sapient: (adj.) possessing or expressing great wisdom. My cat is quite sapient,
and, as she constantly reminds me, I'm not a cat.
sartorial: (adj.) relating to clothing or attire. Wearing
a serape to the Klan meeting was a sartorial blunder that Bubba would never make again.
sashay: (verb) to glide, to sway. Them fellers just sashayed into town and rode out on the sheriff’s
horse... with the sheriff! Now if that just ain’t the durnest thing I ever seen.
satrap: (noun) (pronounced: say-trap) any subordinate
or local ruler. Even though the mayor was filled with self-importance, he couldn't face the niggling fear that he was
nothing more than a satrap.
saturnalia: (noun) originally the ancient Roman festival of Saturn,
which was a good time for all (and the predecessor of Christmas); any occasion of wild merriment; a party at Dave's house.
Are you going to the saturnalia Friday night? I heard Janis will be there.
saturnine: (adj.) dour; glum; morose; lugubrious. Even though she was quite voluptuous, Mary
Ann’s saturnine nature made more than one date with her a challenge.
satyr: (noun) (pronounced: sat-ter) a lustful,
drunken god, usually part human, part animal; a lustful, drunken person in general. You know, Bob, I don't mind your
thinking yourself a modern day satyr, but must you put on that silly costume before heading to the pub?
saucy: (adj.) imprudent; flipant; bold and lively. The
hostess found his saucy remark to be rather put-offish.
saurian: (adj.) of, or like, a lizard; any large reptile, including
dinosaurs. I don't know if it was a Reptilian Overlord, but it was definitely saurian, and it took your cat... or maybe
your cat took it.
sawyer: (noun) somebody who saws wood for a living. Have
that sawyer saw yer wood.
scabrous: (adj.) rough, as if covered with scabs (if not actually
covered with scabs); indecent; salacious; offensive. I knew a scabrous man, who lived a scabrous life, inside his scabrous
house, with his scabrous wife. We didn’t visit often.
scads: lots; tons; heaps; bunches. If you are patient, you can invest
your scad, and someday you'll have scads.
scalawag: (noun) one who is amusingly mischievous; scoundrel; scamp;
imp. It was hard to be angry with the little scalawag, standing there with that mischievous smile on his face, even
after he had burnt the school down. Boys will be boys.
scantlings: (noun, often plural) the material used for construction,
often of standard sizes; a small amount; a modicum. We found a scantling amount of the scantlings at the worksite.
scathe: (verb) to harm; to injure. If you are not wearing
a seatbelt, you are likely to be scathed in an accident.
schadenfreude: (noun) (pronounced: shy-den-froy-duh) taking pleasure in other people's
misfortunes; malicious joy. Yeah, being an executioner would really suck if it weren't for the schadenfreude.
schlemiel: (noun; from the Yiddish) a stupid, awkward, or unlucky
person person. We always knew Martin was a schlemiel, but accidentally flushing the winning lottery ticket down the
toilet pretty much says it all.
schlockmeister: (noun) someone who deals in worthless goods; a junk dealer.
Brett thought he was quite clever calling his publisher a schlockmeister, until his publisher agreed with him.
schlock
movies: (adj.) a genre of
(usually) science fiction or horror movies characterized by cheap budgets, ridiculous plots, and cheesy special effects.
The Killer Shrews has to be one of the greatest schlock movies ever make.
schmooze: (verb) to talk in a lively and friendly way, usually
in order to impress or manipulate someone. Well, yes, Mr. President, I know you don't really like people, but on occasion
it is necessary to schmooze with the common folk.
schmuck: (noun) a foolish or contemptible person; a putz; my neighbor. Don't be such a
schmuck, Larry, and you can start by not parking your car in front of my driveway.
schtick: (noun) someone's special talent or interest. Gilroy's
schtick was juggling lit pipe bombs. Now he's schtuck all over the place.
scintilla: (noun) (pronounced: sin-till-ah) a tiny spark
or trace of anything. If I even had a scintilla of affection for you… well, no. I still wouldn't go out
with you.
