A.Word.A.Day Archives
from https://wordsmith.org/awad
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Date: Tue Feb 1 00:04:25 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--rotund
X-Bonus: Old books that have ceased to be of service should no more be abandoned than should old friends who have ceased to give pleasure. -Peregrine Worsthorne
rotund (roe-TUND) adjective
1. Rounded in figure; plump.
2. Having a full, rich sound; sonorous.
[Latin rotundus.]
"Mushahid Hussein, Pakistan's slick and slightly rotund Minister for
Information, put another chunk of chicken tikka in his mouth and rubbed
his belly with his hands."
Jason Burke, Cricket: Hostility Raises the Stakes, Independent on Sunday,
4 Jul 1999.
This week's theme: yours to discover.
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Date: Wed Feb 2 03:04:59 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--facade
X-Bonus: Fanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim. -George Santayana
facade (fuh-SAHD) noun
1. The face of a building, especially the principal face.
2. An artificial or deceptive front.
[French, from Italian facciata, from faccia, face, from Vulgar Latin *facia,
from Latin facies.]
"To cover the ugliness, he built a colorful plywood facade of an irregular
shape, outlined with wide bands of orange and green and bearing the
admonition: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Repair. The facade has holes
through which recyclers will throw their items."
Marianna Riley, 5 Art Projects Decorate City, Washington U. Students Show
Creativity, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 22 Apr 1996.
"`The name sounds innocuous,' he said, `but lurking behind the facade
is a white supremacist group.'"
Kate Harries, `Heritage' week halted, The Toronto Star, 14 Oct 1998.
This week's theme: yours to discover.
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Date: Thu Feb 3 03:04:35 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--perambulate
X-Bonus: Referendum, n. A law for submission of proposed legislation to a popular vote to learn the nonsensus of public opinion. -Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) [The Devil's Dictionary, 1906]
perambulate (puh-RAM-byuh-layt) verb tr.
1. To walk through.
2. To inspect (an area) on foot.
verb intr.
To walk about; roam or stroll.
[Latin perambulare, perambulat- : per-, + ambulare, to walk.]
"Seventeen years ago, at an age when many men are reduced to perambulating
the mall, Vaughan entered his first Iditarod, the 1,160-mile trans-Alaska
dogsled race that turns much younger mushers into mush."
William Plummer, At His Peak Norman Vaughan, 87, sets out to climb the
icy mountain bearing his name, People, 15 Nov 1993.
This week's theme: yours to discover.
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Date: Fri Feb 4 00:04:24 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--precipitation
X-Bonus: Hate is a dead thing. Who of you would be a tomb? -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam]
precipitation (pri-sip-i-TAY-shuhn) noun
1. A headlong fall or rush.
2. Abrupt or impulsive haste.
3. A hastening or an acceleration, especially one that is sudden or
unexpected.
4. Any form of water, such as rain, snow, sleet, or hail, that falls to the
earth's surface. The quantity of such water falling in a specific area
within a specific period.
5. The process of separating a substance from a solution as a solid.
[Latin praecipitare, praecipitat-, to throw headlong, from praeceps,
praecipit-, headlong : prae-, pre- + caput, capit-, head + -tion]
"Almost all the U.S. flatlands west of the 100th meridian, which runs
from Texasto North Dakota, consistently receive too little precipitation
to sustain agriculture without irrigation."
Dan Goodgame, Just Enough to Fight Over In the West, there's much more
to the water shortage than lack of rain, Time, 4 Jul 1988.
This week's theme: yours to discover.
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Date: Sat Feb 5 00:04:25 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--salvage
X-Bonus: Whenever people say 'We mustn't be sentimental,' you can take it they are about to do something cruel. And if they add 'We must be realistic,' they mean they are going to make money out of it. -Brigid Brophy
salvage (SAL-vij) noun
1. The rescue of a ship, its crew, or its cargo from fire or shipwreck.
The ship, crew, or cargo so rescued. Compensation given to those who
voluntarily aid in such a rescue.
2. The act of saving imperiled property from loss. The property so saved.
3. Something saved from destruction or waste and put to further use.
verb tr.
1. To save from loss or destruction.
2. To save (discarded or damaged material) for further use.
[Obsolete French, from Old French salvaige, right of salvage, from Late Latin
salvare, from Latin salvus, safe.]
"But can the economy be restored if the banking industry is salvaged
at all costs?"
Can bank liquidations help restore RI economy?, The Jakarta Post,
2 Mar 1999.
This week's theme: yours to discover.
