51吃瓜 of the Day
toplofty
adjective
condescending; haughty.
More about toplofty
Toplofty, 鈥渃ondescending; haughty,鈥� is a back formation of earlier toploftical, of similar meaning. Both adjectives are humorous colloquialisms. The underlying phrase is top loft, 鈥渢he uppermost story, topmost gallery.鈥� Toploftical appears, sort of, in everyone鈥檚 favorite bedtime reading, Finnegans Wake (1939): 鈥溾�elescalating the himals and all, hierarchitectitiptitoploftical, with a burning bush abob off its baubletop鈥︹�� Toplofty entered English in the first half of the 19th century.
how is toplofty used?
Newcomers to the Examiner who feared that the rich senator’s son might be a painful popinjay were charmed by his quaint courtesy and the absence of anything toplofty of condescending about him.
If this should fall through, dear, you must write to your Aunt Vic. You must eat humble pie. You were too toplofty with her as it was.
toplofty
encomium
noun
a formal expression of high praise.
More about encomium
Encomium, 鈥渁 formal expression of high praise,鈥� comes via Latin 别苍肠艒尘颈耻尘 from Greek 别苍办峁搈颈辞苍 鈥渁 laudatory ode for a conqueror, a eulogy or panegyric for a living person.鈥� 贰苍办峁搈颈辞苍 is composed of the preposition and prefix en, en– 鈥渋n,鈥� the noun 办么尘辞蝉 鈥渞evel making, carousal, company of men participating in a Dionysiac procession and celebration鈥� (the ancient Greeks did nothing to excess unless they were absolutely nuts about it). The further etymology of 办么尘辞蝉 is disputed; the word appears as the first element of 办艒尘艒颈诲辞铆 鈥渞evel singers,鈥� from which the noun 办艒尘艒颈诲铆补 鈥渁 humorous spectacle鈥� derives, becoming comoedia in Latin, and comedy in English. Encomium entered English in the second half of the 16th century.
how is encomium used?
The latter film took a British miniseries that cast a sardonic, frequently scathing eye upon newspapering, and turned it into an encomium for the Great American Investigative Reporter.
Since Mr. Trebek announced his diagnosis, his admirers have flooded the internet and elsewhere with encomiums.
encomium
More about flapdoodle
Flapdoodle, 鈥渘onsense; bosh,鈥� is a colloquialism that first appeared in print in 1834 along with a definition: 鈥淚t鈥檚 the stuff they feed fools on.鈥� Flapdoodle has no reliable etymology; the meaning of flap is pure conjecture, but some scholars suggest that doodle has its archaic sense 鈥渁 fool, silly person.鈥� Mark Twain uses flapdoodle in chapter 25 of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884): 鈥溾�the King] works himself up and slobbers out a speech, all full of tears and flapdoodle about its being a sore trial for him and his poor brother鈥�.鈥�
how is flapdoodle used?
But Shlaes suavely dismisses the notion that Coolidge bears responsibility for the Great Depression and suggests his work was 鈥渃omplete, ready as a kind of blessing for another era.鈥�
This is flapdoodle. No, Coolidge was not single-handedly culpable for the economic calamity of the 1930s. But neither can he be safely extracted from the ruin that followed his presidency.
At home, a day later, too jet-lagged to think straight, I watch the 鈥淒a Vinci Code鈥� movie for the first time. Now, I remember some silly flapdoodle about vessels and chalices and secret societies, but not much else. Nothing, it seems, rubbed off on me.
flapdoodle