A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Mon Apr 1 00:01:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--salver X-Bonus: The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists. -Japanese proverb salver (SAL-vuhr) noun A serving tray. [From French salve, from Spanish salva (tasting of food to detect presence of poison), from salva (save), from Latin salvare (to save). Another term for this former practice of sampling food is credence.] "Among the items allegedly stolen were a silver salver that was a Christmas gift to a royal princess in 1826, and is presumably of great value." T.R. Reid, Britons Left to Ponder: Did the Butler Do It?; Diana's Servant Charged in Theft, The Washington Post, Aug 17, 2001. Ever wonder why Ecuador is named so? In Spanish, ecuador is the term for equator. And guess where Ecuador is situated on the globe? I learned many such fascinating tidbits when I signed up for a Spanish 101 class. I discovered learning a new language opens the horizons to another culture. From mosquito to parade to plaza, hundreds of terms from Spanish are now in everyday use in the English language. This week we'll take a look at a few other words in the English language that have their origins in Spanish. ¡Hasta mañana! -Anu -------- Date: Tue Apr 2 00:01:13 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ramada X-Bonus: Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. -William Pitt, British prime minister (1759-1806) ramada (ruh-MAH-duh) noun An open shelter roofed with branches. [From Spanish, from rama (branch), from Vulgar Latin rama, from Latin ramus (branch).] The word "ramify" branches out from the same root "ramus". An anagram of today's word is "armada" (a fleet of warships), another term we've taken from Spanish. "We are issued orange White House press passes and herded under a ramada near the flight line." Rhonda Bodfield, Reporter-in-waiting Just Waits, And Waits, The Arizona Daily Star, Feb 27, 1999. This week's theme: loanwords from Spanish. -------- Date: Wed Apr 3 00:01:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cabana X-Bonus: God has no religion. -Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) cabana (kuh-BAHN-uh) noun 1. A shelter on a beach or swimming pool. 2. A cabin or cottage. [From Spanish cabaña, from Late Latin capanna (hut).] Would it surprise you to know that cabin and cabinet are related? Or that basin and basinet/bassinet are? The diminutive suffix -et doesn't only convey the sense of smallness, it can change the whole meaning. Consider table and tablet, for another example. -Anu "Calvin Klein is redecorating the cabana area of the lounge with furnishings like wall decorations featuring a new Klein logo and photographs of models wearing Klein clothes." Allison Fass, GQ Steps Out of Its Pages And Opens a Lounge, The New York Times, Feb 15, 2002. This week's theme: loanwords from Spanish. -------- Date: Thu Apr 4 00:01:09 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mesa X-Bonus: Money, n. A blessing that is of no advantage to us excepting when we part with it. An evidence of culture and a passport to polite society. -Ambrose Bierce, writer (1842-1914) mesa (MAY-suh) noun A flat-top land formation with steep sides. A mesa is an area bigger than a butte but smaller than a plateau. [From Spanish mesa (table), from Latin mensa (table). "Wetherill and Mason spent several hours on that December day exploring the site and collecting artifacts. They climbed to the top of the mesa and separated, searching for more cliff dwellings." Robin Chalmers, A Historic Rediscovery, Cobblestone (Peterborough, New Hampshire), Sep 1999. This week's theme: loanwords from Spanish. -------- Date: Fri Apr 5 00:01:09 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cay X-Bonus: You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet and artist (1883-1931) cay (kay, kee) noun A small low island of coral, sand, etc.; key. [From Spanish cayo (shoal).] "Its terrain ranges from a myriad offshore islands, coral reefs and cays, white and black sand beaches, savannah, alpine meadows to the largest area of pristine rainforest outside the Amazon basin." Neil Hanson, Travel: Papua New Guinea, The Guardian (London), Mar 23, 2002. This week's theme: loanwords from Spanish. -------- Date: Mon Apr 8 00:01:05 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--baker's dozen X-Bonus: The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions--the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet (1772-1834) baker's dozen (BAY-kuhrs DUZ-uhn) noun A group of 13. [From the fact that formerly bakers typically gave an extra item when selling a dozen of something to safeguard against penalty for light weight.] "Mr. Blodget, the Merrill Lynch Internet stock analyst, stopped covering the stocks of four more dot-com companies last week, reducing his universe, which once comprised more than 20 companies, to a mere baker's dozen." Patrick McGeehan, The Shifting Fortunes Of a Prognosticator, The New York Times, Jul 1, 2001. Forrest Gump's favorite phrase "Life is like a box of chocolates" has entered the language as a way of explaining that one never knows what the next experience will be. It's no wonder the screenwriter chose food imagery to convey his philosophy. Food peppers everyday speech to such an extent that it's practically unavoidable. We fish for compliments, beef about injustice, butter up the powers that be, and ham it up to get a laugh. A pretty woman's a hot tomato, a brainy student's an egghead, a muscled he-man is beefcake, and a coward is just plain chicken. We table discussions, tap sources, cook up new