Posted on 11/27/2014 5:41:29 AM PST by secret garden
In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day".
pabulum \ PAB-yuh-luhm\ noun
1. material for intellectual nourishment.
2. something that nourishes an animal or vegetable organism; food; nutriment.
3. something (as writing or speech) that is insipid, simplistic, or bland
Example sentences:
He had two papers to provide for; papers diverse in character, papers published a hundred and fifty miles apart, papers to which expectant thousands looked for their weekly supply of mental pabulum.
-- James Parton, The Life of Horace Greeley, 1868
The resultant interview, not surprisingly, had been a steady stream of pabulum and clichés.
Etymology:
Pabulum is dervied from the Latin verb pāscere meaning "to feed." The suffix -bulum is used in formation of instrumental nouns. Pabulum entered English in the mid-1600s. Pablum (1932), derived from this, is a trademark (Mead Johnson & Co.) for a soft, bland cereal used as a food for infants and weak and invalid people,hence figurative use (attested from 1970, first by U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew) in reference to "mushy" political prose.
The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day. The Review threads are linked for your edification. ;-)
Practice makes perfect.....post on....
Review Thread One: Word For The Day, Thursday 11/14/02: Raffish
Review Thread Two: Word For The Day, Tuesday 1/14/03: Roister
Review Thread Three: Word For The Day, Tuesday 1/28/03: Obdurate
WFB's attempt to emulate us ; ) No pushing at the door please!
Well, there ‘U’ have it
Sit down, shut up the family liberal, and enjoy the festival pabulum.
The speech Barry made during “Ferguson”
Was bland, if pretentious, just pabulum
No justification
Just abomination
No words can turn sh!t into sugarplum
Although the political pendulum swung decisively in the GOP’s direction this election, it’s doubtful we’ll get any less pabulum from the Press while Pres_ent & crew take a speculum to the the lives of Americans...
Happy thanksgiving to you!
I'll pass.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Thank you and the xs clan as well!
Worms? I can see a Dune reference upcoming. A+ for you.
I thought the League shut down for Thanksgiving (as with Christmas), but see that yours is the only game in town today… Speaking of “smash”, the Sabres’ 3-game winning streak was short-lived —and short-circuited— by the Jets last night; the traditional Thanksgiving Eve home game is notable for being a party event, where fans unconstrained by no following workday typically engage in extended “post-game” activities ;-)
Thanks & good luck tonite!
We’ll be flipping back and forth between hockey and the TAMU vs. LSU game all night!
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morton_Downey,_Jr._Show
This was a little before my political awakening, but the phrase “pablum puking liberal” was what came to my mind.
Well, as he gathered papers from the CAGW alarmist propaganda for use later, he hoped they were nice and softly coated with enough pabulum to cushion the scratches all too common from that old Sears-Roebuck catalog that used to hang behind the outhouse door.
The big mouth! He was a NUT! A+ for you.
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