scintillate: (verb) to sparkle; to glitter; to gleam. Let's
face it. A vampire that scintillates is not scary in the least.
sclerotic: (adj.) (pronounced: skla-rot-tic) becoming rigid and unresponsive; losing the
ability to adapt. Sometime in the last century, my sister-in-law became sclerotic, having no clue how to use a computer.
scofflaw: (noun) a person who scoffs at the law, especially those
laws that are difficult to enforce. It was very hard having a president who was a scofflaw.
scooch: (verb) to crouch, especially in hiding; to slide over;
(noun) a small amount. Scooch the scotch over and give me a scooch.
score: (noun) a period of
twenty years. "Four score and seven years ago" was 87 years; therefore, when Lincoln gave his "Gettysburg
Address" in 1863 he was referring to 1776.
scrabble: (verb) to grope; to fondle; to clutch. After scrabbling
all the way to the top of Mount Everest, we discovered we had left our game of Scrabble at the base camp, and therefore could
not be the first people to play Scrabble at the top of that mountain. No worries, though. Next year we're returning,
and we're going to be the first people to climb Mount Everest drunk.
scraggly: (adv) raged, thin, boney, or generally untidy in
appearance. The scraggly cat had a lottery ticket in its mouth worth $15,000.
scurrilous: (adj.) insulting; scandalous; outrageous. Well,
generally, yes. When you write your own wedding vows they usually don't include scurrilous comments about your spouse-to-be.
sedge: (noun) a grass-like plant living in moist areas.
It looks like we need to dredge the sedge.
sedulous: (adj.) showing dedication or diligence. She sedulously seduced the sailor.
selenocentric: (adj.) of, or relating to, the center of the moon; moon-centered.
Once Larry started buying every extension ladder he could so he could climb to the moon, his conversations became increasingly
selenocentric.
self-abnegation: (noun) the denial or abasement of one's self; self-denial.
I'm not sure if God really thinks self-abnegation is a good thing.
semiotics: (noun) the study of how the literal meaning of a word or phrase is different from the
perceived meaning. Semiotics is all about how what you actually say can be completely different from what you truly
mean.
senescent: (adj.) growing old; aging. The senescent man liked to whack little kids with his
cane.
sennight: (noun) (also: sen night) one week.
The election was yesterday, but it could be a sennight, if not a fortnight, before we know who actually won, and in the case
of some, never before they believe they actually lost.
sensei: (noun) (pronounced: sin-say) in both China
and Japan, a general term for an older person, who should be respected just because he or she is older, darn it; a martial
arts teacher. No one understood why we had to call the woodshop teacher "sensei."
sententious: (adj.) (pronounced: sin-ten-tious) given
to moralizing in a pompous or affected manner. When everybody who had voted for the candidate who had won behaved sententiously
toward those who backed the loser... it didn't help a bit to help unite both sides.
sentience: (noun) The capacity to feel, perceive, or experience
subjectively; self-awareness; consciousness. You know, Bob, sentience isn't all it's cracked up to be. After all,
blissful ignorance is still bliss.
sequent: (adj.) following in sequence or as a logical conclusion.
Looking at the whelming amount of incontrovertible evidence, it is only sequent that the defendant is guilty as hell.
serape: (noun) a brightly coloured shawl often worn by Latin
American men. A serape is probably a bad sartorial decision if your name is Bubba.
sere: (adj.) dry or withered, especially of vegetation. The
sere old man vaingloriously insisted on dyeing his comb-over.
serendipitous: (adj.) when good things happen by accident.
It was serendipitous that we found the really great bar only because we were lost.
sessile: (adj.) especially of organisms, fixed in one place; immobile.
