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• * ambisinister (am-bi-SIN-uh-stuhr) adjective
Clumsy with both hands. (Literally, with two left hands.)From Latin ambi- (both) + sinister (on the left side).
Usage: Professor Fischer says that the reserve physicians 'were surgically ambisinister, medically at the zero point, and lacking in discipline, military skill and temperance. The Military Surgeon; Harvard University; 1914.
• * riprap (RIP-rap) noun
1. A protective foundation, embankment, etc. made of loose chunks of stones placed together.2. Material used for such a construction.
verb tr.
To construct, or strengthen with, a riprap.
Usage: Access to Everett's waterfront has been blocked by railroad tracks, asphalt and political riprap, said Peggy Toepel, head of the Everett Shorelines Coalition, which advocates for public waterfront access. Janice Podsada; Once Pipeline is Finished, New Beach Can Emerge; Daily Herald (Everett, Washington); December 1 2003
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• * diglot (DY-glot)
Adjective - Bilingual.
Noun - A bilingual book, person, etc.Usage: On their traditional, and legally defined, ground, he (Bagster) challenged the privileged presses directly, with pocket editions of the New Testament, while his diglot editions of the Bible, in English with accompanying German, French, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese, were aimed partly at the cosmopolitan immigrant market." David McKitterick; A History of Cambridge University Press: Vol 2; Cambridge University Press; August 27 1998.
A diglot isn't someone who digs a lot. Nor is it one who digs much or one who digs a parcel of land. Rather, the term refers to one who is bilingual or speaks two languages. And a diglot book is one that has side-by-side text in two languages, on the same or opposite page.
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• * austral (O-struhl) adjective
Southern.From Latin auster (south). That's why Australia is so named, but that does not apply to Austria, in central Europe. Austria's name is a Latinized form of its German name Oesterreich (eastern empire, referring to the eastern boundary of the Frankish Empire at one time).
Usage: [Werner] Herzog simply lets the subjects talk about their backgrounds, motivation, fears, and coping strategies during the period of the austral summer (October-February). Ron Wynn; Herzog's Documentary Offers Insider's View of Antarctica; The City Paper (Nashville, Tennessee); July 25 2008
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• * petrichor (PET-ri-kuhr) noun
The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell.From petro- (rock), from Greek petros (stone) + ichor (the fluid that is supposed to flow in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology). Coined by researchers IJ Bear and RG Thomas.]
Usage: Petrichor, the name for the smell of rain on dry ground, is from oils given off by vegetation, absorbed onto neighboring surfaces, and released into the air after a first rain. Matthew Bettelheim; Nature's Laboratory; Shasta Parent (Mt Shasta, California); January 2002
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• * loquacious (lo-KWAY-shuhs) adjective
Talkative; wordy.From Latin loqui (to speak). The word loquacious has a negative sense, but a positive word to come out of the same Latin root is eloquent.
Usage: Arguably the most loquacious Speaker in the Lok Sabha's* history, [Somnath] Chatterjee kept up a steady commentary. Manini Chatterjee Firm in Chair; The Telegraph (Calcutta, India); July 22 2008.
*lower house in the Parliament of IndiaAWAD
• * rebarbative (ree-BAHR-buh-tiv) adjective
Irritating; repellent.[From French rebarbative (offputting), feminine form of rebarbatif, from rebarber (to be repellent), from barbe (beard), from Latin barba (beard).]
Usage: From cosy Whitelaw to rebarbative Ingham, there are now over a dozen versions of the Thatcher decade by Thatcher's servants ... Catherine Bennett; Tales From the Book Cabinet; The Guardian (London, UK); October 1 1993
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• * matutinal (muh-TOOT-n-uhl) adjective
Relating to or occurring in the morning.From Late Latin matutinalis, from Latin matutinus (of the morning). Ultimately from Indo-European root ma- (good) that is also the source of words such as mature, matinee, matins, Spanish manana (tomorrow, morning, future).
Usage: If you live in a city neighbourhood and go for a morning walk, you know that one of the true delights of a matutinal stroll is the chance to check out the neighbourhood trove. Scot Lehigh; Curb Appeal; Boston Globe (Massachusetts); May 6 2001
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• * lingua franca (LING-gwuh FRANGK-uh) noun
A language that is widely used by speakers of different languages to communicate with one another.From Italian lingua franca (language of the Franks). The original lingua franca was Italian mixed with Spanish, French, Greek, Arabic, and Turkish, spoken on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea in the Middle Ages.
Usage: At one point, they were called to the front to sing Sierra Leone's national anthem in Krio, the country's lingua franca. George Packer; The Children of Freetown; The New Yorker; January 13 2003.
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• * parapraxis (par-uh-PRAK-sis) noun
A slip of the tongue (or pen) that reveals the unconscious mind.Parapraxis is a fancy word for the Freudian slip. It's derived from Greek para- (beside, beyond) + praxis (act).
Usage: Only one parapraxis suggested a little lingering Scottish resentment*. [Andrew Marr] pronounced Gough Square, where [Samuel] Johnson lived and wrote his dictionary, 'guff'. A good joke but not, I think, a deliberate one. Andrew Billen; Ruling the Radio Waves: New Statesman (London, UK); Oct 1, 2007.
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• * horripilation (ho-rip-uh-LAY-shuhn) noun
The bristling of the body hair, as from fear or cold; goose bumps.Late Latin horripilatio, horripilation-, from Latin horripilatus, past participle of horripilare, to bristle with hairs : horrere, to tremble + pilare, to grow hair (from pilus, hair).
Usage: What is expressed here is an aversion that is both aesthetic and intimate, a horripilation of the sexual reflex that is perfectly captured by the word creep. Lance Morrow & John Dickerson, Men: are they really that bad? Time, February 14 1994.
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• * grammatolatry (gram-uh-TOL-uh-tree) noun
The worship of words: regard for the letter while ignoring the spirit of something.From Greek gramma (letter) + -latry (worship).
Usage: The worship of words is more pernicious than the worship of images. Grammatolatry is the worst species of idolatry. Robert Dale Owen; The Debatable Land Between This World And the Next; Trubner and Co; 1871.
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• * lissotrichous (li-SO-tri-kuhs) adjective
Having straight or smooth hair.From Greek lisso (smooth) + trich-, from thrix, (hair). Some cousins of this word are cymotrichous (having wavy hair), trichotillomania (the compulsion to pull out one's hair), and its end result atrichia (baldness).
Usage: Madonna's Blonde Ambition tour notwithstanding, women really aspire to be lissotrichous brunettes, since sleekness and shine - the season's chief criteria - show much better on dark hair. Pamela Swanigan: Blondness: It's Probably Not the Real Thing; Vancouver Sun (Canada); Junuary 16 2001
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• * ideogram (ID-EE-uh-gram, AI-dee-) noun
1. A character or symbol representing an idea or a thing without expressing the pronunciation of a particular word or words for it, as in the traffic sign commonly used for "no parking" or "parking prohibited." Also called ideograph.Usage: Butterflies flutter like the last load of laundry hung out to dry. The beach looks littered with summer people's broken furniture but it is just the tide's huge ideograms... - Jennifer Rose Altman, Meryl, Reconstructive criticism, Vol. XI, Women’s Review of Books,January 1 1994, pp. 17-8.
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• * magna carta (MAG-nuh KAHR-tuh) noun
A document or a law recognising basic rights and privileges.Usage: A magna carta for industry development recognising that 'small and medium enterprises are the dominant constituent of the industry' is an absolute necessity." Integrated Approach Needed For Construction Industry; The Island (Colombo, Sri Lanka); June 18 2008.
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• * callipygian (kal-uh-PIJ-ee-uhn) adjective
Having well-shaped buttocks.From Greek calli- (beautiful) + pyge (buttocks). Two related words are dasypygal and steatopygia.
Usage: "And it hasn’t been lost on modern film directors that a nice set of tights can showcase the callipygian assets of a well-formed leading man." Heroes in Hosiery; South China Morning Post (Hong Kong); Jul 20, 2006.
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• * orthography (or-THOG-ruh-fee) noun
1. The commonly accepted way of spelling words.
2. The branch of knowledge concerned with the study of spelling and representing sounds of a language by letters and diacritics.Usage: The Spelling Society declared at the weekend that the apparently arbitrary and complicated orthography of the English language holds back children in acquiring writing skills, and costs the economy countless billions a year. Philip Hensher; The Peculiarities of English Retain Its Spell; The Independent (London, UK); June 9 2008.
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• * atrabilious (at-ruh-BIL-yuhs) adjective
1. Gloomy. 2. Ill-tempered.From Latin atra bilis (black bile), translation of Greek melankholia.
Usage: A couple of nights ago on BBC Two they scheduled an amusing programme, called Grumpy Old Women at Christmas, in which a lot of atrabilious female semi celebs of a certain age moaned about the festive season. Jane Shilling; Not a Card Sent or a Bauble Hung; The Times (London, UK); December 23 2004
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• * nostomania (nos-tuh-MAY-nee-uh, -mayn-yuh) noun
An overwhelming desire to return home or to go back to familiar places.You can consider nostomania to be an extreme form of nostalgia (literally, pain for home). For school kids, receiving a bad report card might induce nostophobia. A synonym for geriatrics is nostology.
Usage: Out of ignorance or out of nostomania for a Norman Rockwell vision of the American family, the public sector has retreated from day care. - Andrew Ward; Child-care Centers Can Fulfill Mission; The New York Times; July 13 1986
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• * gynophobia or gynephobia (gyn-uh-FO-bee-uh, jyn-) noun
The fear of women.From Greek gyne (female, woman) + -phobia (fear).
Usage: Precluding women from such positions of leadership is not theologically substantiated, but a clear manifestation of misogyny and gynophobia. Kudakwashe Chirambwi; Church Should Welcome Women Into Leadership; The Herald (Harare, Zimbabwe); November 5 2004
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• * clinquant (KLING-kuhnt)
adjective: Glittering, especially with gold or tinsel.noun: Tinsel; glitter.
From French, present participle of obsolete clinquer (to clink), from Dutch klinken (to clink).
Usage: And she looked like a queen as she stood at the altar in her glittering tiara, her ivory jacket clinquant with sequins. Gerald M Carbone; To Honor And Cherish; Providence Journal (Rhode Island); November 20 2005
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• * paraph (PAR-uhf, puh-RAF) noun
Via French and Latin from Greek paragraphos (a line showing a break in sense or a change of speakers), from para- (beside) + graphein (write). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gerbh- (to scratch), which also gave us crab, crayfish, carve, crawl, grammar, anagram, program, and graphite.Usage: This was a considerable feat in that he had recognised not only the initial upon the bedcloth, but its unique paraph in one corner. Linda Berdoll; Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife; Landmark; 2004.
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• word
a verb noun or adjective• nark (nark) (noun)
1. An annoying person.2. A stool pigeon or informer A variant of narc: a police officer involved in investigating narcotics violations.
[From shortening of narcotic.]
Usage: "He's a nark, complaining all the time." - Today's Footie Latest; The Sun (London, UK); Dec 3, 2004.
Usage: "They were going to teach the Heremaia boys a lesson - you don't nark on patched gang members." - Bridget Carter; The Short Sad Life of a Youth Who Took the Wrong Path; The New Zealand Herald (Auckland); Dec 4, 2004.
-A-Word-A-Day
• bosh (bosh) (noun)
Interjection, Nonsense.[From Turkish bos (empty). The term was popularised in English by its use in the novels of James J. Morier (1780-1849).]
The lower sloping part of a blast furnace, between hearth and stack.
Usage: "'I was a flop in movies,' Mary Martin once told me. Bosh! She was rewriting history. Martin made a dozen Hollywood musicals, all successful, before decamping to Broadway fame." - Jim Bawden; Very Special; Toronto Star (Canada); Sep 25, 1993.
Usage: "The Advertising Standards Authority say it's OK to call Germans 'Krauts'. The Mirror disagrees and will not be using this obviously offensive term to describe our German friends." - Talking Bosh; The Mirror (London, UK); Oct 24, 2001.
