A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Mon Dec 3 02:01:39 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Potemkin village X-Bonus: The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind. -William Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965) potemkin village (po-TEM-kin VIL-ij) noun An impressive showy facade designed to mask undesirable facts. [After Prince Potemkin, who erected cardboard villages for Catherine II's visit to Ukraine and Crimea in 1787.] "And that raises the key question: is SBC serious? ... Or is this all a Potemkin village, meant to impress regulators?" Seth Schiesel, SBC Is Going National With Its Local Service, The New York Times, Oct 9, 2000. Imagine a Hollywood set and you'd have a good idea of the original Potemkin village. In 1787, when Catherine the Great visited the Ukraine and the Crimea, Prince Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin (1739-1791), a Russian army officer, statesman, and her lover, decided to put up elaborate cardboard houses apparently full of splendor in the villages Catherine was shown. While this setup depicted an illusion of prosperity, the real condition of the village was hidden behind this facade. A Potemkin village is, in other words, whitewash taken to the Nth degree. While Potemkin is the subject of many a legend, Potemkin village is his claim to fame. Terms named after people, such as this one, are called eponyms. This week in AWAD we'll see some more not-so-common eponyms. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Dec 4 00:02:02 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--furphy X-Bonus: Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. -Carl Sandburg, poet (1878-1967) furphy (FUR-fee) noun A rumor. [After the Furphy family of Victoria, Australia, manufacturer of Furphy carts, for water or trash. These carts were used during World War I, around which troops gathered and exchanged gossip. This word was formed in much the same way as scuttlebutt, the word we got from nautical terminology. A scuttlebutt was an open cask of drinking water, a favorite meeting place of the crew to swap stories.] "If it is proved that the bugs originated from space, then the damage to the ozone layer may also have originated from space. This will render the ozone theory a furphy." Rob Horne, Bugs in Space?, The Advertiser (Adelaide, Australia), Aug 3, 2001. This week's theme: eponyms. -------- Date: Wed Dec 5 00:02:09 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--colonel blimp X-Bonus: Luck never gives; it only lends. -Swedish proverb Colonel Blimp (KUHR-nl blimp) noun, also Blimp A pompous reactionary with out-of-date views. [After Colonel Blimp, a cartoon character created by David Low (1891-1963).] "President Clinton and the bipartisan leadership of the House of Representatives are trying to grease the skids on which Puerto Rico can slide into statehood. After holding the Caribbean island as a colony for 100 years, it's about time. But it is dismaying to see the kind of opposition to statehood that is being aroused by the Colonel Blimps, the racists, the hate-the-poor crowd and the English-only zealots on the mainland." Carl Rowan, Let's Add Puerto Rico to Our Melting Pot, The Buffalo News, Mar 6, 1998. This week's theme: eponyms. -------- Date: Thu Dec 6 00:02:15 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Simple Simon X-Bonus: Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them. -Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE) Simple Simon (SIM-puhl SYM-uhn) noun A simpleton. [After Simple Simon, a character in a nursery rhyme.] "Johnny is no Simple Simon either. `You don't expect me to enlist without knowing what it's about, do you?' he asks his sweetheart, Minny Belle ...." Dan Sullivan, Make Toys, Not War, Sings `Johnny', The Los Angeles Times, Jul 13, 1986. This week's theme: eponyms. -------- Date: Fri Dec 7 01:02:21 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--rover boy X-Bonus: The question is not can they reason? Nor can they talk? But can they suffer? -Jeremy Bentham, jurist and philosopher (1748-1832) rover boy (RO-vuhr boi) noun A brave but naive person. [From Rover Boys, a series of children's books by Edward Stratemeyer (1862-1930).] "Among the rover boys on horseback, the star parts go to Tad Butler, as All-American a boy as Jack Armstrong ever was, and Stacy Brown, also called Chunky, who is fat and gullible and is Patchin's bid for comedy." Larry Swindell, Three Cheers For Those Daring and Delightful Pony Rider Boys, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Aug 4, 1996. This week's theme: eponyms. -------- Date: Mon Dec 10 01:02:56 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--retronym X-Bonus: Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides. -Rita Mae Brown, writer (1944- ) retronym (RE-truh-nim) noun An adjective-noun pairing generated by a change in the meaning of the noun, usually because of advances in technology. When I grew up, there were only Coke, turf and mail. Nowadays, Diet Coke, new Coke, artificial turf, and email (electronic mail) have spawned the retronyms real Coke, Classic Coke, natural turf, and snailmail or hard mail. Once there were simply movies. Then movies began to talk, necessitating the retronym silent movies. Then