A.Word.A.Day Archives
from https://wordsmith.org/awad
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Date: Mon Dec 1 00:11:07 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sachem
X-Bonus: One can pay back the loan of gold, but one dies forever in debt to those who are kind. -Malayan Proverb
sachem (SAY-chuhm) noun
1. The chief of a tribe or a federation.
2. A political leader.
[From Algonquian.]
"Sen. Edward Kennedy is a family sachem ..."
James J. Kilpatrick; My Satrap, Your Sachem, His Avatar;
Chicago Sun-Times; Nov 24, 2002.
"Corruption often was nothing to get abashed about -- as Tammany Hall
sachem George Washington Plunkitt explained in 1905: 'I see my
opportunity and I take it... There's a distinction between honest
graft and dishonest graft.'"
Michael Powell; N.Y. Proposes To Leave the Parties Behind;
Washington Post; Nov 1, 2003.
This past November, the last fluent speaker of the Wampanoag language died.
Clinton Neakeahamuck Wixon (Lightning Foot) was the direct descendant of
Massasoit, a Wampanoag tribe sachem. And so died another of what once
were a thousand native languages in dozens of language families. A language
is a repository of a culture, its ideas and knowledge, and when it dies
the loss is irreversible. According to some estimates, by the end of this
century, only about 10% of 6000 or so languages in existence in the world
today will survive. Why should we care if a language dies? For the same
reason that we don't want an animal species to become extinct, for a diverse
world is richer, stronger, and wiser.
Coming back to the Native American tongues, a small consolation could
be that many of them do live on, in the thousands of names of cities
(Chicago: garlic place), states (Texas: friend), rivers (Mississippi:
great river), and other landmarks in the US and elsewhere. Also, hundreds of
names of animals (caribou: snow-shoveller) and plants (cacao: seeds) are of
Native American origin.
This week we'll see loanwords from Native American languages.
-Anu
(garg AT wordsmith.org)
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Date: Tue Dec 2 00:01:10 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--wampum
X-Bonus: A successful man is one who makes more money than a wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man. -Lana Turner, actress (1921-1995)
wampum (WOM-puhm) noun
1. Beads made from shells, strung in strands, belts, etc. used for
ceremonial purposes, jewelry, and money.
2. Money.
[Short for Massachusett wampompeag, from wampan (white) + api (string) +
-ag, plural suffix.]
"Seems he isn't sure he wants to be part of the Braves' new world unless
the front office comes across with more wampum."
Crybabies in Midseason Form; Denver Post; Mar 4, 1992.
"Or, as GE Chairman Jack Welch said in a talk reported earlier this year
by USA Today, 'We've got to get more wampum. That means we've got to
have more dot.coms.'"
Allan Sloan; Companies Creating New Coin In Push to Enter the Internet
Realm; Washington Post; Jul 20, 1999.
This week's theme: words borrowed from Native American languages.
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Date: Wed Dec 3 00:01:11 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--high-muck-a-muck
X-Bonus: It is a difficult matter to argue with the belly since it has no ears. -Cato The Elder, statesman and writer (234-149 BCE)
high-muck-a-muck (HI-muk-uh-muk) noun, also high-mucky-muck,
high-muckety-muck, high muckamuck, muck-a-muck, muckety-muck, etc.
An important, high-ranking person, especially one who behaves in
a pompous or arrogant manner.
[From Chinook Jargon hayo makamak (plenty to eat), from hayo (ten or plenty) +
Nootka makamak (eat, food, the part of whale meat between blubber and flesh.]
"You also need some high-muck-a-mucks on your team. It makes sense for
a high-level HR manager to be included."
Jim Romeo; Less Pain, More Gain in ERP Rollouts; Network Computing
(Manhasset, NY); Sep 17, 2001.
"Politicians, agency heads and identified high muckamucks decide which
objectives to pursue and what directions and specific projects will
fulfill those objectives."
Julia Steiny; It's Time to Spread the Wealth; Providence Journal (Rhode
Island); Apr 25, 1999.