- A -Word - A - Day
• chaparral (shap-uh-RAL, chap-) (noun)
A dense, often impenetrable, growth of shrubs and thorny bushes.[From Spanish chaparral, from chaparro (dwarf evergreen oak), from Basque txapar (thicket).]
Usage: "Satwiwa Loop Trail: an easy 1.5- mile stroll through grasslands and chaparral." - Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa; Ventura County Star (Ventura, California); Dec 31, 2004.
Usage: "But most of the images I'd shot were nothing but blue sky and some out-of-focus chaparral." - Chris Welsch; Point and Shoot; Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota); Dec 26, 2004.
- A Word A Day
• skookum (SKOO-kuhm) (adjective)
Powerful; first-rate; impressive.[From Chinook Jargon, from a Chehalis word meaning spirit or ghost.]
Usage: "Beth Baker of Knik may be an Iditarod rookie, but she's a skookum one." - Opinion; Anchorage Daily News (Alaska); Mar 18, 1994.
Usage: "His big seller is the Zooper Buddy, an all-terrain vehicle with three inflatable tires, an adjustable handle bar, amazing suspension and a skookum reclining seat." - Karen Gram; Stroller Envy; Vancouver Sun (Canada); Oct 21, 2003.
- A Word A Day
• crispin, (noun)
A shoemaker.[After St Crispin, patron saint of shoemakers. He and his brother St Crispinian were martyred as Christian missionaries. They made their living as shoemakers.]
Usage: The draft then draws on a block of material from the boot and shoe trade described by the Narrator as 'the Crispin trade'. - Simon Trussler and Clive Barker; New Theatre Quarterly; Cambridge University Press; Aug 25, 2003.
Usage: And, lo! up starts the demon Drink. The joiner's bench, the mason's shed, The place of dough and smoking bread, The tailor's board, the Crispin's stool All, all proclaim the demon's rule! - Janet Hamilton; Lyrics of Drink; Poems, Sketches And Essays; 1885.
A-Word-A-Day; words derived from people, real and fictional, from history and from mythology.
• lissotrichous, (adjective)
Having straight or smooth hair.[From Greek lissÛs (smooth) + trich-, from thrix, (hair).
Some cousins of this word are cymotrichous (having wavy hair), trichotillomania (the compulsion to pull out one's hair), and its end result atrichia (baldness).]
Usage: Madonna's Blonde Ambition tour notwithstanding, women really aspire to be lissotrichous brunettes, since sleekness and shine - the season's chief criteria - show much better on dark hair. - Pamela Swanigan; Blondness: It's Probably Not the Real Thing; Vancouver Sun (Canada); June 16 2001.
A-Word-A-Day; hair today, gone tomorrow.
• pileous, (adjective)
Covered with hair.[From Latin pileus, from pilus (hair).]
Usage: What pileous sculptures was the young man creating on that lovely head? - Andrew Miller; Casanova in Love; Harvest Books; 2000.
Usage: A pileous alternative without slippage concerns is spray-on hair-in-a-can. - Lyle Zapato; Aluminium Foil Deflector Beanie; Outer Limits Press; 2003.
A-Word-A-Day; hair today, gone tomorrow.
• atrichia, (noun)
Absence of hair, typically congenital. Also called atrichosis.[From Greek a- (not) + trich- (hair).]
Usage: Who needs atrichia? - Jonathan Yardley; Words to Live By; The Washington Post; April 20 1994.
Usage: Other work has shown that a malfunctioning hairless gene can cause another hair-loss disorder, called papular atrichia. - Researchers Exploring Roles of 'Hairless' Gene; Columbian (Vancouver, Washington); Oct 22 2001.
A-Word-A-Day;hair today, gone tomorrow.
• crinite, (adjective)
Hairy.[From Latin crinitus, from crinis (hair). Ultimately from Indo-European root sker- (to turn or bend) that's also the fount of other words such as curve, crest, arrange, shrink, crow, and crisp.]
Usage: Clad in worn jeans with a matching shirt, construction boots and a straw cowboy hat, the crinite foreman ambulated about as he showed how adobe blocks were made. - Thom Tansey; In Search of Lost Civilizations; Rainbow Books; 2000.
Why is a hairless person called bald? Because his head is balled, etymologically speaking. The ball in balled in this case refers to a white patch (as in bald eagle). People have resorted to all sorts of tricks -- even spray-painting their heads black -- as a fix to the problem. This week is going to be a hairy -- and smooth -- week.
The theme: hair today, gone tomorrow.
• backwardation, (noun)
A premium paid by the seller to the buyer for deferring delivery of stock or some other product. Opposite of contango.[From backward, from Middle English bakwarde.]
Usage: Another major reason for backwardation or lower volumes in derivatives is that for selling the underlying trader needs to have holding of shares and, therefore, this kind of arbitrage is only possible by a few. - Abhishek Parekh; The Future(s) is Here; Business India; Feb 3 2002.
Usage: The LME's (London Metal Exchange) suspicions were aroused by the fact that none of the economic conditions justified a backwardation in the aluminium price.
There was a glut of aluminium in the aftermath of the Asia meltdown and prices for all months other than January displayed the more usual premium of forward-over-spot prices, known as contango. - Dan Atkinson; Finance: LMC Squeeze Inquiry Clears Players; The Guardian (London, UK); Jul 29, 1999.
A-Word-A-Day; the world of money and finance.
• sumptuary, (adjective)
1. Relating to or regulating expenses.2. Regulating personal habits or behaviour on moral or religious grounds.
[From Latin sumptuarius, from sumptus expense, past participle of sumere (to take up), from emere (to take). Ultimately from Indo-European root em- (to take or distribute) that is also the source of words such as example, sample, assume, consume, prompt, ransom, vintage, and redeem.]
Usage: The monthly Sumptuary Allowance for both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker has been raised to Tk 6,000 from Tk 5 000 and Tk 3 000. - Remunerations of PM, Speaker, Ministers Up; The Independent (Bangladesh); July 8 2003. [Tk is the abbreviation for Taka, the principal unit of currency in Bangladesh.]
Usage: A ban on advertising of junk foods in schools, especially candies and soft drinks with high sugar content. Sumptuary taxes on soft drinks as well - sure to be opposed bitterly by the lobbyists. If alcohol and tobacco advertisements cannot be allowed on children's TV, why allow advertising of foods that promote obesity and future health ills on a par with them? - Ian Williams; Big Food's Real Appetites; The Nation (New York); May 6 2002.
A-Word-A-Day; the world of money and finance.
• usance, (noun)
1. The customary length of time allowed for the settlement of a foreign bill.2. Usage; custom.
[From Middle English, from Old French, probably from Vulgar Latin usare, from Latin uti (to use).]
Usage: The trading houses have also been denied issuance of usance trade bills by the banks. - Year-End Export Climate Dim; The Korea Times (Seoul, South Korea); Nov 27 1998.
Usage: Such approval may be given even in cases where usance bills are to be drawn for the shipment, provided the relative letter of credit covers the full export. - Submit Export Declaration to Authorised Dealer: RBI; Economic Times (New Delhi, India); Feb 13 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; words from the world of money and finance.
• Danegeld, (noun), also Danegelt
1. An annual tax imposed on English landholders (c. 10-12th century) to buy off Danish invaders, continuing later under the name tallage.2. Protection money, or some other coercive payment.
[From Middle English, from Dane + geld (payment, tribute), from Old English.]
Usage: Russia successfully cajoles and bullies more Danegeld out of the IMF and the West. - A Puzzling Progress; The Economist (London, UK); March 13 1999.
Usage: What's unfair is that we make it tough for young people to get a job unless they pay danegeld to a four-year college to get a certificate that says it's okay to employ them. - James Michaels; Truth in Packaging; Forbes Magazine (New York); Dec 28 1998.
A-Word-A-Day; words from the world of money and finance.
• contango, (noun)
A premium paid by the buyer to the seller for deferring payment.[From alteration of continue or contingent.]
Usage: Gold markets are generally in contango because there is an infinite supply of gold in the vaults of central banks or in private hands. - Jim Jones; Hedging: It Takes Two to Tango on the Market; Business Day (Johannesburg, South Africa); Feb 8 2002.
Usage: In addition, the one-year contango, or the difference between spot prices and forward prices, has narrowed to $3 an ounce, from $15 a few years ago. - Bernard Simon; Gold Producers Are Split On Whether to Hedge; The New York Times; Jan 24, 2002.
A-Word-A-Day; words from the world of money and finance.
• tog, (noun)
1. A coat.2. Togs: Clothes.
(verb) tr.
To dress up for a particular occasion or activity.
[From shortening of earlier cant togeman, from Latin toga (toga), ultimately from Indo-European root (s)teg- (to cover) that's also the ancestor of other words such as thatch, deck, tile, and detect.] Tog is also the unit of thermal insulation of clothing.
Another such unit is clo (shortening of clothes).
Usage: Malkin, 47, allows the new arrival a minute to gaze in awe at his collection, eyes adjusting to its psychedelic glamour.
Togging out the office like this 'may be a bit over the top' but was in part a reaction to moving to the new place, which lacks the human proportions and lawn views of the old law building on the main campus. - Wendy Tuohy; The Colourful Arm of the Law; The Age (Melbourne, Australia); Nov 15 2004;
Usage: We wore our best surfing togs: light blue Levi cords, Pendleton shirts, Converse sneakers. - Tim Ryan; Big Waves, Big Screen; Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Hawaii); Oct 24 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; short words.
• scry, (verb) intr.
To predict the future by crystal-gazing.[Shortening of descry (discover), from Middle English descrien, from Old French descrier (to call or cry out), from dis- + crier (to cry out).]
Usage: Spend enough time scrying a glass bowling ball and your self knowledge and universal understanding will expand faster than the federal budget deficit. - Pitt Dickey; Great Crystal Bowling Balls of Fire!; Up & Coming Weekly Fayetteville, North Carolina); Oct 20 2004.
Usage: Also, the Reserve Bank will release its quarterly Statement on Monetary Policy, which the market will scry for clues on the timing of possible rate rises. - Stocks' 10th Day of Gold; The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia); Nov 8 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; short words.
• sic, (verb) tr.
To incite to attack, especially as a command to dog: "Sic 'em!" [Variant of seek.] adverb Thus; so.(Used after an incorrect or unusual word or phrase to indicate that it has been quoted verbatim.) [From Latin sic.]
Usage: Richard Nixon promised to 'bring us together' and sicced Spiro Agnew and Chuck Colson on his enemies. - Tom Blackburn; Campaigns Effectively Push the Negatives; The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Florida); Nov 1, 2004.
Usage: The man accused of siccing the animal on him, was arrested Wednesday. - Ian Demsky; Man Says Mix-up at Party Led to Dog Attack; The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee); Nov 5, 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; short words.
• vet, (verb) tr.
1. To examine: to check for validity, accuracy or authenticity.2. To subject to veterinary care.
(noun)
Veterinarian; veterinary.
[Shortening of veterinarian.]
(noun)
Veteran: a soldier, especially one who has fought in a war.
[Shortening of veteran.]
Usage: Commonwealth Press Union New Zealand chairman Gavin Ellis said 'the suggestion that journalists should give up their copy to judges for vetting is totally unacceptable'. - Judge Says Checks on Journalists Won't Be Abused; New Zealand Herald Auckland); Nov 12 2004.
Usage: The bills will then be sent to India's finance and law ministries to be vetted before being put before the president for his approval.- India on Track For Biggest Tax Revamp; Gulf Daily News (Bahrain); November 3 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; theme: short words.
• hie, (verb) tr., intr.
To hasten; to go in a hurry.[From Middle English hien, from Old English higian (to strive).]
Usage: The other week, during our morning ritual, my phone rang and I had to rush off to answer it. Talk... talk... then followed by my other pre-work activities before finally taking a bath and hieing off to work.- Stella . Estremera; Simple Wisdom; Philippine Sun Star (Manila, Philippines); Nov 14 2004.
Usage: Aniston reportedly hied out of town to meet hubby Brad Pitt in Little Rock, Ark. - Michael Sneed; The Rice Report; Chicago Sun-Times; Nov 18 2004.
