A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Tue Jan 1 00:01:08 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--adultescent X-Bonus: We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it -- and stop there -- lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again, and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one any more. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910) This week's theme: newly coined words. adultescent (uh-duhl-TES-uhnt) noun An adult whose activities and interests are typically associated with youth culture. [Blend of adult and adolescent. The term was first noticed in 1996 in a trade publication called Precision Marketing. Marketers love to come up with new ways to slice their demographics. Another such term is tween: https://wordsmith.org/words/tween.html ] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "In the stupidly named Failure to Launch (a box office joke waiting to happen, surely?), Matthew McConaughey plays a bachelor in his 30s who still lives at home -- an adultescent, if you will." So Many Choices, So Little Time; New Zealand Herald; Apr 10, 2006. -------- Date: Wed Jan 2 00:01:09 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--commentariat X-Bonus: Society is like a stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you get a lot of scum on the top. -Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989) This week's theme: newly coined words. commentariat (kom-uhn-TAR-ee-uht) noun The group of people who provide opinion and analysis of events in the news. [Blend of commentator and commissariat/proletariat. The term was first noticed in a 1993 article in the Washington Post.] Examples of people who form the commentariat: talk show hosts and their guests, newspaper and magazine columnists, and political bloggers. -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "This outcome should not have surprised anyone with the wit to examine the opinion polling. But most of Australia's conservative commentariat refused, until faced with the actual results, to believe that their nation's sagacious voters would be so ungrateful as to throw their favourite overboard." Frank Bongiorno; Rudd Ends Opposition Years; New Statesman (London, UK); Nov 26, 2007. -------- Date: Thu Jan 3 00:01:08 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--chav X-Bonus: I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955) This week's theme: newly coined words. chav (chav) noun A youth whose behavior is marked by ignorance, aggression, and a fondness for jewelry and clothing. [Of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Romany chav (child) or from shortening of Chatham, the name of a town in Kent, UK. The first print citation of the term in the OED is from a 2002 article in The Observer (London).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Colleagues who have nothing to do with their lives and visited Paceville this week could not notice any marked demographic drop in the number of yobs and chavs that visit Paceville." Saviour Balzan; Katyusha Politics and the Great Stampede; Malta Today; Dec 9, 2007. -------- Date: Fri Jan 4 00:01:07 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--carbon-neutral X-Bonus: For money you can have everything it is said. No that is not true. You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; soft beds, but not sleep; knowledge but not intelligence; glitter, but not comfort; fun, but not pleasure; acquaintances, but not friendship; servants, but not faithfulness; grey hair, but not honor; quiet days, but not peace. The shell of all things you can get for money. But not the kernel. That cannot be had for money. -Arne Garborg, writer (1851-1924) This week's theme: newly coined words. carbon-neutral (KAHR-buhn NOO-truhl, NYOO-) adjective Adding no net carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. [A greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide is a contributor to global warming. Carbon-neutral means contributing zero total emission of the gas into the atmosphere. The earliest citation of the term is found in a 1992 article in The Independent (London, UK).] Being carbon-neutral doesn't necessarily mean producing zero carbon dioxide. What it means is that the net addition is zero, offset by other actions, such as planting trees, buying clean energy, etc. And it doesn't have to be all or nothing. If you cannot be completely carbon-neutral, you can definitely reduce your carbon footprint. Calculate your carbon footprint: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-weather/stories/the-15-best-carbon-calculators -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "As an award-winning leader in green design, it's no surprise that Vancouver architect Peter Busby is planning North America's first carbon-neutral office tower." Kerry Gold; Carbon-neutral