ideas, pull down menus on our computer screens, and offer recipes for success. We toast the bride and groom, roast our fellows at honorific dinners, cajole people who are slow as molasses to wake up and smell the coffee, act cool as a cucumber when we get caught with our hands in the cookie jar, and turn beet red when we are obliged to eat our words. Dollars to donuts you can bet that this week's selection of terms is by no means the whole enchilada. -Edythe Preet (epreetATcox.net) (This week's guest wordsmith, Edythe Preet, is a culinary historian who has written a monthly feature series, entitled Food For Thought, since 1989. It is distributed internationally through the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.) -------- Date: Tue Apr 9 00:01:05 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--red herring X-Bonus: Never advise anyone to go to war or to marry. -Spanish Proverb red herring (red HER-ing) noun A misleading clue; something used to divert attention from the real issue. [From the former practice of drawing a smoked herring across the track to teach hounds not to be distracted from other scents.] "When I hear hysterical opposition from some self-styled leaders in the business community to such a common-sense policy as the living wage, I have to shake my head. They trot out all the tired old red herrings about the living wage being bad for business or adversely affecting the business climate or even causing layoffs." Terry Lierman, `Living Wage' Is Good for Workers and Businesses, The Washington Post, Mar 21, 2002. This week's theme: terms with origins in food. -------- Date: Wed Apr 10 00:01:05 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--flavor of the month X-Bonus: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. -Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat, author, and lecturer (1884-1962) flavor of the month (FLAY-vuhr ov the munth) noun Something of transient interest. "It's like you're the flavor of the month, and then it suddenly changes." Gordon Edes, He Was in it For the Long Haul, The Boston Globe, Mar 17, 2002. This week's theme: terms with origins in food. -------- Date: Thu Apr 11 00:01:07 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--banana republic X-Bonus: People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering. -Saint Augustine (354-430) banana republic (buh-NAN-uh ri-PUB-lik) noun A small country, typically in central America, often run by a dictator, where the economy is dependent upon fruit exports, tourism, etc . "Argentina has spent the past 50 years manically see-sawing from bust to boom and bust again, from properly elected governments to military coups and banana republic dictatorships." John Carlin, How Viveza Brought Down a Nation, New Statesman (London), Jan 14, 2002. This week's theme: terms with origins in food. -------- Date: Fri Apr 12 00:01:05 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--chew the fat X-Bonus: I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream. -Vincent van Gogh, artist (1853-1890) chew the fat (choo the fat) verb To chat at length in a friendly, relaxed manner. Also, chew the rag. "I would go down to Egton House on days I wasn't even working, just to chew the fat with him." Andy Kershaw, Obituaries: Life with the Hinge and Bracket of Radio 1, The Guardian (London), Aug 1, 2001. This week's theme: terms with origins in food. -------- Date: Mon Apr 15 00:01:07 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ecdemic X-Bonus: Remember when life's path is steep to keep your mind even. -Horace, poet and satirist (65-8 BCE) ecdemic (ek-DEM-ik) adjective Of foreign origin; introduced from outside; pertaining to a disease that's observed far from the area it originates in. [From Greek ec-, variant of ex- (out of) + -demic (on the pattern of epidemic), from demos (people).] "In order to meet the requirements of Ningbo's large-scale economic development, after opening to the world, Ningbo has been striving for discovering, introducing and training various kinds of outstanding talents in many ways. First of all, it tries its best to accept college graduates and secondary technical school graduates. During 1981 and 2000, 131,000 graduates have been employed in Ningbo area. Secondly, it widely introduces all kinds of ecdemic talents." Ningbo Today, Web site. An epidemic is a widespread disease in a certain population while something endemic is one that is confined to a specific people or place. An ecdemic disease, on the other hand, is one brought from outside. But this academic discussion is not what makes the word "ecdemic" interesting here. What is it? You find out. All this week's words are bound by a common thread and your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to unravel it. Send your answers to (garg AT wordsmith.org). One answer per person, please. Good luck, and look for the solution here next week. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Apr 16 00:01:05 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--anopsia X-Bonus: Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is ... impossible. -Richard Bach, writer (1936- ) anopsia (an-OP-see-uh) noun, also anopsy or anopia Absence of sight, due to a missing eye or other structural problem. [From Greek an- (not) + -opia (pertaining to sight).] "Odd then that with the proliferation of discourses surrounding the concept of `the postcolonial,' so little attention should have been paid to a text which in its preoccupation with the contradictions, the complexities, and the complicities of colonization anticipates in so many respects what we have come to call the postcolonial novel. There are, I think, three particular difficulties which may help account for that critical anopsia." Michael Mays, Finnegans Wake, Colonial Nonsense, and Postcolonial History, College Literature (West Chester, Pennsylvania), Fall 1998. This week's theme: You guess the theme. -------- Date: Wed Apr 17 00:01:05 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--deflagrate X-Bonus: There is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue. Commit a crime and the earth is made of glass. Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge, and fox, and squirrel. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882) deflagrate (DEF-luh-grayt) verb tr. and intr. To burn or cause to burn something rapidly and violently. [From Latin deflagratus, past participle of deflagrare (to burn down), from de- (intensive prefix) + flagrare (to blaze).] Another word that shares the same root is "flagrant". When a politician engages in flagrant misuse of public money, his actions are so glaring that they cannot escape attention. It's as if he were literally burning public money. "`It is easy to inject fuel into a chamber and get it to deflagrate,' or burn, in a manner similar to the V-1 engine, according to John B. Hinkey ...." Paul Proctor, Pulse Detonation Technologies Advance, Aviation Week & Space Technology (New York), May 4, 1998. This week's theme: You guess the theme. -------- Date: Thu Apr 18 00:01:05 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--insomnolent X-Bonus: Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. -Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE) insomnolent (in-SOM-nuh-lunt) adjective Sleepless. noun One afflicted with insomnia. [From Latin in- (not) + Middle English sompnolent, from Old French, from Latin somnolentus, from somnus (sleep).] "... the four old familiar blue letters `Ford' now transcended by four foreign letters drawing moths and men insomnolent to gaze at something not assembled by the sons of immigrants in Flint or Dearborn... " Michael A Crivello, Yugo Down, Moses, Harper's Magazine (New York), Dec 1992. This week's theme: You guess the theme. -------- Date: Fri Apr 19 00:01:06 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--fastuous X-Bonus: Every man is the son of his own works. -Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (1547-1616) fastuous (FAS-choo-uhs) adjective 1. Haughty; arrogant. 2. Pretentious. [From Latin fastuosus, from fastus (arrogance).] "(John) Ray analysed the distinctive characteristics of the Italians: They are ingenious, apprehensive of anything, and quick witted ... a still quiet people, as being naturally melancholy; of a middle temper, between the fastuous gravity of the Spaniard, and unquiet levity of the French ..." Robert Illiffe, Foreign Bodies, Canadian Journal of History (Saskatoon), Dec 1998. This week's theme: You guess the theme. This week's words have been ecdemic, anopsia, deflagrate, insomnolent, and fastuous. What's their common bond? If you believe you know the answer, send it to (garg AT wordsmith.org). -------- Date: Mon Apr 22 00:01:05 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--roman a clef X-Bonus: Art is a house that tries to be haunted. -Emily Dickinson, poet (1830-1886) roman a clef (ro-mahn ah KLAY) noun, plural romans a clef A novel that depicts historical figures and events under the guise of fiction. [From French, literally, a novel with a key.] "Gradually it also became known that Kinder's sprawling, unpublished novel was a roman a clef about the author's complicated and boisterous friendship during the 1970s with Raymond Carver, when both men were in the San Francisco Bay area." Jonathan Yardley, Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale, The Washington Post, Aug 5, 2001. What is writing? Distilling your thoughts in the still of your mind and collecting their essence. It doesn't need any fancy devices -- a five-cent pencil works just as well as a $50 gold-tipped `writing instrument'. A beach cottage might not yield a writer any loftier fruits than a tiny room, with a window perhaps, to stare out and do nothing. Ah! What could be easier... or more difficult? In this week's AWAD, we collect a few words from the world of writing. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Apr 23 00:01:08 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--orihon X-Bonus: A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, but rather by touching both at once. -Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (1623-1662) orihon (OR-ee-hon) noun A book or manuscript folded like an accordion: a roll of paper inscribed on one side only, folded backwards and forwards. [From Japanese, ori (fold), + hon (book).] Here's a picture of an orihon: http://www2.odn.ne.jp/reliure/imgs3/k_orihon.jpg Then there is origami [ori + -gami, kami (paper)], the Japanese art of paper folding that can coax a whole menagerie from a few flat sheets of paper. -Anu "He created an orihon binding -- an accordion-style technique that allowed the book to expand to more than 60 feet." Veronica Chestnut, Digital Printing at Harvard, Electronic Publishing, Jul 1997. This week's theme: words about books and writing. -------- Date: Wed Apr 24 00:01:06 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--amphigory X-Bonus: Not all those who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien, novelist and philologist (1892-1973) amphigory (AM-fi-gor-ee) noun, also amphigouri A nonsensical piece of writing, usually in verse form, typically composed as a parody. [From French amphigouri.] "More jeers than cheers currently greet the amphigories of Father Divine, and the followers of kindred dark-town messiahs are noisier than they are numerous." Mark Gauvreau Judge, Justice to George S. Schuyler, Policy Review (Washington), Aug/Sep 2000. This week's theme: words about books and writing. -------- Date: Thu Apr 25 00:01:09 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--conspectus X-Bonus: I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own powers. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful. -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900) conspectus (kuhn-SPEK-tuhs) noun A general survey, synopsis, outline, or digest of something. [From Latin conspectus, past participle of conspicere, from con- (complete) + spicere (to look).] "Meanwhile, for a well-informed, critical, independent-minded but essentially traditional view of the subject, we have a new conspectus by James D. Tracy. He is masterly in absorbing information and masterful in organizing it - skeptical of fashion, clear in exposition, fluent in communication, unremittingly scholarly." Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Real Zeal, New York Times Book Review, Jun 11, 2000. This week's theme: words about books and writing. -------- Date: Fri Apr 26 00:01:05 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--magnum opus X-Bonus: How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. -Anne Frank, Holocaust diarist (1929-1945) magnum opus (MAG-num OH-puhs) noun A great work of literature, music, art, etc., especially the finest work of an individual. [From Latin magnum opus, from magnum, neuter of magnus (large), opus (work).] "Bespectacled, bearded and balding, Mr. Chkhartishvili is faintly ill at ease about fame. For years, he earned his living translating Japanese literature and working on what he still considers his magnum opus, a gloomy book entitled `The Writer and Suicide.' His idea of a good time is to stroll around a cemetery." Guy Chazan, Roll Over, Dostoyevsky: Serious Russian Writers Reinvent the Thriller, The Wall Street Journal, Feb 25, 2002. This week's theme: words about books and writing. -------- Date: Mon Apr 29 00:01:06 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--chutzpah X-Bonus: I look for what needs to be done.... After all, that's how the universe designs itself. -R. Buckminster Fuller, engineer, designer, and architect (1895-1983) chutzpah (KHOOT-spuh, HOOT-) noun, also chutzpa Shameless impudence, brazen nerve, gall, effrontery. [From Yiddish khutspe, from Late Hebrew huspa.] "Bill Gates, the company's chairman, even had the chutzpah to say that this week's ruling was a challenge to `healthy competition in the software industry'." Leaders: Breaking Up Microsoft, The Economist (London), Jun 10, 2000. A language is the soul of its people. This is nowhere illustrated more profoundly than in the Yiddish language, the language of Jews of eastern and central Europe and their descendants. A tongue full of wit and charm, Yiddish embodies deep appreciation of human behavior in all its colorful manifestations. The word Yiddish comes from German Judisch meaning Jewish. But it is not the same as Hebrew, even though it is written in Hebrew script. Here's what Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer had to say about the language in his 1978 Nobel Prize acceptance speech: "Yiddish language - a language of exile, without a land, without frontiers, not supported by any government, a language which possesses no words for weapons, ammunition, military exercises, war tactics ... There is a quiet humor in Yiddish and a gratitude for every day of life, every crumb of success, each encounter of love. The Yiddish mentality is not haughty. It does not take victory for granted. It does not demand and command but it muddles through, sneaks by, smuggles itself amidst the powers of destruction, knowing somewhere that God's plan for Creation is still at the very beginning ... In a figurative way, Yiddish is the wise and humble language of us all, the idiom of frightened and hopeful Humanity." Many of the everyday English language words such as bagel, klutz, and kibitz are terms from Yiddish. This week we'll look at a few other Yiddishisms that have enriched the English language. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Apr 30 00:01:06 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mensch X-Bonus: Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) mensch (mench, mensh) noun, plural menschen (MEN-chuhn, MEN-shuhn) or mensches A decent, upright, honorable person. [From Yiddish mentsh (man, human being), from Middle High German mensch, from Old High German mennisco.] The same root gives us another eminently useful Yiddish term luftmensch, literally an airman. A luftmensch is an impractical dreamer (think Laputans of Gulliver's Travels). The word could also refer to one with no visible means of support. Yet another term with a mensch connection is superman. It comes to us from German Übermensch by a process known as loan translation. Übermensch was Friedrich Nietzsche's term for an ideal superior man (from German über above, beyond, superior). In 1903 when George Bernard Shaw needed an English equivalent, he came up with superman. -Anu "Redemption is cheap in movies, if not in life, and the new Argentine comedy Son of the Bride is a custom-calibrated sucker punch. When the hero (Ricardo Darin) is immediately revealed as a bloated, chain-smoking, workaholic deadbeat dad, we know a tragedy and/or cardiac event will transform him into a life-loving mensch." Michael Atkinson, Redeem Upon Purchase, The Village Voice (New York), Mar 26, 2002. This week's theme: words borrowed from Yiddish.