A.Word.A.Day Archives
from https://wordsmith.org/awad

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Date: Mon Jun  2 21:15:28 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--jackanapes
X-Bonus: Politeness is the art of choosing among your thoughts. -Madame de Stael, writer (1766-1817)

Mark Twain once said, "When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear."
While swearing is considered uncouth and vulgar, it has its place and
purpose. It helps provide an emotional release and clears the system.
Isn't a verbal venting of emotions better than a physical manifestation?

You don't have to rely on those worn-out four-letter terms to inflict
rude remarks on the offending party. With careful selection of words,
it's possible to elevate insults to an art form. Why not use this week's
exquisite words for one of those times when nothing less will do?

But remember, everything in moderation.



jackanapes (JAK-uh-nayps) noun

   An impertinent conceited person.

[Probably from Jack Napes, from "jack (man) of an ape". This word was the
nickname of William de la Pole (1396-1450), Duke of Suffolk, as his badge
was a clog and chain, as might be tied to an ape.]



-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "It turned out some jackanapes of a whippersnapper at my publisher's had
   appended his own subtitle to a forthcoming book of mine and announced it
   on Amazon."
   Mark Steyn; Michael Ignatieff's Home-ophobia; Macleans (Toronto, Canada);
   Oct 19, 2006.

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Date: Tue Jun  3 00:01:08 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gundygut
X-Bonus: One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person. -William Feather, author, editor and publisher (1889-1981)

This week's theme: insults.


gundygut (GUHN-di-guht) noun

   A voracious eater; a greedy person.

[From gundy, of unexplained origin + gut (belly).]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "But I am no gundygut. My gastronomical satiety has arrived at a state of
   surfeit."
   Peggy Christian; The Bookstore Mouse; Harcourt; 2002.

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Date: Wed Jun  4 00:20:12 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--praetorian
X-Bonus: They were so strong in their beliefs that there came a time when it hardly mattered what exactly those beliefs were; they all fused into a single stubbornness. -Louise Erdrich, author (b. 1954)

This week's theme: insults.


praetorian or pretorian (pree-TOR-ee-uhn) adjective

   Corruptible; fraudulent.

[From Latin praetor, an elected magistrate in ancient Rome.]
 


-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "If Nigeria is ever going to mature as a free and democratic society,
   the judiciary, nay, the various sitting tribunals must be ready and
   willing to demonstrate an unequal boldness as well as courage to curb
   electoral banditry by praetorian politicians that subverted the April
   2007 elections."
   Mike Igini; Amaechi - Error or Good Reason?; Vanguard (Apapa, Nigeria);
   Oct 1, 2007.

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Date: Thu Jun  5 16:37:40 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--quisquilian
X-Bonus: The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards. -Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924)

This week's theme: insults.


quisquilian (kwis-KWIL-ee-uhn) adjective

   Worthless, trifling.

[From Latin quisquiliae (waste, rubbish).]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "It is painful to attack a writer as young in years and in time spent
   working at his craft as Chris Columbus, yet what are we to make of
   someone whose credits to date include Reckless, Gremlins, Goonies and
   the quisquilian subject under examination here?"
   Harlan Ellison and Leonard Maltin; Harlan Ellison's Watching; M Press; 2008.

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Date: Fri Jun  6 00:01:06 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--flibbertigibbet
X-Bonus: He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it. -Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE)

This week's theme: insults.


flibbertigibbet (FLIB-uhr-tee-jib-it) noun

   Someone who is regarded as flighty, scatterbrained, and talkative.

[Apparently from the imitation of the sound of idle chatter.]



-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "But [Lesley Dormen] is hardly a flibbertigibbet. 'I am the opposite of
   flighty,' she said."
   Celia Barbour; An Author Discovers; The New York Times; Apr 8, 2007.

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Date: Mon Jun  9 00:01:06 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--shebeen
X-Bonus: I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

On June 16, James Joyce aficionados the world over celebrate Bloomsday.
The day is named after advertising salesman Leopold Bloom, protagonist of
Joyce's novel Ulysses. The entirety of this book recounts an ordinary day,
June 16, 1904, as various characters go about their ways in Dublin, Ireland.
If those 700+ pages are too much, here's an illustrated and irreverent
summary of the book:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080612061721/http://home.bway.net/hunger/ulysses.html

To mark Bloomsday this week we'll examine five words borrowed from the
Irish language.



shebeen (shuh-BEEN) noun

   An unlicensed drinking establishment.

