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BetterMost Community Blogs => Our Daily Thoughts - The BetterMost Community Blog Network => Ifyoucantfixit's Blog => Topic started by: ifyoucantfixit on March 08, 2012, 06:35:27 pm

Title: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 08, 2012, 06:35:27 pm



      pococurante

           caring little; indifferent; nonchalant.MORE


   His favorite topic was pococurante, to his friends.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 09, 2012, 08:27:36 pm



furcate \FUR-keyt\, verb:

1. To form a fork; branch.

adjective:
1. Forked; branching.

    The root systems of an ancient tree seemed to furcate and furrow the surface of his thighs, and where his skin was not covered in dark hair, it was strangely rippled with wild webs of some kind of tissue just beneath the skin.
    -
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 10, 2012, 04:55:06 pm



esculent \ES-kyuh-luhnt\, noun:

1. Something edible, especially a vegetable.

adjective:
1. Suitable for use as food; edible.

    The remainder of the garden presented a well-selected assortment of esculent vegetables, in a praiseworthy state of advancement.
    -- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Sophia on March 10, 2012, 05:16:00 pm
Me like a lot




esculent \ES-kyuh-luhnt\, noun:

1. Something edible, especially a vegetable.

adjective:
1. Suitable for use as food; edible.

    The remainder of the garden presented a well-selected assortment of esculent vegetables, in a praiseworthy state of advancement.
    -- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 12, 2012, 10:42:57 pm



 

antipode \AN-ti-pohd\, noun:

A direct or exact opposite.

    It seemed that this enthusiast was just as cautious, just as much alive to judgments in other minds as if he had been that antipode of all enthusiasm called "a man of the world."
    -- George Eliot, Daniel Deronda
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 12, 2012, 10:46:18 pm




   remit \ri-MIT\, verb:

1. To slacken or relax.
2. To transmit money, a check, etc., as in payment.
3. To abate for a time or at intervals, as a fever.
4. To refrain from exacting, as a payment or service.
5. To pardon or forgive a sin, offense, etc.

    It matters not that we remit our attention, at times, to the pain or the pleasure; these are always in the background; and the strength of the appetite is their strength.
    -- Alexander Bain, Practical Essays
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 13, 2012, 09:44:31 pm



     astringent \uh-STRIN-juhnt\, adjective:

1. Sharply incisive; pungent.
2. Medicine/Medical. Contracting; constrictive; styptic.
3. Harshly biting; caustic: his astringent criticism.
4. Stern or severe; austere.

noun:
1. Medicine/Medical. A substance that contracts the tissues or canals of the body, thereby diminishing discharges, as of mucus or blood.
2. A cosmetic that cleans the skin and constricts the pores.

    One endeavors to correct, flushing out error and misconception with the astringent power of historical detail; the other treats the myth as meaningful cultural phenomenon in its own right, accounting for its emergence and tracing its development across time.
    -- Beth Newman, Emily Brontë, "Introduction," Wuthering Heights




Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 14, 2012, 01:38:59 am
de·mesne
   [dih-meyn, -meen] Show IPA
noun
1.
possession of land as one's own: land held in demesne.
2.
an estate or part of an estate occupied and controlled by, and worked for the exclusive use of, the owner.
3.
land belonging to and adjoining a manor house; estate.
4.
the dominion or territory of a sovereign or state; domain.
5.
a district; region.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 15, 2012, 05:25:56 pm





   iniquitous \ih-NIK-wi-tuhs\, adjective:

Characterized by injustice or wickedness; wicked; sinful.

    The commission was charged now with the task of discovering the iniquitous conspiracy against the Citizen-Saviour of his country.
    -- Joseph Conrad, Nostromo

    Anything else would be iniquitous - iniquitous is the only word. You know as well as I do that there is not the remotest chance of her ever being able to earn any money for herself out here.
    -- Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark

Iniquitous literally meant "unfair" in Latin, as its clear roots betray.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 17, 2012, 04:13:02 pm
selcouth \SEL-kooth\, adjective:

Strange; uncommon.

    Its English is not more quaint than that of De Brunne himself; it contains no names more selcouth than he himself is in the custom of introducing…
    -- Sir Walter Scott, The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott

    To whom there's hardly any selcouth thing, but seems a juggling trick, that would delude their fancies with an empty wondering; therefore against it they with thundering words do ring.
    -- George Starkey, An Exposition Upon the Preface of Sir George Ripley

Selcouth has odd Old English roots. It is related to the word seldom and the Old English word couth meaning "to know."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 19, 2012, 03:35:10 am
brisance \bri-ZAHNS\, noun:

The shattering effect of a high explosive.

    The 'There' turned out to be crucial for the sense of brisance and closure and resolving issues of impotent rage and powerless fear that like accrued in Lenz all day being trapped in the northeastern portions of a squalid halfway house all day fearing for his life, Lenz felt.
    -- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

    But this was sustained explosion, reaching now and then a quite unendurable brisance. Yet he endured it, not so much because it was her will as, unbelievably, what had become her need.
    -- Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day

Brisance is a relatively new English word. It started being used commonly in the 1910s, but it can be traced to the Celtic word brissim meaning "to break."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on March 22, 2012, 11:59:53 am
Janice, hope it's okay if we post other interesting news about words here?  I found this in a book about organizing all the stuff in our lives (What's a Disorganized Person To Do? by Stacey Platt, c 2010, p. 162), and I found it interesting/enlightening.

Overcoming Indecision:

Decide comes from the Latin occido, meaning "to kill."  It is the same root found in homicide, suicide, and pesticideDe means "two."  When we make a decision, we are cutting something in two and killing whatever we decide against.  It's this idea (whether we are aware of it or not) of killing off other options that makes decision making difficult for some people.  Sometimes simply recognizing this makes indecision easier to overcome.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 23, 2012, 12:01:03 am
   
moschate \MOS-keyt\, adjective:

Having a musky smell.

Her familiar perfume and moschate odor was overwhelming within the confines of the car, especially with the windows rolled up.
-- Charles Ray Willeford, New Hope for the Dead
The plant of the Rio Grande is said by Mr. Schott to exhale a moschate odor.
-- William Hemsley Emory, Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, Volume 2, Part 1
Though moschate has Latin roots, it was not used widely in English until the early 1800s. The word mosch meant "musky" in Latin and was used to describe the wine commonly known today at "muscat."



   Of course it is fine, for you  to place other information about words here.  This is for everyone.  i think words are who we are.  How they are formed, and how they are used, is part of our soul...
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 23, 2012, 04:34:34 pm

   
ruck \ruhk\, noun:

1. A large number or quantity; mass.
2. The great mass of undistinguished or inferior persons or things.

Innis steered Jessica through a ruck of large, bearded men in dungarees and greasy sweaters who looked at her like she might be the floor show.
-- Paul Bryers, The Prayer of the Bone
A ruck of charts, clipboards, cuttlefish-flavored peanut snacks, containers of the barley water and orange pop the enlisted brought on watch, binoculars, and struggling men stirred at the base of the cliff.
-- David Poyer, Korea Strait
The ruck of the men were lower down than our two heroes, and there were others far away to the left, and others, again, who had been at the end of the gorse, and were now behind.
-- Anthony Trollope, Phineas Finn
Ruck comes from an early Icelandic word ruka or ruke which meant "a heap or a stack."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 24, 2012, 09:37:50 am
   

   
   
adroit \uh-DROIT\, adjective:

1. Cleverly skillful, resourceful, or ingenious.
2. Expert or nimble in the use of the hands or body.

He knows that Jory is handsome, talented, and most of all, adroit. Bart is not adroit at anything but pretending.
-- V.C. Andrews, If There Be Thorns
It requires finesse. She was very adroit — oh, very adroit — but Hercule Poirot, my good George, is of a cleverness quite exceptional.
-- Agatha Christie, The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
Adroit is from the Old French meaning "elegant, skillful" from the roots a- meaning "increase" and droit meaning "correct."

editorial position...
I understand that on first appearance, some of these words are ones that most of us know.  However I post them anyway, if they have what is unusual additional meanings that are not so readily apparent.  Such as this one.  A meaning such as elegant.  I was not aware of that one, I don't think it is a common use for the word.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 24, 2012, 09:43:09 am

  Mapril...(may prill)

  May 15,  The release date for the album "Trespassing"  Adam Lambert.

  New word, from the root, May be April, or May.   ;)

Not yet in the Urban dictionary,  but I am sure it will be...
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 26, 2012, 01:33:26 am


Tellurian \te-LOOR-ee-uhn\, adjective:

1. Of or characteristic of the earth or its inhabitants.

noun:
1. An inhabitant of the earth.

We must keep in mind that we are, or should I say have become, hybrid personae, part tellurian, and part extraterrestrial.
-- Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber, Universe 3
What special affinities appeared to him to exist between the moon and woman? Her antiquity in preceding and surviving successive tellurian generations…
-- James Joyce, Ulysses
Tellurian was first used by Thomas DeQuincy in 1846, even though it has classical Latin roots literally meaning "one of the earth."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 27, 2012, 03:49:31 pm
   
chelonian \ki-LOH-nee-uhn\, adjective:

1. Belonging or pertaining to the order Chelonia, comprising the turtles.

noun:
1. A turtle.

At the truly chelonian pace of somewhat under two miles per hour, the passengers and crew onboard would cover the twenty-seven hundred miles in just over two months.
-- Caleb H. Johnson, The Mayflower and Her Passengers

The study door crashed back and a seventy-year-old politician stood there, top hat firmly on his head, collar awry around his scrawny, chelonian neck.
-- M. J. Trow, Lestrade and the Sawdust Ring
What pair of messiahs could differ more harshly than Hiram and Magnus, the one a pedantic little fellow with a chelonian paunch and gold eye-glasses and the other a rough, shaggy, carnivorous revivalist from the dreadful steppes?
-- H. L. Mencken, "Editorial," American Mercury Magazine, Jan. to Apr. 1924
Chelonian comes from the Greek word for turtle, chelṓn.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 29, 2012, 02:04:20 am
   

luxate \LUHK-seyt\, verb:

To put out of joint; dislocate.

When I began to luxate the tooth I heard a crack.

-- Nathan Jorgenson, A Crooked Number
But at the same time he thinks, that the reduced bone will not remain in it's [sic] place, but luxate itself again, and fall back into the new-formed articulation, which it has formed to itself.


-- Royal Society of London, The Philosophical Transactions and Collections
Luxate is not related to any word for "light." Rather, it is from the Greek word for "oblique," which was loxós.


  I know the meaning of this first hand.  I have had chiropractic treatment for the last 30 years.  Because of a back problem, resulting from an auto accident.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 29, 2012, 07:16:17 pm
   
eudemonia \yoo-di-MOH-nee-uh\, noun:

1. Happiness; well-being.
2. Aristotelianism. Happiness as the result of an active life governed by reason.

We all seek eudemonia, but he thinks that it takes a great deal of reflection and education to get a clear enough conception of it really to aim at it in our practice.
-- Robert Campbell Roberts, Intellectual Virtues
They may have believed that we already do value duty, utility, and eudemonia, but it is debatable whether they need to make such descriptive claims.
-- Jesse J. Prinz, The Emotional Construction of Morals
From Aristotle, eudemonia comes from the Greek word eudaímōn which meant "a good or benevolent spirit."

Love this word.  I attempt to be like this, in all things............
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on March 30, 2012, 09:27:46 pm
 
 
en·nui   [ahn-wee, ahn-wee; Fr. ahn-nwee]  Show IPA
noun

a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom: The endless lecture produced an unbearable ennui.

Origin:
1660–70;  < French:  boredom; Old French enui  displeasure; see annoy

Synonyms
listlessness, tedium, lassitude, languor.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 01, 2012, 05:45:07 pm
     Pyknic    pik nik  adjective-

       Rounded or squat in body structure or figure.


       She told her doctor, "she wasn't too overweight for a person with a Pyknic body.

     Another short elf with the same pyknic physique wearing a scotch plaid suit and a green feather in his hat.
     --R.W. Alexander, Spark of Life

  He was very pyknic-looking: neckless and bull-bodied, he showed in mouth and eyes more dangerous volatility than
  his mate.
  -- Anthony Burgess, Honey for the Bears.

   `pyknic entered the English language in the 1920s.  It came from the Greek word pykn meaning "thick."

     
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 03, 2012, 10:43:16 pm
 
 
 
 
 
Word of the Day for Tuesday,
zeitgeber \TSAHYT-gey-ber\, noun:

An environmental cue, as the length of daylight, that helps to regulate the cycles of an organism's biological clock.

The light–dark transition Zeitgeber is widely used by plants to set internal clocks not just for leaf movement but for many other activities as well.
-- John King, Reaching for the Sun
The most prominent zeitgeber in humans is the light/dark cycle.
-- Harold R. Smith, Cynthia Comella, Birgit Högl, Sleep Medicine

Zeitgeber comes directly from the German word which literally means "time-giver." It entered into English in the 1970s.

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 05, 2012, 10:43:30 pm

   

   
   

ephebe \ih-FEEB\, noun:

A young man.

His glance touched their faces lightly as he smiled, a blond ephebe.
-- James Joyce, Ulysses

The three Florentine Davids, those of Donatello, Verrocchio, and Michelangelo, represent the changes in the ideal of male beauty and the model of an ephebe. They are ever smaller, more strained, girlish.
-- Jan Kott, Shakespeare Our Contemporary

The summer before his senior year of college, in 1997, he worked as an intern at The Paris Review. James Linville, who was then the magazine’s editor, recalled Rowan as an “ephebe type, almost Truman Capote-like.”
-- Lizzie Widdicombe, “The Plagiarist’s Tale,” The New Yorker, Feb. 13, 2012

Ephebe stems from the Greek word for a young man just entering manhood and commencing training for full Athenian citizenship. It comes from the roots ep- meaning "near" and hḗbē meaning "manhood."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 06, 2012, 07:00:09 am

agley \uh-GLEE\, adjective:

Off the right line; awry; wrong.

Reasoning closely, I deduced that her interview with LP Runkle must have gone awry or, as I much prefer to put it, agley.
-- P. G. Wodehouse, Much Obliged, Jeeves

This had been one of those agley days.

-- Alisa Craig, The Grub-and-Stakers Move a Mountain

Agley comes from the Middle English word glien meaning "a squint," as in "to look at sideways."


Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 07, 2012, 08:03:57 pm
 
 
 
 
 

pleach \pleech\, verb:

1. To interweave branches or vines for a hedge or arbor.
2. To make or renew (a hedge, arbor, etc.) by such interweaving.
3. To braid (hair).

Robert got up very early, and went off to pleach the big hedge at the foot of the far pasture.
-- Mary Webb, Seven for a Secret

I might not be able to install plumbing fixtures or to pleach apple trees, but I know how to throw a good party.
-- Nancy Atherton, Aunt Dimity and the Family Tree

Pleach is derived from the Middle French word plais, which meant "a hedge."

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 08, 2012, 03:21:03 pm
 
 
 
 
 

apotropaic \ap-uh-truh-PEY-ik\, adjective:

Intended to ward off evil.

Ritualistic behaviour used as an apotropaic to ward off private demons, yes. Except to Raymond there's danger everywhere.
-- Leonore Fleischer, Rain Man


Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 09, 2012, 07:09:52 pm

 
 
 
cumshaw \KUHM-shaw\, noun:

A present; gratuity; tip.

Many had nothing to give, but the younger wives always brought a modest cumshaw—a gift—for whatever mysterious service Dr. Ransome provided.
-- J.G. Ballard, Empire of the Sun

No one in the filthy streets (but for the blessed sea breezes San Francisco would enjoy cholera every season) interfered with my movements, though many asked for cumshaw.
-- Rudyard Kipling, From Sea to Sea

You know, cumshaw is not really understood by Westerners. It is not a bribe in the Western sense. More accurately, it is like a tip that is given in advance.

-- David Desauld, Twilight in Tientsin
Cumshaw stems from the Chinese word gân xiè meaning "grateful thanks
 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 10, 2012, 08:58:43 am

 
 
 
 
 
caparison \kuh-PAR-uh-suhn\, verb:

1. To dress richly; deck.
2. To cover with a caparison.

noun:
1. A decorative covering for a horse or for the tack or harness of a horse; trappings.
2. Rich and sumptuous clothing or equipment.

The fruit, the fountain that's in all of us; in Edward; in Eleanor; so why caparison ourselves on top?
-- Virginia Woolf, The Years

And he followed her order, bridling and saddling the horse and making every effort to caparison it well.
-- Chrétien de Troyes, The Complete Romances of Chrétien de Troyes

Caparison originally referred to an elaborate covering for horses. It is related to the word chaperon.

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 11, 2012, 06:10:25 am



   

   

tony \TOH-nee\, adjective:

High-toned; stylish.

When we ate lunch in a tony restaurant near the Empire State Building, Ricky ordered a turkey sandwich and a glass of milk. I followed suit, not really knowing what to order in a restaurant.
-- David Appleton, Son: Saved from Myself

Then she had an appointment for a massage, and was ending her day by trying on wedding gowns at a tony dress shop on Fifth Avenue that Ava had located during her visit.
-- E. Lynn Harris, Not a Day Goes By

An Americanism, tony entered the language in the 1870s. Its precise origin is unclear, but it is related to the word tone meaning "a particular quality or way of sounding."

Have to say this one seems more American slang, than an actual dictionary word...jus sayin
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 12, 2012, 06:37:25 am
macaronic \mak-uh-RON-ik\, adjective:

1. Composed of a mixture of languages.
2. Composed of or characterized by Latin words mixed with vernacular words or non-Latin words given Latin endings.
3. Mixed; jumbled.

noun:
1. Macaronics, macaronic language.
2. A macaronic verse or other piece of writing.

The tradition is even more significant in Folengo's Italian works and especially in his macaronic writings.
-- Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World

The macaronic mode swivels between different languages. I believe Beckett chose French against English for similar reasons to those of Jean Arp in selecting French against German.
-- W. D. Redfern, French Laughter: Literary Humour from Diderot to Tournier

The journalistic multiplicity of voices found in the Magazine corresponded with the poetic multi-vocality of Fergusson's macaronic compositions, texts that combined elements of neo-classical English and vernacular Scots diction.
-- Ian Brown, The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature

Macaronic is related to the word macaroni. Specifically, the pasta is named after the Southern Italian dialect maccarone, which was also associated with a mixture of Latin and vernacular languages.

Now this is a new kind of macaroni.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 13, 2012, 07:24:03 am

approbate \AP-ruh-beyt\, verb:

To approve officially.

