A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Mon Apr 2 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--catchpole X-Bonus: Not being able to govern events, I govern myself. -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592) Have you ever seen someone chasing chickens around a coop, the birds running in all directions, clucking, flailing their wings? If so, you can understand why men who rounded up debtors were called catchpoles (literally, chicken-chasers) in the old days. The down-on-their-lucks who were unfortunate enough to be caught were thrown into a debtors' prison, with sentences often disproportionate to the amount of their debts. Charles Dickens's father ended up in such a prison, which led to little Charlie's having to work ten hours a day in a boot-polish factory. Thankfully, those catchpoles are a thing of the past. Today we might have a credit analyst or a data-mining expert instead to weed out potential defaulters in the first place. With the passage of time, professions of the past fade away into history books and new ones take their place. These days it's not unusual to find titles such as Chief Privacy Officer or Blogger-in-Chief on corporate payrolls, professions which were unheard of just a few years back. This week we'll look at a few unusual professions, some of which now exist only as surnames or historical curiosities. catchpole or catchpoll (KACH-pol) noun A sheriff's officer who made arrests for failure to pay a debt. [From Middle English cacchepol, from Anglo-French cachepole (chicken chaser). From Latin captare (to chase) + pol (chicken), from pullus (chick). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pau- (few, little) that is also the source of few, foal, filly, pony, poor, pauper, and poco.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "'Personal debt remains the single biggest issue that concerned Scots bring to their ... provision,' said Liz Catchpole, managing director of Liberata Life." To Spend or Not to Spend? Sunday Herald (London, UK); Jan 26, 2003. -------- Date: Tue Apr 3 02:34:16 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--napier X-Bonus: Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition. -Eli Khamarov This week's theme: professions of the past. napier (NAY-pee-uhr) noun One in charge of table linen in a royal household. [Apparently from Anglo-Norman nape (tablecloth).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "The napier handed these napkins." Sydney Smith; The Edinburgh Review; 1929 -------- Date: Wed Apr 4 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--zanjero X-Bonus: Alas, after a certain age every man is responsible for his face. -Albert Camus, writer and philosopher (1913-1960) This week's theme: professions of the past. zanjero (zahn-HAY-ro) noun One who is in charge of water distribution. [From Spanish zanja (ditch, irrigation canal).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Future water engineer William Mulholland got his start as a zanjero." Julie Sheer; Los Angeles Aqueduct; Los Angeles Times; Feb 18, 1996. -------- Date: Thu Apr 5 00:01:03 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ostiary X-Bonus: If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no otherwise be expressed, than by making answer: because it was he, because it was I. -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592) This week's theme: professions of the past. ostiary (OS-tee-er-ee) noun A doorkeeper, especially in a church. [From Latin ostiarius (doorkeeper), from ostium (door, entrance). Ultimately from the Indo-European root os- (mouth) that is also the source of usher, oral, orifice, oscillate, and osculate (to kiss).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "A uniformed ostiary ushered us into the reception area, a temple of understatement in exotic marbles and dark, gleaming woods." Peter Benchley; Plutocrats' Retreats; The New York Times; May 14, 2000. -------- Date: Fri Apr 6 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bowyer X-Bonus: Strike an average between what a woman thinks of her husband a month before she marries him and what she thinks of him a year afterward, and you will have the truth about him. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956) This week's theme: professions of the past. bowyer (BO-yuhr) noun One who makes, sells, or uses bows. [From Old English boga, ultimately from the Indo-European root bheug- (to bend) that is also the source of bagel, buxom, and bog.