Favorite Words

every word was once a poem

2008-09-02T20:29:46Z

wingnut

Pronunciation: wing-nêt

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A bolt nut with wings to allow tightening with the fingers, a thumbnut (see photo). 2. An Asian walnut tree whose nuts have wing-like projections. 3. (British slang) A person with protruding ears. 4. (Slang) A crazy person. 5. (Slang) A fanatical fan of any sports team with "wing" in its name (e.g. the Detroit Red Wings).

Notes: I twist only to the right.The number of meanings for this relatively recent word indicates how unsure we are of how to use it, other than in the mechanical sense (No. 1). The political meaning is odd since it makes sense in reference to any extremist, that is, a right-wing nut or a left-wing nut. However, it is used almost exclusively to refer to conservative extremists. (Liberal extremists are referred to, even more oddly, as moonbats—don't ask.) Dictionaries generally consider this compound two separate words: wing nut. We think it a simple compound.

In Play: This word is a failure in that it was intended as a pejorative term for conservative extremists but most take it humorously: "Many people think that Fox News is a bowl of wingnuts." No one is offended by this bit of US slang: "Dominic is such a wingnut that he had a picture of John McCain painted on his house." It would be easier to take down had he attached it with wingnuts (meaning No. 1).

Word History: Wingnut has been around since the turn of the 20th century though usually spelled as two words. The sense of "crazy person" was first recorded in 1989. Wingnut in the political sense began appearing in the early 21st century in liberal blogs and newsletters. The word wing comes from Old Norse vængr "wing" and is akin to wind. Nut is related to German Nuss and Latin nux (nuc-s), visible in the root of English nucleus. - from alphadictionary.com

rowel
noun a spiked revolving disc at the end of a spur.
verb (rowels, rowelling, rowelled; US rowels, roweling, roweled) [with obj.] use a rowel to urge on (a horse): he rowelled his horse on as fast as he could.
— origin Middle English: from Old French roel(e), from late Latin rotella, diminutive of Latin rota wheel. - from askoxford.com

argillaceous
PRONUNCIATION:
(ahr-juh-LAY-shuhs)

MEANING:
adjective: Made of, resembling, or relating to clay: clayey.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin argilla (clay). Ultimately from the Indo-European root arg- (to shine; white), that is also the source of words such as argentine (silvery) and argue (from Latin arguere, to make clear).

USAGE:
"But unlike many family movies, [the movie Akeelah and the Bee] has moments of pulchritude while showing no traces of argillaceous feet."
Ruthe Stein; Sweetly entertaining 'Bee' Takes Fresh Approach to Spelling It Out; San Francisco Chronicle; Apr 28, 2006. - from wordsmith.org

naif \nah-EEF; ny-\, adjective:

1. Naive.
2. A naive or inexperienced person.

It is only very naif critics who think that all one's influences must be contemporary.
-- John Fowles, Wormholes

Their money-grubbing game: they feign a tragic past and prey on the sympathies of unsuspecting naifs, fishing for bank account numbers or photocopies of passports.
-- Nathalie Atkinson, "Con heir", Toronto Life, September 1, 2003

Believing nothing, the skeptic is blind; believing everything, the naif is lame.
-- "We Are All Wayfarers On the Waves of Time", Hinduism Today, November 30, 1998

But underneath their differences, they're variations on a theme: one a naif, one worldly-wise who learns from the naif.
-- Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, "Torched Songs", Palm Beach Post, September 15, 2000

Naif comes from French, from Old French naif, "naive, natural, just born," from Latin nativus, "native, rustic," literally "born, inborn, natural," from Latin nativus, "inborn, produced by birth," from natus, past participle of nasci, "to be born." - from dictionary.com

pejorative \pih-JOR-uh-tiv\ adjective
: having negative connotations; especially : tending to disparage or belittle : depreciatory

Example sentence:
The team's star player has come under fire for making pejorative remarks about women during a magazine interview.

Did you know?
"If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Moms have given that good advice for years, but unfortunately many people haven't heeded it. The word "pejorative" makes it clear that both English and Latin speakers have long known that disparaging words can make a bad situation worse. "Pejorative" derives from the Late Latin adjective "pejoratus," which in turn comes from the Latin verb "pejorare," meaning "to make or become worse." Although pejorative words have probably always been part of English, the adjective "pejorative" has only been found in English texts since the late 1880s. Before then, English speakers could rely on older synonyms of "pejorative" such as "derogatory" and "uncomplimentary" to describe disparaging words. - from merriam-webster.com

mote, v.2

regional (orig. Sc.). Now rare.

Forms: 18- mote; Sc. pre-17 moyt, pre-17 18- mote, 18 mott.

1. Sc.

a. intr. To find fault. Obs. rare{em} 1.
a1522 G. DOUGLAS tr. Virgil Æneid (1960) Exclamacion 28 Far eithar is, quha list syt doun to mote [v.r. moyt], Ane othir sayaris faltis to spy and note.

b. trans. To find fault with, carp or cavil at. Obs. rare.
1896 D. KIPPEN Crieff 55 It's no every ane that can mote Mr. Imrie's sermons.

2. intr. Sc. Of the sun: to light up specks of dust in the atmosphere. Obs. rare.
1820 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Mar. 672 That whole fragrant vista..moving with children playing in the sun as thick as that luminary motts.

3. a. trans. To remove specks, small particles, etc., from anything; spec. to remove motes from (wool or cotton). Cf. MOTING n.1, MOTER n.
Sc. National Dict. (1965) records the general sense as still in use in Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire in 1963, and the specific sense relating to textiles as still in use in Dumfriesshire in 1948.
The textiles sense relates usually to wool in Scotland and the north of England and to cotton in the United States.
1825 J. JAMIESON Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Suppl. (at cited word), To Mote, to pick motes out of any thing. 1829 B. HALL Trav. N. Amer. III. 222 One hand can mote from twenty to thirty pounds per day. 1862 Frank Leslie's Illustr. Newspaper 15 Feb. 200 (caption) Moting cotton.

b. intr. U.S. Of cotton: to accumulate motes in the process of ginning. Obs. rare.
1884 in R. H. Loughridge Rep. Cotton Production Georgia 141 Cotton yields..475 pounds of lint, rating about the same from old or fresh land, only the former motes worse in ginning. - from oed.com

maquillage
PRONUNCIATION:
(ma-kee-AAZH)

MEANING:
noun: Makeup or cosmetics.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French maquillage (makeup), from maquiller (to apply makeup). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mag-/mak- (to knead, to fit) that is also the source of words make, mason, mass, match, and mingle.

USAGE:
"Wearing black boots and black Levi's, chains around his wrist and neck, a striped vest, a goatee, and a Caesar haircut, Kevyn Aucoin, 31, the Michelangelo of maquillage, stares intently at his canvas, brush in hand. The canvas is the delicate face of Kate Moss."
James Servin; The Face Maker; Harper's Bazaar (New York); Jan 1994. - from wordsmith.org

conductus
noun (pl. conducti) a musical setting of a metrical Latin text, of the 12th or 13th century.
— origin from medieval Latin, from Latin conducere bring together (see conduct). - from askoxford.com

chthonic \THONE-ik\, adjective:

Dwelling in or under the earth; also, pertaining to the underworld

"Driven by dæmonic, chthonic Powers."
-- T.S. Eliot

"The chthonic divinity was essentially a god of the regions under the earth; at first of the dark home of the seed, later on of the still darker home of the dead."
-- C. F. Keary

"The chthonic imagery of Norine's apartment, which..was black as a coalhole and heated by the furnace of the hostess' unslaked desires."
-- M. McCarthy

"Two great and contrasted forms of ritual: the Olympian and the Chthonic, the one a ritual of cheerful character, the other a ritual of gloom, and fostering superstition."

Chthonic comes from khthón, the Greek word for earth. - from dictionary.com

refractory \rih-FRAK-tuh-ree\ adjective
1 : resisting control or authority : stubborn, unmanageable
2 a : resistant to treatment or cure b : unresponsive to stimulus c : immune, insusceptible
3 : difficult to fuse, corrode, or draw out; especially : capable of enduring high temperature

Example sentence:
Refractory students may be disciplined, suspended, or expelled, depending on the seriousness of their offense.

Did you know?
"Refractory" is from the Latin word "refractarius." During the 17th century, it was sometimes spelled as "refractary," but that spelling, though more in keeping with its Latin parent, had fallen out of use by the century's end. "Refractarius," like "refractory," is the result of a slight variation in spelling. It stems from the Latin verb "refragari," meaning "to oppose." - from merriam-webster.com

affront

Pronunciation: ê-frênt

Part of Speech: Noun, verb

Meaning: 1. (Noun) An insult, an indignity, something offensive. 2. (Verb) To insult, to offend.

Notes: Today's Good Word is often confused with effrontery "offensive audacity", misleading some of us to spell that word with an initial A. Avoid that. Otherwise, you may use this word as a noun (an affront to stand-up comics) or as a verb (to affront stand-up comics). This noun does not come with an adjective but offensive works just fine as a stand-in.

In Play: Unfortunately, we are surrounded every day by things we find offensive: "Maud Lynn Dresser considered the new office dress code an affront to all free spirits in the company." Finding things to do and say that are an affront to no one is difficult: "Millicent considered the candy machine in the office an affront to her and others struggling with their sugar addiction."

Word History: Today's word comes from French affronter "to face, to brave, to confront", which apparently came from a Vulgar (street) Latin word affrontare, of which we have no direct written evidence. Still, there must have been a Latin ancestor of the French word made up of ad "up to" + fron(t)s "forehead, face" + the verbal suffix, -are, which meant something like "get in your face". The Latin word frons, frontis came from an earlier stem meaning "to protrude, jut out", which may be the ancestor of English brink. There is evidence of it in Old Icelandic and Old Norse but nothing we know of elsewhere. - from alphadictionary.com

pleonexia
PRONUNCIATION:
(pli-uh-NEK-see-uh)

MEANING:
noun: Excessive or insatiable covetousness.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek pleonektein (to be greedy), from pleion (more) + ekhein (have).

