(no subject)

[wickedflea]

I hate when I take something home to work on it, don't do it, and forget to bring it back to work. I am in pretty good shape at work right now, so that's good. At least until the Fall 03 stuff starts coming in.

Enough with the rain already!

Is "foregathering" a word that people actually use? I don't think I'd ever heard it before this morning.

Speaking of words, I like "dubious." I also like "thrill" as a . . . whaddya call it . . . intransitive verb, as in "I thrill to tiptoe barefoot through the lilacs." Not that I ever tiptoe barefoot through the lilacs, though--I'm just saying, you know, that I bet guys who do titptoe barefoot through the lilacs thrill when they do it. And I'm still trying to take lunchboxface's lead and use the word "chump" more often.

Check out the OED entry for chump. I especially like 2.b.

chump (n)

1. A short thick lump of wood chopped or sawn off from timber; an end-piece.

1703 MOXON Mech. Exerc. 195 A Chump of Wood. 1831 LANDOR Misc. (1846) II. 662 While the broad chump..Strong with internal fire..heats the chamber round from morn till night. 1863 GEO. ELIOT Romola II. i, She fetched a hatchet..and showing him a chump..asked him if he would chop that up for her. 1884 Chamb. Jrnl. 18 Oct. 658/1.

2. a. The thick blunt end of anything; also chump-end: esp. the thick end of a loin of mutton.

1861 DICKENS Gt. Expect. I. 153 As if they had been unskilfully cut off the chump-end of something. 1880 BLACKMORE Mary Anerley I. vi. 64 The chump of the spine of the Wolds, which hulks up at last into Flamborough Head.

b. Jocosely applied to the head. off his chump (vulgar): ‘off his head’, out of his senses.

1864 HOTTEN Slang Dict. 101 Chump, the head or face. 1877 BESANT & RICE Son of Vulc. II. xxiv. 377 ‘Master’, he said, ‘have gone off his chumpthat's all’. 1910 GALSWORTHY Justice II. ii. 42 It'll do you good, Will, to have a run with this. You seem half off your chump this morning. 1960 V. NABOKOV Invit. to Beheading ix. 94 Think how unpleasant it is to have your chump lopped off. 1961 A. WILSON Old Men at Zoo vi. 287 This chap Beard seems to be off his chump. He's evacuated all the wallabies.

3. fig. A man as unintelligent as a chump of wood; a block, blockhead (cf. BLOCK n. 15).

1883 H. SMART At Fault II. i. 29 Such a long-winded old chump at telling a story. 1887 Pall Mall G. 2 Feb. 10/1 Frank audibly remarked: ‘This man is a chump. I could go..this minute and do better than that’. Ibid. 23 Aug. 3/1, I told the chumps they'd get noticed if they didn't keep out of the way.

4. chump-chop, a chop from the chump-end.

1883 Daily News 29 Sept. 3/6 A splendid dish of Irish stew, with a large chump chop in it.

Comments

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[wickedflea.livejournal.com]

Undoubtedly named after the famous brothers. :) That makes me think of one of the parkways going through Yonkers--it's named for Don and Tony Matteo. For some reason I get a kick out of that. I always put on my best Sopranos accent and say "Don and Tony got their own parkway in Yonkers--who knew?!" This is particularly funny when there's no one else in the car.

[buscemi.livejournal.com]

Around here they have a restaurant called "Matteo's: A Little Taste of Hoboken".

Re:

[wickedflea.livejournal.com]

Ha! As if people were yearning for a taste of Hoboken! Pffleuh!

What is it now, playboy?

[buscemi.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe that penguin from Bugs Bunny would like it. The "official" (read: expensive) Matteo's (minus the Hoboken) is next door. Sinatra used to eat there.