[From Irish s�b�n, diminutive of s�ibe (mug/mugful). The word
is popular in the south of Africa and in Scotland and Ireland.]



-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "The controversial drinking den has been raided four times since it
   opened two months ago. But shebeen operator Francis Kelly, 33, says
   it's a 'private club' for his pals -- and insists he doesn't sell
   any booze."
   Owen Conlon; Shebeen and Gone; The Sun (UK); May 9, 2008.

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Date: Tue Jun 10 00:01:05 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--dornick
X-Bonus: Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water. -Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957)

This week's theme: Words borrowed from Irish.


dornick (DOR-nik) noun

   1. A piece of rock small enough to throw.
      [From Irish dornog (small stone, literally fistful).]

   2. Stout linen.
      [After Doornik, the name of a Flemish town where the cloth
       was first manufactured.]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "The Winter Olympics have ended without anyone's drawing a knife
   and without anyone's tossing a dornick at Avery Brundage's balding
   pate."
   Arthur Daley; Olympic Afterthoughts; The New York Times; Feb 10, 1948.

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Date: Wed Jun 11 00:01:06 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--hubbub
X-Bonus: Extended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for feeble splendor. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)

This week's theme: Words borrowed from Irish.


hubbub (HUB-ub) noun

   Excited fuss or tumult of a crowd.

[Perhaps from Irish ubub (an interjection of contempt).]



-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "Italian footballers were showered with applause and surrounded by flashing
   cameras, songs, and chants. The hubbub generates a sense of excitement
   unique to the sport of football."
   Do Hung; Champions' Charm; Thanh Nien (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam);
   Jun 5, 2008.

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Date: Thu Jun 12 00:01:06 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cosher
X-Bonus: People like to imagine that because all our mechanical equipment moves so much faster, that we are thinking faster, too. -Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957)

This week's theme: Words borrowed from Irish.


cosher (KOSH-uhr) verb tr.

   To pamper.

[From Irish cosair (feast).]



-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "How it is that poor men's wives, who have no cold fowl and port wine
   on which to be coshered up, nurse their children without difficulty,
   whereas the wives of rich men, who eat and drink everything that is
   good, cannot do so, we will for the present leave to the doctors and
   mothers to settle between them."
   Anthony Trollope; Barchester Towers; 1857.

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Date: Fri Jun 13 00:01:06 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--smithereens
X-Bonus: Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen. -Louis L'Amour, novelist (1908-1988)

This week's theme: Words borrowed from Irish.


smithereens (smith-uh-REENZ) noun

   Tiny fragments.

[Probably from Irish smidirin, diminutive of smiodar (fragment).]



-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "[The heroine] finds herself being mistaken for someone else and
   falling, abruptly, down a rabbit hole -- her identity stolen, her
   daily life torpedoed, her most fundamental expectations about life
   blown to smithereens."
   Michiko Kakutani; A Misunderstanding, and a Simple Life Descends
   Into a Nightmare; The New York Times; May 8, 2007.

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Date: Mon Jun 16 00:01:06 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--balbriggan
X-Bonus: History is a vast early warning system. -Norman Cousins, editor and author (1915-1990)

Oh, the places you'll go! The summer is here (at least in the Northern
Hemisphere) and it's time to head out. In A.Word.A.Day we'll take you
to places that have words coined after them. In this trip we'll visit
Europe, specifically, Ireland, England, Sardinia, Belgium, and Etruria.

This week we'll look at toponyms, words derived from the names of places.
The word toponym is from Greek topos (place), the same word that gave us
topic, topiary, isotope, and utopia. All aboard the AWAD Express!



balbriggan (bal-BRIG-uhn) noun

   A knitted, unbleached cotton fabric, used in hosiery and underwear.

[After Balbriggan, a town near Dublin in Ireland, where it was first made.]



-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "No, there you are, as sensible as ever you were, with a pair of good
   balbriggan stockings on and sensible shoes."
   Agatha Christie; The Mystery of the Blue Train; 1928.

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Date: Tue Jun 17 00:01:06 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--brummagem
X-Bonus: Lots of times you have to pretend to join a parade in which you're not really interested in order to get where you're going. -Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957)

This week's theme: Toponyms.


brummagem (BRUM-uh-juhm) adjective

   Cheap and showy.

noun

   Something that is counterfeit or of inferior quality.

[After Brummagem, a dialectal form of Birmingham, UK, where counterfeit
coins were produced in the 17th century. Brummie is a nickname for someone
from Birmingham.]



