Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Today's Word: fatidic, fatidical

fatidic: prophetic or pertaining to a divination or prophecy. "Trelawney's fatidic trance was the basis for all of Lord Voldemort's actions." (also fatidical) You can also "verbify" this word — to fatidicate is to prophesy. Only time will tell whether FATidic will be a good title for the biography of Michael Moore or Rush Limbaugh.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Today's "Word": autopodophagy

Okay, so I made this one up. Autopodophagy ought to mean the eating of one's own foot. Metaphorically, it would refer to someone who is constantly putting his foot in his mouth. Michael Scott of The Office is a great example of a clueless autopodophage. The idea for this word came up after a conversation I had with a coworker. When discussing my preference for e-mail over instant messaging, phone calls, and (quite often) face-to-face conversation, I used as support the idea that "I am very familiar with the flavor of my foot." Then I started wondering what you would call a person who is always putting his foot in his mouth. My answer: autopodophage. Not to be confused with autopedophage, one who, like Zeus's father and grandfather, eats his own children. All right, I made that one up, too. But pedophagy (or paedophagy) is a real word that describes animals that survive by eating the eggs, larva, and/or young of other animals. (This perhaps describes veal-lovers?)