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WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
ifyoucantfixit:
mucro \MYOO-kroh\, noun:
A short point projecting abruptly, as at the end of a leaf.
The outward surface of it was extremely slippery, and the mucro, or point, so very cold withal, that upon endeavoring to take hold of it, it glided through the fingers like a smooth piece of ice.
-- Richard Hughes, Spectator, No. 281
Munro holds that it must be "from the mucro or point of the stylus setting a mark at each end of any length you wish to note."
-- William Ellery Leonard, De Rerum Natura
Mucro stems from
ifyoucantfixit:
fulgurant \FUHL-gyer-uhnt\, adjective:
Flashing like lightning.
Now, as died the fulgurant rage that had supported her, and her normal strength being exhausted, a sudden weakness intervened, and she couldn't but allow Mike to lead her to a seat.
-- George Moore, Mike Fletcher: A Novel
He failed: the storm ran closer, fulgurant brilliance striding the sorry landscape like the stilted legs of some vast insect, the wind strengthening, carrying the odor of corruption, the thunder growling as if in anticipation.
-- Angus Wells, Wild Magic
Fulgurant is derived from the Latin word fulgurāre which meant "to flash like lightning."
ifyoucantfixit:
veloce \ve-LAW-che\, adjective:
Played at a fast tempo.
And when I tired of reading I would swim in my pool, parting the azure blue water like a veloce human knife.
-- Sergio De La Pava, A Naked Singularity
Ah, I mention his name and your eyes, they light up veloce come un razzo—fast as a rocket.
-- Jacquie D'Alessandro, Summer at Seaside Cove
Veloce stems from the Latin word vēlōcem which was the accusative form of vēlōx meaning "quick."
ifyoucantfixit:
ombudsman \OM-buhdz-muhn\, noun:
A government official who hears and investigates complaints by private citizens against other officials or government agencies.
Despite these common characteristics of ombudsman systems, there are significant variations across national contexts. The Swedish and Danish ombudsmen exemplify two different models.
-- Bruce E. Cain, Russell J. Dalton, Susan E. Scarrow, Democracy Transformed?
You have reached the Washington Sun's ombudsman desk. If you feel you have been inaccurately quoted, press one. If you spoke to a reporter off the record but were identified in the article, press two…
-- Christopher Buckley, Thank You for Smoking
Fate, or destiny, under God, is the poor man's omnipotent ombudsman.
-- Robert Irwin, The Arabian Nights
Ombudsman comes from the Swedish word ombud which means "agent, attorney." It entered English in the 1910s.
ifyoucantfixit:
recusant \REK-yuh-zuhnt\, noun:
1. A person who refuses to submit, comply, etc.
2. English History. A person, especially a Roman Catholic, who refused to attend the services of the Church of England.
He looked swiftly around to make sure no one was watching, stepped forward, and put his arms around the recusant in a quick embrace. "I'm sorry it had to go this far," he murmured, then stepped back and raised his hand in a parting salute. “If you leave now you could still make it back to the recusant Headquarters alive. And may we meet as friends next time.”
-- Vyshali Manivannan, Invictus
I could no longer doubt the doom prepared for me by my monkish ingenuity in torture. My cognizance of the pit had become known to the inquisitorial agents—the pit whose horrors had been destined for so bold a recusant as myself—the pit, typical of hell, and regarded by rumor as the Ultima Thule of all their punishments.
-- Edgar Allan Poe, The Pit and the Pendulum
Recusant comes from the Latin word recusāre meaning "to demur, object."
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