USAGE:
"Don McClanen thinks a condition called pleonexia has overtaken the U.S. 'Pleonexia is an insatiable need for more of what I already have, and it has penetrated our culture to the point where people are angry at the poor,' he states."
Jaye Scholl; Don McClanen Offers the Wealthy a Different Kind of Freedom; Barron's (New York); Sep 18, 2000. - from wordsmith.com

etrier
noun Climbing a short rope ladder with a few rungs of wood or metal.
— origin 1950s: from French étrier stirrup. - from askoxford.com

bumptious \BUMP-shus\ adjective
: presumptuously, obtusely, and often noisily self-assertive : obtrusive

Example sentence:
"I wish the DJs on this station weren't so bumptious," said Andrea. "I'd prefer to just listen to the music."

Did you know?
Etymologists believe that "bumptious" was probably coined, perhaps playfully, from the noun "bump" plus "-tious." When "bumptious" was first used around 1800, it meant "self-conceited." Charles Dickens used it that way in David Copperfield: "His hair was very smooth and wavy; but I was informed ... that it was a wig ... and that he needn't be so 'bounceable' -- somebody else said 'bumptious' -- about it, because his own red hair was very plainly to be seen behind." - from merriam-webster.com

fop \FOP\, noun:

A man who is overly concerned with or vain about his dress and appearance; a dandy.

I wear ties because I don't have to, because in an increasingly dressed-down, homogenized world, they can set you apart. I wear ties because they nurture the inner fop. Also the outer one.
-- Abbott Combes, "Secrets and Ties", New York Times Magazine, November 14, 1999

He's swaddled in a heavy black wool overcoat and his shoes are silver-buckled with cap toes, the black leather well taken care of. He's a bit of a lounge lizard, a hip-hop fop.
-- Po Bronson, The Nudist on the Late Shift

Fop comes from Middle English fop, foppe, "a fool." The adjective form is foppish. - from dictionary.com

slangwhanger

Pronunciation: slæng-whæng-gêr

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: (Slang—are you surprised?) A loud, abusive speaker or writer.

Notes: Today's Good Word is one I stumbled across in the Oxford English Dictionary. There is no question of its origin; it is another comical gift of the US frontier. Its absence from US dictionaries indicates that it has faded from our collective memory just when we need it the most. What do slangwhangers do? Why slangwhang, of course, since they define themselves by their slangwhang.

In Play: Slangwhangers are vituperative people who take delight in affronting the people they dislike: "I love to listen to the slangwhangers who call in to C-SPAN to express their political views." Slangwhangers generally turn every issue into a political one: "The town meeting to discuss the placement of the new school water fountains was disrupted by slangwhangers, who apparently didn't drink anything as soft as water themselves."

Word History: Although today's Good Word sounds like a nonsense word, it does have a history. It is, just as it appears to be, a compound made up of slang and whang. Slang, of course, has always referred to substandard or 'low' speech. It originally referred to the speech of disreputable characters. Whang goes back to Old English thwong, which split into thong and whang between Old and Modern English. Thong originally meant a lash and this meaning continued in whang "to lash with a thong" in Scotland, a major source of early US settlers. So the original meaning of today's Good (and silly) Word was "someone who lashes out with vulgar speech"—pretty much the same as today. - from alphadictionary.com

ply (verb)

Pronunciation: [pLI]

Definition: (1) To work with or at assiduously, ardently, as to cleverly ply cutting shears or ply a tinker's trade; (2) to traverse sea routes regularly, as to ply the southern trade routes; (3) to curry or solicit favor by offering something in abundance, as to ply someone with tempting food; (4) to fold or bend, as to ply towels before putting them away.

Usage: Today's word enjoys a plethora of seemingly unrelated meanings. However, they either refer to bending or an application, since "ply" is either an original word meaning "to bend, fold" or a shortening of the verb "apply" (see Etymology). Anyone who plies in any of the senses above is a "plier." The tool originally used for bending metal is called (a pair of) pliers, in the plural only because it is an object composed of two mirror image parts (see also "scissors," "tongs," "glasses," "binoculars").

Suggested Usage: Here is a little story illustrating three of the meanings of today's word: Les Smart plied his craft of making buggy whips despite a precipitant drop in sales. He then plied his father with promises of changing his career until his father booked his passage on a tramp steamer. For years thereafter Les plied the seas in search of a place where buggies were still widely used for transportation.

Etymology: Today's word comes from Old French plier from Latin plicare "to fold." It is also a reduction of Middle English applien "to apply" from Old French "aplier." The French verb is a descendant of Latin applicare "to attach, add to," composed of ad- "(on)to" + the same verb, plicare "to fold." English explicate "explain," comes from Latin explicare "to unfold," from ex- "un" + plicare "to fold." The original Proto-Indo-European root, plek- "to braid," emerged in English as "flax," which is woven into foldable linen. - from yourdictionary.com

vaquero
noun (pl. vaqueros) (in Spanish-speaking parts of the US) a cowboy; a cattle driver.
— origin Spanish, from vaca cow. - from askoxford.com

picnic

Pronunciation: pik-nik

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A reposeful repast in the open air, an outdoor meal. 2. Something that is easy and pleasant to do.

Notes: We need to keep in mind that today's Good Word changes shape when suffixes are attached. It may be used as a verb but English suffixes beginning on a vowel cannot be directly attached to a final C; we must always buffer that letter with a K: picnics but picnicked, picnicking and picknicker. Picnickers are those who engage in picnickery. Picnickery also refers to the various items and utensils used on a picnic.

In Play: The problem with picnics is that they are held outside in places that must be shared with other species: "When Frank Furter's hotdog unexpectedly shot out of its bun and disappeared into the hole in the tree trunk, a swarm of bees flew out and ruined the family picnic." Still, most people think of picnics as extremely pleasurable, accounting for its second meaning above: "Coming up with a strong marketing campaign for powdered water is not going to be a picnic, Gerald." Let's all get in one more picnic before summer ends.

Word History: Today's happy little word was absorbed from French pique-nique and then subjected to spelling simplification. The original meaning was a meal to which all participants contribute equally. In English, however, it took on the meaning of an outdoor meal. The French word came from the verb piquer "to stick, jab, puncture", which apparently meant "to pick" at one time, as in piquer dans le plat "pick (things) out of the dish". The nique is a rhyme element that makes pique-nique a rhyming compound. Nothing more is known about it, though it has spread across Europe with the English meaning: German Picknick, Swedish picknick, Greek and Russian piknik, and others all share it. - from alphadictionary.com

hazard (noun)

Pronunciation: ['hæ-zrd]

Definition: A dangerous risk, a peril.

Usage: Unlike "jeopardy," "hazard" may be used as a countable noun. One can say that a job is "full of hazards" but not "full of hazard" nor that it places you "in hazard." A job may place you in jeopardy, peril or danger, for these nouns are mass nouns. "Peril" and "danger" may be used either way: inactivity may represent a peril (or danger) to your health. "Hazard" may also function as a verb meaning "to risk." The adjective is "hazardous."

Suggested Usage: If I may hazard a few suggestions, I would recommend that you use today's word in a narrowed sense of "risk," e.g. when a physical object is involved, as in "road hazards" or "workplace hazards." A risk is almost always abstract. "Risk" also does not necessarily imply danger or a threat. You could risk your life or just risk being late for dinner and, while "risky weather" implies it might rain or be cloudy, "hazardous weather" implies a life-threatening storm.

Etymology: From Old French hasard "dice game," probably from the Arabic az zahr "the die" (singular of "dice") from al "the" + zahr "die." In Western Europe the term came to be associated with a number of games using dice, acquired during the Crusades in the Holy Land. The term eventually took on the connotation of danger since games using dice are associated with the hazardous business of gambling with con artists using corrupted dice. - from yourdictionary.com

nadir \NAY-deer\ noun
1 : the point of the celestial sphere that is directly opposite the zenith and vertically downward from the observer
2 : the lowest point

Example sentence:
Ironically, the high point of the novel occurs when the protagonist reaches her nadir, for only then does she arouse our empathy and emotional involvement.

Did you know?
"Nadir" is part of the galaxy of scientific words that have come to us from Arabic, a language that has made important contributions in the vocabulary of mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and chemistry. "Nadir" derives from an Arabic word meaning "opposite" -- the opposite, that is, of the "zenith," which names the highest point of the celestial sphere, the one vertically above the observer. (The word "zenith" itself is a modification of another Arabic word that means "the way over one's head.") The English poet John Donne is first on record as having used "nadir" in the figurative sense of "lowest point" in a sermon he wrote in 1627. - from merriam-webster.com

distrait
(adjective)
[di-STRAY]

1. having the attention diverted, especially because of anxiety; inattentive: "Yan was distrait with news of the approaching hurricane."

Origin:
Approximately 1350; from Old French, past participle of 'distraire': to distract; from Latin 'distrahere': to distract.

In action:
"And I though that like the (Pause.) I'm sorry. You said something was on your mind. What was it? You seem distrait. I had the mere minimum to, good grace to, absent hypocrisy in not wanting your answer. Ask you...but you seem distrait." David Mamet. No One Will Be Immune: And Other Plays and Pieces (1994). - from vocabvitamins.com

comestible \kuh-MES-tuh-buhl\, adjective:

1. Suitable to be eaten; edible.
2. Something suitable to be eaten; food.

I came to Adria's lab expecting subtle combinations and rare ingredients, the real outer limit of the comestible.
-- Adrian Searle, "Spray-on sauces, caviar for astronauts and aerosols of wine. . .", The Guardian, April 6, 2001

No matter how many flip-flops the nutrition gurus may make in deciding whether a particular comestible will kill or cure, most Americans seem to trust their instincts and eat what they please.
-- Richard Martin, "Dollars to doughnuts", Nation's Restaurant News, May 29, 2000

This rare comestible calls for specially designed platters, holders, and forks, but how well worth their acquisition!
-- Samuel Chamberlain, Clémentine in the Kitchen

Both men are descended from the fourth Earl of Sandwich, who is credited with inventing the namesake comestible in the mid-l8th century.
-- Amanda Mosle Friedman, "Noble heir to sandwich inventor starts namesake delivery outfit", Nation's Restaurant News, April 23, 2001

Comestible comes from Late Latin comestibilis, from comestus, from comesus, past participle of comedere, "to eat up, to consume," from com-, intensive prefix + edere, "to eat." - from dictionary.com

phalera
noun (pl. phalerae) (in ancient Greece and Rome) a bright metal disc worn on the chest as an ornament by men, or used to adorn the harness of horses.
— origin Latin, from the Greek plural phalara. - from askoxford.com

prorogue
PRONUNCIATION:
(pro-ROHG)

MEANING:
verb tr.: 1. To discontinue a session of something, for example, a parliament. 2. To defer or to postpone.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French proroger (to adjourn), from Latin prorogare (to prolong or defer), from pro- (before) + rogare (to ask). Ultimately from the Indo-European reg- (to move in a straight line, to lead or rule) that is also the source of regime, direct, rectangle, erect, rectum, alert, source, and surge.

