Does ha-ha always mean laughter? What do you call someone who is a leech? What is the term for one who advocates equal rights for men? What else can goose flesh be called?
ha-ha, The English Garden
ha-ha – Ha-ha is not always laughter, although if someone tripped because of your ha-ha, it would probably cause you, not the person who tripped or fell, to laugh. The one who fell in would be way more likely to cuss. So, what is the other definition of this hysterical word? A ha-ha is a sunk fence, one that can’t be seen until you’re almost on top of it, or more correctly, down in it. In my mind, this is comparable to a waterless moat.
Let’s say you’re staring at a field of cattle that looks as though it isn’t divided from the owner’s house. There doesn’t appear to be a fence or any kind of boundary keeping them in. But they just stare back at you. None of them even attempt to approach you. Your curiosity gets the best of you, and you walk closer, wondering why these cows show such devotion to their owner. But when you get close to where the bovines are, you notice a fairly deep ditch, one side of it lined with brick or stone. Then you understand. The cows aren’t capable of crossing this ditch.
barren farm in Dust Bowl, flickr
hardscrabble – If something is hardscrabble, it involves a lot of hard work and struggle. This term is used when great hardship and difficulty is required to make a living. Examples would be a hardscrabble, barren piece of land or a hardscrabble farmer. Some have had a hardscrabble childhood, one that was difficult and challenging.
hirudinoid – If a person is a hirudinoid, he resembles a leech. If the resemblance were physical, that could be creepy. But the resemblance is in actions, not appearance. Just as a leech sucks the blood from whatever person or animal it attaches to, a hirudinoid sucks the money, the energy, the joy, whatever, from whoever they associate with.
hobbledehoy – Like a young horse, giraffe, or elephant that hasn’t yet gotten used to its long legs, a hobbledehoy is an awkward, ungainly youth.
holus-bolus – If a story or tale is told all at once, it is told holus-bolus.
This word supposedly comes from two Greek words: bolus, which means lump and holos which means whole. In English, bolus has also come to mean a large pill, a mass of chewed food, or a dose of a drug given intravenously.
goose flesh, YouTube
hominist – A hominist, the opposite of a feminist, is someone who advocates equal rights for men. This word is so rare that I couldn’t find it in the dictionary. According to There’s A Word For It, the definition for this word appears in the comprehensive second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.
horripilation – Have you ever been so scared that the hair on your skin bristled? Yes, that also happens when you’re really cold. Horripilation is another word for goose flesh.
When your hair stands on end, it is bristling. When this happens to a person, it is normally just a sensation, but when it happens to animals, for instance, my cats, it means they sense danger is close. This is apparent whenever my son’s sneaky snake (a python) manages to slither out of his habitat. To discover his location, all you have to do is watch my cats. They give his hiding place away every time.
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