Building Sets a Standard; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Nov 20, 2007. -------- Date: Mon Jan 7 00:01:06 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mare's nest X-Bonus: Knowing what / Thou knowest not / Is in a sense / Omniscience. -Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996) A few weeks ago we featured terms in the "x's y" pattern -- descriptive phrases that can be called Whose whats. Going by your comments, it was one of the most popular weeks in AWAD's history. This week we'll reprise the theme with five more such terms, this time from the animal kingdom. The English language is filled with everyday terms based on animals, from the lion's share (largest part) to the dog's chance (slim chance) and the snail's pace (very slow) but there are many unusual terms too. For this week's parade we have selected five mammals: a mare, a dog, a sheep, a donkey, and a cat. mare's nest (mairz nest) noun 1. A confused mess. 2. A hoax or an illusory discovery. [The original sense of the term was a false discovery since clearly a mare doesn't have a nest. Nowadays the term implies a confused situation. A term with a similar origin is the Greek calends meaning a time that doesn't exist: https://wordsmith.org/words/greek_calends.html ] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "The previous two sheets of this piece are a mare's nest of scratched out half sentences, words replaced and replaced again and clauses arrowed in or arrowed out." Gary Covington; Learning to Write; Sun Star (Philippines); Dec 30, 2007. -------- Date: Tue Jan 8 00:01:06 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--dog's letter X-Bonus: Faith which does not doubt is dead faith. -Miguel de Unamuno, philosopher and writer (1864-1936) This week's theme: Whose what? (animal edition) dog's letter (dogz LET-uhr) noun The letter R. [From Latin littera canina, literally dog's letter. In Latin the sound of the letter R was trilled. Think Grrr! of a snarling dog. A good example of a trilling R is none other that the Spanish word for a dog: perro.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "There is only the difference of the dog's letter between friend and [fiend]." The Westminster Review (London, UK); 1830. -------- Date: Wed Jan 9 00:01:06 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sheep's eyes X-Bonus: I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me. -Banksy, street artist (b. 1974) This week's theme: Whose what? (animal edition) sheep's eyes (sheepz eyez) noun Shy amorous glances. [The origin of the term is uncertain. Various theories attribute the term to Gaelic or any of the various Germanic languages. It has also been suggested that the term refers to the docile appearance of a sheep's eyes.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "When office temp Carolina Santos developed a crush on a man at the Brazilian oil company where she was working, she did rather more than merely make sheep's eyes at him." David Randall; Fatal Attraction; The Independent on Sunday (London, UK); Jan 29, 2006. -------- Date: Thu Jan 10 00:01:07 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--donkey's years X-Bonus: Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882) This week's theme: Whose what? (animal edition) donkey's years (DONG-keez yeerz) noun A very long time. [Probably from the punning reference to a donkey's long ears.] Here's a BBC story about a 60-year-old donkey: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3184279.stm Lively Laddie died a couple of years ago. -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Roshni: Do you believe in the institution of marriage? Aman: Of course. I strongly believe in the same. I come from a background where everyone's been married for donkey's years." Roshni K. Olivera; Aman Verma Naughty But Nice; The Times of India (New Delhi); Jul 25, 2007; -------- Date: Fri Jan 11 00:01:07 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cat's paw X-Bonus: It is not how old you are, but how you are old. -Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910) * The Journey of a Thousand Words: Listen to an autobiographical talk by * Anu Garg, the founder of Wordsmith.org at the Seattle Public Library (Ballard) * Mon, Jan 14 at 6:30pm. Details at https://wordsmith.org/awad/speaking.html This week's theme: Whose what? (animal edition) cat's paw (cats paw) noun 1. Someone used as a tool by another. 2. A kind of knot used to connect a rope to an object. 3. A breeze that ruffles the surface of the water over a small area; also, the area ruffled by such a breeze. [The first sense of the term comes from the fable in which a monkey uses a cat to pull roasting chestnuts from a fire. The monkey gobbles up all the nuts while the cat is left with a burnt paw. See Edwin Landseer's 1824 painting Cat's Paw: http://museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=2992 The second sense refers to the supposed resemblance of such a knot to a cat's paw: http://images.google.com/images?q=cat's+paw+knot The origin of the third sense is unknown.