BetterMost Community Blogs > Ifyoucantfixit's Blog
WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
ifyoucantfixit:
remit \ri-MIT\, verb:
1. To slacken or relax.
2. To transmit money, a check, etc., as in payment.
3. To abate for a time or at intervals, as a fever.
4. To refrain from exacting, as a payment or service.
5. To pardon or forgive a sin, offense, etc.
It matters not that we remit our attention, at times, to the pain or the pleasure; these are always in the background; and the strength of the appetite is their strength.
-- Alexander Bain, Practical Essays
ifyoucantfixit:
astringent \uh-STRIN-juhnt\, adjective:
1. Sharply incisive; pungent.
2. Medicine/Medical. Contracting; constrictive; styptic.
3. Harshly biting; caustic: his astringent criticism.
4. Stern or severe; austere.
noun:
1. Medicine/Medical. A substance that contracts the tissues or canals of the body, thereby diminishing discharges, as of mucus or blood.
2. A cosmetic that cleans the skin and constricts the pores.
One endeavors to correct, flushing out error and misconception with the astringent power of historical detail; the other treats the myth as meaningful cultural phenomenon in its own right, accounting for its emergence and tracing its development across time.
-- Beth Newman, Emily Brontë, "Introduction," Wuthering Heights
ifyoucantfixit:
de·mesne
[dih-meyn, -meen] Show IPA
noun
1.
possession of land as one's own: land held in demesne.
2.
an estate or part of an estate occupied and controlled by, and worked for the exclusive use of, the owner.
3.
land belonging to and adjoining a manor house; estate.
4.
the dominion or territory of a sovereign or state; domain.
5.
a district; region.
ifyoucantfixit:
iniquitous \ih-NIK-wi-tuhs\, adjective:
Characterized by injustice or wickedness; wicked; sinful.
The commission was charged now with the task of discovering the iniquitous conspiracy against the Citizen-Saviour of his country.
-- Joseph Conrad, Nostromo
Anything else would be iniquitous - iniquitous is the only word. You know as well as I do that there is not the remotest chance of her ever being able to earn any money for herself out here.
-- Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark
Iniquitous literally meant "unfair" in Latin, as its clear roots betray.
ifyoucantfixit:
selcouth \SEL-kooth\, adjective:
Strange; uncommon.
Its English is not more quaint than that of De Brunne himself; it contains no names more selcouth than he himself is in the custom of introducing…
-- Sir Walter Scott, The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott
To whom there's hardly any selcouth thing, but seems a juggling trick, that would delude their fancies with an empty wondering; therefore against it they with thundering words do ring.
-- George Starkey, An Exposition Upon the Preface of Sir George Ripley
Selcouth has odd Old English roots. It is related to the word seldom and the Old English word couth meaning "to know."
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version