came color movies and the contrasting term black-and-white movies. Once there was television. Along came color television and the retronym black-and-white television. Then came cable television and the retronym on-air television. And here are some other retronyms I pray will never come to pass -- graffitiless wall, nonelectronic book, teacher-staffed school, monogamous couple, and double-parent family. Last week's theme was eponyms, defined in some lexica as the names of people, real (e.g. Amelia Jenks Bloomer) and imaginary (e.g. Gargantua) real and imaginary, from which are derived lower-case words, and in other lexica as the words themselves that descend from these names. Eponym is but one of a battalion of words cobbled from -onym, a Greek root that means "word" or "name". Other examples of Nym include acronym, anonymous, antonym, homonym, patronymic, pseudonym, and synonym and the less familiar anatonym, bacronym, charactonym, consonym, domunym, euonym, exonym, malonym, meronym, metonymy, and tautonym. This week's sequence will examine some of the more outré words in this nym-ble family. -Richard Lederer (richard.ledererATpobox.com) (This week's guest wordsmith, Richard Lederer, is a bestselling author of books on language and humor. He will make a live appearance in our chat room on December 13, 2001. Come join the chat and wordplay with him at https://wordsmith.org/chat ) -------- Date: Tue Dec 11 00:01:54 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--heteronym X-Bonus: A full cup must be carried steadily. -English proverb heteronym (HET-uhr-uh-nim) noun A word that has the same spelling as another word but with a different pronunciation and meaning. In the following poem, each end-word is heteronymic: Listen, readers, toward me bow. Be friendly; do not draw the bow. Please don't try to start a row. Sit peacefully, all in a row. Don't act like a big, fat sow. Do not the seeds of discord sow. In a pure heteronymic pair, the two words must be etymologically unrelated, as in bass, buffet, deserts, dove, entrance, lead, moped, unionized, wind, and wound. This week's theme: Naming the nyms, by Richard Lederer. -------- Date: Wed Dec 12 00:02:04 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--aptronym X-Bonus: I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self. -Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE) aptronym (AP-troh-NIM) noun A name that is especially suited to the profession of its owner. Examples: Dan Druff for a barber, Felicity Foote for a dance teacher, and James Bugg for an exterminator -- all real monikers. More famously, we have William Wordsworth, the poet; Margaret Court, the tennis champion; Sally Ride, the astronaut; Larry Speakes, the White House spokesperson, Jim Kiick, the football star; and Lorena Bobbitt ("bob it") the you-know-what-er. This week's theme: Naming the nyms, by Richard Lederer. -------- Date: Thu Dec 13 00:01:44 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--capitonym X-Bonus: War is God's way of teaching Americans geography. -Ambrose Bierce, writer (1842-1914) capitonym (KAP-i-toh-NIM) noun A word that changes pronunciation and meaning when it is capitalized. As in the following poems: Job's Job In August, an august patriarch Was reading an ad in Reading, Mass. Long-suffering Job secured a job To polish piles of Polish brass. Herb's Herbs An herb store owner, name of Herb, Moved to a rainier Mount Rainier. It would have been so nice in Nice, And even tangier in Tangier. This week's theme: Naming the nyms, by Richard Lederer. -------- Date: Fri Dec 14 00:01:38 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--contronym X-Bonus: Never confuse motion with action. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790) contronym (KAHN-troh-NIM) noun A word that generates two opposite meanings. More popularly, they are known as Janus-faced words because the Greek god Janus had two faces that looked in opposite directions. "The moon is VISIBLE tonight." "The lights in the old house are always INVISIBLE." Although the two capitalized words are opposite in meaning, both can be replaced by the same word -- out. When the moon or sun or stars are out, they are visible. When the lights are out, they are invisible. Thus, out is a contronym. Other examples: cleave: separate; adhere firmly. a. A strong blow will cleave a plank in two. b. Bits of metal cleave to a magnet. oversight: careful supervision; neglect. a. The foreman was responsible for the oversight of the project. b. The foreman's oversight ruined the success of the project. This week's theme: Naming the nyms, by Richard Lederer. -------- Date: Mon Dec 17 03:01:41 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--occiput X-Bonus: The trouble with life in the fast lane is that you get to the other end in an awful hurry. -John Jensen occiput (OK-suh-put) noun, plural occipita (ok-SIP-i-tah) or occiputs The back part of the head or skull. [From Middle English, from Latin occipit, from oc-, from ob- (against) + ciput, from caput (head).] Senator Smoot (Republican, Ut.) Is planning a ban on smut. Oh rooti-ti-toot for Smoot of Ut. And his reverend occiput. Smite, Smoot, smite for Ut., Grit your molars and do your dut., Gird up your l--ns, Smite h-p and th-gh, We'll all be Kansas By and by. Opening para of Ogden Nash's 1931 poem on Sen. Reed Smoot whose anti-porn stance led to a newspaper headline "Smoot Smites Smut". So what is the plural form for the word "atlas"? Atlases? Yes, but not always. When used to refer to collections of maps, it is "atlases". However, in architecture, where atlas is a column in the form of a standing or kneeling figure, the plural form of the word is "atlantes". While the rules for pluralization in the English language are relatively simple, there are exceptions, especially when the rules are inherited from the language the word came from. Let's take a look at words that pluralize in rather unusual ways compared to the most common rules of pluralization. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Dec 18 00:02:33 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--opus X-Bonus: What a man says drunk he has thought sober. -Flemish proverb opus (OH-pus) noun, plural opera (OH-puhr-a, OP-uhr-a) or opuses A musical or literary composition. [From Latin opus (work).] So what do we call a minor novel or a symphony? The diminutive form of the word opus is opuscule. And a great work is a magnum opus. But let's remember, an octopus is not a collection of eight opera. -Anu "Silva includes a suite from another Waxman horror opus, The Invisible Ray, that is good enough to make us want more." Mark Koldys, Overview: Film Music, American Record Guide, Mar 1, 1998. This week's theme: words with irregular plurals. -------- Date: Wed Dec 19 00:01:46 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--numen X-Bonus: It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. -Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778) numen (NOO-muhn, NYOO-) noun, plural numina (-muh-nuh) Divine power, deity, or spirit presiding in a place. Also creative energy. [From Latin numen (nod, divine power).] "Descent of waters receives much more stress than their volatilization into steam rising above the Falls, the symbolic transformation of unconscious material into spirit or numen." James F. Hamilton, The Hero's Journey to Niagara in Chateaubriand and Heredia, Romance Quarterly (Lexington, Kentucky), Apr 1, 1994. This week's theme: words with irregular plurals. -------- Date: Thu Dec 20 00:02:08 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--chrysalis X-Bonus: To understand your parents' love, bear your own children. -Chinese saying chrysalis (KRIS-uh-lis) noun, plural chrysalises or chrysalides (kri-SAL-i-deez) A pupa of a moth or butterfly, enclosed in a cocoon. [From Latin chrysallis, from Greek.] "The climax of metamorphosis into an adult can be viewed almost daily. Butterflies usually emerge from their chrysalises sometime between 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m." William Allen, Where Beauty Flutters By, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jul 23, 1995. This week's theme: words with irregular plurals. -------- Date: Fri Dec 21 00:01:31 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--virtuoso X-Bonus: One kind word can warm three winter months. -Japanese proverb virtuoso (vur-choo-OH-soh, -zo) noun, plural virtuosos or virtuosi (-see) Someone who has a special talent in a field, especially in music. Also one with deep appreciation for something. virtuoso adjective Of or pertaining to a virtuoso. [From Italian virtuoso (skilled), from Late Latin virtuosus, virtuous, from Latin virtus.] "The film, mostly a cross-country road movie, is not always on target. But Hoffman's virtuoso performance compensates for any drawbacks." Movie Review: Rain Man, Cineman Syndicate, Jan 1, 1984. This week's theme: words with irregular plurals. -------- Date: Mon Dec 24 02:02:02 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--clepe X-Bonus: Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. -James Matthew Barrie, author (1860-1937) clepe (kleep) verb tr., past participle cleped/clept or ycleped/yclept (i-KLEPT) To call or name. [From Middle English clepen, from Old English cleopican, from clipian (to speak or call). "Now, you could work that into conversation if you wanted to force the issue. `Sir, do not dare you clepe me in such a fashion or I shall be compelled to thrash you with a puncheon or clevis, whichever being the most geographically convenient!'" Mike Kelley, Writer: If You Don't Know What Clevis Means, The Austin American Statesman, Apr 22, 1991. "The movie is `The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.' The time: the 15th century. Jovovich is Joan, the self-yclept `Maiden of Lorraine,' a peasant girl who has heard God's call to save France from the English." Desson Howe, Shoot `The Messenger', The Washington Post, Nov 12, 1999. Archaisms are grizzled old words that have continued to do their job despite their age even though they don't go around as much as they used to. They are old-fashioned but serviceable and that's the reason they are still making the rounds, as you can see in this week's examples. They serve a purpose, to give an aura of an earlier period, and evoke a sense of historical setting, in novels, religious writing, poetry, ads, and so on. What's old for one is young for another, so there's no consensus on what words are archaic, but this week we'll feature some of them. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Dec 25 00:01:27 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sennight X-Bonus: A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book. -Irish proverb sennight (SEN-yt) noun A week. [From Middle English, from Old English seofon nihta, from seofon (seven) + nihta, plural of niht (night).] Fortnight is a cousin of today's word. Twice as long as a sennight, it's a compressed form of "fourteen night". -Anu "CHORUS: For now sad Charles unto the throne is come. First his drunk grandam fell down in a fit and died, And then a sennight later his Mother Queen Bit by a rabid Corgi ran naked through the streets, Froth'd at the mouth and breath'd her last. So Charles was crown'd; but now the angry mob Demand that he be brought to Tyburn Tree - Such is the curse on all odd-numbered Charles'." Emily Sheffield, Jackdaw, The Guardian (London), May 29, 1996. This week's theme: archaic words. -------- Date: Wed Dec 26 00:01:39 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--anon X-Bonus: I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. -James Madison, fourth US president (1751-1836) anon (uh-NON) adverb 1. At another time. 2. Soon. 3. At once; immediately (archaic). [From Middle English, from Old English on an, (in one).] "Anon, King Hamlet discovers his brother's perfidy. Threatened with banishment, poverty, and disgrace, Claudius poisons the king, promptly marries Gertrude, and assumes the Danish crown." Witty, Wise, Then Weary, The Economist (London), Feb 19, 2000. This week's theme: archaic words. -------- Date: Thu Dec 27 00:01:34 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gainsay X-Bonus: Every man is a damned fool for at least five minutes every day. Wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit. -Elbert Hubbard, author, editor, printer (1856-1915) gainsay (GAYN-say) verb tr. To deny or contradict. [From Middle English gainsayen, from gain- (against), from Old English gegn- + sayen, from secgan (to say).] "With such a record, it's hard for anyone to gainsay the cynics. But as Inauguration Day approached, millions of Nigerians like Pambi again dared to hope for something better." Tom Masland, Fingers Crossed, Nigerians Are Inaugurating Their First Freely Elected President in 16 Years, Newsweek (New York), May 24, 1999. This week's theme: archaic words. -------- Date: Fri Dec 28 00:01:48 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--hearken X-Bonus: In the mountains of truth you never climb in vain. -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900) hearken (HAHR-ken) verb intr., also harken or hark 1. To pay attention; listen. 2. To return to a previous subject (usually in the form of hearken back). [From Middle English herknen, from Old English he(o)rcnian.] "The reasons long given by the old guard for barring women -- that they will cause disorder and create competition among the men, that they play with a different character than men, that their pregnancies would disrupt scheduling -- seem laughably antiquated. Such notions conjure up images of women as temptresses and hearken to times when the sight of a cello between a woman's legs was considered unfeminine." Anthony Tommasini, The Vienna Philharmonic Returns, Virtually a Male Bastion, The New York Times, Mar 15, 1999. This week's theme: archaic words. -------- Date: Mon Dec 31 02:02:03 EST 2001 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--epistrophe X-Bonus: The luck of having talent is not enough; one must also have a talent for luck. -Hector Berlioz, composer (1803-1869) epistrophe (i-PIS-truh-fee) noun The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses or sentences. [From Greek epistrophe, from epi- (upon) + strophe (turning).] "Epistrophe is also a Hillary specialty. That's the ending of phrases with the same term. "If women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work ... their families will flourish." Obviously, Mrs. Clinton and her speech writer, Lissa Muscatine, decided to push alliterative epistrophe." William Safire, First Lady's, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Oct 1, 1995. One of the best-known examples of epistrophe is Abraham Lincoln's description of democracy "of the people, by the people, for the people." A counterpart of epistrophe is anaphora where the same word or phrase begins a number of sentences, as in these lines from the poem "To my Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet: "If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee; If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare me with ye women if you can." Combine epistrophe and anaphora and you get symploce. Consider these words from Anne Lindbergh, "Perhaps this is the most important thing for me to take back from beach-living: simply the memory that each cycle of the tide is valid, each cycle of the wave is valid, each cycle of a relationship is valid." Think about the resonance these rhetorical devices create. No wonder they are often used in speeches and poetry to magnificent effect. We'll look at more words about words this week. A happy 2002 to all! May you never be at a loss for words in the new year. 2002 is a palindromic year. What's a palindrome? Text that reads the same forward and backward, such as this URL: https://wordsmith.org/words/sdrow/gro.htimsdrow//:ptth -Anu