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Prime Minister Tony Blair was reprimanded in the British parliament for his willingness to be the cat's paw of the U.S." Craig R. Eisendrath and Melvin A. Goodman; Shoot First, Talk Later; USA Today (Washington, DC); Jul 1, 2004. -------- Date: Mon Jan 14 00:01:06 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--dingle X-Bonus: Thank everyone who calls out your faults, your anger, your impatience, your egotism; do this consciously, voluntarily. -Jean Toomer, poet and novelist (1894-1967) It's that time of the year again when we feature odds and ends. One-of-a-kind words. Words that are unusual, picturesque, whimsical, esoteric, or intriguing. And like all the creatures in this world, this week's words serve a purpose (as shown by their accompanying citations). They make our verbal universe richer and more diverse. So here they are. We've coaxed them out of the dictionary -- it's not often that one finds them in the open -- and we hope you'll welcome them in your vocabulary. dingle (DING-guhl) noun A deep narrow wooded valley; dell. [Of uncertain origin.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "But the dingle guards the downpours and holds them fast in its deep mud and root-webs." Paul Evans; Country Diary: Into the Wild Woods Wenlock Edge; The Guardian (London, UK); Jul 7, 1999. -------- Date: Tue Jan 15 00:01:06 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--supererogatory X-Bonus: Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility. -St. Augustine (354-430) This week's theme: miscellaneous words. supererogatory (soo-puhr-uh-ROG-uh-tor-ee) adjective 1. Going beyond the call of duty. 2. Superfluous. [From Latin supererogare (to pay over and above), from super- (above) + erogare (to spend), from rogare (to ask). Ultimately from the Indo-European reg- (to move in a straight line, to lead or rule) that is also the source of regime, direct, rectangle, erect, rectum, alert, source, and surge.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Houses signal they are participating with a jack-o-lantern on the porch or in the window, rendering police signs supererogatory." Sarah Churchwell; It's a Treat, Not a Trick; The Guardian (London, UK); Oct 29, 2007. -------- Date: Wed Jan 16 00:01:06 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--scorbutic X-Bonus: If your morals make you dreary, depend on it they are wrong. -Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist, and poet (1850-1894) This week's theme: miscellaneous words. scorbutic (skor-BYOO-tik) adjective Pertaining to or afflicted with scurvy. [From Latin scorbutus (scurvy) which also shows up in ascorbic acid (scientific name of vitamin C), the deficiency of which causes scurvy.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "We found him sure enough, a huge, coarse, red-faced, scorbutic man, with a pair of vivid black eyes which were the only external sign of the very cunning mind within." Arthur Conan Doyle; The Adventure of the Illustrious Client; 1924. -------- Date: Thu Jan 17 00:01:07 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--jobbernowl X-Bonus: It is not life and wealth and power that enslave men, but the cleaving to life and wealth and power. -Buddha (c. 563-483 BCE) This week's theme: miscellaneous words. jobbernowl (JOB-uh-nowl) noun A blockhead. [From French jobard (stupid, gullible), from Old French jobe (stupid) + noll (top or crown of the head).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "That he pays not the least regard to the requirements of convention marks him out as either a superior soul or a right down jobbernowl." Soseki Natsume; I Am a Cat; Tuttle Publishing; 2002. -------- Date: Fri Jan 18 00:01:07 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--kerfuffle X-Bonus: The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human. -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963) This week's theme: miscellaneous words. kerfuffle (kuhr-FUHF-uhl) noun A commotion. [Of uncertain origin, perhaps from Scots curfuffle, from fuffle (to disorder).