And as for that one, let him work, let him work all he likes, as long as he doesn't interfere with anybody or touch anybody; let him work—I agree and I approbate!
-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Double and the Gambler

By that logic, it is only the creation of a domestic crowd that can truly approbate the doings of the nation.
-- John Plotz, The Crowd: British literature and Public Politics

Approbate stems from the Latin word approbāre, from the root ap- which is a variation of ad-, meaning "towards," and probātus meaning "proved."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 14, 2012, 10:44:05 am


irriguous \ih-RIG-yoo-uhs\, adjective:

Well-watered, as land.

For if the old cress-woman, the sole inhabitant of that secluded valley, had been inclined to make observations, she could not have failed to perceive that irriguous as were the windings of the brook, Miss Margaret and her friends preferred following them to their utmost.
-- Catherine Grace Frances Gore, "Blanks and Prizes, Or The Wheel of Fortune," Tait's Edinburgh Magazine

As nothing, at the opening of Spring, can exceed the luxuriant vegetation of these irriguous valleys; so, no term could be chosen more expressive of their verdure.
-- William Beckford, Vathek

Irriguous comes from the Latin word irrigāre meaning "to wet" and the suffix -ous which turns a verb into an adjective, like nervous
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 16, 2012, 12:30:09 am

palladium \puh-LEY-dee-uhm\, noun:

1. Anything believed to provide protection or safety; safeguard.
2. A statue of Athena, especially one on the citadel of Troy on which the safety of the city was supposed to depend.
3. A rare metallic element of the platinum group, silver-white, ductile and malleable, harder and fusing more readily than platinum; used chiefly as a catalyst and in dental and other alloys. Symbol: Pd; atomic weight: 106.4; atomic number: 46; specific gravity: 12 at 20°C.

Trial by jury is the palladium of our liberties.
-- Mark Twain, Roughing It

So, representative institutions are the talismanic palladium of the nation, are they? The palladium of the classes that have them, I daresay.
-- Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke: Novels, Poems and Letters of Charles Kingsley

Palladium is related to the Greek word pallas meaning "little maiden." The sense of a protective talisman comes from the name of a statue of Athena that guarded the city of Troy.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 16, 2012, 07:02:38 am


aperçu \a-per-SY\, noun:

1. A hasty glance; a glimpse.
2. An immediate estimate or judgment; understanding; insight.
3. An outline or summary.

Dr. Lornier, if you would be kind enough to give us a summary of your accomplishments and an aperçu of your plans for the next two months.
-- Mona Risk, To Love a Hero

He was going to lecture that afternoon on Prosperity and, since I was unable to go to the lecture, he was good enough to give me an aperçu of the situation.
-- Ford Madox Ford, It Was the Nightingale

Aperçu literally means "perceived" in French. It entered English in the 1820s.


Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 17, 2012, 08:49:42 pm
           
xenophilia \zen-uh-FIL-ee-uh\, noun:

An attraction to foreign peoples, cultures, or customs.

Yet the scenario of openhanded host and guest, of xenophilia, is played out time and time again in Homer's Odyssey. It mattered to those hill-bound and sea-scattered tribes that the wanderer be made welcome…
-- Nicholas Delbanco, The Lost Suitcase

This connectedness — so evident to the drama's spectator, so indiscernible to the dramatized participant — promotes what we might call xenophilia.
-- Susan Gubar, Critical Condition

The opposite of xenophobia, xenophilia has the same Greek roots. It literally means "attracted to strangers." It first appeared in English in the 1920s and was used heavily after the Second World War.

    I know most people know the meaning of xenophobia.  But didn't know if all knew of the opposite word.

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 18, 2012, 12:35:59 am

   ban jee

  Evidently an urban term.  Started by the gay latino and black young gays, in the inner city...
 banjee  64 up, 28 down
 is a young Latino or Black man who has sex with men and dresses in thuggish urban fashion

gay banjee homosexual black latino
buy banjee mugs & shirtsbannjee banjeee bangee banjea danjee
by flaming homo Feb 1, 2007 share this add a video 

2.  banjee  41 up, 24 down
 A girl who is Ghetto
Big hairs, Long weaves, unnormal hair colors, plastic shoes, grills in they mouth, broken english..Just straight hood!

I'm tired of being around these banjee ass girls.
buy banjee mugs & shirtsghetto fabulous hood ratchet. antonyms; classy proper jazzy
by unknown531 Jan 3, 2007 share this add a video 

3.  Banjee  8 up, 2 down
 Young man or woman (usually black/latino) who has a Hip Hop/ghetto/street swagger, look, and demeanor. (regardless of sexuality)

Started by black and latino gays in New York in the 80's. It was used to describe boys and girls "in the hood." Some say it is where the term "B-boy" derived from.
Girl, you know I love me some Banjee boys - lookin' all rough and stuff.

She is so Banjee


  All the Banjee boys and girls were dancing in the  hot clubs. 

 * Just thought I would throw this in for those that don't know the term.. I didn't before hearing it used in the lyrics from Adams song  on his
new album.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 19, 2012, 06:06:44 am

 
bona fides \BOH-nah FEE-des\, noun:

1. Good faith; the state of being exactly as claims or appearances indicate.
2. (Sometimes italics) (used with a plural verb) the official papers, documents, or other items that prove authenticity, legitimacy, etc., as of a person or enterprise; credentials.

He seemed to feel that he had to convince them of his bona fides before they would trust the purity of the fuel that he was selling.
-- Dean R. Koontz, One Door Away from Heaven

The want of sincerity or bona fides, in a large body of men, respected and respectable, is a very tender place, and cannot be touched with too much delicacy.
-- Thomas Reid, The Works of Thomas Reid

We cannot investigate the bona fides of any of these people. We have to rely solely on deduction.
-- Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express

Originally bona fide, bona fides was accidentally pluralized by the 1830s and subsequently was used as a synonym for credentials
 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 20, 2012, 06:03:03 am


agnomen \ag-NOH-muhn\, noun:

1. A nickname.
2. An additional, fourth name given to a person by the ancient Romans in allusion to some achievement or other circumstance, as “Africanus” in “Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus.”

He was thin in person and low in stature, with light sandy-colored hair, and small pale features, from which he derived his agnomen of Bean or white.
-- Sir Walter Scott, Waverley

Successful Roman generals were frequently given an agnomen celebrating the source of their victories.
-- Waldo E. Sweet, Lectiones Primae

Agnomen comes from the Latin tradition of adding a fourth nickname to someone's given name. Ag- is a variation of the prefix ad- meaning "to" or "near." Nomen means "name."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 21, 2012, 08:08:48 am

hsien \shyuhn\, noun:

1. One of a group of benevolent spirits promoting good in the world.
2. In China, a county or district.

Taoists want to live forever, become Hsien.
-- Louis Rogers, Ladder to the Sky

The hsien was willing to depart, most willing if it could fulfill its mission and take her with it. By urging the spirit to depart as quickly as possible, Deng had inadvertently given it new strength.
-- Jane Lindskold, Five Odd Honors

Hsien stems from the Chinese word xiān meaning "hermit, wizard." It came into English in the 1960s.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 23, 2012, 12:52:19 am


obtuse \uhb-TOOS\, adjective:

1. Not quick or alert in perception, feeling, or intellect.
2. Not sharp, acute, or pointed; blunt in form.
3. (Of a leaf, petal, etc.) rounded at the extremity.
4. Indistinctly felt or perceived, as pain or sound.

"Excuse me?" Rose says, giving me the look I deserve, given the obtuse nature of my invitation.
-- David Sosnowski, Vamped

That was always your failing. Too obtuse. Never able quite to get to the point. Or to make people realise when you have got there.

-- Paul House, Dust Before the Wind
He tried to collect his newspaper from under her while asking, “Then why did you ask me that obtuse question?”

-- Shelly Hancock, Entertaining Jonathan

Obtuse comes from the Latin word tundere which meant "to beat" and the prefix ob- meaning "against" because it referred to the process of beating metal until it was dull.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on April 23, 2012, 09:25:36 am
That word 'obtuse' always reminds me of "The Shawshank Redemption", Janice.  From the scene where the prisoner Andy DuFrain (played by Tim Robbins) has found out he might know who actually killed his wife, and framed him for the crime, and the warden, whose prison bookkeeping was being creatively managed by Andy, is not willing to lose him / set him free.  Dufrain asks him, "How can you be so obtuse?" and the warden, livid, replies, "What did you just call me?" and sends him to solitary for months to think about what he's said.  When the warden comes down to the hole to alert him to recent evil goings-on on the yard, and senses he is still reluctant to play the warden's game, threatens all manner of things which will occur if DuFrain refuses, and ends with, "Am I making myself clear? Or am I being obtuse?".  The sinister look on the warden's face chills me to the bone every time.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 23, 2012, 01:38:37 pm
 
   It always make me think of the same thing.  Coincidentally?  I am not sure there is such a thing as a
coincidence...  That is one of my three favorite movies.. I think I have a list of movies here, that says so even..

   I am glad to know that at least some of us are reading this thread..I know a couple of others are.  But I have
no idea really.  I even wondered sometimes if I was the only one that read it.  I enjoy it a lot.  What with my facination
for words.  I am always glad to find one that I am unfamiliar with.  I try not to put ones here, that are too familiar.  That way people can possibly learn from them..
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on April 23, 2012, 06:37:38 pm
I read this thread every day, Janice, and apply it wherever possible.

For some reason, though, I haven't been successful at putting all of the words, such as 'macaronic', into a sentence that people understand.

They look at me like this => :-\ and then move slowly away.

But I *do* read and learn them, if only for my own edification.  Thanks for posting.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 24, 2012, 04:52:48 am


   I have used a lot of them myself.  But i too had a bit of a problem with macaronic..Its not something that
comes up every day...              :)

   I really am glad to know that someone else is enjoing too..thanks
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 24, 2012, 06:29:19 am

fard \fahrd\, verb:

1. To apply cosmetics.

noun:
1. Facial cosmetics.

She's farded inch-thick with affectation. She's perfumed to suffocation with the musk of pretence. The colour on her cheek is part paint, part mock-modesty.
-- Mary Cowden Clarke, The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines

Holding a candle dramatically high, wrapped in a very shabby old housegown, with some kind of fard on her cheeks and her grey hair screwed up in short plaits above her ears, she had a rather ridiculous air...
-- Phyllis Bentley, Love and Money

Fard comes from the Old Low Franconian word farwiđon meaning "to dye or color." In the Old French it became farder meaning "to apply makeup."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 25, 2012, 07:21:54 am
barnburner \BAHRN-bur-ner\, noun:

1. Something that is highly exciting or impressive.
2. Chiefly Pennsylvania. A wooden friction match.
3. (Initial capital letter) A member of the progressive faction in the Democratic party in New York State 1845–52.


“So, ready for the elder's meeting tonight?” Olan said, pouring himself some coffee. “Should be a barnburner from what I hear.”
-- Jonathan Weyer, The Faithful

"A real barnburner — look, you got me sweating buckets." Jason's sitting on the curb with his teammates.
-- Craig Davidson, Rust and Bone

Barnburner is an Americanism that was first observed in the 1830s. It referred to the practice of burning down a barn to get rid of rats.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on April 25, 2012, 08:58:19 am
Barnburner is an Americanism that was first observed in the 1830s. It referred to the practice of burning down a barn to get rid of rats.

Seems more than a bit extreme, considering the monumental effort required in those days just to build a barn.  Besides, what would keep the rats from burrowing underneath the walls to make their escape?  Hmm...  Perhaps panic and resignation set in before their teeny-tiny brains could think of this.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 26, 2012, 12:32:29 pm

 
 
 
adenoidal \ad-n-OID-l\, adjective:

1. Being characteristically pinched and nasal in tone quality.
2. Of or pertaining to the adenoids; adenoid.
3. Having the adenoids enlarged, especially to a degree that interferes with normal breathing.

"Quite the good, old-fashioned type of servant," as Miss Marple explained afterward, and with the proper, inaudible, respectful voice, so different from the loud but adenoidal accents of Gladys.
-- Agatha Christie, Three Blind Mice

Then just as suddenly the sensation was gone and I heard a shrill, adenoidal voice that swallowed most of its soft consonants…
-- Charles Johnson, Middle Passage

Adenoidal only entered English in the 1910s, referring to the glands near the nasal passage.

     I had mine removed, when i was 5, along side my tonsils.  Because i was having so much trouble breathing at night.  My parents said
i wheezed, like I had very bad asthma. 

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 28, 2012, 08:16:50 pm

littoral \LIT-er-uhl\, adjective:

1. Pertaining to the shore of a lake, sea, or ocean.
2. (On ocean shores) of or pertaining to the biogeographic region between the sublittoral zone and the high-water line and sometimes including the supralittoral zone above the high-water line.
3. Of or pertaining to the region of freshwater lake beds from the sublittoral zone up to and including damp areas on shore.

noun:
1. A littoral region.

The extensive artificialization of lake shorelines reduces the native littoral vegetation in quantity and quality.
-- Alex Córdoba-Aguilar, Dragonflies and Damselflies

There was an exuberant fierceness in the littoral here, a vital competition for existence.
-- John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

Littoral stems from the Latin word lītus which meant "shore." It was replaced by the Old English word shore but is still used by scientists.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on April 30, 2012, 12:05:26 pm


aphotic \ey-FOH-tik\, adjective:

Lightless; dark.

I sat curled up on the sofa, trapped in the dream from which I had begun to awaken, but still lost in the reminiscence of our aphotic rendezvous.
-- Žakalin Nežić, Goodbye Serbia

The stars and moon outside the windows on the twenty- first floor of Fordum Towers shined in the distance, the sky otherwise ebony and aphotic.
-- Steven Gillis, Water Falls

Coined in the early 1900s, aphotic comes from the Greek word photic meaning "light," as in the word photo, and the prefix a- meaning "not."

   This word is very apprapro to the OS.  Ennis woke in the morning, with his dream of Jack Twist..
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 01, 2012, 08:13:40 am


     ort \awrt\, noun:

A scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

She continued and enjoyed every tender morsel. There wasn't even an ort left on the plate.
-- Jack Collins, The Polyandrist Murders: Book 1 Of 2

They fed her on the orts and ends, a little better than the dog, and a little worse than the cat.
-- Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“Charles's programs didn't turn up anything?” “Not an ort.” “ Wow. You think they might be dead?
-- Walter Mosley, All I Did Was Shoot My Man

Ort is related to the Old English word eten meaning "to eat."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 02, 2012, 09:00:08 am

 
kowtow /Cow tow

1. To act in an obsequious manner; show servile deference.
2. To touch the forehead to the ground while kneeling, as an act of worship, reverence, apology, etc., especially in former Chinese custom.

noun:
1. The act of kowtowing.

Mei-hua was sitting nearby, and though she could not understand the English words she understood what was happening. She murmured that her daughter should kowtow.
-- Beverly Swerling, City of God

It's a new one for Morrison to meet a girl who doesn't kowtow. He's a very great personage in his line, and he can't help knowing it.
-- Dorothy Canfield, The Bent Twig

Kowtow comes from the Chinese practice of touching the ground with your forehead to show respect, called k'o t'ou. It literally means "to knock the head
 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on May 02, 2012, 12:16:56 pm
Kowtow comes from the Chinese practice of touching the ground with your forehead to show respect, called k'o t'ou. It literally means "to knock the head

"To knock the head," huh?  I had a marriage like that once -- one giant kowtow, day after day after day...
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 02, 2012, 03:24:22 pm


   I am terribly sorry Mandy.  I too know what that can be like.  Not in my marriage.  My father was like that.  He was
one of those people that sounded exactly like Mel Gibson, when on a rant.

   I told my husband before we married.  If you evet get a notion for such behavior, I have this to say.  "you have to
sleep sometime."  I don't advise you sleep very soundly in case you ever do that..  He doesn't do it, nor would
I have ever tolerated such..
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on May 02, 2012, 09:56:47 pm

   I am terribly sorry Mandy.  I too know what that can be like.  Not in my marriage.  My father was like that.  He was
one of those people that sounded exactly like Mel Gibson, when on a rant.

   I told my husband before we married.  If you evet get a notion for such behavior, I have this to say.  "you have to
sleep sometime."  I don't advise you sleep very soundly in case you ever do that..  He doesn't do it, nor would
I have ever tolerated such..

Oh dear me, sorry, Janice, I didn't mean that at all.  I would never, ever stand for violence in a relationship.  What I meant was that *I* spent every day knocking my own head against a wall, fighting my frustrations at trying to help someone I loved who didn't want to be helped.  In the end, his actions killed him.  I'm terribly sorry if you had to go through violent times with your own father.  That would be utterly devastating.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 03, 2012, 04:18:38 am


    Don't worry about me.  I am fine.  The hurt was most effective on my two brothers.  I had a constitution that allowed me to
overcome most every obstacle that life has ever placed in front of me.  I wish they had been as stubborn headed as me. 
   
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 03, 2012, 03:26:11 pm



numen \NOO-min\, noun:

Divine power, especially one who inhabits a particular object.

This “liquid” flowing up his arm and out of the other was numen, the divine substance, the sacred spirit that lives in a certain place in the body and sustains us all.
-- Jonathan Carroll, White Apples

He was now fairly confident that a shrine, unlike a temple, would contain no resident numen.
-- Dave Duncan, Present Tense (Round Two of the Great Game)

Numen is derived from the Latin word nūmen meaning "a nod, command, or divine will or power."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 04, 2012, 07:22:21 am

 
 
 
 
 

fulcrum \FOOL-kruhm\, noun:

1. The support, or point of rest, on which a lever turns.
2. Any prop or support.
3. Zoology. Any of various structures in an animal serving as a hinge or support.

verb:
1. To fit with a fulcrum; put a fulcrum on.

An equal partnership is like a see-saw that sits on a fulcrum. There is a balance of power when one partner gives in and then the other does likewise.
-- Shirley Gunstream Poland, Hearing the Silent Cries

A storm of plans, each one trying to make me into a fulcrum.
-- Steven Erikson, Memories of Ice

Fulcrum originally referred to a bed post from the Latin word fulcire meaning "to prop up."

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 05, 2012, 09:34:59 am
besot \bih-SOT\, verb:

1. To infatuate; obsess.
2. To intoxicate or stupefy with drink.
3. To make stupid or foolish: a mind besotted with fear and superstition.

We mustn't besot ourselves with big words like independence and sovereignty. We must begin with small concrete tasks.
-- Piotr Rawicz and Peter Wiles, Blood from the Sky

He tried to appear as besot with her as he was with her father's power and money.
-- Judith Pella and Tracie Peterson, A Hope Beyond

The prefix be was used in Middle English to denote verbs, as in the contemporary words become and befriend. The word sot referred to an alcoholic.

