October 19, 2017

Disallowing the disappointable flâneuse to augurate.

The OED homepage has a list of "recently published" words. Right now it's:
augurate, v.
disallowing, n.
disappointable, adj.
flâneuse, n.
Try to use them all in one sentence.

"Augurate" is familiar as 80% of the word "inaugurate," but it's more easily understood by seeing the word "augur," which means to predict the future using signs and omens. I don't see why you'd ever need "augurate" when you have "augur," but it's in some old books, so you might need to look it up. But I wonder how "inaugurate" got started. The etymology does go back to using "omens from the flight of birds, to consecrate or install after taking such omens or auguries."

"Disallowing" is one of those words that, if you use it, some pendants will inform you, is not a word. But the OED found lots of old examples, e.g., "A petition..against the disallowing of the drawbacks on calicoes and foreign linens, was offered to be presented to the house" (1764).

"Disappointable" needs no explanation. Example: "Idealists..are very disappointable people—disappointed in themselves for failing their own high expectations and in others" (Colorado Springs Gazette, 1985).

"Flâneuse" is easy if you know "flâneur" and understand French endings. A "flâneuse" is "A woman who saunters around observing life and society; a leisurely woman about town." There's an example from 1879, but I like that the OED has a quote from just last July (in the Sunday Telegraph): "Elkin has written a delightfully meandering study of Virginia Woolf, Jean Rhys and other female flâneuses who dared to stroll." The italics seem to indicate that the Telegraph believed it was using a French word. But the OED is proclaiming it an English word.

Now, I want to get out and saunter around, observing life and society in Madison, Wisconsin, but I invite you to use the 4 newly official English words in one sentence.

IN THE COMMENTS: tcrosse asked:
So has "fuckable" yet been admitted to the Language of Shakespeare?
As a matter of fact, it has:

60 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Disallowing" is one of those words that, if you use it, some pendants

I saw what you did there.

tim in vermont said...

I guess flaneuse is a high toned word for blogress, and if it isn't taken as a blog name yet...

traditionalguy said...

Those flame uses disallowing what my comments augurate is highly disappoint able. Win some, lose some.

Gabriel said...

I don't see why you'd ever need "augurate" when you have "auger,"

It's easier to mindlessly manipulate prefixes and suffixes to get the part of speech you want than to think of the original word. Examples, all of which I have heard educated people use:

Conversate, back-formed from "conversation", instead of "converse"
Invigilate, back-formed from "vigil", instead of "watch" (or "proctor" if you must)
Envisionment, back-formed from "envision", instead of "vision"

And this sort of thing is not new of course. Even Samuel Johnson wrote

"Let Observation with extensive view, survey mankind from China to Peru"

which, it was noted at the time, is "let sight with seeing see". And in his case, either he knew perfectly well what he was doing and did it deliberately, or he really needed money quickly. In neither event was it mindless, as most people do.

tcrosse said...

The italics seem to indicate that the Telegraph believed it was using a French word.

The circumflex is a tip-off.

traditionalguy said...

Or lose to auto correct every time. That augurates flame uses for sure.

MikeR said...

disallowing seems like trouble to me. I automatically try to pronounce it de-sallow-ing. or worse de-swallowing.

Edmund said...

One does not need to augurate to know that the easily disappointable will be upset by the disallowing of the public displays along the boardwalk by the flâneuse.

Ann Althouse said...

"The circumflex is a tip-off."

The OED keeps the circumflex as it presents the word as English.

tcrosse said...

So has "fuckable" yet been admitted to the Language of Shakespeare ?

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Looking to the example of Woody Alllen and disallowing the disappointable Academy and its flaneuses, Harvey Weinstein augurated his Hollywood comeback.

Marc in Eugene said...

Pendant I may be, but while I venerate the great and wonderful historical scholarship of the OED, there is in fact no 'official' arbiter of or catalogue or reference collection for the words of the English language.

Ralph L said...

a leisurely woman about town
as opposed to a woman who has come upon the town (become a prostitute).