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "In the future I plan on taking my fondness of traditional archery to another level by having a professional bowyer fashion a hand-made bow especially for my specific wants and build." Geordon T. Howell; The Art of the Archer; Daily News (Bowling Green, Kentucky); Feb 24, 2007. -------- Date: Mon Apr 9 00:01:03 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--testaceous X-Bonus: You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you. -John Bunyan, preacher and author (1628-1688) Recently a national-award-winning children's book made news. Any book that wins a prominent award should make news but this one did it for the wrong reasons. A controversy arose because the book included the word scrotum [From Latin scrautum (quiver)]. Some self-professed protectors of human sensibilities felt that the book ought not to be in libraries -- they felt the book was inappropriate for children. Imagine if kids learned a straightforward word to describe a part of human body! Who knows, they might be scarred for life. Well, this week's words are an antidote for such thinking. These are words that may sound risque but aren't. And if you find you haven't received the newsletter a few days this week, it's probably your email filter, working hard to protect you from getting corrupted by these words. testaceous (teh-STAY-shuhs) adjective 1. Having a shell. 2. Having the reddish brown color of bricks or baked clay. [From Latin testa (shell).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "I am informed by Mr. F. Smith that the male ants of several species are black, the females being testaceous." Charles Darwin; The Descent Of Man; 1871. -------- Date: Tue Apr 10 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--titivate X-Bonus: The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion. -Arthur C Clarke, science fiction writer (1917- ) This week's theme: Words that seem risque. titivate (TIT-i-vayt) verb tr., intr. To make smarter; to spruce up; to decorate. [From earlier tidivate, perhaps from tidy + elevate. The word titillate is from Latin titillare (to tickle).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "[Karen Kilimnik's] journey has been marked by theatricality -- such as putting small, roughly painted pictures in a Venetian palazzo titivated with flowers and feathers." Philippa Stockley; A Wacky Take on the 18th Century; Evening Standard (London, UK); Feb 21, 2007. -------- Date: Wed Apr 11 00:01:03 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--vomitorium X-Bonus: You can't be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet. -Hal Borland, journalist (1900-1978) This week's theme: Words that seem risque. vomitorium (vom-i-TOR-ee-uhm) noun, plural vomitoria A passageway to the rows of seats in a theater. [From Latin vomitorium, from vomere (to discharge).] Vomitoria in ancient amphitheaters helped the audience to reach their seats quickly and then, at the end of the performance, leave at an equal speed (hence the name). Thousands of seats could be filled in minutes. The suggestion that a vomitorium was the place for the ancient Romans to vomit during a feast has no basis. -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Sarah Walters, 21, a university student, said: 'I love the fact that the exit sign at the station is now tagged as the vomitorium, it's very descriptive.'" Paul Stokes; Metro Passengers Find Their Way to the Vomitorium; Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Mar 13, 2003. -------- Date: Thu Apr 12 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cockshut X-Bonus: A city that outdistances man's walking powers is a trap for man. -Arnold Toynbee, historian (1889-1975) This week's theme: Words that seem risque. cockshut (KOK-shut) noun Evening; twilight. [Apparently from the time when poultry is shut in to rest.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Thomas the Earl of Surrey, and himself, Much about cockshut time, from troop to troop Went through the army, cheering up the soldiers." William Shakespeare; The Tragedy of King Richard the Third; 1592-93. -------- Date: Fri Apr 13 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--turdiform X-Bonus: There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all. -Robert Orben, magician and author (b. 1927) This week's theme: Words that seem risque. turdiform (TUR-di-form) adjective Like a thrush (any of the songbirds of the family Turdidae). [From Latin turdus (thrush).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "The writers most characteristic of the sixties created marginal, slightly lost characters, gentle dreamers, or hardened iconoclasts in search of themselves in a world that is no longer their own, seizing every possible occasion to distinguish themselves from what Flaubert would have been quick to call the 'turdiform bourgeois.'" Marc Chenetier (Author), Elizabeth A. Houlding (Translator); Beyond Suspicion; University of Pennsylvania Press; 1995. -------- Date: Mon Apr 16 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--albedo X-Bonus: The soul is healed by being with children. -Fyodor Dostoyevsky, novelist (1821-1881) Some of the most interesting, unusual words describe everyday things. Who would have thought that the fleshy, spongy, white thing inside an orange had a word for itself... and that it would share it with astronomers? Or that it would have the same ancestor as the words for an egg part, a photo book, or the smearing of a canvas? What all these words have in common is whiteness or albus, Latin for white. Albumen is egg white, an album is a book with white pages, and when we daub a sheet of paper, we de-albus it. Ah, the joy of words! Let's look at a few other words for odds and ends this week. albedo (al-BEE-doh) noun 1. The fraction of light reflected from a body or surface. For example, earth's albedo is around 0.39. 