Author Topic: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com  (Read 137579 times)

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #200 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."
« Last Edit: September 22, 2012, 11:18:36 pm by ifyoucantfixit »



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Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #201 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."



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #202 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. 



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #203 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



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #204 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."




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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #205 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



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #206 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."




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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #207 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.



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #208 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.



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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #209 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."



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