-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "[My parents were] obsessed with their material possessions, investing
   them with moral righteousness: no synthetics, no veneer, no brummagem,
   nothing mass-produced or as seen on TV."
   Katherine A. Powers; When Things Are in the Saddle; Boston Globe;
   Nov 19, 2006.

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Date: Wed Jun 18 00:01:05 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sardonic
X-Bonus: The struggle with evil by means of violence is the same as an attempt to stop a cloud, in order that there may be no rain. -Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)

This week's theme: Toponyms.


sardonic (sahr-DON-ik) adjective

   Marked by scorn, mockery, and cynicism.

[After Sardinia, a large island in the Mediterranean. Eating a Sardinian
plant was believed to produce facial convulsions as if in a maniacal
laughter.]



-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "In no time the plot becomes less and less tangible as Merde Happens
   evolves into one long, sardonic diatribe by a Brit about the
   (exaggerated) strangeness of America -- when his French girlfriend
   isn't snarking about it."
   Alan Wong; Sardonic Mirth; The Star (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia);
   May 9, 2008.

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Date: Thu Jun 19 00:01:05 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--waterloo
X-Bonus: Tears are the safety valve of the heart when too much pressure is laid on it. -Albert Richard Smith, author and entertainer (1816-1860)

This week's theme: Toponyms.


waterloo (WOT-uhr-loo) noun

   A crushing or final defeat.

[After Waterloo, a village in central Belgium where the Battle of Waterloo
took place in 1815. That was Napoleon Bonaparte's last battle. He was
decisively defeated by the British and Prussian forces and exiled to the
island of Saint Helena.]



-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "Even masters like Charles, Walcott, and Moore all met their Waterloos
   against hard-hitting Rocky Marciano, who retired undefeated in 1956."
   David A. Avila; Two Heavyweights Try It One More Time;
   The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California); Jan 6, 2007.

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Date: Fri Jun 20 00:01:06 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--fescennine
X-Bonus: The sun is pure communism everywhere except in cities, where it's private property. -Malcolm De Chazal, writer and painter (1902-1981)

This week's theme: Toponyms.


fescennine (FES-uh-nyn, -nin) adjective

   Obscene or scurrilous.

[After Fescennia, a town of ancient Etruria known for its ribald and
scurrilous songs sung at festivals and weddings.]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "And while they're online, you can tap into another computer and
   view their fescennine photos, which are supposedly updated every six
   minutes."
   Joshua Quittner; Vice Raid on the Net; Time (New York); Apr 3, 1995.

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Date: Mon Jun 23 00:46:03 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--deadman's hand
X-Bonus: How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof! In such places standing alone on the mountaintop it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make -- leaves and moss like the marmots and birds, or tents or piled stone -- we all dwell in a house of one room -- the world with the firmament for its roof -- and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving any track. -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

There's a traffic sign at the end of the street where I live. It reads:

  Please drive carefully,
  For our childrens sake
  https://wordsmith.org/words/images/please_drive_carefully_for_our_childrens_sake.jpg

It's an official sign of the Department of Transportation. I imagine there
are thousands of these reflective blue signs around the state of Washington.

These signs may not be necessary now. Children don't play outside anymore.
There are more than enough Nintendos and Hanna Montanas and Facebooks these
days to keep them busy. But that's not why I mentioned the sign.

We're missing something here. A little squiggly mark.

We may be missing an apostrophe here but, over all, the universe's apostrophe
store stays in equilibrium. We don't put them where they belong, and we add
them where they don't. Many a grocery store displays signs such as:

  Apple's $3 per pound

There's even a term for the gratuitous inclusion of these marks:
greengrocer's apostrophe.

Sometimes we are not sure whether an apostrophe is needed, so we simply add
one, as if considering pillars to support a roof. "Well, let's add one here;
it may not be needed, but it's there if necessary, and in any case it's not
hurting anything."

This week we feature terms that use apostrophes, terms that do need them.
These selections answer: Whose What? And remember, it's not: Who's What?


deadman's hand (DED-manz hand) noun

   In a game of poker, a hand containing two aces and two eights.

[After Wild Bill Hickok, nickname of James Butler Hickok (1837-1876).
Hickok was a legendary figure in the American Wild West who worked
variously as an army scout, lawman, and professional gambler. He was
shot dead while playing poker, holding a hand that had two aces and
two eights.]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "Other [coffins] have been customized for fishermen, golfers, truck
   drivers (complete with an air horn from an 18-wheeler), and gamblers'
   coffins, which featured the traditional deadman's hand of aces 'n'
   eights."
   C. Richard Cotton; Artist Finds Creative Niche by Painting Caskets;
   Associated Press; Feb 14, 1997.

