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WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
ifyoucantfixit:
bathetic \buh-THET-ik\, adjective:
Displaying or characterized by insincere emotions: the bathetic emotionalism of soap operas.
The bathetic quality of "instant cliche" endings is to some extent counterbalanced by the kind of ending which combines plot-contortion with climactic enlightenment…
-- Heterocosms, Heterocosms
Attempts to capture the awe and pain of dying can often, alas, come out sounding either bathetic or satiric.
-- Nancy Kress, Characters, Emotion and Viewpoint
Based on the more common word pathetic, bathetic entered English in the 1830s. It comes from the Greek word bathos which meant "depth."
ifyoucantfixit:
compère \KOM-pair\, noun:
1. A host, master of ceremonies, or the like, especially of a stage revue or television program.
verb:
1. To act as compère for: to compère the new game show.
Just then, the compère got up on the stage and picked up the microphone. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen…"
-- Kenneth Turpin, Nosy
Then a tall, sidling young man appeared and, after some confusion with the compère, unceremoniously proposed to drink a pint of brown ale without at any point using his hands…
-- Martin Amis, Heavy Water
Compère literally means "godfather" in French. It entered English in the 1730s
ifyoucantfixit:
bole \bohl\, noun:
the stem or trunk of a tree.
...this time found that it was nought alive, but the bole of a tree sitting high out of the water.
-- William Morris, The Water of the Wondrous Isles
He moved toward the bole eagerly. The tree was shorter than it was wide, the branches enormous appendages that flung to the sides in a giant welcome.
-- K.M. Frontain, The Gryphon Taint
Bole stems directly from the Old Norse word bolr which meant "trunk
ifyoucantfixit:
fabulist \FAB-yuh-list\, noun:
1. A liar.
2. A person who invents or relates fables.
But at the same time, for fear of disruption and uncertainty, we attempt to relegate the maker's role to that of fabulist, equating fiction with lies and opposing art to political reality...
-- Alberto Manguel, The Voice of Cassandra
Nothing is off limits to this free-range fabulist. He can fold a dusty Persian carpet into the contours of the world itself and wring delight from every lustrous thread.
-- Clive Barker, The Essential Clive Barker
Fabulist is derived from the Middle French word fabuliste which referred to someone who told fables.
ifyoucantfixit:
truncate \TRUHNG-keyt\, verb:
1. To shorten by cutting off a part; cut short: Truncate detailed explanations.
2. Mathematics, Computers. To shorten (a number) by dropping a digit or digits: The numbers 1.4142 and 1.4987 can both be truncated to 1.4.
adjective:
1. Truncated.
2. Biology. A. Square or broad at the end, as if cut off transversely. B. Lacking the apex, as certain spiral shells.
He pointed out that it was relatively easy to pronounce, though there was the danger that Americans, obsessed with abbreviation, would truncate it to Nick.
-- Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake
Tonight we had to truncate the chorus work and replace it with rehearsal of the larger scenes.
-- Chuck Zito, A Habit for Death
Truncate comes from the Latin word truncātus which meant "to lop." The mathematical and computer usage arose in the 1950s.
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