A.Word.A.Day Archives
from https://wordsmith.org/awad
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Date: Thu Feb 1 00:03:13 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sartorial
X-Bonus: Adults are obsolete children. -Dr. Seuss, humorist, illustrator, and author (1904-1991)
sartorial (sar-TOR-ee-uhl) adjective
Related to a tailor or tailored clothes.
[From Late Latin sartor, tailor.]
Today's word has a cousin, sartorius, a long narrow muscle in the leg, the
longest muscle in humans. What would tailored clothes have in common with
a muscle of the leg? Sartorius is so named since it is concerned with
producing the cross-legged position of tailors at work. -Anu
"The dignified Muganda man will appear at formal occasions dressed in
a kanzu, the long, white robe introduced by the Arabs at about the same
time the European missionaries were arriving with their own sartorial
ideas."
John Matshikiza, Uganda Lives With The Old And New, The Daily Mail &
Guardian (South Africa), Apr 7, 2000.
This week's theme: less well-known synonyms of everyday words.
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Date: Fri Feb 2 00:03:12 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cancrine
X-Bonus: They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse. -Emily Dickinson, poet (1830-1886)
cancrine (KANG-krin) adjective
1. Reading the same backwards as forwards, palindromic. For example,
"A man, a plan, a canal: Panama." (letter cancrine)
"So patient a doctor to doctor a patient so!" (word cancrine)
2. Crab-like.
[From Latin cancr- (stem of cancer) cancer + -ine.]
"At Hingham Church in Norfolk there is a curious cancrine inscription over
the font."
1755 in Johnson. 1846 R. Hart Eccl. Records 245.
(from the OED)
J.S. Bach's Crab Canon is an example of cancrine music. -Anu
http://www.btinternet.com/~derek.hasted/takeaway/freegifs/crab.html
This week's theme: less well-known synonyms of everyday words.
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Date: Mon Feb 5 00:03:11 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--manacle
X-Bonus: Walking is man's best medicine. -Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine (460-377 BCE)
manacle (MAN-uh-kul) noun
1. A shackle for the hand; handcuff.
2. Restraints.
verb tr.
1. To handcuff; fetter.
3. To restrain.
[Middle English, manicle, from Middle French, from Latin, diminutive of
manus, hand.]
"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand,
signed the Emancipation Proclamation. ... One hundred years later, the
life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation
and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives
on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material
prosperity."
Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream, Washington DC, Aug 28, 1963.
My fellow linguaphiles!
The eloquence of words combined with the art of oratory has given birth to
speeches that have changed the course of history. These are the words
that have inspired men and women to excel, moved their hearts, led them to
action, provided comfort in times of trouble, guided them, and influenced by
example. This week's words are taken from some of the famous speeches from
history.
Of course, when reading or listening to many modern-day speakers, we have
to be careful not to pay too much attention to empty words, for words don't
mean a thing unless accompanied by deeds that match them. With professional
speechwriters in tow, it is easy to sing lofty words while acting contrarily.
-Anu
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Date: Tue Feb 6 00:03:11 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--chasm
X-Bonus: When old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart; and where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders. -Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941)
chasm (KAZ-um) noun
1. A deep hole; gorge.
2. A sudden interruption, discontinuity.
3. A difference of ideas, beliefs, or opinions.
[Latin chasma from Greek khasma.]
"Today all of us do, by our presence here, and by our celebrations in
other parts of our country and the world, confer glory and hope to newborn
liberty. ... The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment
to bridge the chasm that divides us has come."
Nelson Mandela, Let Freedom Reign, Presidential Inaugural Address,
Pretoria, South Africa, May 10, 1994.
This week's theme: words from speeches.
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Date: Wed Feb 7 00:03:10 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--attainder
X-Bonus: To have and not to give is often worse than to steal. -Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, writer (1830-1916)
attainder (uh-TAYN-duhr) noun
Loss of property and civil rights of a person outlawed or sentenced to
death.
[Middle English, from Old French ataindre, to accuse.]
"Friends and fellow-citizens! I stand before you tonight under indictment
for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election,
without having a lawful right to vote. ... For any State to make sex a
qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire
half of the people is to pass a bill of attainder, or an ex post facto
law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land."
Susan B. Anthony, U.S. Suffragist, Are women persons? Speaking in response
to a verdict of guilty of the crime of voting while being a woman, Jun 17,
1873.
This week's theme: words from speeches.
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Date: Thu Feb 8 00:03:10 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sentient
X-Bonus: Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves. -Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the US (1809-1865)
sentient (SEN-shent) adjective
1. Capable of perception by sense; conscious.
2. Sensitive in perception.
noun
Someone or something that has sensation.