USAGE:
"Foreign Minister, Mangala Samaraweera told The Sunday Times, 'I did not go to Parliament since it was prorogued on May 6.'"
Manmohan to Meet Pillayan; The Sunday Times (Colombo, Sri Lanka); Jul 27, 2008. - from wordsmith.org

peccant, adj. and n.

Forms: 15- peccant, 18 pecant. [< Middle French, French peccant unhealthy (1314 as pechantes, plural) and its etymon classical Latin peccant-, peccans (used as noun in classical Latin, denoting a wrongdoer, as adjective in post-classical Latin, in senses A. 1 and A. 2, from 5th cent.), present participle of peccare to do wrong, perhaps < an unattested adjective < ped-, pes foot (see -PED comb. form) + -cus, suffix forming adjectives, also seen in mancus MANK adj. Compare also Anglo-Norman pecchant, Middle French pechant sinner (end of 12th cent. in Old French as pechëant) and French peccant sinner (1611 in Cotgrave).
With peccant humours (see sense A. 1) compare Old French humeurs pechantes (1314), Middle French l'umeur peccante (c1494-8; 1580 as humeurs peccantes), post-classical Latin humores peccantes (5th cent.).]

A. adj.

1. a. Unhealthy, corrupt, diseased; causing disease. Formerly esp. of a bodily humour. Now arch. and hist.
1595 Problemes of Aristotle sig. C3v, The answer, according vnto the Phisitions, is, because the peccant matter lyeth in the head. 1597 JAMES VI & I Daemonologie (1924) 45 He [sc. the Devil] knowes..what humor domines..and..can subtillie walken vp the same, making it peccant. 1661 E. HICKERINGILL Jamaica 103 Adjourning Plagues they use to bring, In Peccant Autumns or the Spring. 1668 Philos. Trans. 1667 (Royal Soc.) 2 621 It was not at all probable that his blood was peccant in the quantity. 1702 R. MEAD Mech. Acct. Poisons ii. 92 All the Specificks in this Case are such as do either absorb a peccant Acidity in the Stomach, or carry it off by Urine. 1747 tr. J. Astruc Acad. Lect. Fevers 105 A crisis, or critical depuration of the humours, whereby the peccant matter is thrown off:..just as we see in the small-pox, measles, &c. 1823 BYRON Let. 14 Apr. (1980) X. 148 The consequence is, that not only I have been put to some pain, but the peccant part and its immediate environ are..black. 1899 T. C. ALLBUTT Syst. Med. VI. 742 The patient..pointing to the peccant tooth as the source of his woe. 1927-9 H. WHEELER Waverley Children's Dict. V. 3172/2 Anyone who has a peccant tooth should have it attended to. 1993 P. O'BRIAN Wine-dark Sea iv. 75 The medical men went from cot to cot, Stephen asking each man how he did, taking his pulse and examining his peccant parts. 2001 Lancet (Nexis) 3 Feb. 403 [In lovesickness] sleep and appetite would depart, and an accumulation of peccant humours would render the body economy seriously diseased.

b. fig. and in figurative contexts.
1605 BACON Of Aduancem. Learning I. sig. F4v, Thus haue I gone ouer these three diseasses of learning, besides the which there are some other rather peccant humors, then fourmed diseases. 1644-7 J. CLEVELAND Char. London Diurnall (1677) 102 Our Modern Noble Men; those Wens of Greatness, the Body Politick's most peccant Humours, Blistred into Lords. 1727 POPE et al. Peri Bathous 13 in Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol., A Discharge of the peccant Humour, in exceeding purulent Metre. 1790 E. BURKE Refl. Revol. in France 29 The change is to be confined to the peccant part only. 1860 R. W. EMERSON Power in Conduct of Life 54 Where is great amount of life, though gross and peccant, it has its own checks. 1881 J. TODHUNTER Rienzi Tribune of Rome III. i. 70 New wars. The peccant humours of the land, Drawn to a head, must have sharp surgery. 1906 H. JAMES in Coll. Trav. Writings (1993) 610 One feels that no community can really be as purged of peccant humours as the typical American has for the most part found itself foredoomed to look.

2. a. Of a person or other agent: that commits or has committed a sin or an offence; sinning, offending; culpable.
1604 R. CAWDREY Table Alphabet., Peccant, offending, doing amisse. 1610 G. FLETCHER Christs Victorie II. xxi. 32 The Shadowes err'd Of thousand peccant ghosts, vnseene, vnheard. 1690 R. SOUTH Serm. (1697) II. vii. 295 That a peccant Creature should disapprove, and repent of every Violation of, and Declination from the Rules of Just and Honest. 1704 Female Wits sig. A2v, They're welcome to us, when we're Peccant found, Their Understanding's safe as well as sound. 1773 R. FARMER Let. 18 Feb. in Percy Lett. (1946) II. 166, I have been peccant a good while—guilty at least of Sins of Omission, and I am now beginning a Folio of Repentance. 1862 T. CARLYLE Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia III. XIII. iii. 452 The peccant Officials..fell on their knees. 1876 G. MEREDITH Beauchamp's Career I. v. 75 They were all of them likely soon to be at sixes and sevens with disorderly lacqueys, peccant maids, and cooks in hysterics. 1921 L. STRACHEY Queen Victoria iii. 82 The fact that the peccant doctor remained in the Queen's service..produced an unpleasant impression of unrepentant error upon the public mind. 2003 Independent on Sunday (Nexis) 13 July, The brilliant (if morally peccant) young politician from Arkansas.

b. Of an action or thing: offensive; sinful.
1633 W. PRYNNE 1st Pt. Histrio-mastix III. vi. 123 [Our own statutes] precisely prohibit the satyricall depraving, traducing, or derogation of..the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in any Enterludes, Playes or Rimes (in which kinde Playes had beene formerly peccant). 1814 S. T. COLERIDGE Let. to J. Murray in Lett. (1895) 626 Any more peccant thing of Froth, Noise, and Impermanence, that may have overbillowed it on the restless sea of curiosity. a1820 J. WOODHOUSE Life & Lucubrations Crispinus Scriblerus in R. I. Woodhouse Life & Poet. Wks. (1896) I. iii. 54 Impanell'd Saints, by His pure Spirit taught, Shall state each truth—expose each peccant thought! 1874 W. E. HALL Rights & Duties Neutrals III. iii. 127 He seizes the peccant property. 1912 Dict. National Biogr. 1901-11 III. 543/2 The subsequent publication of the peccant opuscule..completed his estrangement from the church. 1986 A. BURGESS Homage to QWERT YUIOP 185 The Catholic Church..does not regard gambling as peccant.

3. Offending against or violating a rule or principle; faulty, erroneous; defective. Obs.
1623 H. COCKERAM Eng. Dict. sig. H6v/2, Peccant, faultie. 1624 BP. F. WHITE Replie to Iesuit Fishers Answere 116 This Sillogisme is peccant in forme. 1659 Quæries Proposalls Armie to Parl. 4 The first instrument together with a new fangled advice, have proved..meer peccant forms of Polity, without any patterne or president in the Chequer Rolle of politicall Records. 1726 J. AYLIFFE Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 177, If the Citation be evidently peccant in point of Form or Matter. 1787 R. BURNS Let. Jan. (2001) I. 87 Your criticisms, Sir, I receive with reverence; only I am sorry they mostly came too late: a peccant passage or two that I would certainly have altered were gone to the Press.

B. n. A sinner; an offender. With pl. concord. With the: peccant people as a class. Obs.
1621 I. C. in T. Bedford Sin unto Death page vj b, No time nor age..hath beene more likely to bring forth plenty of peccants in this kinde. 1631 J. MABBE tr. F. de Rojas Spanish Bawd VII. 85 If you goe but out into the market-place, you shall euery day see..the Peccant and his punishment. 1659 Lady Alimony V. i. sig. I3v, These wee'l chastise: and by a due survey As just Complaints shall be exhibited, Measure our Censure to the Peccants Crime. 1803 C. K. SHARPE Let. 3 Apr. in Corr. (1888) I. 165 A swinging blow on some peccant's rump from the cudgel of the serjeant! 1877 J. A. HERAUD Macée de Léodapart v. 235 'Tis justice, when the law's Insulted, to avenge it on the peccant.

DERIVATIVES

peccantly adv. rare
1847 Webster's Amer. Dict. Eng. Lang., *Peccantly. 2003 Small Pharma Investor (Electronic ed.) 1 2/2 The specific allegations are themselves peccantly prosaic.

peccantness n. Obs. rare
1727 N. BAILEY Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II, *Peccantness, offensiveness, hurtfulness. - from oed.com

nomenclature \NOH-mun-klay-cher\ noun
1 : name, designation
2 : the act or process or an instance of naming
3 a : a system or set of terms or symbols especially in a particular science, discipline, or art b : an international system of standardized New Latin names used in biology for kinds and groups of kinds of animals and plants

Example sentence:
Karin was introduced to a whole range of unfamiliar terms when she started her new job as a laboratory assistant, but she soon became familiar with the nomenclature.