This week's theme: words borrowed from Native American languages.
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Date: Thu Dec 4 00:01:08 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--manitou
X-Bonus: All envy would be extinguished, if it were universally known that there are none to be envied. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)
manitou (MAN-i-too) noun, also manito
1. A supernatural force that pervades the world.
2. A spirit or deity.
[From Ojibwa manito.]
"He (Michael Horse) teams up with Mulder and Scully to chase a mysterious
animal, or spirit, Mulder suspects is a manitou."
David Bianculli; Timothy Leary is a Doctor on 'Brisco'; The Sun
(Baltimore, Maryland); Apr 1, 1994.
"What is a sacred place, I wondered, except one that makes you feel
humble and insignificant in the face of nature? And what is a manitou
but the power of a place to move you to those thoughts?"
Greg Breining; The Power of Rock; Sierra (San Francisco); Jan/Feb 2001.
This week's theme: words borrowed from Native American languages.
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Date: Fri Dec 5 00:01:08 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--powwow
X-Bonus: Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws. -Amschel Mayer Rothschild, banker (1743-1812)
powwow (POU-wou) noun
1. A Native American ceremony featuring dances, feasting, fair, etc.
2. A Native American shaman.
3. A meeting, conference, or get-together.
verb intr.
1. To hold a powwow.
2. To confer.
[From Narragansett powwaw (shaman).]
"Putin himself went on a charm offensive Thursday at a meeting in the
Kremlin with executives of more than a dozen leading Western and Russian
investment banks. The unprecedented powwow came less than an hour after
prosecutors announced they had seized the Yukos shares as collateral for
the $1 billion Khodorkovsky allegedly cost the state."
Catherine Belton; Kremlin Tempers Attack on Yukos; Moscow Times (Russia);
Nov 3, 2003.
"At one point during the annual sales powwow at a San Francisco
convention center in August, a wizened (John) Chambers came out from
behind the podium to be closer to the 10,000 salespeople."
Peter Burrows; Cisco's Comeback; Businessweek (New York); Nov 24, 2003.
This week's theme: words borrowed from Native American languages.
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Date: Mon Dec 8 00:01:08 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--amigo
X-Bonus: Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity. -Socrates, philosopher (469?-399 BCE)
amigo (uh-MEE-goh) noun
A friend.
[From Spanish amigo (friend), from Latin (amicus).]
A few other words that share the same root as today's word are:
amicable, amity, and enemy (in: not + amicus).
"Holiday time is here, and this is when I gravitate to comfort wines...
So I seek out some trusted American amigos, old vines Zinfandel and
petite sirah."
Ken Collura; Holiday Table Unites Comfort Wines And Foods; Richmond
Times-Dispatch; Nov 26, 2003.
"It looks like our old amigo could be headed to the Pittsburgh Pirates."
Jim Salisbury; Phils Want a Pitcher - at the Right Price; Philadelphia
News; Nov 14, 2003.
My six-year-old daughter Ananya has discovered puns and other wordplay. She
delights in making up puzzles, most of them involving animals. She often
sneaks into my home-office to test-market her latest invention. When I hear
little footsteps on the stairs, I know it's time to be ready for a new
puzzle. Here's a recent one:
Ananya: Where does a cow go to practice her Spanish?
I: Where?
Ananya: To Mooxico!
Well, you don't need to go to Mooxico to practice Spanish any more. More and
more people are learning Spanish, and chances are someone near you speaks
Spanish. In the US, most product labels, ATMs, customer-service phone lines,
etc. offer Spanish language versions as well. Many states have large
Spanish-speaking populations, with their own newspapers and popular radio
stations.
This week in AWAD, we offer five palabras (words) from Spanish that are now
part of the English language.
-Anu
(garg AT wordsmith.org)
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Date: Tue Dec 9 00:01:08 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--loco
X-Bonus: If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world. -Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (1623-1662)
loco (LO-ko) adjective
Insane.
noun
1. A crazy person.
2. Locoweed (any of various poisonous, leguminous plants).
verb tr.
