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Jan 3, 2020
This week’s themeAmericanisms
This week’s words
humdinger
ripsnorter
ballyhoo
foofaraw
lollapalooza
Lollapalooza, Chicago
Photo: Lacrossewi/Wikimedia
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garglollapalooza
PRONUNCIATION:
(lol-uh-puh-LOO-zuh) 
MEANING:
noun: An exceptional person, thing, or event.
ETYMOLOGY:
Of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1904.
NOTES:
The word has a number of variants: lollapaloosa, lalapalooza, lallapalooza, but they all mean the same thing: something or someone truly remarkable. It’s also the name of a popular music festival.
USAGE:
“Young Man Winter did a massive marshmallow job on the region a week ago. It was a snowstorm of Brobdingnagian dimensions. ... It was a lulu wrapped in a lollapalooza inside a humdinger.”
Robertson Cochrane; One Humdinger of a Snow Job; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Dec 19, 1992.
Robertson Cochrane; One Humdinger of a Snow Job; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Dec 19, 1992.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Earth is here so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest. -Douglas William Jerrold, playwright and humorist (3 Jan 1803-1857)
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