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WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
ifyoucantfixit:
vicinage \VIS-uh-nij\, noun:
1. The region near or about a place; vicinity.
2. A particular neighborhood or district, or the people belonging to it.
3. Proximity.
From the mansion itself, as well as from almost every cottage in the adjacent hamlet, arose such a rich cloud of vapoury smoke, as showed, that the preparations for the festival were not confined to the principal residence of Magnus himself, but extended through the whole vicinage.
-- Sir Walter Scott, The Waverly Novels
Herein resides, as I have hinted, the anxious and easy interest of almost any sincere man of letters in the mere vicinage, even if that be all, of such strained situations as Ray Limbert's.
-- Henry James, The Lesson of the Master
Vicinage stems from the Latin word vīcīn meaning "near."
ifyoucantfixit:
pelagic \puh-LAJ-ik\, adjective:
1. Of or pertaining to the open seas or oceans.
2. Living or growing at or near the surface of the ocean, far from land, as certain organisms.
I was reminded of certain kinds of pelagic birds that move at ease in the air or on the ocean, but have a hard time walking.
-- Ross MacDonald, The Blue Hammer
However, the real slaughter, the one that all the maritime nations of the world opposed and strove to abolish, was pelagic sealing, the kind that Schransky particularly enjoyed and from which he profited enormously.
-- James Michener, Alaska
Pelagic is derived from the Greek word pélag which meant "the sea."
ifyoucantfixit:
aseptic \uh-SEP-tik\, adjective:
1. Free from the living germs of disease, fermentation, or putrefaction.
noun:
1. A product, as milk or fruit juice, that is marketed in an aseptic package or container.
2. Aseptics, (used with a singular verb) a system of packaging sterilized products in airtight containers so that freshness is preserved for several months.
The development of aseptic packaging is so highly regarded in food industry circles that in 1983 members of the Institute of Food Technologists… voted it the number-one food innovation in the last fifty years.
-- Vince Staten, Can You Trust a Tomato in January?
He was taken to an aseptic, white barracks on the opposite bank of the Moldau.
-- Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths
Aseptic was invented in the 1850s by chemists. It is based on the root septic meaning "infected."
ifyoucantfixit:
concatenate \kon-KAT-n-eyt\, verb:
1. To link together; unite in a series or chain.
adjective:
1. Linked together, as in a chain.
While I began to immerse myself in this difficult new venture, the summer would bring in fresh distraction from my loneliness, and it is indeed curious how events concatenate.
-- John O'Meara, Defending Her Son
But when, as in this vintage, the conditions concatenate ideally, the result is - I'm sure you'll agree - vivid and appealing.
-- Stephen Fry, The Liar
Concatenate stems from the Latin word concatēnātus meaning "to link together."
ifyoucantfixit:
belletristic \bel-li-TRIS-tik\, adjective:
Related to literature regarded as a fine art, especially as having a purely aesthetic function.
Soon we were eagerly talking about our belletristic efforts. Butler was a short story writer who favored the “avant-garde” and who had translated several of Raymond Roussel's obscure “texts” into a stiff-jointed English. Lynne was writing a thesis on Max Jacob and his influence on Picasso.
-- Edmund White, The Farewell Symphony
Usually what I do is spread out my notebooks and Fielding's Guide to Worldwide Cruising 1995 and pens and various materials all over the bed, so when the Cabin Service guy appears at the door he'll see all this belletristic material and figure I'm working really hard on something belletristic right here in the cabin and have doubtless been too busy to have hit all the public meals and am thus legitimately entitled to the indulgence of Cabin Service.
-- David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
Belletristic is derived from the imported French phrase belles-lettres, which literally means "fine letters." It entered English in the early 1700s.
For fans of the Harry Potter series. This will no doubt make them think instantly of Bellatrix La Strange the crazy witch sister.
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