Word of the Day
Like any aspiring writer, I think building a strong vocabulary is important. So a few years ago, I began subscribing to the "Word of the Day" email from dictionary.com. Some days, I get words I already know well, which always makes me feel a little cheated. But today's word was a gem:
And now I find that versions of fug actually have a real meaning!
Of course, now I'm fascinated to see what other fug words I can find out there. An Australian radio network says fug means "'a thick, close, stuffy atmosphere'. It can describe a room that is overcrowded, or has poor ventilation, or in which lots of people are smoking." (Dictionary.com confirms this definition.) It's been used by an American author as a substitute for the f-word itself. Another random website says fug is a "commonly used expletive culled to describe a moment of unbelievable, undeniable stupidity or inadequacy in the completion of an action or the unbelievably stupid origin or source of the action." (this site even offers fug of the month!)
I even went so far as to look up fug-words in Webster's dictionary. There are suprisingly few: fug, fugacious, fugal, Fugard, fugitive, fugleman, fugu, fugue. My personal favorite is the psychological definition for fugue: "temporary flight from reality." That one seems more along the lines of fug.
Our dictionaries are so woefully behind--this year's big word added? "Wedgie." How far behind can fug be?
Editor's note to Other Gus: Check out what Google has to say about ridicularity.
fugacious\fyoo-GAY-shuhs\, adjective: Lasting but a short time; fleetingI'm a huge fan of the ladies over at Go Fug Yourself, who always amuse me with their biting critique of the fashion choices of the stars. Knowing nothing about fashion myself, it's nice to have someone point out mistakes to me. And the word, "fug," of course, has taken on a wide meaning. On GFY, it is the mashing of "fucking" and "ugly" to create a new word that describes the highest level of fashion atrocity.
The fugacious nature of life and time.
--Harriet Martineau, Autobiography
Tastes, smells... being, in comparison, fugacious.
--John Stuart Mill, Examination of Sir W. Hamilton's
Philosophy
And now I find that versions of fug actually have a real meaning!
Of course, now I'm fascinated to see what other fug words I can find out there. An Australian radio network says fug means "'a thick, close, stuffy atmosphere'. It can describe a room that is overcrowded, or has poor ventilation, or in which lots of people are smoking." (Dictionary.com confirms this definition.) It's been used by an American author as a substitute for the f-word itself. Another random website says fug is a "commonly used expletive culled to describe a moment of unbelievable, undeniable stupidity or inadequacy in the completion of an action or the unbelievably stupid origin or source of the action." (this site even offers fug of the month!)
I even went so far as to look up fug-words in Webster's dictionary. There are suprisingly few: fug, fugacious, fugal, Fugard, fugitive, fugleman, fugu, fugue. My personal favorite is the psychological definition for fugue: "temporary flight from reality." That one seems more along the lines of fug.
Our dictionaries are so woefully behind--this year's big word added? "Wedgie." How far behind can fug be?
Editor's note to Other Gus: Check out what Google has to say about ridicularity.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home