Did you know?
In his 1926 Dictionary of Modern English Usage, grammarian H. W. Fowler asserted that it was wrong to use "nomenclature" as a synonym for "name"; he declared that "nomenclature" could only mean "a system of naming or of names." It is true that "nomenclature" comes from the Latin "nomenclatura," meaning "the assigning of names," but the "name" sense was one of the first to appear in English (it is documented as long ago as 1610), and it has been considered perfectly standard for centuries. - from merriam-webster.com

capote
noun N. Amer. historical a long cloak or coat with a hood, worn especially as part of an army or company uniform.
— origin early 19th cent.: from French, diminutive of cape. - from askoxford.com

therefor
PRONUNCIATION:
(ther-FOR)

MEANING:
adverb: For that; in return or exchange for something, e.g. "placing an order and sending payment therefor".

ETYMOLOGY:
From Middle English therefor, from there + for. The word 'therefore' arose as a variant spelling of this word.

USAGE:
"Thrice thereafter the temple was rebuilt, each time greater and more elaborately than before, but always on the site of the original shrine, though men forgot the reason therefor."
Robert E. Howard; The Bloody Crown of Conan; Del Rey; 2004. - from wordsmith.org

enigma (noun)

Pronunciation: [ê-'nig-ma]

Definition: A very difficult riddle; an unsolvable mystery.

Usage: The adjective is "enigmatic" or "enigmatical" but the adverb is only "enigmatically." The verb is enigmatize [ê-'nig-mê-tIz] "to make puzzling" and someone who enigmatizes things is an enigmatist.

Suggested Usage: Winston Churchill said in a radio broadcast in October of 1939: "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Sir Edward Elgar claims that his 'Enigma Variations' contains an overarching theme which no one else can identify. In World War II the German Naval code machine was known as the Enigma Machine. A copy was passed to the British by sympathetic Polish engineers and became the key to Allied success against the U-Boats in World War II. (If you haven't tried YDC's Enigma Machine, go there now.)

Etymology: Latin "aenigma" from Greek "ainigma," the noun of ainissesthai "to speak in riddles" derived from ainos "fable." - from yourdictionary.com

Don, n.1

Also 6 Doen, Done. In senses 3, 4 with small initial. [a. Sp. don:—L. domin-um master, lord.]

1. A Spanish title, prefixed to a man's Christian name.
Formerly confined to men of high rank, but now applied in courtesy to all of the better classes.
1523 WOLSEY in St. Papers VI. 119 The Archiduke Don Ferdinando. 1568 GRAFTON Chron. II. 313 Done Peter King of Spaine. 1591 SHAKES. Two Gent. I. iii. 39 Don Alphonso, With other Gentlemen of good esteeme. 1724 T. RICHERS Hist. R. Geneal. Spain 92 This prince [Pelayus] was the first, to whom was given the Title of Don, which till then, they gave only to saints. 1838 PRESCOTT Ferd. & Is. xvi, (Cent.), The title of Don, which had not then been degenerated into an appellation of mere courtesy.

b. By extension: often humorous. Obs.
1588 SHAKES. L.L.L. III. i. 182 This signior Junios gyant dwarfe, don [Qo. dan] Cupid. 1599 {emem} Much Ado V. ii. 86 If Don worme (his conscience) find no impediment to the contrarie. 1619 Pasquil's Palin. (1877) 152 Don Constable in wrath appeares. a1659 CLEVELAND London Lady 17 Don Mars, the great Ascendant on the Road.

c. Don Diego, a name for a Spaniard (cf. DIEGO); hence, Don Diego v., to cheat or do (obs.). Don Juan, the name of a legendary Spanish nobleman whose dissolute life was dramatized by Gabriel Tellez in his Convivado de Piedra; the name was adopted in various popular imitations of this play and by Byron in his well-known poem; a rake, libertine, roué; also attrib.; hence, Don Juanesque, Don Juanic, Don Juanish adjs., and Don Juanery, Don Juanism. Don Pedro (see sense 6). Don Quixote, the hero of a Spanish romance by Cervantes, who, from his attempt to be a knight-errant as described in the books of chivalry, has become the type of any one who attempts to do an absurdly impossible thing or to carry out an impossible ideal; also attrib.; hence, Don Quixote v., Don Quixotism: see also QUIXOTIC, etc.
1607 WEBSTER Hist. Sir T. Wyat Wks. 1830 II. 298 A Dondego is a kind of Spanish stockfish, or poor John. c1626 Dick of Devon II. iv. in Bullen O. Pl. II. 39 Now Don Diego..or Don Divell, I defye thee. 1674 [Z. CAWDREY] Catholicon 18 The furious zeal of persons Don-Quixotted in Religion. 1709 STEELE Tatler No. 31 page 8 Why you look as if you were Don Diego'd to the Tune of a Thousand Pounds. 1719 DE FOE Crusoe II. xiii, The state he [a Chinaman of position] rode in was a perfect Don Quixoteism being a mixture of pomp and poverty. [1734 FIELDING Don Quixote in England Introd., The Audience, I believe, are all acquainted with the Character of Don Quixote and Sancho. I have brought them over into England, and introduced them at an Inn in the Country.] a1845 HOOD T. of Trumpet xxx, The most Don Juanish rake. 1848 THACKERAY Van. Fair xxii. 190 Don't trifle with her affections, you Don Juan! 1855 —— Newcomes (1879) II. xx. 236 (Stanf.) It was the man whose sweetheart this Don Juan had..deserted. 1870 D. G. ROSSETTI Let. 15 Mar. (1965) II. 817 He is a complete Don Quixote in every way. 1882 STEVENSON Fam. Stud. 55 It is the punishment of Don Juanism. 1890 G. B. SHAW Let. 16 Dec. (1965) 278 An Irish Don Juan who will eventually compromise Socialism by some outrageous scandal. Ibid., Those who take the Don Juan view of me. 1898 W. GRAHAM Last Links 33 Byron's manner was tinged with a vein of Don-Juanesque recklessness. 1900 A. CONAN DOYLE Gt. Boer War x. 167 His long thin figure, his gaunt Don-Quixote face. 1902 Pall Mall Gaz. 4 Jan. 6/3 This Don Quixote of a society has made an assault upon the most solid of windmills. 1925 D. H. LAWRENCE Refl. on Death Porcupine 182 It's Don Juanery, sex-in-the-head, no real desire, which leads to profligacy and squalid promiscuity. 1926 W. J. LOCKE Old Bridge ix. 138 Her father was a Don Juanesque clerk in a factory. 1963 AUDEN Dyer's Hand III. 106 B..tries to be a Don Juan seducer in an attempt to compel life to take an interest in him.

2. A Spanish lord or gentleman; a Spaniard.
1610 B. JONSON Alch. III. iii, A doughty don is taken with my Dol. 1659 DRYDEN On Cromwell xxiii, The light Monsieur the grave Don outweighed. 1797 NELSON 13 Jan. in Nicolas Disp. (1845) II. 326, I hailed the Don, and told him, This is an English Frigate. 1880 TENNYSON Revenge iv, I never turn'd my back upon Don or devil yet.

3. transf. A distinguished man; one of position or importance; a leader, first class man. Also (colloq. and dial.) attrib., and in phrase a don at something, i.e. an adept.
a1634 RANDOLPH Amyntas II. v. Wks. (1875) 306 This is a man of skill, an {Oe}dipus, Apollo, Reverend Phoebus, Don of Delphos. 1665 DRYDEN Indian Emp. Epil. 21 The great dons of wit. 1768-74 TUCKER Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 466 Quotations from the old dons of Greece. 1833 in Westm. Rev. Apr. 445 One of the men..was what was called a don workman. 1854 Chamb. Jrnl. II. 280 A don at cricket.

4. Hence, in the colloquial language of the English universities: A head, fellow or tutor of a college.
1660 SOUTH Serm. 29 July (1843) II. 88 The raving insolence which those spiritual dons from the pulpit were wont to show [at Oxford]. 1681 THORESBY Diary (Hunter) I. 109 Sermons..against Arminianism, whereat many dons were offended. 1726 AMHERST Terræ Fil. v. 20 The reverend dons in Oxford are already alarm'd. 1882 BESANT Revolt of Man vii. (1883) 164 The few left were either the reading undergraduates or the dons. 1888 BURGON Lives 12 Gd. Men II. x. 242 An introduction to two Oxford dons.

5. = DAN1, DOM1 2. Obs. rare.
1600 Chester Pl. Proem i, The devise of one done Rondall, moonke of Chester abbe.

6. More fully, Don Pedro, a game at cards.
The players are divided into two sides and have 6 or 5 cards each; the points scored in one game are 23:—one each for High, Low, and Jack of trumps, 5 for Game (i.e. for the side which at the end of the game scores the highest total from the cards won by them, counting 10, 4, 3, 2 and 1 for a ten, ace, king, queen and knave respectively), also 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively for the ace, king, queen and knave of trumps, and 5 for the five or Don.
1873 Slang Dict., Don Pedro..was probably invented by the mixed English and Irish rabble who fought in Portugal in 1832-3. 1897 Daily News 16 Mar. 8/3 Two detectives..saw the prisoners playing Don.

Hence dondom, donhood, donlike a., donly a., donness, all nonce-wds. from sense 4.
1797 A. M. BENNETT Beggar Girl (1813) III. 122 The don was in..a truly don-like rage. 1865 Sat. Rev. 4 Feb. 143 In the glory of early donhood at the Universities. 1891 RODEN NOEL Byron 64 Juvenile verses against Cambridge Dondom. 1893 Nat. Observer 20 May 12/2 A very donly Don. 1895 Ibid. 2 Mar. 432/1 Englishwomen who are fairly familiar with Middle English (who, beyond the range of donnesses, may probably be counted on fingers). - from oed.com

mugwump

Pronunciation: mêg-wêmp

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. (Capitalized: Mugwump) A Republican who refused to support the party's presidential candidate, James G. Blaine, in 1884. 2. A person who switches political parties or an independent who disdains the politics of both parties. In other words, a person with his mug on one side of the fence and his wump on the other. 3. (A bit dated) A person who considers him- or herself above others out of a sense of self-importance, a bigwig, a kingpin, panjandrum.

