GUEST BELI-BLOGGER LEE MCD: AND THE WORD OF THE DAY IS . . .

As someone once noted at this site, I am very good with words. So, for anyone interested, I point you to a free email service that provides a "Word of the Day." If you ever feel like pulling your hair out because of an information overload, or because of heightened stress, or because of obsessive-compulsive issues, then you might be experiencing trichotillomania. My site of choice for definitions, Dictionary.com, offers an even more specific definition, one that often includes the compulsion to then ingest the plucked hair. Wow! Thanks, Merriam-Webster & Dictionary.com!

The Boston Globe ran a nice piece a couple of weeks ago on how dictionaries are made. Paste this link into your browser address line for that story:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2003/10/07/a_defining_moment/

There's also a really interesting piece on how words are unceremoniously deleted from dictionaries at this link here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/09/24/DD160008.DTL

Excellent word. Disgusting habit. Leaves one prone to hairballs.

Does this mean that all cats are prone to trichotillomania? Although they don't tear their hair out... they lick it. The final result though is ingesting the hair.

Why are we talking about this? Yuck!

Lee:

Keep it up and soon you'll demonstrate etymological proficiency rivaling one William F. Buckley.

Lee:

Sorry, I meant expertise, not proficiency. After all, accuracy is virtuous.

Oh, Will. Don't be so maudlin. It's still the morning!