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WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com

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ifyoucantfixit:
macaronic \mak-uh-RON-ik\, adjective:

1. Composed of a mixture of languages.
2. Composed of or characterized by Latin words mixed with vernacular words or non-Latin words given Latin endings.
3. Mixed; jumbled.

noun:
1. Macaronics, macaronic language.
2. A macaronic verse or other piece of writing.

The tradition is even more significant in Folengo's Italian works and especially in his macaronic writings.
-- Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World

The macaronic mode swivels between different languages. I believe Beckett chose French against English for similar reasons to those of Jean Arp in selecting French against German.
-- W. D. Redfern, French Laughter: Literary Humour from Diderot to Tournier

The journalistic multiplicity of voices found in the Magazine corresponded with the poetic multi-vocality of Fergusson's macaronic compositions, texts that combined elements of neo-classical English and vernacular Scots diction.
-- Ian Brown, The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature

Macaronic is related to the word macaroni. Specifically, the pasta is named after the Southern Italian dialect maccarone, which was also associated with a mixture of Latin and vernacular languages.

Now this is a new kind of macaroni.

ifyoucantfixit:

approbate \AP-ruh-beyt\, verb:

To approve officially.

And as for that one, let him work, let him work all he likes, as long as he doesn't interfere with anybody or touch anybody; let him work—I agree and I approbate!
-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Double and the Gambler

By that logic, it is only the creation of a domestic crowd that can truly approbate the doings of the nation.
-- John Plotz, The Crowd: British literature and Public Politics

Approbate stems from the Latin word approbāre, from the root ap- which is a variation of ad-, meaning "towards," and probātus meaning "proved."

ifyoucantfixit:


irriguous \ih-RIG-yoo-uhs\, adjective:

Well-watered, as land.

For if the old cress-woman, the sole inhabitant of that secluded valley, had been inclined to make observations, she could not have failed to perceive that irriguous as were the windings of the brook, Miss Margaret and her friends preferred following them to their utmost.
-- Catherine Grace Frances Gore, "Blanks and Prizes, Or The Wheel of Fortune," Tait's Edinburgh Magazine

As nothing, at the opening of Spring, can exceed the luxuriant vegetation of these irriguous valleys; so, no term could be chosen more expressive of their verdure.
-- William Beckford, Vathek

Irriguous comes from the Latin word irrigāre meaning "to wet" and the suffix -ous which turns a verb into an adjective, like nervous

ifyoucantfixit:

palladium \puh-LEY-dee-uhm\, noun:

1. Anything believed to provide protection or safety; safeguard.
2. A statue of Athena, especially one on the citadel of Troy on which the safety of the city was supposed to depend.
3. A rare metallic element of the platinum group, silver-white, ductile and malleable, harder and fusing more readily than platinum; used chiefly as a catalyst and in dental and other alloys. Symbol: Pd; atomic weight: 106.4; atomic number: 46; specific gravity: 12 at 20°C.

Trial by jury is the palladium of our liberties.
-- Mark Twain, Roughing It

So, representative institutions are the talismanic palladium of the nation, are they? The palladium of the classes that have them, I daresay.
-- Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke: Novels, Poems and Letters of Charles Kingsley

Palladium is related to the Greek word pallas meaning "little maiden." The sense of a protective talisman comes from the name of a statue of Athena that guarded the city of Troy.

ifyoucantfixit:


aperçu \a-per-SY\, noun:

1. A hasty glance; a glimpse.
2. An immediate estimate or judgment; understanding; insight.
3. An outline or summary.

Dr. Lornier, if you would be kind enough to give us a summary of your accomplishments and an aperçu of your plans for the next two months.
-- Mona Risk, To Love a Hero

He was going to lecture that afternoon on Prosperity and, since I was unable to go to the lecture, he was good enough to give me an aperçu of the situation.
-- Ford Madox Ford, It Was the Nightingale

Aperçu literally means "perceived" in French. It entered English in the 1820s.

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