Mr. Bufford? Why, he ain't left his farm for over 43 years. I'd venture to say he's downright sessile.
sgraffito: (noun) (pronounced: ska-graf-fee-toe) a form
of decoration made by scratching through the surface to expose a lower layer of contrasting colour. After the wall was
completely covered with graffiti, the only way the gang could tag the wall was with sgraffito.
shamanic: (adj.) (pronounced: sha-mon-nic) relating
to a shaman. Just because my cat acts shamanic doesn't make her a shaman.
shenanigans: (plural noun) mischief; silly or high-spirited behaviour. Son, I've had enough
of your shenanigans. Now take off that silly arrow-through-your-head and run this company like it should be run.
shew: (verb) old-fashioned version of to show. I didn't
mean to shoo her away. I meant to shew her in.
shibboleth: (noun) a word, saying, or custom used by a group of people,
but considered void of meaning by others; a long standing belief or saying with little meaning or truth. The belief
that guns don't kill people is a shibboleth of the NRA.
shill: (noun) an accomplice of a swindler, hawker, or gambler
who acts like an enthusiastic customer to entice others. On the city bus from the base to downtown, there was always
a shill along with the guy who was playing three card monte.
shilly-shally: (verb) to fail to act resolutely or decisively.
If we shilly-shally here too long, the beer's going to get warm, and don't none of us want that.
shindy: (noun) a noisy disturbance; a loud, lively party.
Wendy's shindies were the best in town.
shrive: (verb) to confess your sins to a priest in order that
they be forgiven. Even though he shrove his sins to the priest, he still wasn’t shriven.
sidereal: (adj.) (pronounced: sigh-deer-ee-al) having to do with
the distant stars. Strap on your rockets, men! We're headed for sidereal skies!
siditty: (adj.) bourgeois; snobbish; pretentious; uppity; putting
on airs; acting as if you're better than somebody. You actin' all siditty don't mean a thing. You're still not
better than any of us.
simoom: (noun) (pronounced: sah-moom) a hot, dry,
dust-laden wind blowing across the desert. When the simoom blew across Oklahoma, the Joads knew it was time to go.
singlet: (noun) a sleeveless garment worn under a shirt, or instead of a shirt. It's not
a dickey. It's a singlet. There is a difference... maybe.
skank: (verb) to swindle, to deceive; a type of dance associated
with reggae music, such as the Bob Marley song, "Easy Skanking." They said they were skanking, but I didn't
believe them.
skedaddle: (verb) cheese it; get outta here; go on, already.
Gentlemen, in the face of overwhelming opposition and imminent defeat, I suggest that we skedaddle.
skirl: (verb) to make a shrill, wailing sound, especially with
bagpipes. No, dear, that skirling sound you hear is not bagpipes. It's the cat.
skittish: (adj.) nervous; jumpy. Don't be so skittish.
After all, it's only nitroglycerin.
skive: (verb) to avoid work or duty by malingering, leaving
early, or just not showing up; to shirk. You there, skiving in your skivvies. Quit your shirking and get back
to working.
skosh: (noun) a little bit; a small amount; itsy bitsy. I’ll have
a skosh of scotch, please.
skulk: (verb) to lurk; loiter; creep. The creep knew not to
loiter, but there she was, skulking about.
skullduggery (also: skulduggery): (noun) chicanery; unscrupulous behavior;
trickery. So it had been Widow Jones after all who tricked us with her skulduggery! It was she who robbed the
graves and stole the heads off the corpses!
slabber: (verb) to dribble at the mouth; to splash something;
to slaver. Ten minutes at the shindy, and Orville is a slabbering fool. We can't take him anywhere.
slattern: (noun) a dirty, untidy woman; a sexually promiscuous
woman. When I said I wanted my girl fiend to be more slattern, what I had in mind had nothing to do with hygiene.
slaver: (verb) to show excessive desire; to drool. Yes,
darling, a woman does like to feel that she is desired, but trust me, no woman on the planet is going to be turned on by slavering.
slog: (verb) to work hard, usually for a specified time.
