A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Fri Mar 1 00:01:03 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--odeum X-Bonus: All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher. -Ambrose Bierce, writer (1842-1914) odeum (oh-DEE-uhm) noun, plural odea 1. A theater or concert hall. 2. A roofed building in ancient Greece and Rome used for theatrical performances. [From Latin odeum, from Greek oideion, from oide (song).] Now you know why so many cinema halls are named Odeon. A few other words that share the same root as odeum are ode, comedy, and tragedy. -Anu "`Dinah Was,' the wonderful Dinah Washington musical about one of soul's great divas, has inaugurated an equally wonderful, new Off-Broadway theater, the Gramercy on 23rd Street. This 499-seat odeum is a luxurious addition to the burgeoning New York theater scene and is perfect for this new musical." Liz Smith, Disney's Tobacco Rogue, Newsday (New York), Jul 15, 1998. This week's theme: words from theater. -------- Date: Mon Mar 4 00:01:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--philomath X-Bonus: Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate. -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, and musician (1875-1965) philomath (FIL-uh-math) noun A lover of learning. [From Greek philomaths (fond of learning), from philo- (loving) + math- root of manthanein (to learn).] Here's a late-blooming version of today's word: opsimath https://wordsmith.org/words/opsimath.html "Why was the library given this name? ... Tomasz Zan simply appealed to them as patron by virtue of having been a philomath and an exile who remained faithful to his country." Czeslaw Milosz, From Milosz's ABC's, Partisan Review (Boston), Winter 2001. During my years as an engineering student at HBTI (Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Kanpur, India), I once made a cross-country trip with my classmates. We were accompanied by one of our most lovable instructors, Cyril Alexander Furtado, a short, balding fellow, a recent graduate himself. As we got together to celebrate new year's eve in Goa, India, someone asked him to describe his students -- some 18 of us who formed that small computer science group. His perceptive comments were a delight as he depicted us as he saw us. His observations brought us many a chuckle and a few of his words have stayed with me since. As he talked about a quiet, diminutive fellow among us, he noted: It takes all kinds to make this world, but it's the good that sustain in the end. Yes, indeed, it takes all kinds of people, and five words for this week are a sampling in that spirit. "Dozes off at the right moment," were his words about me - perhaps an apt reflection of my inability to endure any "dull" lectures. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Mar 5 00:01:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--catechumen X-Bonus: The heights by great men reached and kept / Were not attained by sudden flight, / But they, while their companions slept, / Were toiling upward in the night. -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882) catechumen (kat-i-KYOO-men) noun 1. One who is receiving religious instruction in preparation for baptism; a neophyte. 2. A person who is being given basic education of a subject. [From Late Latin catechumenus, from Greek katechoumenos (one being taught orally). "I gave him the manuscript of my first novel to read and awaited his verdict with the expectancy of a catechumen. And when I received his letter - generous, with approval and advice - I felt happy." Mario Vargas Llosa, The Trumpet of Deya, Review of Contemporary Fiction (McLean, Illinois), Spring 1997. This week's theme: words to describe people. -------- Date: Wed Mar 6 00:01:04 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ithyphallic X-Bonus: This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper. -T.S. Eliot, poet (1888-1965) ithyphallic (ith-uh-FAL-ik) adjective 1. Of or relating to the phallus carried in procession in ancient Bacchic festivals. 2. Indecent or salacious. 3. Having an erect phallus. [From Late Latin ithyphallicus, from Greek ithyphallikos, from ithyphallos, from ithys (straight) + phallos (phallus).] "Luxor Temple is more comprehensible than the vaster ruins at Karnak. It was also dedicated to Amun - but to a different manifestation of the same god, associated with fertility and often shown in ithyphallic form." Ronald Wright, Images Of Egypt; Temples, Tombs and Entrepreneurs, The Washington Post, Jun 11, 1989. This week's theme: words to describe people. -------- Date: Thu Mar 7 00:01:04 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mooncalf X-Bonus: Of all nature's gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children? -Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator, writer (106-43 BCE) mooncalf (MOON-kaf) noun 1. A daydreamer or absent-minded person. 2. A fool or simpleton. 