… of the Week (#10):

This week – Word of the Week (#9):

groggy

adj. Unwell or run down – generally as a result of having had too much to drink.

In 1740 Admiral Vernon, the commander in chief of the West Indies replaced the neat rum which was then issued to all sailors twice daily, with a watered-down version. The Admiral was well-known among the sailors of the fleet, with a nickname of ‘Old Grog’*, and the unhappy men soon began calling the new watered-down rations ‘Grog’ in his honour. It wasn’t long before the ever-inventive general populace extended this name and started referring to those sailors under the influence of said Grog as grog-y, which then became the word that we (well me anyway) know and love today.

I use this word quite a lot as I am always pretty ill, although unfortunately I rarely have the enjoyment of being drunk first. Hope you like it, it sometimes seems almost onomatopoeic (if I can corrupt the word) in the way it describes that feeling of, well, grogginess…

 

*Grog was a nickname attributed to him on account of a Grogam coat (made of a mixture of mohair and silk) which he invariably wore.

Is It Me?

Or has anybody else been wondering; does the increasing popularity of BlueTooth make conventionally mad people look normal or visa versa? Just a thought…

... of the Week (#9):

This week - Word of the Week (#8):

usquebaugh

n. The water of life. A compounded, distilled, aromatic spirit; the Irish sort is particularly distinguished for its pleasant and mild flavour. The Highland sort is somewhat hotter; in Scottish they call it whisky.

mmm, whiskey...

… of the Week (#8):

This week – Word of the Week (#7):

This week’s word was actually the first, and by far the most successful, word that I picked when restarted this experiment a while ago. That was before I decided to share my experiences in this with t’ interweb, and I can’t resist picking it again. So, back by (my own) popular demand and dedicated, with thanks for the memories - past and yet to come, to David;

evagation

n. The act of wandering.

… of the Week (#7):

This week – Phrase of the Week (#1):

This week, instead of just the one, I am giving you a whole bunch of words of the week. I’ve even strung them together to form a real phrase. Just to shake things up a little.

Bad (or Good) Egg

19th Century. To describe someone as a good or bad egg is to suggest that they are decent, reliable or dependable (or not as the case may be). The expression bad egg came first and was used in 1855 in Samuel A Hammett’s novel Captain Priest. The analogy used in the book draws on the fact that an egg can appear on the outside to be fresh, and yet when the shell is broken it may turn out to be rotten inside.

At the beginning of the 20th century, some students began reversing the phrase and describing decent people as good eggs.

I am a fan of this pair of phrases, and I have tried over the years to incorporate them into my vocabulary – I seem to remember my friends at school remarking on it when we were younger… I hope that you can find a chance to use one (or both) of them this week.