A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Mon Feb 1 00:04:38 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ambrosia X-Bonus: Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf. -Rabindranath Tagore, poet (1861-1941) ambrosia (am-BROE-zhuh, -ZHEE-uh) noun 1. Greek Mythology. Roman Mythology. The food of the gods, thought to confer immortality. 2. Something with an especially delicious flavor or fragrance. 3. A dessert containing primarily oranges and flaked coconut. [Latin, from Greek, from ambrotos, immortal, immortalizing : a-, not + -mbrotos, mortal.] "The sandwich was conceived, produced, consumed and pronounced ambrosia, all in 20 minutes. Everybody wanted one until the bananas ran out." Elaine Viets, A Sandwich Fit for the King, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 7 Jul 1993. Crafting prose is somewhat like preparing food; careful selection of the ingredients (words), adding them in a deliberate order, assaying the concoction, and finally serving it. Taste this week's selection - words about food. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Feb 2 00:04:24 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--carnivore X-Bonus: Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. -B.F. Skinner carnivore (KAHR-neh-vore) noun 1. A flesh-eating animal. 2. Any of various predatory, flesh-eating mammals of the order Carnivora, including the dogs, cats, bears, weasels, hyenas, and raccoons. 3. An insectivorous plant. [From French, meat-eating, from Latin carnivorus.] "When I started the book, I was a happy carnivore. But the more research I did, the less appetite I had for meat." Judy Stoffman, How Mrs. America led to Year Of Meat, (Book Review: My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki), The Toronto Star, 4 Jul 1998. This week's theme: words related to eating and food. -------- Date: Wed Feb 3 00:04:31 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--herbivorous X-Bonus: There are men who would quickly love each other if once they were speak to each other; for when they spoke they would discover that their souls had only separated by phantoms and delusions. -Ernest Hello herbivorous (hur-BIV-uhr-uhs, ur-) adjective Feeding on plants; plant-eating. [From New Latin herbivorus : Latin herba, vegetation + Latin -vorus, -vorous.] "Howard Lyman: I think the chance of an epidemic in America, like what we had in England, is much smaller today than in 1996 when I was on the Oprah Winfrey Show. But if we do not address the other issues of feeding mammalian protein to herbivorous animals, we will still have the door open, and there could be significant problems ahead here." Motavalli, Jim; Rembert, Tracey C., The trouble with meat. (foodborne pathogens), E Magazine, 15 May 1998. This week's theme: words related to eating and food. -------- Date: Thu Feb 4 00:04:30 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bain-marie X-Bonus: A raindrop, dripping from a cloud, / Was ashamed when it saw the sea. / `Who am I where there is a sea?' it said. / When it saw itself with the eye of humility, / A shell nurtured it in its embrace. -Saadi of Shiraz (c. 1200 AD) bain-marie (BAN-muh-ree) noun, plural bains-marie A large pan containing hot water in which smaller pans may be set to cook food slowly or to keep food warm. [French, from Medieval Latin balneum Mariae, bath of Maria, probably after Maria, an early alchemist.] "In fact, this English method is more akin to baking in a bain-marie, because the food container is in contact with the simmering water, and devised for cooks with no oven." Geraldene Holt, Kitchenalia, Independent on Sunday, 4 Feb 1996. This week's theme: words related to eating and food. -------- Date: Fri Feb 5 00:04:26 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--brasserie X-Bonus: There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming. -Soren Kierkegaard brasserie (bras-uh-REE, bras-REE) noun A restaurant serving alcoholic beverages, especially beer, as well as food. [French, from brasser, to malt, brew, from Old French bracier, from Vulgar Latin *braciare, from Latin brace, malt, of Celtic origin.] "The interview over, we retired to a brasserie just across the street from the entrance to the Morris' courtyard." Lester Sloan, Frank Stasio, John Morris, Weekend Sunday (NPR), 4 Oct 1998. This week's theme: words related to eating and food. -------- Date: Sat Feb 6 00:04:28 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bulimarexia X-Bonus: If you can persuade your customer to tattoo your name on their chest, they probably will not switch brands. -an Indiana University professor (Re: Harley-Davidson owners) bulimarexia (byoo-lim-uh-REK-see-uh, -lee-muh-, boo-) noun An eating disorder in which one alternates between abnormal craving for and aversion to food. It is characterized by episodes of excessive food intake followed by periods of fasting and self-induced vomiting or diarrhea. Also called binge-purge syndrome, binge-vomit syndrome, bulimia nervosa. [bulim (ia) + (an)orexia.] "When I first began therapy for bulimarexia, the summer before ninth grade, my doctor's first orders to my parents were to completely back