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WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
ifyoucantfixit:
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
ifyoucantfixit:
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."
ifyoucantfixit:
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.
ifyoucantfixit:
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.
ifyoucantfixit:
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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