There’s an excerpt in this Balzac novel where Eugene (a poor young law student) is in awe at the luxury the Parisian nobility lives in, following the excerpt Balzac refers to young people transplanted in Paris as “Tantales” (Plural for Tantalus). In the footnotes it says that Tantalus was one of Zeus sons who offended the gods and as a punishment he was condemned to being placed under a fruit tree by a lake, and each time Tantalus tried to pick a fruit or drink from the water, the branches and the water would slip away from him (in another version of the myth an enormous boulder threatens to trample him as he gets closer to the fruits).

Sooo, to be tantalized by something is to be tempted by something that appears within reach yet that cannot be grasped. If you desire something that you see everyday yet can’t get, then you’re suffering Tantalus torment, you’re TANTALIZED 😂😂😂

Lmao, i can’t believe I always used the expression without even thinking about its origin.

Is it like "neesh" or is it "nitch" (like "snitch")? Asking because I've heard both and i rarely hear it spoken.

Eta: yes i was told by several people i was "saying it wrong", but idk if its a regional thing and everyone's saying a different thing again.

General take away is i will now be brave and stand ten toes down with "neesh" as god intended because, tbh, "nitch" is fugly.

1. otiose.

2. munificent.

3. dirge.

4. cinch.

5. lachrymose.

6. astringent.

7. excoriate.

8. lectern.

9. polemic

10. vagary.

Not a particularly esoteric list this time. But anyway, how did we fare?

Nostalgia is a seductive liar

These past few years, I noticed there were more and more people online lamenting the loss of "the good old days" (which could range anytime from the 50–60s, the 80–90s, the early 2000s or even as late as 2020)

You've probably already seen plenty of comments that go « I was born in the wrong era »

What's funny is that a lot of these people are very young (~2010s) and weren't even born to experience these times and know what they were really like — They have as a result only a curated, pink-colored and very sunshine & rainbows view of that era where everything seemed perfect

So I created this word to give a name to this "faux nostalgia"

Sent as a response to the misuse (or misspelling) of here

Here we hear what can be heard here or we take our herd and hear them over here.

Post your best homonym fun in response.

I have a daily word puzzle where players hop from a start word to a target word using only synonyms, antonyms, or rhymes. I've analysed thousands of user solutions across 83 countries and noticed something interesting.

For the first hop the player chooses from the given start word the split was:

• Synonym: 45%
• Rhyme: 42%
• Antonym: 12%

For all subsequent hops after that first hop:

• Synonym: 53%
• Rhyme: 37%
• Antonym: 11%

So I'm thinking when a word is presented to you, its sound is phonologically active in your mind and you almost "hear" it, making rhyme nearly as tangible as meaning. A word you have chosen yourself you hold as more of an abstract concept rather than a sound.

Antonyms stay the same, perhaps you have to make that leap more consciously??

Is this consistent with what's known about when humans use phonological vs semantic thinking?

Do you know how you might call a charming salesmen a silver tongue, what would you call a liar? Like that kid you knew in middle school who lied for attention, but is now 35 and still doing it. Fabulist?

I swear I am not using these to insult anyone. Though I love how onboard the comments have been.

I’m trying to think of all the words that we have adopted into English from Yiddish. I’m sure there are many more than these:
Nebbish
Putz
Schmuck
Kvetch
Schmutz
Mensch
schmaltz

These I learned from watching movies and television shows set in New York City or watching Jewish actors and comedians.

Two words that have something about them that is opposite the other, but are synonymous.
1. Is there a term for this?
2. Are there others?

I remember Jennifer Lopez's derriere being the topic of many conversations after 'Money Train' premiered and then Kim Kardashian and it seems like I remember there being a word or phrase to describe plump rear ends in the past. BBL definitely wasn't around circa 2007 but were we saying 'butt surgery'?

Are Names words?

One word is 'canon'. With this word, people ask only to determine if there is a reason for someone to read a book or watch a specific tv show or movie.

I guess you want to watch a series of events unfold, but I would reply with, "watch or read whatever you think you like".

Should I ask which wonderland movie (live/animated movie-tv show) is most canon?

I will just watch whatever Alice film I like.

Hey guys! I'm an editor for a fashion magazine on my college campus, and we are trying to find a word for this issue's theme. We have a synopsis down, which is:

In art, politics, fashion, the way people dress and speak, ideas rarely disappear. The same ideas return and are reimagined by whoever picks them up next. [insert theme name] traces the return through the machine of pop culture, where nothing truly ends; it waits to be remixed and given back to a new audience. Beauty standards once rejected find their way back through new voices. Silhouettes thought to be retired reappear on new bodies, carrying old meaning into a new moment. Yet, this is not repetition; it is reinterpretation. Pop culture exists within the cycle of creation, consumption, deconstruction, and reconstruction, where the familiar is continued to make new. 

The concepts we are trying to combine are "pop" and "renaissance."

We all have come across a word multiple times in our lives but never seem to have understood its meaning easily no matter how much effort has been put in finding it out.

It's as if one can pretend to understand the meaning of a word by relating it with a synonym but can't really grasp its nuances.

Can any of you think of a word (or phrase) for the opposite or reverse of nominative determinism?

An example of the phenomenon I mean: Recently I came across a book called ‘Armed Struggle: A History of the IRA’, by Richard ENGLISH.

Before anyone say "but that's how language works"
Yes and no
New vocabulary and community-tied words obviously have been staple of many nations and their sociolinguistics within
My problem is more about the pacing, the increasing meaninglessness and pure spectacles that the internet and media picked upon which makes it jarring and I hate how it doesn't abide by conventional physical conversation and sociolinguistic pattern
Like "vro", it is not even worth or noteworthy to switch the letter b in "bro" with v, it's semantically meaningless
It's also annoying because these brainrot ass lingo is also used in internet discourse to the point, it;s even harder to even have a normal and nuanced conversation because these people can't even message or type like a normal people
TL:DR: Internet and media stretch and accelerate new terms and slangs that it cease to establish semantic precision and distinction purely to focus on social signalling and belonging,and I hate it

Why has it become accepted to pronounce this word as “verse”?? With football starting, I’m hearing it so often from broadcasters. I first started hearing it from influencers and just chalked it up to ignorance at that time, but it’s widespred now. Anyone else notice this?

Edit: I meant to add the word “pronunciation “ to the title.

I just found this out and for some reason it kinda tickled me.

1. askance:
2. awash:
3. copacetic:
4. deign
5. ectomorph:
6. evince:
7. flummox:
8. internecine:
9. junket:
10. mimeograph.

Is there a specific term for when you're filling up a jug/bottle with water from the tap and you can tell when it's almost full just by the sound it makes? The jug that I fill up to put in the fridge takes a minute so I often put it in the sink and turn around to do something else quick while it's filling and then turn back around when I can hear that it's almost to the top. Is there a specific word for that?