1. To poison with locoweed.
2. To make crazy.
[From Spanish loco (crazy).]
The word loco has a number of other senses. It's used to refer to an engine
(abbreviation of locomotive). Also, in music, it indicates that notes be
played as written, canceling a previous direction that they be played an
octave higher or lower, from Italian loco (there), from Latin in loco (at
the place).
"So they're local. But are they loco? Why would two otherwise sane and
successful businessmen step up to the plate to pay - an undisclosed sum,
and indeed the deal will not be finalized until after the Nov. 16 Grey
Cup game - for a failing club that has lost over $50 million since
1991?"
Chris Young; New Owners, Old Issues; Toronto Star (Canada); Nov 6, 2003.
"Of course, the more savvy investor will simply have bought into the
euphoria and gone along for the ride ('go long till you're wrong'), never
mind the signs of impending doom from a market that appears to have gone
loco."
Jeremy Thomas; US Stocks Defy Logic as They Spiral Upwards; Sunday Times
(Johannesburg, South Africa); Nov 9, 2003.
This week's theme: words borrowed from Spanish.
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Date: Wed Dec 10 00:01:13 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--duende
X-Bonus: Every increased possession loads us with new weariness. -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)
duende (doo-EN-day) noun
1. Demon; goblin.
2. Inspiration; fire; spirit; magic; charm; magnetism.
[From Spanish dialectal duende (charm), from Spanish (ghost).]
"A key part of the myth of authenticity is duende, the spirit that
inhabits the soloist at the climax of a performance."
Louise Levene; It's Good to Sing; Independent (London, UK); Feb 4, 1997.
"'If I don't get up here and paint, if I don't get up here and work on
some kind of sculpture, I don't feel that I'm living. The duende says,
'Come on: Do it! Do it! Do it!'"
Dan Sperling; Ever-driven Anthony Quinn; USA Today; Aug 5, 1987.
This week's theme: words borrowed from Spanish.
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Date: Thu Dec 11 00:01:08 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--disembogue
X-Bonus: We aim above the mark to hit the mark. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)
disembogue (dis-em-BOAG) verb intr.
To discharge or pour out, as from the mouth of a river or stream.
verb tr.
To discharge.
[From Spanish desembocar (to flow out), from des- (dis-) + embocar (to put
into the mouth), from Latin en- (in) + boca (mouth), from bucca (cheek).]
The name of the city of Boca Raton (Florida) literally means Mouse's Mouth.
Why it's named so isn't clear. Some attribute it to the shape of the inlet,
while others believe it was named to describe the presence of rocks that
gnaw at a ship's cable, or that it refers metaphorically to the sense of
pirate's cove.
"And natives with their trinkets speed the long, light pirogue
From where the muddy island streams in languor disembogue."
William Rose Benet; Merchants From Cathay; Yale University Press; 1919.
"Page: Conduct me to the lady of the mansion, or my poniard shall
disembogue thy soul."
Philip Massinger; The Maid of Honour; 1632.
This week's theme: words borrowed from Spanish.
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Date: Fri Dec 12 00:01:11 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--armada
X-Bonus: Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. -Phillips Brooks, bishop and orator (1835-1893)
armada (ahr-MAH-duh) noun
1. A fleet of warships.
2. A large force or group, especially of things in motion.
[From Spanish armada, from Latin armata (army).]
An anagram of today's word is another term from Spanish:
ramada: an open shelter roofed with branches.
"Choong Hann, who won the Taiwan Open last week, however, has
a chance for revenge as he lines up against the Chinese armada
in a friendly between Malaysia and China today."
S.S. Dhaliwal; Badminton/China Open: Cruel Game!; Malay Mail
(Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia); Nov 16, 2003.
"The ragtag armada was armed with just about anything that could be
scrounged, including light cannon ..."
Christopher Dawson; Secret of Mission X; The Daily Telegraph
(Sydney, Australia); Apr 19, 2002.
This week's theme: words borrowed from Spanish.
