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John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

Word for writers

 

 

Smarmy. Etymologists don't know where smarm (the verb from which it is based) came from, but they do know that it meant "to smear" or "to make smooth or oily" before gaining the meaning "to flatter." The adjective smarmy comes from the latter meaning.


Cynophilist (sy-NOH-fi-list)  One who loves dogs. From From Greek kyon (dog) + -philia (love). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kwon- (dog), which also gave us canine, chenille (from French chenille: caterpillar, literally, little dog), kennel, canary, hound, dachshund, corgi, cynic, cynegetic, cynophobia, cynosure, and canaille. Earliest documented use: 1890. A perfect synonym of today’s word is philocynic.

 

Hoity-toity means "pretentious, fancy, or pompous." Hoity-toity is believed to have been created as a rhyme based on the dialectal English word hoit, meaning "to play the fool." Hoity-toity can mean "foolish" (e.g., "… as though it were very hoity-toity of me not to know that royal personage." — W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge), but it