5.25.2009

Yes, I know what day it is, thank you.

It's Monday, and the word o the day is:

fillip - a snap; also, a stimulous

Okay. Sounds like a name, in fact my cousin has/had a dog with that name. Maybe it just had one l though.

It gets more complicated when you get more.. er complicated, well anyway there's more:

1. A snap of the finger forced suddenly from the thumb; a smart blow.
2. Something serving to rouse or excite; a stimulus.
3. A trivial addition; an embellishment.

transitive verb:
1. To strike with the nail of the finger, first placed against the ball of the thumb, and forced from that position with a sudden spring; to snap with the finger.
2. To snap; to project quickly.
3. To urge on; to provide a stimulus, by or as if by a fillip.

I've got a feeling I won't be using this in conversation. I'm still not sure about it. Don't like it that much to be honest. A bit boring. It has been used by literary types though.. like this:

If any one in Mirgorod gives him a neckerchief or underclothes, he returns thanks; if any one gives him a fillip on the nose--he returns thanks then also.
-- Nikolai Gogol, "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich"

You fillip me o' the head.
-- Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida

Yeah.. still boring.

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