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Date: Mon Dec 15 00:01:07 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--canard
X-Bonus: Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well. -Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
canard (kuh-NAHRD) noun
1. A deliberately misleading story; hoax.
2. An airplane with small forward wings mounted in front of the main wings;
also such a wing.
[From French, literally a duck. The term is said to have come from the French
expression vendre un canard � moiti� or "to half-sell a duck" or to take in
or swindle.]
"Lyndon Johnson's half-truths about the Gulf of Tonkin, supported by
subservient media, embroiled the United States in a nasty war that
took the lives of millions of souls. Ultimately, the Vietnam War's
distortions and canards prevented him from running for a second
term."
Mansour El-Kikhia; Realists Conquer Politics With Lies; San Antonio
Express-News; Nov 28, 2003.
"The wood-and-fabric Flyer replica sustained damage to its front-mounted
elevator, or canard, as well as damaged landing skids ..."
Timothy R. Gaffney; Flyer Replica Crashes in Trial; Dayton Daily News;
Nov 27, 2003.
This week's Guest Wordsmiths Austin Winkleman (a_winklemanATprodigy.net) and
Randy Cox write:
Aviation and wordsmithing have a lot in common. Whether it's the sky or
the dictionary, both pursuits involve a lot of "looking up".
This set of words is in honor of Orville and Wilbur Wright. The era of
sustained controlled powered flight began 100 years ago, on Dec 17, 1903.
This list is a tribute to their studiousness, ingenuity, and bravery.
Words related to aviation, like the process of invention and discovery, have
a variety of origins. Eponyms signify that the Wright brothers built upon the
trials and discoveries of others. Blended words signify that they skillfully
combined many components and ideas into a single system. Other words recall
the age-old observations of birds' wings and feathers.
This week we'll feature five words related to aviation.
(Randy Cox is a licensed pilot and flight instructor. Austin Winkleman
likes airplanes but has only his poetic license.)
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Date: Tue Dec 16 00:01:09 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--contrail
X-Bonus: When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them. -Chinese Proverb
contrail (KON-trayl) noun
Streaks of condensed water vapor or ice crystals forming in the
wake of an aircraft or rocket. Also known as vapor trail.
[Blend of condensation + trail.]
Pictures of contrails: http://geocities.com/milo702000
"(Tiger) Woods winning majors is just what golf needs. What follows his
contrail is a series of events that pays off for everyone."
Thomas Bank; With No Tiger, It's Not Major Story; Los Angeles Times;
Nov 20, 2003.
"After viewing Oliver Stone's JFK, a friend of mine said the conspiracy
was so thick he started feeling guilty, wondering if he hadn't killed
Kennedy himself. Anything was possible. Why are conspiracy theories so
popular?
"And have you noticed, by any chance, the huge increase in contrails
lately - those fluffy white lines of seemingly innocuous ice crystals
left behind by planes? I'm not the only one who's noticed. Enter
'chemtrails' into a search engine and you'll find a gazillion sites
devoted to the conspiracy."
Lisa Moore; Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Nov 18, 2003.
This week's theme: words from aviation.
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Date: Wed Dec 17 00:01:06 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mach
X-Bonus: Presents, I often say, endear absents. -Charles Lamb, essayist and critic (1775-1834)
mach (makh) noun, Also mach number
A number indicating the ratio of the speed of an object to the
speed of sound in the surrounding medium.
So a plane moving at twice the speed of sound is traveling at Mach 2.
[After Ernst Mach, physicist and philosopher (1838-1916).]
"While the world knew one version of Chuck (Yeager) -- a World War II
fighter pilot, first man to surpass Mach 1 speed at 700 mph, a Vietnam
combat commander and central character in the 1983 movie 'The Right Stuff'
-- Cody knew another."
Sam Amick; A Young Yeager Tests His Limits; Sacramento Bee; Nov 28, 2003.
"Zebras and giraffes cross our path at a gallop, anxious to get out of
the way as the jeep hits about 20 mph, which feels like Mach speed in an
open-air vehicle.
Tamara Lytle; Breathtaking Botswana; Orlando Sentinel; Nov 2, 2003.