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Date: Tue Jun 24 00:36:04 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--yeoman's service
X-Bonus: The perfection of a clock is not to go fast, but to be accurate. -Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, moralist and essayist (1715-1747)

This week's theme: Whose what?


yeoman's service (YO-muhnz SUHR-vis) noun

   Efficient, useful, or loyal service.

[From yeoman (servant or assistant), probably a blend of young + man,
or from ga (region) + man.]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "Commissioner Ralph Carpenter, who sits on the reform commission,
   is a good man and hard worker. He has done yeoman's service for the
   governor."
   Toni Gold; A Better Bureaucracy Won't Fix The DOT; Hartford Courant
   (Connecticut); Nov 11, 2007.

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Date: Wed Jun 25 00:36:05 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bum's rush
X-Bonus: There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet. -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)

This week's theme: Whose what?


bum's rush (bumz rush) noun

   A forcible ejection from a place.

[From the allusion to a bum being swiftly kicked out of a place.]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "Anyone who has dealt with [Don] Givens will attest to his courtesy once
   he is treated courteously himself. But when given the bum's rush by
   swaggering footballers or asked legitimate questions, the courtesy
   turns to prickliness and his own ego becomes evident."
   Dion Fanning; Ireland's New Broom Will Have a Major Cleaning Job;
   Irish Independent (Dublin, Ireland); Jan 27, 2008.

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Date: Thu Jun 26 00:21:48 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--devil's advocate
X-Bonus: Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago. -Horace Mann, educational reformer (1796-1859)

This week's theme: Whose what?


devil's advocate (DEV-uhlz AD-vuh-kuht) noun

   One who argues against something for the sake of argument, for example,
   to provoke discussion and subject a plan to thorough examination.

[From Latin advocatus diaboli (devil's advocate). The Roman Catholic Church
used to have a person appointed as a devil's advocate to argue against
elevating someone to sainthood. The person arguing for the proposition was
known as God's advocate (Latin advocatus dei).]



-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "A devil's advocate would ask what's wrong with offering a scholarship
   to, say, an eighth-grader?"
   Jerry Tipton; Coaches to Curb Youth Movement; Herald-Leader (Lexington,
   Kentucky); Jun 15, 2008.

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Date: Fri Jun 27 00:01:05 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--widow's walk
X-Bonus: Tear man out of his outward circumstances; and what he then is; that only is he. -Johann Gottfried Seume, author (1763-1810)

This week's theme: Whose what?


widow's walk (WID-oz wok) noun

   A railed platform atop a roof, typically on a coastal house, that was used
   to look out for returning ships.

[In the 18th and 19th centuries sailors' wives used such platforms to look
for signs of their husbands returning home.]



A painting of a widow's walk: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=12486

Other terms involving widows:
widow's cruse: https://wordsmith.org/words/widows_cruse.html
widow's peak:  https://wordsmith.org/words/widows_peak.html

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "The second level of this home features a widow's walk that allows an open
   view to the great room and front foyer."
   Colleen Toms; Magnificent Features in Custom Built Home; The Expositor
   (Brantford, Canada); Feb 1, 2008.

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Date: Mon Jun 30 00:02:09 EDT 2008
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--costive
X-Bonus: The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them. -Patrick Henry, revolutionary (1736-1799)

Where I lived back east, there was a medical facility called Doctors' Hospital.
I have to say it was reassuring. I wouldn't want engineers treating me if I
broke an arm. On the other hand, maybe I just misunderstood the name. Perhaps
it was an exclusive place meant only for doctors. Well, that would be a mutual
healing society, but who am I to judge? It's the era of super-specialization.
For all I know, there might even be a Lawyers' Law Firm, representing only
those in the legal profession (motto: We know you better).

I have since discovered that besides the one mentioned at the beginning,
there are similarly named hospitals all over the place, with various
placements or omission of the apostrophe, such as Doctor's Hospital and
Doctors Hospital. Whatever their names, we thank them for not letting
plumbers perform colonoscopies.

This week we'll look at five terms connected with medicine, most of which
are now used metaphorically.



costive (KOS-tiv) adjective

   1. Slow to act or speak.

   2. Stingy.

   3. Constipated.

[Via French from Latin constipare (to cram together), from com- (together)
+ stipare (to pack or crowd).]



-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  "Mark Wahlberg, for example, is low-key to the point of costive."
   Anthony Lane; Nocturnes; New Yorker; Oct 22, 2007.