Notes: Today's Good Word comes from a jovial family of words, including the nouns mugwumpism if you prefer formality or, if you prefer something a bit lighter, mugwumpery. People who behave like mugwumps are mugwumpish and behave mugwumpishly.

In Play: The disadvantage of being an independent in the US is that independents have no interesting name associated with them: we call them simply "independents". Well, here is the word to pull independents off that snag: "With the Democrats and Republicans almost evenly divided this year, the mugwumps are likely to decide the outcome of the presidential election."

Word History: Let us celebrate the Republican National Convention this week with a word it contributed to the English language in 1884 (see Meaning). Republicans borrowed this word from the original Americans, in this case from Massachusett, an Algonquian language originally spoken in the state named after it. In 1663, the Reverend John Eliot of Roxborough, Massachusetts, published a translation of the Bible into that language in an early American attempt to convert Native Americans to Christianity. In 1666 he published the first grammar of the language. In order to accomplish this feat, Eliot, of course, had to teach himself Massachusett. According to Eliot, the Massachusetts called their chief a mugquomp. Although the first published example of this word appeared only in 1828, there is ample reason to believe that it was used earlier as a sarcastically facetious term referring to American leaders from Europe. - from alphadictionary.com

Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, Manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man? - William Shakespeare

Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition. - Eli Khamarov

Rules are like flagpoles in a slalom race: you observe their presence religiously, skirt around them as closely as possible and never let them cut your speed. - Katherine Neville

I believe in practicing prudence at least once every two or three years. - Molly Ivins

We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness. - Pierre Corneille

No one can have a higher opinion of him than I have, and I think he's a dirty little beast. - W. S. Gilbert

Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier. - Kathleen Norris

It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot, irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it. - Jacob Bronowski

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so you apologize for truth. - Benjamin Disraeli

You cannot hide an eele in a sacke. - George Herbert

It is easy to halve the potato where there is love. - Irish proverb

go forth and telemundo

2008-08-27T03:37:18Z

anadiplosis

Pronunciation: æn-nê-dê-plo-sis

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: A rhetorical device for emphasis involving the repetition of a word in a phrase in the following phrase, as in "Phillippe frequently returned to the library, the library where Mildred worked."

Notes: Today's Good Word is one of a synonymous pair that includes epanadiplosis, which is now only rarely encountered. The plural of today's word is anadiploses [æn-nê-dê-plo-sees]. If there is an adjective, it is anadiplotic. It doesn't appear in the major dictionaries but has been used on the Web.

In Play: The purpose of anadiplosis is to emphasize a particular word: "Rhoda Book worked hard on her manuscript, a manuscript that had nearly cost her her sanity." But there are variations of this type of word repetition. In Herman Wouk's novel, The Caine Mutiny, Captain Queeg uses one when he says, "Aboard my ship, excellent performance is standard. Standard performance is sub-standard. Sub-standard performance is not permitted to exist."

Word History: Today's Good Word is Latin anadiplosis, borrowed by the Romans from the Greek. The Greek noun came from the verb anadiploun "to fold back, double" from ana- "on(to)" + diploun "to double", based on the adjective diplous "double". Diplous started out its life as a compound made up of dwi "two" + plo- "fold", also the origin of English fold. The mother of dwi was dwo which also went on to become English two, Latin duo and Russian dva, all meaning the same thing. - from alphadictionary.com

clochard
PRONUNCIATION:
(KLOH-shahr)

MEANING:
noun: A beggar; vagrant.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French clocher (to limp), from Latin clopus (lame).

USAGE:
"The bridge is always crowded with vehicles, clochards, salespeople, college students, the aged and infants, and dogs."
Kyoko Yoshida; Kyoto Panorama Project; The Massachusetts Review (Amherst); Winter 2000/2001. - from wordsmith.org

beleaguer \bih-LEE-gur\ verb
1 : besiege
2 : trouble, harass

Example sentence:
The new programming chief was hired to revamp the schedule for the network, which was consistently beleaguered by low ratings.

Did you know?
English speakers created "beleaguer" from the Dutch word "belegeren" in the 16th century. "[Military men] will not vouchsafe ... to use our ancient terms belonging to matters of war, but do call a camp by the Dutch name," commented the English soldier and diplomat Sir John Smyth in 1590. The word for "camp" that he was referring to is "leaguer." That term in turn comes from Dutch "leger," which is one of the building blocks of "belegeren" (literally, "to camp around"). But neither "leaguer" nor "beleaguer" were in fact utterly foreign. Old English "leger," the source of our modern "lair," is related to the Dutch word. And the Old English "be-" ("about, around"), as seen in "besiege" and "beset," is related to the Dutch prefix "be-" in "belegeren." - from merriam-webster.com

hustings

Pronunciation: hês-tingz

Part of Speech: Noun, plural

Meaning: 1. (US) The location of a political campaign speech. 2. (US) The political campaign circuit, the activities that go into a political campaign. 3. (Britain) Local, usually city courts in Britain that no longer convene, except on rare occasions in London.

Notes: The problem facing users of this word is determining its grammatical number. Husting simply isn't used any more (as my spellchecker now reminds me) even though the meaning of the word suggests it is possible. Most dictionaries say that hustings is singular or plural but I have been able to find examples of the word with singular agreement (a hustings, the hustings is) only on British websites, and precious few there.

In Play: As we close the gap on the political conventions in the US this summer, today's Good Word will be heard a lot: "Mother always told me to beware the promises of politicians on the hustings." We are always safe using this word in the plural: "You would think Corey Publican is out on the hustings the way she rants on her political hobby horses."

Word History: Today's word comes from Old English husting "court". This word originated in Old Norse husthing, a compound comprising hus "house" + thing "assembly". It was originally a council convened by a king or an earl that acted as a judicial body. By the 18th century it was a court in the city of London that met irregularly in the Guildhall. It was in this building that members of Parliament came to be nominated by a speech given from a platform upon which the Lord Mayor and aldermen were seated. This practice ended with the Ballot Act of 1872. By that time, however, the platform itself was called the "hustings" and, from there, it went on to refer to the place of any political speech or the process of being nominated or elected to public office. - from alphadictionary.com

raster
noun a rectangular pattern of parallel scanning lines followed by the electron beam on a television screen or computer monitor.
— origin 1930s: from German Raster, literally screen, from Latin rastrum rake, from ras- scraped, from the verb radere. - from askoxford.com

myopic
PRONUNCIATION:
(my-OP-ik)

MEANING:
adjective: 1. Nearsighted; unable to see distant objects clearly. 2. Shortsighted; lacking foresight; narrow-minded.

ETYMOLOGY:
Via Latin, from Greek myopia, from myop- (nearsighted), from myein (to close) + ops (eye).

USAGE:
"Three characters dominate the drama: star prosecutor David Boies, whose casual demeanour belied razor-sharp courtroom instincts; Judge Penfield Jackson, the conservative arbitrator who grew increasingly disenchanted with Microsoft's arrogance; and Bill Gates, portrayed as a surly, myopic Napoleon, whose cantankerous, evasive testimony did much to bring about the guilty verdict."
Steve Yap; Consequences of Hubris; Far Eastern Economic Review (Hong Kong); Jun 14, 2001. - from wordsmith.org

bruit \BROOT\, transitive verb:

To report; to noise abroad.

The first originated with a professor of government who, it was bruited, had always succeeded in predicting the outcome of presidential-year elections.
-- William F. Buckley Jr., "We didn't tell you so", National Review, November 29, 2004

An attack on Iraq has been bruited about ever since President Bush invoked an axis of evil in his State of the Union address to Congress in January.
-- Joyce Appleby and Ellen Carol Dubois, "Congress must reassert authority to declare war", The Record (Bergen County, NJ), September 20, 2002

Since his family was so very wealthy, having an accumulated fortune of many years, he did not have to work for a living, and thus he could -- and did -- devote himself to various and sundry dissipations and pleasures, especially drink (in fact it was widely bruited about, that in his younger years, he was alcoholic).
-- Dorothy Belle Pollack, "A fairy tale for the modern day", The Record (Bergen County, NJ), September 13, 2004

Bruit comes from Old French, from the past participle of bruire, "to roar." - from dictionary.com

rapporteur \ra-por-TER\ noun
: a person who gives reports (as at a meeting of a learned society)

Example sentence:
The rapporteur compiled the available evidence into a report and presented it to the full committee.

Did you know?
"Rapporteur" was adopted into English in the early 16th century and is a descendant of the Middle French verb "rapporter," meaning "to bring back, report, or refer." Other descendants of "rapporter" in English include "rapportage" (a rare synonym of "reportage," in the sense of "writing intended to give an account of observed or documented events") and "rapport" ("harmonious relationship"). The words "report," "reporter," "reportage," etc., are also distant relatives of "rapporteur"; all can ultimately be traced back to the Latin prefix "re-," meaning "back, again, against," and the Latin word "portare," meaning "to carry." - from merriam-webster.com

febrile

Pronunciation: fe-brêl, fee-brêl

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: 1. Feverish, having a fever. 2. Agitated, overactive, passionate, feverish.

Notes: The medical world has provided us with a plethora of words based on the root of today's Good Word, febr-. The noun indicating a febrile state is febrility. Something that causes fever is febrifacient, while a febrifugal medication is one that chases fever away. February comes from the Latin februarius mensis "month of purification", from februum "purification". Although most etymologists are hesitant to draw a parallel with febris, purification by fire is not uncommon around the world.

In Play: You will encounter this word most frequently in medical contexts: "The patient was brought to the hospital in a febrile condition," which is to say, with a fever. Of course, we will be able to find situations outside the hospital where this word fits in its figurative sense: "Percival finally broke through the writer's block in one night of febrile writing in which he completed the book."

