A.Word.A.Day Archives
from https://wordsmith.org/awad
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Date: Mon Sep 3 00:01:10 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--crow's feet
X-Bonus: Ah, good taste, what a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness. -Pablo Picasso, painter and sculptor (1881-1973)
Someone sent me this image https://wordsmith.org/words/images/apostrophe.jpg
[photo: Sarah Anne Edwards http://www.flickr.com/photos/madaboutcows/2269340617/in/photostream/ ]
recently. So many people to hate, so little time.
If there's an apostrophe hell this has to be it. If you see that fellow
with his banner, ask him, "Why do you <3 the apostrophe so much? Repent
and believe in grammar."
But don't let that banner push you away from apostrophes either. There
are places where an apostrophe has its place. Each of this week's terms
answers the question: Whose what? And each of them takes an apostrophe.
Go ahead, add one to each term every time you write it -- you can do so
religiously, without thinking, with eyes firmly closed, blindly.
Finally, rest assured there's no hell, grammar or otherwise. You don't
need to pay for the overuse of apostrophes in another life. Overall,
the universe's apostrophe store stays in balance. It seems our
linguistic world was intelligently designed -- for every gratuitous
apostrophe there's an instance where it's omitted.
My thank's to the reader who sent me that mans photo.
crow's feet (KROHZ feet) noun
Wrinkles in the skin around the outer corners of the eyes.
[From their supposed resemblance to a crow's feet. Earliest documented
use: around 1374. Another term coined after a bird's feet: pedigree
https://wordsmith.org/words/pedigree.html .]
"He stares at himself in the mirror, the curls now grey, the crow's
feet deepening like grooves worked into wood."
C.B. Forrest; The Devil's Dust; Dundurn; 2012.
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Date: Tue Sep 4 00:06:05 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--god's penny
X-Bonus: The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness than the destruction of millions of our fellow-beings. -William Hazlitt, essayist (1778-1830)
This week's theme: Whose what?
God's penny (godz PEN-ee) noun
Earnest money: a small sum given to show commitment and to bind
a contract in a purchase, with the remaining amount due later.
[From the earlier belief that some of the earnest money should
be devoted to some religious purpose. Earliest documented use: 1340.]
"The exchange of God's penny was the common seal of a deal."
N.S.B. Gras; Business and Capitalism; Beard Books; 2003.
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Date: Wed Sep 5 00:06:10 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--fool's paradise
X-Bonus: The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise. -Alden Nowlan, poet, novelist, and playwright (1933-1983)
This week's theme: Whose what?
fool's paradise (foolz PAR-uh-dys, -dyz) noun
A state of happiness based on false hopes.
[From English fool, from Latin follis (windbag, fool) + paradise, via
French, Latin, and Greek, from Avestan pairidaeza (enclosure, park).
Earliest documented use: 1462.]
"She'd been living in a fool's paradise, hoping for his heart, for
his ardor at least."
Diana Palmer; Noelle; Ivy Books; 1995.
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Date: Thu Sep 6 00:05:03 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--winner's circle
X-Bonus: We should tackle reality in a slightly jokey way, otherwise we miss its point. -Lawrence Durrell, novelist, poet, and playwright (1912-1990)
This week's theme: Whose what?
winner's circle (WIN-uhrz SUHR-kuhl) noun
A select group of winners or those considered worthy.
[After the enclosure at a racetrack where the winning horse, jockey,
and horse-owner receive awards. Earliest documented use: 1951.]
"I'm not sure being Peter's fifth fianc�e will put you in the
winner's circle."
Jennifer Drew; The Bad Girl Bride; Mills and Boon; 1999.
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Date: Fri Sep 7 00:05:04 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--writer's block
X-Bonus: Television knows no night. It is perpetual day. TV embodies our fear of the dark, of night, of the other side of things. -Jean Baudrillard, sociologist and philosopher (1929-2007)
This week's theme: Whose what?
writer's block (RY-tuhrs blok) noun
A usually temporary psychological inhibition preventing one from
proceeding with a piece of writing.
[After the term 'block' or 'blocking' used to describe obstruction
in mental processes resulting in an inability to do a certain task.
Earliest documented use: 1950.]
NOTES: The writer's block has been described as the situation when your
imaginary friends won't talk to you. But this condition is not limited
to fiction writers or even to writers. Here's the composer Rossini's
advice on this matter:
"Wait until the evening before the opening night. Nothing primes
inspiration more than necessity, whether it be the presence of a
copyist waiting for your work or for the prodding of an impresario
tearing his hair. In my time, all the impresarios in Italy were
bald at thirty."