 * This is the perfect word for how I am about Adam...Besotted... I admit it.  No shame to me..
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on May 05, 2012, 10:59:39 am
besot \bih-SOT\, verb:

1. To infatuate; obsess.
2. To intoxicate or stupefy with drink.
3. To make stupid or foolish: a mind besotted with fear and superstition.
 

I love all three definitions of this word -- the stuff of LIFE.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Marina on May 05, 2012, 12:07:54 pm
I am enjoying this thread immensely ... I love words.   This one is particularly nice.  :) 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 06, 2012, 10:51:59 am
 
 
mensch \mench\, noun:

A decent, upright, mature, and responsible person.

It's easy to be a mensch, his dad says. You honor your father and mother. You stay married, you set your kids a good example, you don't lie or cheat or steal. And every once in a while, Cookie, you gotta pick up the check, his father says, then winks.
-- Jane VanDenburgh, Physics of Sunset
 

Thanks ladies.  I love words too.  The more obscure the better.. But I do truly enjoy a new meaning for a word I thought I was
well acquainted with...
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 07, 2012, 03:11:58 pm


sudorific \soo-duh-RIF-ik\, adjective:

1. Causing sweat.
2. Sudoriparous.

noun:
1. A sudorific agent.

Having thrown him into a cold sweat by his spiritual sudorific, he attacks him with his material remedies, which are often quite as unpalatable.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Medical Essays, 1842-1882

Wracked by such sudorific thoughts, he tossed noisily about, maddened, aching.
-- Angela Huth, South of the Lights

Every sudorific hitherto employed had failed to produce this result upon a skin which horrible diseases had left impervious.
-- Honoré de Balzac, Cousin Pons

Sudorific comes from the Latin word sūdor meaning "sweat." The word "sweat" is unrelated and comes from the Old English, swote
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 08, 2012, 06:45:51 am
 
 
pother \POTH-er\, noun:

1. A heated discussion, debate, or argument; fuss; to-do.
2. Commotion; uproar.
3. A choking or suffocating cloud, as of smoke or dust.

verb:
1. To worry; bother.

"An' why all the pother?" Mrs. Rickards emitted a series of sniffs and returned his scowl with a frosty glare.
-- Colin Arthur Roderick, The Lady and the Lawyer

I don't know what's so extraordinary about it, or why there should be such a pother.
-- William Dean Howells, Novels 1886-1888, Volume 2

Pother is of unknown origin. It is not related to the word bother which did not enter English until the 1700s and is related to the word both
 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 09, 2012, 08:07:05 am


cicatrix \SIK-uh-triks\, noun:

1. New tissue that forms over a wound.
2. Botany. A scar left by a fallen leaf, seed, etc.

A new relationship can develop. But the cicatrix of the old one remains. And nothing grows on a cicatrix. Nothing grows through it.
-- Elizabeth George, Playing for the Ashes

He discriminates also very properly between the cicatrix, which is produced by the healing of wounds which have penetrated the cutis, and those in which the surface only is affected.

-- James Moore, "Differtation on Healing of Wounds," The Analytical Review, Volume 5

Cicatrix is derived from the Latin word cicatrix meaning "scar." The Latin word has no clear origin.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on May 09, 2012, 08:39:31 am
"Cicatrix" is even more fun to say than "macaronic".  In fact, it's impossible to say without smiling.   ;D   But alas, the conversational opportunities are limited.  Perhaps I need to start hanging out with multi-lingual dermatologists; maybe I could squeeze both of them into a single sentence...  :laugh:
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 09, 2012, 09:47:16 am



     :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:  Verry good.

  I personally think that cicatrix is going to be easier to fit into conversation than macaronic....but we'll see?
 
  Is it just me, or does it sound a bit raunchy?
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on May 10, 2012, 09:10:23 am
  Is it just me, or does it sound a bit raunchy?


It's probably just the dominatrix in you...   :o

Most words with an X in them sound a bit raunchy to me.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 10, 2012, 09:56:03 am



                              :laugh:
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 10, 2012, 01:07:11 pm
obtest \ob-TEST\, verb:

1. To supplicate earnestly; beseech.
2. To invoke as witness.
3. To protest.
4. To make supplication; beseech.

I constrain, adjure, obtest and strongly command you.
-- Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering

And whosoever she be, even with the form of words which to miserable wretches is granted most exaudible, I pray, and do with those prayers most heartily obtest, which are in the ears of the hearers of them most effectual, that she may never taste of such bitter miseries.
-- Giovanni Boccaccio, Amorous Fiametta

Obtest comes from the Latin roots ob-, a prefix meaning "toward", and the root test, meaning "witness."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 I found it difficult to post this word in all its entirety.  I was not aware of the word "exauidible."  So I naturally went to the source of dictionary.com to try and get the exact definition to that word.  Well to my surprise, they had no listing for that word.  I found this particularly odd, since they used it in their explanitory sentence, when they had no real resourse for the word.  I then sent them a notice, and asked them to let me know what the answer to this was.  I even sent them an aside, saying maybe they could make that the word of the day for tomorrow.  I did find it odd that they had even the root connection to the word, but not the definition?
  In closing I would like to say I felt so ignorant at being unaware of even the best guess scenario for that word.  I don't feel quite so stupid now.  Thank goodness. 

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on May 11, 2012, 10:40:35 am
So.... after all that, what does it mean?
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 11, 2012, 01:42:41 pm

 
 
sibilant \SIB-uh-luhnt\, adjective:

1. Hissing.
2. Phonetics. Characterized by a hissing sound; noting sounds like those spelled with s in this.

noun:
1. Phonetics. A sibilant consonant.

This is the way the presence of a ghost was detected: Some sound would be heard, such as a sibilant noise, a soft whistle, or something like murmurs, or some sensation in a part of the body might be felt.
-- George H. Ellis, Legends of Gods and Ghosts: Hawaiian Mythology

He just drank his coffee, making a little sibilant sound, and watched the earth mover lumber back and forth, back and forth, its shovel going up and down and over and up and down and over again.
-- Anna Quindlen, Object Lessons

The wind in the patch of pine woods off there—how sibilant.
-- Walt Whitman, Prose Works 1892: Specimen Days

Sibilant stems from the Latin word sībilant- which meant "whistling or hissing." It is assumed to imitative of the sound itself.



 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 11, 2012, 01:45:12 pm
So.... after all that, what does it mean?

   The notice was on the word that I did not know was;  basically "we'll get back to you on that."    :laugh:
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 12, 2012, 07:27:03 am


prorogue \proh-ROHG\, verb:

1. To defer; postpone.
2. To discontinue a session of (the British Parliament or a similar body).

It was enough to make him rise from his Governor's throne and tell them, in English instead of Latin just so the fools and dunderheads understood, that he was planning to prorogue Parliament within a week.
-- Julian Barnes, England, England

What I do hear is that Catulus—he's much better, so they say, he'll be back making a nuisance of himself in Senate and Comitia shortly—is organizing a campaign to prorogue all the current governors next year, leaving this year's praetors with no provinces at all.
-- Colleen McCullough, Caesar's Women

Prorogue is derived from the Latin word prōrogāre from the roots pro- meaning "advancing towards" and rogāre meaning "to ask."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 13, 2012, 09:17:25 am

matrilineal \ma-truh-LIN-ee-uhl\, adjective:

Inheriting or determining descent through the female line.

In a matrilineal society, in a matriarchy, and especially in this particular matriarchy, the women, as I've already said, control the houses, the lineage of the children, and a lot of decisions about marriage and so forth.
-- Patrice E. M. Hollrah, The Old Lady Trill, the Victory Yell

Several of the women I talked to had decided to challenge the influence of the matrilineal clan and to bequeath part of their land to their sons. The ways they had chosen in this regard were however quite different.
-- Birgit Englert and Elizabeth Daley, Women's Land Rights & Privatization in Eastern Africa

Matrilineal was first used in the early 1900s by anthropologists. It derives from the Late Latin roots matri- meaning "mother" and lineal meaning "line."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

            Happy Matrilineal day my dear Brokie Besties!
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on May 14, 2012, 09:46:51 am
Used as an adjective, I wonder what the differing connotation is between "matriarchal" and "matrilineal", then?  Hmmm...
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 14, 2012, 11:44:16 am


 
 
 
 

intromit \in-truh-MIT\, verb:

To introduce; to send, put, or let in.

Mrs. Tappitt had frequently offered to intromit the ceremony when calling upon his generosity for other purposes, but the September gift had always been forthcoming.
-- Anthony Trollope, Rachel Ray

But in this I found a great difficulty, arising from the policy and conduct of Mr. Andrew McLucre, who had a sort of investment, as may be said, of the office of dean of guild, having for many years been allowed to intromit and manage the same.
-- John Galt, Annals of the Parish

Intromit comes from the Latin roots intro- meaning "inwardly" and mittere meaning "to send."

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 14, 2012, 12:07:20 pm
Used as an adjective, I wonder what the differing connotation is between "matriarchal" and "matrilineal", then?  Hmmm...

   From the research that I did after you asked this question.  I found the answer that I thought, beforehand.  They basically
are interchangable.  They both have the same exact meaning.  {To determine the lineager of family through the matriarch, ie mother line of inheritance.}  It is usually used in conjunction with a societal custom of regarding the mother as the family line, in
stead of the fathers line.  I believe that in Mexican custom it is the generally accepted lineage.  It has however become more
of an equal lineage, in many of the families.  Thus the custom of many of the Mexican familys having dual last names.  Such as
Maria Estella Lopez-Ancarro.

  Hope that helps clear it up..   :)
  Still waiting for the return message on the exauidible.  ??
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on May 15, 2012, 09:25:20 am
Interesting, Janice, thanks.  Maybe all us ladies "should go to Mexico" where women are lauded with power and respect.   ;)
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 15, 2012, 11:37:52 am


 
altiloquent \awl-TIL-uh-kwuhnt\, noun:

High-flown or pretentious language.

He remembered that the politeness seemed too elaborate, too florid, altiloquent to the extent of insincerity.
-- Holman Day, All-Wool Morrison

The meaning of the music was made further explicit by explanations in his own, altiloquent (but purposefully avoiding the technical) Wagnerian prose, wrapped solicitously around the Goethe passages.
-- Alessandra Comini, The Changing Image of Beethoven

Altiloquent stems from the Latin roots atli meaning "high" and loquentem meaning "speaking."

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on May 15, 2012, 12:05:14 pm
Janice, thought you might get a kick out of this.  It's from the newspaper in the teeny-tiny town in rural Kansas where my mom grew up in the 30's and 40's.  I take a road trip there every spring and spend a week wandering around her old stomping ground.  The whole town knows me and makes a point to say hello to "Jackie's girl" cause she was quite something back in the day, and they tell me I'm the spittin' image of her.  I have to carry around her old photo albums in my trunk cause some of her old beaus always insist on looking at the pics of the good old days, and I'm happy to oblige.  Anyhoo...

Posted: Sunday, May 13, 2012 1:07 pm
Bridge, viaduct, or what?
By Ned Valentine, Clay Center Dispatch
So what do we call the new $4.4 million structure on west Crawford bridging Huntress Creek?
Some say the new structure isn’t a viaduct because no train track or road will pass under it. The proper term, we have been assured, is “bridge.”
That was distressing, since back as far as the memory of man runneth not to the contrary it has been known as “the viaduct.” Remembering to refer to it instead as the “Crawford Street bridge” would take some effort. So, we consulted an engineer who said he just couldn’t be sure without looking it up.
Merriam Webster to the rescue: What is being replaced on west US24 was a viaduct. And it’s replacement will be a viaduct also.
Technically, a viaduct is an elevated roadway, usually consisting of a series of short spans supported by arches, piers or columns, according to Merriam. A bridge simply is any structure carrying a pathway or roadway over a depression or obstacle.
The two definitions sound almost indistinguishable, but they’re not. While all viaducts are bridges, not all bridges are viaducts.
The piers of the new Crawford Street bridge are columns, and the roadway is being elevated to accommodate flooding of Huntress Creek. (Despite being 12 feet lower, you still won’t be able to see the far end of the bridge when you start across from the opposite end).
While few ever called the old viaduct “the bridge,” many, who apparently couldn’t remember the word “viaduct,” called it “the overpass.”
An overpass, it isn’t, Merriam says. Overpass isn’t even a noun. It’s a verb meaning to pass across, over or beyond; or to transgress; or to disregard or ignore.
One can overpass something, but not on an overpass. So, it is best to disregard or ignore “overpass.”
Whatever it is, the contractor is still on schedule. With any luck, it may be completed before the Nov. 14 deadline. If the Court Street bridge is any guide, the viaduct will be a handsome addition to our community when finished.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 15, 2012, 01:00:02 pm

   I did love that.  That is why I love words, and language in general.  It has a way of informing us of things,
we were not even aware we needed to know.  In the way that there were specifics to those two differing
terms.  There should have been a distinction to those other two as well.  However I looked and tried to find
that finite difference, and could not find one.  I suppose there are probably more of these conundrums, that
are two differing words that seem to be so similar, in both look and usage, that they are virtually the same.
The English language is quite complex, in this case I think it has to do with the common acceptance of bringing
onboard words of other languages and incorporating them into it.  That happened I think in this case.  Leaving us
with two words that mean the exact same thing..

   "Don't you just love it."  One of my favorite quotes, from an old song of the 60s, that my only nephew used
to sing when he was a mere tot.

           [youtube=425,350] [youtube=425,350] 
[/youtube]
  [/youtube]

  Now you have had a sample of my other obsession..music..
   :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 16, 2012, 01:31:51 pm


spruik \sprook\, verb:

To make or give a speech, especially extensively; spiel.

He started to spruik again, but I managed to get in first.
-- C.E. Murphy, Raven Calls

Cain and Leek spruik their foul and immoral stories by the fire at night and the rest of the men grow excited and the mood of the camp becomes restless.
-- Tim Winton, Shallows

Don't go into your spruik for me. I don't care what words you call it.
-- A. E. Martin, The Outsiders

Spruik is Australian slang that arose in the early 1900s. It is of unknown origin.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 17, 2012, 01:24:56 pm

omphalos \OM-fuh-luhs\, noun:

1. The central point.
2. The navel; umbilicus.
3. Greek Antiquity. A stone in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, thought to mark the center of the earth.

To that incurable romantic the Trenton hovel was omphalos, the hub of existence, the center of mass.
-- Ellen Queen, Halfway House

Yes; but if not of the earth, for earth's tenant Jerusalem was the omphalos of mortality.
-- Thomas De Quincey, Suspiria de Profundies

From Greek, omphalos did not enter English until the 1850s when Thomas De Quincey used it in his work Suspiria de Profundis. It literally meant "navel."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 18, 2012, 01:01:27 pm
 
 
 
 
 
pip \pip\, verb:

1. To peep or chirp.
2. (Of a young bird) to break out from the shell.
3. To crack or chip a hole through (the shell), as a young bird.

Stone's watch pipped eight o'clock. He had curly hair the color of motor oil, and pale green eyes.
-- Jonathan Franzen, The Twenty-Seventh City

As Fiona's horn pipped, just beyond the cab's black fender.
-- William Gibson, Zero History

Pip is a variation on the word peep which arose in the 1600s. It comes from the Lithuanian word pỹpti which was originally imitative of a baby bird
 
   I have never really understood the meaning of the name PiP, as in Dicken's "Great Expectation."  I always thought that it must
have some other meaning.  But I guess, the name was meant to imply his being as vulnerable as,  a newly pipped bird..  I just never really made that connection.  duuh.  After being raised on a farm, my grandparents also had an egg farm.  I knew the word.  But I had always thought that it was probably a name used in UK around the time of the books representation.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 19, 2012, 01:39:45 pm


phatic \FAT-ik\, adjective:

Denoting speech used to create an atmosphere of goodwill.

We conduct phatic discourse indispensable to maintaining a constant connection among speakers; but phatic speech is indispensable precisely because it keeps the possibility of communication in working order, for the purpose of other and more substantial communications.
-- Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyperreality

They're just filling the air with noise. This is what's called phatic speech. "How are you?" they might ask.
-- Adriana Lopez, Fifteen Candles

Coined by the anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski, phatic was first used in 1923. It probably comes from the Greek word phatos meaning "spoken."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 20, 2012, 01:08:48 pm
 
 
 
 
gambit \GAM-bit\, noun:

1. A remark made to open or redirect a conversation.
2. Chess. An opening in which a player seeks to obtain some advantage by sacrificing a pawn or piece.
3. Any maneuver by which one seeks to gain an advantage.

The leader was eyeing him up and down, shrewdly calculating. "Thirsty as all that, are you, my friend?" he asked. Gratefully Bomilcar seized upon the gambit. “Thirsty enough to buy everyone here a drink,” he said.
-- Colleen McCullough, The First Man in Rome

But in other cases the gambit may be a dependent clause introducing or rounding off some larger unit whose illocutionary force it helps to establish.
-- Thierry Fontenelle, Practical Lexicography: A Reader

Gambit is primarily a term used in chess. It came from the Italian idiom gambetto meaning "to trip up."

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on May 21, 2012, 10:56:57 am
Hey Janice, since you got a kick out of that article from the Clay Center Dispatch, I thought I'd share today's top story (yes, I said TOP story):

Duck Race takes thrice as long
 
This year's Great Republican River Duck Race took longer than usual, with the plastic ducks getting caught along the bank and in brush piles along the way.

A steady cross-wind and a lower than normal river might have been the reasons the race took nearly an hour and a half rather than around 30 minutes -- the length of last year's race.


I'm surprised they didn't have live streaming video...

Small-town life, ya gotta love it!
 ;D
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 21, 2012, 04:15:02 pm

 
 
 
 
 
Word of the Day for Monday, May 21, 2012
belabor \bih-LEY-ber\, verb:

1. To explain, worry about, or work more than is necessary.
2. To assail persistently, as with scorn or ridicule.
3. To beat vigorously; ply with heavy blows.
4. Obsolete. To labor at.

Yours and everybody else's, thought Swiffers, but he didn't wish to belabor the obvious.
-- Tom Robbins, Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates

It is distasteful to the present writer to belabor any of his fellow writers, living or dead, and, except Boccaccio, who also stood for a detestable human trait, he has here avoided doing so.
-- Ford Madox Ford, The March of Literature

Neither of them possessed energy or wit to belabor me soundly; but they insulted me as coarsely as they could in their little way.
-- Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Like besot, belabor comes from the prefix be- which makes a verb out of a noun and the root labor meaning "to work."