[From Latin sentient, present participle of sentire, to feel.]
"It doesn't matter what the other's attitude is, whether negative or
positive. What matters is that it is a human being, a sentient being that
has the experience of pain and pleasure."
Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Dec 10, 1989.
TODAY: Feb 8, 2001. Don't miss the online chat with Steven Pinker,
a professor at MIT and author of books about mind and language.
More details at: https://wordsmith.org/chat
This week's theme: words from speeches.
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Date: Fri Feb 9 00:23:11 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mirabile dictu
X-Bonus: If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time. -Chinese Proverb
mirabile dictu (mee-RAH-bi-lay DIK-too) interjection
Strange to say; wonderful to relate.
[Latin.]
"A hot-air balloon drifts slowly over a bottomless chasm, carrying
several passengers ... Back in the balloon, something longed-for and
heartening has happened. On this occasion, mirabile dictu, the many have
not been sacrificed but saved."
Salman Rushdie, What is my single life worth? A speech on the occasion of
the 200th Anniversary of the First Amendment, delivered at the Columbia
Graduate School of Journalism, New York, Dec 1991.
This week's theme: words from speeches.
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Date: Mon Feb 12 00:23:10 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--armigerous
X-Bonus: No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence. -George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), novelist (1819-1880)
armigerous (ahr-MIJ-ehr-us) adjective
Bearing or entitled to bear heraldic arms.
[From Latin armi-, arms + -ger bearing + ous.]
"It all points to Shakespeare's concept of Hotspur as a feudal type,
whose identity comprises a few qualities that are in no way negotiable.
For Hotspur, the function of the armigerous classes is to bear arms in
battle."
Getting a hook on Hotspur, The New Straits Times, Apr 14, 1999.
"I'd like to buy a vowel." Most of us in the `civilized' world are familiar
with this oft-heard sentence in a popular TV game show. For those who are
not, it is a Hangman-like game where contestants identify words in several
categories by guessing their letters. Correctly guessing a consonant helps
in winning a prize, while one has to pay to guess a vowel. Imagine playing
this game and getting words having all five vowels? That wouldn't be very
exciting where you have to squander all your cash in buying the vowels. To
make it more tolerable, we've selected this week words that have all the
vowels once, but only once. And the vowels can be in any order. To see
the words with all the vowels, once and only once, AND in order, see the
archives for Oct 1997: https://wordsmith.org/awad/themes.html -Anu
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Date: Tue Feb 13 00:23:11 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--epuration
X-Bonus: What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart! What jailer is as inexorable as one's self! -Nathaniel Hawthorne, novelist and short-story writer (1804-1864)
epuration (ep-yuh-RAY-shun) noun
Purification, especially removal of officials or politicians believed to
be disloyal; purge.
[From French epuration, epurer, to purify + ation.]
"Tito's epuration in 1945-46 of the Yugoslavs he considered a threat to
him took the lives, Mr. Malcolm reminds us, of 250,000 people."
J.B. Kelly, Slaughterhouse: Bosnia and the Failure of the West (book
review), National Review (New York), May 29, 1995.
"On the shelf, however, it remained, a brand-new ten-and-sixpenny example
of what in those days Faber, mistaking pomposity for highmindedness,
referred to as `paper-covered editions,' only rescued from periodic
library epuration by my superstitious dread of what happens if you give
away what others give to you."
Jonathan Keates, The call of the wild, The Spectator (London), Jan 2,
1999.
This week's theme: words that contain the vowels aeiou once and only once.
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Date: Wed Feb 14 00:23:14 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--inquorate
X-Bonus: Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake. -Viktor Frankl, author, neurologist and psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor (1905-1997)
inquorate (in-KWA-rayt) adjective
A meeting attended by too few people to form a quorum (the minimum number
of members required to be present for valid transaction of business).
[From Latin quorum, literally `of whom,' from the wording of the commission
issued to designate members of a body.]
"Membership has slumped from 500 to just 350 since the election and many
local meetings are inquorate."
Michael White, et al., Labour in Turmoil Over Candidate Selection,
The Guardian (UK), May 30, 2000.
This week's theme: words that contain the vowels aeiou once and only once.
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Date: Thu Feb 15 00:33:10 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ossuary
X-Bonus: As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. -Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1809-1865)
ossuary (OSH-oo-eh-ree) noun, plural ossuaries
A place or container for depositing the bones of the dead. Also, ossuarium.
[Late Latin ossuarium, from neuter of Latin, ossuarius, of bones, from Old
Latin ossua, plural of oss-, os, bone.]
