abulia ( eh-BOO-lee-eh), also spelled aboulia , noun:


a lack of will or motivation, usually with an inability to make decisions or set goals

[Greek aboulia,without will]

abulic , adjective


“I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week, sometimes, to make it up.” - Mark Twain

"So difficult does he find it to choose between any competing alternatives that he was once paralyzed at a family Thanksgiving dinner with his fork in midair, drooling, unable to decide between the turkey, the stuffing and the cranberry sauce. In other words, Dwight suffers from abulia – an inability to make decisions.” - Jay McInerney, reviewing Benjamin Kunkel’s book Indecision, in The New York Times, (Aug 28, 2005)

“He also engages in word play, using 'abulia' ,’ or the loss of the ability to act independently, as a metaphor for land that has been exploited beyond its ability to regenerate.” Roberta Hershensen, “Footlights,” The New York Times, article, (May 12, 2008)

“Alberto had said that the knowledge of death causes abulia and that strong men and strong nations are like the cunning fox who will gnaw at its own paw to free itself from a trap, even though it may be left crippled. (Hence, the title of La pata de la raposa.) Arias on the other hand blamed his abulia on the impossible dreams that he conjured up in his mind and could not carry out in real life.” Margaret Pol Stock, Dualism and Polarity in the Novel of Ramon Pérez de Ayala, p. 146 (1988)

" Abulia may result from a variety of brain injuries which cause personality change, such as dementing illnesses, trauma, or intracerebral hemorrhage (stroke), especially stroke causing diffuse injury to the right hemisphere." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abulia

mnemonics (nee-MON-iks), noun (used with a singular verb)

a device to help one remember, such as a formula, rhyme, acronym, etc.


mnemonic , adjective
mnemonically , adverb
Mnemosyne , in Greek Myth, the goddess of memory and mother of the Muses and inventor of language and words..

“To always spell ‘cemetery’ correctly,” said Dr. Taylor, “just remember that a cemetery is a place of ease. .. also it has three E’s!!!” -anon.

“I always forget whether I should order the book-shop people to send home a work on numismatics or a work on mnemonics mnemonics. One of them is about money, you know, and the other is about memory.” - Don Marquis, Hermoine and Her Little Group of Serious Thinkers

A mnemonic device for spelling RHYTHM correctly is: Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move

“Perhaps the most practical reason for mnemonics to survive is the universal desire to remember names. Experts give the same initial advice: when meeting someone, pay attention. Most people do not forget a name; they never really learn it. Danielle Lapp, author of ''Don't Forget'' and a researcher on memory at Stanford, recommends, first, picking out a facial feature, forcing you to focus. In her case, you might choose her eyes. Second, on hearing the name, ask yourself if it means anything. Third, visualize name and face together; the more ridiculous -- eyes in her lap -- the more likely you are to remember both. “ - Jack Rosenthal, “On Language,” The New York Times, July 17, 2005


REMEMBERING NUMBERS:

“The most common type of mnemonic is the word-length mnemonic in which the number of letters in each word corresponds to a digit. This simple one gives pi to seven decimal places:

“How I wish I could calculate pi.

For longer versions of PI see http://www.fun-with-words.com/mnem_numbers.html

Too bad mnemonic isn't phonetically spelled. I need a mnemonic to remember how to spell it.

:) kneemonic?

Just remember that the 'm' is pronounced just like the 'p' in pneumonia. Also M&Ns get along sooo well together that 'M' always defers to 'N' when they are hanging around together (so does 'K' as in 'knee' and 'knife').

oculus (OK-yuh-luhs) noun, plural: oculi

1. an eye
2. architectural : a round window, especially one at the top of a dome.
3. archaeology: a motif of prehistoric art resembling eyes and consisting of a pair of circular or spiral marks.

[Latin, oculus eye]

“The central point of the Pantheon is far above visitors’ heads: the great eye, or oculus , in the room. It looks small, but it’s 27 ft. across and the source of all light in the building – symbolic of how the sun is the source of all light on earth. Rain that comes through collects in a drain in the center of the floor, . . . . Every year, on June 21st, the rays of the sun at the summer equinox shines from the oculus through the front door.” - http://atheism.about.com/od/christianchu...heon-Rome-V.htm

plication (pli-KAY-sh’n), noun. or plicature (PLIK-eh-choor; PLIK-eh-chehr), nouns:

Both have the same definitions:
1. the act of folding
2. a fold
3. surgery: the folding and suturing tucks in bodily tissue.

