anu garg

One of the main benefits of the web is the mass of totally meaningless information that is just waiting to be discovered. It could be used for amusement, procrastination or actual meaningful use (whatever that is…)

A fantastic resource is the old fashioned A.Word.A.Day mailing list administered by Anu Garg. It’s a daily email with an interesting word, with its background, meaning, etymology, pronounciation and more. Just check out some excerpts from the information about today’s word: schlemiel

MEANING:

noun: An inept, clumsy person: a habitual bungler.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Yiddish shlemil, from Hebrew Shelumiel, a Biblical and Talmudic figure who met an unhappy end, according to the Talmud. Earliest documented use: 1892.

NOTES:

No discussion of schlemiel would be complete without mentioning schlimazel, one prone to having bad luck. In a restaurant, a schlemiel is the waiter who spills soup, and a schlimazel is the diner on whom it lands.

What’s not to love?

Procrastination has always been an important aspect of my life and I could not imagine living without it (blogged about it here, here, here, here, here, here & here). Until now. I have discovered perendination! Thanks to Word.A.Day mailing list by Anu Garg:

The word procrastinate is from Latin cras (tomorrow). So when you procrastinate, literally speaking, you are putting something off till tomorrow. Mark Twain once said, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.” In other words, why procrastinate when you can perendinate?

Perendinate: (puh-REN-di-nayt)

MEANING:
verb tr. : To put off until the day after tomorrow.
verb intr.: To stay at a college for an extended time.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin perendinare (to defer until the day after tomorrow), from perendie (on the day after tomorrow), from die (day).

schlemiel or schlemihl or shlemiel

Better than procrastination!