If we can just slog through the next few months, then maybe life will get better.
sloth: (noun) indolence, apathy, laziness, one of the Seven Deadly sins, and a mammal native
to temperate forests. It would be hard to tell if a slothful sloth is dead.
slough: (noun) bog; fen: quagmire. (verb) to cast
off; to shed. After sloughing its skin, the snake disappeared into the slough, leaving everybody wondering how to pronounce “slough.”
slubberdegullion: (noun, eventually from “slobber”) (pronounced: slubber dee gull lee on) a slovenly or worthless person. Don’t worry. Just
because you didn’t do your vocabulary homework does not make you a slubberdegullion, but you can’t have any nougat.
sluggardly: (adv.) slow moving. Of course I'm acting sluggardly, you moron. I'm a sluggard.
smarmy: (adj.) You know those people you meet and there’s
just something about them? You know how they look at your boobs just a bit too much, or seem just a bit too interested
in your 13 year old daughter, or there’s just something about them that makes you wish they would go away and never
come back? Yeah, that’s smarmy. Eddie Haskell acted smarmy around adults, but Mrs. Clever was on to him.
smithereens: (noun) really little pieces; a band from the ‘80s.
The bomb blew all of my Smithereens’ songs to smithereens. I couldn’t even find one smitereen when the smoke
cleared.
snaffle: (verb) to steal; to rob; to pilfer; to snitch.
The boys snaffled the pie off the window sill while the kindly old lady who baked it let her pit bull lose.
snarkasm: (noun) snarky sarcasm. Just in case they don’t
realize we’re being sarcastic, let’s go with snarkasm instead.
snarky:
(adj.) smart-alecky, short of patience. As the semester wore on, the professor found himself becoming increasingly
snarkier every time he had to answer yet another question that was required reading and a part of the damn
syllabus.
snazzy: (adj.) ostentatious, flamboyant, flashy. Billy Bob was sure lookin' snazzy in
his new camos.
snide: (adj.) sarcastic; mean; unpleasant; generally nasty. You don't have to be so snide
when you turn me down. Just say, "No."
snigger: (verb) to titter; to snort; to guffaw. “It’s funny that English has
so many words for laughing,” he said with a snigger that fell just short of a guffaw.
snuggery: (noun) a cozy or comfortable place, especially if that place is private; a place where
one can be snug. My house is my snuggery.
sobriquet: (noun) (pronounced: so-brah-kay) a person's
nickname. Billy Bob wanted to go by the sobriquet of "Dido Master" after he impressed that lady cop.
sod: (noun) short for “sodomite,” which is where
we get the word “sodomy,” and you can take it from there. You bloody sod! I haven’t a clue why
we don’t call people gomorramites.
soigné: (adj.) (pronounced swan-yea) well-groomed; neat;
chic. Arthur always appeared soigné, but it only masked that underneath his stylish appearance he was still an
idiot.
solipsism: (noun) The philosophical belief that the self is
all that you know to exist. My cat is a solipsist.
somnambulant: (adj.) to sleepwalk; to act sluggish. Dang somnambulant rodents! They ain’t
worth a lick in predictin’ weather. And they taste awful, too!
sonorously: (adv.) loudly; deeply; resonantly. The bullfrogs
sang sonorously from the muddy bank right up until we gigged ‘em. Stupid frogs.
sooth: (noun) truth. I'm sorry, but you simply cannot
be a soothsayer if you're going to lie.
sophistry: (noun) (pronounced: sof-is-tree) the use
of fallacious arguments, especially with the intent to deceive. When the president said that he was using sophistry,
he meant it in a good way. Next question, please?
soporific: (adj.) (pronounced sop-ah-rif-ic) monotonous; dull;
boring. We found his explanation of “soporific” to be rather soporific.
sordid: (adj.) dirty; squalid; generally nasty. Isn't the term "sordid affair"
a bit redundant?
sororal: (adj.) of or like sisters. Yeah, that’s great.