Word History: Today's word comes from Latin febrilis, the adjective for febris "fever". Febris goes back to a Proto-Indo-European root bherv- "boil, bubble", which led to the English verb burn as well as the Scots English burn "spring, (bubbling) brook". This particular stem was subject to metathesis, the process by which the R switches places with the vowel before it. This led to such English words as bread, brew, and brown, not to mention the German word for "roast", braten. - from alphadictionary.com

apocope
noun [mass noun] Linguistics omission of the final sound of a word, as when cup of tea is pronounced as cuppa tea.
— origin mid 16th cent.: from late Latin, from Greek apokoptein cut off, from apo- from + koptein to cut. - from askoxford.com

juju \JOO-joo\, noun:

1. An object superstitiously believed to embody magical powers.
2. The power associated with a juju.

[David] Robinson, sounding confident and sure, said that the time for juju and magic dust had passed. 'To be honest with you, I think it's beyond that', he said. 'It's very hard to come up with magic at the end'.
-- "Knicks Find There's No Place Like Home", New York Times, June 22, 1999

'You ever heard of juju?'
Skyler shook his head.
'Magic. You talk about this and it'll be the last talkin' you do. You'll just open your mouth and nothin' will come out'.
-- John Darnton, The Experiment

We are told, for example, of the Edo youngster, apparently both Christian and traditionally African in his beliefs, who was heard to mutter 'S.M.O.G.' over and over when he and his companions were threatened by 'bad juju'. When questioned he replied, ''Have you never heard of it? It stands for Save Me O God. When you are really in a hurry, it is quickest to use the initials'.
-- "The Spirits And The African Boy", New York Times, October 10, 1982

On any terminal she is using, a co-worker puts up a sign proclaiming, 'Bad karma go away, come again another day'. When she was pregnant, she said, she crashed her computer twice as often -- she attributes that to a double whammy of woo-woo juju.
-- "Can a Hard Drive Smell Fear?", New York Times, May 21, 1998

Juju is of West African origin, akin to Hausa djudju, fetish, evil spirit. - from dictionary.com

logy

Pronunciation: lo-gee

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Sluggish, lethargic.

Notes: The spelling of this word has vacillated between logy and loggy for 150 years but seems to have settled on logy. We are free to convert it into an adverb or noun if we remember to change the Y to an I: logily, loginess.

In Play: You don't have to be a logger to feel logy: "Fosdick couldn't understand why he felt so logy after winning the hotdog-eating contest." He probably felt a bit crapulent, too. Loginess can be induced by pharmaceuticals: "The Mickey Finn that Horace slipped into Leticia's drink to stop her constant chattering made her a little logy but only slowed the tempo of her prattle."

Word History: Etymologists hesitantly suggest that today's word was borrowed from Dutch log "heavy, cumbersome"; however, there may be an origin for this word closer to home. The spelling logy and loggy with the same meaning appeared at about the same time: mid 19th century. A log is considered something heavy and ponderous, as we see in the simile "sleep like a log". It is also related to lug, also implying heaviness. Now, loggy can also mean "abounding in logs". Adjectives with this meaning like dusty, filmy, and sandy often have a second meaning of "like X". So logy could be a misspelling of loggy, meaning "ponderous like a log", which people began pronouncing the way it is spelled. - from alphadictionary.com

protonotary
noun (pl. protonotaries) chiefly historical a chief clerk in some law courts, originally in the Byzantine court.
— origin late Middle English: via medieval Latin from late Greek protonotarios, from protos first + notarios notary. - from askoxford.com

ambisinister
PRONUNCIATION:
(am-bi-SIN-uh-stuhr)

MEANING:
adjective: Clumsy with both hands. (Literally, with two left hands.)

ETYMOLOGY:
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. - from wordsmith.org

Hobson's choice \HOB-suhnz-CHOIS\, noun:

A choice without an alternative; the thing offered or nothing.

Fagan's defense revolves around his insistence that he faced a Hobson's choice and had to act.
-- Laura Parker, "Discovery of daughters never followed by reunion", USA Today, May 11, 1999

They're faced with a Hobson's choice: Make the plunge . . . or face a terrifying alternative -- gradual extinction.
-- Heather Green, "The Great Yuletide Shakeout", Business Week, November 1, 1999

The origin of the term Hobson's choice is said to be in the name of one Thomas Hobson (ca. 1544-1631), at Cambridge, England, who kept a livery stable and required every customer to take either the horse nearest the stable door or none at all. - from dictionary.com

idée fixe \ee-day-FEEKS\ noun
: an idea that dominates one's mind especially for a prolonged period : obsession

Example sentence:
The fear that he was going to be fired became such an idee fixe for Toby that he could think of nothing else.

Did you know?
According to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the term "idee fixe" was coined by French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830, who used it to describe the principal theme of his Symphonie fantastique. That reference goes on to say that, at about the same time French, novelist Honore de Balzac used "idee fixe" in Gobseck to describe an obsessive idea. By 1836, Balzac's more generalized use of the term had carried over into English, where "idee fixe" was embraced as a clinical and literary term for a persistent preoccupation or delusional idea that dominates a person's mind. Nowadays "idee fixe" is also applied to milder and more pedestrian obsessions. - from merriam-webster.com

fang, n.

Also 7 phang(e. [OE. fang, cogn. with OFris. fang m., ON. fang n., MHG. fang, vanc m., repr. OTeut. *fango-, f. root of *fanhan (see FANG v.).]

I. The act or fact of catching or seizing.

1. a. A capture, catch. Also a tight grasp, a grip. in fang with: in the embrace, under the protection of. (Cf. ON. í fang, in one's arms.)
a1400-50 Alexander 1725 In fang with my faire godis. c1470 HENRY Wallace XI. 1219 King Eduuard was rycht fayn off that fang. 1597 J. PAYNE Royal Exch. 41 Whome he once gettethe with full fange into his gripinge clowches he howldeth faster than catt the mowce. 1600 SHAKES. A.Y.L. II. i. 6 The Icie phange And churlish chiding of the winters winde.

b. Sc. In phrase to lose the fang: to miss one's aim, to fail in an attempt (Jam.). Also of a pump (see quot.).
1825 JAMIESON Suppl. I. s.v., A pump well is said to lose the fang when the water quits the pump.

2. concr. That which is caught or taken; captured game; booty, plunder, spoils (obs. exc. Sc.). Hence, in Sc. Law of a thief: caught, taken with the fang.
1016 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.), [Hi] fang woldon fon. a1300 Cursor M. 3728 (Cott.) Was thou not at me right now, And fedd me wit thi fang i trau? Ibid. 15434 (Cott.) Quen..Iudas thus receiued had his fang. c1340 Ibid. 4801 (Fairf.) Quen ye fondyn haue your fange. 1609 SKENE Reg. Maj. 71 Gif ane man apprehends in his house ane theif, with the fang of the thift. 1728 Biggar Council Proceedings, The fangs (plunder) being found in his house. 1790 MORRISON Poems 110 Snap went the sheers, then in a wink, The fang was stow'd behind a bink.

II. An instrument for catching or holding.

3. A noose, trap. In quots. fig. Obs.
1535 STEWART Cron. Scot. I. 470 The Britis fled, and wes fane of that fang To leif the Romanis in the thickest thrang. 1794 Piper of Peebles 277 The Laird was fairly in a fang, An' naething for him now but hang.

4. a. A canine tooth; a tusk. In pl. applied gen. to the teeth of dogs, wolves, or other animals remarkable for strength of jaw.
1555 EDEN Decades 187 Theyr fanges or dogge teeth. 1613 HEYWOOD Silver Age III. 157 These phangs shall gnaw vpon your cruded bones. a1700 DRYDEN Ovid VIII. 535 The fatal Fang drove deep within his Thigh. a1771 GRAY Poems, Descent of Odin 10 Eyes that glow, and fangs that grin. 1808 Med. Jrnl. XIX. 58 This is done by inserting his [a leech's] three fangs into the skin. 1867 EMERSON May Day, etc. Wks. (Bohn) III. 439 Wolves shed their fangs.
fig. 1601 SHAKES. Twel. N. I. v. 196 By the verie phangs of malice, I sweare I am not that I play. a1633 AUSTIN Medit. (1635) 191 Fast in the Iron fangs of that Foxe Herod. 1794 FOX Sp. 21 Jan. Wks. 1815 V. 159 The relentless fangs of despotism. 1827 HALLAM Const. Hist. (1876) I. i. 28 Sufficient to bring him within the fangs of the recent statute. 1867 TROLLOPE Chron. Barset II. lii. 89 Having strong hopes..that Grace's father might escape the fangs of justice.

b. In various transferred uses: (see quots.).
1694 Acc. Sev. Late Voy. II. (1711) 123 The Phangs of a Tooth-drawer. 1776 MICKLE tr. Camoens' Lusiad VII. 282 The anchor's moony fangs. 1789 Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts VII. 193 The fangs on the fliers are alternately driven. a1825 FORBY Voc. E. Anglia, Fang, a fin. From the fancied resemblance of their pointed ends to long teeth. 1853 KANE Grinnell Exp. xlvi. (1856) 423 The water-line was toothed with fangs of broken ice. 1878 BROWNING La Saisiaz 14 Fangs of crystal set on edge in his demesne.

c. pl. The mandibles of an insect. Obs.
1609 C. BUTLER Fem. Mon. (1634) 102 The matter thereof [of wax] they gather from flowers with their Fangs. 1713 J. WARDER True Amazons (ed. 2) 3 Her [a Bee's] Fangs, or Mouth, wherein are her Teeth.

d. The venom-tooth of a serpent; also the claws, provided with poison-ducts, which terminate the cheliceræ of a spider.
1800 Med. Jrnl. IV. 295 The punctures made by the poisonous fangs were evident. 1802 PALEY Nat. Theol. xii. §1 The fang of a viper..is a perforated tooth. 1855 KINGSLEY Heroes II. 206 Where are your spider's fangs? 1862 DARWIN Fertil. Orchids v. 220 Each horn is tubular, like an adder's fang. 1875 CAMBRIDGE in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9) II. 294 The channel [of the poison] running completely through the fang [in a spider].
fig. 1809-10 COLERIDGE Friend, The serpent fang of this error. 1849 ROBERTSON Serm. Ser. I. xiii. 224 The fang of evil pierces the heel of the noblest as he treads it down.

e. colloq. A human tooth. Also Comb. and fig.
1840 DICKENS Old C. Shop iii, The few discoloured fangs gave him the aspect of a panting dog. 1891 FARMER Slang II. 374/1 Fang-faker, a dentist. 1919 W. H. DOWNING Digger Dial. 22 To put in the fangs—to demand money, etc. 1936 WODEHOUSE Laughing Gas v. 57 Possibly because they were old dental college chums,..these two fang-wrenchers shared a common waiting-room. 1943 HUNT & PRINGLE Service Slang 31 Fang farrier, dentist. 1957 N. CULOTTA They're Weird Mob (1958) viii. 109 Jimmy got himself some bread and butter and an open tin of jam. Yer good on the fang, mate, said Joe.

