Author Topic: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com  (Read 137580 times)

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #70 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."
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 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. 




     Beautiful mind

Offline Mandy21

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #71 on: May 11, 2012, 10:40:35 am »
So.... after all that, what does it mean?
Dawn is coming,
Open your eyes...

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #72 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.



 
« Last Edit: May 12, 2012, 04:01:13 am by ifyoucantfixit »



     Beautiful mind

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #73 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:



     Beautiful mind

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #74 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."




     Beautiful mind

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #75 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."
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            Happy Matrilineal day my dear Brokie Besties!



     Beautiful mind

Offline Mandy21

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #76 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...
Dawn is coming,
Open your eyes...

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #77 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."

 



     Beautiful mind

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #78 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.  ??



     Beautiful mind

Offline Mandy21

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Re: WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
« Reply #79 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.  ;)
Dawn is coming,
Open your eyes...