Has a brief quote you read somewhere ever made you think more than you would have thought after spending several weeks with a heavy tome? Perhaps that's what Friedrich Nietzsche had in mind when he said, "It is my ambition to say in 10 sentences what others say in a whole book."
In this spirit, we'll feature five short yet potent words this week.
A-Word-A-Day
• liniment, (noun)
A liquid preparation (having camphor, alcohol, etc.) for rubbing into the skin to relieve pain or stiffness of a joint.[From Middle English, from Late Latin linimentum (ointment), from Latin linere (to smear).
Ultimately from Indo-European root lei-/slei- (slimy) that's also the source of such words as slime, lime, slick, slippery, schlep, and oblivion.]
Usage: As a boy, he (Brett Kirk) remembers sitting on the change room floor beside his dad. The smell of sweat and liniment was heavy in his nostrils and he was surrounded by game-weary, sturdy country footballers and their grubby boots. - Jessica Halloran; Kirk Takes Dad's Inspirational Mantra All the Way to Finals; The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Sep 4, 2004.
Usage: Grills flaming behind the terrace, popcorn spewing from the kettles, barbecue sauce wafting along with stale beer and smoke, and sweating horses swabbed in pungent liniment. - Cliff Guilliams; Under Our Skin, Ellis Ends Again; Evansville Courier & Press (Indiana); Sept 6 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; miscellaneous words.
• profluent, (adjective)
Flowing smoothly; flowing in full stream.[From Middle English, from Latin profluent-, stem of profluens, present participle of profluere (to flow forth), from pro- (forth) + fluere (to flow).
Ultimately from Indo-European root bhleu- (to swell or overflow), from which flow words such as affluent, influence, influenza, fluctuate, fluent, fluid, fluoride, flush, flux, reflux, and superfluous.]
Usage: Though (John) Abercrombie is advertised as a 'fusion' guitarist, his profluent style and extraordinary musicality were not diminished by the battery of electronic gadgetry. - A James Liska; Jazz Reviews: John Abercrombie; Los Angeles Times; June 2 1986.
Usage: Baptising in the profluent stream, the sign Of washing them from guilt of sin to life. - John Milton; Paradise Lost: Book 12; 1665.
A-Word-A-Day; miscellaneous words.
• condign, (adjective)
Well-deserved, appropriate.[From Middle English condigne, from Anglo French, from Latin condignus, from com- (completely) + dignus (worthy).
Ultimately from Indo-European root dek- (to take, accept) that's the ancestor of other words such as deign, dignity, discipline, doctor, decorate, and docile.]
Usage: Anger is not a great human accomplishment, even when it is a condign response to events. -Leon Wieseltier; The First Palestinian-Israeli War; The New Republic (Washington, DC); Apr 15 2002.
Usage: But the 'doolally' behaviour continued and his (soldier's) superiors considered more condign punishment. - Sian Busby; Shell Shock and Awe; The Times (London, UK); Aug 21 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; miscellaneous words.
• entelechy, (noun)
1. Perfect realisation as opposed to a potentiality.2. In some philosophies, a vital force that propels one to self-fulfillment.
[From Late Latin entelechia, from Greek entelecheia, from enteles (complete), from telos (end, completion) + echein (to have).]
Usage: It concerns our final end, our entelechy, the purpose of our existence, where we are going to go. - Gray Henry; The First Prophet; Parabola (New York); Spring 1996.
Usage: As movies directed by ex-Star Trek actors go, it isn't nearly as jejune as, say, Leonard Nimoy's Three Men and a Baby, but neither does it possess the ambivalent entelechy of LeVar Burton's The Tiger Woods Story. - Michael Atkinson; Three Woman and an Organ; The Village Voice (New York); Apr 9, 2002.
A-Word-A-Day; miscellaneous words.
• veridical, (adjective)
1. Truthful.
2. Real; corresponding to facts; representing reality.[From Latin veridicus, from verus (true) + dicere (to say).]
Usage: It's both surreal and veridical, whimsical and graphic, straightforward and sly. - Charlotte O'Sullivan; Up to No Good; The Independent on Sunday (London, UK); Sep 29 2002.
Usage: If split-brain patients are given such tests, the left hemisphere generates many false reports. But the right brain does not; it provides a much more veridical account. - Michael S Gazzaniga and John W Karapelou; The Split Brain Revisited; Scientific American (Washington, DC); July 1 1998.
This week's A Word A Day theme is a bunch of whimsical, odd, and fanciful words
• * feme sole, (noun), plural femes sole
A single woman, whether divorced, widowed, or never married, [From Anglo-French feme soule, from feme (woman) + soule (single).]Usage: 'The sheriff heavily pronounced, 'If she sued for divorce on the grounds of desertion -- which she could and would have done once he'd sailed off -- she would be declared feme sole and regain full control of her own property.' - Joan Druett; A Watery Grave; St Martin's Minotaur; Oct 4 2004.
- The divorce restored Ann to the status of a feme sole with the right to own and manage her own property. - Thomas E. Buckley; The Great Catastrophe of My Life: Divorce in the Old Dominion; University of North Carolina Press; Sep 1 2002.
A-Word-A-Day; words to describe women.
• * minx, (noun)
A pert or flirtatious young woman.[Of unknown origin, perhaps from Middle Dutch or Low German.]
Usage:
- This innocent-looking minx had her face right up against the terrible rictal grin of Cape Town's adopted son, Marthinus van Skulkwyk. - Ben Trovato; On the Run; Cape Times (Cape Town, South Africa); Feb 24 2004.
- Politics, love, and God -- it's all in there in the raps of Shawn Butler, who keeps his rhymes on the positive tip whether singing about a minx who's caught his eye or the struggles he faced while growing up in Chicago's Chatham neighbourhood. - Matt McGuire; Rock the Vote!; Chicago Tribune; Feb 25 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; words to describe women.
• * milady also miladi, noun
1. An English gentlewoman or a woman member of the aristocracy.2.
A woman of fashion.
[From French, from English my lady.] Usage: Plus, milady didn't like her hairstyle messed up.
- Miranda Sawyer; Clutches of the Law; Guardian (London, UK); March 6 2004.
- The management boasted of the flame-red 'body-form' chairs, which were guaranteed not to 'cause runs in milady's sheerest hose'.
- Dan Barry; Fading To Memory, And Beyond; The New York Times; Feb 25 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; words to describe women.
• * giglet, noun, also giglot A giddy, frolicsome girl. * giglet, noun, also giglot A giddy, frolicsome girl. * giglet, noun, also giglot A giddy, frolicsome girl.
[From Middle English gigelot.] Usage: See, the Ravenna giglet, Mistress Ritta.- George Henry Boker; Francesca da Rimini; 1853.
O giglot fortune!--to master Caesar's sword.
- William Shakespeare; Cymbeline, Act 3, Scene 1.
A-Word-A-Day; theme: words to describe women.
• * sylph, noun
1. A slender, graceful young woman.2. Any of a race of mythological invisible beings who inhabit air, originally described in theories of Paracelsus.
[From New Latin sylpha, apparently a blend of Latin sylva (forest) + nymph.] Usage: But alluring though the fitness industry looks, it is not without risks.
The biggest is Britons' fond self-delusion that they are sleek sylphs.
- Losing a Beer Belly; The Economist (London, UK); Aug 12 1995.
- Like an ugly duckling which has blossomed into a slender sylph, the compact convertible from Stuttgart has finally added some style to a fair amount of substance.
- Samuel Ee; New kind of SLeeK; The Business Times (Singapore); Mar 20, 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; words to describe women.
• * tercel, noun, also tiercel or tercelet
The male of a hawk, especially of the peregrine falcon or a goshawk.[From Middle English, from Middle French terÁuel, from Vulgar Latin tertiolus, diminutive of Latin tertius (third).
Ultimately from Indo-European root trei- (three) that's also the source of such words as three, testify (to be the third person), triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13).] Why the sense of third in the word for a male hawk? It's either from the belief that the third egg produced a male, or from the fact that the male of hawk is one-third smaller than the female.
Usage: On this occasion the tercel flew off after a pigeon, and though the bird was fitted with a tracking device, it disappeared.
- William Shaw; Bird on a Wire; The Observer (London, UK); April 13 2003.
Today's word is the name of a car from Toyota.
A-Word-A-Day
• * pinto, adjective Marked with patches of white and another color. noun
1. Pinto horse: a horse having patches of white and another color.2. Pinto bean: a variety of kidney beans having mottled seed.
[From American Spanish pinto (spotted), from obsolete Spanish, from Vulgar Latin pinctus (painted), past participle of pingere (to paint).
Ultimately from Indo-European root peig- (to cut, mark) that's the source of such words as paint, depict, picture, pigment, pint, and pimento.] Here are two other words to describe horses and other animals: piebald: spotted in black and white.
skewbald: marked with patches of white and another color, but not black.
Usage: Add some extra veggies to some pinto or black beans and they are pretty good.
- Edmund Tijerina; Canary Island Wine is Coming This Way; San Antonio Express News (Texas); Oct 12 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; what does that car name mean?
• * protege, noun
One who is protected, guided, and supported by somebody older and more experienced.[From French protÈgÈ, past participle of protÈger (to protect), from Latin protegere, from pro- + tegere (cover).
Ultimately from Indo-European root (s)teg- (to cover) that's the ancestor of other words such as tile, thatch, protect, detect, and toga.] Usage: His (Bear Bryant's) protege, Schnellenberger, listened wisely.
- Don't Despair; Charlotte Sun (Charlotte Harbor, Florida); November 1 2004.
- Mentors focus on results and on people.
They build on strengths and stimulate personal growth.
They know what their protÈgÈ can do and challenge them to do it.
- Build a New Generation of Managers; Business Day (Johannesburg, South Africa); October 26 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; what does that car name mean?
• * caprice, noun
1. A sudden, unpredictable change of mind or behaviour.2.
Capriccio: a musical composition in free, irregular style.
[From French, from Italian capriccio, from caporiccio (head with bristling hair), from capo (head) + riccio (hedgehog, curly) from Latin ericius (hedgehog).] Usage: Do not deviate by following caprice.
- Interviews; Zaman (Istanbul, Turkey); October 5 2004.
- After interval there was ...
Brazilian Impressions, a series of fleeting musical characterisations of the vividness of life told with the caprice and strangeness of a dream.
- Peter McCallum; Concerto Fantasy; Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); October 23 2004.
Today's word is the name of a car from Chevrolet.
There is also a car called Mercuri Capri.
We hope they named it after the island in Italy but one wonders if they knew that capri means goat.
A-Word-A-Day; theme: what does that car name mean?
• * prelude, noun
1. An introductory event, performance, or action preceding something more important.2. A musical section, overture, etc.
serving as introduction to the main composition, opera, play, etc.
verb tr., intr.
To serve as an introduction to something.
• * corinthian
, adjective 1.Of, or pertaining to the Greek city of Corinth; of, or relating to the Corinthian order, one of the five classical orders of building design; highly ornate; licentious or luxurious.
noun A native or inhabitant of Corinth; a profligate or licentious person; a wealthy amateur, especially an amateur yachtsman.
[From Latin Corinthius, from Greek Korinthios.
After Corinth, a city in Greece, one of the richest and most powerful in ancient Greece.] Usage: The Corinthian spirit which marked out the extreme ironing pioneers has inevitably been diluted in the cash-rich commercial era.
- Alex Galbinski; NSPCC Steam in to Flatten the Opposition; Barnet and Potters Bar Times (Hendon, UK); Oct 20 2004.
-A-Word-A-Day; toponyms (words derived from the names of places).
• * cilice
noun1.An undergarment of hair cloth, worm by monks in penance.
2.Haircloth.
[From Old English cilic, from Latin cilicium, from Greek kilikion, from kilikios (Cilician).
This cloth was originally made of Cilician goats' hair.
Cilicia was an ancient region in southeast Asia Minor which later became part of the Roman Empire.
