moil MOIL, intransitive verb:
1. To work with painful effort; to labor; to toil; to drudge.
2. To churn or swirl about continuously.

noun:
1. Toil; hard work; drudgery.
2. Confusion; turmoil.

Moil comes from Middle English moillen, “to soak, to wet,” hence “to soil, to soil one’s hands, to work very hard,” from Old French moillier, “to soften, especially by making wet,” ultimately from Latin mollis, “soft.”

Zelig (ZEL-ig) noun

A chameleon-like person who appears to be present everywhere.

[After Leonard Zelig, hero of the 1983 movie Zelig by Woody Allen.]

Cadmean victory (kad-MEE-uhn VIK-tuh-ree) noun

A victory won at as great cost to the victor as to the vanquished.

[After Cadmus, a Phoenician prince in Greek mythology who introduced writing to the Greeks and founded the city of Thebes. Near the site where Cadmus was to build Thebes he encountered a dragon. Even though he managed to kill the dragon, only five of his comrades survived with whom he founded the city.]

A couple of months back we looked at the term Pyrrhic victory named after Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, whose devastating losses in trying to defeat the Romans made him lament, “One more such victory and we are lost.” Today’s term Cadmean victory is a near synonym of the former. And this too is an eponym, a word or phrase coined after a person’s name whether from history or fiction.

hardscrabble HARD-skrab-uhl, adjective:
1. Yielding a bare or meager living with great labor or difficulty.
2. Marked by poverty.

Hardscrabble is formed from hard (from Old English heard) + scrabble (from Dutch schrabbelen, “to scratch”).

just got this in the mail!

foul language follows.

I didn’t write this, but it’s amusing to me

contretemps KAHN-truh-tahn, noun;
plural contretemps -tahnz:
An inopportune or embarrassing situation or event; a hitch.

Contretemps comes from French, from contre, “against” (from Latin contra) + temps, “time” (from Latin tempus).

liverish LIV-eh-ish adjective

1. Resembling liver, especially in color.

2. Ill-natured, grouchy.

From Middle English, Old English lifer + -ish. From the former belief that such disposition was a symptom of excess secretion of bile due to liver disorder.

visceral VIS-er-uhl adjective

1. Related to viscera.

2. Instinctive, not reasoning or intellectual.

3. Dealing with base emotions; earthy, crude.

From Medieval Latin visceralis, from Latin viscera (internal organs), plural of viscus (flesh). From the belief that viscera were the seat of emotions.

doughty DOW-tee, adjective:

Marked by fearless resolution; valiant; brave.

Doughty comes from Old English dohtig, “brave, valiant, fit.”

Hoody-hoo! Labor Day Weekend! While we don’t have political parades and carry signs that say “Labor Creates All Wealth” anymore, this vacation isn’t just signaling the end of summer. Check out the origins of the holiday. It’s a good reminder of some courageous Americans who had to fight to change their (and our) lives. Here are some great labor related quotes.

The Dignified Way to Vomit

Remain standing.
With right hand, hold cocktail to the side at arm’s length.
Bow deeply at the waist.
Include all regurgitation in one retch.
Resume upright position.
Use left hand to wipe mouth with handkerchief (not toilet paper).
Take another drink.

How much would CAN a woodchuck chuck?

Why, however many boards the Mongol Hordes horde when they get bored and horde boards!

coterminous koh-TUR-muh-nuhs, adjective:
1. Having the same or coincident boundaries.
2. Having the same scope, range of meaning, duration.

Coterminous is from Latin conterminus, from com-, “together; with” + terminus, “boundary.”

brigadoon BRIG-uh-doon noun:

An idyllic place that is out of touch with reality or one that makes its appearance for a brief period in a long time.

[From Brigadoon, a village in the musical of the same name, by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, based on the story Germelshausen by Friedrich Gerstacker. Brigadoon is under a curse that makes it invisible to outsiders except on one day every 100 years.]