3. A congenitally deformed person. [From the earlier belief that a misshapen birth was a result of effects of the moon.] "Troughton, who has become a justly popular leading actor over the past few RSC seasons, is both monster and mooncalf." Michael Coveney, Theatre: Psycho III, The Madness of King Richard, The Guardian (London), Sep 10, 1995. This week's theme: words to describe people. -------- Date: Fri Mar 8 00:01:03 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--iracund X-Bonus: I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence: / Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference. -Robert Frost, poet (1874-1963) iracund (IE-ruh-kund) adjective Inclined to anger; irascible. [From Latin iracundus, from ira (anger) + -cundus (inclined toward)]. Can you think of an antonym of today's word that shares the same suffix? "One word: iracund. Or perhaps a better choice might be grumpy." Campaign Grapevine, The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California), Oct 21, 1996. This week's theme: words to describe people. -------- Date: Mon Mar 11 00:15:03 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ukase X-Bonus: There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write. -William Makepeace Thackeray, novelist (1811-1863) ukase (yoo-KAYS, yoo-KAYZ, YOO-kays, YOO-kayz) noun An arbitrary proclamation or order; edict. [After ukaz, a decree issued by a Russian czar having the force of law. From French, from Russian ukaz (decree), from Old Church Slavonic ukazu (proof), from ukazati, from u- (at, away) + kazati (to show).] "Guardian journalists are to be discouraged from signing petitions, speaking at public meetings, joining marches or, heaven forbid, standing for parliament, a ukase that would have dramatically affected the political ambitions of C P Scott, Morgan Phillips Price, Lena Jeger, Martin Linton, Polly Toynbee, Malcolm Dean, Christopher Huhne and, indeed, the present writer." Richard Gott, The Lost Magic of Manchester, The New Statesman (London), Jan 28, 2002. It was only a dozen years ago (March 14, 1990) that Mikhail Gorbachev was elected to the presidency of the USSR, but it already seems an eternity, considering the tremendous changes he unwittingly set off by his efforts to modernize his regime. When I was living in Moscow as a correspondent in the early seventies, no one had the slightest idea that the entire communist edifice could collapse as rapidly as it did after Gorbachev's well-intentioned tinkerings. In those days the best brains of the West were expending a vast amount of imagination (not to mention cold cash) trying to elucidate the mysteries of the inner circles of power behind the great brick walls of Red Square. The political science of choice was then known as Kremlinology. Moscow was the capital city not of what we call Russia today, but of the USSR -- the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics -- and most of the Russian language words with which we were familiar were derived from the Marxist-Leninist "newspeak" which dominated everyday life, and which George Orwell had caricatured with such devastating accuracy in "Animal Farm" and "1984." Over the last dozen years an entirely new vocabulary, reflecting the realities of the new, semi-democratic state, has consigned the old political jargon to the dustbin of history. But let us not forget that long before either of these Ivan-come-lately regimes had appeared on the world stage, a third set of politico-economic realities had spawned a far greater culture with its own rich vocabulary for our borrowing -- the eternal Russia of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Turgenyev, Chekhov and many others. This sampling of Russian words dips into all three of these historical periods. -Rudy Chelminski (rudychelminskiATaol.com) (This week's guest wordsmith, Rudy Chelminski, is an American freelance writer living in France.) -------- Date: Tue Mar 12 00:01:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--troika X-Bonus: Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well. -Josh Billings, columnist and humorist (1818-1885) troika (TROI-kuh) noun 1. A group of three persons, nations, etc. united in power or acting in unison. 2. A Russian vehicle drawn by three horses harnessed side-by-side. [From Russian troika, from troe (three).] "Or perhaps a collective presidency made up of three member states serving together as a troika for two and a half years." Jonathan Freedland, Adventures in Euroland, The Guardian (London), Feb 13, 2002. This week's theme: words from Russian. -------- Date: Wed Mar 13 00:01:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--samizdat X-Bonus: In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. -Robert Frost, poet (1874-1963) samizdat (SAH-miz-daht) noun An underground publishing system to print and circulate banned literature clandestinely. Also, such literature. [From Russian samizdat, from samo- (self) + izdatelstvo (publishing house), from izdat (to