It's now part of southern Turkey.] No more hairy undergarments now -- modern cilices are usually made of wires and studded with spikes.
Another word that came from the same region is solecism (an error).
It's derived from the name of Soloi, a city in Cilicia.
Usage: He (Silas) wears a cilice, a thong that cuts flesh, around his thigh, and he flagellates himself bloody as part of a self-purification cult in accordance to Opus Dei guidelines.
- Joseph P Szimhart; Fact, Fiction, and Strained Symbolism; Skeptical Inquirer (Amherst, New York); May 2004.
-A-Word-A-Day; toponyms (words derived from the names of places).
• macedoine
, noun1. A mixture of diced fruits or vegetables, often served as salad, appetiser, or dessert.
2. A medley or mixture.
[From French macÈdoine, from MacÈdoine (Macedonia), apparently an allusion to the diversity of people in the region.] Usage: So in her own home -- where raspberries and tiny fraises des bois grow in the garden -- a frequent dessert is an artless salad or macedoine of cut-up fruit, such as peaches, nectarines or apricots, with a few berries thrown into the mix.
- Karola Saekel; Alice Waters' Newest Showcases Fresh Fruit; San Francisco Chronicle; May 8 2002.
- There are similar impulses in Art Nouveau Bing, the English Aesthetic and American Arts and Crafts movements, the Vienna Secession -- and the style moderne of Czarist Russia, which mixed them all together in a macedoine.
- Margo Miller; The Man Who Made Art Nouveau; Boston Globe; Sep 11 1987.
A-Word-A-Day; toponyms (words derived from the names of places).
• * Neanderthal, adjective, also Neandertal 1.
1. Of, or pertaining to Neanderthal man, a member of an extinct subspecies of Homo sapiens who lived in caves in Europe and the Mediterranean 100 000 to 30 000 years ago.2. Boorish, uncivilised.
noun 1.
Neanderthal man.
2.
An unenlightened or uncouth man.
[After Neander valley in western Germany near Dusseldorf, where bones of a Neanderthal man were first discovered in 1856.] Usage: Formula One racing is unique for its Neanderthal attitude to everything female.
- Janet Street-Porter; What is it About Men and Cars?; The Mercury (Durban, South Africa); July 13 2004.
- Is hi-tech bad for us? What are you, some kind of Neanderthal? How would we ever cope with the modern era without technology? - Vikas Singh; Is the Hi-tech World Laying Us Low?; The Times of India (New Delhi); July 3 2004.
Whether it's when we drink champagne (from Champagne, France), make a solecism (after Soloi, an Athenian colony in Cilicia), or when we meet our Waterloo (Waterloo, Belgium) we are (perhaps unknowingly) alluding to a distant land and its history.
This week's words take us on a tour of Europe.
• * sardoodledom
noun Plays having contrived melodramatic plot, concentrating excessively on the technique to the exclusion of characterisation.[After Victorien Sardou (1831-1908), French playwright; coined by playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950).] Usage: Most of Lubitsch's other plot sources are hackneyed representatives of Sardoodledom.
- Gerald Mast; The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies; University of Chicago Press; Aug 17 2004.
- There is even the Secret of the well-made play, Sardoodledom's ultimate question: who is Godot? Will he come? - David Bradby, Michael Robinson; Waiting for Godot: Plays in Production; Cambridge University Press; Nov 15 2001.
A-Word-A-Day; eponyms.
• Horatio Alger
,adjective Of, or characteristic of the novels of Horatio Alger Jr which depicted an impoverished youth who achieved success and great wealth through hard work, honesty, and virtue.[After Horatio Alger, Jr. (1832-1899), author of hundreds of novels and stories for young adults.
His books were immensely successful, selling hundreds of millions of copies.] Usage: 'Clinton reinvented himself as the boy from Hope, a political Horatio Alger,' said Stephen Wayne, the author of the 'The Road to the White House 2004' and a history professor at Georgetown University.
- John Tierney; Quick.
Change the Brand.
In Five Weeks; The New York Times; Sep 26 2004.
- Still, Seabiscuit is the Horatio Alger hero of the turf, the horse that came up from nothing on his own courage and will to win.
- Seabiscuit: Horatio Alger Hero of the Turf; Saturday Evening Post (Indianapolis, Indiana); Nov-Dec 2003.
A-Word-A-Day; eponyms.
• Cook's tour
noun A guided but cursory tour, covering only the main features.[After Thomas Cook (1808-1892), English travel agent.] Usage: The rest of the novel is an episodic Cook's tour of Filipino hell.
- Carolyn See; Heir to a Misfortune; The Washington Post; Sep 3 2004.
- Never one to be subtle, Mr.
Sinelli welcomed Bryant Keil with a 25-cent cook's tour.
- Cheryl Hall; Former Genghis Grill Owner Sees Sandwiches as Success in the Bag; The Dallas Morning News; Sep 25, 2004.
From cabinetmaking to tourmaking -- the story of Thomas Cook is a fascinating account of how this man came to be a trailblazing travel agent.
Before he stumbled upon organised travel, Cook worked as a wood-turner, printer, and missionary.
He was a champion of the temperance movement and that led to his career in travel.
This week we'll visit terms derived from people's names.
• * ostracise
verb tr.To exclude or shun from a group.
[From Greek ostrakizein, from ostrakon (shell or potsherd), from the fact that in ancient Greece these were used as ballots in voting to banish someone.
Ultimately from Indo-European root ost- (bone) that gave birth to such words as oyster, osteopathy, ossify, and Sanskrit asthi (bone).] Usage: He (Lloyd Anderson) did endure gender prejudices during his career, including being ostracised by older female nurses who felt men did not belong in their profession.
- Man Broke Barriers As Male Nurse; The Kalamazoo Gazette (Michigan); Oct 6 2004.
- Some responses said: 'A child given such a name would likely be bullied or ostracised,' or 'It would cause social problems.' - In Japan, You Can't Name Your Kid 'Mistress' or 'Piles'; The Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo, Japan); Sep 28, 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; politics and elections.
• * October surprise
noun A last minute surprise, especially one orchestrated by a candidate to influence an election.[The US presidential elections take place on the first Tuesday in November.
The idea of an October surprise stems from the belief that a significant event taking place just before the election would influence the voters and change the result.
The term originated in the 1980 US presidential elections.
US embassy personnel were held hostage in Teheran, leading to speculation that the incumbent president would secure their release just before the election, in order to boost his prospects for re-election.] Usage: The possibility of a US October surprise on North Korea was flatly rejected yesterday by Washington's top envoy to Seoul.
- Choi Soung-ah; 'No US October Surprise in Korea'; Korea Herald (Seoul, South Korea); Oct 8 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; politics and elections.
• * spin doctor
noun A representative who is adept in presenting a favourable interpretation of events, utterances, and actions for a politician or some other public figure; one who manipulates news.[Spin, from ballgames (e.g.
baseball) where spinning a ball helps a player project it in the desired direction; doctor (expert) or from the verb to doctor (to tamper or falsify).] Politics has been around for ages but surprisingly the term spin doctor is relatively recent.
It arose during the 1984 US presidential election.
This term is also used facetiously to refer to people in a number of other professions, e.g.
disk jockey, vertigo specialist, bicycle mechanic, and a player who is good at spinning a ball in cricket, tennis, billiards, or some other game.
Usage: In the heat of the court battle, tempers at times flared as De Bourbon tried to corner the slippery spin doctor.
- Mugabe's Spin Doctor Grilled Over 'Defamation'; Sunday Times (Johannesburg, South Africa); June 20 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; words from politics and elections.
• * stump speech
noun A political speech, delivered on a campaign tour.[Originally, campaigning politicians often stood on tree stumps when addressing voters.
Today, the stump is used metaphorically in expressions such as "stump speech" (a campaign speech) or "on the stump" (on the campaign trail).] Hustings is the British equivalent of the US word stump.
Until 1872 Hustings was the raised platform from which candidates were nominated for the British Parliament, and where they addressed electors.
Usage: What was supposed to be a debate between the two 14th District candidates ended up being a stump speech by the one candidate who showed up Monday at the Akron Press Club.
- Stephen Dyer; US Congressman Skips Akron Press Club Debate; Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio); Sep 28 2004.
- Addressing the association members, (Bob) Brown delivers his standard stump speech, sprinkled with a joke or two, about his fiscal and energy proposals.
- Charles S Johnson; Brown Takes Quiet Approach to Politics; Missoulian (Missoula, Montana); Oct 10 2004.
The word election comes from the Indo-European root leg- (to choose) that is also the source of such words as intelligent, diligent, logic, dialog, and legal.
In fact, that's probably not a bad way to choose a candidate: one who is intelligent, one who is diligent in solving problems, one who uses logic, one who prefers to engage in a dialogue, and one who employs legal means.
• * fogram or fogrum
noun A person with old-fashioned or overly conservative attitudes.[Of uncertain origin.] Usage: ...
so civil to all the old fograms, you would make one imagine you liked nobody so well.
- Frances Burney, Margaret Anne Doody, and Peter Sabor; Cecilia: Memoirs of an Heiress; Oxford Press; 1999.
- Just as he had done making himself up, in came another old fogram of his acquaintance, by name the Count of Asumar.
This genius made no secret of his grey locks; leant upon a stick, and seemed to plume himself on his venerable age instead of wishing to appear in the hey-day of his prime.
- AR LeSage; The Adventures of Gil Blas (translated from French by Tobias Smollett); George Routledge & Sons; 1912.
A-Word-A-Day; words to describe people.
• heretic
noun One who holds unorthodox or unconventional beliefs.adjective Not conforming to established beliefs.
[From Middle English heretik, from Middle French heretique, from Late Latin haereticus, from Greek hairetikos (able to choose), from haireisthai (to choose).] Usage: (George) Keithley offers a portrait of a Galileo who is anything but a heretic: In these poems, we glimpse a devout, spiritual Galileo who, because of the wonders of the sky, is vigilant and in awe of the 'divine creator'.
- Jenny Boully; Keithley's The Starry Messenger; Maisonneuve (Montreal, Canada); Sep 12 2004.
- In other words, by holding out until they (Belle and Sebastian) had a fan-base, they could interfere in their own records, a heretic notion in the modern pop world of talentless synchronised pretty boys and spurious Spice persons.
- Luke Davidson; Ring Out the Belles; Scotland on Sunday (Edinburgh); Oct 3 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; words to describe people.
• magisterial
adjective 1. Having the characteristics of a master or teacher; authoritative.2. Domineering or overbearing.
3. Of or relating to a magistrate.
[From Late Latin magisterialis (of authority), from magisterium, from Latin magister (master), ultimately from Indo-European root meg- (great) that's also the source of words such as magnificent, maharajah, mahatma, master, mistress, maestro, maximum, and magnify.] Usage: 'Divination is a very woolly discipline', sniffs Hermione, ever ready with a magisterial put-down.
- Anthony Quinn; The Shadowy World of the Sorceror; The Belfast Telegraph (Northern Ireland); June 4 2004.
- Jaap Stam looked magisterial in the Dutch defense.
- Peter Berlin; Dutch Last Ones Standing in Penalty Shootout; International Herald Tribune (France); June 28 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; words to describe people.
• * polyonymous - adjective
Having or known by many names.[From Greek polyonymos, from poly- (many) + -onyma (name).] Usage: She (Hecate) protects roads and she is polyonymous, she has lots of names.
- Michael P Clark; Revenge of the Aesthetic: The Place of Literature in Theory Today; University of California Press; 2000.
- The Antonine dynasty polyonymous senator whose names included 'Velleius Blaesus'.
- Anthony Birley; Marcus Aurelius; Routledge; 2000.
• hebetudinous
adjective Dull or lethargic, especially relating to the mind.[From Late Latin hebetudo (dullness), from Latin hebes (dull).] Usage: The audience waits in a kind of hebetudinous fixation, perhaps astonished at the perfectly sustained level of mediocrity.
- Kevin Kelly; 'Aspects of Love': Unlovable; The Boston Globe; April 27 1990.
"I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am."
Those candid words of Samuel Johnson, lexicographer extraordinaire, provide a perceptive observation on the human condition.
