{weekend words}

Loved the Oxford English Dictionary 'Word of the Day' from yesterday (9/12/11):

MOUSEBURGER, n.

"A young woman of unexceptional appearance and talents, regarded as timid, dowdy, or mousy; (originally) such a person who can nevertheless achieve professional and personal success through determination."

Apparently it is "Chiefly U.S. (humorous)." 

Subscribe to WOTD here.

{misc.} helluo librorum

This popped into my Oxford English Dictionary word of the day last week, and is well worth quoting in full: 

helluo librorum, n. 

Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌhɛljʊəʊ lᵻˈbrɔːrəm/, U.S. /ˌhɛljuoʊ ləˈbrɔ(ə)rəm/ 

Etymology: < post-classical Latin helluo librorum (in some medieval MSS of Cicero) < classical Latin helluō HELLUO n. + librōrum, genitive plural of liber book (see library n.1). In early editions of Cicero De Finibus 3. 7, it is said that Cato ‘quasi helluo librorum‥videatur’ (‘appeared like a glutton for books’); the modern reading, restored from MS evidence by Jan Gruter in his edition of 1618, is ‘quasi helluari libris‥videatur’ (‘appeared as if to devour books’). 

Now rare. 

An insatiable reader, a bookworm. 

1635 S. BIRCKBEK Protestants Evid. xii. 4  One of these brothers was called Comestor‥, as it were booke-eater, because he was such a Helluo librorum, a devourer of bookes. 

1738 Relig. of Nature Delineated (ed. 6) Pref. p. ix,  He was of Opinion too That a man might easily read too much: And he considered the Helluo Librorum and the True Scholar as two very different Characters.

1841 U.S. Democratic Rev. Sept. 299 We would not style him exactly a helluo librorum, but rather a sort of antiquarian epicure of letters. 

1942 E. K. Chambers Sheaf of Stud. 153  He [sc. Coleridge] does not mention the Bodleian, but it would be odd if such a helluo librorum did not see it. 

I think it is time that this one got reused again. It be a great book blog name, except someone's beaten us to it.