Running Latte: The Urban Dictionary

I subscribe to Word of the Day from dictionary.com. Every day I'm e-mailed an interesting word which varies from familiar to vaguely familiar to unknown . But, familiar or not, these daily e-mail messages give me the feeling that I'm maintaining my vocabulary. I like to write simply and concisely but, hey, I'm a writer, so more words must be better. Here's an example of a recent dictionary.com Word of the Day:

glabrous \GLAY-bruhs\, adjective:

Smooth; having a surface without hairs, projections, or any unevenness.

This species has a bluish-tinged body completely covered in white flecking in the typical species, though completely glabrous green variants are also seen without any of the body flecking. -- Kevin G. Belmonte, "The woolly Astrophytums", The Philippine Star, June 6, 2009

Glabrous is from Latin glaber, "smooth, bald."

And now I have, in glorious counterpoint (koun'tr-point', A contrasting but parallel element, item, or theme) the Urban Dictionary. Described recently in the NY Times as providing "unruly, unlexicographical but surprisingly useful offerings" and as the "online open-source dictionary of slang."

I signed up immediately, and I now get another daily e-mail containing the Urban Dictionary Word of the Day. The two daily words could hardly be more different, and here are a few examples of the urban variety:

running latte

Showing up late to work because you stopped for coffee along the way.

I told them I got stuck in traffic, but really I was running latte.

DWT

Driving While Texting. Operating a motor vehicle while texting friends on your cell.

"Gina almost killed us driving over here, she was DWT. I finally grabbed the phone out of her hand before we wrecked."

Note: The Urban Dictionary, while often amusing, is a collection of slang and street language which contains many off-color terms and definitions that I wouldn't include here, and which you might not find amusing.

The Urban Dictionary

Street Smart: Urban Dictionary