[M.E. plicacioun; OFr, < L plicare, to fold]

plicate, plicated, adjectives: folded, tucked or plaited, esp. folded like a paper fan with parallel folds.
plicate, verb: to fold into pleats
plicately, adverb
plicateness, noun
plica, pl. plicae, anatomy, a fold as of skin, muscle, or other tissue
endoscopic plication

“The stoma was then plicated with 3 sutures. Two patients had their gastric pouch plicated near the stoma. All patients to date report feeling full earlier with decreased caloric consumption and subsequent weight loss.” - Michael Schweitzer. Journal of Laparoendoscopic & Advanced Surgical Techniques. August 1, 2004, 14(4): 223-226. doi:10.1089/lap.2004.14.223.

“The prime fact to be noted is the universal plication and crumpling of rocks which were at first nearly horizontal.” - Sir Archibald Geikie, Geographical Evolution (lecture of March 24, 1879) ; anthologized in The Harvard Classics, p. 353, Charles William Eliot, Editor (1910)

“A [mushroom] cap that is pleated, like a skirt or a fan, is said to be plicate.”
- http://www.ilmyco.gen.chicago.il.us/Terms/plica393.html

“The primary function of plicateness in orchid leaves is photosynthetic, providing a large surface area for exposure to light. . . “ - www.orchidspng.com/orfam.html









plicately folded paper fan.

You could have had matching English and French words for the day, as the verb for fold in French is "plier".

"Rhythm helps your two hips move"?????

Just saw that...

Thanks for that, Gail! I have several pair of 'pliers'. Handy tools!

sough (suhf, sou) noun and verb (rhymes with ‘tough’ or ‘too’)

n.
1. a soft, low, murmuring, sighing, or rustling sound.
2. hence, a rumor (esp. Scotland & N. England)
v.i. to make a sough

[Origin: bef. 900; (v.) ME swoghen, OE sw&#333;gan to make a noise; c. OS sw&#333;gan, OE swégan, Goth –sw&#333;gjan. The noun is c.1381, from the verb. OE. swough, swogh, a sound.]

soughing soughed
soughingly, adverb
soughfully, adverb
soughless, adjective

“Tired as he was, the bleating of the sheep, the clear ring of the bell on Black Bolly, and the faint tinkle of lighter bells on some of the rams, drove away sleep for a while. Accompanied by the sough of the wind through the cedars the music of the bells was sweet, and he listened till he heard no more.” –Zane Grey, The Heritage of the Desert

“The fresh milky odor is quite perceptible, also the perfume of hay from the barn. The perpetual rustle of dry corn-stalks, the low sough of the wind round the barn gables, the grunting of pigs, the distant whistle of a locomotive, and occasional crowing of chanticleers, are the sounds. –Walt Whitman, The Complete Prose Work

“His voice rose very shrill and mad against the regular deep soughing of the swell coiling heavily about the outer face of the sea-wall.” Joseph Conrad, To-Morrow

“The trees about the portal of the chapel moved soughingly in a soft wind. A sad silence was upon the little guarding edifice.” Stephan Crane, The Red Badge of Courage

“This didn’t accord with my experience: as the wind soughed over the heather I saw only a posse of young travelers — indigenous Irish nomads ...” New York Times, May, 18, 2007

“Secessionist whispers have soughed through Vermont for years.” -Bill Kauffman, “Free Vermont”, The American Conservative, Dec. 19, 2005

“I wish the wee fowk wid visit us,” soughed Lisa. “I’d like fine tae hae a new frock the colour o the lift an anither room tae oor hoose far we could sit on the sabbath, an fine tummlers made o crystal, an….” –Les Wheeler, The Flying Bannock (A German Folk Tale) - http://www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/kist/search/display.php?lwee67.dat

“The execution of Jeanie was what all expected would happen; but when the news reached the town of the other parts of the sentence, the wail was as the sough of a pestilence, and fain would the council have got it dispensed with.” John Galt, The Provost

“Whereupon solemn waving of hats; indistinct sough of loyal murmur from the universal Landshut Population; after which, continued to the due extent, they return to their spindles and shuttles again. “ -Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia

“ . . . he kept himself cannily aloof from all sort of town matters; deporting himself with a most creditable sobriety; in so much, that there was at one time a sough that Mr Pittle, the minister, our friend, had put him on the leet for an elder.” John Galt, The Provost

“As for the young ladies, they could na endure him at all, for he had aye the sough and sound of love in his mouth, and a round-about ceremonial of joking concerning the same. . . “ -John Galt, The Provost

“Them and their socialism! There's more gumption in a page of John Stuart Mill than in all that foreign trash. But, as I say, I've got to keep a quiet sough, for the world is gettin' socialism now like the measles. – John Buchan, Mr. Standfast