Author Topic: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com  (Read 137587 times)

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #20 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.



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Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #21 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."

     
« Last Edit: April 01, 2012, 07:52:03 pm by ifyoucantfixit »



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Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #22 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.

 



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #23 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."




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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #24 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."





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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #25 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."

 



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #26 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





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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #27 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
 



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #28 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.

 



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #29 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



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