5. a. A claw or talon. Obs.
Although this sense would appear on etymological grounds likely to have existed, it seems to rest solely on the authority of the Dicts. Possibly it may have been wrongly inferred from figurative applications of sense 4, in which the pl. is often equivalent to clutches, grasp, with little or no conscious allusion to the literal use.
1731 J. K. New Eng. Dict. (ed. 3), Fang, a claw. 1749 B. MARTIN, Fangs, claws. 1755 JOHNSON, Fang, the nails, the talons.

b. (See quot.)
1768 E. BUYS Dict. Terms Art, Fangs, (in Botany) the shoots or tendrils by means of which one Plant takes hold of another.

6. The pointed tapering part of anything which is embedded in something else. a. A spike; the tang of a tool.
1769 FALCONER Dict. Marine (1776), Dog, a sort of iron hook, or bar, with a sharp fang at one end, so formed as to be easily driven into a plank. 1823 P. NICHOLSON Pract. Build. 222 Fang, the narrow part of the iron of any instrument which passes into the stock. 1887 S. Cheshire Gloss., Fang, a prong, e.g. a yelve-fang.

b. The root of a tooth; one of the prongs into which this divides.
1666 Phil. Trans. I. 381 That Tooth..which had not a phang like other Cutters. 1803 Med. Jrnl. X. 365 If the fangs were capable of an increase by the ossific inflammation. 1872 HUXLEY Phys. vi. 142 One or more fangs which are embedded in sockets.

c. A prong of a divided root. Obs.
1664 EVELYN Kal. Hort. (1729) 200 Take out your Indian Tuberoses, parting the Off-sets (but with care, lest you break their Fangs). 1727 BRADLEY Fam. Dict. s.v. Anemone, [Sifting earth upon the bed] till..there remain only above ground the Fangs of these young Anemones.

III. Technical uses.

7. Naut. a. A rope leading from the peak of the gaff of a fore-and-aft sail to the rail on each side (used for steadying the gaff). Now usually VANG.
1513 DOUGLAS Æneis V. xiv. 8 Now the lie scheit, and now the luf, thai slak, Set in a fang, and threw the ra abak. 1769 FALCONER Dict. Marine Giv, The mizen-yard is furnished with fangs, or vangs in the room of braces.

b. pl. The valves of a pump-box. [Cf. 1b.]
1867 in SMYTH Sailor's Word-bk.

8. Mining. (See quots.) [Derbyshire dialect: perh. a separate word. Also WINDFANG.]
a1661 FULLER Worthies I. 230 A Spindle, a Lampturne, a Fange. 1747 HOOSON Miner's Dict. Givb, Fange is a Place..which is left as we drive along the Drift, on purpose to carry Wind along with us. 1802 MAWE Mineral. Derbysh. Gloss., Fang, a case made of wood, &c., to carry wind into the mine. 1836 R. FURNESS Medicus Magus 51 [The devil] quite rusty with the smoke, Fled up the Fang. [Here app. used for chimney.] Ibid. 69 (Glossary) Fang, a passage made for conducting air after the miner.

IV. 9. attrib. and Comb.: fang-bolt, a bolt having a spiked nut or washer, used for attaching iron to wood.
1876 J. W. BARRY Railway Appliances ii. 73 Fang-bolts consist of bolts long enough to pass through the sleepers, with a screw cut on the lower end to fit a wide flat nut, having on it fangs or short spikes. 1915 C. J. ALLEN Mod. Brit. Perm. Way 60 Whereas this type of fang-bolt has in all three separate parts—bolt, nut, and washer—it will be noticed that the Great Southern and Western and Great Eastern fang-bolts..consist of the bolt and a fanged nut only. - from oed.com

fie

Pronunciation: fai

Part of Speech: Interjection

Meaning: Fooey! Pooh! Pfui! An interjection of disgust or displeasure.

Notes: Interjections do not undergo normal derivation, so we are not surprised to find this one a lexical orphan. We raise it today in defense of the language against the onslaught of vulgarities used as exclamations these days. Almost all English profanities are used as interjections these days. Fie on them all! Let's return to civility and not surrender English to the vulgarians. Today's word is just the ticket we need for the journey.

In Play: Fie! will sound silly at first but then everyone will become accustomed to hearing expressions like: "Fie on all the vulgarities that befoul our lovely language and the vulgar people who use them!" Doesn't that sound much better than the other F-word? Fie may be used alone, too: "Fie! Who washed the cat and tried to dry it in the microwave?"

Word History: Today's Good Word has so many possible sources that it is impossible to trace it back to any one of them—a quandary we haven't faced before. Fi was an interjection of disgust in Latin which came down to French. However, fy carried the same connotation in Swedish and Danish, which English could have borrowed from Old Norse. We know it goes back to a sound similar to German pfui, which led to English phooey and, possibly, to Yiddish feh. The original source was an attempt to approximate the sound of spitting, a physical act indicating disgust. Does this make sense? Don't say "Phooey!"- from alphadictionary.com

epicure

Pronunciation: e-pê-kyur

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: A person with discriminating taste, especially in food or wine.

Notes: Be careful of the various near synonyms of this good word. A gourmet is a connoisseur of food and drink, someone who understands it, while the tastes of a gourmand are more like those of a glutton. An epicure is someone who appreciates the creativity of well-prepared food and drink. A gastronome is someone who studies cuisine, though, like the gourmet, also enjoys it very much. The adjective derived from this Good Word is epicurean [e-pê-kyur-i-ên], as in a table of epicurean delights.

In Play: Epicures are generally associated with food and drink: "Biff Stroganoff's epicurean tastes keep him away from fast-food restaurants." However, the only fundamental qualification for an epicure is intelligent enjoyment of creativity, so we can easily put this word in play like this: "Sidney Couch is an epicure of office gossip; only the juiciest interests him." The alphaDictionary Good Word series is designed for word epicures. We hope you find it to your taste.

Word History: This good word is a commonization (change of a proper noun to a common noun) of the name of the Greek philosopher, Epicurus (341-270 BCE). Epicurus insisted that pleasure was the ultimate goal of life. Another way of putting it would be to say that the eponym of epicure is Epicurus. An eponym is the name of a person that gave rise to a new word. - from alphadictionary.com

screed (noun)

Pronunciation: [skreed]

Definition: (1) A raised, smooth flat strip around the borders of an area where plaster, mortar, concrete or other wet material is poured, over which a long flat, straight object (also called a screed) is dragged in order to create a perfectly smooth, even surface. (2) A rip or a fragment torn away from something (Scotland); (3) a strip, especially the strip of cloth around the border of a hat (Britain). (4) A long, monotonous text or speech, a diatribe.

Usage: Today's word has long since been verbed - it may be used to mean "to smooth with a screed," as to screed a wall or screed a concrete patio.

Suggested Usage: The sense of smoothing a surface implied by today's word is more frequently used by contractors and builders. Still, it offers great metaphoric opportunities for us all: "McGinnis is a bit rough on the surface but his new girlfriend will screed him down a bit." The fourth meaning has been available to all of us for a long time. If your girl friend doesn't write, you might suggest, "I don't expect a weekly screed but a few words now and then would be nice."

Etymology: Today's word can be traced back to Old Germanic *skreuð-, commonly viewed as an extension of *(s)kor-/(s)ker- "cut," about which we have written before. This is one of those Indo-European roots with an initial [s] that comes and goes mysteriously. With the [s] we get "shear," "scar," and "share," from Old English scaru "portion." "Short" is a member of this family, too; it is from Old English sceort "cut (off)." Without the [s] it turns up in Russian korotkij "short." - from yourdictionary.com

dos-à-dos
adjective (of two books) bound together with a shared central board and facing in opposite directions.
noun (pl. same) a seat or carriage in which the occupants sit back to back.
— origin French, back to back. - from askoxford.com

comity \KOM-uh-tee\, noun:

1. A state of mutual harmony, friendship, and respect, especially between or among nations or people; civility.
2. The courteous recognition by one nation of the laws and institutions of another.
3. The group of nations observing international comity.

In Athens last week, E.U. leaders offered a picture of comity as they formally signed accession treaties with 10 new members.
-- James Graff, "Can France Put a Cork In It?", Time Europe, April 28, 2003

Despite the image of civil-military comity during World War II, there were many differences between Franklin Roosevelt and his military advisers.
-- Mackubin Thomas Owens, "Sniping", National Review, April 2, 2003

Short-term initiatives in 1919 became longer-term strategies for bringing the two pariahs, Germany and Russia, into the comity of nations.
-- Kenneth O. Morgan, "Lloyd George and the Lost Peace: from Versailles to Hitler, 1919-1940", English Historical Review, June 2002

Everyone hopes that Saddam Hussein will honour his agreement with Kofi Annan and that Iraq will be received back into the comity of nations.
-- Marrack Goulding, "A wider role for the UN", New Statesman, March 13, 1998

Comity is from Latin comitas, from comis, "courteous." - from dictionary.com

foment \foh-MENT; FOH-ment\, transitive verb:

1. To nurse to life or activity; to incite; to abet; to instigate; -- often in a bad sense.
2. Fomentation; the act of fomenting.
3. State of excitation.

