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Post by petpeeve on Apr 25, 2009 14:37:32 GMT -7
The Word of the Day for April 25, 2009 is: sententious • \sen-TEN-shus\ • adjective *1 : given to or abounding in aphoristic expression or excessive moralizing 2 : terse, aphoristic, or moralistic in expression Example Sentence: The paper that Jed handed in to his teacher was not so much a research paper as a sententious manifesto denouncing globalization. Did you know? Nowadays, "sententious" is usually uncomplimentary, implying banality, oversimplification, and excessive moralizing. But that hasn't always been the case, nor is it universally so even now. The original Middle English sense of "sententious" was "full of meaning," a meaning adopted from Latin "sententiosus" (from "sententia," meaning "sentence" or "maxim"). In Modern English, too, "sententious" has sometimes referred to what is full of significance and expressed tersely. Or sometimes "sententious" simply suggests an affinity for aphorisms, as when it refers to the likes of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard (of almanac fame), the homespun philosopher given to such statements as "early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by petpeeve on Apr 26, 2009 9:59:31 GMT -7
case-harden • \KAYS-hahr-dun\ • verb *1 : to harden (a ferrous alloy) so that the surface layer is harder than the interior 2 : to make callous or insensible Example Sentence: All locks at the warehouse will be checked to ensure that they are case-hardened and in good working condition. Did you know? Although humans had learned how to case-harden wrought iron by about 1200 B.C.E., the word "case-harden" didn't forge its way into the English language until the late 17th century. The term comes from the hard surface layer, or case, that is created on some metals when they are exposed to carbon, ammonia, or other substances at very high temperatures. By the early 18th century, the term was being used figuratively. The participial "case-hardened" is also used as an adjective (as in "case-hardened steel" and "case-hardened hearts") and is now more common than the verb in both technical and nontechnical contexts.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by petpeeve on Apr 27, 2009 18:33:30 GMT -7
The Word of the Day for April 27, 2009 is: inveterate • \in-VET-uh-rut\ • adjective 1 : firmly established by long persistence *2 : confirmed in a habit : habitual Example Sentence: Since Ernie is an inveterate liar, we naturally didn’t believe him when he told us he’d met the movie star. Did you know? Like "veteran," "inveterate" ultimately comes from Latin "vetus," which means "old," and which led to the Latin verb "inveterare" ("to age"). That verb in turn gave rise eventually to the adjective "inveteratus," the direct source of our adjective "inveterate" (in use since the 14th century). In the past, "inveterate" has meant "long-standing" or simply "old." For example, one 16th-century writer warned of "Those great Flyes which in the springe time of the yeare creepe out of inveterate walls." Today, "inveterate" most often applies to a habit, attitude, or feeling of such long existence that it is practically ineradicable or unalterable.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by petpeeve on Apr 28, 2009 8:27:47 GMT -7
The Word of the Day for April 28, 2009 is: chirography • \kye-RAH-gruh-fee\ • noun *1 : handwriting, penmanship 2 : calligraphy Example Sentence: As she leafed through her father's old book, Sheila noted that its margins were filled with annotations made in his distinct chirography. Did you know? Some might argue that handwriting is a dying art in this age of electronic communication. Nevertheless, we have a fancy word for it. The root "graph" means "writing" and appears in many common English words such as "autograph" and "graphite." The lesser-known root "chir," or "chiro-," comes from a Greek word meaning "hand" and occurs in words such as "chiromancy" ("the art of palm reading") and "enchiridion" ("a handbook or manual"), as well as "chiropractic." "Chirography" first appeared in English in the 17th century and probably derived from "chirograph," a now rare word referring to a legal document or indenture. "Chirography" should not be confused with "choreography," which refers to the composition and arrangement of dances.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by petpeeve on Apr 29, 2009 17:52:57 GMT -7
The Word of the Day for April 29, 2009 is: apathy • \AP-uh-thee\ • noun 1 : lack of feeling or emotion : impassiveness *2 : lack of interest or concern : indifference Example Sentence: Every electoral season, editorials in the local newspaper complain about voter apathy and cynicism. Did you know? There's no reason to be uncaring about the origins of "apathy" -- though there is a clue to the word's beginnings in that sentence. "Apathy" was borrowed into English in the late 16th century from Greek "apatheia," which itself comes from the adjective "apathçs," meaning "without feeling." "Apathçs," in turn, was formed by combining the negating prefix "a-" with "pathos," meaning "emotion." Incidentally, if you've guessed that "pathos" is the source of the identically spelled noun in English (meaning either "an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion" or "an emotion of sympathetic pity"), you are correct. "Pathos" also gave us such words as "antipathy," "empathy," "sympathy," "pathetic," and even the archaic word "pathematic" ("emotional").