I’ll pick you up at seven. And my buddy was wondering if you might have any sororal acquaintances that would like
to tag along. The more the merrier. Hello?
sot: (noun) a habitual drunkard. You’d better
hide the liquor when the old sot comes over or there’ll be nothing left when he leaves.
sough: (verb) (pronounced: suff) to make a moaning,
whistling, or rustling sound, such as the wind through the trees, or the sound of the sea. It was enough to hear the
sough coming off the waves.
soupçon: touch; smidgen; dash; taste. The soup can needed a soupçon
of flavour.
spatchcock: (verb) to butterfly a chicken, or other game bird.
A shuttlecock is a birdie, so you should be able to spatchcock a shuttlecock.
spavined: (adj.) being in a decrepit or broken down condition.
The spavined old man lived down a spavined old road in a spavined old house with a shiny new Cadillac out front.
specie: (noun) money in the form of coins, not notes. Humans
are the only species to use specie.
specious: (adj.) having a false look of truth; having a deceptive
attraction or allure; sophistic. The specious description of the president's new economic plan didn't fool anybody.
spiel: (noun) speech; pitch; patter. Oh, no. If you listen to our spiel, we really
will give you two nights free hotel stay on Maui. Of course, it's up to you to get there.
spink: (verb) to call, chirp, or make a distinctive sound.
Leonard spinked from the living room, his usual request for another beer, but Margie never heard him, having left to live
with her mother three months earlier.
splodge: (noun) splotch; a dab, blot or smear of something, usually
liquid. My darling, you seem to have a splodge of cognac on your tuxedo. How gauche!
sportive: (adj.) playful; lighthearted. Oh, don't worry.
The dog is just being sportive. He'll more than likely return your artificial leg before you need to go.
spunky: (adj.) spirited; plucky. The spunky kitten cashed
in her IRAs and moved to Hollywood, where she became a star in cat food commercials.
spurious: (adj.) false, bogus, fake. We found out that his intentions were spurious only
after the check bounced.
squidgy: (adj.) unpleasantly damp. After hiking all morning
in the rain, the Boy Scouts became rather squidgy.
squire: (verb, not the noun version) for a man to escort a woman. Lord Basil squired his
mistresses into the room, and Lady Basil squired them out.
squitter: (noun) a random broadcast of data, either unintentionally or in response to noise, such
as radar might produce in response to an unknown signal. Having his hopes dashed, Mort's boss confirmed that what he
was hearing from the far end of the Universe was not squitter, but simply static from a bad wire in the receiver. Of
course, that's what his boss said about everything.
steampunk: (noun) a form of science fiction that features steam-powered
machinery instead of more advanced technology. All the juvenile delinquents powered their jalopies with steam, making
them all a bunch of steampunks.
stemwinder: (noun) originally a watch that was wound by turning a
knob on the end of a stem; more commonly now it refers to an entertaining or rousing speech. At the annual horologist
convention, Harold, the keynote speaker, gave a stemwinder about stemwinders.
stentorian: (adj.) loud; powerful; booming. The Senator had a stentorian
voice.
stereotomy: (noun) the art of cutting solid objects, usually rock,
into particular shapes, and then assembling those shapes into complex structures. There was no real reason to do the
doghouse with stereotomy, other than the dog wanted it that way. Whatcha gonna do?
stertorous: (adj.) (pronounced: stert-ter-us) referring
to breathing, noisy and laboured. We knew the centipede was on its last legs when we heard its stertorous breathing.
stet: (noun) primarily used with proofreading, that a correction
or alternation should be ignored. Marla returned my love letter with only one word written on it: Stet.
stodge: (noun) food that is heavy, filling, and high in carbs...
you know, comfort food; dull and uninspired work or material. Well, yes. Your mother's stodge is rather stodgy,
but then, we didn't have to cook it, did we?
stolid: (adj.) indifferent; emotionless; dull; unresponsive.
We just thought Uncle Rudolf was being his usual, stolid self when we realized he had died sometime in the previous month.
stone: (noun) a British unit of measurement equal to 14 pounds
– that’s American pounds, not British pounds, which is a monetary unit, and not a measurement of weight.