A language is a mirror of its people.
As a disinterested record of the language, a dictionary serves as an accurate window to the culture.
It's not surprising that there are more words to describe people who fall on the wrong side than on the good.
In this week's AWAD we'll look at words for people on both sides.
• bonhomie
noun Friendliness; affability; geniality.[From French bonhomie, from bonhomme (good-natured man), from bon (good) + homme (man).] Usage: We have watched how athletes, sportsmen and women from all around the world fought for supremacy in different disciplines in a fiercely competitive yet perfectly friendly way.
They upheld peace and bonhomie above everything else.
- Olympics End; The Daily Star (Dhaka, Bangladesh); Aug 31 2004.
- By the time (Gary) Orfield finishes, the banter and bonhomie have given way to head shaking.
- John Wolfson; The Road to Perdition; Boston Magazine; Aug 2004.
A-Day-A-Word; miscellaneous words.
• armillary
adjective Of or pertaining to rings, circles, or hoops.[From Latin armilla (bracelet, ring), from armus (shoulder).] An armillary sphere is an ancient instrument made up of rings around a sphere, depicting the relative positions of important circles of the celestial sphere.
Nowadays, they are popular as garden adornments.
Usage: Betty planted a box honeysuckle hedge in a semi-circle at the far end but the focal point in her vista is an armillary sphere -- a skeletal metal globe.
- Formal Invitation; Dominion Post (Wellington, New Zealand); Mar 15 2003.
- A terrestrial globe housed within a series of 11 interlocking armillary rings.
- Mary Kay Ricks; Chart a Course to the Library of Congress; The Washington Post; Mar 10 1999.
A-Word-A-Day; miscellaneous words.
• salubrious
adjective Promoting health or well-being; wholesome.[From Latin salubris, from salus (health), ultimately from Indo-European root sol- (whole) which is also the source of words such as solid, soldier, salutary, salute, salvage, safe, sage, solicit, solemn, and consolidate.] Usage: What better way to beat the heat in the Capital, both climatic and political - than head for the salubrious environs of a hill station! - Jagdish Bhatt; Priyanka Chills Out in Shimla; The Times of India (New Delhi); Jun 9, 2004.
- Her most recent series of large paintings of hedges and garden paths is done in energetic, loose brushstrokes daubed with salubrious colours.
- Garden of Inspiration; Orlando Sentinel (Florida); June 5 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; miscellaneous words.
• calefacient
noun A substance (e.g.mustard) that produces a sensation of warmth when applied to a part of the body.
adjective Producing warmth; heating.
[From Latin calefacient-, stem of calefaciens, present participle of calefacere (to make warm), from calere (to be warm) + facere (to make).
Other (some hot, some not) words derived from the Latin root calere are chafe, chauffeur (literally, a stoker) and nonchalant.] Usage: Over the calefacient sidewalks of forty-eighth street last summer there echoed the sounds of workmen at their tasks.
- A Theatre Comes of Age; The New York Times; Oct 11 1931.
- The effect was tonic and calefacient, hence a cooling regimen was needed.
- Joseph Needham and C.
Cullen; Science and Civilisation in China; Cambridge University Press; 1986.
A-Word-A-Day; miscellaneous words.
• lassitude
noun
Weariness; listlessness; lethargy.[From French, from Latin lassitudo, from lassus (weary). Ultimately from Indo-European root le- (to let go or slacken) that's also the ancestor of words such as late, last, alas, allegiance, and lenient.]
Usage: In order to appear busy, one should pace around the office clutching files. ... The best part of this ancient ritual is that it tends to make one's colleagues look away - just in case you and your papers are going to interrupt their own lassitude. - Is Slacking the Only Way to Survive the Office?; The Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland); Aug 16, 2004.
Once in a while we feature words that are engaging by themselves. Consider this a cross-country drive through the dictionary, with no itinerary in hand. We'll
meet words that are long or short and unusual or familiar, but all of them, just like people, are interesting if we care enough to learn about them.A-Word-A-Day
• boffin
noun
A scientist, especially one involved in research.[Of unknown origin.]
If a pocket protector could be considered an official accessory of a nerd, white lab coat, glasses and clipboard would be the equivalent for a boffin. The term first appeared as a moniker given by members of Britain's Royal Air Force to scientists doing research on radar. But like most slang, the how and why of this are unknown.
Usage: Edwards dresses up in irredeemably square glasses, lab coat and hairdo to play Brains, the speccy, stuttering boffin. - James Rampton; A Part With the Right Specs; The New Zealand Herald (Auckland); Sep 4 2004.
-A-Word-A-Day
• frag
noun
Fragmentation grenade: a grenade designed to scatter shrapnel over a large area.verb tr.
To kill (especially an unpopular superior) by throwing a grenade or other explosive.[From shortening of fragmentation.]
The term had its origin in the Vietnam War. How common was fragging? The OED includes this 1971 citation from the Brisbane Courier-Mail: "There were 209 fragging incidents last year, according to the Army and 34 deaths were listed as probably due to these."- Could it happen? Could the LAPD be fragged by the courts? Hit by friendly fire from a federal law that was supposedly gunning for other game? - Patt Morrison; Racketeering Law Could Put LAPD in Bad Company; Los Angeles Times; Sep 1, 2000.
A-Word-A-Day; slang.
• boffo
adjective
1. (Of a movie, play, or some other show) Extremely successful.
2. (Of a laugh) uproarious, hearty.noun
A great success; a hearty laugh; a gag or punch-line that elicits uproarious laughter.[Of uncertain origin. Probably a blend of box office or an alteration
of buffo, bouffe, or boffola. The term was popularised by Variety,
a magazine for the U.S. entertainment industry.]Usage: And until Apple records a boffo holiday season for the mini, it can't officially be called a runaway success. - Alex Salkever; My Huge Mistake About the Mini; BusinessWeek (New York); Aug 19 2004.
- His (Patrick Brown's) problem seems to me to be the demands of the production group of which he is a part and which requires a boffo hit every time in order to keep the auditorium packed ..." - Norman Rae; Wheaties & Lilies & Severed P's; Jamaica Observer (Kingston, Jamaica); Aug 1 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; theme: slang.
• ducat
noun
1. An admission ticket.
2. A piece of money.
3. Any of various gold coins formerly used in some European countries.[From Middle English, from Old French, from Old Italian ducato, from Late Latin ductus, from duchy (so named because the word appeared on some early ducats), from ducy (a territory ruled by a duke or a duchess).]
Usage: It was a mixed crowd: producers, musicians, actors, directors and politicos ... and CHUM's Mary Powers, whom everyone strokes to get into her after-Schmooze party, the hottest ducat at the fest. - Rita Zekas; Your Dancing Table is Ready; Toronto Star (Canada); Sep 12 2004.
- All this for just $50 per ticket ($75 for a two-day ducat), so this isn't exactly a 'bring the whole family' event. Elizabeth Gabriel; What's Going On And What You Need to Know; San Diego Union Tribune; Sep 13 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; theme: slang.
• wonk
noun
An expert who studies a subject or issue thoroughly and excessively.
[Of unknown origin.]This word is most often encountered in the term "policy wonk". There is considerable speculation about the origin of the word, for example an acronym for WithOut Normal Knowledge, or the reverse spelling of the word know, but these claims are not supported by evidence.
Usage: This sober, well-ordered city - where John Calvin was laid to rest - is also where the WTO is headquartered and where trade wonks get down to serious business - From Cancun to Geneva; The Economist (London, UK); July 30 2004.
- Aside from being a genuine wit and an eloquent policy wonk, (Robert) Reich speaks the language of class. - Eric Alterman; The Reich Stuff; Mother Jones (San Francisco, California); Jul-Aug 1995.
If archaic words are the grizzled old veterans of a language, slang terms
are its feisty teenagers. These are words that are not afraid to experiment,
twist, turn, blend, and innovate with language. This week: slang words.• schlimazel
or shlimazel, nounSomeone prone to having extremely bad luck.
[From Yiddish, from shlim (bad, wrong) + mazl (luck). A related
term is Hebrew mazel tov (congratulations or best wishes).]A schlimazel can be concisely described as a born loser. No discussion of schlimazel could be complete without mentioning his counterpart: schlemiel, a habitual bungler. They go together: A schlemiel is one who always spills his soup, schlimazel is the one on whom it always lands. A schlimazel's toast always falls butter-side down. A schlemiel always butters his toast on both sides.
Usage: No one would deny (Virginia Governor Mark) Warner took office under lousy conditions - facing an opposition-party legislature during a recession -
which qualifies him as a schlimazel. - A Barton Hinkle; So, is the Governor a Schlemiel or a Schlimazel?; Richmond Times-Dispatch (Virginia); Jan 28, 2003.- He (Uncle Danny) ticked off the names on the Pirates' roster. 'Abrams, Gordon, Kravitz, Levy - what are we running, a shlimazel farm?' - Clarke Blaise; Sitting Shivah With Cousin Benny; Salmagundi (Saratoga Springs, New York); Fall 1999.
-A-Word-A-Day; words borrowed from other languages.
• soupcon
nounA very small amount.
[From French soupcon (suspicion), via Middle French, Late Latin, from Latin suspicere (to look from below, or suspect). Ultimately from Indo-European root spek- (to observe) which is also the ancestor of such words as suspect, spectrum, bishop (literally, overseer), espionage, despise, and telescope.]
Usage: Couldn't Bob Levey and Jim Talens have a soupcon of sympathy for the Costco Dad? Where was he supposed to go to change that diaper? - Bob Levey; Changing a Diaper on a Costco Conveyor Belt; The Washington Post; Feb 6 2003.
- Remember that white ruffled blouse you bought last spring? Wear it under a pinstripe suit and you'll be right in step with the biggest womenswear trend of the season: the menswear look with a soupcon of femininity. - Pam Thomas; The Feel of Fall; The Providence Journal (Rhode Island); Oct 6 2002.
A-Word-A-Day; words borrowed from other languages.
• ananda
noun
Pure bliss.[From Sanskrit ananda (joy).]
Anandamide is the name given to a compound found in mammalian brains. It's the same compound that's found in chocolate. Now you know why chocolate gives you that feeling of bliss.
Usage: In the emerald blue silence there is space for awareful existence of the fullness of ananda. - Song of Silence; The Times of India (New Delhi, India); Aug 9 2004.
- Then and there he (William A. Devane) decided that if his quest proved successful, he would name the elusive chemical after ananda. - Marijuana And the Brain; Science News (Washington, DC); Feb 6, 1993.
A-Word-A-Day; words borrowed from other languages.
• agitprop
noun
Propaganda, especially one that's political in nature, disseminated through art, drama, literature, etc.[From Russian Agitprop, from agitatsiya (agitation) + propaganda.]
Agitprop was originally the name of the propaganda arms of the Central Committee and local committees of the Russian Communist Party in the former USSR.
Usage: And Stuff Happens will, reportedly, be even more of a hybrid. It is said to be not agitprop or documentary but a written play. - Kate Kellaway; Arts: Theatre of War; The Observer (London, UK); Aug 29 2004.
- (Rob) Stein didn't begrudge the manufacturers of corporatist agitprop the successful distribution of their product in the national markets for the portentous catch-phrase and the camera-ready slogan. - Lewis H. Lapham; Tentacles of Rage; Harper's Magazine (New York); Sep 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; words borrowed from other languages.
• schadenfreude
noun
Pleasure derived from others' misfortunes.[From German Schadenfreude, from Schaden (damage, harm) + Freude (joy).]
Usage: He (Bob Carr) would be only human to feel a touch of Schadenfreude if his state's problems were to cost Latham the election. - Miranda Devine; The Pressure is on Latham; The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Sep 2 2004.
- Part of the attraction of the first seasons was Schadenfreude -- the joy in watching filmmakers suffer and struggle when they got their big chance. As the New York Sun newspaper put it in a headline 'Bad Film - Good TV'. - Peter Henderson; Reality TV 'Project Greenlight' Has New Goal: Money; Reuters; Aug 6 2004.