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Date: Sun Feb 6 00:04:30 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--exhilaration
X-Bonus: No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. -Booker T. Washington
exhilaration (ig-zil-uh-RAY-shuhn) noun
The state of being stimulated, refreshed, or elated.
[Latin exhilarare, exhilarat- : ex-, intensive prefix + hilarare, to make
cheerful (from hilaris, hilarus, cheerful, from Greek hilaros) + -tion.]
"But men in their 70s who still come to work every day for the sheer
exhilaration of the job don't turn to hammocks in a crisis."
Mas Teal, Smart Managing: Not a Fool, Not a Saint Malden Mills Owner Aaron
Feuerstein Was Both Ridiculed And Canonized When He Kept His 1,000
Employees on the Payroll Aft, Fortune, 11 Nov 1996.
This week's theme: yours to discover.
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Date: Mon Feb 7 00:04:24 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sniglet
X-Bonus: Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree. -Ezra Pound [ABC of Reading]
sniglet (SNIG-lit) noun
Any word coined for something that has no specific name.
[Said to be derivative of obsolete sniggle to snicker, with -let]
"There is no word for it, but there ought to be one. Baseball has
numbers for everything. What it needs is another term, a sniglet for
the kind of game the Mets experienced ...."
Marty Noble, Division Series, Newsday, 8 Oct 1999.
Sniglets are known as words that don't appear in the dictionary but should.
If you think about it, the word sniglet itself was a sniglet at one time.
Can you come up with a good sniglet (not read in one of those endlessly
forwarded email messages)? Send it to (garg AT wordsmith.org). If I receive
enough good ones I'll put out a compilation. In the meantime look for more
words about words during the rest of this week. -Anu
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Date: Tue Feb 8 00:04:32 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--omnibus
X-Bonus: Any mother could perform the jobs of several air-traffic controllers with ease. -Lisa Alther
omnibus (OM-ni-bus) noun
1. A long motor vehicle for passengers; a bus.
2. A printed anthology of the works of one author or of writings
on related subjects.
adjective
Including or covering many things or classes.
[French, from Latin, for all, dative pl. of omnis, all.]
"If the general intellectual for whom he wrote now looks at them at all,
it would be in the anthology of extracts he prepared in Bricks to Babel:
an omnibus volume from 1982 ...."
Bernard Crick, Books: Putting the rat in rational, Independent, 7 Nov 1998.
This week's theme: words about words.
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Date: Wed Feb 9 00:04:37 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--orthography
X-Bonus: A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections. -George Eliot (1819-1880)
orthography (or-THOG-ruh-fee) noun
1. The art or study of correct spelling according to established usage.
2. The aspect of language study concerned with letters and their
sequences in words.
3. A method of representing the sounds of language or a language by
letters and diacritics; spelling.
[Late Middle English ortografye, Latin orthographia correct writing,
orthogonal projection, Greek orthographia.]
"But Echo doesn't know what to do with the remaining six decades of her
life. She's crushed to learn that her obsession has no future. There is
no adult division of orthography, no Super Bowl of spellers."
Steve Parks, To Bee or Not to Bee, Newsday, 2 Jun 1993.
This week's theme: words about words.
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Date: Thu Feb 10 00:04:27 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--florilegium
X-Bonus: As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)
florilegium (flor-uh-LEE-jee-uhm, FLOR-) noun, plural florilegia
A collection of literary pieces; anthology.
[Neo-Latin florilegium, equivalent to Latin flori- + leg(ere) to gather
+ -ium, on the model of spicilegium gleaning; a calque of Greek anthologia,
anthology]
"One of the most telltale of these is the ever-growing popularity of
the digest, the epitome, the florilegium, the anthology."
Green, Peter, The Oxford Book of Classical Verse in Translation (book
reviews), The New Republic, 19 Feb 1996.
This week's theme: words about words.
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Date: Fri Feb 11 00:04:30 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--lexeme
X-Bonus: Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace. -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, and musician (Nobel 1952)
lexeme (LEK-seem) noun
The fundamental unit of the lexicon of a language. Find, found, and
finding are members of the English lexeme find.
[Lex (icon) + -eme.]
"Lexeme's translation software breaks a language down into its tiniest
building blocks, called lexemes."
Edward C. Baig, Bilingual Software: New programs Automatically Translate
Computer Language, Fortune, 21 Jul 1986.
This week's theme: words about words.
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Date: Sat Feb 12 00:04:24 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--concordance
X-Bonus: You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. -Indira Gandhi
concordance (kuhn-KOR-dns) noun
1. Agreement; concord.
2. An alphabetical index of all the words in a text or corpus of texts,
showing every contextual occurrence of a word.