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "After a kerfuffle over the arrest of an 87-year-old man in Oak Bay, Victoria police devised a cloth handcuff designed to protect the fragile skin of the elderly." Jack Knox; And on the Lighter Side; Times Colonist (Victoria, Canada); Dec 30, 2007. -------- Date: Mon Jan 21 00:01:06 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cordon bleu X-Bonus: I have never gone to sleep with a grievance against anyone. And, as far as I could, I have never let anyone go to sleep with a grievance against me. -Abba Agathon, monk (4th/5th century) Red: Stop. Green: Go. These two colors have universally accepted meanings, but only when it comes to traffic. Meanings of colors change across cultures, and even within a culture. If your business is in the black, that's a good thing, but if you are blackballed, well, that's a problem. Red ink is bad news but a red-letter day is a happy occasion. A blue moon is a very long period of time but a blue law has nothing to do with length. This week we'll meet five terms related to colors -- blue, red, white, purple, and blue again -- and how they affect words' shades of meaning. cordon bleu (kawr don BLOO) adjective Of the highest class. noun A person of great distinction in a field, especially applied to a chef. [From French, literally, blue ribbon. Under the Bourbon kings in France, a blue ribbon was worn by knights of the highest order.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "On the one table was the university lecturer, applying critical faculties with academic rigour; on the next was the basic skills lecturer, on auto-pilot to praise every effort, even if the results were not quite cordon bleu." Gill Moore; If You Want Respect Then Wear a Suit; The Times Educational Supplement (London, UK); Sep 22, 2006. -------- Date: Tue Jan 22 00:01:07 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--redbrick X-Bonus: The price we pay for money is paid in liberty. -Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist, and poet (1850-1894) This week's theme: words with color as metaphors. redbrick (RED-brik) adjective Lacking prestige. [The term usually describes universities. A redbrick university is one built in the UK in the late 19th or early 20th century, as opposed to the older prestigious institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge. The term is mostly used in the UK. A contrasting term in the US is Ivy League. An Ivy League university is one of several in the northeastern US that have high prestige and a reputation for scholastic achievement. The term alludes to the age of the universities reflected in the ivy that festoons the outside walls of the buildings on campus.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "To date, the novel that has done most to make [David] Lodge's name as a writer of fiction has been Changing Places, a funny study of two English professors -- one from a dowdy English redbrick university, the other from a thinly disguised Berkeley." Nicholas Pashley; Arthurian Academics; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Jul 7, 1984. -------- Date: Wed Jan 23 00:01:06 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--purple prose X-Bonus: Our heads are round so that thoughts can change direction. -Francis Picabia, painter and poet (1879-1953) This week's theme: words with color as metaphors. purple prose (PUR-puhl proz) noun An overly ornate piece of writing. [Two synonyms of the term are 'purple passage' and 'purple patch'. The idea comes from Latin pannus purpureus (purple patch), a phrase used by the poet Horace in his Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry) to suggest a patch of royal fabric on an ordinary cloth, a brilliant piece of writing in an overall dull work. Purple was the color of choice by the royalty as the purple dye was the most rare and hence most expensive.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "How much purple prose will they have to suffer through just to find the dang necklace?" Amanda Henry; King of the World? The Tampa Tribune (Florida); Dec 18, 2007. -------- Date: Thu Jan 24 00:01:06 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--white-shoe X-Bonus: Words are the small change of thought. -Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910) This week's theme: words with color as metaphors. white-shoe (hwyt, wyt shoo) noun Pertaining to a business or those who run it, typically conservative, rich, and elite, in fields such as law, finance, etc. [Apparently from the earlier popularity of white shoes among such men.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "[John] Street's problem was that, unlike the white-shoe lawyers and sleek inside players who'd mastered this game, his people were new to the trough." Chris Satullo; Not a Crook, But Still a Failure; Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania); Jan 5, 2008. -------- Date: Fri Jan 25 00:01:06 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--blue streak X-Bonus: I find it difficult to feel responsible for the suffering of others. That's why I find war so hard to bear. It's the same with animals: I feel the less harm I do, the lighter my heart. I love a light heart. And when I know I'm causing suffering, I feel the heaviness of it. It's a physical pain. So it's self-interest that I don't want to cause harm. -Alice Walker, author (b. 1944) This week's theme: words with color as metaphors. blue streak (bloo streek) noun 1. Something moving very fast. 2. A rapid and seemingly endless stream of words. [Or unknown origin, perhaps an allusion to a bolt of lightning.