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WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
ifyoucantfixit:
makebate \MEYK-beyt\, noun:
A person who causes contention or discord.
The man was a hater of the great Governor and his life-work, the Erie; a makebate, a dawplucker, a malcontent politicaster.
-- Samuel Hopkins Adams, Grandfather Stories
But after all he pays well that pays with gold; and Mike Lambourne was never a makebate, or a spoil-sport, or the like.
-- Sir Walter Scott, Kenilworth
Makebate stems from the Middle English word bate which meant "contention".
ifyoucantfixit:
glutch \gluhch\, verb:
1. to swallow.
noun:
1. a mouthful.
And now Robert Creedle will be nailed up in parish boards 'a b'lieve; and nobody will glutch down a sigh for he!"
-- Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders
I was, at the time, standing near Uncle Ral and I distinctly heard him gasp, swallow what must have been an overdue expectoration, glutch, and at last emit a long, slow exhalation.
-- David George Pitt, Tales from the Outer Fringe
Glutch is of unknown origin. It was first used in southwestern England in the early 1800s.
ifyoucantfixit:
abstergent \ab-STUR-juhnt\, adjective:
1. Cleansing.
2. Purgative.
noun:
1. A cleansing agent, as a detergent or soap.
We prize them for their rough-plastic, abstergent force; to get people out of the quadruped state; to get them washed, clothed, and set up on end; to slough their animal husks and habits; compel them to be clean; overawe their spite and meanness, teach them to stifle the base, and choose the generous expression, and make them know how much happier the generous behaviors are.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life
Those of them which are of an abstergent nature, and purge the whole surface of the tongue, if they do it in excess, and so encroach as to consume some part of the flesh itself, like potash and soda, are all termed bitter.
-- Plato, Timaeus
Abstergent comes from the Latin word abstergēre which meant "to wipe off".
ifyoucantfixit:
syndic \SIN-dik\, noun:
1. A person chosen to represent and transact business for a corporation.
2. A civil magistrate having different powers in different countries.
Procuring the keys, which had been left at the office of the Syndic of the town, Mr. Bellingham and Isabel sallied forth to inspect their new abode, leaving Dulcie in charge of the English nurse who had accompanied them.
-- Robert Reginald and Douglas Menville, Ancient Hauntings
For instance, Sillem, the most junior, the "fourth," syndic, the one normally responsible for criminal investigations, had supposedly been "promoted" to the position of third, the one most directly responsible for foreign affairs.
-- Mary Lindemann, Liaisons Dangereuses
Known more commonly through its related word syndicate, syndic stems from the Greek word sýndikos which referred to a defense lawyer, from the prefix syn- (meaning "co") and the root dikos (meaning "justice").
ifyoucantfixit:
agemate \EYJ-meyt\, noun:
A person of about the same age as another.
She tolerates the family, especially an agemate named Isabelle, although they kid her about getting letters from a mysterious swain every day.
-- Faye Moskowitz, Her face in the Mirror
She had no agemate in that house, no one she could think of as an ally.
-- Julie Orringer, The Invisible Bridge
Agemate entered English in the late 1500s when the word mate meant "guest" in Old English.
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