Cynical politicians may even foment conflicts among groups to advance their own power.
-- Martha Minow, Not Only for Myself

Here, over many cups of coffee and other brews, John Adams, James Otis, and Paul Revere met to foment rebellion, prompting Daniel Webster to call it "the headquarters of the Revolution."
-- Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds

Having burned to taste the foment of the sixties, I romanticized Diego's experience of it.
-- Katherine Russell Rich, The Red Devil

Foment is from Latin fomentum, "fomentation," from fovere, "to warm, to foster, to encourage." - from dictionary.com

callow \KAL-oh\ adjective
: lacking adult sophistication : immature

Example sentence:
"Back when I was a callow college student," said Emma, "I paid little attention to the advice given to me by my professors."

Did you know?
You might not expect a relationship between "callow" and baldness, but that connection does in fact exist. "Callow" comes from "calu," a word that meant "bald" in Middle English and Old English. By the 17th century, "callow" had come to mean "without feathers" and was applied to young birds not yet ready for flight. The term was also used for those who hadn't yet spread their wings in a figurative sense. "Callow" continues to mean "inexperienced" or "unsophisticated" today. - from merriam-webster.com

roc
noun a gigantic mythological bird described in the Arabian Nights.
— origin late 16th cent.: ultimately from Persian ruk. - from askoxford.com

dactylogram
PRONUNCIATION:
(dak-TIL-uh-gram)

MEANING:
noun: A fingerprint.

NOTES:
The study of fingerprints for identification purposes is known as dactylography or dactyloscopy. Dactylonomy is the art of counting on fingers. Dactylology is finger-speech -- communicating by signs made with fingers.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek daktylos (finger or toe) + gramma (something written).

USAGE:
"The dactylogram expert confirmed that Christina's prints were found on the gun and elsewhere throughout Lombardi's apartment."
William Bernhardt; Blind Justice; Ballantine Books; 1992. - from wordsmith.org

primavera
noun [mass noun] the hard, light-coloured timber of a Central American tree.
The tree is Cybistax donnellsmithii, family Bignoniaceae.
adjective [postpositive] (of a pasta dish) made with lightly sautéed spring vegetables: linguine primavera.
— origin late 19th cent.: from Spanish, denoting the season of spring, from Latin primus first, earliest + ver spring (alluding to the tree's early flowering). - from askoxford.com

Murngin, n. and adj.

Plural unchanged. [< Yolngu (north-east Arnhem Land) murrnginy shovel-nose spear.
The word was adopted by W. L. Warner in 1930 as a loose designation for eight tribes in north-east Arnhem Land who share the same kinship system. He was criticized by other anthropologists for this designation in what became known as the Murngin controversy, which was responsible for a re-evaluation of anthropological method and standards. In later usage, anthropologists and linguists have preferred to refer to Murngin as Wulamba, Miwuyt, or Yolngu.]

A. n.

1. A member of any of a group of peoples inhabiting north-east Arnhem Land in northern Australia, now commonly referred to as Yolngu.
1930 W. L. WARNER in Amer. Anthropologist 32 207 The Murngin are organized into local clan hordes, which are re-grouped into the moieties called Yir-i-tja and Du-a. 1933 T. T. WEBB in Oceania 3 410, I disagree with Dr. W. Lloyd in his application of the name Murngin generally to hordes of both moieties. 1955 R. M. BERNDT Murngin (Wulamba) Social Organization 104 Warner erroneously used the term Murngin which is the name of only one clan and should not be used in this sense. 1967 Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 29 482 Nowadays if the Murngin are mentioned at all, it is only because they have become a byword for all that is most arcane and, let it be said, most trivial in social anthropology. 1972 Man 297 16 The Murngin are well aware of the need of copulation to produce conception. 1981 Man 16 103 This is especially true of prescriptive marriage with the MBD, practised among the Murngin, who have puzzled generations of anthropologists. 1994 Man 29 65 Among the Murngin of Australia..the vagina is explicitly or symbolically equated to a hunting- or fishing-trap.

2. The Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Murngin, now commonly referred to as Yolngu.
1931 Oceania 1 83 These tribes have patrilineal moieties, named Yididja and Dua in Murngin, and a system of eight sub-sections. 1951 Amer. Anthropologist 53 47 In Yir-Yoront there are totems for father's father or son's son..whereas Murngin has the terms marikmo for father's father and maraitcha for son's son.

B. adj. (attrib.). Of, relating to, or designating the Murngin or their language.
1930 Amer. Anthropologist 32 208 The following are the Murngin terms with their descriptive English equivalents. 1951 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 81 34 To my way of thinking, Radcliffe-Brown is rather over anxious to see the Murngin system as merely a variant of the general Australian pattern. 1967 Royal Anthropol. Inst. Occas. Paper 26 1 There is still something to be learnt from the Murngin controversy, even if it is too late to learn much about the Murngin. 1970 Man 5 484 The Murngin word recorded by Warner for this period, and those who were active during it, is wongar. 1978 Mankind 11 208 My justification for presenting this data is that it may cast a new light on a problem of Yolngu (Murngin) social organisation that has vexed successive generations of anthropologists since the publication of Lloyd Warner's analysis in the 1930s. - from oed.com

apograph
PRONUNCIATION:
(AP-uh-graf)

MEANING:
noun: A copy or a transcript.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek apo- (away, off, apart) + -graph (writing).

USAGE:
"This fragment first appeared in the Ricci apograph, a manuscript compiled almost entirely by a grandson of Machiavelli, Giuliano de Ricci."
Julia L Hairston; Skirting the Issue: Machiavelli's Caterina Sforza; Renaissance Quarterly (New York); Autumn 2000. - from wordsmith.org

ogham
noun [mass noun] an ancient British and Irish alphabet, consisting of twenty characters formed by parallel strokes on either side of or across a continuous line.
[count noun] an inscription in or character from the ogham alphabet.
— origin early 18th cent.: from Irish ogam, connected with Ogma, the name of its mythical inventor. - from askoxford.com

swell (adjective)

Pronunciation: ['swel]

Definition: (Slang) Today's word is a positive epithet, popular in the 30s and 40s, meaning, roughly "great, fine."

Usage: Every generation has its slang expression for "great, fine," indeed, "great" is one of them. Originally meaning "large," today it is used most widely to mean "very good." "She is tops," was the expression in the 30s, following "the cat's meow," "the cat's pajamas," and "top drawer" in the 20s. "Swell" replaced "tops" in the 40s and "cool" and "hip" took their turns in the 50s. "Groovy" was the word in the hippy 60s, followed by "far out," in the 70s, "awesome" in the 90s and, now, "phat." Saying that something is "very good" seems not to appeal to anyone under 30.

Suggested Usage: Today's word is dated slang but those of us a bit senescent may still say, "We had a swell time at the swing party last night." No, this couple wasn't on a park swing or a porch swing but were dancing to swing—which is currently making a come-back. It may be used sarcastically, too: "Well, that's just swell! You and your buddies ate all the cookies I had baked for my tea party."

Etymology: In 1724 today's adjective referred to someone swollen with pride, arrogant, but by the beginning of the 19th century, it simply meant "well-dressed, fashionable," following semantic shift of the noun, which by that time meant "a dandy, a distinguished person, a person of high social standing." This remained the meaning of the noun and adjective until the 20th century. In the late 1930's the meaning broadened to a slang expression for "great, fine" e.g. "She's a swell gal," where it has pretty much remained. - from yourdictionary.com

peregrination \pehr-uh-gruh-NAY-shun\, noun:

A traveling from place to place; a wandering.

He left Parma in the family camper-van, abandoning it in a Milan car-park to avoid its being identified at border controls before setting off on a peregrination through Switzerland, France, London, Canada, New York and eventually back to London.
-- Paddy Agnew, "Incident leads to crime that has baffled police", Irish Times, December 12, 1998

In 1890, Lafcadio Hearn settled in Japan after a lifetime of restless, melancholy peregrination.
-- Francine Prose, "Modern Geisha", New York Times, April 23, 2000

He ventures out in his pajamas and makes a dreamlike peregrination through the town's deserted streets.
-- Richard Eder, "Puck-ish Ramblings in Midsummer Dreams", New York Times, May 18, 2000

Peregrination comes from Latin peregrinatio, from peregrinari, "to stay or travel in foreign countries," from peregre, "in a foreign country, abroad," from per, "through" + ager, "land." - from dictionary.com

dilapidate \dih-LAP-uh-dayt\ verb
1 : to bring into a condition of decay or partial ruin
2 : to become decayed or partially ruined

Example sentence:
Although years of abandonment had dilapidated the old warehouse, Stuart still thought it could be salvaged and remade into an apartment building.

Did you know?
Something that is dilapidated may not have been literally pummeled with stones, but it might look that way. "Dilapidate" derives from the past participle of the Latin verb "dilapidare," meaning "to squander or destroy." That verb was formed by combining "dis-" with another verb, "lapidare," meaning "to pelt with stones." From there it's just a stone's throw to some other English relatives of "dilapidate." You might, for example, notice a resemblance between "lapidare" and our word for a person who cuts or polishes precious stones, "lapidary." That's because both words share as a root the Latin noun "lapis," meaning "stone." We also find "lapis" in the name "lapis lazuli," a bright blue semiprecious stone. - from merriam-webster.com

To and Fro

I lately lost a preposition;
It hid, I thought, beneath my chair
And angrily I cried, "Perdition!
Up from out of under there."

Correctness is my vade mecum,
And straggling phrases I abhor,
And yet I wondered, "What should he come
Up from out of under for?" – Morris Bishop

Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile. - Albert Schweitzer

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it. - Milton Friedman

Pugnacity is a form of courage, but a very bad form. - Sinclair Lewis

To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself. - Søren Kierkegaard

I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires. - Kahlil Gibran

Bare lists of words are found suggestive to an imaginative and excited mind. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I hate television. I hate it as much as I hate peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts. - Orson Welles

It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously. - Peter Ustinov

Language is fossil poetry. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable. - Leonard Bernstein

Ideas too are a life and a world. - Georg C. Lichtenberg

For when two beings who are not friends are near each other there is no meeting, and when friends are far apart there is no separation. - Simone Weil

His presents conceal a baited hook. - Latin proverb

Of all the thirty-six alternatives, running away is best. - Chinese proverb

The complete fool is half prophet. - Yiddish proverb