Thing Not To Be Today: minacious.

I've had an affection for -acious words ever since I used to watch The Herbs, a children's TV programme featuring the marvellously magical word herbidacious!

 (That clip doesn't actually feature the word herbidacious but never mind, it's made me realise that Parsley the Lion's mane is green like, er, parsley. I must only have ever watched The Herbs in black and white!).

Anyway, -acious words: gracious, audacious, vexacious, efficacious - and it's always a pleasure to come across a new one like minacious.

It means threatening: but, of course, it's generally much better not to threaten, but to promise.

Thing Not To Be Today: minacious. This word comes from the Latin minax, from minārī, to threaten.