al-in-chgo's definitions
A recent definition for "Pozzie" is slang for an affirmative vote for the query that appears alongside every Amazon amateur review:
"Was this review helpful to you? YES/NO."
A healthy and growing number of "Pozzies" are customarily thought to enhance one's competitive standing in Amazon rankings.
"Was this review helpful to you? YES/NO."
A healthy and growing number of "Pozzies" are customarily thought to enhance one's competitive standing in Amazon rankings.
"Good Lord! I picked up three Pozzies yesterday on my review of LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES."
"So people are still reading Shirley Jackson? Good."
"So people are still reading Shirley Jackson? Good."
by al-in-chgo June 4, 2013
Get the Pozziemug. Roughousing, sometimes mock-wrestling, usually between two boys of similar age. "Horseplay" at first glance looks like actual fighting or wrestling until the more playful "fooling around" element become visible, but horseplay sometimes can deteriorate into real fighting.
A Midwestern urban regionalism means the same but includes a "get your back" connotation: grabass. No one considers that homoerotic.
A Midwestern urban regionalism means the same but includes a "get your back" connotation: grabass. No one considers that homoerotic.
"I told you, boys, no horseplay standing in line. You're not getting into the theater if you don't stop fooling around like that."
by al-in-chgo August 18, 2010
Get the horseplaymug. Typically a Mutual Fund is an investment fund aimed at individual investors sponsored by an investment (or "mutual fund") house like Fidelity, Vanguard or T. Rowe Price. Each fund holds a "market basket" of stocks or bonds and individual investors buy into the fund by buying a share at "Net Asset Value," which is the total worth of the fund's holdings, calculated every day, divided by the number of shares outstanding. In other words, a mutual fund whose portfolio (value of all holdings) is worth a million dollars that has a hundred thousand shares outstanding will value those shares at ten dollars apiece. A typical stock-based mutual fund can earn its investors money in three ways: the dividends and capital gains that stocks pay out, and possible appreciation of the fund value per share.
For an individual investor, the advantage of owning a mutual fund is that s/he achieves diversity -- mutual funds own more than fifty stocks, on average -- that could not be achieved by buying a typical hundred shares of stock in only a few corporations. The disadvantages of such funds are that the "load" (sales commission) involved in buying or selling such funds can be considerable, and all funds incur some sort of service fees; that's how the investment house earns its money. Also, no "equity" or stock-based investment is guaranteed.
For an individual investor, the advantage of owning a mutual fund is that s/he achieves diversity -- mutual funds own more than fifty stocks, on average -- that could not be achieved by buying a typical hundred shares of stock in only a few corporations. The disadvantages of such funds are that the "load" (sales commission) involved in buying or selling such funds can be considerable, and all funds incur some sort of service fees; that's how the investment house earns its money. Also, no "equity" or stock-based investment is guaranteed.
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"My broker wants me to buy shares in something called an "open-end fund" but I don't know what that means."
"That's just a way to describe the majority of mutual funds, which remain open to all new investors who have the money to invest in them."
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"My broker wants me to buy shares in something called an "open-end fund" but I don't know what that means."
"That's just a way to describe the majority of mutual funds, which remain open to all new investors who have the money to invest in them."
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by al-in-chgo March 25, 2010
Get the Mutual Fundmug. 1. Southernism. Adds a certain repugnance to describe an idea, remark or occurrence that fell flat, killed conversation, was socially unacceptable, or went over like the proverbial lead balloon.
2. Similarly, a gauche, socially inept or unwelcome person who has a stultifying effect on social gatherings, or, by extension, was involved in some futile or hugely unpopular effort.
2. Similarly, a gauche, socially inept or unwelcome person who has a stultifying effect on social gatherings, or, by extension, was involved in some futile or hugely unpopular effort.
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1. -- "All I did was tell one harmless little dirty joke and the whole room went silent. Apparently I had crossed some kind of taboo. No one even chuckled at the joke; it was a veritable turd in the punchbowl. I felt like one too, since the whole party immediately seized up and everyone stared at me."
2.(a) -- "There we were discussing local politics, and who shows up uninvited and parks himself right in the middle of our group? Little Georgie, the mayor's brat, who has an unerring sense of inappropriateness. I'd rather see a turd in the punch bowl than have to deal with that nuisance."