publish). Coined facetiously on the model of Gosizdat (State Publishing House).] "This remarkable little book (People Power Uli!) includes jokes, text messages, cartoons and poems of the revolt. It is both funny and a valuable record of samizdat literature and Philippine popular culture." Alastair Dingwall, Estrada's Fall From Grace, Far Eastern Economic Review (Hong Kong), Jan 17, 2002. This week's theme: words from Russian. -------- Date: Thu Mar 14 01:07:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--glasnost X-Bonus: Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. -Thomas Carlyle, essayist and historian (1795-1881) glasnost (GLAZ-nost) noun A policy of open discussion of political opinion and social issues and freer disclosure of information. [From Russian glasnost (publicity), from glas (voice).] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word glasnost in the sense of `publicity' has been quoted in Russian dictionaries since the 18th century. Vladimir Ilich Lenin (1870-1924) used it in the sense of freedom of information, and dissident writer and Nobel laureate Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (1918- ) used it in an open letter to the Soviet Writers' Union in 1969. But it became a subject of serious public debate after an Izvestiya editorial on Jan 19, 1985 invited letters on the topic. Mikhail Gorbachev used the word on Mar 11, 1985 in his acceptance speech for the post of General Secretary of the CPSU. "Exposed to the harsh light of glasnost, racial preferences in education are withering. Such policies are already prohibited by the courts in Texas and by voter initiatives in California and Washington." Cathy Young, The High Price of Racial Preferences, The Boston Globe, Jun 27, 2001. This week's theme: words from Russian. Today we are eight. Happy octennial to all the linguaphiles! To mark the event, we introduce premium membership. You're welcome to sign up for the ad-free AWAD Premium service: https://wordsmith.org/awad/premium.html If you wish to continue with the present free service, you don't need to do anything. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) -------- Date: Fri Mar 15 00:01:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--nyet X-Bonus: The woods are lovely, dark and deep. / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep / And miles to go before I sleep. -Robert Frost, poet (1874-1963) nyet (nyet) adverb, noun No. [From Russian nyet (no).] "There's another difference between Silicon Valley and the corporate hierarchy In most companies there's only one place to pitch a new idea - up the chain of command--and just one nyet can kill it. In the Valley there's no one person who can say no to a new idea. It's rare to find a successful startup whose initial business plan wasn't rejected by several venture capitalists before finding a sponsor." Gary Hamel, Reinvent Your Company, Fortune (New York), Jun 12, 2000. This week's theme: words from Russian. -------- Date: Mon Mar 18 00:01:08 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--uriah heep X-Bonus: A brother is a friend given by nature. -Gabriel Legouve, poet (1807-1903) Uriah Heep (ur-AYAH heep) noun A hypocritically humble person. [After Uriah Heep, a character in Charles Dickens's David Copperfield.] You can read David Copperfield online at: http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/copperfield/ "This affair shows the accounting profession all too often to be in bed with the oldest profession. Accounting standards have been frequently prostituted by the new Uriah Heeps: these are executives in ever-merging firms afraid to challenge their clients' phony numbers and secret self-dealing because they might lose fees in the lucrative consulting business they run on the side." William Safire, Where's Scandal in Enron? The New York Times, Jan 14, 2002. There are thousands and thousands of them. In medicine, botany, chemistry, athletics, and other walks (and runs) of life. We use them all the time without even realizing it. They come with a whole story about themselves. They are words derived from people, real and fictional, from history and from mythology. They are known as eponyms and this week we'll meet five of these people and the words they gave us after their names. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Mar 19 00:01:07 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--circe X-Bonus: There was never a genius without a tincture of madness. -Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE) Circe (SUR-see) noun An irresistibly charming woman. [After Circe, an enchantress in Greek mythology. She was known to lure sailors to her island and turn them into swine.] "In Giuseppe Tornatore's new film, Malena, the Italian actress Monica Bellucci plays a heroine who is every man's dream and every woman's nightmare. The young and gorgeous Malena Scordia, who is marooned in her husband's village in Sicily when he goes off to the second world war, is an unwitting Circe, driving men to lust and their wives to plot revenge." Laura Winters, Arts: Part Siren, Part Muse, All Trouble, The Guardian (London), Mar 5, 2001. This week's theme: eponyms. -------- Date: Wed Mar 20 00:01:06 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--corybantic X-Bonus: There is a word sweeter than mother, home or heaven -- that word is liberty. -Epitaph on the grave of Matilda Joslyn Gage, suffragist, abolitionist (1826-1898) corybantic (kor-i-BAN-tik) adjective Wild; frenzied; uncontrolled. [After Corybant, an ancient priest of Phrygian goddess Cybele, who performed wild ecstatic dances in her worship.] "The radio is nothing but a conduit through which pre-fabricated din can flow into our homes. And this din goes far deeper, of course, than the eardrums. It penetrates the mind, filling it with a babble of distractions, blasts of corybantic or sentimental music, continually repeated doses of drama that bring no catharsis, but usually create a craving for daily or even hourly emotional enemas." Aldous Huxley, On Silence, 1946. This week's theme: eponyms. -------- Date: Thu Mar 21 00:01:07 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--methuselah X-Bonus: There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it. -Alfred Hitchcock, film-maker (1899-1980) Methuselah (me-THOO-zuh-luh) noun 1. An extremely old man. 2. An oversized wine bottle holding approx. 6 liters. [After biblical figure Methuselah who was said to have lived 969 years.] "Five restaurant years would be about equivalent to 30 human years, so Bambino's, which has been around since 1983, is a veritable Methuselah among eateries." A.C. Stevens, Why Cook Tonight? The Boston Herald, Feb 11, 2001. "Meet Frank Ahern, the Methuselah of Seattle high-school coaches, a revered urban legend in his second half-century of helping city youth." Craig Smith, A Coach For The Ages, The Seattle Times, Feb 27, 2000. This week's theme: eponyms. -------- Date: Fri Mar 22 00:01:07 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mogul X-Bonus: Let proportion be found not only in numbers and measures, but also in sounds, weights, times, and positions, and whatever force there is. -Leonardo Da Vinci, painter, engineer, musician, and scientist (1452-1519) mogul (MO-guhl) noun, also moghul or mughal A powerful or influential person; magnate. [After Mogul, one of the dynasty of Mongol conquerors whose rule in India spanned from 1526 to 1857.] "By now, you may think you know everything there is to know about Santa Claus. However, what you don't know could fill his bottomless bag of toys. Hardly any of the popular tales about Jolly Old St. Nick have been updated since the 1940's. The world has changed considerably since then, and so has Santa. Thanks largely to some disenchanted elves whose contractual nondisclosure agreements recently expired, we now have firsthand accounts of what it is like to work for the world's most reclusive toy mogul." Kevin Doughten, What Your Parents Never Told You, The New York Times, Dec 24, 2001. This week's theme: eponyms. Read Of Nerds and Words at SF Gate, the Web site of the San Francisco Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2002/03/21/nerdwords.DTL -------- Date: Mon Mar 25 00:01:09 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ha-ha X-Bonus: Solitude, though it may be silent as light, is like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world alone; all leave it alone. -Thomas De Quincey, writer (1785-1859) ha-ha (ha-ha) noun Sunk fence. [From French haha, reduplicative of ha!, exclamation of surprise, that might come out when tripped by such an obstacle.] "They covet our haha fences, tucked out of view by ditches and so named because of their surprise value." Tina Kelley, Zoo Nice To See You: Woodland Park Basks In Spotlight, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sep 19, 1995. Instead of explaining in a thousand words what a ha-ha looks like, I'll show you a picture: http://www.yale.edu/yup/images/bormann3.jpg Etymologists claim we got the word ha-ha from ha!, the sound one might exclaim on getting tripped by that trap, otherwise known as a sunken fence. I'm sure they have done their research and are right. But I can't help thinking it might have been derived from the laughter of a French aristocrat when an unsuspecting guest tripped while visiting his chateau. Ah-ha, that gives me an idea, just in time for this April Fool's Day! I think I'll call a landscape designer. "Hi, Mr. Dougwell? I'd like to order a ha-ha around my apartment." "You'd like to order what?" "Ha-ha! You think you can do it by next week? I've some visitors coming over. And don't forget to bring your Hard Hat and Hack Hammer." All kidding aside, what's the brouhaha about this thing? In the 18th century someone came up with the clever idea of a fence that let the property owner have an unhindered view of the landscape, giving an illusion of contiguous land, while protecting him from trespass. Here's a fascinating essay on the deeper meanings of ha-ha: http://faculty.bsc.edu/jtatter/borders.html Well, this week's words may give you an impression that I'm playing an April Fool's prank on you, but that's not true. All words featured this week, as in any week, are "real" dictionary words. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Mar 26 00:01:09 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--aa X-Bonus: The happiest is the person who suffers the least pain; the most miserable who enjoys the least pleasure. -Jean-Jacques Rousseau, philosopher and author (1712-1778) aa (ah-ah) noun Lava having a rough surface. [From Hawaiian, apparently from the sound one emits on walking barefoot over the jagged lava surface.] Aa is one of the two kinds of lava typically found in Hawaiian volcanoes. The other kind is pahoehoe, one with a smooth, ropy surface. You can see their pictures at: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/images/pglossary/aa.php http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/images/pglossary/pahoehoe.php "Aa has a surface that's broken into blocks with sharp, spiny projections." Ian Skilling, Lavas and Life, The World & I (Washington, DC), Jul 1998. "With so much to memorize, trying to recall that aa is a kind of solidified lava or that an ai is a three-toed sloth, would tax the brain unnecessarily. Mr. Keskaroonkul estimates he knows nearly 110,000 words, or nearly 70% of Webster's New World Dictionary, published by Merriam-Webster. In comparison, the average college graduate is said to have an active vocabulary of 10,000 to 15,000 words." Joseph Pereira, Hard Scrabble: Thais Who Play Very Well Learn the Dictionary -- But Some Have No Idea at All What the Words Mean; Why Clutter Up the Mind?, The Wall Street Journal (New York), Jul 19, 1999. This week's theme: words that seem unreal. -------- Date: Wed Mar 27 00:01:12 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--thank-you-ma'am X-Bonus: The believer is happy; the doubter is wise. -Hungarian proverb thank-you-ma'am (THANGK yoo mam) noun A bump or depression in a road. [From the nod of the head that results when one passes over it in a vehicle, as if in an acknowledgment of a favor.] "We all have our troubles. It isn't everybody that can ride to heaven in a C-spring shay, as my poor husband used to say; and life's a road that's got a good many thank-you-ma'ams to go bumpin' over, says he." Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Guardian Angel, 1868. This week's theme: words that seem unreal. -------- Date: Thu Mar 28 00:01:08 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--la-di-da X-Bonus: Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body. -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., US Supreme Court Justice (1841-1935) la-di-da (LAH-dee-DAH) adjective Affectedly refined; pretentious. [Imitative of affected pronunciation.] "What you look for in a greasy spoon is not cookery. There is nothing la-di-da on the premises. The food is plain; that's the deal. The menu is unchanging. But in Manhattan, where you are assaulted hourly by unhinged ingenuity, especially in eating places, plainness becomes an attraction." Judith Dunford, The Greasy Spoon Loses the Grease and Gains a Certain Distinction, The New York Times, Jun 22, 2001. This week's theme: words that seem unreal. -------- Date: Fri Mar 29 00:01:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--papilionaceous X-Bonus: An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. -Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) papilionaceous (puh-pil-ee-uh-NAY-shuhs) adjective 1. Of or pertaining to a butterfly. 2. Belonging to the Papilionaceae family whose plants have petals in the form of a butterfly, mostly legumes, such as peas and beans. [From Latin papilion-, stem of papilio (butterfly).] When you're sitting in a pavilion, you're under the wings of a butterfly, etymologically speaking. Also, there is a breed of spaniels named papillon having large ears resembling the wings of a butterfly: http://www.akc.org/breeds/papillon/ Also see pea flower: http://www.xmission.com/~nelsonb/pea.htm "`You have an exorbitant auditory impediment,' replied the doctor, ever conscious of the necessity for maintaining a certain iatric mystique, and fully aware that `a pea in the ear' was unlikely to earn him any kudos. `I can remove it with a fishhook and a small hammer...' Dr. Iannis returned at six o'clock and hooked the softened pea successfully without the aid of a hammer, small or otherwise. He worked it out deftly enough, and presented it to the couple for their inspection. Encrusted with thick dark wax, rank and malodorous, it was recognisable to neither of them as anything leguminous. `It's very papilionaceous, is it not?' enquired the doctor." Louis de Bernières, Corelli's Mandolin, Vintage Books, Sep 1995. This week's theme: words that seem unreal.