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by petpeeve on Apr 30, 2009 9:03:22 GMT -7
The Word of the Day for April 30, 2009 is: dilatory • \DILL-uh-tor-ee\ • adjective *1 : tending or intended to cause delay 2 : characterized by procrastination : tardy Example Sentence: The Senator's seemingly endless motions to adjourn were clearly dilatory. Did you know? Slow down. Set a leisurely pace. What's the hurry? If procrastination is your style, "dilatory" is the word for you. That term has been used in English to describe things that cause delay since at least the 15th century, and its ancestors were hanging around with similar meanings long before that. If you take the time to trace the roots of "dilatory," you will discover that it derives from "dilatus," the past participle of the Latin verb "differre," which meant either "to postpone" or "to differ." If you think "differre" looks like several English words, you have a discerning eye. That verb is also an ancestor of the words "different" and "defer."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by petpeeve on May 1, 2009 17:23:08 GMT -7
The Word of the Day for May 01, 2009 is: sandbag • \SAND-bag\ • verb 1 : to bank, stop up, or weight with sandbags 2 a : to hit or stun with or as if with a sandbag b : to treat unfairly or harshly *3 : to conceal or misrepresent one's true position, potential, or intent especially in order to take advantage of Example Sentence: Shortly after agreeing to place a wager on the match, I realized I had been sandbagged and was clearly outmatched by my opponent. Did you know? In the 19th century, the verb "sandbag" began to be used to describe the act of bludgeoning someone with a small, sand-filled bag -- a tactic employed by ruffians, usually as a prelude to robbing their victims. The verb went on to develop metaphorical extensions, such as "to coerce by crude means." By the 1940s, it was being used of a strategy in which a poker player with a good hand bets weakly, in order to draw other players into holding on to their hands and raising the bet. The use of "sandbag" has since evolved to refer to a general strategy of playing down one's position in order to gain some sort of advantage.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by petpeeve on May 2, 2009 9:20:11 GMT -7
The Word of the Day for May 02, 2009 is: gadzookery • \gad-ZOO-kuh-ree\ • noun British : the use of archaisms (as in a historical novel) Example Sentence: Bridget’s novel, set in colonial Virginia, features an engaging and cohesive plot, but the dialogue contains so much gadzookery that it doesn’t sound realistic. Did you know? "Gadzooks . . . you astonish me!" cries Mr. Lenville in Charles thingyens' Nicholas Nickleby. We won't accuse thingyens of gadzookery ("the bane of historical fiction," as historical novelist John Vernon called it in Newsday), because we assume people actually said "gadzooks" back in the 1830s. That mild oath is an old-fashioned euphemism, so it is thought, for "God's hooks" (a reference, supposedly, to the nails of the Crucifixion). Today's historical novelists must toe a fine line, avoiding expressions like "zounds" and "pshaw" and "tush" ("tushery" is a synonym of the newer "gadzookery," which first cropped up in the 1950s), as well as "gadzooks," while at the same time rejecting modern expressions such as "okay" and "nice."
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Post by petpeeve on May 3, 2009 10:49:26 GMT -7
The Word of the Day for May 03, 2009 is: hoary • \HOR-ee\ • adjective 1 : gray or white with or as if with age *2 : extremely old : ancient Example Sentence: "In those days a multitude of delicate flowers and sprays of wild herbage had found a friendly soil in the hoary crevices...." (Henry James, Roderick Hudson) Did you know? "How to save the old that's worth saving ... is one of our greatest problems." British novelist John Galsworthy knew the value of preserving the past -- and he would likely have counted "hoary" among those old things worth saving. The word is old indeed; it traces to an Old English adjective that appeared in Beowulf. That "hoary" ancestor evolved into "hoar," a synonym of "ancient" that has been part of our language since before the 12th century. "Hoary" developed from "hoar" more than 475 years ago, and since then it has been used for anything that is old or that has the whitened look of age (from the hoary bat to the hoary willow). Venerable "hoar" also remains as a synonym of "hoary" and as a component of compounds such as "hoarfrost."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by petpeeve on May 4, 2009 9:53:11 GMT -7
The Word of the Day for May 04, 2009 is: bombast • \BAHM-bast\ • noun : pretentious inflated speech or writing Example Sentence: Laura complained that the editorial columns in her local newspaper were full of bombast and offered little in the way of intelligent opinion. Did you know? The original meaning of "bombast" (now obsolete) is "cotton or any soft fibrous material used as padding or stuffing." It is derived through Middle French "bombace," from Medieval Latin "bombax," which means "cotton." "Bombax" in turn comes from "bombyx," a Latin and ultimately Greek word that means "silkworm" or "silk." Etymologists aren't certain why the shift from silk to cotton occurred, though one source attributes it to an error going back to the Roman scholar Pliny, who had reported that cotton was produced by an insect analogous to the silkworm. "Bombast" has been retained in modern English because it took on a figurative sense used in reference to speech or writing. Thus the basic sense of "stuffing or padding" has survived, but now the stuffing consists of words rather than cotton.
