Word of the Day: Pedantic

Today's word belongs to that class of vocabulary that I can wield easily, reading its meaning correctly, and using it in all the right contexts, without actually knowing what it means exactly.

I think pedantic is a playful and deliberate obtuseness, or as we say nowadays, "trolling."

Damn, I was wrong.

It actually means being a flashy nitpicking know-it-all, like the guy who tries to poke holes in an argument by pointing out the most irrelevant details. Technically, he's right, but in the grand scene of things, it's not really the point.

But...

Aren't they being pedantic just to troll? So I'm partially right, and all previous instances of my use of the word pedantic still remains correct.

You don't think so?

Quit being pedantic.

Word of the Day: Moribund

I cheated.

I was supposed to look up this word after defining it with what I know, so feel free to take my pre-definition with a grain of salt.

My initial thought, upon reading the word, was "headed towards death." Mori, I assume, means death, because the words morbid, mortuary, and mourn all have to do with dying. The "bund" part of the word sounds like "bound," so I was thinking, "death bound."

I wasn't too off the mark, but there was another definition I didn't think of: stagnant. I really like that definition.

Because my job is definitely moribund.

Word of the Day: Niggling

My friend told me that he wanted to expand his vocabulary. In order to do this, he has a "word of the day." Such exercises do nothing for me since I already possess an expansive vocabulary, but what the hell?

I suppose when you text me in the morning with random words of the day, I'm inclined to blog about them. Or maybe I'm just using this as an excuse to blog about something.

In either case, today's word is niggling.

According to the dictionary, niggling is something trivial, petty, and inconsequential. It could also mean you spend too much time and effort on issues that don't warrant such attention.

My best definition would probably be, a minor irritant. It's an adjective to describe the severity of a problem. On the scale of "not a problem" to "very much a problem," it's probably in the former. When you describe something as "niggling," it kind of annoys you in the "lurking in the back of your mind" kind of way. You could ignore it, since it's not a deal breaker, but you'd rather not deal with it.

Case in point, my car. It has one niggling little issue, it drifts right. You can barely notice it, but when you drive on the far right lane, that's when you definitely feel it. I have to keep the wheel quite a ways left just to maintain course. I think the wheel alignment is off, or perhaps the problem could be more fundamental.

Yeah, it irritates the crap out of me, but I could ignore it easily enough. I just wish that I didn't have to deal with such a...

Niggling thing.