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Word of the Day


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Since we didn't get one yesterday, I'll offer three today: mercurial, jovial, and saturnine

mercurial: adj. liable to sudden unpredictable change; "erratic behavior"; "fickle weather"; "mercurial twists of temperament"; "a quicksilver character, cool and willful at one moment, utterly fragile the next"

jovial: adj. gay; merry; joyous; jolly; mirth-inspiring; hilarious; characterized by mirth or jollity.

saturnine: adj. heavy; grave; gloomy; dull; showing a brooding ill humor; "a dark scowl"; a morose and unsociable manner.

Martindale's behavior was mercurial: he could be grandly jovial one minute and profoundly saturnine the next.

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Sticking with the planetary theme suggested by GSG:

Plutocratic (Adj.) from Plutocracy = rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. In a plutocracy, the degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low. The word plutocracy is derived from the ancient Greek root ploutos, meaning wealth and kratos, meaning to rule or to govern

Earthy (adj)

1. Of, consisting of, or resembling earth: an earthy smell.

2. Of or characteristic of this world; worldly.

3. Crude or off-color; indecent: an earthy joke.

4. Hearty or uninhibited; natural: an earthy enjoyment of life.

5. Unadorned and simple in style: an earthy homemade stew

Martindale’s plutocratic reign gave opportunity to his earthy behavior.

(Your ABS at work again!)

(For those interested in planets, that leaves Uranus and Neptune...and Uranus in context of earthy behavior...wasn't a good look, LOL)

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Weasel.

As in "weasel words".

Weasel words is an informal term for words and phrases that, whilst communicating a vague or ambiguous claim, create an impression that something specific and meaningful has been said. Weasel words manage to vaguely imply meaning far beyond the claim actually made.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_words

You know. Like on the Green card.

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Here's a word I haven't seen in about four decades, but it showed up recently in an article about the "scientists" promoting the "global warming crisis":

Mountebank n. (from the Italian montimbanco, one who climbs upon a bench or platform)

1 : a person who sells quack medicines from a platform

2 : a boastful unscrupulous pretender : charlatan

The mountebank VPW made all sorts of exaggerated claims about himself and PFAL.

George

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