"This writer's block is terrible. I don't know how to get the story
to flow again."
Tina Leonard; The Renegade Cowboy Returns; Harlequin; 2012.
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Date: Mon Sep 10 00:05:05 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--munificent
X-Bonus: Our perception that we have "no time" is one of the distinctive marks of modern Western culture. -Margaret Visser, writer and broadcaster (b. 1940)
There are some seven billion of us on this Earth and we are all
interconnected. There's this idea of six degrees of separation,
that we are only six links away from any person. With online
social networks, perhaps we have shed a few links already.
What words do you use to describe people around you? This week's
A.Word.A.Day discusses five words to describe people in your network.
munificent (myoo-NIF-uh-suhnt) adjective
Extremely generous.
[From Latin munus (gift) + facere (to make). Ultimately from the
Indo-European root mei- (to change, go, or move [of goods]) that
also brought us migrate, mutate, molt, miss, mutual, municipal,
and remunerate. Earliest documented use: 1565.]
"The Southern Pacific was a rapacious villain whose coffers overflowed
only because of the government's munificent grant of land."
Don Hofsommer; The Southern Pacific; Texas A&M University Press; 2009.
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Date: Tue Sep 11 00:05:06 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--fastidious
X-Bonus: We establish no religion in this country. We command no worship. We mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are and must remain separate. -Ronald Reagan, 40th US President (1911-2004)
This week's theme: Words to describe people
fastidious (fa-STID-ee-uhs) adjective
1. Hard to please; exacting.
2. Meticulous.
3. Excessively concerned about cleanliness, propriety, etc.
[From Latin fastidium (disgust). Earliest documented use: 1531.]
"His reported conduct suggests a fastidious man of refined manners ...
In his extravagant generosity and the lavishness of his hospitality,
it seems almost as if he sought to outclass the most munificent of Arabs."
Julia Ashtiany, et al; Abbasid Belles Lettres; Cambridge University Press;
1990.
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Date: Wed Sep 12 00:05:05 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--impeccable
X-Bonus: The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it. -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)
This week's theme: Words to describe people
impeccable (im-PEK-uh-buhl) adjective
1. Faultless or blameless.
2. Incapable of sin or error.
[From Latin im- (not) Latin + peccare (to err or sin). Ultimately
from the Indo-European root ped- (foot) which also gave us peccavi
https://wordsmith.org/words/peccavi.html , peccadillo (alluding to
a stumble or fall) pedal, podium, octopus, and impeach. Earliest
documented use: 1531.]
"An example of its fastidious attention to detail is the impeccable
English spelling on its (very clean) menu."
Jason Taitz; Fast and Fastidious; The Jerusalem Post (Israel); Dec 3, 2010.
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Date: Thu Sep 13 00:03:04 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--imperious
X-Bonus: In the cellars of the night, when the mind starts moving around old trunks of bad times, the pain of this and the shame of that, the memory of a small boldness is a hand to hold. -John Leonard, critic (1939-2008)
This week's theme: Words to describe people
imperious (im-PEER-ee-uhs) adjective
1. Domineering; dictatorial.
2. Urgent; imperative.
[From Latin imperare (to command) which also resulted in imperative,
emperor, empire, and imperial. Earliest documented use: 1541.]
"She had an imperious manner that dared anyone to get in her way. She
wore impeccable suits."
Helen Stringer; Spellbinder; Macmillan; 2009.
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Date: Fri Sep 14 00:01:04 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--rapacious
X-Bonus: I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. -Helen Adams Keller, lecturer and author (1880-1968)
This week's theme: Words to describe people
rapacious (ruh-PAY-shus) adjective
1. Greedy; plundering.
2. (Animals) Living on prey: predacious.
[From Latin rapere (to seize). Ultimately from the Indo-European root
rep- (to snatch) that also gave us rapid, ravish, ravage, rapt, and
rape. Earliest documented use: 1572.]
"Banana's history involved enough imperious diplomats, corrupt dictators,
rapacious tycoons and exploited workers to fill many volumes."
Marc Levinson; Please, No More Bananas; The Wall Street Journal
(New York); Jul 2, 2012.
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Date: Mon Sep 17 00:01:05 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--incommodious
X-Bonus: The tragedy in the lives of most of us is that we go through life walking down a high-walled lane with people of our own kind, the same economic situation, the same national background and education and religious outlook. And beyond those walls, all humanity lies, unknown and unseen, and untouched by our restricted and impoverished lives. -Florence Luscomb, architect and suffragist (1887-1985)
It's nice to see more and more of the world's information getting organized
-- sorted, indexed, and cataloged -- making it easy to find. We now know
more of what is where and how to access it.