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 22, 2012, 02:05:30 pm

cumulus \KYOO-myuh-luhs\, noun:

1. A heap; pile.
2. A cloud of a class characterized by dense individual elements in the form of puffs, mounds, or towers, with flat bases and tops that often resemble cauliflower.

He was organizing the year's remnants. He was logging and archiving and filing it all. The whole swollen yearlong cumulus.
-- Dana Spiotta, Stone Arabia

"So where is it at, Minogue," asks the palatal man, aloft in a cumulus of webs and dust and creak.
-- David Foster Wallace, Girl with Curious Hair

umulus stems from the Neo-Latin word meaning "heap, pile." It was first used to describe clouds in the early 1800s.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 23, 2012, 12:44:17 pm

chrestomathy \kres-TOM-uh-thee\, noun:

A collection of selected literary passages.

I had learned to read Sanscrit and to translate easy passages in the chrestomathy, and devoted myself with special zeal to the study of the Latin grammar and prosody.
-- Georg Ebers, The Story of My Life from Childhood to Manhood

This little chrestomathy preserves almost the only words of Atticus to have survived from antiquity.
-- Peter White, Cicero in Letters

Chrestomathy literally means "useful to learn" in Greek, from the roots chres- meaning "to use" and math- meaning "to learn."


Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 24, 2012, 07:23:32 am
   
demiurge \DEM-ee-urj\, noun:

1. Philosophy. A. Platonism. The artificer of the world. B. (In the Gnostic and certain other systems) a supernatural being imagined as creating or fashioning the world in subordination to the Supreme Being, and sometimes regarded as the originator of evil.
2. (In many states of ancient Greece) a public official or magistrate.


Larger than a character, the river is a manifest presence, a demiurge to support the man and the boy, a deity to betray them, feed them, all but drown them, fling them apart, float them back together.
-- Norman Mailer, The Spooky Art

The gnostics think this world was created by a bad god—a demiurge—who wandered too far from the True God and somehow got perverted.
-- Derek Swannson, Crash Gordon and the Mysteries of Kingsburg

Demiurge meant "a worker for the people" in Ancient Greek, from the roots dḗmio- meaning "of the people" and -ergos, "a worker."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 25, 2012, 05:12:29 pm

ingeminate \in-JEM-uh-neyt\, verb:

To repeat; reiterate.

Sitting among his friends, often, after a deep silence and frequent sighs, he would with a shrill and sad accent ingeminate the word Peace, Peace...
-- Christopher Ricks, Essays in Appreciation

Mr. Dott's spirits were a little dashed, especially as Niven with a fateful countenance continued to ingeminate the word “Hungrygrain.”
-- Arthur Train, Tutt and Mr. Tutt

Ingeminate comes from the Latin word ingemināre which meant "to repeat or redouble."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 26, 2012, 01:53:12 pm

betide \bih-TAHYD\, verb:

1. To happen to; come to; befall.
2. To happen; come to pass.

"Ill luck betide thee, poor damsel," said Sancho, "ill luck betide thee!"
-- Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

"The girls' skirts are measured each week with a dressmaker's rule," she would say, "to see that they conform to the length prescribed. Woe betide any girl whose skirt does not."
-- Hilary Mantel, An Experiment in Love

Betide stems from the Old English word tide meaning "something that happened." As in besot and belabor, the prefix be- turns the noun into a verb.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 27, 2012, 03:41:41 pm


ventose \VEN-tohs\, adjective:

Given to empty talk; windy.

Anyhow, it is better to wind up that way than to go growling out one's existence as a ventose hypochondriac.
-- Thomas Henry Huxley, Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley

The ventose orator was confounded, and put himself and his glass down together.
-- L. J. Bigelow, Bench and Bar

First used in English in the 1700s, ventose is derived from the Latin word for wind, "vent."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 29, 2012, 11:29:49 pm

varlet \VAHR-lit\, noun:

1. A knavish person; rascal.
2. A. An attendant or servant. B. A page who serves a knight.

Is he not a lying, stinking, contemptible varlet?
-- Jude Morgan, Indiscretion

A varlet scrambled forward at once and attempted to wrestle our luggage away from me.
-- Eric Kraft, On the Wing

Varlet is a variation on the French word valet.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Front-Ranger on May 30, 2012, 07:58:19 am
I wonder if it evolved into varmint in the American West.  :)
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 30, 2012, 12:28:01 pm

 
 
 
 
 

skirr \skur\, verb:

1. To go rapidly; fly; scurry.
2. To go rapidly over.

noun:
1. A grating or whirring sound.

Looking up, he perceived, to his horror, the figure of a man which seemed to skirr along the surface of the water...
-- Ambrose Marten, The Stanley Tales

If they'll do neither, we will come to them, and make them skirr away as swift as stones enforced from the old Assyrian slings.
-- William Shakespeare, Henry V

Skirr is related to the word scour, which comes from the Old Norse word skur meaning "shower."

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 30, 2012, 03:27:34 pm
var·mint   /ˈvɑrmənt/ Show Spelled[vahr-muhnt] Show IPA
noun
1. Chiefly Southern and South Midland U.S. 
a. vermin.
b. an objectionable or undesirable animal, usually predatory, as a coyote or bobcat.
2. a despicable, obnoxious, or annoying person.
Also, var·ment.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Origin:
1530–40; variant of vermin (with regular outcome of Middle English ĕr  before consonant ( compare argal3 , parson) and parasitic t )

Front Ranger--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------     
I wonder if it evolved into varmint in the American West?     :)       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is what I found in regards to that being the possible variant of "varmint"  It seems rather related to me for sure.  An undesirable and unwanted thing or person.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on May 31, 2012, 09:32:30 pm

haimish \HEY-mish\, adjective:

Homey; cozy and unpretentious.

Now separated from Gisela Liner's home cooking and haimish evenings playing living-room soccer with Kisch, Billie consoled himself by going to the finest spots in Berlin.
-- Ed Sikov, On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder

By late afternoon the house looked at least haimish, with the season's last roses cut and opening in jelly jars.
-- Sally Koslow, With Friends Like These

There were other homey touches: a mizrakh plaque on the eastern wall, a silver menorah and a sewing kit containing a color wheel of spools on the sideboard—all made the more haimish by the savory aromas wafting in through the kitchen door.
-- Steve Stern, The Frozen Rabbi

Haimish stems from the Yiddish word of the same spelling, which comes from the German word heimisc that literally means "pertaining to the home."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 01, 2012, 06:31:25 pm

armamentarium /ahr-muh-muhn-Tair-ee-uhm/.,noun

1. A truthful source of devices or materials, available or used for an undertaking.
2. The aggregate of equipment, methods, and techniques available to one for carrying out ones duties.

You can almost hear the crash as my medical (armamentarium) smashes to the ground -
---Emily R. Transue. M>D. On Call

In addition to the past lying available in his memory, he had always had a technical (armamentarium) second to none
Even the hostile critics had granted him that.
---Orson Scott Card.  Masterpieces

Litvikov led the way over to his long conference table, which was covered in green felt, and stocked with an (armamentarium)
of mineral-water that the commissioner never seemed to offer.
----Robert Ludlum, Thhe Tristan Betrayal


Armamentarium comes from the Latin root armament, which refers to the equipment used by a military unit.
The suffix -arium denotes a location, or receptical.


 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on June 01, 2012, 11:46:05 pm
haimish \HEY-mish\, adjective:


Wasn't Haimish the best friend of William Wallace in "Braveheart"?
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 02, 2012, 01:59:36 pm


bosh \bosh\, noun:

Absurd or foolish talk; nonsense.

You know perfectly well — and it is all bosh, too. Come, now, how do they proceed?
-- Mark Twain, The Gilded Age

Bosh, bosh, bosh! Why is it right for him to follow his nature ? Because it is right. Why is it wrong for me to follow my nature? Because it is wrong. That's the whole of your argument…
-- George Dyre Eldridge, In the Potter's House

Bosh stems from the Turkish word bos meaning "empty". It was popularized in English by the British writer James J. Morier.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 02, 2012, 02:18:31 pm
Wasn't Haimish the best friend of William Wallace in "Braveheart"?

 Yes.  Brendan Gleeson played Walker's friend, Hamish.

i have seen a number  of people saying that the movie had really nothing to do with real history.  One of the things they particularly hated
was the costumery.  They say that the fact the army of Wallace wore the Kilts, was so bad.  It would be  like dressing the Pilgrims in clothing  the modern businessman wears. ie suits and ties.  There is much ado also about the entire storyline.  They said it was sacrificed for the
strong need to make it adventuresome.  In other words it was entirely inaccurate to true history. 
 It was quite a tale however, and made Mel a superstar.  Too bad he has since lost all of his credability because of his personal habits and his
nasty mouth.    I was a fan.  But now; not at all..  What horrid hate lay within that man.  It seems to have no bounds.  I think he was an
unfortunate victim of his father.  That however does not give him an out..  He knows better, and chooses not to do better.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 03, 2012, 06:56:06 pm

levigate \LEV-i-geyt\, verb:

1. To rub, grind, or reduce to a fine powder.
2. Chemistry. To make a homogeneous mixture of, as gels.

adjective:
1. Botany. Having a smooth, glossy surface; glabrous.

It is sufficient to levigate them with water to obtain them very white.
-- M. Richter, Philosophical Magazine, Volume 23

This clay, carefully levigated, and covered with an excellent glaze, yielded a red ware…
-- Samuel Smiles, Josiah Wedgwood

Levigate is derived from the Latin word lēvigātus meaning "to smooth."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 04, 2012, 03:20:50 pm

histrionics \his-tree-ON-iks\, noun:

1. Behavior or speech for effect, as insincere or exaggerated expression of an emotion.
2. Dramatic representation; theatricals; acting.

You are constantly talking about Beate's histrionics, her showing off.
-- Alberto Moravia, 1934

Of course it is not only southern writers, of lyrical bent, who engage in such histrionics and shout, "Look at me!" Perhaps it is a parable of all artists.
-- Tennessee Williams, New Selected Essays

Though it sounds like the word history, histrionics has a different root. It comes from the Etruscan root histriōn- which meant "actor".


Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 05, 2012, 04:21:02 pm


apoplectic \ap-uh-plek-tik\, adjective:

1. Intense enough to threaten or cause a stroke.
2. Of or pertaining to apoplexy.
3. Having or inclined to apoplexy.

noun:
1. A person having or predisposed to apoplexy.

When Abie used to shout, Rebecca always used to make a joke that he was having one of his apoplectic fits.
-- Alan Grayson, Mile End

...four years, one recession and a host of battles — over financial regulation and the nomination of Elizabeth Warren, over Dodd-Frank and the Buffett Rule — have taken their toll. Some on Wall Street are apoplectic.

One former supporter, Dan Loeb, compared Obama to Nero; the president’s enemies insinuated worse.
-- Nicholas Confessore, "Obama’s Not-So-Hot Date With Wall Street", The New York Times Magazine, May 2, 2012

Apoplectic stems from the Greek word apoplēktikós which meant "pertaining to stroke". It literally meant "struck down".

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on June 05, 2012, 04:53:32 pm
Hmmm, this one wasn't very educational.  I wish they'd have defined the noun 'apoplexy' instead of trying to define the adjective which describes the noun.  If that makes sense.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 06, 2012, 06:19:10 pm
Apoplexy   Ah po plex y/

  Meaning loss of conciousness from a blockage or a leakage into the brain.  It is a stoke that
begins within the brain, it's a neurological term.  There are varying degrees of impairment. 
  The symptoms of a stroke are headache, dizziness, nausea, and or numbness, radiating over one side of the body more frequently than the other, and may also impair speech or communication as well. 
 
If you display any, or most of these symptoms, you should not wait one second.  Call 911 immediately, and if you are unable to do so, have someone else do that for you. 

  Just as a point of reference, you should also try to have an aspirin administered as well.  But only if that is not going to cause you to have choking issues.  Aspirin being administered quickly has been of great help in mininmizing the long term effects of a stroke.

   I hope this helps clear it up some.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on June 06, 2012, 06:22:24 pm
Didn't make myself clear.  I already knew what apoplexy meant.  I was saying that I don't understand why the folks who pick the words would pick adjectives, rather than nouns, especially when the majority of people wouldn't know what the noun meant in the first place.

Okay, I'll shut up now...
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 08, 2012, 03:45:44 pm

divulse \dahy-VUHLS\, verb:

To tear away or apart.

A perforation having been so made, it is safer to divulse the opening rather than to enlarge it by cutting in order to avoid the possibility of opening a blood vessel in an inaccessible region.
-- Eugene Fuller, M.D., The Journal of the American Medical Association

Even if you are the kooper of the winkel over measure never lost a license. Nor a duckindonche divulse from bath and breakfast.
-- James Joyce, Finnegans Wake

Divulse comes from the Latin root vellere meaning "plucked". The prefix di- is a variation of dis- before the letter v meaning "apart" or "away", as in disown.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 09, 2012, 11:29:26 am

pochismo \poh-CHEEZ-moh\, noun:

1. An English word or expression borrowed into Spanish.
2. A form of speech employing many such words.
3. An adopted U.S. custom, attitude, etc.

Along the Texas border, in the towns on both sides of the Rio Grande, they call a similar blending of languages pochismo.
-- Robert Wilder, Plough the Sea

The assimilation of English with Spanish speech and of Hispanic with Anglo traits in the mixed culture termed pochismo has brought contrasting values and characteristics into play within families and even within individuals.
-- Milo Kearney and Manuel Medrano, Medieval Culture and the Mexican American Borderlands

Pochismo entered English in the 1940s. It is a variation of the word pocho which refers to a person of Mexican heritage who has adopted American customs. The suffix -ismo is usually the Spanish equivalent of the English suffix -ism.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 10, 2012, 04:44:08 pm
mignon \min-YON\, adjective

Small and pretty; delicately pretty.

And here Jasmin caressed his own arm, and made as if it were a baby's, smiling and speaking in a mignon voice, wagging his head roguishly.
-- William Chambers and Robert Chambers, Chambers's Edinburgh Journal

As the village princeling and household cosset, the toast of the family, the mignon of the minions, the darling of the staff, my feelings about the proposed adoption would not be hard to divine.
-- Martin Amis, Success


Mignon stems from the French word of the same spelling which means "delicate" or "charming". It is also related to the word "minion" through the sense of "small".

Being the Adam geek that I am.  Sauli is his little mignon of beauty and grace.  lol
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 11, 2012, 04:41:39 pm


ravelment \RAV-uhl-muhnt\, noun:

Entanglement; confusion.

Hampered as I was by my well-known connection with the Gillespie poisoning case, I could not personally make a move towards the ravelment of its mystery without subjecting myself to the curiosity of the people among whom my attention of the District Attorney's office and the suspicion of the men whose business I was in a measure attempting to usurp.
-- Anna Katharine Green, One of My Sons

What I could see clearly, though, was the lower course of the burn: this bisected the small valley and appeared to loop around the far side of the dwelling, partly enfolding it before it broadened out and spread thence through arable to a ravelment of stone and incoming sea.
-- Clifford Geddes, Edge of the Glen

Ravelment derives from the word ravel which means "to become tangled". It entered English in the early 1800s.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 12, 2012, 06:40:54 pm

fantast \FAN-tast\, noun:

A visionary or dreamer.

I wouldn't allow the unwashed fantast in my house, but, I have to remind myself, it isn't my house he is being admitted to.
-- Wallace Earle Stegner, All the Little Live Things

The floor of the shop had been sprinkled with water; it had probably been sprinkled by a great fantast and freethinker, because it was all covered with patterns and cabbalistic signs.
-- Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, The Steppe

Fantast entered English from German, though it is based on the Greek word phantastḗs which meant "boaster". It is related to the other English word fantastic.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 14, 2012, 06:05:14 pm

 
 
 
 

imponderable \im-PON-der-uh-buhl\, noun:

1. A thing that cannot be precisely determined or measured.

adjective:
1. Not ponderable; that cannot be precisely determined, measured, or evaluated.

Of course he had always been a huge imponderable, if not to say the biggest challenge of her admittedly young life.
-- Lindsay Armstrong, The Constantin Marriage

Of course there's always the imponderable, the unpredictable which can't be foreseen...
-- Leonardo Sciascia, Peter Robb and Sacha Rabinovitch, The Moro Affair

Imponderable comes directly from the Medieval Latin word imponderābilis which had the same meaning.

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 15, 2012, 05:12:52 pm


cunctation \kuhngk-TEY-shuhn\, noun:

Delay; tardiness.

Lord Eldon however was personally answerable for unnecessary and culpable cunctation, as he called it in protracting the arguments of counsel, and in deferring judgment from day to day, from term to term, and from year to year after the arguments had closed and he had irrevocably decided in his own mind what the judgment should be.
-- Baron John Campbell, Lives of Lord Lyndhurst and Lord Brougham

"What it's about," Goldman said, with tantalizing cunctation, "is a whole lot of things, as a matter of fact."
-- Philip Kerr, The Shot

Cunctation stems from the Latin word cunctātiōn- meaning "delay" or "hesitation".

I am not sure exactly the prounciation of this word.  I don't think their diagram is easy to say in English.  I am giving an alternate one to see if it is easier to wrap your mouth around.  I am not sure that the phonetics they give are helpful.  I think the way they want you to pronounce it is more like Welsh or northern European, not English. 
 
here is my alternative... with the silent "g
kunk/tation ?
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 16, 2012, 03:48:07 pm


Sardanapalian \sahr-dn-uh-PEYL-yuhn\, adjective:

Excessively luxurious.

Rich papers with gold borders, bronze chandeliers, mahogany engravings in the dining-room, and blue cashmere furniture in the salon, … all details of a chilling and perfectly unmeaning character, but which to the eyes of Ville-aux- Fayes seemed the last efforts of Sardanapalian luxury.
-- Honoré de Balzac, Sons of Soil

Here, in this half-destroyed Tartar town, surrounded by steppes, he indulged himself in a Sardanapalian effulgence that beggared even his jassy Court.
-- Simon Sebag Montefiore, Potemkin

First used in English in the 1860s, Sardanapalian is an eponym that comes from the legendary Assyrian king Sardanapal who was famous for his decadence.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 17, 2012, 05:57:03 pm


agnate \ag-neyt\, noun:

1. A relative whose connection is traceable exclusively through males.
2. Any male relation on the father's side.

adjective:
1. Related or akin through males or on the father's side.
2. Allied or akin.