(b) "Practically everyone in town was in favor of a weeknight youth curfew, but as usual our "freethinking" pastor went contrary and opposed it. He didn't change anyone's mind. I think he's a jinx! A turd in the punch bowl of civic affairs."
1. -- "All I did was tell one harmless little dirty joke and the whole room went silent. Apparently I had crossed some kind of taboo. No one even chuckled at the joke; it was a veritable turd in the punchbowl. I felt like one too, since the whole party immediately seized up and everyone stared at me."
2.(a) -- "There we were discussing local politics, and who shows up uninvited and parks himself right in the middle of our group? Little Georgie, the mayor's brat, who has an unerring sense of inappropriateness. I'd rather see a turd in the punch bowl than have to deal with that nuisance."
(b) "Practically everyone in town was in favor of a weeknight youth curfew, but as usual our "freethinking" pastor went contrary and opposed it. He didn't change anyone's mind. I think he's a jinx! A turd in the punch bowl of civic affairs."
by al-in-chgo February 28, 2010
Get the turd in the punch bowlmug. Piss Hard-On (or Hardon):
A graphic way to describe the male condition of waking up with a very stiff erection coupled with a need to urinate.
The leading causes of this syndrome are thought to be:
1) a full bladder rubs against the prostate gland which then arouses the rest of a man's sexual machinery as though getting ready for intercourse; or the more recent theory, that
2) during a routine night's sleep, a man will have four or five erections but usually they don't awaken him. This is probably the body's way of running "routine diagnostic checks" on his various systems, including sexual readiness. The one that wakes you up either because it's time to wake up or because you're dying to go to the bathroom is the P.H-O.
A graphic way to describe the male condition of waking up with a very stiff erection coupled with a need to urinate.
The leading causes of this syndrome are thought to be:
1) a full bladder rubs against the prostate gland which then arouses the rest of a man's sexual machinery as though getting ready for intercourse; or the more recent theory, that
2) during a routine night's sleep, a man will have four or five erections but usually they don't awaken him. This is probably the body's way of running "routine diagnostic checks" on his various systems, including sexual readiness. The one that wakes you up either because it's time to wake up or because you're dying to go to the bathroom is the P.H-O.
I hate the term "Piss Hard-On". It's ugly. Much better to me are "morning wood" or the evocative "morning glory," which is the term we used in the (USA) South.
For a funny look at how difficult it is to pee with an erection, look at the DVD outtakes of Steve Carrel's movie THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN.
For a funny look at how difficult it is to pee with an erection, look at the DVD outtakes of Steve Carrel's movie THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN.
by al-in-chgo February 24, 2010
Get the Piss Hard-Onmug. Adjective "butch" (deeply or stereotypically masculine-looking and -acting, applied to both men and women) made into a jocular noun. "Butch" is nowadays almost always an adjective ("I love your butch new leather jacket"), now that the old use as a noun to mean "boy vendor" (newsbutch or news butcher) peaked during the 1950s and is now archaic if not completely obsolete. The closest nominative uses of "butch" are adjuncts or idioms like "butch haircut" or "Harold is a butch top, not a femme bottom."
"Masculinity" means possesion of masculine traits or appearance, while "butchiosity" introduces a note of irony: the appearance or trying to act in a conventionally or socially-acceptable masculine manner expected by the straight world.
"Butchness" is problematic, as it is not consisently used to mean the quality of visible masculinity; instead, the user is often forced into grammatical adaptations like "He behaves in a butch way," or "Sometimes he overcompensates and out-butches himself."
"Butchiosity" is almost certainly a back-formation inspired by the 1977 Woody Allen movie ANNIE HALL (screen play: W. Allen and Marshall Brickman): "Was it heavy a rock concert? Did it achieve . . . heaviosity?"
"Masculinity" means possesion of masculine traits or appearance, while "butchiosity" introduces a note of irony: the appearance or trying to act in a conventionally or socially-acceptable masculine manner expected by the straight world.
"Butchness" is problematic, as it is not consisently used to mean the quality of visible masculinity; instead, the user is often forced into grammatical adaptations like "He behaves in a butch way," or "Sometimes he overcompensates and out-butches himself."
"Butchiosity" is almost certainly a back-formation inspired by the 1977 Woody Allen movie ANNIE HALL (screen play: W. Allen and Marshall Brickman): "Was it heavy a rock concert? Did it achieve . . . heaviosity?"