I got an entire stone of weed, so now we can really get stoned!
stove up: (adj.)
to be incapacitated or damaged (from knocking a stave out of a boat's hull) One run down the ski slope left Eugene stoved
up in front of the stove.
stroppy:
(adj.) bad tempered and argumentative; obstreperous; difficult. Stop being so stroppy and just get in the car.
strumpet: (noun) a lady of ill-repute.
No, Larry. I wanted a trumpet, not a strumpet. But since she's here....
stuffed
shirt: (noun) a conservative,
pompous person; a killjoy; a buzzkill. Geez, Larry, don't be such a stuffed shirt. It's happy hour, for cryin'
out loud. Be happy.
stultify: (verb) to cause someone to loose enthusiasm or initiative,
usually as a result of a tedious or restrictive routine. Having the students do their vocabulary words stultified their
natural curiosity.
stupefaction:
(noun) (pronounced: stoop-ah-fac-shun) the state of being stupefied; confusion; befuddlement; perplexity.
The stupefaction of the masses has led to an interesting electorate, to say the least.
suasion: (noun) (pronounced: sway-shun) persuasion as opposed to force or compulsion.
Your suasion would be far more effective, and far more grammatically correct, if you weren't also holding a gun while suggesting
that we leave.
sublime: (adj.) beautiful; awe-inspiring; uplifting. It
was a sublime act to fill the sub with limes.
subservient: (adj.) prepared to serve others unquestionably; being
subordinate. There's a name for people who expect their spouses to be subservient: divorced.
subterfuge: (noun) deceit used to reach a goal. His lollygagging was just a subterfuge to
make us think his doing nothing was really a cover for his doing something, when in reality, he wasn’t doing anything
at all.
succubus: (noun) a female demon believed to have sex with sleeping
men. Indeed! It has to be a succubus. Only a demon would have sex with me. According to all my old
girlfriends, of course.
suffocant: (noun) any substance that causes suffocation. (adj.) sultry; overpowering.
The mother's affection turned into a suffocant as the child grew older.
suggestibility: (noun) being inclined to believe and act on the suggestions of others where false but plausible information
is given, so one fills in the gaps in certain memories with false information, like convincing somebody they were abused as
a child when they weren't. Carol's suggestibility caused her to believe that she had spent her childhood on Pluto living
with a cat named Ernie, when in reality, she grew up in Indianapolis.
sulky: (noun) a two-wheeled cart without a body – only
a seat for the rider – used for horse and dog racing. (adj.) morose; bad tempered; generally not cheerful;
a Donnie-downer. Don't be so sulky. You'll get your turn riding in the sulky.
sumptuary: (adj.) relating to rules that regulate extravagance.
There was a sumptuary tax on the caviar, so we got sardines instead.
sunder: (verb) to
split apart; to divide; to separate; to sever. This Sunday will sunder the summer from the fall.
sundry: (adj.) many; various kinds; lots of stuff not important enough to be mentioned
individually. Let's see... we have guns and bombs and big, nasty knives, and other sundry weapons.
superannuated: (adj.) obsolete because of age, technology, or intellectual
developments; old fashioned; out of date; antiquated. When you find the definition of "superannuated" in your
paperback dictionary, fax me a copy of it, but be sure to page me first.
supercilious: (adj.) arrogant; pompous; condescending. Her supercilious comments made him think
twice about asking her up to his apartment following their date.
supererogation: (noun) (pronounced: super-err-oh-gay-tion)
the performance of more work than required; brown-nosing. Oh, that's just Larry. He thinks the boss notices his
supererogation. So we let him do all our work.
superfluous: (adj.) more than is sufficient or required; unnecessary.