It was considered abomination; no agnate gives up its infant kin in Igboland, no matter the crime.
-- M. O. Ené, Blighted Blues

His uncle in the third segment was the only other agnate who shared patriotic sentiments with Yat-Kuan.
-- Saikaku Ihara, Tales of Japanese Justice

Agnate is derived from the Latin word agnātus which referred to paternal kinsmen
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on June 18, 2012, 06:44:18 am
Unfortunately, their choice of words hasn't really tripped my trigger enough to comment lately, Janice, but I *am* still reading every one you post.  Thank you.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 18, 2012, 08:37:03 am
 
 
 
 
 
volant \VOH-luhnt\, adjective:

1. Moving lightly; nimble.
2. Engaged in or having the power of flight.

noun:
1. Also called volant piece. Armor. A reinforcing piece for the brow of a helmet.

But here in the present case, to carry on the volant metaphor, (for I must either be merry or mad) is a pretty little Miss, just, come out of her hanging-sleeve coat, brought to buy a pretty little fairing; for the world, Jack, is but a great fair thou knowest; and, to give thee serious reflection for serious, all its toys but tinselled hobby horses, gilt gingerbread, squeaking trumpets, painted drums, and so forth.
-- Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady

With Rube winging it that spring, the band blared, and the volant baseball team was unbeatable.
-- Alan Howard Levy, Rube Waddell

Volant stems from the Latin word volāre which meant "to fly". In English, it acquired the sense of moving nimbly in the early 1600s.

This is a very odd word.  IMO.  I am not sure it is even needed.  I place it here, because they presented it.  Not because I will probably ever use it.  I suppose these words are more for us to know if we encounter them.  Than for us to necessarily use ourselves.

I am sorry you havent cared for most of them, but I don't mind.  I don't have a particular attachment for them. 
 I do thank you for continuing to read them however.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 19, 2012, 09:14:12 pm

pensée \pahn-SEY\, noun:

A reflection or thought.

He rose from his deep chair and at his desk entered on the first page of a new notebook a pensee: The penalty of sloth is longevity.
-- Evelyn Waugh, Unconditional Surrender

In a pensee that could have been cribbed from Mae West's daybook, she also said, “If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married!”
-- Karen Karbo, How to Hepburn

Pensée comes directly from the French word of the same spelling which means "a thought".


*Quite certain this is the root word for the word pensive, as well.  The word pensive being the verb form of pensee.
Being in a pensive mood, she also said, "If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 21, 2012, 04:17:44 am


noctilucent \nok-tuh-LOO-suhnt\, adjective:

Visible during the short night of the summer.

So Sax would sit on the Western sea cliff, rapt through the setting of the sun, then stay through the hour of twilight, watching the sky colors change as the sun's shadow rose up, until all the sky was black; and then sometimes there would appear noctilucent clouds, thirty kilometers above the planet, broad streaks gleaming like abalone shells.
-- Kim Stanley Robinson, Blue Mars

The shells of 155-mm howitzers whistled away through the dark air, orange flashes popped like noctilucent flowers on the western ridge of Hon Heo Mountain and disappeared shortly after, and then the sound of explosions rumbled through the ground.
-- Junghyo Ahn, White Badge

Noctilucent entered English in the late 1800s. It is a combination of the prefix nocti- (which means "night") and lucent (which means "shining").

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on June 21, 2012, 08:39:14 am
Yay, I finally like this one.  It's fun to say (especially if you draw out the LOO syllable), fairly easy to remember, and possible to squeeze into a conversation.  Will have to look for opportunities to throw this one in:)
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 21, 2012, 07:12:25 pm



                                :)
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 22, 2012, 12:06:43 am

   

   
enchiridion \en-kahy-RID-ee-uhn\, noun:

A handbook; manual.

For you offer us the postulation that we can, in the shadow, or rather the radiance, of your own enchiridion, go and do likewise.
-- Marcel Proust, Swann's Way

Sarah and Isaac were romping noisily about and under the beds; Rachel was at the table, knitting a scarf for Solomon; grandmother pored over a bulky enchiridion for pious women, written in jargon.
-- Israel Zangwill, Children of the Ghetto

Enchiridion stems from the Greek root cheir meaning "hand". The prefix en- means "within", so the noun means "in the hand". The suffix -idion denotes a diminutive form of another word.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 22, 2012, 06:36:29 pm

 
subitize \SOO-bi-tahyz\, verb:

To perceive at a glance the number of items presented.

Below seven the subjects were said to subitize; above seven they were said to estimate.
-- H. Gutfreund and G. Toulouse, Biology and Computation: A Physicist's Choice

I wanted to see if Pedro could subitize, so I asked, “Pedro, how many stars are in the first circle?”
-- Melissa Conklin, It Makes Sense!

Subitize comes from the Latin word subitāre which meant "to appear suddenly".

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on June 23, 2012, 07:41:32 am
I'm struck by the spelling vs. pronunciation conundrum of the last syllable on that one.  How can "tize" be pronounced "tahyz"?  Hmm...  Did that strike you odd, Janice?  Good word, though.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 24, 2012, 04:49:37 pm


instauration \in-staw-REY-shuhn\, noun:

1. Renewal; restoration; renovation; repair.
2. Obsolete. An act of instituting something; establishment.

Warm friendship, indeed, he felt for her; but whatever that might have done towards the instauration of a former dream was now hopelessly barred by the rivalry of the thing itself in the guise of a lineal successor.
-- Thomas Hardy, The Well-Beloved

For the first time since the instauration of the Republic of Cuba, the military caste was going to have to manage on its own.
-- Norberto Fuentes and Anna Kushner, The Autobiography of Fidel Castro

Instauration is derived from the Latin word instaurātiōn- which meant "a renewing" or "repeating".

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 25, 2012, 08:38:13 pm


makebate \MEYK-beyt\, noun:

A person who causes contention or discord.

The man was a hater of the great Governor and his life-work, the Erie; a makebate, a dawplucker, a malcontent politicaster.
-- Samuel Hopkins Adams, Grandfather Stories

But after all he pays well that pays with gold; and Mike Lambourne was never a makebate, or a spoil-sport, or the like.
-- Sir Walter Scott, Kenilworth

Makebate stems from the Middle English word bate which meant "contention".

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 26, 2012, 04:36:50 pm



glutch \gluhch\, verb:

1. to swallow.

noun:
1. a mouthful.

And now Robert Creedle will be nailed up in parish boards 'a b'lieve; and nobody will glutch down a sigh for he!"
-- Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders

I was, at the time, standing near Uncle Ral and I distinctly heard him gasp, swallow what must have been an overdue expectoration, glutch, and at last emit a long, slow exhalation.
-- David George Pitt, Tales from the Outer Fringe

Glutch is of unknown origin. It was first used in southwestern England in the early 1800s.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 27, 2012, 12:31:08 pm


 
abstergent \ab-STUR-juhnt\, adjective:

1. Cleansing.
2. Purgative.

noun:
1. A cleansing agent, as a detergent or soap.

We prize them for their rough-plastic, abstergent force; to get people out of the quadruped state; to get them washed, clothed, and set up on end; to slough their animal husks and habits; compel them to be clean; overawe their spite and meanness, teach them to stifle the base, and choose the generous expression, and make them know how much happier the generous behaviors are.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life

Those of them which are of an abstergent nature, and purge the whole surface of the tongue, if they do it in excess, and so encroach as to consume some part of the flesh itself, like potash and soda, are all termed bitter.
-- Plato, Timaeus

Abstergent comes from the Latin word abstergēre which meant "to wipe off".

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 28, 2012, 06:36:38 pm


syndic \SIN-dik\, noun:

1. A person chosen to represent and transact business for a corporation.
2. A civil magistrate having different powers in different countries.

Procuring the keys, which had been left at the office of the Syndic of the town, Mr. Bellingham and Isabel sallied forth to inspect their new abode, leaving Dulcie in charge of the English nurse who had accompanied them.
-- Robert Reginald and Douglas Menville, Ancient Hauntings

For instance, Sillem, the most junior, the "fourth," syndic, the one normally responsible for criminal investigations, had supposedly been "promoted" to the position of third, the one most directly responsible for foreign affairs.
-- Mary Lindemann, Liaisons Dangereuses

Known more commonly through its related word syndicate, syndic stems from the Greek word sýndikos which referred to a defense lawyer, from the prefix syn- (meaning "co") and the root dikos (meaning "justice").

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 29, 2012, 04:38:30 pm


agemate \EYJ-meyt\, noun:

A person of about the same age as another.

She tolerates the family, especially an agemate named Isabelle, although they kid her about getting letters from a mysterious swain every day.
-- Faye Moskowitz, Her face in the Mirror

She had no agemate in that house, no one she could think of as an ally.
-- Julie Orringer, The Invisible Bridge

Agemate entered English in the late 1500s when the word mate meant "guest" in Old English.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on June 30, 2012, 05:53:24 pm


pilikia \pee-lee-KEE-ah\, noun:

Trouble.

After a while this older man spoke: “Remember, we never asked you to cause pilikia. We only asked that you help set things right.”
-- Rodney Morales, When the Shark Bites

Otherwise, pilikia, particularly in the form of illness, will result for the mover.
-- Karen Lee Ito, Lady Friends

Pilikia stems from a Hawaiian word meaning "trouble".
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 01, 2012, 07:07:42 pm

mumpsimus \MUHMP-suh-muhs\, noun:

1. Adherence to or persistence in an erroneous use of language, memorization, practice, belief, etc., out of habit or obstinacy.
2. A person who persists in a mistaken expression or practice.

"I profess, my good lady," replied I, "that had any one but you made such a declaration, I should have thought it as capricious as that of the clergyman, who, without vindicating his false reading, preferred, from habit's sake, his old Mumpsimus...
-- Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman

Mr. Burgess, who sticks (I fancy) to his old mumpsimus, thought that the other gentleman might have given the canoe a shove to get it clear of the lock…
-- Ronald A. Knox, The Footsteps at the Lock

Mumpsimus comes from a story (perhaps first told by Erasmus) about an illiterate priest who mispronounced a word while reciting the liturgy. The priest refused to change the word, even when he was corrected.


Now we have a word for George W Bush's malaprops.   Perfect explanation of his "Nook u lar."  Instead of Nuclear.    I think his pronounciation was incorporated into the language, so people would be able to say it could be pronounced either way. 
I have to say, it still bugs the crap out of me to hear it pronounced that way...jus sayin
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 02, 2012, 09:21:11 am


sumpsimus \SUHMP-suh-muhs\, noun:

1. Adherence to or persistence in using a strictly correct term, holding to a precise practice, etc., as a rejection of an erroneous but more common form (opposed to mumpsimus).
2. A person who is obstinate or zealous about such strict correctness (opposed to mumpsimus).

And now let all defenders of present institutions, however bad they may be — let all violent supporters of their old mumpsimus against any new sumpsimus whatever, listen to a conversation among some undergraduates.
-- Frederic William Farrar , Julian Home

She is a master of sumpsimus, more anal in language usage than Doc in his rigid professionalism. She insists on saying It is I, or He gave the book to John and me.
-- Ann Burrus, Astride the Pineapple Couch

Like its counterpart mumpsimus, sumpsimus comes from to a story about an illiterate priest. In this case, sumpsimus refers to the opposite practice as mumpsimus.


Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 03, 2012, 06:04:10 pm

surfeit \SUR-fit\, noun:

1. Excess; an excessive amount: a surfeit of speechmaking.
2. Excess or overindulgence in eating or drinking.
3. An uncomfortably full or crapulous feeling due to excessive eating or drinking.
4. General disgust caused by excess or satiety.

verb:
1. To bring to a state of surfeit by excess of food or drink.
2. To supply with anything to excess or satiety; satiate.

In both adults a surfeit of prudence and a surfeit of energy, and with the couple two boys still pretty much all soft surfaces, young children of youthful parents, keenly attractive and in good health and incorrigible only in their optimism.
-- Philip Roth, The Plot Against America
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 06, 2012, 04:51:31 pm
   
 
 
 
 

tractate \TRAK-teyt\, noun:

A treatise; essay.

Divide up all the tractates and commit yourselves to learn them during the coming year.
-- Yair Weinstock, Holiday Tales for the Soul

Jean-Pierre Mahé has rightly insisted that we should explore possible explanations other than mere haphazard collection, not only for the presence of the Hermetic tractates within Codex VI…
-- Michael Allen Williams, Rethinking "Gnosticism"

Tractate comes from the Medieval Latin word tractātus meaning "a handling, treatment."

 
 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 07, 2012, 06:37:56 pm



aliquant \AL-i-kwuhnt\, adjective:

Contained in a number or quantity, but not dividing it evenly: An aliquant part of 16 is 5.

Cunning is the aliquant of talent; as hypocrisy is of religion; all the threes in the universe cannot make ten.
-- Thomas Hall, The Fortunes and Adventures of Raby Rattler and His Man Floss

...even though that number was an odd number and by a quarter the number of his confiteors, even though four was an aliquant part of two thousand to hundred and nineteen, nothing being changed with regard to the masses...
-- Raymond Queneau, The Blue Flowers

Aliquant stems from the Latin roots ali- meaning "differently" and quantus meaning "great."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 08, 2012, 02:07:42 pm

vamp \vamp\, verb:

1. To patch up; repair.
2. To give (something) a new appearance by adding a patch or piece.
3. To concoct or invent (often followed by up): He vamped up a few ugly rumors to discredit his enemies.
4. To furnish with a vamp, especially to repair (a shoe or boot) with a new vamp.

noun:
1. The portion of a shoe or boot upper that covers the instep and toes.
2. Something patched up or pieced together.

...plod and plow, vamp your old coats and hats, weave a shoestring; great affairs and the best wine by and by.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Illusions," Essays and Poems

To lay false claim to an invention or discovery which has an immediate market value; to vamp up a professedly new book of reference by stealing from the pages of one already produced at the cost of much labour and material…
-- George Eliot, Impressions of Theophrastus Such

Vamp is a shortening of the Middle French word avant-pie literally meaning "fore-foot." This sense of the word is embedded in the more common word revamp.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 09, 2012, 07:21:44 pm


scherzando \skert-SAHN-doh\, adjective:

Playful; sportive.

A short coda recalls the scherzando music, and the piece concludes with the jazzy harmony.
-- Howard Pollack, John Alden Carpenter

A recapitulation satisfies the sonata principle by partially transposing both of the episodes to the tonic, and to cap off the movement with a tour de force Weber combines the last statement of the refrain with the scherzando theme.
-- R. Larry Todd, Nineteenth-Century Piano Music

Scherzando comes from the Italian word scherzare meaning "to joke." It entered English in the early 1800s
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 10, 2012, 10:25:04 am



ectopic \ek-TOP-ik\, adjective:

Occurring in an abnormal position or place; displaced.

It does not appear that any modern author, or any of our large numbers of "systems" of surgery, has taken up this important aspect of "ectopic tumors."
-- Dr. Thomas H. Manley, The Medical Times and Register, Vol. 33 - 34

Diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy was made and immediate operation decided upon.
-- Dr. J. Henry Barbat, Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 32

is from the invented Greek word ectopia meaning "out of place." It was coined in 1873.


   I had never thought of this word in these varied terms.  I suppose many and sundry things could be called ectopic, if the
main definition of it is to be out of place.
ie.  I often see people that  feel ectopic when going to strange places, with people they don't know..

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: Mandy21 on July 11, 2012, 06:50:22 am
I'm with you, Janice.  I never looked up the word because I only ever heard it used in connection to pregnancy, and presumed wrongly that it meant 'anywhere outside the uterus'.  I'm glad to know it can be used in many other ways.  Will have to throw it in at first opp.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 11, 2012, 10:53:55 pm


  hypethral \hi-PEE-thruhl\, adjective:

(Of a classical building) wholly or partly open to the sky.

Follow the gallery around for about a thousand paces until you come to the hypethral. With it dark out you might miss it, so keep an eye open for the plants.
-- Gene Wolfe, Shadow and Claw

The choice of top light for the main galleries is said to have been dictated by the belief that Greek temples were hypethral, that is, open to the sky; from which it was inferred that Greek taste demanded to see works of art under light from above.
-- Benjamin Ives Gilman, Museum Ideals of Purpose and Method

Hypethral stems from the Greek roots hyp- which means "under" and aîthros meaning "clear sky."

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 13, 2012, 01:48:39 pm


tawpie \TAW-pee\, noun:

A foolish or thoughtless young person.

Do ye no hear me, tawpie? Do ye no hear what I'm tellin' ye?
-- Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Weir of Hermiston

You are just idle tawpies.
-- Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, Profit and Loss

Tawpie comes from the Swedish word tåbe meaning "a simpleton."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 13, 2012, 02:28:20 pm


paronymous \puh-RON-uh-muhs\, adjective:

Containing the same root or stem, as the words wise and wisdom.

The sentence seems to reverberate with echoes of assonance—another distinctive trait of Haweke's writing often enriched with alliterative patterns or even rhymes—on both sides of the two central words: "pale petal," whose juxtaposition involves an anagramatical and paronymous variation.
-- Heide Ziegler, Facing Texts

This in itself is a significant achievement in a language so flowery and paronymous to the extent that exaggeration, especially at that time of its literary history, is widely considered to be one of its inherent characteristics.
-- Sabry Hafez, The Quest for Identities

Paronymous stems from the Greek roots para- meaning "beside" and onoma meaning "a name."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 15, 2012, 12:01:41 am

baccate \BAK-eyt\, adjective:

1. Berrylike.
2. Bearing berries.

Such fruits are collectively called baccate or berried.
-- John Hutton Balfour, Class Book of Botany

Its appearance suggests that it is a capsule becoming baccate.
-- H. N. Ridley, Natural Science

Entering English in the 1820s, baccate is derived from the Latin word bacca meaning "berry."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 16, 2012, 02:11:24 am



mote \moht\, noun:

1. A small particle or speck, especially of dust.
2. Moit.

A tiny mote of dust is truly a cosmos unto itself, that much we do now know. It contains molecules that are far too small for us to see without a microscope, but they are no less real than the dust itself or the piano on which the mote of dust has settled.
-- Roger A. Caras, Cat Is Watching

A white mote hovered in the air several feet away from her.
-- Sara Stern, Dragon's Song

Mote stems from the Norwegian word mutt meaning "a speck."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 17, 2012, 03:02:48 pm


deflagrate \DEF-luh-greyt\, verb:

To burn, especially suddenly and violently.

