the bricklaying industry. I just don't see any other point to that story.

revelation-ish by tangentialist at 11:29 PM on 06 Apr 06 | Perm-a-link | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Best New Spam "From:" Address

"Frosting A. Sheik"

spam-ish by tangentialist at 12:01 PM on 28 Mar 06 | Perm-a-link | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)