3. The presence of a given trait in both members of a pair of twins.
"They began with a concordance to the scrolls -- an index that lists
each word -- prepared under the auspices of the official team in the
1950s but not made available until 1988."
Richard N. Ostling, The Computer Keys' Scrolls Closely held ancient
documents are revealed through modern software, Time, 16 Sep 1991.
This week's theme: words about words.
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Date: Sun Feb 13 00:04:28 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--holograph
X-Bonus: The world, we are told, was made especially for man--a presumption not supported by all the facts... Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation? -John Muir, naturalist and explorer (1838-1914)
holograph (HOL-uh-graf) noun
1. A document written wholly in the handwriting of the person whose
signature it bears.
2. A hologram.
adjective
Variant of holographic.
[From Late Latin holographus, entirely written by the signer, from Greek
holographos : holo-, + -graphos, -graph.]
"The recent Sartre acquisition will add to the Beinecke Library's
already distinguished collection of Sartre materials, which includes
two holograph drafts for an unpublished book on Tintoretto ...."
Caroline Marvin, Yale U. Rare Books obtains Sartre biographical tapes,
University Wire, 15 Jan 1999.
This week's theme: words about words.
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Date: Mon Feb 14 00:14:23 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--manque
X-Bonus: The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good, and how he treats people who can't fight back. -Abigail Van Buren
manque (mank) noun
The numbers 1 to 18 in roulette.
manque (mang-KAY) adjective
Having failed, missed, or fallen short, especially because of
circumstances or a defect of character; unsuccessful; unfulfilled
or frustrated (usually used postpositively).
[French past participle of manquer to lack, be short of, from Italian
mancare, derivative of manco lacking, defective, from Medieval Latin, Late
Latin mancus (Latin: feeble, literally, maimed, having a useless hand,
probably derivative of manus hand)]
"Eddie George, governor of the Bank of England, formally opened the building
and said: `I have always seen myself as a trader manque.'"
George Trefgarne, City: Sliding euro is an `embarrassment',
The Daily Telegraph, 17 Jul 1999.
If you were ever unfortunate enough to have to consult books about resume
preparation, you certainly have seen this... In these tomes, you are advised
to include in your resume action words that are supposed to make you appear
a performer, a go-getter, a man or woman of action. So if you follow their
wisdom, you don't simply write, "I took trash out in the graveyard shift
at my neighborhood Bumpy's" as your work experience. Instead, you embellish,
"As nocturnal sanitation superintendent of the local branch of a multi-
billion dollar food business, I implemented refuse collection policies and
increased customer satisfaction by 27.9%." There! Doesn't it look much better
now?
While we can't counsel you on how to adorn your life history, we do recommend
you avoid using this week's words to describe yourself on that most important
sheet of paper in your working life. Even though they may have an impressive
sound, the words you will see here for the next seven days are not the ones
you want on your resume. -Anu
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Date: Tue Feb 15 00:14:31 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--distrait
X-Bonus: This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
distrait (di-STRAY) adjective
Inattentive or preoccupied, especially because of anxiety.
[Middle English, from Old French, past participle of distraire, to distract,
from Latin distrahere.]
"The King is distrait, the Fool has been trying to distract him."
Saying it without words, New Straits Times, 10 Dec 1997.
This week's theme: words not to put on a resume.
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Date: Wed Feb 16 00:14:35 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--recreant
X-Bonus: Love your enemies because they bring out the best in you. -Friedrich Nietzsche
recreant (REK-ree-uhnt) adjective
1. Unfaithful or disloyal to a belief, duty, or cause.
2. Craven or cowardly.
noun
1. A faithless or disloyal person.
2. A coward.
[Middle English, from Old French, present participle of recroire, to
remember, from Medieval Latin recredere, to yield, pledge : Latin re-,
re- + Latin credere, to believe.]
"Tyler, seeking a less imperial president and a stronger states' rights
policy, joined a small group of Jacksonians who deserted the fold and
eventually became known as southern states' rights Whigs. In 1836, the
Jacksonian-controlled Virginia legislature demanded and secured the
recreant's senatorial resignation."
Tyler, John, The Reader's Companion to American History, 1 Jan 1991.
This week's theme: words not to put on a resume.
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Date: Thu Feb 17 00:14:26 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--misanthrope
X-Bonus: Everyday language is a part of the human organism and is no less complicated than it. -Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) [Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1921]
misanthrope (MIS-uhn-throp, MIZ-) also misanthropist noun
One who hates or mistrusts humankind.
