English Words in Action, Group O

1. Someone whom others perceive as uncouth, demonstrates inappropriate behavior, and is considered to be a nincompoop: Other people in the library told the oaf to quit making so much noise!
2. A person who is perceived to be a simpleton, uneducated, or unlearned: Claudia was sure that the oaf in her class wouldn't know the meanings of any words even if he looked them up in several dictionaries. © ALL rights are reserved.

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1. A location in a desert that has a water source and is therefore green and fertile: The road went through the oasis in the desert.
2. A sanctuary, a refuge, or a place of safety: The library was an oasis of quietness; as well as, information.

1. A promise, commitment, pledge typically undertaken during a ceremony: Every U.S. President must take an oath to uphold the Constitution.
2. Vulgarity, curses, profanities often expressed due to surprise or in reaction to the unexpected: The carpenter let out a stream of oaths when he hit his thumb with his hammer.

1. To decrease or to lessen the force or the intensity of something: After the doctor injected novocain in order to remove Tom's bad tooth, his senses were completely obtunded and he felt nothing more.
2. Etymology: from Latin obtundere from ob-, "against" + tundere, "to beat". © ALL rights are reserved.

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Someone who behaves in strange or unusual ways: Charles used to be a real oddball when he was in high school because he was always using his cell phone in classes instead of paying attention to what the teachers were saying. © ALL rights are reserved.

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Scientists studying how sleep affects memory have found that the whiff of a familiar scent can help a slumbering brain better remember things that it learned the evening before: Research has shown that regions of the cortex, the thinking and planning part of the brain, communicate during deep sleep with a sliver of tissue deeper in the brain called the hippocampus, which records each day's memories of odors and memory responses.

The hippocampus encodes odors and memory responses by firing sequences back in the cortex, consolidating the memory.

Olfactory sensing pathways of odors and memory responses in the brain which lead more directly to the hippocampus than visual and auditory ones. That may be why smell can be linked so closely to memory.

Someone who is crazy: Being off your rocker often means "to be crazy", but it probably originally referred to a "normal person" who periodically, and unexpectedly, did insane things.

At the very least, when someone is said to be off his or her rocker, it usually means that the person is behaving in a very strange or silly way.

Sally said, "I must have been off my rocker when I agreed to change jobs."

Several applicable words for off the rocker include the following:

• nutty as a fruitcake
• have bats in the belfry
• a basket case
• losing it
• lose one's marbles
• taking leave of one's senses
• mentally unhinged
• have a screw loose

Although the cartoon below is referring to another entry word, it is also providing an example of being off one's rocker.

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1. Not in tune because the tones are above or below the proper pitch: Some of the musical notes during the concert were slightly off-key, which produced unharmonious results.
2. Behavior that deviates from what is considered to be normal or proper: Jan's neighbor had off-key activities which disturbed others who lived near him because he played his recorded music very loudly or had the volume on his TV blasting so much that people could not enjoy listening to their own TVs or were unable to go to sleep while he was continuing his off-key activities. © ALL rights are reserved.

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1. The act of choosing or the freedom to make a choice between two or more things: Mark told his two boys that they had the option to stay home or to go with him to the grocery store.
2. The right to buy or to sell something for a specified price and during an indicated period of time: Employees of Henry's company will each be granted options to purchase a thousand shares of company stock next week. © ALL rights are reserved.

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1. An enthusiastic applause: The singer was greeted with a standing ovation when she appeared on stage.
2. An occurrence when a group of people at a play, speech, sporting event, etc. show their enthusiastic approval or appreciation by by clapping their hands together over and over again: The football star received several big ovations each time he made another successful score for his team.

3. Etymology: from Latin ovationem, from ovare, "to rejoice, to exalt". © ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.