"The bones of nearly 800 more were found in three ossuaries at a nearby
village site called Moyaone."
Frank D Roylance, Old Bones a Source of Insights, Mystery, The Baltimore
Sun, May 2, 1999.
This week's theme: words that contain the vowels aeiou once and only once
(in today's case, the plural form of the word).
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Date: Fri Feb 16 00:33:12 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--uvarovite
X-Bonus: When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it. -Clarence Darrow, lawyer and author (1857-1938)
uvarovite (oo-VAR-uh-vyt, yoo-) noun
An emerald-green mineral, a variety of garnet.
[After Count Sergei Semenovich Uvarov (1785-1855), president of the St.
Petersburg Academy.]
What used to be only mineral specimens ... are now being fashioned into drop
earrings and pendants. Gemmy chrysocolla (greenish blue), uvarovite (dark
green) ... were the most popular among the natural-color gems."
Gary Roskin, Chinese Pearls a Hit in Tucson, Jewelers Circular Keystone,
Apr 1999.
This week's theme: words that contain the vowels aeiou once and only once.
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Date: Mon Feb 19 00:33:15 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--eustasy
X-Bonus: No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come. -Victor Hugo, poet, novelist and dramatist (1802-1885)
eustasy (YOO-stuh-see) noun
A uniform global change in sea level.
[From eustatic, from German eustatisch, coined by Austrian geologist Edward
Suess.]
"She wasn't asking for trouble... she demanded it. Not the trouble eustasy
would cause her ex shacked up in his beachfront bachelor pad, but trouble
still."
David Breskin, Literary Fiction, Triquarterly, Winter 2000.
"My seven-year old coined this word. Could you tell me how I can get it
into a dictionary?" Questions like this pop up in my mailbox from time to
time, from folks wondering how to get a word to take up residence amidst
the hallowed leaves of a lexicon. Thousands of new words do enter the
dictionaries every year. So, what is the criterion behind their inclusion?
What does a word have to do to be worthy of being called `legitimate?' Who
decides what is a good word and what is not?
Usage is the most important factor to determine if a word gains
membership of that exclusive club. It has to appear extensively, in
many different sources, such as newspapers, magazines, books, TV, radio,
Internet, etc., over several years to show that it is gaining currency. It
has to fill a need and describe a phenomenon for which no other word
exists. Also, it doesn't hurt if the word is catchy and captures public
imagination.
Dictionary editors read a wide variety of sources to monitor the language.
They take notes--known as citations--on little 3x5 index cards or in a
computer database. Once there is enough evidence, they consider whether to
include it in the next edition of their dictionary, and if the answer is yes,
work to define it precisely. Here is an example of a made-up word, which
long-time AWAD subscribers know well, that got into the dictionary. The word
linguaphile, which I coined back in 1994, finally found a place in a dictionary
six years later (in the American Heritage Dictionary, 4th ed., 2000).
So how do you win that honor for your little baby? It's not easy. Share it
with family and friends, use it and encourage them to publish letters,
articles, stories using that word. And even if it doesn't make it into the
dictionary, remember that it is still a bona fide word -- nothing in the
definition of the word `word' says that a word has to be in a dictionary to
be called one. Have fun coining words, and enjoy this week's coinages that
DID reach the dictionaries. -Anu
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Date: Tue Feb 20 00:01:24 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--pangaea
X-Bonus: The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order. -Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher (1861-1947)
Pangaea (pan-JEE-uh) noun
A supercontinent that existed when all the major landmasses
of the earth were joined.
[Pan, all + Greek gaia, earth, supposedly coined by German meteorologist
Alfred Wegener.]
"About 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, something
killed some 90 percent of the planet's species. ... Before the extinction
the continents had drifted together and formed a single landmass called
Pangaea."
Hillel J. Hoffmann, When Life Nearly Came to an End, National Geographic,
Sep 2000.
This week's theme: coined words.
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Date: Wed Feb 21 00:01:12 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--McJob
X-Bonus: Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in. -Alan Alda, actor and director (1936-)
McJob (mehk-JOB) noun
A low-paying, non-challenging job with few benefits or opportunities,
typically in the service sector.
[Coined by Douglas Coupland, in his novel Generation X, after McDonald's
fast-food chain.]
"They pay much more attention to their McJob-financed social lives ...
than they do to writing. What chance does getting rid of the passive voice
stand against a new outfit for the party on Saturday night?"
Brian Kellow, Why Johnny Can Write, The Globe and Mail (Toronto), May 1993.
This week's theme: coined words.
