Slapstick (n)

A thing made of wood: two flat clackers hinged on one side. Like a party favor. In an old comedy, or one with a shallow sense of humor, they can be used to mimic the sound of people being hit with stuff.

Which gave rise to a whole genre of lazy comedy. 

Joke for the rest of October

What is a broken pencil?

                      Pointless.

Nocebo (n)

Like the placebo effect, but the negative side. Just as someone can believe that drugs will help them and thus get well on that belief alone -- even if the drug was a sugar pill -- others can believe they will get side effects from a drug and thus get unwell on that belief alone.

It comes with an interesting quandary: The more educated a patient is about possible side effects of a drug, the more side effects they will get from that drug.

But it would be wrong not to tell them about the risks before taking the drug...

I haven't really thought about it, but its obvious that the nocebo effect would happen. If the placebo effect exists, so does its corollary.

This word is derived from "Nocent", meaning "harmful", from the Latin verb to harm.

New Joke for October: One of my personal favorites:

How did the Scarecrow win a Nobel Prize?

                 He was outstanding in his field.

Mirkning (n)

The opposite of morning. This is the time just after twilight when it really becomes dim. 

It's a very illustrative, descriptive word that is not used nearly as often as it ought to be. 

The word is in its mirkning years.

"Precariat" (n)

A social class with such a precarious mode of living that they are forced (basically) to sell their own security for today's bread. The precarious don't know when they'll get work next, how long they will work, and thus how much money they make. Which, in turn, makes it more difficult to fill out an application for a better, more stable job.

The precariat suffer from the psychological warfare of those more fortunate, and have a hard time maintaining such basic things as self-esteem or the ability to make wise decisions.

A social class that shouldn't exist.

A social class that is the result of greed giving in to.

Hapax Legomenon (n)

A word that only appears once. If you are talking about a language in general (Horgal means salty jam. No one will ever use that word again), an entire genre or an author's entire body of work, a single book, or whatever.

For example, the word 'duck' is one of many hapax legomenon within this definition.

'An', 'entire', and 'word' are not hapax legomenon within this definition.

And now, neither are the words 'hapax', 'legomenon', 'within', 'this', and 'definition'.

Joke for the first weekend of October

What does a blanket say when it falls off the bed?

                 Oh sheet.

(because it's probably that sheet's fault.)