Then the split second realization that something was very, very wrong, as the electricity rushed down the thin wires, sending a spark across a gap in the blasting cap, detonating the cap and sending the shock wave into the explosive charge, causing it to deflagrate at blinding speed, quicker than the mind could imagine.
-- John F. Mullins, Into the Treeline

Whereas Marcel finds disappointment in his return's incapacity to deflagrate, to 'flame up' his memory, Sassoon savours a kind of immediacy when he reaches the Rectory at Edingthorpe...
-- Robert Hemmings, Modern Nostalgia

Deflagrate is derived from the Latin root flagrāre meaning "to burn." The common prefix de- can denote intensity, as well as removal.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 20, 2012, 06:16:40 pm



qualia \KWAH-lee-uh\, noun:

1. A quality, as bitterness, regarded as an independent object.
2. A sense-datum or feeling having a distinctive quality.

He points out that our subjective experiences — our qualia — are the only thing each of us is really sure of, that all else is speculation.
-- Jenny McPhee, The Center of Things

Which in itself is quite strange, the idea that one could have an identical experience, down to the last detail, down to the internal qualia, the exact interior frame of mind, emotions, a frame of consciousness duplicated with startling exactitude, that would be unsettling enough.
-- Charles Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

Qualia comes from the Latin word quālis meaning "of what sort."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 24, 2012, 03:31:30 pm



Bildungsroman \BIL-doongz-roh-mahn\, noun:

A type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.

Unlike David Copperfield, The Catcher in the Rye is no Bildungsroman, because the narrator/protagonist doesn't want to grow up.
-- John Sutherland and Stephen Fender, Love, Sex, Death & Words

With its emphasis squarely on the diversity and latitude of lived experiences, Night Travellers unambiguously demonstrates its unease with the rigid providential scenario that pervades this kind of political Bildungsroman.
-- Yunzhong Shu, Buglers on the Home Front

Bildungsroman stems from the German word of the same spelling. The word bildung means "formation," and the word roman means "book."

I would probably cite here.  One of my most favorite of this genre.  Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens.  It is about as clear an example of this
genre as you could find.  Plus there are many sundry other things in this mental tour de force.  It shows all kinds of causes and results of personal
behaviors........I love it.  Even if it is not his most famous work..

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 24, 2012, 05:58:24 pm


integument \in-TEG-yuh-muhnt\, noun:

1. A natural covering, as a skin, shell, or rind.
2. Any covering, coating, enclosure, etc.

It seems to me that the process of adding an extra integument is unique to our species and easily understandable—we all want extra protection for our soft and vulnerable bodies.
-- William Boyd, Armadillo

The integuments which he wore in daytime were discarded and others were donned, of a kind which would serve but poorly to keep out the cold and to shed rain, sleet, or snow.
-- Frederick Philip Grove, Consider Her Ways

Integument stems from the Latin root tegumentum meaning "a covering." It is also the root of the dinosaur name stegosaurus.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 27, 2012, 02:11:19 am



precipitancy \pri-SIP-i-tuhn-see\, noun:
 
1. Headlong or rash haste.
 2. The quality or state of being precipitant.
 3. Precipitancies, hasty or rash acts.
 
There is one thing I think it my duty to caution you against: the precipitancy with which young men frequently rush into matrimonial engagements, and by their thoughtlessness draw many a deserving woman into scenes of poverty and distress.
 -- Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple
 
The police authorities have acted in this matter with undue precipitancy.
 -- Joseph Smith Fletcher, Green Ink and Other Stories
 
Precipitancy comes from the Latin word praecipitāre meaning "to cast down headlong."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 27, 2012, 07:13:02 am


intrapreneur \in-truh-pruh-NUR\, noun:
 
An employee of a large corporation who is given freedom and financial support to create new products, services, systems, etc., and does not have to follow the corporation's usual routines or protocols.
 
Furthermore, the distinction between entrepreneur and intrapreneur reflects a difference in both attitude of mind, and ability between individuals.
 -- Michael Rimmington, Clare Williams and Alison Morrison, Entrepreneurship in the Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Industries
 
What is in the interest of the individual intrapreneur may not be in the interest of the shareholder of the corporation.
 -- Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz, Invisible Wealth
 
Intrapreneur was coined in the 1970s as a variation of the more common word entrepreneur. The prefix intra- means "within."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 28, 2012, 06:58:51 pm


 
banausic \buh-NAW-sik\, adjective:
 
Serving utilitarian purposes only; mechanical; practical: architecture that was more banausic than inspired.
 
Banausic to the point of drudgery? Sometimes. Often tedious? Perhaps.
 -- David Foster Wallace, The Pale King
 
To me, the Venetians whom I have met, seem to be merely inadequate, incondite, banausic, and perfectly complacent about it.
 -- Frederick Rolfe, The Armed Hands
 
Banausic comes from the Greek word bánaus meaning "artisan, mere mechanical." It entered English in the 1820s.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 29, 2012, 08:24:29 am


traject \truh-JEKT\, verb:
 
To transport, transmit, or transpose.
 
A sign said “loose rocks and soil on the edges” I decided to drive close to the edge and see when using the front end of my car, then swinging out the back wheels, would it cause the rocks to traject in front of his car?
 -- Robert A. Williams, The Fall Mission
 
The Roman vocabulary did not tend to traject the "aesthetic" with "manliness," "glory," or "wealth."
 -- Brian A. Krostenko, Cicero, Catullus, and the Language of Social Performance
 
Traject stems from the Latin word jacere meaning "to throw" and the prefix trā- which is a variation of the prefix trans- meaning "across" or "beyond
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on July 30, 2012, 09:11:36 pm


usageaster \YOO-sij-as-ter\, noun:
 
A self-styled authority on language usage.
 
Newman went on to voice sentiments held by other usageasters: I think that slang adds richness and originality to English.
 -- Charlton Grant Laird and Phillip C. Boardman, The Legacy of Language
 
A poetaster pretends to write poetry; a usageaster pretends to know about questions of usage in language.
 -- Allan A. Metcalf, Predicting New Words
 
Usageaster is derived from the word usage and the suffix -aster which refers to something that imperfectly resembles or mimics the true thing
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 01, 2012, 02:53:42 pm


 
incondite \in-KON-dit\, adjective:
 
1. Ill-constructed; unpolished: incondite prose.
 2. Crude; rough; unmannerly.
 
He is no such honest chronicler as R.N., and would have done better perhaps to have consulted that gentleman, before he sent these incondite reminiscences to press.
 -- Charles Lamb, Charles Lamb: Selected Writings
 
I wish I might digress and tell you more of the pavor nocturnus that would rack me at night hideously after a chance term had struck me in the random readings of my boyhood, such as peine forte et dure (what a Genius of Pain must have invented that!), or the dreadful, mysterious, insidious words "trauma," "traumatic event," and "transom." But my tale is sufficiently incondite already.
 -- Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
 
To me, the Venetians whom I have met, seem to be merely inadequate, incondite, banausic , and perfectly complacent about it.
 -- Frederick Rolfe, The Armed Hands
 
Incondite stems from the Latin root condere meaning "to put in, restore." The prefix in- also corresponds to the prefix un-, as in the word indefensible.
 

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 02, 2012, 11:38:15 am



cathect \kuh-THEKT\, verb:

To invest emotion or feeling in an idea, object, or another person.

    Yet such sympathy becomes forceful through mass-cultural stereotypes, visceral and imaginative figures of woman as demon with which readers can easily cathect.
    -- David Bruce Suchoff, Critical Theory and the Novel

    We cathect something whenever we invest emotional energy in it, whether that something be another person, a rose garden, playing golf, or hating lessons.
    -- Morgan Scott Peck, Golf and the Spirit

Cathect is a backformation that emerged in the 1930s. It comes from the idea of cathexis from Sigmund Freud's term for emotional investment.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 03, 2012, 11:19:15 am



foible \FOI-buhl\, noun:
 
1. A minor weakness or failing of character; slight flaw or defect: an all-too-human foible.
 2. The weaker part of a sword blade, between the middle and the point (opposed to forte).
 
Irascibility was his sole foible; for in fact the obstinacy of which men accused him was anything but his foible, since he justly considered it his forte.
 -- Edgar Allan Poe, "X-ing a Paragrab", Poetry and Tales
 
I fear, on the contrary, if they came under your examination, there is not one in whom you would not discern some foible!
 -- Fanny Burney, Camilla
 
Related to the word feeble, foible is derived from the Latin word flēbilis which meant "lamentable."


This is a word that I am pretty sure everyone is quite familiar with.  However in order to not be trying to insult peoples intellect.  I try to not
post the words that are so obviously familiar to all.  This one has a section and definition, that I did not know.  So I wanted to allow those that
were not so knowledgeable in that regard too...  The part about the sword parts being considered as directlly defined by  the word.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 04, 2012, 09:54:23 am



billet-doux \BIL-ey-DOO\, noun;
plural billets-doux \bil-ay-DOO(Z)\:

A love letter.

    The bouquet struck her full in the chest, and a little billet-doux fell out of it into her lap.
    -- E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread

    Or you receive a billet doux in a careless scrawl you can't read. What sort of billet doux is that, I ask you?
    -- William H. Gass, Willie Masters' Lonesome Wife

    “A billet-doux means love letter, in French like.” “Then why didn't you just say love letter?” “Because French is the language of love, my boy. Something you should keep in mind, but will soon forget.”
    -- William W. Johnstone and J. A. Johnstone, The Brother's O'Brien

Billet-doux literally means "sweet note" in French. It entered English in the 1660s.

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 05, 2012, 02:00:22 pm


compeer \kuhm-PEER\, noun:
 
1. Close friend; comrade.
 2. An equal in rank, ability, accomplishment, etc.; peer; colleague.

verb:
 1. Archaic. To be the equal of; match.
 
Whoever eats them outlasts heaven and earth, and is the compeer of sun and moon.
 -- Cheng'en Wu, Monkey
 
Aren't you pleased with him, and didn't he arrange things well, eh, my good compeer Lenet?
 -- Alexandre Dumas, The Women's War
 
Compeer
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 08, 2012, 01:54:25 pm



orectic \aw-REK-tik\, adjective:
 
Of or pertaining to desire; appetitive.
 
This, at any rate, would follow from the assumption that he believed us to be persons by reason of physical existence, of the soul's faculties, and of that blending of the reason with the orectic soul which we call will.
 -- John Addington Symonds, The Aristotelian System
 
As well as alethic values, such as truth, there are orectic values, which are possessed by desires, hopes, fears, etc.
 -- N. M. L. Nathan, Review of "The Good and the True," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 55, No. 2
 
They bandied confidences, were reckless with intimacies. They were erudite and sensual about the orectic, the synchronous.
 -- Guy Davenport, Tatlin!
 
Orectic is derived from the Greek word orektikós meaning "appetitive."

Love this word.  Now we have a word for that so very personal tendency...
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 09, 2012, 11:44:44 am


vicinage \VIS-uh-nij\, noun:
 
1. The region near or about a place; vicinity.
 2. A particular neighborhood or district, or the people belonging to it.
 3. Proximity.
 
From the mansion itself, as well as from almost every cottage in the adjacent hamlet, arose such a rich cloud of vapoury smoke, as showed, that the preparations for the festival were not confined to the principal residence of Magnus himself, but extended through the whole vicinage.
 -- Sir Walter Scott, The Waverly Novels
 
Herein resides, as I have hinted, the anxious and easy interest of almost any sincere man of letters in the mere vicinage, even if that be all, of such strained situations as Ray Limbert's.
 -- Henry James, The Lesson of the Master
 
Vicinage stems from the Latin word vīcīn meaning "near."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 11, 2012, 07:00:08 pm



        pelagic \puh-LAJ-ik\, adjective:
 
1. Of or pertaining to the open seas or oceans.
 2. Living or growing at or near the surface of the ocean, far from land, as certain organisms.
 
I was reminded of certain kinds of pelagic birds that move at ease in the air or on the ocean, but have a hard time walking.
 -- Ross MacDonald, The Blue Hammer
 
However, the real slaughter, the one that all the maritime nations of the world opposed and strove to abolish, was pelagic sealing, the kind that Schransky particularly enjoyed and from which he profited enormously.
 -- James Michener, Alaska
 
Pelagic is derived from the Greek word pélag which meant "the sea."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 14, 2012, 08:41:35 am


aseptic \uh-SEP-tik\, adjective:
 
1. Free from the living germs of disease, fermentation, or putrefaction.

noun:
 1. A product, as milk or fruit juice, that is marketed in an aseptic package or container.
 2. Aseptics, (used with a singular verb) a system of packaging sterilized products in airtight containers so that freshness is preserved for several months.
 
The development of aseptic packaging is so highly regarded in food industry circles that in 1983 members of the Institute of Food Technologists… voted it the number-one food innovation in the last fifty years.
 -- Vince Staten, Can You Trust a Tomato in January?
 
He was taken to an aseptic, white barracks on the opposite bank of the Moldau.
 -- Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths
 
Aseptic was invented in the 1850s by chemists. It is based on the root septic meaning "infected."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 15, 2012, 01:13:13 pm



concatenate \kon-KAT-n-eyt\, verb:
 
1. To link together; unite in a series or chain.

adjective:
 1. Linked together, as in a chain.
 
While I began to immerse myself in this difficult new venture, the summer would bring in fresh distraction from my loneliness, and it is indeed curious how events concatenate.
 -- John O'Meara, Defending Her Son
 
But when, as in this vintage, the conditions concatenate ideally, the result is - I'm sure you'll agree - vivid and appealing.
 -- Stephen Fry, The Liar
 
Concatenate stems from the Latin word concatēnātus meaning "to link together."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 16, 2012, 08:25:31 am


belletristic \bel-li-TRIS-tik\, adjective:
 
Related to literature regarded as a fine art, especially as having a purely aesthetic function.
 
Soon we were eagerly talking about our belletristic efforts. Butler was a short story writer who favored the “avant-garde” and who had translated several of Raymond Roussel's obscure “texts” into a stiff-jointed English. Lynne was writing a thesis on Max Jacob and his influence on Picasso.
 -- Edmund White, The Farewell Symphony
 
Usually what I do is spread out my notebooks and Fielding's Guide to Worldwide Cruising 1995 and pens and various materials all over the bed, so when the Cabin Service guy appears at the door he'll see all this belletristic material and figure I'm working really hard on something belletristic right here in the cabin and have doubtless been too busy to have hit all the public meals and am thus legitimately entitled to the indulgence of Cabin Service.
 -- David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
 
Belletristic is derived from the imported French phrase belles-lettres, which literally means "fine letters." It entered English in the early 1700s.


  For fans of the Harry Potter series.  This will no doubt make them think instantly of Bellatrix La Strange the crazy witch sister.
 

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 17, 2012, 03:38:26 pm



phthisis \THAHY-sis\, noun:
 
1. A wasting away.
 2. Pulmonary tuberculosis; consumption.
 
At last Sister Hyacinthe began to speak of the immediate and complete cures of phthisis, and this was the triumph, the healing of that terrible disease which ravages humanity…
 -- Robert Hugh Benson, Lourdes
 
Apoplexy is no longer to be feared, but phthisis is there. Social phthisis is called misery.
 -- Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
 
Phthisis comes from the Greek root phthí which meant "to decay."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 19, 2012, 03:13:29 pm
nomothetic \nom-uh-THET-ik\, adjective:

1. Giving or establishing laws; legislative.
2. Founded upon or derived from law.
3. Psychology. Pertaining to or involving the study or formulation of general or universal laws (opposed to idiographic).

Historical studies have been called 'idiographic' as describing dates and place particulars, as do many phases in geology or astronomy, in contrast to 'nomothetic' studies such as physics and chemistry, which are supposed to lay down rules to hold regardless of date.
-- Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam
The data are usually presented statistically, demographically, or epidemiologically. The nineteenth-century Germany philosopher Wilhelm Windelband called this view the nomothetic approach to knowledge.
-- Edwin S. Shneidman, Autopsy of a Suicidal Mind
Nomothetic stems from Greek roots nomo- meaning "law, custom" and thet meaning "place, set."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 19, 2012, 03:15:45 pm
 
 
 
 
 

lodestar \LOHD-stahr\, noun:

1. Something that serves as a guide or on which the attention is fixed.
2. A star that shows the way.
3. Polaris.

Hilola Bigtree was the lodestar that pulled our visored, sweaty visitors across the water.
-- Karen Russell, Swamplandia
It boasts a transportation system second to none amongst the great cities of the world, and it is, most significantly, the lodestar of Japanese culture in modern times.
-- Lawrence William Rogers, Tokyo Stories
Lodestar comes from the Old English word lode which meant "way, course." The word has been used in navigation since the 1400s.

 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 20, 2012, 10:25:19 pm



 
 
 
 
 

simper \SIM-per\, verb:

1. To smile in a silly, self-conscious way.
2. To say with a simper.

noun:
1. A silly, self-conscious smile.

It was more a simper than a smile; a pleased, self-satisfied simper.
-- John L'Heureux, A Woman Run Mad

The women Sam usually dates simper and flutter and hang on his every word.
-- Kristine Rolofson, Pillow Talk

Simper is derived from the Danish word sippe, which referred to a woman who sipped her drink in an affected manner
 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 21, 2012, 01:49:29 pm



velleity \vuh-LEE-i-tee\, noun:

1. Volition in its weakest form.
2. A mere wish, unaccompanied by an effort to obtain it.

Fortunately it did no more than stress, the better to mock if you like, an innate velleity.
-- Samuel Beckett, Molloy

My guess is that instead of being men of decision we are in reality men of velleity.
-- Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

Have you come across the word velleity? A nice Thomistic ring to it. Volition at its lowest ebb. A small thing, a wish, a tendency. If you're low-willed, you see, you end up living in the shallowest turns and bends of your own preoccupations.
-- Don DeLillo, Underworld

Velleity stems from the Latin word velle which meant "to be willing." The suffix -ity is used for abstract nouns
           
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 28, 2012, 09:44:16 pm



bathetic \buh-THET-ik\, adjective:
 
Displaying or characterized by insincere emotions: the bathetic emotionalism of soap operas.
 
The bathetic quality of "instant cliche" endings is to some extent counterbalanced by the kind of ending which combines plot-contortion with climactic enlightenment…
 -- Heterocosms, Heterocosms
 
Attempts to capture the awe and pain of dying can often, alas, come out sounding either bathetic or satiric.
 -- Nancy Kress, Characters, Emotion and Viewpoint
 
Based on the more common word pathetic, bathetic entered English in the 1830s. It comes from the Greek word bathos which meant "depth."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 28, 2012, 11:58:48 pm



compère \KOM-pair\, noun:
 
1. A host, master of ceremonies, or the like, especially of a stage revue or television program.
 
verb:
 1. To act as compère for: to compère the new game show.
 
