Continuing to ramble
/bəˈraŋkə/
(also barranco)
noun
barrancas, barrancos
US
A narrow, winding river gorge.
Origin
Late 17th century from Spanish.
==========
Bob built a bridge over the barranca to avoid driving an extra ten miles to reach his ranch.
/ˈbɒtəmlɪs/
adjective
1 Without a bottom.
1.1 Very deep.
1.2 (of a supply of money or other resources) inexhaustible.
2 Naked below the waist.
==========
We must not behave as if there were a bottomless supply of petroleum in the world.
/kəˈnɑːd/ /ˈkanɑːd/
noun
1 An unfounded rumour or story.
2 A small winglike projection attached to an aircraft forward of the main wing to provide extra stability or control, sometimes replacing the tail.
Origin
Mid 19th century from French, literally ‘duck’, also ‘hoax’, from Old French caner ‘to quack’.
==========
Jeff shared the vicious canard about Sarah with Paul. Nothing good came of it.
/prəʊl/ noun
informal, derogatory
A member of the working class.
adjective
informal, derogatory
Working class.
Origin
Late 19th century abbreviation of proletariat.
==========
Proles make my cellphone, my car, my fast-food lunch. They build my house and repair the pipes. I wear fine clothes which they make and I tell others what to do. I am high class, their better.
/ˈtɛlɪmɑːkɪtɪŋ/
noun
mass noun
A person or company which markets of goods or services by means of telephone calls, typically unsolicited, to potential customers.
==========
In spite of low conversion rates, telemarketers continue to deluge potential customers with calls.
/ˈkʌdls(ə)m/
adjective
Endearing and pleasant to cuddle.
==========
It really helps when you see your significant other as cuddlesome.
/ˈkraŋki/
adjective
crankier, crankiest
1 British informal Eccentric or strange.
2 North American Bad-tempered; irritable.
3 (of a machine) working erratically.
Origin
Late 18th century (in the sense ‘sickly, in poor health’): perhaps from obsolete (counterfeit) crank ‘a rogue feigning sickness’, from Dutch or German krank ‘sick’.
==========
Relax. There is no need to be cranky about it, You have a recent backup, right?
For several years, I have made the enjoyable effort to deliver a daily definition, an irreverent usage in sentence or rhyme format along with an illustration developed with the free software vector drawing program, Inkscape.
I have generally used the convenient random word provided by en.oxforddictionaries.com as my source. When that word has been used before, I’ve sought a replacement by way of wordnik.com which is a wonderful tool.
Yesterday, I had a bit of a shock. My browser link to the random word did not work as I expected!
As of June 10, 2019, the oxforddictionaries.com link automatically redirects to https://www.lexico.com. Oxford University Press continues to provide the lexical content (dictionary information), but has entered a partnership with dictionary.com to distribute it on the new site. There is a FAQ available from the main Oxford University Press Languages site https://languages.oup.com.
/ˈbɒski/
adjective
literary
Covered by trees or bushes; wooded.
Origin
Late 16th century from Middle English bosk, variant of bush.
A swale is swell
If it’s tended well,
But nature does its best,
Well beyond our behest
To block the sun to merely dapling
With bosky bits of shrub and sapling.
You might wish to grump and grouse
As you wander, aimless, through your house.
I’ll attempt to reassure a bit
You’ll need not have a literate fit.
I tried to avoid well known “bosky Dell”
And, of course, swell HP just as well.
cameleer
/ˌkaməˈlɪə/
noun
A person who controls or rides a camel.
==========
Sam strode steadily across the hard-packed sand, leading his camel. He was proud to be both a pedestrian and a cameleer.
[What was known as ODO in these posts https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/ now redirects to https://www.lexico.com/en with a new color scheme, but sourced from Oxford, apparently. I have hopes the quality of definitions will remain the same or improve. Stay tuned.]