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Date: Thu Feb 22 00:01:13 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--locust years
X-Bonus: Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet and philosopher (1772-1834)
locust years (LO-kuhst yeers) noun
A period of economic hardship.
[Coined by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to refer to mid 1930s in
Britain, after "the years that the locust hath eaten" from Bible, Joel 2:25.]
"President Olusegun Obasanjo's numerous foreign trips have been
rationalized on account of rebuilding the country's global
image, dented during the country's locust years of military
dictatorship."
Charles Onunaiju, National Power and Foreign Policy,
The Vanguard Daily (Nigeria), Sep 14, 2000.
This week's theme: coined words.
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Date: Fri Feb 23 00:01:11 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--prehensile
X-Bonus: Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book. -Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator and writer (106-43 BCE)
prehensile (pri-HEN-sil, -syl) adjective
1. Capable of seizing or grasping, especially by wrapping around.
2. Skilled at keen perception or mental grasp of an idea or concept.
3. Greedy.
[From French prehensile, coined by French Naturalist Georges Louis Leclerc
De Buffon, from Latin prehensus.]
"The drugstore toothbrush rack has become a circus of ergonomic grips,
flexing heads and prehensile gum-probes -- an entire retail sector
transformed by design."
Philip Nobel, Can Design in America Avoid the Style Trap?, The New York
Times, Nov 26, 2000.
This week's theme: coined words.
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Date: Mon Feb 26 00:27:13 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--nous
X-Bonus: Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family. -George Bernard Shaw, dramatist, critic, novelist, and Nobel laureate (1856-1950)
nous (noos, nous) noun
1. Mind, intellect.
2. Common sense.
[From Greek noos, nous, mind.]
"The downfall of tyrant Slobodan Milosevic in a relatively peaceful
people's revolution has created hope and despair in equal measure among
those whose political nous tells them that this triumph of the Serbian
people could have a serious ripple effect right here in Harare and other
major centres of political dissent."
Diana Mitchell, Bells of Belgrade toll for Zimbabwe,
The Financial Gazette (Zimbabwe), Oct 12, 2000.
English is a global language. With the rise of electronic communication,
worldwide trade and international travel, its status has far surpassed
that of a link language. English is equated with success. Wherever you go--
from the luxuriant rain-forests of Costa Rica to the untamed wilds of
Serengeti to the hodgepodge of Eastern bazaars--you're sure to find someone
who speaks English, albeit in an accent far different from yours. If nothing
else, English makes a disguised appearance in hybrids such as Franglais,
Spanglish, Hinglish, etc.
Of course, this rise in popularity of English is not without a downside.
Talk with someone for whom English is not a first language and you sense
a feeling of loss. Reactions vary greatly--from the trace of helplessness
of parents whose children can't appreciate a poem in their native language,
to lawmakers making it mandatory for a company to also have a Web site in
the language of their country before the company can do business there.
What do you think? We'd love to hear from you about this subject, whether
English is your first language or not. Join us on the bulletin board
https://wordsmith.org/board to discuss. Meanwhile, taste a few words from
the world's newspapers.
English as a global language will be discussed today in an online chat with
David Crystal, author of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language
and other books on language. Join us at https://wordsmith.org/chat on Feb 26,
2001 at 3 PM GMT (10 AM EST U.S.). -Anu
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Date: Tue Feb 27 00:27:15 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--dyscalculia
X-Bonus: Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity. -Albert Camus, writer and philosopher (1913-1960)
dyscalculia (dis-kal-KYOO-lee-uh) noun
Inability to solve math problems, usually as a result of brain dysfunction.
[Dys + calcul(ate) + -ia.]
"Almost seven out of a hundred pupils suffer from dyscalculia - a
learning disability that diminishes their mathematical ability but does
not affect their general intelligence."
Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, Students Suffer From a Dyslexia of Numbers,
The Jerusalem Post (Israel), Oct 15, 1995.
This week's theme: words from newspapers of the world.
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Date: Wed Feb 28 00:37:13 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--timorous
X-Bonus: Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents. -Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860)
timorous (TIM-uhr-uhs) adjective
Full of fear, timid.
[Middle English, from Middle French timoureus, from Medieval Latin timorosus,
from Latin timor fear, from timere, to fear.]
"For years the Punjab University, in thrall to a student mafia, has had
more to do with politics and less with education. The only answer to its
problems is to shut it down indefinitely, disband its tainted and timorous
faculty (or post it out where it can do the least harm) and make a fresh
start."
Ayaz Amir, The Evil of Our Circumstances, Dawn (Pakistan), June 30, 2000.
This week's theme: words from newspapers of the world.