Just then, the compère got up on the stage and picked up the microphone. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen…"
 -- Kenneth Turpin, Nosy
 
Then a tall, sidling young man appeared and, after some confusion with the compère, unceremoniously proposed to drink a pint of brown ale without at any point using his hands…
 -- Martin Amis, Heavy Water
 
Compère literally means "godfather" in French. It entered English in the 1730s
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 29, 2012, 12:13:36 am

 
bole \bohl\, noun:
 
the stem or trunk of a tree.
 
...this time found that it was nought alive, but the bole of a tree sitting high out of the water.
 -- William Morris, The Water of the Wondrous Isles
 
He moved toward the bole eagerly. The tree was shorter than it was wide, the branches enormous appendages that flung to the sides in a giant welcome.
 -- K.M. Frontain, The Gryphon Taint
 
Bole stems directly from the Old Norse word bolr which meant "trunk



Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 29, 2012, 01:51:06 am



fabulist \FAB-yuh-list\, noun:
 
1. A liar.
 2. A person who invents or relates fables.
 
But at the same time, for fear of disruption and uncertainty, we attempt to relegate the maker's role to that of fabulist, equating fiction with lies and opposing art to political reality...
 -- Alberto Manguel, The Voice of Cassandra
 
Nothing is off limits to this free-range fabulist. He can fold a dusty Persian carpet into the contours of the world itself and wring delight from every lustrous thread.
 -- Clive Barker, The Essential Clive Barker
 
Fabulist is derived from the Middle French word fabuliste which referred to someone who told fables.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 29, 2012, 07:09:13 pm


truncate \TRUHNG-keyt\, verb:
 
1. To shorten by cutting off a part; cut short: Truncate detailed explanations.
 2. Mathematics, Computers. To shorten (a number) by dropping a digit or digits: The numbers 1.4142 and 1.4987 can both be truncated to 1.4.
 
adjective:
 1. Truncated.
 2. Biology. A. Square or broad at the end, as if cut off transversely. B. Lacking the apex, as certain spiral shells.
 
He pointed out that it was relatively easy to pronounce, though there was the danger that Americans, obsessed with abbreviation, would truncate it to Nick.
 -- Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake
 
Tonight we had to truncate the chorus work and replace it with rehearsal of the larger scenes.
 -- Chuck Zito, A Habit for Death
 
Truncate comes from the Latin word truncātus which meant "to lop." The mathematical and computer usage arose in the 1950s.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on August 29, 2012, 11:21:46 pm



     hieratic \hahy-uh-RAT-ik\, adjective:
 
1. Highly restrained or severe in emotional import: Some of the more hieratic sculptures leave the viewer curiously unmoved.
 2. Also, hi·er·at·i·cal. of or pertaining to priests or the priesthood; sacerdotal; priestly.
 3. Noting or pertaining to a form of ancient Egyptian writing consisting of abridged forms of hieroglyphics, used by the priests in their records.
 4. Noting or pertaining to certain styles in art in which the representations or methods are fixed by or as if by religious tradition.
 
noun:
 1. Ancient Egyptian hieratic writing.
 
She raised her hands from the side of the pen in a gesture hieratic and profound.
 -- Flannery O'Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 01, 2012, 03:41:27 pm


demulcent \dih-MUHL-suhnt\, adjective:
 
1. Soothing or mollifying, as a medicinal substance.

noun:
 1. A demulcent substance or agent, often mucilaginous, as for soothing or protecting an irritated mucous membrane.
 
It will do you no harm to keep close, drink nothing but demulcent barley-water and eat gruel, thin gruel—no beef or mutton, no wine or spirits.
 -- Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander
 
She knew where sour grass grew, which you chew for dyspepsy, and mint, excellent for the nau-shy, and the slippery elm, whose fragrant inner bark was the favorite demulcent of a hundred years ago—the thing to use for raw throat and other sore tishas.
 -- James Thurber, Writings and Drawings
 
Demulcent comes from the Latin word dēmulcere which meant "to soften."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 04, 2012, 03:02:15 pm



ataraxia \at-uh-RAK-see-uh\, noun:
 
A state of freedom from emotional disturbance and anxiety; tranquility.
 
The former breathes only peace and liberty; he desires only to live and be free from labor; even the ataraxia of the Stoic falls far short of his profound indifference to every other object.
 -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and a Discourse on Political Economy
 
Thus, hedonism ends in ataraxia, which confirms the paradoxical relation between sadism and stoicism.
 -- Marquis de Sade, 120 Days of Sodom and Other Writings
 
Ataraxia stems from the Greek word of the same spelling that meant "impassiveness."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 04, 2012, 03:03:39 pm



ramose \REY-mohs\, adjective:
 
1. Having many branches.
 2. Branching.
 
The exquisite naivete with which, in this passage, the Greek and Anglican Churches are represented as springing into vigorous ramose existence at the precise moment of abscission was too much even for my Protestant simplicity.
 -- James Kent Stone, The Invitation Heeded
 
The ramose or branched root is more frequent than any other.
 -- James Lawson Drummond, First Steps to Botany
 
Ramose is derived from the Latin word rāmōsus which meant "full of boughs."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 04, 2012, 03:06:11 pm


vigorish \VIG-er-ish\, noun:
 
1. Interest paid to a moneylender, especially a usurer.
 2. A charge paid on a bet, as to a bookie.
 
But a washed and polished white bread car driven by a single white man in this neighborhood could mean a cop, or worse yet, a Wise Guy hit man looking for somebody who was behind in their vigorish.
 -- Alan Souter, Enclave
 
We are speaking in a range of one thousand dollars a week vigorish.
 -- Don DeLillo, Libra
 
Vigorish is an Americanism that arose in the 1910s. It is most likely an adaptation of the Yiddish slang výigrysh from the Russian word meaning "profit."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 05, 2012, 08:02:56 pm


cacology \ka-KOL-uh-jee\, noun:
 
Defectively produced speech; socially unacceptable diction.
 
As to prose, I don't know Addison's from Johnson's; but I will try to mend my cacology.
 -- Lord Byron, The Works and Letters of Lord Byron
 
Such cacology drives some people to distraction.
 -- Linton Weeks, "R Grammar Gaffes Ruining the Language? Maybe Not", NPR
 
Cacology comes from the root caco- meaning "bad." This prefix occurs in loanwords from Greek. Similarly the suffix -logy is a combining form used in the names of sciences and bodies of knowledge.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 06, 2012, 05:42:49 pm



piceous \PIS-ee-uhs\, adjective:
 
1. Inflammable; combustible.
 2. Of, pertaining to, or resembling pitch.
 3. Zoology. Black or nearly black as pitch.
 
In the silent and piceous hour just before dawn, they advanced at a slow trot, fanning out through the slave quarters and into the yard that divided the gin house, the mill, and the buildings where Canning and I slept unaware.
 -- Geraldine Brooks, March
 
Dark pink for the brick buildings, dark green for the doorjambs and the benches, dark iron for the hinges, dark stone for Nathaniel's Tomb; darkness in the piceous roots of trees that broke through the earth like bones through skin.
 -- Roger Rosenblatt, Beet
 
Piceous stems from the Latin word piceus meaning "made of pitch
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 07, 2012, 06:47:04 pm

rollick \ROL-ik\, verb:
 
To move or act in a carefree, frolicsome manner; behave in a free, hearty, gay, or jovial way.
 
Also in old, jolly fishwives, squatted under arches, obscene old women, how deeply they laugh and shake and rollick, when they walk, from side to side, hum, ha!
 -- Virginia Woolf, "The String Quartet," Monday or Tuesday: Eight Stories
 
A deeper ripple of mirth this time and Bronzini was sad for the boy, skinny Alfonse, but did not rebuke them, kept talking, talked over the momentary rollick—skinny sorry Alfonse, grape-stained with tragic acne.
 -- Don DeLillo, Underworld
 
Rollick is a portmanteau of "frolic" and "romp." It arose in the 1820s.


* If you had a set  of pets,, you could probably call them Rollick, and Frolic respectively... Same action, diff name...?
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 08, 2012, 12:29:30 pm

manifold \MAN-uh-fohld\, adjective:
 
1. Of many kinds; numerous and varied: manifold duties.
 2. Having numerous different parts, elements, features, forms, etc.: a manifold program for social reform.
 
noun:
 1. Something having many different parts or features.
 2. A copy or facsimile, as of something written, such as is made by manifolding
 
verb:
 1. To make copies of, as with carbon paper.
 
The possible moves being not only manifold, but involute, the chances of such oversights are multiplied; and in nine cases out of ten, it is the more concentrative rather than the more acute player who conquers.
 -- Edgar Allen Poe, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
 
Whatever his arrangements are, however, they are always a pattern of neatness; and every one of the manifold articles connected with his manifold occupations is to be found in its own particular place.
 -- Charles Dickens, Master Humphrey's Clock
 
Manifold comes from the Old English word monigfald meaning "varied in appearance." The English suffix -fold originally meant "of
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 09, 2012, 05:21:21 pm


spleenful \SPLEEN-fuhl\, adjective:
 
1. Ill-humored; irritable or peevish; spiteful; splenetic.
 2. Full of or displaying spleen.
 
For a blink, Ratcliffe himself, who hated almost beyond telling this spleenful fellowman now well handcuffed and clamped at the ankles with cold stout bilboes, did believe in his intentions, and would have resigned all proceedings if he could; but once the doctor prescribes a purge, how can he countermand himself?
 -- William T. Vollmann, Argall
 
Their attention was focused on Guy Fowler, a surly, spleenful man, but one of few old-salts of white blood.
 -- Virginia Van Druten, Bound to Sea
 
The spleen was regarded as the seat of morose feelings and bad tempers in Medieval physiology. The adjective spleenful arose from this association in the late 1500s.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 10, 2012, 08:04:46 pm



primrose \PRIM-rohz\, noun:
 
1. Pale yellow.
 2. Any plant of the genus Primula, as P. vulgaris (English primrose), of Europe, having yellow flowers, or P. sinensis (Chinese primrose), of China, having flowers in a variety of colors. Compare primrose family.
 3. Evening primrose.
 
The thoughts circling Sarah's head kept time with the rhythm of her spoon as she stirred the pale-primrose mixture of egg yolks and cream in the pan.
 -- India Grey, Powerful Italian, Penniless Housekeeper
 
The room was high and white and primrose gold, flanked by Greek columns that caught the lickety amber light of a thousand candles.
 -- Don DeLillo, Underworld
 
Primrose literally meant "first rose" in Old French. It was so called because the yellow rose is one of the earliest blooming roses in the Spring
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 12, 2012, 11:39:34 am


celadon \SEL-uh-don\, noun:
 
1. A pale gray-green.
 2. Any of several Chinese porcelains having a translucent, pale green glaze.
 3. Any porcelain imitating these.

adjective:
 1. Having the color celadon.
 
The detail was striking and the cream, salmon, and celadon of the offset colors realistic, if slightly dated.
 -- David Foster Wallace, The Pale King

Far out, the bay had a glaze like celadon.
 -- Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose
 
The word celadon stems from the name of a character in the 1610 book L'Astrée by Honoré d'Urfé. The character Céladon was a sentimental lover who wore bright green clothes.
 

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 12, 2012, 11:42:46 am


cerise \suh-REES\, noun:
 
moderate to deep red.
 
That it did not strike her, Molly Notkin, as improbable that the special limited-edition turkey-shaped gift bottle of Wild Turkey Blended Whiskey-brand distilled sprits with the cerise velveteen gift-ribbon around its neck with the bow tucked under its wattles on the kitchen counter...
 -- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
 
It was made of a purple satin sheath with layers of cerise tarleton underskirts.
 -- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
 
Cerise comes from the French word of the same spelling meaning "cherry." It entered English in the 1850s describing a shade of cherry red.
 

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 13, 2012, 03:43:24 pm



heliotrope \HEE-lee-uh-trohp\, noun:
 
1. A light tint of purple; reddish lavender.
 2. Any hairy plant belonging to the genus Heliotropium, of the borage family, as H. arborescens, cultivated for its small, fragrant purple flowers.
 3. Any of various other plants, as the valerian or the winter heliotrope.
 4. Any plant that turns toward the sun.
 5. Surveying. An arrangement of mirrors for reflecting sunlight from a distant point to an observation station.
 6. Bloodstone.
 
But the heliotrope envelope with the feminine handwriting and the strange odor immediately suggested queries along lines of investigation which had never before entered her thoughts.
 -- George Gibbs, The Vagrant Duke
 
Blown by steady volumes of roaring wind, everyone's hair is riffled and tangled and leaping in antic wisps, and the heliotrope robes bulk like tumors but flip up in sudden swoops.
 -- Edmund White, Forgetting Elena
 
Heliotrope literally meant "turn towards the sun" in Greek. Flowers that turned towards the sun became associated with this word.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 14, 2012, 06:25:44 pm



ecru \EK-roo\, adjective:
 
1. Very light brown in color, as raw silk, unbleached linen, etc.

noun:
 1. An ecru color.
 
To complete the outfit, she selected an ecru cashmere sweater to drape over her shoulders and tie loosely around her neck.
 -- Pamela Hackett Hobson, The Bronxville Book Club
 
She was wearing an ecru gown, giving the illusion of her fading into the grayness of the wall.
 -- JoAnn Smith Ainsworth, Out of the Dark
 
Ecru stems from the French word of the same spelling which meant "raw, unbleached." It came from the Latin root crudus meaning "raw" and the prefix es- meaning "thoroughly."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 15, 2012, 04:58:11 pm


quail \kweyl\, verb:
 
To lose heart or courage in difficulty or danger; shrink with fear.
 
She would have quailed in the same way if the armored bear had looked at her like that, because there was something not unlike Lorek in Will's eyes, young as they were.
 -- Phillip Pullman, The Subtle Knife
 
I should have quailed in the absence of moonlight, for it was by the leading of stars only I traced the dim path; I should have quailed still more in the unwonted presence of that which tonight shone in the north, a moving mystery—the Aurora Borealis.
 -- Charlotte Brontë, Villette
 
The verb quail is not related to the more common noun. It comes from the Middle Dutch word quelen meaning "to suffer, be ill." This sense of "to cower" was rare until the late 1800s
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 16, 2012, 05:40:07 pm



coetaneous \koh-i-TEY-nee-uhs\, adjective:
 
Of the same age or duration.
 
Bear with these distractions, with this coetaneous growth of the parts: they will one day be members, and obey one will.
 -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance and Other Essays
 
We could say that all living people are contemporaneous but not necessarily coetaneous; they live at different age levels.
 -- Harold C. Raley, A Watch Over Mortality
 
Coetaneous stems from the Latin roots co- meaning "with, together with," ætat- meaning "age," and the suffix -aneus (which is an adjectival suffix meaning "resembling
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 17, 2012, 05:07:27 pm



diapason \dahy-uh-PEY-zuhn\, noun:
 
1. A full, rich outpouring of melodious sound.
 2. The compass of a voice or instrument.
 3. A fixed standard of pitch.
 4. Either of two principal timbres or stops of a pipe organ, one of full, majestic tone (open diapason) and the other of strong, flutelike tone (stopped diapason).
 5. Any of several other organ stops.
 6. A tuning fork.
 
During the whole interval in which he had produced those diapason blasts, heard with such inharmonious feelings by the three auditors outside the screen, his thoughts had wandered wider than his notes in conjectures on the character and position of the gentleman seen in Ethelberta's company.
 -- Thomas Hardy, The Hand of Ethelberta
 
And so those two, angry accuser and indifferent accused, faced each other for a moment; while, incessant, dull, might, the thunders of the great cataract mingled with the trembling diapason of the stupendous turbines in the rock-hewn caverns where old Niagara now toiled in fetters, to swell their power and fling gold into their bottomless coffers.
 -- George Allan England, The Air Trust
 
Diapason was originally an abbreviation of the Greek phrase "hē dià pāsôn chordôn symphōnía" which meant "the concord through all the notes of the scale."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 18, 2012, 03:53:43 pm

Tartuffery \tahr-TOOF-uh-ree\, noun:
 
Behavior or character of a Tartuffe, especially hypocritical piety.
 
When Terry had finished showing his contempt and had left the office in disgust at the head's Tartuffery, Jan had calmly got up from her seat and looked hard at the shell-shocked, speechless woman before addressing her.
 -- Derryl Flynn, The Albion
 
Not the sophistry, the malevolence, the restless apathy of the masses, the arrogance and insensitivity of the ruling class, the vulgarity, the bigotry, the intemperance, the maniacal piety and the ungodly Tartuffery.
 -- W.E. Gutman, Nocturnes
 
Tartuffery comes from the comedy by French playwright Molière. The central character of the eponymous play Tartuffe was a hypocritical pretender.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 19, 2012, 03:21:54 pm



bollix \BOL-iks\, verb:
 
1. To do (something) badly; bungle (often followed by up): His interference bollixed up the whole deal.
 
noun:
 1. A confused bungle.
 
People always bollix up the things that are most important to them.
 -- Eric Gabriel Lehman, Summer's House
 
It was a sort of cruel fun watching this guy bollix up his life, like watching a cat fight duct tape.
 -- Sarah Smith, Chasing Shakespeares
 
Bollix arose in the 1930s. It's a variation on the slang word bollocks.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 20, 2012, 05:21:58 pm


hustings \HUHS-tingz\, noun:
 
1. The political campaign trail.
 2. (Before 1872) the temporary platform on which candidates for the British Parliament stood when nominated and from which they addressed the electors.
 3. Any place from which political campaign speeches are made.
 4. Also called hustings court. A local court in certain parts of Virginia.
 
But he still had to go out to the hustings, a word whose meaning he'd never learned, and campaign for people, or at least give speeches.
 -- Tom Clancy, Executive Orders


This is one thing I am very familiar with.  I have polycythemia vera, and i recently had surgery.  I have to have blood tests to measure the effect of my meds at least once a month, during the normal times.  If I have other problems come up.?  I have to go iin as often as three times a week.    I had surgery, and needed two units at first, then four later because of the loss of blood.  I have to take blood thinners to counteract the disease.  If I have surgery, then other issues come into play.  I am completely aware of the word hem
 
Now, do not let them lure you to the hustings, my dear Mr. Brooke.
 -- George Eliot, Middlemarch
 
Hustings is derived from the Old Danish word hūs-thing which meant "house meeting."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 21, 2012, 02:20:08 pm


boisterous; noisy.
 