Gahrie said...

One could augurate that the public will soon be disallowing the local flaneuse from making comments that upset easily disappointable people.

Bilwick said...

As a flaneur, I appreciated this

CStanley said...

The disappointable pendants augurate that there will be no more disallowing the use of "flaneuse".

Bilwick said...

By the way, Gabriel, you've heard educated people use "conversate"? I associate it with ghetto speech

tcrosse said...

There's an early, unpublished Dr. Seuss piece, "How the Flaneuse Lost her Circumflex".

richlb said...

Disallow seems to me to be a word that's been around for some time in common vernacular. Disallowing goals in sports is commonplace.

robother said...

Goddam pendants, always hanging around, disallowing this and that word.

Quaestor said...

But I wonder how "inaugurate" got started.

The OED is right once more. In republican Roman, there was a hierarchy of elected magistrates who administered the function of the state. All if these offices were held for limited terms, typically one year. The office of pontifex, however, was a life office, and though it was elective co-optatio, the nominee still needed the approval of the gods, hence the inauguration.

Darrell said...

Just don't use "baby" in reference to a pregnant woman. You'll be ruined.

William said...

The media tried to make Clarence Thomas disappointable. They also tried to augurate the candidacy of Hillary. Harvey wore a comfy flaneuse to bed.

traditionalguy said...

Augurs are quite often consulted by post Christian leaders to see if the fates or the stars guarantee a successful investment or war.

But then along comes Trump as a Calvinist with confidence that Providence will back up his Positive Thinking, and hhe is the one called insane while the pagans take augurs by advice from clairvoyant spirit cookers and Astrologers who only want to depopulate the earth.

William said...

This is why I love this blog. NOT the same old stuff.

Ann Althouse said...

@tcross

I looked it up for you.

Check the post update.

robother said...

Seriously? The OED is now adopting circumflexes en Englais? Brexit may be too little, too late.

tcrosse said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dustbunny said...

The disapointable flaneuse refused to believe the augurate she witnessed in the swallows' formation over the spire of Ste. Chapelle because of the disallowing of her upbringing.

tcrosse said...

@althouse

Thanks. I should have know that such a useful word would have so much history behind it.
One can continue disappointing the fuckable and fucking the dissapointable.

Clyde said...

Not to be pedantic, but it's pedant, not pendant.

Clyde said...

Also not pendejo, which is kind of the Spanish version of pedant.

tim in vermont said...

Doesn't 'gullible' work just fine?

Cath said...

The disallowing of flaneuses in some parts of the world augurates a cultural shift that is surprising only to the perennially disappointable idealists in the West.

Ralph L said...


robother said...
Goddam pendants, always hanging around
Hang the teachers for showing off their erudites.

Henry said...

I don't see why you'd ever need "augurate" when you have "auger,"

For the rhyme scheme.

There was a flâneuse who found curving
Disappointable, even unnerving
And thus disallowing,
The thought of Bilbaoing,
I augurate Bauhaus her serving.

gg6 said...

"The Fake Media can augurate and editorialize all they want about the Future but their believers and followers are at great risk if they are easily disappointable. These urban augerers are no more than theatrical versions of the common village flaneuse, strolling about while looking everywhere while actually seeing little more than nothing."
:-)

gg6 said...

Oh, damn, I blew it..you said "one sentence"......would a well place semi-colon be allowed?!
:-(

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Nate Silver and others failed to correctly augurate the 2016 election, disallowing the anti-establishmnet trends favoring Mr. Trump, a result which would wound the highly disappointable Maureen Dowd, and many another liberal flâneuse.

gg6 said...

Or...how about this more Jamesian solution tory problem...?
"The Fake Media can augurate and editorialize all they want about the Future, but their believers and followers are at great risk if they are easily disappointable since these urban augerers are no more than theatrical versions of the common village flaneuse, strolling about and looking everywhere while actually seeing little more than nothing."

