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The aspectabund performance of Gregor Fisher on the Hamlet cigar ads
Word of the week: This rare adjective describes a highly expressive face or countenance, where emotions and reactions are readily shown through the eyes or mouth
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Crapulence creeps in … but will an egg really help?
Word of the week: A term that may apply regularly during Xmas party season, from the from the Latin crapula, in turn from the Greek kraipálē meaning "drunkenness" or "headache" pertains to sickness symptoms caused by excess in eating or drinking, or general intemperance and overindulgence
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Runners sometimes discalceate for a purer movement …
Word of the week: A rarely used, but often practised verb, especially when arriving home, it means to take off your shoes, but is also a slightly more common adjective meaning barefoot or unshod, particularly for certain religious orders that wear sandals instead of shoes. But in what context does this come up in song?
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Watching one of these on the twopath? Then this word by be for you
Word of the week: A fabulous old English slang term for someone who tends to stand or sit for long periods staring at the passing of boats on canals, sometimes with a derogatory or at least ironic use for someone who is useless or lazy. But what of songs about this activity and culture?
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A horse of the isabelline hue
Word of the week: Regularly found on the feathers of birds of the flanks of horses, this is a common, if subtle, pale greyish-yellow colour, thought to rather shadily take its name from Isabella Clara Eugenia, the daughter of King Philip II of Spain from the early 17th century with a shoddy story ending
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Bottles hanging on the wall …
Word of the week: It’s a colourful noun for an intoxicatingly visual subject, and in parallel relating to people who may be a labeorphilist or labeorphile, it refers to the enthusiasm for, and collection of beer bottle labels. But what’s the musical connection?
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A Mugwump in David Cronenberg’s film adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ novel The Naked Lunch
Word of the week: This oddly evocative noun might summon in the mind some tactile, earthy image, or a strange childrens’ TV fictional character, but actually pertains to a person who is politically neutral, aloof, or independent, and in 19th-century America, described anti-corruption party switchers
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Treble clef on the nucha
Word of the week: A niche, sensual noun for a tactile area, with the related adjective nuchal, meaning related to the nape, or back or scruff of the neck. But where does it rub in music? For some light relief, here’s a variety of neck songs to send hairs standing up for different reason in this anatomical area
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Holding the olecranon
Word of the week: This is the large, thick, curved bony area of the elbow that sticks out at the arm joint – the proximal, posterior end of the ulnar bone which, alongside the radius, is the lower arm, and marks the point of the ulnar nerve, or in other words – the funny bone
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Some girls’ wigs are bigger than other girls …
Word of the week: Taken from the French language, this appropriately ornate noun pertains to makers of perukes, wigs or hairpieces, a trade that has variously gone in and out of fashion over the centuries. But what about these hair pieces in song?
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Red-billed quelea
Word of the week: It’s the name of the genus of small African passerine birds, part of the weaver family Ploceidae, small, sparrow- or finch-like, they are highly gregarious, nomadic, chattering birds, with bills adapted to eating seeds, and the red-billed quelea is said to be the most numerous bird species in the world
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Flowering Ranunculaceae
Word of the week: An adjective describing something related to or belonging to the Ranunculaceae plant family, particular those more commonly described as buttercups. But what of them in song?
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This week’s word might involve a fat dictionary
Word of the week: First appearing in English in the mid-17th century, meaning “a foot and a half long”, it’s a noun identifying words with multiple syllables, or an often derogatory adjective for a person with a tendency to use overlong words
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Three-banded tolypeutine
Word of the week: A noun related to the term Tolypeutinae, this is a subfamily of Chlamyphoridae of the armadillo family, consisting of the giant, naked-tailed and particularly the three-banded species
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Sheep are naturally ulotrichous
Word of the week: While it’s entirely natural in animals such as sheep as well as some humans, depending on an individual’s point of view it’s either a blessing or a curse. From Greek words oûlos (crisp, curly) and -trikhos (haired), this adjective means having curly or woolly hair
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Chateau Marmont Hotel, West Hollywood, California
Word of the week: It’s something in which many of us may indulge during the thick of winter, planning for holidays via booking websites, this noun meaning the study of hotels, extending also to researching their lore and history
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That distinctive gingerbread twang
Word of the week: Two alternative spellings, spicily evocative and colourful, they are adjectives pertaining to the Zingiberaceae family of flowering plants that variously bring that distinctive flavour of, and are a rather fancy way of saying – ginger
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A row of aquabobs
Word of the week: Sounding like some water-based children’s TV superhero, it’s actually a particularly apt and descriptive word for wintertime, being an 18th-century English Kent dialect noun meaning icicle
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The Deoch an Dorus pub in Partick, Glasgow
Word of the week: From the17th-century Scottish Gaelic phrase, deoch an doruis (and also with the form deochandorus), this literally means “door-drink” – a toast made with, or to honour, someone about to depart
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Meme of the time: four lads in jeans, Birmingham 2019
Word of the week: Aside from the literal outer layer of the ray-finned slippery fish, this evocative, slightly suggestive 19th-century slang means very tight trousers, while this week’s bonus word, excruciators, points to the experience of wearing very tight shoes
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