noun
Slang.
a feeling of contentment with one鈥檚 own pursuits and activities, without worrying over the possibility of missing out on what others may be doing.
JOMO, the acronym for 鈥渢he joy of missing out,鈥 and its opposite, FOMO 鈥渢he fear of missing out,鈥 both entered English around the same time, in the early years of the 21st century.
Don鈥檛 think of JOMO as a detox, but more like an integral part to a healthy, well-balanced nutrition plan for your brain.
JOMO allows us to live life in the slow lane, to appreciate human connections, to be intentional with our time, to practice saying 鈥渘o鈥 ….
noun
natural or practical intelligence, wit, or sense.
Mother knows best, as they say. In mother wit, the word mother means “innate, inborn.” Wit comes from a very widespread Proto-Indo-European root weid-, woid-, wid– 鈥渢o see, know.鈥 This root appears in Latin 惫颈诲脓谤别 鈥渢o see,鈥 Sanskrit veda 鈥渒nowledge,鈥 Greek 颈诲别卯苍 (and dialect w颈诲别卯苍) 鈥渢o know鈥 (literally 鈥渢o have seen鈥), Slavic (Czech) 惫臎诲臎迟 鈥渢o know鈥 and 惫颈诲臎迟 鈥渢o see.鈥 From wid– Germanic (Old English) has the verb witan 鈥渢o know.鈥 In Old English the first and third person singular form was 飞腻迟 鈥淚 know; he/she/it knows,鈥 which survives today as the obsolete word wot (鈥淕od wot鈥). Mother wit entered English in the 15th century.
… not one of the rest of us had the guts, the gumption, or the mother wit to recognize where all four of us were headed and drag the fool to a stop.
翱苍别’蝉听mother wit聽was a precious sort of necromancy, which could pierce every mystery at first sight ….
noun
Chiefly Southwestern U.S.
a grove or clump of trees in prairie land or open country.
Motte is a word that may cause food fights in reference libraries among etymologists. Motte, 鈥渁 grove or stand of trees in prairie land or open country,鈥 is a regionalism in the American Southwest, especially in Texas. The origin of motte may be from Mexican Spanish mata, from European Spanish mata 鈥済rove, plantation,鈥 and perhaps from Late Latin matta, source of English mat. Other authorities say that motte is not a borrowing from Spanish but from French motte 鈥渉illock, mound鈥 (English moat), related to Medieval Latin mota 鈥渉ill, mound, fortified height鈥 (further etymology is speculative). Motte entered English in the 19th century.
We came up finally to a place where the road made a bend around a motte of trees, and I thought I ought to be able to find it again.
They’d camped at the edge of a motte, a thick grove of oak trees, not too far from the Arroyo Colorado …