A
Definition
(noun) an appendage added to something else; equipment used for some specific task; gear; minor property (such as an outhouse) that passes with the main property when it is sold.
DFW's Sentence On the fourth floor, in Mr. Yeagle's office, the infant had a crib and also a modem, ingenious mobile supporting and restraining device which it spent much of its time in, a large ring or doughnut-shaped appurtenance of heavy blue plastic and a type of cloth or nylon saddle in the center's hole in which the infant was placed in a position somewhat between sitting and stand- ing (that is, the infant's legs were nearly straight, but the saddle or sling appeared to support its weight).
My Sentence Clifton wore his Ultrasone Edition 9 Limited Edition S-Logic Natural Surround Sound Headphones everywhere, not as a unit of entertainment, they remained silent more often than not, but as a stratagem to turning people off before they began, and as such Clifton's appurtenance of survival functioned to effectively isolate him from a chaotic world he did not understand and was happy to avoid by any means necessary.
¶ DFW Source: The Compliance Branch (p.17)
¶ Definition Source: Ninjawords
07:29:10 AM EST / Comments
M
Definition
(noun) A mahout is a person who drives an elephant. The word mahout comes from the Hindi words mahaut and mahavat, derivatives of the Sanskrit word mahamatra, meaning “[one] having great measure.”
DFW's Sentence On those workdays when our Group Mnager, Mr. Yeagle, brought it in to the District office, hanging papoose-style in a nylon device on his back, the infant appeared to be riding him as a mahout does an elephant.
My Sentence The word slipped innocently out during intercourse, but when Fred had to explain what a mahout did, the phrase elephant rider effectively ended the one night stand on a sour night.
¶ DFW Source: The Compliance Branch (p. 17)
¶ Definition Source: Wikipedia
04:59:37 AM EST / Comments
A
Definition
(adjective) appropriate, relevant, well-suited; fit; positioned at rest in respect to another, be it side-to-side, front-to-front, back-to-back, or even three-dimensionally: in apposition
DFW's Sentence KFI management's explanation of "stimulating" is apposite, if a bit slippery.
My Sentence You don't have to agree with it, but all justification is apposite, given the perspective, or world view from which it springs.
¶ DFW Source: The Host
¶ Definition Source: Ninjawords
04:38:27 AM EST / Comments
M
Definition
(adjective) of or related to mnemonics: the study of techniques for remembering anything more easily. (as a noun) Anything (especially something in verbal form) used to help remember something.
DFW's Sentence It is an associated contrast between Americans' mortified response to the Abu Ghraib photos and reports of the Arab world's phlegmatic reaction to the Berg video that leads to his churn's climax, which is that we are plainly, unambiguously better than the Arab world—whereupon John Ziegler invites listeners to respond if they are so moved, repeats the special mnemonic KFI call-in number, and breaks for the :30 news and ads, on time to the second, as 'Mondo takes ISDN feed from Airwatch and the program's associate producer and call screener, Vince Nicholas—twenty-six and hiply bald—pushes back from his console and raises both arms in congratulation, through the glass.
My Sentence Marty spent hours practicing his mnemonic routine but he soon discovered, much to his chagrin, the remembrance of obscured dead philosopher's birth homes wasn't exactly the aphrodisiac he had anticipated.
¶ DFW Source: The Host
¶ Definition Source: Wiktionary
09:22:54 PM EST / Comments
P
Definition
(adjective) not easily excited to action or passion; calm; sluggish; abounding in phlegm; as, phlegmatic humors; a phlegmatic constitution
DFW's Sentence It is an associated contrast between Americans' mortified response to the Abu Ghraib photos and reports of the Arab world's phlegmatic reaction to the Berg video that leads to his churn's climax, which is that we are plainly, unambiguously better than the Arab world—whereupon John Ziegler invites listeners to respond if they are so moved, repeats the special mnemonic KFI call-in number, and breaks for the :30 news and ads, on time to the second, as 'Mondo takes ISDN feed from Airwatch and the program's associate producer and call screener, Vince Nicholas—twenty-six and hiply bald—pushes back from his console and raises both arms in congratulation, through the glass.
My Sentence In retrospect, her phlegmatic response to my avowal of undying love was the first clue our relationship's best days were probably gonna be found with other people.
¶ DFW Source: The Host
¶ Definition Source: Ninjawords
09:09:36 PM EST / Comments
P
Definition
(adjective) Spurious; fraudulent; artificial (as a noun) a form of brass, an alloy of copper and zinc mixed in proportions so that it closely resembles gold in appearance. Invented in the 1700s by Christopher Pinchbeck, a London clockmaker. The inventor allegedly made pinchbeck jewellery clearly labelled as such. Pinchbeck jewellery was used in places like Stagecoaches where there was a risk of theft. Later dishonest jewellers passed pinchbeck off as gold and it came to mean a cheap and tawdry imitation of gold.