This week's theme: words from aviation.
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Date: Thu Dec 18 00:01:07 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--empennage
X-Bonus: A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)
empennage (ahm-puh-NAZH) noun
The tail assembly of an aircraft.
[From French empennage (feathers of an arrow), from empenner (to feather an
arrow), from em- + penner, from penne (feather), from Latin penna (feather).]
Some other words derived from the same root are panache, pen, pin, pinnacle,
and pennant. A picture of empennage: http://allstar.fiu.edu/aero/flight13.htm
"One cold, rainy afternoon on the roof of London's Heathrow airport,
I came upon 20 men (and one woman) carefully noting the tail numbers --
the unique registration painted on the empennage of all commercial
aircraft -- of each jet that took off and landed. (On a holiday, I was
later told, there can be as many as 200 people.) Their hobby is the
aviation equivalent of train-spotting."
Michael Scofield; Plane Spotting; Need a New Hobby? Los Angeles Times;
Sep 28, 1997.
"The brown stripe runs the length of the white fuselage along the window
line and the UPS logo is printed in gold on the brown empennage."
Matthew Brelis; On Weekends UPS Ships Passengers, Not Packages;
The Boston Globe; Jun 22, 1999.
This week's theme: words from aviation.
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Date: Fri Dec 19 00:01:07 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--aileron
X-Bonus: Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience. -George Washington, 1st US president (1732-1799)
aileron (AY-luh-ron) noun
A hinged flap on the trailing edge of an airplane wing that moves
up or down.
[From French aileron (small wing), diminutive of aile, from Latin ala (wing).
The word aisle is derived from the same root.]
Experiment with moving a plane's ailerons yourself:
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/alr.html
The Wright brothers did not use ailerons, but rather devised (and patented)
the technique of wing warping to adjust the shape of the wings. To warp the
wings, the pilot lay across a saddle that was connected by cables to the
tips of both wings. By using his hips to shift the saddle left or right, he
had the necessary control of the wings to roll the aircraft and make turns.
"Mr. Harvey is followed by D. L. Hughley, wearing a tan suit with peaked
lapels that could serve as ailerons."
Elvis Mitchell; In the Flamboyant Tradition of Richard Pryor;
The New York Times; Aug 18, 2000.
"The pilot in command is in command, thus effectively taking the keys away
from men who don't know an altimeter from an aileron."
Sharon Carter; Asparagus Runs: Corporate Pilots Air Their Frustrations;
The Wall Street Journal (New York); Dec 22, 1986.
This week's theme: words from aviation.
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Date: Mon Dec 22 00:01:07 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sansculotte
X-Bonus: There is also this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him by all means, draw it all out, and hold him to it. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)
sansculotte also sans-culotte (sanz-kyoo-LOT) noun
1. An extreme radical republican during the French Revolution.
2. Any revolutionary with extremist views.
[From French, literally, without knee breeches. In the French Revolution,
this was the aristocrats' term of contempt for the ill-clad volunteers of
the Revolutionary army who rejected knee breeches as a symbol of the upper
class and adopted pantaloons. As often happens with such epithets, the
revolutionaries themselves adopted it as a term of pride.]
"`We were once told that we should eat breadcrumbs, and the lady who said
that went to the guillotine,' remarks (slightly inaccurately) the
sansculotte governor (Ame Carlson); `now we are being told the same thing
again.'"
The Sansculotte Governor; The Economist (London, UK): Nov 29, 1997.
"Figaro for example is too delicate to bear the weight of a `concept,'
especially if it encourages the producer to illustrate the corruption of
the period or to represent the hero as a sansculotte manque who knows
that his master's days are numbered."
Jonathan Miller; Doing Opera; The New York Review of Books; May 11, 2000.
"Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else." Like all
genuine humor, this waggish remark carries a grain of truth. There are six
billion of us around, and we are very different - in our demeanor, diction,
and dreams; in our fingerprints, retinal patterns, and DNA sequences.