2. The white, spongy inner lining of a citrus fruit rind. [From Latin albedo (whiteness), Latin albus (white).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "The more powerful magnetic fields generated by the Sun during maximum activity are known to block many of the particles, which would theoretically lead to less cloud cover and less reflection, or a lower albedo." James Glanz; Scientists Find Way to Gauge Earth's Glow; The New York Times; Apr 21, 2001. "We don't need to tell you that oranges are full of vitamin C. But did you know that the white membrane under the skin, called the albedo, contains almost as much C as the flesh of the fruit itself? Myra Kornfeld; Giving Thanks; Vegetarian Times (Stamford, Connecticut); Nov 2000. -------- Date: Tue Apr 17 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--dewlap X-Bonus: We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one which we preach, but do not practice, and another which we practice, but seldom preach. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970) This week's theme: words for odds and ends. dewlap (DOO-lap, DYOO-lap) noun A loose fold of skin hanging under the neck of an animal such as cow, rooster, lizard, etc. On birds, this appendage is also known as a wattle. [From Middle English dewlappe; dew, of unknown origin and meaning + lap (fold).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Gore is rather more bearish than the last time I saw him, but still handsome, his leonine head beginning to soften with dewlaps, his fiercely intelligent eyes surrounded by innumerable wrinkles." Erica Jong; Into the Lion's Den: Visiting Gore Vidal is No Small Undertaking; The Guardian (London, UK); Oct 26, 2000. -------- Date: Wed Apr 18 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--chaplet X-Bonus: My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910) This week's theme: words for odds and ends. chaplet (CHAP-lit) noun 1. A wreath or garland worn on the head. 2. A string of beads. [Middle English chapelet (wreath), from Old French, diminutive of chapel hat, from Medieval Latin cappellus, from Late Latin cappa (cap).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "What was on Hannibal's mind as he drove his elephants over the Alps? Looking good, apparently, because on Hannibal's head was a wig, which he wore into battle to cover his lack of locks. Julius Caesar used his chaplet for the same purpose, the comb-over having not yet been discovered." Jack Reed; Men Want to Look Good, Too; St. Petersburg Times (Florida); Jan 28, 2001. -------- Date: Thu Apr 19 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gnomon X-Bonus: There are two things to aim at in life; first to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. -Logan Pearsall Smith, essayist (1865-1946) This week's theme: words for odds and ends. gnomon (NO-mon) noun 1. The raised arm of a sundial that indicates the time of day by its shadow. 2. The remaining part of a parallelogram after a similar smaller parallelogram has been taken away from one of the corners. [From Latin gnomon (pointer), from Greek gnomon (interpreter), from gignoskein, to know. Ultimately from the Indo-European root gno- (to know) that is also the root of knowledge, prognosis, ignore, narrate, and normal.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Eighty-six years in the making, one of the world's largest sundials has finally been installed at Place de la Concorde, as part of the Year 2000 festivities of the City of Paris. It takes an approach more cerebral than celebratory. The sundial's pointer, or gnomon, is the 109-foot Obelisk of Luxor. Its base is the northern half of Place de la Concorde." Rose Marie Burke; Sundial Aids Millennium Countdown; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Oct 26, 1999. -------- Date: Fri Apr 20 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--finial X-Bonus: I don't trust a man who uses the word evil eighteen times in ten minutes. If you're half evil, nothing soothes you more than to think the person you are opposed to is totally evil. -Norman Mailer, author (1923- ) This week's theme: words for odds and ends. finial (FIN-ee-ehl, FI-nee-) noun 1. An ornamental object on top of an architectural structure or a piece of furniture. 2. A curve at the end of the main stroke of a character in some italic fonts. [From Middle English finial (final), from Latin finis (end).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Just ahead, rolling lawns and a canopy of pecan, willow, oak and English walnut trees frame an imposing multitiered manor house complete with portico exterior, dormer windows and a welcoming 3 1/2-foot pineapple finial crowning its mansard roof." Suzanne Murphy-Larronde; Mind Your Manors; The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Mar 18, 2001. -------- Date: Mon Apr 23 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--abstemious X-Bonus: Let your capital be simplicity and contentment. