Author Topic: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com  (Read 137573 times)

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #180 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



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #181 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."




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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #182 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."



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #183 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."



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #184 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."



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #185 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.



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #186 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



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #187 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...?



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #188 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



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #189 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.



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