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Post by petpeeve on May 5, 2009 9:35:01 GMT -7
The Word of the Day for May 05, 2009 is: brandish • \BRAN-dish\ • verb 1 : to shake or wave (as a weapon) menacingly *2 : to exhibit in an ostentatious or aggressive manner Example Sentence: Protestors showed up on the steps of City Hall, brandishing a petition signed by 500 people demanding that the city not close the public skate park. Did you know? Most of the time when we encounter the word “brandish” in print, it is followed by a word for a weapon, such as "knife" or "handgun." That’s appropriate given the word’s etymology: it derives via Middle English “braundisshen” from “brant, braund,” the Anglo-French word for “sword.” Nowadays you can brandish things other than weapons, however. The figurative usage of “brandish” rose alongside its earliest literal usage in the 14th century. When you brandish something that isn’t a weapon (such as a sign), you are in effect waving it in someone’s face so that it cannot be overlooked.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by petpeeve on May 6, 2009 9:22:47 GMT -7
The Word of the Day for May 06, 2009 is: embonpoint • \ahng-bohng-PWANG (the "ng" is never pronounced, but the vowels are nasalized)\ • noun : plumpness of person : stoutness Example Sentence: The judge was a man of stately embonpoint who walked with a heavy step as he entered the courtroom. Did you know? "Embonpoint" is most often used to describe people of heavy, but not unattractive, girth. It derives from "en bon point," a phrase from Middle French that means "in good condition." The word was first used as a noun in English in the 17th century. It has subsequently appeared in works by Charlotte Brontë ("a form decidedly inclined to embonpoint" -- Shirley), James Fenimore Cooper ("an embonpoint that was just sufficient to distinguish her from most of her companions" -- Home as Found), and George Eliot ("as erect in her comely embonpoint as a statue of Ceres" -- Adam Bede), among others.
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Post by petpeeve on May 7, 2009 19:04:17 GMT -7
The Word of the Day for May 07, 2009 is: oneiric • \oh-NYE-rik\ • adjective : of or relating to dreams : dreamy Example Sentence: "Héberlé gives the film a wonderfully dreamlike patina, combining bright pastels and hard primary colors that mesh quite nicely with the directors' vaguely oneiric staging." (George Robinson, The New York Jewish Week, March 21, 2008) Did you know? The notion of using the Greek noun "oneiros" (meaning "dream") to form the English adjective "oneiric" wasn't dreamed up until the mid-19th century. But back in the early 1600s, linguistic dreamers came up with a few "oneiros" spin-offs, giving English "oneirocriticism," "oneirocritical," and "oneirocritic" (each referring to dream interpreters or interpretation). The surge in "oneiros" derivatives at that time may have been fueled by the interest then among English-speaking scholars in Oneirocritica, a book about dream interpretation by 2nd-century Greek soothsayer Artemidorus Daldianus.
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Post by petpeeve on May 8, 2009 12:25:44 GMT -7
The Word of the Day for May 08, 2009 is: aggrandize • \uh-GRAN-dyze\ • verb 1 : to increase or enlarge 2 : to praise highly *3 : to enhance the power, wealth, position, or reputation of Example Sentence: The organization’s spokesperson seemed to be more interested in aggrandizing herself than in raising money for charity. Did you know? "Aggrandize" has enhanced the English vocabulary since the early 17th century. English speakers adapted "agrandiss-," the stem of the French verb "agrandir," to form "aggrandize," and later used the French form "agrandissement" as the basis of the noun "aggrandizement." (The root of "agrandiss-" is Latin; it comes from "grandis," meaning "great.") Nowadays, both noun and verb are regularly paired (somewhat disparagingly) with the prefix "self-" to refer to individuals bent on glorifying themselves, as in the following sentence by Barbara Buchholz which appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1995: "Celebrity authors eager to reveal all, self-aggrandize and wear their royalties in expensive attire. . . ."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by petpeeve on May 9, 2009 8:52:03 GMT -7
The Word of the Day for May 09, 2009 is: otiose • \OH-shee-ohss\ • adjective 1 : producing no useful result : futile 2 : being at leisure : idle *3 : lacking use or effect : functionless Example Sentence: "Half the streets are cobbled and half wide, empty, modern highways at whose pretentious crossings an occasional rickshaw waits for the otiose traffic lights to change to green." (Ian Fleming, Thrilling Cities) Did you know? "Otiose" was first used in English in the late-18th century to describe things producing no useful result. By mid-19th century, it was being used in keeping with its Latin source "otiosus," meaning "at leisure." There is also the noun form "otiosity," which predates "otiose" by approximately three centuries. That noun is rarely found in writing today, but it makes an appearance on the occasional spelling bee word list.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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