51吃瓜 of the Day
sidesplitter
noun
something that is uproariously funny, as a joke or a situation.
More about sidesplitter
Sidesplitter is perfectly obvious in its derivation and meaning: something that is so uproariously funny that you split your sides from laughing. Sidesplitter first appears in a weekly newspaper, the New-York Mirror, in 1834 and slightly later in England.
how is sidesplitter used?
If the lyric 鈥淚n New York, you can be a real ham鈥� sounds like a sidesplitter, this one鈥檚 for you.
My appreciation of the short form was enhanced when I discovered the quirky humor of Damon Runyon and Ring Larder, clearly at their peak in a twenty-page sidesplitter.
beaucoup
adjective
Informal: Usually Facetious.
many; numerous; much: It's a hard job, but it pays beaucoup money.
More about beaucoup
In French, beaucoup is an adverb meaning (in various combinations) 鈥渁 lot, lots, lots of, much, many.鈥� Beaucoup first appeared in American English about 1760 in the sense 鈥渁 lot, many.鈥� The word, whether used as a singular or plural, was rare before 1918, when the United States became fully engaged in World War I, as in 鈥淲e鈥檝e been spending beaucoup francs lately for Uncle Sam,鈥� and as an adverb 鈥渧ery, very much,鈥� as in Ernest Hemingway鈥檚 鈥淚’m pulling through my annual tonsilitis now so feel bokoo rotten鈥� (1918). During the 1960s and ’70s, American servicemen returning from Vietnam popularized the word and introduced the spellings boo-koo, boocoo(p).
how is beaucoup used?
Grassroots support, a powerful message and good timing can still win elections, even without beaucoup bucks.
Of course, one can ignore the message and simply revel briefly in the traditional values: the days of beaucoup聽silverware, heaping platters of mutton, folks upstairs and downstairs.
imponderabilia
plural noun
imponderables; things that cannot be precisely determined, measured, or evaluated: the imponderabilia surrounding human life.
More about imponderabilia
There are not very many seven-syllable words in English, which makes imponderabilia a really weighty word. It鈥檚 Latin for “imponderable things, imponderables.” It comes from New Latin 颈尘辫辞苍诲别谤腻产颈濒颈补, a noun use of the neuter plural of the Medieval Latin adjective 颈尘辫辞苍诲别谤腻产颈濒颈蝉 鈥渦nable to be weighed or measured,鈥� ultimately deriving from Latin 辫辞苍诲别谤腻谤别 鈥渢o weigh.鈥� Imponderabilia entered English in the early 20th century.
how is imponderabilia used?
… the imponderabilia,鈥攖hose obscure but all-powerful factors like sentiment, public opinion, good will, affection, and so on. You can’t weigh or measure them, nor get at them by any rule of thumb.
Bronis艂aw Malinowski, called [them] 鈥渢he imponderabilia聽of actual life.鈥� These are, he wrote, 鈥渟mall incidents, characteristic forms of taking food, of conversing, of doing work, [that] are found occurring over and over again.鈥