[French, from Greek misanthropos, hating mankind : miso-, + anthropos, man.]
"Thomas Bernhard - dramatist, novelist, warped genius and misanthrope -
despised his fellow Austrians with such ferocious thoroughness that, when
he died of a heart attack in 1989, he left a will expressly forbidding the
performance of any of his plays there."
Paul Taylor, Fear and loathing, Independent, 20 Aug 1997.
This week's theme: words not to put on a resume.
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Date: Fri Feb 18 00:14:27 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--garrulous
X-Bonus: The mind cannot long act the role of the heart. -Francois de la Rochefoucauld
garrulous (GAR-uh-luhs, GAR-yuh-) adjective
1. Given to excessive and often trivial or rambling talk; tiresomely
talkative.
2. Wordy and rambling.
[From Latin garrulus, from garrire, to chatter.]
"Hoeg, as the garrulous, intrusive narrator, has a gleeful time
disorienting his characters."
Brigitte Frase, Four Hundred Seventy Years of Solitude, Newsday, 15 Oct 1995.
This week's theme: words not to put on a resume.
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Date: Sat Feb 19 00:14:38 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--truculent
X-Bonus: Success is not measured by the position one has reached in life, rather by the obstacles overcome while trying to succeed. -Booker T. Washington
truculent (TRUK-yuh-luhnt) adjective
1. Disposed to fight; pugnacious.
2. Expressing bitter opposition; scathing.
3. Disposed to or exhibiting violence or destructiveness; fierce.
[Latin truculentus, from trux, truc-, fierce.]
"A funny thing happened to Mr Wilson on his way back for a new term at
Westminster. The punchy, truculent fighter of a year ago, whose rude
jabs at the Conservatives often provoked Sir Alec Douglas-Home into
reminding him that he was no longer Leader of the Opposition, has been
transformed into a widely accepted father figure."
Nora Beloff, Observing the 20th Century, Observer, 19 Dec 1999.
This week's theme: words not to put on a resume.
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Date: Sun Feb 20 00:14:29 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--unctuous
X-Bonus: Because the heart beats under a covering of hair, of fur, feathers, or wings, is it, for that reason, to be of no account? -Jean Paul Richter, writer (1763-1825)
unctuous (UNGK-choo-uhs) adjective
1. Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness.
2. Having the quality or characteristics of oil or ointment; slippery.
3. Containing or composed of oil or fat.
4. Abundant in organic materials; soft and rich.
[Middle English, from Old French unctueus, from Medieval Latin unctuosus,
from Latin unctum, ointment, from neuter past participle of unguere, to
anoint.]
"Through a chemical elixir, he unleashes his "better" Mr. Hyde side,
a slick and unctuous egotist named Buddy Love, who dazzles the ladies
with smooth patter, a suave singing style and a hair-style oozing
petroleum products."
Dan Craft, The Nutty Professor (review), The Bloomington Pantagraph,
21 Jan 2000.
This week's theme: words not to put on a resume.
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Date: Mon Feb 21 00:14:28 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--obturate
X-Bonus: The belly is the reason why man does not mistake himself for a god. -Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) [Beyond Good and Evil, 1886]
obturate (OB-tuh-rayt, -tyuh-) verb tr.
To close or obstruct.
[Latin obturare, obturat- : ob- + -turare, to stop up.]
"Upon firing, the force of the powder gases obturates the base of the
bullet, and in an ideal world, swages it to precisely fit the bore.
Scott E. Mayer, Muzzleloader basics, American Rifleman, Oct 1997.
It is said that in the English language every noun can be verbed, but there
is nothing more grating on the ears than the gratuitous "verbification" of
nouns in a modern workplace exchange. From "productizing an idea" to
"administrating the plan" and "incentivizing the workers" these verb-forms
are about as graceful as a sumo wrestler performing a ballet. Don't get me
wrong--there is nothing sinful about coining new words, or using existing
ones in creative ways, but there is no excuse for the laziness shown in the
above examples. There are already countless words that can do the job very
well. This week we look at seven verbs from English. -Anu
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Date: Tue Feb 22 00:14:27 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--imprecate
X-Bonus: Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. -Aldous Huxley
imprecate (IM-pri-kayt) verb tr.
To invoke evil upon; curse.
[Latin imprecari, imprecat- : in-, towards + precari, to pray, ask.]
"Bear witness, gods, you heard him bid me go;
You, whom he mocked with imprecating vows
Of promised faith! - I'll die; I will not bear it."