His propensity toward vapidness resulted in an overall superfluousness.
superfly: (adj.) excellent; superior (from
the ho-hum 1972 movie with the excellent soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield) When that cool cat brought down the whoop on
those bad guys... like... dig, man, that was superfly.
supernumerary: (adj.) extra; excessive; superfluous. We found
her supernumerary description to be both redundant and prolix.
superscribe: (verb) to write something at the top or outside of an already existing document. You
need to superscribe the memo, showing that you've read it, and that you agree that it is, indeed, a memo.
supervene: (verb) to occur later than planned, generally screwing
up those plans. Harold's car breaking down supervened his date with Clara.
supine: (adj.) (pronounced: sue-pine) a person lying
face upward; failing to act, or even protest, because one is morally weak or indolent. Yeah... I know I should be out
protesting, but I'm going to stay at home and be supine.
surcingle: (noun) the strap that runs under a horse's belly to keep
a blanket or other equipment in place. You let me worry about the surcingle. Now keep your hands where I can see
'em and move away from your horse.
surfeit: (noun) (pronounced: surf-it) excess; surplus; glut.
There is always a surfeit of people who are willing to demand that others take action, while the only action they are willing
to take is to demand that action.
surreptitiously: (adv.) covertly; furtively; secretively.
Their seemingly surreptitious liaisons were quite obvious to everyone but themselves.
suss: (verb) to realize; to grasp. Go suss out the situation while we wait for you in
the pub.
susurrus: (noun) a soft, murmuring sound; whisper; also: susurration. The susurrus coming
from the adjoining pallor became increasingly eldritch.
svelte: (adj.) slender; graceful; willowy; lithe; sylph-like.
Well, dear, I can understand your wanting to be svelte, but being anorexic goes beyond being lithe.
swain: (noun) admirer; lover; beau; suitor. The swan swooned
for her swain.
swale: (noun) (rhymes with "whale") a low lying or depressed stretch of often
wet land; a hazard on a golf course. There's a swell swale over here you might want to avoid with your ball... and the
golf cart.
swarthy: (adj.) having dark complexion. She was looking
for a man who was tall, handsome, and swarthy, and I'm not any of those.
swimmingly: (adv.) smoothly; satisfactorily. Things were going swimmingly until he came
home early and discovered his cat on the computer selling the house.
swoon: (verb) to faint; to pass out. Is it too soon after noon to swoon?
sybarite: (noun) (pronounced: sib-ah-rite) a pleasure
lover; hedonist; epicurean. Calling myself a sybarite sounds a lot better than calling myself a self-indulged pleasure
lover, but it all works out the same.
sycophant: (noun) toady; bootlicker; brownnoser; minion; Bob in
Accounting. The only way to advance in this company is to be a sycophant.
syllabification: (noun) (pronounced: sill-lab-ah-fa-cay-tion) The division of words into
syllables, either in writing or speech. Ling Po eventually flunked out of haiku school, having never learned the art
of syllabification.
sylph: (noun) an imaginary spirit of the air; a species of hummingbird.
If a hummingbird dies and comes back as a sylph... would it know the difference?
sylvan: (adj.) wooded;
associated with the woods. There is nothing more peaceful than seeing a deer in a sylvan setting, and then blowing it
away.
synchronicity: (noun) aside from a 1983 album by the Police, the simultaneous
occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection; convenient coincidence.
Mary Ann thought that having to share a bed with the entire defensive line of the Packers was serendipity, when it was
truly only synchronicity.
syncopate: (verb) unexpected (as in ryhthms); to cut short,
abbreviate (such as dropping the "ery" from ev'ry). Our trip to the beach was syncopated because of the hurricane.
syncretism: (noun) the combining of different beliefs into one. Why, my boy,
it's syncretism. It allows us to believe that people like Homer and Virgil, who lived hundreds of years before Christ
were, in fact, Christians.
synecdoche: (noun) (pronounced: sin-eck-dah-kee) a figure
of speech in which a part represents the whole, or the whole represents a part. The pen is greater than the sword, unless
you really only have a pen, and the other guy really has a sword, then you're probably going to lose. (In the first
part of that example, "pen" is used to represent the written word, and "sword" is used to represent physical
force, making them both synecdoches.)
syzygy: (noun) the alignment of three celestial bodies, such as the moon, the earth
and the sun, in a gravitational system. Don't get me wrong. I love throwing people into a volcano, but my favourite
time for a human sacrifice is during the syzygy.
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