But what strepitous sounds, what harmonious tumult diverts my attention to another part ?
 -- José Francisco de Isla, The History of the Famous Preacher, Friar Gerund de Campazas
 
Here is no idyllic meditative retreat from the strepitous city but a scene of virile action—fields sounding with human labor, vibrating with human energy.
 -- Beulah B. Amram, "Swinburne and Carducci," The Yale Review
 
Strepitous stems from the Latin word strepit which meant "noise."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 22, 2012, 11:14:16 pm
hematic \hi-MAT-ik\, adjective:
 
1. Of or pertaining to blood; hemic.
 2. Acting on the blood, as a medicine.

noun:
 1. Hematinic.
 
However, if you think such drinks smack too much of medicine, you can console yourself with bread or tofu fortified with DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), a substance that is good for the retina and brain and the hematic level of cholesterol.
 -- Carlo Petrini, Slow Food

A love transfusion is essentially the same as a blood transfusion. Just as humans are divided into four hematic groups, they're also grouped into four erotic types…
 -- Juan Filloy, Op Oloop
 
Hematic was invented in the 1850s. It comes from the Greek word haîma meaning "blood.

 
This is one thing I am very familiar with.  I have polycythemia vera, and i recently had surgery.  I have to have blood tests to measure the effect of my meds at least once a month, during the normal times.  If I have other problems come up.?  I have to go iin as often as three times a week.    I had surgery, and needed two units at first, then four later because of the loss of blood.  I have to take blood thinners to counteract the disease.  If I have surgery, then other issues come into play.  I am completely aware of the word hematic. 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 23, 2012, 03:52:04 pm


pharisaic \far-uh-SEY-ik\, adjective:
 
1. Practicing or advocating strict observance of external forms and ceremonies of religion or conduct without regard to the spirit; self-righteous; hypocritical.
 2. Of or pertaining to the Pharisees.
 
"And yet that reverend gentleman," said Pleydell, "whom I love for his father's sake and his own, has nothing of the sour or pharisaical pride which has been imputed to some of the early fathers of the Calvinistic Kirk of Scotland."
 -- Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering or the Astrologer
 
"Of course," he said gloomily, "it is one of those Pharisaical cruelties of which only such heartless men are capable."
 -- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
 
Pharisaic comes from the story in the Bible about the Pharisees, a religious sect who purportedly only practiced the doctrine and ritual of their faith without corresponding inner devotion
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 27, 2012, 04:26:50 pm

austral \AW-struhl\, adjective:
 
1. Southern.
 2. (Initial capital letter) Australian.
 
That, at least, was not difficult to do; as they filtered through branches and thick treetops, the rays of the austral sun covered bodies and houses and all the objects of the inhabited area with undulating patterns of light and shadow that blended spectrally into random jungle forms.
 -- Carlos Fuentes, Terra Nostra
 
The church, from the north, seems a precious stone, on its austral side it is blood-colored, to the west white as snow, and above it shine countless stars more splendid than those in our sky.
 -- Umberto Eco, Baudolino
 
Austral is derived from the Latin word austrālis meaning "southern."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 28, 2012, 10:17:24 pm


fiducial \fi-DOO-shuhl\, adjective:
 
1. Based on or having trust: fiducial dependence upon God.
 2. Accepted as a fixed basis of reference or comparison: a fiducial point; a fiducial temperature.
 
Knowing the sincerity of her concern for my well-being as I did, I can say with fiducial confidence she was attached to the phone, where she'd no doubt made a beeline the very moment after I'd stormed out of the house, awaiting a call from me announcing I was alright.
 -- William Cook, Love in the Time of Flowers
 
No, it was a par excellence speech, one that neither he nor anyone else was to give in front of an audience, one that wasn't going to be subjected to criticism, for how can you compare when you have no fiducial point?
 -- Thomas Justin Kaze, The Year of the Green Snake
 
Fiducial comes from the Late Latin word fīdūciālis meaning "trust
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on September 29, 2012, 05:20:12 pm


catholicon \kuh-THOL-i-kuhn\, noun:
 
A universal remedy; panacea.
 
And then they sweep out again, leaving the fevered peasants their catholicon of faith, while, overhead, vultures ebonize the sky.
 -- Thomas H. Cook, The Orchids
 
At any rate, this same humor has something, there is no telling what, of beneficence in it, it is such a catholicon and charm—nearly all men agreeing in relishing it, though they may agree in little else—and in its way it undeniably does such a deal of familiar good in the world, that no wonder it is almost a proverb, that a man of humor, a man capable of a good loud laugh—seem how he may in other things—can hardly be a heartless scamp.
 -- Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man
 
Catholicon stems from the Greek word katholikós which meant "according to the whole, universal."

Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 02, 2012, 02:46:34 pm



utile \YOO-til\, adjective:
 
Useful.
 
They have been accredited variously to the respective signs of the Zodiac, but to the end that resultant opinions have failed to be utile value.
 -- John Hazelrigg, Astrosophic Principles And Astrosophic Tractates
 
It was located in an industrial warehouse but he had tricked it out smartly. It was altogether utile but not precisely cozy.
 -- Eve Howard, Shadow Lane Volume 8
 
Utile comes directly from the French word of the same spelling which also means "useful." It entered English in the late 1400s.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 02, 2012, 02:48:58 pm


hamartia \hah-mahr-TEE-uh\, noun:
 
Tragic flaw.
 
What is Oedipus' hamartia that leads to his self-fulfilling self-reversal?
 -- Laszlo Versényi, Man's Measure
 
We called it by many different things, such as hubris or hamartia, but given the way you butcher Latin, let's stick with English.
 -- Stephanie Draven, The Fever and the Fury
 
Hamartia stems from the Greek word hamartánein which meant "to err." However, it entered English in the late 1800s.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 04, 2012, 02:08:54 pm


agita \AJ-i-tuh\, noun:
 
1. Agitation; anxiety.
 2. Heartburn; indigestion.
 
And my being named after the patron saint of love, St. Valentine, when I've had nothing but agita in romance just makes it more painfully ironic.
 -- Rosanna Chiofalo, Bellla Fortuna
 
I'm eighty-two years old and I don't need this agita in my life!
 -- Rita Lakin, Getting Old Is Murder
 
Agita was coined in America in the 1980s. It comes from the Italian word agitare meaning "to bother."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 05, 2012, 03:47:25 pm



hirtellous \hur-TEL-uhs\, verb:
 
Minutely hirsute.
 
Any noticeable hirsute or even hirtellous shadings visible upon the represented, unclothed, female form, anywhere below the eyebrows, say, is, in the judgment of this Department…
 -- Frank Yerby, Tobias and the Angel
 
A small annual herb commonly 20 to 40 cm. tall, sparingly branched above, hirtellous on the stems with small downwardly curled hairs…
 -- Carnegie Institution of Washington, Botany of the Maya Area
 
Hirtellous comes from the Latin word hirt meaning "hairy." The suffix -ellus is a diminutive adjective suffix.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 07, 2012, 07:59:32 pm


tardigrade \TAHR-di-greyd\, adjective:
 
1. Slow in pace or movement.
 2. Belonging or pertaining to the phylum Tardigrada.

noun:
 1. Also called bear animalcule, water bear. Any microscopic, chiefly herbivorous invertebrate of the phylum Tardigrada, living in water, on mosses, lichens, etc.
 
The days were long and boring as we walked a continuous almost tardigrade pace around several large buildings, again with empty carbines.
 -- Stafford O. Chenevert, Amber Waves of Grain
 
…the soldiers were struggling and fighting their way after them, in such tardigrade fashion as their hoof-shaped shoes would allow—impeded, but not very resolutely attacked, by the people.
 -- George Eliot, Romola
 
He rolls tardigrade, to a stop on a shoulder, stooped in sand, in its pretense as it doesn't exist and there's only desert…
 -- Joshua Cohen, Witz
 
Related to the common word tardy, tardigrade comes from the Latin word tardigradus meaning "slow-paced."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 09, 2012, 04:22:53 am
apophasis \uh-POF-uh-sis\, noun:
 
Denial of one's intention to speak of a subject that is at the same time named or insinuated, as “I shall not mention Caesar's avarice, nor his cunning, nor his morality.”
 
But I think that anything that is deep isn't love, it's deliberate calculation or schizophrenia. I myself wouldn't even attempt to say what love is - probably both love and God can only be defined by apophasis, through those things that they are not.
 -- Viktor Pelevin, The Sacred Book of the Werewolf
 
"…Now, I have no desire to be a backseat driver—” Apophasis, Chris thought; saying you're not going to say something in order to say it. Nixon's favorite device, and Newt Gingrich's, and Karl Rove's—fine old Republican tradition.
 -- John Barnes, Directive 51
 
Apophasis stems from the Greek word apópha meaning "to say no, deny." The suffix -sis appears in Greek loanwords, where it forms an abstract noun from a verb, as in thesis
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 10, 2012, 04:47:34 pm
























 
catachresis \kat-uh-KREE-sis\, noun:
 
Misuse or strained use of words, as in a mixed metaphor, occurring either in error or for rhetorical effect.
 
This monstrous metaphor should more aptly be called a catachresis, an extravagant, unexpected figure, and we might be tempted to dismiss it as abusive misstatement. But neither the catachresis nor the monster can simply be dismissed…
 -- Richard L. Regosin, Montaigne's Unruly Brood
 
Analepsis, catachresis, no: the word she was after was “floundering." She could already write the review of her unwritten book: “lwlarina Thwaite flounders about in her subject. with little direction and still less progress.“
 -- Claire Messud, The Emperor's Children
 
Catachresis is derived from the Greek root chrêsis which meant "to use." The prefix cata- means "down, back, against." The word katachrêsthai meant "to misuse" in Greek.
 


Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 10, 2012, 09:58:07 pm


anacoluthon \an-uh-kuh-LOO-thon\, noun:
 
1. A construction involving a break in grammatical sequence, as It makes me so—I just get angry.
 2. An instance of anacoluthia.
 
She employed, not from any refinement of style, but in order to correct her imprudences, abrupt breaches of syntax not unlike that figure which the grammarians call anacoluthon or some such name.
 -- Marcel Proust, The Remembrance of Things Past
 
Sometimes there is no main verb at all, or the sentence is an anacoluthon, beginning in one way and ending in another.
 -- Anthony Hope, The Prisoner of Zenda
 
Anacoluthon has a very literal meaning in Greek. The root kolouth- meant "march." However this root has two prefixes. First, the prefix a- means "together." The
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 11, 2012, 01:21:39 pm


litotes \LAHY-tuh-teez\, noun:
 
Understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in “not bad at all.”
 
Stevens does not allow himself much of the Sublime here, yet it creeps in by negation in the litotes or understatement of the stanza's close.
 -- Harold Bloom, Wallace Stevens: The Poems of Our Climate
 
I know it's a textbook example of what lit-crit geeks like to call litotes, a figure of speech in which an affirmative is expressed through the negation of its opposite…
 -- Mark Dery, I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts
 
Litotes comes from the Greek word lītótēs which meant "plainness, simplicity."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 12, 2012, 05:21:05 pm


zeugma \ZOOG-muh\, noun:
 
The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words when it is appropriate to only one of them or is appropriate to each but in a different way, as in to wage war and peace or On his fishing trip, he caught three trout and a cold.
 
Of course, the zeugma is not an eighteenth-century invention, but it was not handled before then with such neatness and consciousness, and had not the same air of being the normal process of thought.
 -- William Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity
 
If we take "We will be proud of course the air will be" as a strong syntactical unit, a complete sentence, the parallelism of "we will be" and "the air will be" draws both these auxiliary phrases toward the yoke (or zeugma, in rhetorical parlance) of the main verb phrase.
 -- Cary Nelson, Ed Folsom, W. S. Merwin: Essays on the Poetry
 
Zeugma stems from the Greek word of the same spelling which meant "a yoking."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 14, 2012, 10:18:06 pm



crasis \KREY-sis\, noun:
 
Composition; constitution; makeup.
 
Here they are bathed in the waters of oblivion until they retain no memory of the scenes through which they have passed; but they still preserve their original crasis and capacity.
 -- Tobias George Smollett, Adventures of an Atom
 
This is all that ever staggered my faith in regard to Yorick's extraction, who, by what I can remember of him, and by all the accounts I could ever get of him, seemed not to have had one single drop of Danish blood in his whole crasis…
 -- Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy
 
Crasis is derived from the Greek word krâsis which meant "mixture, blend."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 14, 2012, 10:20:26 pm













Re: Notes for Janice!!

« Reply #785 on: Yesterday at 02:12 pm »





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draggle \DRAG-uhl\, verb:
 
1. To soil by dragging over damp ground or in mud.
 2. To trail on the ground; be or become draggled.
 3. To follow slowly; straggle.
 
No skirts to hold up, or to draggle their wet folds against my ankles; no stifling veil flapping in my face, and blinding my eyes; no umbrella to turn inside out, but instead, the cool rain driving slap into my face…
 -- Fanny Fern, Ruth Hall and Other Writing
 
You can't run through the streets after the water baths in that thing you draggle around the house.
 -- Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, Anya
 
Draggle is obviously related to this more common word drag. It entered English in the late 1400s. The suffix -le is a verb formation from Middle English, also seen in dazzle and twinkle, among others


*i never used the word draggled before..  I always thought the term to be bedraggle.. or bedraggled.  I suppose it is all the same thing?  Maybe the difference is that you are draggled, in behavior?  Then bedraggled in appearance.  It is a difference in tense.    Perhaps self assessment, opposite
someone else making the assessment?  Anyway it has given me pause.
 
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 15, 2012, 05:07:40 pm

versicolor \VUR-si-kuhl-er\, adjective:
 
1. Changeable in color: versicolor skies.
 2. Of various colors; parti-colored: a versicolor flower arrangement.
 
The three large versicolor flowers opened up with a silky slap…
 -- Boris Vian, Foam of the Daze
 
The versicolor glow of the Algeron Effect, just a few hundred thousand kilometers from the space station, angled through the viewing port and stippled the far wall.
 -- David R. George III, Serpents Among the Ruins
 
Versicolor comes from the Latin roots vers meaning "to turn" and color. It entered English in the 1620s
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 17, 2012, 12:39:23 am


mucro \MYOO-kroh\, noun:
 
A short point projecting abruptly, as at the end of a leaf.
 
The outward surface of it was extremely slippery, and the mucro, or point, so very cold withal, that upon endeavoring to take hold of it, it glided through the fingers like a smooth piece of ice.
 -- Richard Hughes, Spectator, No. 281
 
Munro holds that it must be "from the mucro or point of the stylus setting a mark at each end of any length you wish to note."
 -- William Ellery Leonard, De Rerum Natura
 
Mucro stems from
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 18, 2012, 12:39:02 am



fulgurant \FUHL-gyer-uhnt\, adjective:
 
Flashing like lightning.
 
Now, as died the fulgurant rage that had supported her, and her normal strength being exhausted, a sudden weakness intervened, and she couldn't but allow Mike to lead her to a seat.
 -- George Moore, Mike Fletcher: A Novel
 
He failed: the storm ran closer, fulgurant brilliance striding the sorry landscape like the stilted legs of some vast insect, the wind strengthening, carrying the odor of corruption, the thunder growling as if in anticipation.
 -- Angus Wells, Wild Magic
 
Fulgurant is derived from the Latin word fulgurāre which meant "to flash like lightning."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 19, 2012, 04:39:49 pm


veloce \ve-LAW-che\, adjective:
 
Played at a fast tempo.
 
And when I tired of reading I would swim in my pool, parting the azure blue water like a veloce human knife.
 -- Sergio De La Pava, A Naked Singularity
 
Ah, I mention his name and your eyes, they light up veloce come un razzo—fast as a rocket.
 -- Jacquie D'Alessandro, Summer at Seaside Cove
 
Veloce stems from the Latin word vēlōcem which was the accusative form of vēlōx meaning "quick."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 19, 2012, 04:43:47 pm


ombudsman \OM-buhdz-muhn\, noun:
 
A government official who hears and investigates complaints by private citizens against other officials or government agencies.
 
Despite these common characteristics of ombudsman systems, there are significant variations across national contexts. The Swedish and Danish ombudsmen exemplify two different models.
 -- Bruce E. Cain, Russell J. Dalton, Susan E. Scarrow, Democracy Transformed?
 
You have reached the Washington Sun's ombudsman desk. If you feel you have been inaccurately quoted, press one. If you spoke to a reporter off the record but were identified in the article, press two…
 -- Christopher Buckley, Thank You for Smoking
 
Fate, or destiny, under God, is the poor man's omnipotent ombudsman.
 -- Robert Irwin, The Arabian Nights
 
Ombudsman comes from the Swedish word ombud which means "agent, attorney." It entered English in the 1910s.
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 21, 2012, 05:12:48 pm


recusant \REK-yuh-zuhnt\, noun:
 
1. A person who refuses to submit, comply, etc.
 2. English History. A person, especially a Roman Catholic, who refused to attend the services of the Church of England.
 
He looked swiftly around to make sure no one was watching, stepped forward, and put his arms around the recusant in a quick embrace. "I'm sorry it had to go this far," he murmured, then stepped back and raised his hand in a parting salute. “If you leave now you could still make it back to the recusant Headquarters alive. And may we meet as friends next time.”
 -- Vyshali Manivannan, Invictus
 
I could no longer doubt the doom prepared for me by my monkish ingenuity in torture. My cognizance of the pit had become known to the inquisitorial agents—the pit whose horrors had been destined for so bold a recusant as myself—the pit, typical of hell, and regarded by rumor as the Ultima Thule of all their punishments.
 -- Edgar Allan Poe, The Pit and the Pendulum
 
Recusant comes from the Latin word recusāre meaning "to demur, object."
Title: Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
Post by: ifyoucantfixit on October 21, 2012, 05:17:17 pm

assoil \uh-SOIL\, verb:
 
1. To absolve; acquit; pardon.
 2. To atone for.
 
Come up, wives, offer of your yarn! See, I enter your name here in my roll; you shall enter into heaven's bliss; I assoil you by mine high power, you that will make offerings, as clear and clean as when you were born — (lo sirs, thus I preach).
 -- Bennett Cerf, An Anthology of Famous British Stories
 
"Go, and assoil thy living patient: the dead are past thy cares." — " I go," said the Monk of Montcalm, " and Heaven grant that I may shed around his death-hour, that peace which, I fear me, bloody prelate, will be denied to thine!"
 -- Charles Robert Maturin, The Albigenses
 
Assoil is derived from the same root as the similar word absolve. However, assoil came into English through the Middle French word asoiler rather than directly from Latin like the word absolve.