Yet, no matter which hand we write with, what language we speak, or what we
eat, there is something that binds us all, whether it is our preference for
a life free from fear, our efforts to make this world better for us and
for others, or our appreciation of beauty of the soul and our longing
for love.
With so many people, so many shared traits, and so many differences, there's
no wonder we have so many words to describe people. This week we look at
five of them.
-Anu
(garg AT wordsmith.org)
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Date: Tue Dec 23 00:01:08 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--oleaginous
X-Bonus: Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience. -George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950)
oleaginous (o-lee-AJ-uh-nuhs) adjective
1. Containing or producing oil; relating to oil.
2. Marked by excessive and false earnestness; ingratiating.
[From Middle English, from French oleagineux, from Latin oleaginus
(of the olive tree), from olea (the olive tree).]
"The memory of the food has long faded, happily, but the creepy, oleaginous
waiter with the thick French accent will always endure."
Jacob Richler; Dumb Name, Fine Food: La Brasserie.ca; National Post
(Canada); Apr 19, 2003.
"But it could have been Max Bialystock, oleaginous impresario wheedling
cash from besotted widows and trying to bilk investors in the hit New
York musical 'The Producers'."
Warren Hoge; A Bialystock Made to Order; The New York Times; Feb 8, 2002.
This week's theme: words to describe people.
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Date: Wed Dec 24 00:01:09 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--rebarbative
X-Bonus: When nations grow old, the arts grow cold and commerce settles on every tree. -William Blake, poet, engraver, and painter (1757-1827)
rebarbative (ree-BAHR-buh-tiv) adjective
Irritating; repellent.
[From French rebarbative (offputting), feminine form of rebarbatif, from
rebarber (to be repellent), from barbe (beard), from Latin barba (beard).]
Are bearded people irritating? While some find a beard on a man attractive,
literally speaking it could be like barbed wire - repelling - for others.
In fact, the words barb, barber, and beard are derived from the same root
as today's word.
"From cosy Whitelaw to rebarbative Ingham, there are now over a dozen
versions of the Thatcher decade by Thatcher's servants ..."
Catherine Bennett; Tales From the Book Cabinet; The Guardian (London, UK);
Oct 1, 1993.
"As Nixon and the boy who would one day become his rebarbative five
o'clock shadow both understood, football is simply war by other
means."
Bruce Newman; Oliver Stone Goes to War Again, With Cleats On; The New
York Times; Nov 14, 1999.
This week's theme: words to describe people.
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Date: Thu Dec 25 00:01:08 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--debonair
X-Bonus: God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. -Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)
debonair (deb-uh-NARE) adjective
1. Suave; sophisticated.
2. Carefree; nonchalant.
[From Middle English, from Old French, from de bonne aire (of good lineage
or disposition).]
"Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top UN envoy on Iraq who was killed by
a bomb blast yesterday, was a tough but debonair Brazilian ..."
Envoy 'Veteran of Global Conflicts'; Gulf Daily News (Bahrain); Aug 19,
2003.
"But the real challenge will be to get the debonair (Richard) Quest to
shed his ties completely while he's here."
Rainbow Nation is the Right Shade For Quest; Business Report (Johannesburg,
South Africa); Jul 28, 2003.
This week's theme: words to describe people.
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Date: Fri Dec 26 00:01:07 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ninnyhammer
X-Bonus: When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues. -Honore de Balzac, novelist (1799-1850)
ninnyhammer (NIN-ee-ham-uhr) noun
A fool; blockhead.
[Of uncertain origin. From ninny (perhaps shortening of innocent) + hammer
(possibly from hammerheaded).]
"I already eat as slowly as I can without looking like an affected
ninnyhammer, so my alternatives seem to be to stare at him as he eats,
or to eat more food myself, though I am already full. Can you suggest
some polite activity in which I can engage myself while waiting for my
dinner partner to catch up?"
Judith Martin; One Talks, the Other Chews; The Washington Post;
Jan 19, 1994.
"Margaret Lloyd made the sweetly ninnyhammer heroine Josephine believable
within the wild framework of the plot, and swooped around the stage like
a lark."