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "The amiable young teen talks a blue streak to the camera or anyone who happens to be nearby, his eyes darting about and his expression morphing from moment to moment." Limited Movie Runs: Bill the Kid; Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Jan 10, 2008. -------- Date: Mon Jan 28 00:01:07 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cingular X-Bonus: Like cars in amusement parks, our direction is often determined through collisions. -Yahia Lababidi, writer (b. 1973) When you see someone sporting a shirt with the manufacturer's name inscribed in bold letters across the chest, it's hard to ignore the irony. The wearer is paying the company to promote its name, rather than vice versa. For the privilege of being a walking billboard, the purchaser may have paid many times the normal price of that product. So next time you wear a pair of shoes with that logo, or a pair of pants with some large initials stitched on them, or a shirt with a brightly painted name, remember, you're inadvertently advertising the company. The word "advertise" comes to us from Latin advertere meaning "to turn toward" or "to pay attention". The word "inadvertently" derives from the same source. In other words, by not paying attention, we ARE paying attention. Do you ever wonder about the meaning of all those company names on billboards, taxis, supermarket floors, movies, clothing, even in your children's school books? While some of these are coined names (Sony, Novartis, Intel), many of them are bona fide words from the dictionary. This week we feature five such words. And no, none of them is an AWAD sponsor. cingular (SING-gyuh-luhr) adjective 1. Of or pertaining to a cingulum, an anatomical band or girdle on an animal or plant. 2. Encircling, girdling, surrounding. [From Latin cingulum (girdle), from cingere (to gird). Other words derived from the same root are cincture, precinct, shingles, and succinct.] "Differs ... in the greater degree of cingular development on cheek teeth, especially molars." Daniel L Gebo, et al; A Hominoid Genus; Science (Washington, DC); Apr 18, 1997. -------- Date: Tue Jan 29 00:01:06 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--lucent X-Bonus: He who postpones the hour of living is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses. -Horace, poet and satirist (65-8 BCE) This week's theme: what does that company name mean? lucent (LOO-suhnt) adjective 1. Luminous; shining. 2. Translucent; clear. [From Latin lucent, from lucere (to shine). Other words derived from the same root are elucidate, lucid, and translucent.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Now I am nestling on the sofa, antique crystal glass in one hand, elegant bottle of lucent amber in the other." Victoria Moore; Sweet Surrender; New Statesman (London); Dec 18, 1998. -------- Date: Wed Jan 30 00:01:05 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--prudential X-Bonus: Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. -Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1928) This week's theme: what does that company name mean? prudential (proo-DEN-shuhl) adjective 1. Of or relating to prudence. 2. Exercising good judgment, common sense, forethought, caution, etc. [From Middle English prudence, from Middle French, from Latin prudentia, contraction of providentia, from provident-, the present participle stem of providere (to provide). The words improvise, provide, provident, proviso, purvey, all derive from the same root.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "When every artless bosom throbs with truth, Untaught by worldly wisdom how to feign And check each impulse with prudential rein." George Gordon Byron; Childish Recollections. -------- Date: Thu Jan 31 00:01:06 EST 2008 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--vanguard X-Bonus: Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, thirst that is unquenchable? -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931) This week's theme: what does that company name mean? vanguard (VAN-gard) noun 1. The forefront of an army. 2. The leading position in a movement; people at the head of a movement. [Shortening of French avant-garde, from avant (before) + garde (guard).] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Boeing began to view its Russian staff as the vanguard of a new push into the European market, and in 1998 it opened its Moscow Design Center, which a year ago boasted nearly 700 engineers." Stanley Holmes and Simon Ostrovsky; The New Cold War at Boeing; BusinessWeek (New York); Feb 3, 2003.