Assignment 8

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I realized the other day that in just over a month we have expanded our readership 300% and have contributors from all over the universe. Keep up the good work and let me know if you’ve come across a writing exercise you’d like posted here on Jeff Cutler dot com.

Enough blathering. Here’s your next assignment…

Use in a sentence an obscure word that you’re pretty sure very few people have heard or know the meaning of. This can be local terminology, slang or just a smartie word that most people have to look up.

Please put down below your sentence (in parens) the meaning of the word as you understand it and any other relevant information.

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7 Responses to Assignment 8

  1. jeff says:

    I just finished typing some other work and realized that I am feeling increasingly STABBY for a cup of tea and a crumpet.

    (STABBY means hungry in my vernacular. I first found the word on Twitter and I believe it was being used there as a synonym for angry to the point of wanting to stab someone. I believe it’s English – as in England – slang.)

  2. mike mcallen says:

    The young firefighter worked his PULASKI like a veteran making better time on the left flank of the small fire than his engine partner who worked the right flank.

    The pulaski is a special hand tool used in wildland firefighting. The tool combines an axe and a mattock in one head, similar to that of the cutter mattock, with a rigid handle of wood, plastic, or fiberglass. The pulaski is considered one of the most versatile tools for constructing firebreaks as it can be used to both dig soil and chop wood. It is also well adapted for trail construction, gardening and other outdoor work. As a gardening or excavation tool, it is quite adept at digging holes in root-bound or hard soil. As a result, it can often be purchased in a retail setting.

    The invention of the pulaski is widely credited to Ed Pulaski, a ranger with the United States Forest Service, in 1911, although a similar tool was first introduced in 1876 by the Collins Tool Company. Ed Pulaski was famous for taking action to save the lives of a crew of 45 firefighters during the disastrous August 1910 wildfires in Idaho. His invention (or reinvention) of the tool that bears his name may have been a direct result of the disaster, as he saw the need for better firefighting tools. The pulaski came into wide use by the Forest Service after 1913, and in 1920 the Forest Service began contracting for the tool to be commercially manufactured.

  3. Clownface says:

    In order to demonstrate effective use of taxpayer dollars, any scientist at work for the federal government must be concerned with how PRAXIS is exercised and measured in their lab. (Praxis, a phrase made popular by the Marxist theorist/activist Paolo Freire in “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” (1970, Continuum Publishing) is the translation of complex theory into practice – in which one continuously informs the other.)

  4. I assigned John a task which he accomplished in a perspicacious manner.

    (perspicacious: to execute with alacrity)

  5. Clownface says:

    I ALMOST used perspicacious! Great minds here on Jeffcutler.com.

    -cf-

  6. Chris LeBrun says:

    Frosting on cookies seems over-redundant to me.

    (Ok, I know “over-redundant” needs no real explanation and it might not even be an actual word but I LOVE using it around people. If I was as smart as Jeff I’d start a site called http://www.coinaphrase.com and let people submit words and phrases for coinage. And “over-redundant” would be the first one on the list.)

  7. Alan – I would argue with your definition of “perspicacious”, although not your usage.

    The word comes from the word for “perspective” and means “with keen understanding”. Alacrity means willingness. So at heart we’re talking about the difference between John doing something well and doing something eagerly – a big difference!

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