Craig Smith; Opera's Production of 'Pinafore' Full of Heart;
Santa Fe New Mexican; Nov 24, 2001.
This week's theme: words to describe people.
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Date: Mon Dec 29 00:01:22 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bogart
X-Bonus: Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. -George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), novelist (1819-1880)
bogart (BO-gart) verb tr.
1. To hog or to take more than the fair share of something.
2. To bully, act tough or to be belligerent.
[After actor Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) who played tough-guy movie roles.]
"You watch (Marcus) White play in games. He doesn't want one rebound. He
wants all the rebounds. ... 'He bogarts a rebound,' Calhoun said."
Jeff Jacobs; Clock Ticking For Huskies; The Hartford Courant; Dec 6, 2003.
"Bill Adler Jr. had the same sort of trouble -- with a squirrel that
kept weaseling onto his window-ledge bird feeder and bogarting all the
seeds."
David Brooks; Bookshorts: Rodent War, Economic Peace of Mind;
Wall Street Journal (New York); Jan 26, 1989.
There's no business like show-business, they say, and there is some truth in
it. Every day, movies lure countless numbers from their homes to theaters.
And beyond.
Growing up in India, I knew a distant cousin, a teenager, who ran away from
home to Bombay (now Mumbai) hoping to become a hero, as movie actors there
are called. Sadly, he soon ran out of money, washed dirty plates in
restaurants for a while, and duly returned home to his parents. Even movies
can't beat home-cooked meals and rent-free accommodation.
While he was ridiculed after his return, I understand his ambition to become
an actor, if not the approach he took. After all, some do go on to become
heroes on the big screen. And on the bigger screen -- the real life. Some
people do become actors and astronauts and firefighters and presidents.
How would we know what our calling is unless we try? May you find rewards in
doing what you love in the coming year.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. This week we feature words
from the world of movies.
-Anu
(garg AT wordsmith.org)
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Date: Tue Dec 30 00:01:08 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cinematheque
X-Bonus: Be thou the first true merit to befriend, his praise is lost who stays till all commend. -Alexander Pope, poet (1688-1744)
cinematheque (sin-uh-muh-TEK) noun
A small theater showing experimental, artistic, or classic films.
[From French cin�math�que (film archive), from cin�ma + biblioth�que
(library).]
"Shlomo Vazana and Moshe Karif choose to meet The Economist in the cafe
of Jerusalem's cinematheque, which has Hollywood posters on the walls
and offers a magnificent view of the Old City."
Rough Guide to a Fractious Society: A Nation of Tribes,
The Economist (London, UK); 25 Apr 1998.
"Increasingly, nonprofit cinematheques or ongoing film series are an
important part of a city's cultural amenities."
Steven Rosen; Lights! Camera! Action! Film Series Trend Struggles in
Denver; Denver Post (Colorado); Jul 2, 2000.
This week's theme: words related to movies.
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Date: Wed Dec 31 00:01:08 EST 2003
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--jeune premier
X-Bonus: Only the hand that erases can write the true thing. -Meister Eckhart, theologian (c. 1260-1327)
jeune premier (zhoen pruh-MYAY) noun
The role of a young hero; also an actor who plays such a part.
[From French, literally first young man. Jeune premiere is the feminine
equivalent of the term.]
"'Definitely, it was a risk,' the actor (Vincent Perez) said, 'but that's
the only way to grow, to make the work personal, and that's what I've
always been looking for. The trouble is, when you start as a jeune
premier, they put you in a little box and want you to stay there.'"
Joan Dupont; The New Look of Vincent Perez; International Herald Tribune
(France); May 16, 1998.
"He (Vietnamese artist Tran Trung Tin) began as a successful jeune premier
actor, but was sufficiently upset by the war and its side effects, in a
human rather than a political way, that he was impelled to start putting
his distress down in images on paper."
John Russell Taylor; Making a Quieter Splash; The Times (London, UK);
Jun 19, 2002.
This week's theme: words related to movies.