DFW's Sentence "This sort of coy self-reflexive metaverbal text thing just depresses the shit out of me," exeleutherostomizes an incidental character - maybe a bagboy at the PriceChopper or some kind of high-class chef at Marjorie's Mansion or something - who appears now w/o any more reason or reality than the soubrettish cashier or the logophilic protagonist of the earlier sections of the serial exhibition, the nameless guy whose lexical sex scene in (2) is just an excuse for a lo of metalexical riffs and intertextual allusions and whose recursive errand-list in (3) is just an excuse for some arch wordplay and pinchbeck paradox.
My Sentence I have little tolerance for these pinchbeck porn titles, like Debbie and her Peculiar Fondness for the City of Dallas is a tragic deviation from proper pornographic etiquette.
¶ DFW Source: The Flexicon (p. 183)
¶ Definition Source: Ninjawords and Wikipedia
10:29:22 AM EST / Comments
S
Definition
(noun) a hissing sound such as the ’s’ or ’sh’ in ’sash’ or ’surge’. (adjective) characterized by a hissing sound such as the ’s’ or ’sh’ in ’sash’ or ’surge’.
DFW's Sentence Pendent in front of John Ziegler's face, attached to the same type of hinged, flexible stand as certain student desk lamps, is a Shure-brand broadcast microphone that is sheathed in a gray foam filtration sock to soften popped p's and hissed sibilants.
My Sentence Marty had an annoying tendency to overextend on certain words and the resulting sibilants, music to no one's ears, provided one of the reasons his co-workers avoided asking him questions, or as Thomas once said, "You know, I've never given it much thought, but a s is an awfully hard letter to avoid."
¶ DFW Source: The Host
¶ Definition Source: Wiktionary and Ninjawords
09:54:09 AM EST / Comments
P
Definition
(adjective) (1) Hanging down; dangling; suspended. (2) Projecting; overhanging. (3) Awaiting settlement; pending. (as a noun) Relating to the concave triangular segments composing the structure of a dome, something pendent may be viewed as any member of a support system (i.e: a section of a dome; or, organically, a parent/guardian in a nuclear family).
DFW's Sentence Pendent in front of John Ziegler's face, attached to the same type of hinged, flexible stand as certain student desk lamps, is a Shure-brand broadcast microphone that is sheathed in a gray foam filtration sock to soften popped p's and hissed sibilants.
My Sentence For fuck's sake, the inverted pendent, made famous by Sam fucking Raimi, that's the fucking shot I want, but with more blood cause this is a fucking zombie movie and if it doesn't have blood then you're fucking fired.
¶ DFW Source: The Host
¶ Definition Source: The Free Dictionary and Wikipedia
09:34:45 AM EST / Comments
B
Definition
(noun) the planar curve on which a body subjected only to the force of gravity will slide (without friction) between two points in the least possible time. Finding the curve was a problem first posed by Galileo. In the late 17th century the Swiss mathematician Jakob Bernoulli offered a reward for the solution of this problem. He and his younger brother Johann, along with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Isaac Newton, and others, found the curve to be a cycloid.
DFW's Sentence The closest conventional analogue I could derive for this figure was a cycloid, L'Hopital's solution to Bernoulli's famous brachistochrone problem, the curve traced by a fixed point on the circumference of a circle rolling along a straight line.
My Sentence Shelby Donald stood among the remains of last night's argument, the third in as many days, when she realized she was caught in a brachistochrone problem of no small significant for no matter how loudly she availed upon the God's of better judgement her inbreed intemperance demanded satisfaction and would always gravitate her towards the most mercurial of men.
¶ DFW Source: The Awakening of My Interest in Annular Systems (p.72)
¶ Definition Source: Encyclopedia Britannica
02:28:21 PM EST / Comments (1)
D
Definition
(1) (noun) : an angle between two plane surfaces; the upward slope of an aircraft’s wing (2) (adjective) : consisting of, relating to or contained between two plane surfaces
DFW's Sentence The mattress, a Simmons Beautyrest whose tag said it could not by law be removed, now formed the hypotenuse of a right dihedral triangle whose legs were myself and the bed's box spring.
My Sentence I've read all the literature Sir and I still have no fucking idea what a dihedral triangle is or why I should care cause as I see it triangles work best alone, like, without a modifier complicating things.
¶ DFW Source: The Awakening of My Interest in Annular Systems (p.62)
¶ Definition Source: Ninjawords and Wikipedia
08:24:41 AM EST / Comments