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) "I'd like to buy a vowel." If you have watched this popular TV game show you're familiar with this oft-heard sentence. For non-watchers, it's 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 if you had to squander all your cash to buy those vowels. To make it easy, this week we've selected words that contain all the vowels once, and only once, and even easier: the vowels are in alphabetical order. abstemious (ab-STEE-mee-uhs) adjective Sparing, especially in matters of eating and drinking. [From Latin abstemius, from ab- (from) + temetum (liquor).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Flowers can also be divided into thirsty water drinkers, and the abstemious, which use water sparingly." Valerie Elliott; Heralds of Spring Have a Sinister Side; The Times (London, UK); Apr 9, 2007. -------- Date: Tue Apr 24 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--caesious X-Bonus: If the truth doesn't save us, what does that say about us? -Lois McMaster Bujold, writer (1949- ) This week's theme: words having vowels aeiou once and only once, and in order. caesious (SEE-zee-uhs) adjective Bluish or grayish green. [From Latin caesius, probably from caelum (sky).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Leaves [are] medium green on upper surface, caesious beneath." Peter Sell and Gina Murrell; Flora of Great Britain and Ireland; Cambridge University Press; 2006. -------- Date: Wed Apr 25 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--anemious X-Bonus: True remorse is never just a regret over consequences; it is a regret over motive. -Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (1913-1983) This week's theme: words having vowels aeiou once and only once, and in order. anemious (uh-NEE-mi-uhs) adjective Growing in windy conditions. [From Greek anemos (wind).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "By late afternoon the light that washed over the garden turned it into a lake of gold, with islands of shadow; the blown lilies, the long tendrils of roses and the anemious grasses streamed like plants that grow in water." Edith Pope; River in the Wind; Scribner; 1954. -------- Date: Thu Apr 26 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--facetious X-Bonus: Modern technology / Owes ecology / An apology. -Alan M. Eddison This week's theme: words having vowels aeiou once and only once, and in order. facetious (fuh-SEE-shus) adjective Jocular or humorous, often inappropriately. [From Latin facetus (witty).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Prof Bailey is particularly incensed that in some cases, the presiding judge makes facetious comments which trivialise the issue." Barbara Gloudon; Of Bling and School Uniforms; Jamaica Observer; Mar 23, 2007. -------- Date: Fri Apr 27 00:01:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--annelidous X-Bonus: Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to to hide them. -Francois de La Rochefoucauld, writer (1613-1680) This week's theme: words having vowels aeiou once and only once, and in order. annelidous (uh-NEL-uh-duhs) adjective Of or relating to worms. [From French anneler (to ring), from Latin anellus, diminutive of anus (ring).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "The mud in many places was thrown up by numbers of some kind of worm, or annelidous animal." Charles Darwin; Voyage of the Beagle; 1839. -------- Date: Mon Apr 30 00:41:04 EDT 2007 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--haplography X-Bonus: The older I grow, the more I listen to people who don't talk much. -Germain G. Glien Search the Web for 'Missippi' and you'd find thousands of hits showing pages where the authors clearly meant Mississippi. With the advent of modern computers and spell-checkers you'd think this illustration of haplography would not occur so often. If you feel this is bad, imagine the time before the printing press came along, when the only way to make copies of a book was with a quill and parchment. There were no photocopying machines to crank out double-sided copies. Biblical translations and copies of other books from olden times are replete with haplography and its cousins. Many scholars spend their lifetime identifying these 'bugs' in ancient books and other scripts. A counterpart of haplography is haplology. Haplology occurs when one 'eats' a few letters while pronouncing a word. Latin nutrix (nurse) came from an earlier word, nutritrix. Chancery, a contraction of chancellery, is now an acceptable part of the English language. Perhaps some day 'probly' will be considered standard and 'probably' obsolete! If there are some words that economize on letters, there are others which splurge. The word for this phenomenon is called dittography. This week we'll see a few more words about words. haplography (hap-LOG-ruh-fee) noun Accidental omission of a letter or letter group that should be repeated in writing, for example, "mispell" for "misspell". [From Greek haplo- (single, simple) + -graphy (writing).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "In the apparatus of Trounce's edition, dittography occurs at line 266, haplography at line 352, and there are numerous erasures and corrections within the text." Elaine Treharne; Romanticizing the Past in the Middle English Athelston; The Review of English Studies; Oxford University Press; Feb 1999.