"Your buddy ought to butch up his act, or he'll never make it in the suburbs." "I don't think it's so much a matter of butchiosity as the fact that he hasn't been around suburbanites since going to college and knows next to nothing about kids, lawnmowers and pro sports."
"Who is that great-looking hunk?" "Oh, him satirically, "her". He looks like a tower of butchiosity but on the inside there's a major flaming queen screaming to be let out."
Compared to "masculinity," "butchiosity" introduces a note of irony: the appearance of masculinity, or trying to appear conventionally masculine. Machismo is lexically coherent as a loan-word from Spanish but has connotations of an ingrained, often unacceptable and patriarchal behavior, overmasculine from the start; or old-fashioned notions of being a man. Instead, "butchiosity"comes with a twist: it can imply a trying-too-hard, self-conscious or overstudied presentation of an image of masculinity, especially in an attempt to meet the straight world's expectations of same.
An act not a trait, as it were.
"Who is that great-looking hunk?" "Oh, him satirically, "her". He looks like a tower of butchiosity but on the inside there's a major flaming queen screaming to be let out."
Compared to "masculinity," "butchiosity" introduces a note of irony: the appearance of masculinity, or trying to appear conventionally masculine. Machismo is lexically coherent as a loan-word from Spanish but has connotations of an ingrained, often unacceptable and patriarchal behavior, overmasculine from the start; or old-fashioned notions of being a man. Instead, "butchiosity"comes with a twist: it can imply a trying-too-hard, self-conscious or overstudied presentation of an image of masculinity, especially in an attempt to meet the straight world's expectations of same.
An act not a trait, as it were.
by al-in-chgo January 25, 2010
Get the butchiositymug. .
Altering or adding to a prior word or term term that must be further defined in the light of later developments or technical innovation.
Example: No one called "World War One" that until there was a "World War Two" with which to contrast it. The going term during the 1914-1918 war and up to 1939 was "The Great War."
Altering or adding to a prior word or term term that must be further defined in the light of later developments or technical innovation.
Example: No one called "World War One" that until there was a "World War Two" with which to contrast it. The going term during the 1914-1918 war and up to 1939 was "The Great War."
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Other employment of term retronym:
Telephone becomes "rotary-dial phone" to distinguish it from the push-button phones that became widespread in the 1970s and early 1980s (although rotary-dial phones still work if all you want to do is place a call and don't need to access features like querying a bank account balance).
Similarly, telephone also becomes "corded phone" to distinguish the traditional hard-wired telephone from those that are wireless in some way, such as cordless phones.
"Regular" coffee to distinguish it from decaffeinated coffee; some people say "caffeinated" coffee but strictly speaking this is a grammatical back-formation, not a retronym, because "to caffeinate" would mean to ADD caffeine to traditional coffee.
Note, though, that Coca-Cola is a "caffeinated" or "caffeine-containing" soft drink in its usual red-can form. Now that there is a Caffeine-Free Coca-Cola "caffeinated" could find use as a retronym for "the real thing."
"Manual" or "standard" or "stick" transmission on a car, none of which terms was necessary before automatic transmissions on cars became widespread and assumed to be the norm.
And, of course, "acoustic" guitar.
Other employment of term retronym:
Telephone becomes "rotary-dial phone" to distinguish it from the push-button phones that became widespread in the 1970s and early 1980s (although rotary-dial phones still work if all you want to do is place a call and don't need to access features like querying a bank account balance).
Similarly, telephone also becomes "corded phone" to distinguish the traditional hard-wired telephone from those that are wireless in some way, such as cordless phones.
"Regular" coffee to distinguish it from decaffeinated coffee; some people say "caffeinated" coffee but strictly speaking this is a grammatical back-formation, not a retronym, because "to caffeinate" would mean to ADD caffeine to traditional coffee.
Note, though, that Coca-Cola is a "caffeinated" or "caffeine-containing" soft drink in its usual red-can form. Now that there is a Caffeine-Free Coca-Cola "caffeinated" could find use as a retronym for "the real thing."
"Manual" or "standard" or "stick" transmission on a car, none of which terms was necessary before automatic transmissions on cars became widespread and assumed to be the norm.
And, of course, "acoustic" guitar.
by al-in-chgo March 6, 2010
Get the retronymmug.