Many languages have a rich repertoire when it comes to describing relationships. This week we borrow from numerous languages to fill the gaps.
A-Word-A-Day
• levin
noun
Lightning; a bright light.[From Middle English levene. Ultimately from Indo-European root leuk- (light) that's resulted in other words such as lunar, lunatic, light, lightning, lucid, illuminate, illustrate, translucent, lux, and lynx,]
Usage: Broad and frequent through the night
Flash'd the sheets of levin-light;
- Walter Scott; The Dance of Death; 1815.See! from its summit the lurid levin
Flashes downward without warning,
As Lucifer, son of the morning,
Fell from the battlements of heaven!
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; At Sea; 1851.A-Word-A-Day; archaic words.
• howbeit
adverb
Nevertheless.Conjunction
Although.
[Originally from the expression 'how be it' (however it may be).]Two cousins of this word are sobeit (provided that; if) and albeit (although it be). Only albeit remains in wider currency.
Usage: An obscure point about this pact, howbeit a very critical concern, is that the diseases it intends to fight exist in poor countries, mostly in Africa, whereas the generic drugs to fight them with are manufactured elsewhere. - E Ablorh-Odjidja; World Trade, the Next Round; Accra Mail (Ghana); Sep 9 2003.
- But Elton's pride was creaturely, howbeit that of an extraordinary creature; it was a creature's naked claim on the right to respect itself, a claim that no creature's life could of itself invariably support. - Wendell Berry; A Jonquil for Mary Penn; The Atlantic (Boston); Feb 1992.
A-Word-A-Day; archaic words.
• mayhap
adverb
Perhaps.[From the phrase 'it may hap', from Middle English hap, from Old Norse happ (luck, chance).]
Usage: Why it took 12 more days before the appeal was filed (waiting till the last minute), one may never know. Some last ditch attempts by the forces of darkness, mayhap? - Solita Collas-Monsod; Calling a Spade... Good News For a Change; BusinessWorld (Manila, Philippines); Oct 26 2000.
- Are you doing what you should to help this economy roll along? Mayhap you are not fully aware of what you should be doing. Or why you should be happily about the task. - Edwin Darby; Is it Your Duty to Buy, Buy, Buy?; Chicago Sun-Times; September 10 1986.
A-Word-A-Day; archaic words.
• verily
adverbIn truth, indeed, truly, certainly.
[From Middle English verraily, from verrai/verray (very), from Old French verai (true), from vulgar Latin veracus, from Latin verax (truthful).]
Usage: He (Kenneth Kaunda) further said ... that he verily believes the detaining authority has no grounds or reasonable belief to detain him. - Amos Malupenga; My Safety is in Grave Danger, Says Kaunda; Post of Zambia (Lusaka); Dec 29 1997.
- And verily did the chains fall off all manner of things which sorely needed chaining. - Verily Did the Chains Fall; The Australian (Sydney); June 6 2000.
A-Word-A-Day; archaic words.
• trow
(tro) verb tr., intr.
To believe, think, suppose, or trust.[From Middle English, from Old English, ultimately from Indo-European root deru- (to be firm) that's the source of such other words as truth, trust, betroth, tree, endure, and druid.]
Usage: Caledon's publicity blurb starts with a quote from Robbie Burns that, all things considered, seems positively spooky. ‘Here are we met three merry boys; three merry boys I trow are we!’ - Scot August Night; The Age (Melbourne, Australia); August 11 2004.
Fashions come and go. What is hip for one age is passÈ for another. The same goes for words. Yesterday's street slang today becomes respectable, suitable for office memos and academic theses. And what were everyday words at one time may be labeled archaic a few hundred years later. As I see it, there's no reason to relegate any word to the attic of time. The more the merrier. The words featured this week still report for duty faithfully, as shown by recent examples from newspapers.
-A-Word-A-Day
• shivaree
noun, also chivaree, chivari, charivari
A noisy, mock serenade to a newly married couple, involving the banging of kettles, pots and pans.[From French charivari (din, hullabaloo).]
Usage: We refrained from celebrating their marriage with primitive gestures, such as a shivaree, even though pots and pans were readily available for nocturnal banging. - Julie Salamon; Ten for the Honeymoon; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Aug 27 1986.
- Friends tried to subject them to a shivaree, but the joke was on them. The bride and groom were nowhere to be found. - Friends For Life; Capital-Journal (Topeka, Kansas); March 21 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; miscellaneous words.
• bricolage
noun
Something created using a mix of whatever happens to be available.[From French bricolage (do-it-yourself job), from bricoler (to putter around, to do odd jobs), from bricole (trifle), from Italian briccola.]
Usage: This, the last instalment of his so-called 'memoirs', is a rich and ragged bricolage of notes and quotes. - Our Round-up of Other Eyecatching New Books; The Observer (London, UK); May 11 2003.
- Mounted in the Institute's Orozco Gallery, the avant-garde art here incorporates neon text, motion detectors, latex, video, site-specific installation, found-object bricolage, photography and conceptual art -- and only in a few cases that old-fashioned thing called paint. - Michael O'Sullivan; Mexican Art Shows: No Looking Back; Washington Post; Aug 6 1999.
-A-Word-A-Day; miscellaneous words.
• anagnorisis
nounThe moment of recognition or discovery (in a play, etc.)
[From Latin, from Greek anagnorizein (to recognise or discover).
Ultimately from Indo-European root gno- (to know) that is the ancestor
of such words as know, can, notorious, notice, connoisseur, recognise,
diagnosis, ignore, annotate, noble, and narrate.]If you've ever been to a movie involving two brothers separated at birth, one of whom ends up as a criminal and the other a police officer, you already know about today's word. Anagnorisis is the point near the end of the movie where the brothers face each other, notice similar lockets in other's necks (that their mother gave them at their birth) and discover that they are twins, drop their guns, and hug each other tightly.
Usage: A shame, though, that the anagnorisis of the movie, literally, the recognition scene, falls so short of the novel's heartstopping pathos. - Anthony Quinn; Film: Puddle Deep, Mountain High; Independent (London, UK); December 26 2003.
-A-Word-A-Day; miscellaneous words.
• synesthesia
(or synaesthesia), noun1. A sensation felt in one part of the body when stimulus is applied to another part, e.g. visualisation of a colour on hearing a sound.
2. (In literature) Using an unrelated sense to describe something, e.g. warm sounds or fragrant words.[From New Latin, from syn- (together) + -esthesia, from Greek aisthesis (sensation or perception). Ultimately from Indo-European root au- (to perceive) from which other words such as audio, audience, audit, obey, oyez, auditorium, anaesthesia, and aesthetic are derived.]
- As many as one in 2 000 people has the mysterious condition known as synesthesia, a mingling of different senses into one. Some taste shapes. Others feel colours or see sounds. - Brad Evenson; Symphony of the Senses; National Post (Canada); February 26 2002.
- Ms. Mass's novel for young teens about synesthesia, 'A Mango-Shaped Space' (Little, Brown, 2003), tells the story of a 13-year-old girl named Mia who perceives letters, numbers and sounds as colours. - Michelle Falkenstein; Jersey Footlights; The New York Times; July 4 2004.
A-Word-A-Day; miscellaneous words.
• gulosity
noun
Gluttony; greediness.[From Late Latin gulositas, from Latin gulosus (gluttonous), from gula (gullet, gluttony).]
Usage: He (Shakespeare) did not drink much ... it is doubtful whether he ate much either. There is gulosity in Ben Jonson's plays, but no slavering in Will's. - Anthony Burgess; Shakespeare; Carroll & Graf Publishers; 2002.
- The result of my holiday gulosity impacted upon me one night at a Santa Monica restaurant called Rix. The owner had stopped by to chat and was discussing a live jellyfish he planned on placing in a tank as part of the restaurant's decor. I was in a comatose state and when I heard jellyfish I said, ‘Sure, I'll try it, just a small bite’. - Al Martinez; Eat, Eat, Eat, Drink, Eat, Chat, Drink, Eat, Eat; The Los Angeles Times; December 22 1999.
In homage to spammers who include lists of random words in their mail, this
week's AWAD features five miscellaneous words.• garth
noun
A small yard surrounded by a cloister. Also known as cloister garth.[From Middle English, from Old Norse (garthr) yard. Ultimately from Indo-European root gher- (to enclose or grasp) that is also the ancestor of such words as court, orchard, kindergarten, French jardin (garden), choir, courteous, Hindi gherna (to surround), yard, and horticulture.]
Usage: The St. Joseph's Abbey bell tower dominates the view looking out across the garth. - Bradford L Miner; Heeding the Call Abbey Opens Doors to Prospective Monks; Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Massachusetts); March 11 2001.
- In this respect it might be noted that in 1457 the Westminster cloister garth was scythed three times, giving some indication that grass would have been able to grow to some considerable length. - Jan Woudstra and James Hitchmough; The Enamelled Mead; Landscape Research (Abingdon, UK); Mar 2000.
-A-Word-A-Day; words that are also names.
• merry-andrew
noun
A clown.[From English merry + generic use of proper name Andrew.]
Usage: There were new owners, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, the Merry-Andrews who ran the wildly successful disco Studio 54 a decade before (and shared a cell in federal prison for evading taxes on the disco's income). - John Skow; Travel: An Ocean Cruise in Manhattan; Time (New York); December 19 1988.
- Merry Andrew, Lawrence called him then, always applauding his wit, his affectations. - Robley Wilson, Jr.; Lawrence Lighted a Cigaret and Blew Smoke in Andrew's Direction; The San Francisco Chronicle; January 27 1985.
-A-Word-A-Day; theme: words that are also names.
• tommyrot
noun
Nonsense; foolishness.[From English dialectal tommy (fool), shortening of Thomas + English rot.]
Usage:
Name Game
In this age of loony leaders
And blatant tommyrot,
Do you feel you can distinguish
Hussein and who is not?
- Erik Barnouw; Pepper ... and Salt; The Wall Street Journal (New York); March 7 1991.- Burnham is frankly cynical about the public enquiry. ‘That's a lot of tommyrot,’ he says, with a broad, crafty smile. - Peter Popham; Terminal Damage; Independent (London, UK), May 4 1996.
-A-Word-A-Day; words that are also names.
• julienne
noun
A consomme (clear soup) garnished with thin strips of vegetables.adjective
(Of vegetables and other food) Cut into thin, matchstick-like pieces.verb tr.
To cut into thin strips.[From French, generic use of the first name Julienne (or Jules or Julien).]
Usage: Use a grater or julienne peeler to shred the squash into long, thin strips. - Zucchini Fritters a Tasty Use For Abundant Squash; The Associated Press; July 25 2004.
- If the initial response to this new release is any indication, Julie will julienne the chances of Asambhav. - Dinesh Raheja; Sexuality Makes B-O Sense; Mid Day (Mumbai, India); July 28 2004.
-A-Word-A-Day; words that are also names.
• alexia
noun
A neurological disorder marked by the loss of ability to read words. Also called word blindness.[From Latin a- (not) + Greek lexis (speech), from legein (to speak), confused with Latin legere (to read) + Latin -ia (disease). Ultimately from Indo-European root leg- (to collect) that resulted in other derivatives such as lexicon, legal, dialogue, lecture, logic, legend, logarithm, intelligent, diligent, sacrilege, elect, and loyal.]
Usage: Unlike Bill, who has pure alexia, people with partial alexias recognise letters but can read only certain types of words. They may read concrete nouns such as 'inn', but cannot decipher more abstract words such as the preposition ‘in’. - Lauran Neergaard; Stroke Victims Relearn to Read; Seattle Times; July 6 2004.
Expectant parents comb baby name books to look for the perfect label for their precious ones. They often scan thousands and thousands of names to find just the right one. Many choose a name because someone famous has the same moniker. For others, their choice is based on its meaning. Many simply base their selections on how the name sounds.
This week we look at five words that are also names.
• theanthropic
adjective
Having the nature of both God and human.[From Greek theanthropos (god-man), from theo-, (god) + anthropos (man).]
Usage: (T)he answer can only be given ... in theanthropic rather than humanistic terms. - Alastair Hannay; Kierkegaard: A Biography; Cambridge University Press; 2003.