Dryden, John, All For Love: Part I, Great Works of Literature, 1 Jan 1992.
This week's theme: verbs.
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Date: Wed Feb 23 00:14:38 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--portend
X-Bonus: The refusal to choose is a form of choice; disbelief is a form of belief. -Frank Barron
portend (por-TEND) verb tr.
1. To serve as an omen or a warning of; presage.
2. To indicate by prediction; forecast.
[Middle English portenden, from Latin portendere.]
"The film's greatest problem is the assumption that the millennium portends
extraordinary events."
James Murray, Happy New Apocalypse, The Australian, 16 Dec 1999.
This week's theme: verbs.
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Date: Thu Feb 24 00:14:33 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--objurgate
X-Bonus: Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
objurgate (OB-juhr-gayt) verb tr.
To scold or rebuke sharply; berate.
[Latin obiurgare, obiurgat- : ob-, against + iurgare, to scold, sue at law :,
probably ius, iur-, law; + agere, to do, proceed.]
"The act about to be objurgated here calls on the Food and Drug
Administration to oversee a broad revision of food labeling."
Daniel Seligman, Patty de Llosa, Federal Food Follies,
Fortune, 1 Jul 1991.
This week's theme: verbs.
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Date: Fri Feb 25 00:14:28 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--exuviate
X-Bonus: When you say that you agree to a thing in principle, you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out. -Otto von Bismarck
exuviate (ig-ZOO-vee-ayt) verb tr.
To shed or cast off (a covering).
verb intr.
To shed or cast off exuviae; molt.
[Exuvi (ae), Latin, from exuere, to take off + -ate.]
"SI on the other hand never seemed able to exuviate its image as a `fixed
income house' ...."
R.N.M. Upton, Salomon Smith Barney Holdings Inc., Investext Reports,
19 Feb 1999.
This week's theme: verbs.
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Date: Sat Feb 26 00:14:26 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--conflate
X-Bonus: Worry is like a rocking chair - it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere. -Dorothy Galyean
conflate (kuhn-FLAYT) verb tr.
1. To bring together; meld or fuse.
2. To combine (two variant texts, for example) into one whole.
[Latin conflare, conflat- : com-, + flare, to blow.]
"This filmic phenomenon has not escaped Forkbeard Fantasy, who have
cunningly conflated such ideas in their stageshow, The Fall of the House
of Usherettes."
Liese Spencer, The brothers grim, Independent, 9 Feb 1996.
This week's theme: verbs.
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Date: Sun Feb 27 00:14:24 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--clamber
X-Bonus: Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket, and do not pull it out and strike it merely to show you have one. If you are asked what o'clock it is, tell it, but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the watchman. -Lord Chesterfield
clamber (KLAMB-uhr, KLAM-uhr) verb intr.
To climb with difficulty, especially on all fours; scramble.
noun
A difficult, awkward climb.
[Middle English clambren, probably frequentative of climben, to climb.]
"This spot probably looked better from the outside, before she clambered
in to give birth."
Kenneth White, For Mother's Day, Give a Foster Home to a Kitten,
The Arizona Republic, 8 May 1999.
This week's theme: verbs.
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Date: Mon Feb 28 00:14:28 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Simon Legree
X-Bonus: Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.
Simon Legree (SIE-muhn luh-gree) noun
A brutal taskmaster.
[After Simon Legree, a cruel slave dealer in the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe.]
"In Brutal Bosses and Their Prey (1996, Riverhead Books), Harvey Hornstein
identifies six variations on Simon Legree."
Marino, Sal, Brutal bosses from hell, Industry Week, 22 Jun 1998.
Have you ever read a novel that was so well-written that the characters came
alive? This week's words are about those fictional men and women who have
walked off the pages of their books and entered the dictionary. Perhaps it
is a testament to the genius of the authors of these works that their
imaginary creations are now part of the living language. Let's meet seven
of these words, also known as eponyms, this week. -Anu
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Date: Tue Feb 29 00:14:38 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--munchkin
X-Bonus: To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty of nature. If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in. -Richard Feynman (1918-1988)
munchkin (MUNCH-kin) noun
1. A very small person, especially one with an elflike appearance.
2. Informal. A child.
3. Informal. A minor official.
[After the Munchkins, characters in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by
L. Frank Baum.]
"Once a low-level munchkin in conservative intellectual circles, Lind
has recently won himself a good deal of ink by denouncing his former
patrons as divisive and reactionary."
Pitney, John J., Jr., Powertown: A Novel.(book reviews), Reason,
1 Jan 1997.
This week's theme: eponyms from fiction.