But there's something to be said about serendipity. Sometimes there's no
substitute for walking into a random aisle in a library and perusing books.
Sometimes getting lost results in finding what you may need.
Recognizing this, there are websites to suggest a website at random for you:
http://www.randomwebsite.com/. And we have a way for you to see a word at
random from AWAD archives (https://wordsmith.org/words/random.cgi), and so on.
In that spirit, this week's words have been selected randomly, by getting
lost in the dictionary and landing on a word.
incommodious (in-kuh-MOH-dee-uhs) adjective
Inconvenient or uncomfortable.
[From Latin commodus (convenient), from com- (with) + modus (mode,
measure). Ultimately from the Indo-European root med- (to take
appropriate measures), which is also the source of medicine, modern,
modify, modest, modulate, discommode https://wordsmith.org/words/discommode.html
and incommode https://wordsmith.org/words/incommode.html . Earliest
documented use: 1551.]
"An incommodious little wooden house is where this deaf teacher lived."
Tamara Eidelman; Kaluga's Rocket Scientist; Russian Life; (Montpelier,
Vermont); Sep/Oct 2007.
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Date: Tue Sep 18 00:01:05 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mendacity
X-Bonus: If, every day, I dare to remember that I am here on loan, that this house, this hillside, these minutes are all leased to me, not given, I will never despair. Despair is for those who expect to live forever. I no longer do. -Erica Jong, writer (b. 1942)
This week's theme: Random words
mendacity (men-DAS-i-tee) noun
1. The quality of being untruthful: a tendency to lie.
2. A lie.
[From Latin mendac-, stem of mendax (lying), from mendum (fault or
defect) that also gave us amend, emend, and mendicant. Earliest
documented use: 1540.]
"The story of the founding of the Mormon church in Ohio in 1830 and its
unlikely trek from there to Missouri to Illinois to Salt Lake City is one
of the great adventures of the nineteenth century. It is an enthralling
journey rich with acts of bravery, frailty, strength, violence, and
mendacity, the most hideous being the Mountain Meadows Massacre."
Laurie Winer; The Mormon Candidate; Los Angeles Review of Books;
Aug 26, 2012.
A must-read: http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=878&fulltext=1
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Date: Wed Sep 19 00:06:04 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--marmoreal
X-Bonus: To blame the poor for subsisting on welfare has no justice unless we are also willing to judge every rich member of society by how productive he or she is. Taken individual by individual, it is likely that there's more idleness and abuse of government favors among the economically privileged than among the ranks of the disadvantaged. -Norman Mailer, author (1923-2007)
This week's theme: Random words
marmoreal (mahr-MOHR-ee-uhl) also marmorean (-ee-uhn) adjective
Resembling marble or a marble statue, for example, in smoothness,
whiteness, hardness, coldness, or aloofness.
[From Latin marmoreus (made of marble) from marmor (marble). Earliest
documented use: 1798.]
"Bernhard Schlink's intelligent book [The Reader] has been frozen in
marmoreal stillness."
David Denby; Curious Cases; The New Yorker; Feb 9, 2009.
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Date: Thu Sep 20 00:06:05 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--tenuous
X-Bonus: Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone. -Czeslaw Milosz, poet and novelist (1911-2004)
This week's theme: Random words
tenuous (TEN-yoo-uhs) adjective
Very weak; unsubstantiated; thin.
[From Latin tenuis (thin). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ten-
(to stretch), which is also the source of tense, tenet, tendon, tent,
tenor, tender, pretend, extend, tenure, tetanus, hypotenuse,
tenable https://wordsmith.org/words/tenable.html ,
extenuate https://wordsmith.org/words/extenuate.html ,
countenance https://wordsmith.org/words/countenance.html ,
pertinacious https://wordsmith.org/words/pertinacious.html , and
detente https://wordsmith.org/words/detente.html . Earliest documented
use: 1597.]
"[Arizona governor Jan] Brewer's grasp of facts is tenuous: she told The
Arizona Republic in 2010 that her father died fighting the Nazis in
Germany, when he died a decade after the end of the war."
Maureen Dowd; Tension on the Tarmac; The New York Times; Jan 28, 2012.
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Date: Fri Sep 21 00:06:06 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--hiemal
X-Bonus: Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed. -Herman Melville, novelist and poet (1819-1891)
This week's theme: Random words
hiemal (HY-uh-muhl) adjective
Of or relating to winter.