- Mutual-love ethics might be called theanthropic, and its tendency is to treat God as a fellow creature. - Edward Collins Vacek; Divine-command, Natural-law, And Mutual-love Ethics; Theological Studies (Milwaukee, Wisconsin); Dec 1, 1996.
-A-Word-A-Day; words from Greek.
• stratocracy
noun
Government by the military.[From Greek stratos (army) + -cracy (rule, government). Ultimately from Indo-European root ster- (to spread), source of such words as structure, industry, destroy, street, Russian perestroika, and stratagem.]
Usage: (P)NDC was a stratocracy that deployed a culture of wanton and extra-judicial assassinations in the specious guise of revolutionary house-cleaning. - Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe; Question of Kettle Calling the Pot Black; New York Beacon; Oct 9, 2003.
-They ... fell to be governed by an army. Their monarchy was changed into a stratocracy, and not into an aristocracy or democracy. - Robert Filmer, et al; 'Patriarcha' and Other Writings; Cambridge University Press; 1991.
-A-Word-A-Day; words from Greek.
• threnody
noun
A song of lamentation for the dead.[From Greek threnoidia, from thernos (lament) + oide (song). Ultimately from Indo-European root wed- (to speak) that is also the forefather of such words as ode, tragedy, comedy, parody, melody, and rhapsody.]
Usage: In his new novel James Lee Burke ties all these elements together in what amounts to a threnody of grief for the American dream. - Mike Phillips; Both Villains And Victims; The Guardian (London, UK); July 3 2004.
- For Dorin, it was a full-throated threnody of decision. - Jerry Izenberg; A Jersey Hero Hits Home; The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey); July 25 2004.
-A-Word-A-Day; words from Greek.
• mantic
adjective
Of or relating to divination.[From Greek mantikos, from mantis (prophet), from mainesthai (to rage). Ultimately from Indo-European root men- (to think) that is also the source of words such as mind, mental, mention, Sanskrit mantra, automatic, mania, money, praying mantis, monument, music, and amnesia.]
Usage: During July, you will be involved with people who are studying the mantic arts, including astrology. - Sydney Omarr; Today's Horoscope; The Washington Post; June 21 2002.
- Pan had taught him for summoning what beast
he wished, and filled the outdoor theatre
with loud leaping green lumps of slime. Comic
beyond words, the piece was a hit - not least
for frog-happy Eurydice. Whether
anyone suspected the mantic
origins of this so-called coincidence...
- Kurt Leland; The Adolescence of Orpheus; 2001-A-Word-A-Day; words from Greek.
• via media
noun
A middle way.[From Latin, from via (way) + media, feminine of medius (middle).]
This term is used by the Anglican Church to refer to itself, as a middle road between the two extremes of the Roman Catholic Church and evangelical Protestantism.
Usage: The government may reduce the proposed hike in foreign direct investment (FDI) to a via media level of 35-40 per cent. - Mahua Venkatesh; Truncated Increase In Insurance FDI On Cards; Financial Express (New Delhi, India); July 28 2004.
- He (Seamus Heaney) has been cast as predominantly a poet of the via media, perhaps partly in contrast to the tormented writings of Lowell, Plath, Anne Sexton, et al. - Brian Fallon; Capture of the Glittering Prize Seemed Unavoidable; Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland); Oct 6 1995.
-A-Word-A-Day; Latin expressions.
• trochal
adjectiveResembling or revolving like a wheel.
[From Greek trokhos (wheel), from trekhein (to run).]Usage: Consider this unexpected similarity between ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Forrest Gump’: as ‘Pulp Fiction’ breaks tradition with its trochal form, so ‘Gump’ breaks the contemporary rules. - John H Richardson; Dumb And Dumber; The New Republic (Washington, DC); April 10 1995.
- It's trochal, as Malcolm Lowry says. Reiterative, as John Dos Passas said. - Jack Saunders; Forty; Illuminet Press; 1988.
The Greek language has been a rich source of many colourful words in English. Why say 'library' when you can say 'athenaeum'? As the saying goes, "The Greeks had a word for it." This week we feature five words derived from Greek, so you'll no longer have to say, "It's Greek to me".
• terra firma
noun
Solid ground; dry land.[From Latin terra (earth) + firma, feminine of firmus (solid). Ultimately from Indo-European root ters- (to dry) that is the source of words such as territory, terrace, turmeric, and toast.]
Usage: But as we pushed it back, the back wheels sank deeper into the mud. We finally managed to push the plane onto the firma terra and we resumed our flight for Erave station in Samberigi. - Wheels of Death; The National (Boroko, Papua New Guinea); Aug 1, 2004.
- Clayton Cook would rather see more air time than simply driving over the terra firma. - Dale Woodard; Taking Flight; Daily Herald-Tribune (Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada); August 5 2004.
-A-Word-A-Day; Latin expressions
• qua
preposition, adverb
As; in the capacity of.
[From Latin qua, from qui (who).]Usage: Their old standing friends, qua individuals and groups, have to unite and wage a worldwide campaign that should equal the protests that are being made against G8, WTO, IMF, World Bank etc. - MB Naqvi; Immoral and Illegal; The Daily Star (Dhaka, Bangladesh); July 19 2004.
- Fifth, the self-perpetuating tendencies of educational institutions, qua institutions, should never go unchallenged when they perpetuate socially disputable functions. - Philip L Smith; Mind: Anticipation and Chaos (book reviews); Philosophy East and West (Honolulu, Hawaii); Jan 1, 1995.
-A-Word-A-Day; Latin expressions.
• ceteris paribus
adverb
Other factors remaining the same.[From Latin, literally, other things the same.]
This is a favourite term of economists. It's used to indicate the effect of change in a variable, assuming other variables are held constant in a system.
Usage: Ceteris paribus, I stand by my avoid recommendation. - William Lewis; Forget the Big Spend; Sunday Times (London, UK); April 11 2004.
- But since, ceteris paribus, no poet can afford to dispense with anything that may advance his design, it but remains to be seen whether there is, in extent, any advantage to counterbalance the loss of unity which attends it. - Edgar Allan Poe; The Philosophy of Composition; 1850.
-A-Word-A-Day; theme: Latin expressions.
• stat
adverb
Immediately (mostly used in a medical context).[From Latin statim, literally immediately.]
Usage: As she walked away, I made a couple of calls, stat, in case the issue came up again. - Beth Teitell; What is it Delegates Do, Anyway?; Boston Herald (Massachusetts); July 26 2004.
-'Scrubs' continues to look for humour in medical mishaps ... Hand me the defibrillator, stat, I've got to shock myself out of hysterics. - Ted Cox; 'Scrubs' Hospitalised After Jumping Shark; Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, Illinois); May 7 2002.
-A-Word-A-Day
• Roman holiday
nounAn entertainment event where pleasure is derived from watching gore and barbarism.
[From the gladiatorial contests held in ancient Rome.]
Besides being toponyms, all five terms featured this week are also the titles of movies (New York Minute, China Syndrome, Indian Summer, Roman Holiday) or plays (Boston Marriage).
Usage: There were his young barbarians all at play;
There was their Dacian mother: he, their sire,
Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday!
- Lord Byron; Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; Canto iv. Stanza 141.-A-Word-A-Day; toponyms or words derived from place names.
• Indian summer
noun
1. A period of unseasonably warm weather in late autumn or early winter.
2. A pleasant or flourishing period toward the end of something.[Apparently from the fact that this weather phenomenon was first noticed in areas inhabited by Native Americans (erroneously called Indians), in the US.]
A related term is Saint Martin's summer, that is Indian summer occurring in November. (from Saint Martin's Day, November 11).Usage: Late last September, in the thick of a glorious Indian summer in Paris, I booked a table for dinner with my friend ... - Dana Thomas; Consuming Passion; The Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland); April 10 2004.
- For Howley there is only a continuation of the Indian summer of a career that is now promising to be swansonged by a final sojourn with the Lions next year. - James Corrigan; Howley's Audacity; Independent (London, UK); May 23, 2004.
-A-Word-A-Day; toponyms or words derived from place names.
• China syndrome
nounA hypothetical sequence of events in which meltdown at an out-of-control nuclear reactor could cause the molten core to go deeply through the earth.
[From the fanciful idea of a catastrophic nuclear accident in the US resulting in its superheated core sinking in the earth, melting a hole all the way to the other side - to China.]
Popular usage indicates the term is in the process of being redefined. Nowadays, it's often used to refer to the effects of the huge and growing Chinese economy in the global marketplace.Usage: But the biggest concern for investors is that the China syndrome melt-up will flare out as over-investment leads to over-capacity. - William Hanley; Danger in New China syndrome: Red-hot Economy Triggering a Global Chain Reaction; National Post (Canada); January 23 2004.
- You must learn to enforce breaks in your thought, or else risk a China syndrome of the mind - thoughts breeding thoughts breeding energy and heat. - Joe Heffron; Old Way; Knot Magazine (Boulder, Colorado); May 20 2004.
-A-Word-A-Day; toponyms or words derived from place names.
• Boston marriage
nounA long-term, intimate friendship between two women, often sharing a household.
[After Boston (and other areas in the Northeast US) where such arrangements occurred during the 19th century. Perhaps popularised by Henry James' 1886 novel The Bostonians that portrayed such relationships.]
Usage: Boston marriage of Miss Woolley and Miss Marks, for example, was intensely passionate, as their letters show. - Elspeth Cameron; Heart to Heart; Chatelaine (Toronto, Canada); Oct 1997.
- Frances, for her part, saved her own endearments for her lifelong friend, Mildred Minturn, with whom she had a kind of Boston marriage at Bryn Mawr. - The Craftsman And the Nihilist; The New Republic (Washington, DC); July 4 1994.
-A-Word-A-Day; toponyms or words derived from place names.
• New York minute
noun
A very short period of time; an instant.[From the allusion to the frenzied pace of life in New York City.]
Usage: Sometimes in New Orleans, the weather can change in a New York minute. - Janet Angelico; 2nd-graders Invent a Way to Win Contest; Times Picayune (Louisiana); March 28 2004.
- Jambalaya, a spicy Louisiana rice dish, usually takes an hour or more to prepare, but this version's ready in a New York minute. - Meghan Pembleton; Jambalaya's Ready in Minutes When You Use Precooked Rice; The Arizona Republic (Phoenix); April 21 2004.
The English language is replete with such expressions where the name of a place has become associated with a particular quality, such as laconic (using few words) from Laconia in ancient Greece, bohemian (unconventional) from Bohemia in the Czech Republic, and Siamese (connected twin) from Siam, the former name of Thailand.
This week we visit places with names that have become part of the English
language.• forsooth
adverb
In truth; Indeed.[From Middle English forsoth, from Old English forsoth, from for + soth (truth).]
The term is used to express doubt, disbelief, or contempt now. Its modern equivalent might be the word really, as in "Really?"
Usage: Others wanted him to spend less on social services and old people - forsooth! - Simon Hoggart; Howard is Upstaged by a Virtuoso Display of Sadie-masochism; The Guardian (London, UK); March 18 2004.
- Gold diggers and murderers forsooth, the stage is set as far as the JVP is concerned, for their historic entry into forming the next government. - Haunting Memories of the JVP That Linger; Sunday Leader (Colombo, Sri Lanka); March 21 2004.
-A-Word-A-Day; words derived from Old English.
• whilom
adjective
Former.adverb
Formerly.[From Middle English, from Old English hwilum (at times), plural of hwil (time).]
Here is another unusual word that is a synonym of this word: quondam.
Usage: With obvious agreement, he quotes the whilom CEO of RJR Nabisco, Ross Johnson, whose three rules of Wall Street are, 'Never play by the rules, never pay in cash, and never tell the truth.' - Jonathan Yardley; The Root Of All Evil; The Washington Post; October 6 1991.
-A-Word-A-Day; words derived from Old English.
• gloaming
nounTwilight; dusk.
