al-in-chgo's definitions
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. 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. 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. Graduate of one of the United States' military service academies, which operate as collegiate institutions.
Use of term is said to be especially prominent among graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis, Maryland).
Use of term is said to be especially prominent among graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis, Maryland).
Among U.S. military officers, they're known as "ring knockers" because they proudly wear the big, gold class rings they earned when they graduated from one of America's military academies. (TIME magazine, April 2001)
by al-in-chgo June 15, 2013
Get the ring knockermug. A term preferred by some writers in preference to using "homosexual" as a noun.
In a newsmagazine cover article on Gore Vidal in the late 1970s, the celebrated author and essayist explained that, since "homosexual" is used as an adjective ("homosexual fantasy"), the noun form needed something more, well, distinctive and substantive: he used "homosexualist" to describe someone who is gay in practice, or as a state of being.
One doesn't argue lightly with Gore Vidal but there are precedents either way in forming nouns. "Alcoholic drink" / "Joe's an alcoholic," uses "alcoholic" first as an adjective, then as a noun. Similarly, "Green politics" / "Cary has become a Green."
OTOH a medical practitioner of psychiatry is not a "psychiatric" (better used as an adjective = "psychiatric evaluation"), but a "psychiatrist," a description of a person, not a field. One who enjoys sensual things is a "sensualist" but has an appreciation of the sensual.
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In a newsmagazine cover article on Gore Vidal in the late 1970s, the celebrated author and essayist explained that, since "homosexual" is used as an adjective ("homosexual fantasy"), the noun form needed something more, well, distinctive and substantive: he used "homosexualist" to describe someone who is gay in practice, or as a state of being.
One doesn't argue lightly with Gore Vidal but there are precedents either way in forming nouns. "Alcoholic drink" / "Joe's an alcoholic," uses "alcoholic" first as an adjective, then as a noun. Similarly, "Green politics" / "Cary has become a Green."
OTOH a medical practitioner of psychiatry is not a "psychiatric" (better used as an adjective = "psychiatric evaluation"), but a "psychiatrist," a description of a person, not a field. One who enjoys sensual things is a "sensualist" but has an appreciation of the sensual.
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"John is an out-of-the-closet homosexual"; OR
"John is an out-of-the-closet homosexualist."
BUT ALSO: "John is a homosexual," OR
"John is homosexual." -- BUT NOT:
"John is homosexualist."
It is much to be hoped that the definitions above of "same-sex love" or "practitioner of same-sex love" will stand, despite the fact that many right-wingers use it almost as a slur (it can get clinical) and avoid "gay" as a neologism. Don't think it isn't political, either.
GAY: Current idiom in casual speech would have it
"John is gay." Note that "a gay" commodifies John just a little.
See Gay.
"John's love life has been exclusively homosexual since 1993."
"John has an active homosexual love life."
"John is the kind of homosexualist other homosexualists can be proud of."
"John is an out-of-the-closet homosexualist."
BUT ALSO: "John is a homosexual," OR
"John is homosexual." -- BUT NOT:
"John is homosexualist."
It is much to be hoped that the definitions above of "same-sex love" or "practitioner of same-sex love" will stand, despite the fact that many right-wingers use it almost as a slur (it can get clinical) and avoid "gay" as a neologism. Don't think it isn't political, either.
GAY: Current idiom in casual speech would have it
"John is gay." Note that "a gay" commodifies John just a little.
See Gay.
"John's love life has been exclusively homosexual since 1993."
"John has an active homosexual love life."
"John is the kind of homosexualist other homosexualists can be proud of."
by al-in-chgo February 27, 2010
Get the homosexualistmug. Metaphor describing a phenomenon that is inherently painful or repulsive, but from which the spectator can't turn away -- it's as compelling as sucking a tooth socket that recently had a tooth in it.
"Worst. Play. Ever."
"Why did you stay?"
"It was a like sucking a tooth that had just been removed -- I knew it was awful and would stay awful, but I just couldn't stop watching."
"Why did you stay?"
"It was a like sucking a tooth that had just been removed -- I knew it was awful and would stay awful, but I just couldn't stop watching."
by al-in-chgo July 7, 2014
Get the sucking a toothmug. "Economic moat" is a term coined by investor Warren Buffet. It means how susceptible a company is to competition by other companies. Coca-Cola and Phillip Morris (Marlboro cigarettes) are companies with wide economic moats because of the popularity and consumer loyalty of their marquee brands. Boeing has a narrow but deep economic moat because its 777 and 787 aircraft are not subject to immediate displacement, but companies like Airbus and Bombardier could play catch-up over the course of several years by developing similar models that would threaten their primacy. That would close the moat.
-- "Give me an example of a company with a wide economic moat."
-- "The local water company, because no competitor can rush right in with a distribution system (pipes)."
-- "Besides, who else is gonna fill that moat? lol."
-- "The local water company, because no competitor can rush right in with a distribution system (pipes)."
-- "Besides, who else is gonna fill that moat? lol."
by al-in-chgo May 3, 2013
Get the economic moatmug.