[From Latin hiems (winter). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghei-
(winter), which is the ancestor of words such as chimera
https://wordsmith.org/words/chimera.html , hibernate, and the Himalayas
(from Sanskrit him (snow) + alaya (abode)). Earliest documented use: 1560.]
"Painted turtles tend to move into deeper water during the autumnal
season, and dormancy occurs during the hiemal period."
Carl Ernst and Jeffrey Lovich; Turtles of the United States and Canada;
The Johns Hopkins University Press; 2009.
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Date: Mon Sep 24 00:06:06 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--crepitate
X-Bonus: My feeling is that there is nothing in life but refraining from hurting others, and comforting those who are sad. -Olive Schreiner, author (1855-1920)
Yoda of the Star Wars universe once advised, "Do. Or do not. There is
no try." Clearly, by saying "Do", he was exhorting one to take action.
But in English the word "try" is also a verb, an action word. And not
to quarrel with the wise Yoda, but sometimes to choose not to do is
also a form of action.
This week we'll arm you with five verbs and send you on your way to do, to
do not, or to try. Go explore faraway galaxies or your corner of the world.
crepitate (KREP-i-tayt) verb intr.
To make a crackling or popping sound.
[From Latin crepitare (to crackle), frequentative of crepare (to rattle,
crack). Earliest documented use: 1623.]
"John Grisham's sentences thud and crepitate all over the page, and
he has become a literary tycoon."
Gene Weingarten; The Fiddler in the Subway; Simon & Schuster; 2010.
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Date: Tue Sep 25 00:06:06 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ramify
X-Bonus: Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. -James Baldwin, writer (1924-1987)
This week's theme: Verbs
ramify (RAM-i-fy) verb tr., intr.
To divide into branches.
[From Latin ramus (branch). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wrad-
(root) which also sprouted words such as root, wort, licorice, radical,
radish, rutabaga, eradicate, and deracinate https://wordsmith.org/words/deracinate.html .
Earliest documented use: 1425.]
"Andrew offered to read me a handful of passages from the manuscript
... which had ramified so uncontrollably that it was turning into
several distinct projects."
Nicolas Rothwell; The Red Highway; Black Inc.; 2009.
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Date: Wed Sep 26 00:06:06 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ameliorate
X-Bonus: As to conforming outwardly and living your own life inwardly, I do not think much of that. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)
This week's theme: Verbs
ameliorate (a-MEL-yuh-rayt, uh-MEE-lee-) verb tr., intr., also meliorate
To make or grow better; to improve.
[From Latin melior (better). Earliest documented use: 1767.]
"An offhand allusion to luggage problems and the presentation of his
'platinum preferred' credit card had seemed to ameliorate most of
the doubts about his desirability as a guest."
Carole Buck; A Bride for Saint Nick; Silhouette Books; 1996.
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Date: Thu Sep 27 00:01:06 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--adhibit
X-Bonus: Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. -Susan Ertz, author (1894-1985)
This week's theme: Verbs
adhibit (ad-HIB-it) verb tr.
1. To let in; admit.
2. To administer.
3. To affix or attach.
[From Latin adhibere (to bring to), from ad- (to) + habere (to have,
hold). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghabh- (to give or to
receive), which is also the source of give, gift, able, habit, prohibit,
due, duty, and habile https://wordsmith.org/words/habile.html .
Earliest documented use: 1528.]
"Morgiana asked the druggist for more medicine and essences such as
are adhibited to the sick when at death's door."
Translator: Richard Burton; Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves.
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Date: Fri Sep 28 00:01:05 EDT 2012
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--decorticate
X-Bonus: Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end. There was a time when you were not: that gives us no concern. Why then should it trouble us that a time will come when we shall cease to be? To die is only to be as we were before we were born. -William Hazlitt, essayist (1778-1830)
This week's theme: Verbs
decorticate (dee-KOR-ti-kayt) verb tr.
To remove the outer layer, such as the bark, husk, rind, etc.
[From Latin decorticare (to peel), from de- (from) + cortex (bark).
Ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (to cut), which is also
the source of skirt, curt, screw, shard, shears, carnage, carnivorous,
carnation, sharp, scrape, and excoriate https://wordsmith.org/words/excoriate.html .
Earliest documented use: 1611.]
"The idea, the sensation, the moment of intuition are decorticated and
communicated with intimacy and lucidity."
Marguerite Dorian; Demon in Brackets; World Literature Today; Jun 1995.