I like fun words like today’s word of the day by dictionary.com. A facetious word it is, prompting me to also look up facetious [fuh–see-shuh s], although already confident on it’s meaning. But seeing that it was included in the definition, I thought I would be extra, extra sure. And yep, facetious means not to be taken seriously, or amusing and humorous.

I imagine the word alone will give away it’s humor, for everyone knows there’s no such thing as a cackleberry tree, right? A noun that means a hen’s egg used for food, cackleberry [kak–uh-l-ber-ee] is indeed a word, and a funny one at that. “Two cackleberries over easy, please!”

Spoken as early as the 1900’s in the U.S., whomever coined this slang likely had a dang good sense of humor.

Today’s Word of the Day by dictionary.com has two definitions. One of them is just what the word sounds like, which is woolgathering,  a gathering of the tufts of wool shed by sheep and caught on bushes. This is actually the second definition. The first one is very different and it seemed like the wrong definition for the word until I realized how it came about.

A noun, woolgathering [woo l-gath-er-ing] is, and also means an indulgence in idle fancies and in daydreaming; absentmindedness. Because gathering tufts of wool was thought to be a mindless task and gatherers were caught daydreaming, this definition grew out of the literal sense. Entering the English language in the mid-1500’s, I suppose it could be considered the historical disorder of attention deficit.

I also suppose that a woolgatherer would be a person who collects the woolgatherings left by sheep. What about a person doing the indulging of fancies, would they, or could they, be called a woolgatherer as well? So a person with attention deficit disorder, could they be called an attention deficiter? Just kidding, I know this is not a word. I know that they are simply called someone who does not subtract. 😉

When you apply sunscreen, do you make sure to rub it into your skin real good? I do, I have always done it this way, and to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever personally suggested to me otherwise. That is, until my friend Marian showed me a better way. The first day of our vacation with friends, we all lathered on the sunscreen – SPF 30, although we now know that our northern friends the first few days should use SPF 50, and we rubbed it in real good. Marian got a little crispy, but just a little. Marian determined that she would be better protected if the sunscreen was not rubbed into her skin, but left on top of her skin, acting as a barrier. And from then on out, every time she applied sunscreen (which was several times a day), she would chant, “Barbecue sauce, not a rub… barbecue sauce, not a rub…” By the end of the week, if I even saw her reach for the sunscreen, I automatically thought, barbecue sauce, not a rub. So that is Marian’s mantra, which could also be called a mnemonic, because it helps me to remember to leave a barrier of sunscreen and not thoroughly rub it in.

Brought to us by dictionary.com, mnemonic is today’s Word of the Day, pronounced ni-mon-ik. Used as a noun, mnemonic is something intended to assist the memory, as a verse or formula; as an adjective, it means assisting or intended to assist the memory. Well Marian, your mantra certainly did assist my memory in changing the way I have applied sunscreen my whole life, and therefore, I am calling it a mnemonic. Or, it could also be Marian’s mnemonic mantra. Yep, that’s it!

There’s just nothing like waking up with Kate Bradley, the Bradley girls and Uncle Joe at the Shady Rest Hotel. Good, wholesome television is such a rarity these days and shows like Petticoat Junction do a good job captivating my attention. On this morning’s show, Kate tries to get one of her daughters to turn her attention to the new handsome, young doctor in town with hopes that she’ll actually become interested in going to medical school. When Floyd asked her how she knew the doctor would be interested, I swear it sounded like she said something along the lines of Billy Jo being a cynosure, which just so happens to be today’s word of the day on dictionary.com.

Yep, cynosure [sin-uh-shoo r] is a noun and it is something that strongly attracts attention by its brilliance, interest, etc. So there you have it, in the land of Susie’s Write Solutions, a cynosure can be a person; it can also be something a person is wearing, as in jewelry or clothing, or even makeup, like Mimi in the Drew Carey Show. Hopefully I helped you to learn something new today, and if not, at least you have the name of a good show to go check out.

I know many abecedarians. I first thought of the little ones I know who just graduated from Kindergarten and those getting ready to go in the fall, seeing that according to Dictionary.com, the first definition of abecedarian, today’s Word of the Day, is “a person who is learning the letters of the alphabet.” How appropriate that it is pronounced ey-bee-see-DAIR-ee-uhn, or a-b-c-darian.

It also means “a beginner in any field of learning,” and I know a few of those who are grown-ups. Two of my friends are learning a new business and another two went back to school for a degree, there’s four off the top of my head. I bet if I thought about it long enough, I could come up with an example for all of my friends.Very broad examples, and perhaps not technically on point, like I guess you could say I am a beginner in the field of blogging every day. I’m also new at driving a small car, and after driving high-up for the past eighteen years in a van, an SUV, and then a truck, a small car certainly feels like learning a new field!

To meddle is to nettle – I think so anyway. That is because it annoys me when people meddle. Getting into other people’s business uninvited is a no-no, for those of you who may not know. So, meddling causes nettling, which is to irritate, annoy or provoke. It is also today’s Word of the Day on Dictionary.com.

Having never lived on a mountain, or anywhere close to a mountain, I can not say whether or not I would find it desirable. I can tell you that I found it absolutely horrifying when we drove up a mountain in North Carolina, and it was just as frightening going back down. We were visiting my husband’s cousin a few years ago, a beautiful place, but a little too steep for me and my anxiety. My poor husband.

Here’s a view while driving (picture taken by me, the passenger):

Apparently, when talking mountains, there is a shady side and there is a side that receives direct sunlight. As one might expect, the shadier side is usually rocky and steep while the sunny side is more fertile. This side, the sunny side, is called an adret, pronounced a-DREY, and is Dictionary.com‘s Word of the Day. If I ever had to live on a mountain, I would say, “Okay, just make sure I’m on the adret!”

My husband has a grabbling problem. Thankfully it is only with me, and also the reason why I’m not going to talk about it. It’s not a bad thing, but being a family channel here, subjects of that nature are off-limits. However, it is the only thing I can think of for the word grabble. And that’s all you get from me about today’s Word of the Day, brought to you by Dictionary.com.