Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Dimidiated Turkey

Yesterday I read a few short descriptive pieces in a food publication and encountered the following words: dimidiate, ludibrious, archetype, proclivity and quintessential. Hm....not exactly the kind of vocabulary food writers use; in the the case of the first two, rarely seen anywhere.

What was the erudite publication? Trader Joe's Food Pilgrimager - the Thanksgiving edition. I quote:
  • "We start with fresh, whole turkeys and dimidiate them." 
  • "to preserve freshness, this turkey hemisphere is ready to heat and eat - "
  • Speaking of sparkling apple cider, they write, "Naturally non-alcoholic, this bubbly brew leads the way to ludibrious legends. "
  • Describing a floral bouquet - "Named for an archetype of Thansgiving cookery-Pumpkin Pie - this bouquet fits the holiday."
  • Speaking of canned pumpkin: "Our proclivity is to keep it pure".
  • "Crackers are quintessential cheese-delivering devices."
The typical TJ consumer must lean to the literati and lean quite considerably. 

Dimidiate means to cleave in half; ludibrious I found on a list of 20 obsolete English words which the list maker feels should make a come-back. It means the butt of jokes. Other words on his list I personally found more appealing and useful than than ludibrious are:
  • Jollux - fat person
  • Brabble - to argue loudly about something that doesn't matter
  • Quagswagging - swaying to and fro
Happy Thanksgiving. 



2 comments:

  1. lugubrious I will buy...

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  2. Just today, while eating lunch at our photo shoot, I indulged in some brabbling. It was fun. Next I'm going to try quagswagging.

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