Author Topic: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com  (Read 137576 times)

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #150 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.




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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #151 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."




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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #152 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..




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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #153 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.




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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #154 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."



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #155 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."



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #156 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.



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #157 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



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #158 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



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #159 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.
 




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