[From Middle English gloming, from Old English glomung, from glom (dusk). Ultimately from Indo-European root ghel- (to shine) that is also the source of words such as yellow, gold, glimmer, glimpse, glass, arsenic, melancholy and cholera.]
Usage: This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere: the dew is never all dried at once: a shower is forever falling, vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls. - John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914).
- The book is a marked departure from previous (Robert) Harris works set in the chill gloaming of mid-20th-century European history, an era that has fascinated him since he was a child ... - Alan Cowell; A Writer's Allegories For Today; International Herald Tribune (Paris, France); November 18 2003.
-A-Word-A-Day; words derived from Old English.
• anent
preposition
Regarding, concerning, about.[From Middle English, from Old English on efen (on even).]
Usage: Our experience with Mr Estrada validates the analysis on the flaw in the Constitution anent the term of office of the Chief Executive - six years is just too short for a good president (like Fidel V. Ramos) - and too long! for a bad one like President Estrada. - Rick B Ramos; To Take a Stand: Disenchantment; BusinessWorld (Manila, Philippines); April 5 2000.
-A-Word-A-Day; words derived from Old English.
• forfend
verb tr.
1. Defend; protect.
2. Forbid; prohibit.
3. Prevent; secure.[From Middle English forfenden, from for- + fenden (to ward off).]
Usage: They (poplars) had been planted on communal land, evenly spaced along a river's edge, so their thirst for water might help forfend local flooding. - Kenneth Baker; The Colours of Monet: Museums See Green; The San Francisco Chronicle; April 22 1990.
- Back on earth, Mr O'Keefe is also engaged in more mundane forms of cost control. Programmes are being cut. Bureaucrats, heaven forfend, are being made redundant. - Science and Technology: 2020 Vision; Human Space-flight; The Economist (London); Nov 16 2002.
Scholars have divided the history of the English language into three periods: Old English (from the middle of the 5th to the beginning of the 12th century), Middle English (12th century through the 15th), and Modern English (16th century onwards).
This week we feature a few words that have their origins in Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon. These words are old but not ready for retirement yet - put them to work.• candent
adjective
1. Glowing.
2. Impassioned.[From Latin candent-, stemp of candens, present participle of candere (to shine or glow). Ultimately from Indo-European root kand- (to shine). Other words from the same root are candle, incandescent, incense, candid, candida, and candidate (in reference to white togas worn by Romans seeking office).]
Usage: It benefited from a certain fire in much of the singing and Emerson Buckley's conducting, but when the production reached Fort Lauderdale's constrictive War Memorial Auditorium Tuesday evening, it was reduced for the most part to occasionally candent embers. - Tim Smith; Ernani Loses Its Spark; Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida); April 25 1985.
- The whole place, the window and the room, lit up in a candent flash. - Ben Okri; The Famished Road; Anchor Books; Jun 1, 1993.
-A-Word-A-Day; theme:unusual words.
• matutinal
adjective
Relating to or occurring in the morning.[From Late Latin matutinalis, from Latin matutinus (of the morning). Ultimately from Indo-European root ma- (good) that is also the source of words such as mature, matinee, matins, Spanish manana (tomorrow, morning, future).]
Usage: In fact, the menagerie of breakfast icons in whom we put our matutinal trust are a pretty fruity, nutty, and flakey bunch all round. - Victor Lewis-Smith; Bit of roughage at Kellogg's; Evening Standard (London, UK); July 17 2000.
- If you live in a city neighbourhood and go for a morning walk, you know that one of the true delights of a matutinal stroll is the chance to check out the neighbourhood trove. - Scot Lehigh; Curb Appeal; Boston Globe (Massachusetts); May 6 2001.
-A-Word-A-Day; theme: unusual words.
• Irrefragable
adjective
Impossible to refute or dispute; incontrovertible.[From Late Latin irrefragibalis, from Latn in-(not) + refragari (to oppose) Ultimately from Indo-European root bhreg- (to break) that's also the progenitor of words such as break, breach, fraction, fragile, fractal, infringe, and suffrage. Suffrage? remember, a broken piece of tile was used as a ballot in earlier times.]
Usage: These issues were high on the agenda of the last American-Turkish talks. They were discussed thoroughly by the two sides many times many times and there were discords too. Thus George Bush won't give an irrefragable answer to these issues in Ankara. -Hakob Chakrian; US President in Ankara For Nato Summit; AZG Armenian Daily, June 26 2004.
• devoir
noun
1. Duty; responsibility.
2. An act of respect or courtesy.[From Middle English devoir (duty), from Old French, from Latin debere (to owe). Ultimately from Indo-European root ghebh- (to give or receive) that is also the forefather of such words as give, have, endeavour, handle, able, and duty.]
Usage: The famous dictum attributed to PT Barnum, that there's a sucker born every minute, has often been validated, but five of them on the same City Council? As an experience-hardened, moderately cynical politician, I am forced by this embarrassing piece of colossal bumbling to pay my devoir to Friedrich von Schiller's lament: 'Against stupidity, the very gods themselves contend in vain'. - Public Pulse; Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska); Sep 9 2001.
-A-Word-A-Day; unusual words.
• hibernaculum
noun, also hibernacle
1. Winter quarters of a hibernating animal.
2. The protective covering of an animal or plant bud that protects it during its dormant stage in the winter.[From Latin hibernaculum (winter residence), from hibernare (to spend the winter). Ultimately from Indo-European root ghei- (winter) that is the ancestor of words such as, chimera (literally a lamb that is one winter, or one year old) and the Himalayas, from Sanskrit him (snow) + alaya (abode).]
An unusual or difficult word is one that's not in common use. Who's to say that "hibernaculum" is a more difficult word than, say, "curriculum". It's only because it's not used more often that a word appears esoteric, odd, or strange to us. From a word's point of view, it's a catch 22. It's not used often because it's not a common word - it's not a common word because it's not used often. This week we feature five words that are ready to run. Give them a chance. And remember, you don't have to use a word in its literal sense. You can be creative. For example, there's no reason to limit today's word for non-human animals. You can very well use it to describe your winter hideout.
• guinea pig
noun
1. A small rodent of the genus Cavia.
2. Someone or something used as a subject of experimentation.[Sense 2 from the fact the guinea pigs were formerly used for experimentation.]
A guinea pig is neither from Guinea (West Africa) nor is it a pig. Rather it's a rodent from South America. Why that name? There's no consensus on how Guinea came into its name though a guinea pig does appear to squeal like a pig. They were earlier used in labs. Nowadays mice and rats have replaced them as subjects of tests and trials even though alternatives to animal testing are usually available.
Usage: We got French make-up artist Coline Jauneau of the Franck Provost salon in Juhu to give our 17-year-old guinea pig, Delna Indorewalla, a natural makeover. - Make-up My Day; Indian Express (New Delhi, India); Jul 2, 2004.
-A-Word-A-Day; expressions derived from pet animals.
• charley horse
nounCramp or stiffness in a muscle, especially in the leg, typically caused by overstrain or injury.
[Originally baseball slang, of unknown origin.]
Usage: I swam a ton of laps Tuesday, but was forced to stop after I received a charley horse in my calf. - Alisha A Pina; Work Pays Off, Just Not on Scale; The Providence Journal (Rhode Island); Jun 27, 2004.
- Coyotes winger Shane Doan has missed two games with a charley horse. - NHL Notebook; Vancouver Sun (Canada); Mar 16, 2004.
-A-Word-A-Day; expressions derived from pet animals.
• stool pigeon
1. A person who works as a decoy or informer, especially for the police.
2. A pigeon used as a decoy.[Of uncertain origin: apparently from the former practice of tying decoy pigeons to a stool; possibly from French estale or estal which referred to a pigeon used to entice a hawk into a net.]
Usage: It's the onerous duty of this group to assess a stool pigeon's credibility, and then decide 'if it's in the public interest' to have that person testify. - Nick Pron; Should Authorities Listen to the Jailhouse Talk?; The Toronto Star (Canada); June 2 2002.
-A-Word-A-Day; expressions derived from pet animals.
• Kilkenny cats
noun
People who fight relentlessly till their end.[From a pair of proverbial cats in Kilkenny, Ireland, who fought till only their tails were left.]
According to a story, some people in the town of Kilkenny in Ireland enjoyed tying the tails of two cats and watching them fight till only their tale was left behind. Most likely the story is a parable of a contest between Kilkenny and Irishtown, two municipalities which fought about their boundaries till little more than their tails were left. Here is a popular limerick (another word that takes its origins from the name of an Irish town) about the cats:Usage: State Opposition Leader Rene Hidding said conservation groups were 'fighting like Kilkenny cats after posturing on matters of high conscience'. - Storm Hits Green Umbrella; The Mercury (Tasmania, Australia); June 17 2004.
-A-Word-A-Day; expressions derived from pet animals.
• running dog
noun
A servile follower; lackey.[From Chinese zougou, from zou (running) + gou (dog), apparently asan allusion to a dog running to follow his or her master's commands. This term was employed in Chinese Communist terminology to refer to someone who was subservient to counter-revolutionary interest.]
Usage: We're playing lickspittle running dog to the most tired ideas, and they weren't even ours in the first place. - Zoe Williams; Ditch These Lickspittle Cliches; The Guardian (London, UK); Aug 13 2002.
This week's expressions will focus on words that originate in pet animals.
-A-Day-A-Word
• polyglot
adjective
1. Conversant in many languages.
2. Composed of or having several languages. (as in a book, a population, etc.)
3. Encompassing diversity (as in culture or origin).noun
1. One who is competent in many languages.
2. A book having the same text in several languages.
3. A mixture or confusion of languages.[From Greek polyglottos, from poly- (many) + glotta (tongue, language). The words gloss, glossary, and glottis are derived from the same root.]
Usage: Valiani, the man, is a cultural polyglot. He's a Seattle-born Italian who looks like a Boston Irishman who's married to a Nebraskan he met in Los Angeles. - Grand New Menu Chef Knows What Kansas Citians Like; Kansas City Star; June 18 2004.
- A-Word-A-Day; words to describe people.
• facile
adjective
Easy; simple; superficial; fluent.[From Middle French, from Latin facilis, from facere (to do). Ultimately from Indo-European root dhe (to set or put) which is also the source of do, deed, factory, fashion, face, rectify, defeat, sacrifice, satisfy, and many other words.]
Usage: But he (Cole Porter) was always a little too facile for the critics, a little too elegant for the masses. - Stephen Whitty; Composer's Biopic Rates a Lump of Cole; Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey); July 2 2004.
- (Thomas) Keneally is a facile writer, a solid, nuts-and-bolts professional. His prose is always supple, and he can turn a phrase. - Patrick Kurp; Read the Book or Wait For Movie?; Houston Chronicle; June 18 2004.
- A-Word-A-Day; words to describe people.
• philodox
noun
Someone who loves his or her own opinion; a dogmatic person.[From Greek philodoxos, from philo- (love) + doxa (glory, opinion). Ultimately from Indo-European root dek- (to take or accept) that's also the root of words such as paradox, orthodox, doctor, disciple, discipline, doctrine, dogma, decorate, dignity, and disdain.]
Usage: Don't take this as a comment on events in Washington - or on newspaper editorial pages - but I thought I should tell you that a philodox is a person who loves fame or glory or, more specifically, an argumentative or dogmatic person who loves his own opinions. - Michael Gartner; Calling all Philologues; Austin American Statesman (Texas); January 15 2000.
- A-Word-A-Day; words to describe people.
• verecund
adjective
Bashful; modest.[From Latin verecundus, from vereri (to respect). Ultimately from Indo-European root wer- (to watch out for) that's also the source of such words as revere, aware, award, wary, warden, lord, steward, wardrobe, panorama, and guard.]
Usage: He speaks - on his own admission - only English; and to his credit he seemed suitably verecund. - Brian Friel; Translations; Faber & Faber; 1995.
- Librarians are going to have to 'get over' (as the vernacular is these days) our verecund ways about talking out loud. - Mark Y Herring; Smoked Herring, Shotten Herring; Dacus Library, Winthrop University (South Carolina); October 1999.
- A-Word-A-Day; words to describe people.
• incult
adject