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

I remember Silvio Berlusconi calling Angela Merkel an "unfuckable lardass," which I imagine sounded better in Italian. "Lardass" is likely not in the OED.

"Disallowing" is a noun? I'd've thought it was a gerund.

gg6 said...

OK, OK, disappointable flaneuese that I am, I am disallowing myself from further flailing and hereby augurate that I will never, ever play any games again.
Amen and three bags full.

Scott said...

The impact of the hopelessly unfuckable flauneuse's body odor on the easily disappointable coffee house habituees augurated a policy disallowing the seating of patrons who lack acceptable hygiene.

Sorry, my keyboard doesn't do accents.

Scott said...

And I misspelled flaneuse.

Fernandinande said...

"Disallowing the disappointable flâneuse to augurate."

Isn't "disallowing" a verb there, not as
disallowing, n.
??
Or is the "n." a mistake?

As a noun:
"The vote resulted in a disallowing."

richlb said...

That's a horrible definition for "fuckable." Sexually desirable? Fuckable is a few degrees off of that. Fuckable is more or less "able to be fucked." Sexually non-disappointable maybe. Sheesh.

Earnest Prole said...

Sexually desirable? Fuckable is a few degrees off of that. Fuckable is more or less "able to be fucked."

As Julia Louis-Dreyfus demonstrates.

Fernandinande said...

Fernandinande said...
Isn't "disallowing" a verb there, not as [a noun]


This is bugging me, but I do think AA misused it.

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/58539029 (disallowing)
"The action or an act of disallowing something"

"The act of disallowing the disappointable flâneuse to augurate." What about "the act" ???

Most of OED's example DON'T sound weird like that, but one does.

OK as a noun: "...giving full details to regulate the [acts of allowing or disallowing] of claims."

Sounds wrong, but almost matches post: "The [act of disallowing] of children sleeping in the same room with consumptive parents."

It still sounds wrong (what about "the act"?), but it has an "of" -

"disallowing OF children" vs "disallowing the disappointable".


I hate words.

Fernandinande said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Barbara said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fernandinande said...

Fernandinande said...
"The act of disallowing the disappointable flâneuse to augurate."
What about "the act" ???


It's not a complete sentence by itself, but grammatically serves as an answer (I bet that has a name):
"What act did you write about?"
"The act of disallowing the disappointable ..."
"What color was the paper?"
"Red."

"Try to use them all in one sentence."

Was "Disallowing the disappointable flâneuse to augurate" a complete sentence?

Barbara said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
HoodlumDoodlum said...

Hugsome? Hugsome!

New word acquired; thanks.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

The OED is right once more. In republican Roman, there was a hierarchy of elected magistrates who administered the function of the state. All if these offices were held for limited terms, typically one year. The office of pontifex, however, was a life office, and though it was elective co-optatio, the nominee still needed the approval of the gods, hence the inauguration.

...said Quaestor. I'm on to you.

Fun fact: part of the the Pontifex Maxmius' official dress was a special iron knife. Julius Ceasar was Pontifex Maximus at the time of his assassination (pontifices were allowed to hold other offices)...but it's unlikely he had his ceremonial knife on him when he was killed. Anyway the head of the college of pontiffs (who made or interpreted divine law) was also someone who commanded troops (in fights claimed to have divine blessing) and ran for political office in Republican Rome. It's a tough place to imagine, sometimes!

David said...

"Disallowing" is one of those words that, if you use it, some pendants will inform you, is not a word."

Pending correction, I am disallowing your sentence on grounds of confusing jewelry with fussy grammarians.



tcrosse said...

Disallowing the floozie flaneuse to augurate the auguries augured ill for those appointed to diss the dissapointable.

rehajm said...

Defeat of deduct went over defense before detail.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"Pendejos disallow floozies to saunter, which does not augurate well.", he said disappointably.

Ann Althouse said...

Hey, I need to pick a winner, don’t I?

tcrosse said...

Hey, I need to pick a winner, don’t I?

No need. Everyone's a winner Chez Althouse.