51吃瓜 of the Day
ambages
noun
Archaic. (used with a plural verb)
winding, roundabout paths or ways.
More about ambages
The English noun ambages is usually used in the plural, just like its Latin original, 补尘产腻驳脓蝉. Both English and Latin nouns share the same meanings: 鈥渨inding, roundabout paths; prolix, ambiguous, or equivocating language.鈥� The Latin noun is a compound of the prefix ambhi– 鈥渁round, about, both鈥� (as in ambidextrous 鈥渁ble to use both hands equally well鈥�), and a derivative noun of the hard-working verb agere 鈥渢o lead, drive, act, do.鈥� Ambages entered English in the early 15th century.
how is ambages used?
A city of monstrous size to which London was but a market town. Its听ambages听of streets bewildered.
few readers, we apprehend, will have the resolution to keep him company to the end of his book, or to follow him through the ambages听of his descriptions, without occasional symptoms of weariness.
ambages
kitsch
noun
something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste.
More about kitsch
One person鈥檚 art is another person鈥檚 kitsch. Kitsch is a German noun meaning 鈥渢rash, rubbish; slapdash, pretentious, sentimental, or tacky work of art.” Kitsch is a derivative of the verb kitschen 鈥渢o throw together (a work of art),鈥� from German kitschen 鈥渢o sweep up or scrape up mud from the street,鈥� or from German dialect kitschen 鈥渢o sell cheaply.鈥� Kitsch entered English in the first half of the 20th century.
how is kitsch used?
When the art critics call me “cornball” and my work “kitsch,” which I’m told is a derogatory term for popular art, I begin to worry. But I always pick up my brushes and go back to work. For better or for worse, I’ll never be a fine arts painter or a modern artist. I’m an illustrator, which is very different.听
Allee Willis …听lives in a light-pink house north of Hollywood with a bowling-ball garden and a heaving collection of kitsch.
kitsch
chockablock
adjective
extremely full; crowded; jammed: a room chockablock with furniture and plants.
More about chockablock
Chockablock is a nautical term describing the position of tackle when the blocks are drawn close together. From the sense of the blocks being pressed tightly together, chockablock develops the sense “extremely full, crowded.” Chock and block are clear enough: they are synonyms for a wedge or other solid, heavy mass for holding something steady. The only problem with chockablock is the –a-: it is likely a reduced form of and.听 Chockablock entered English at the end of the 18th century.
how is chockablock used?
I have a steel engraving of the Old Harbor chockablock with ships ….
The lyrics and the video are chockablock with suburban Americana signifiers: lawns, pools, divorce.
chockablock