off, to keep their mouths shut and let the doctors and me take care of everything." A daughter's thank you to her father, Contemporary Women's Issues Database, 1 Jun 1993. This week's theme: words related to eating and food. -------- Date: Sun Feb 7 00:04:26 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--prandial X-Bonus: There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day. -Alexander Woollcott prandial (PRAN-dee-uhl) adjective Of or relating to a meal. [From Latin prandium, late breakfast.] "All is not leaves during the annual foliage festival in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. Indeed, the eight-day, eight-community celebration is weighted toward prandial doings." Martin Hollander, Itinerary Ideas, Newsday, 6 Sep 1998. This week's theme: words related to eating and food. -------- Date: Mon Feb 8 00:04:45 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--limpet X-Bonus: Having children makes you no more a parent than having a piano makes you a pianist. -Michael Levine [Lessons at the Halfway Point] limpet (LIM-pit) noun 1. Any of numerous marine gastropod mollusks, as of the families Acmaeidae and Patellidae, characteristically having a conical shell and adhering to rocks of tidal areas. 2. One that clings persistently. 3. A type of explosive designed to cling to the hull of a ship and detonate on contact or signal. [Possibly Middle English lempet, European limpet (sense uncertain).] "Such reforms have the best hope of success at the outset of a new administration, before vested interests have fastened their limpet grip on the new secretary-general." Brian Urquhart, The U.N.'s Crucial Choice, Foreign Policy, 1 Sep 1991. "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." These timeless words of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French author and aviator, sum up what it means to lead. How tight a ship do you run? Is your place full of scuttlebutt? Are you your organization's mainstay or just a figurehead? Enough keelhauling. Let's move on in our verbal odyssey with this week's selection of nautical words. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Feb 9 00:04:35 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--flotsam X-Bonus: Take time to come home to yourself everyday. -Robin Casarjean flotsam (FLOT-suhm) noun 1. Wreckage or cargo that remains afloat after a ship has sunk. Floating refuse or debris. 2. Discarded odds and ends. 3. Vagrant, usually destitute people. [Anglo-Norman floteson, from Old French floter, to float, of Germanic origin.] "Blaustein's office at Rutgers University in Camden, N.J., where he teaches law, is stacked with fat volumes of far-flung national charters, as well as the flotsam of a globe-hopping life: hundreds of do-not-disturb doorknob signs, matchbooks, ballpoint pens, luggage tags ... " Section II Quirks & Quacks in Trivial Pursuit of Constitutional Oddities, Life, 31 Aug 1987. This week's theme: nautical words. -------- Date: Wed Feb 10 00:04:25 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--jetsam X-Bonus: If I try to be like him, who will be like me? -Yiddish proverb jetsam (JET-suhm) noun 1. Cargo or equipment thrown overboard to lighten a ship in distress. 2. Discarded cargo or equipment found washed ashore. 3. Discarded odds and ends. [From earlier jetson, alteration of Middle English jetteson, a throwing overboard.] "Stray asteroids and interplanetary jetsam are unlikely to daunt the architects of the international space station, due now to be launched in 1998. Such extra-terrestrial shrapnel will seem mild after the bombardment it has been subjected to on the ground. America's Congress has made 16 attempts to kill the project since Ronald Reagan unveiled it in 1984 (at an estimated cost of a mere $8 billion). Congress's General Accounting Office now believes that the station will swallow up $94 billion by the end of its life." No free launch, The Economist, 27 Jan 1996. This week's theme: nautical words. -------- Date: Thu Feb 11 00:04:31 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--jettison X-Bonus: A + B + C = Success if, A = Hard Work, B = Hard Play, C = Keeping your mouth shut. -Albert Einstein jettison (JET-i-suhn, -zuhn) tr.verb 1. To cast overboard or off 2. Informal. To discard (something) as unwanted or burdensome noun 1. The act of discarding or casting overboard. 2. Jetsam. [From Middle English jetteson, a throwing overboard of goods to lighten ship, from Anglo-Norman getteson, from Vulgar Latin *iectatio, iectation-, from *iectatus, past participle of -iectare, to throw.] "One unexpected result came from the seismic experiment recording the impact of Intrepid on the surface after we had jettisoned it. The entire Moon rang like a gong, vibrating and resonating for almost on hour after the impact." Cortwright, Edgar M., Apollo Expeditions To The Moon, By C.Conrad,Jr./ A.B.Shepard, Jr., U.S. History, 1 Sep 1990. This week's theme: nautical words. -------- Date: Fri Feb 12 00:04:25 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--scupper X-Bonus: Is not every man a student, and do not all things exist for the student's behoof? -Ralph Waldo Emerson scupper (SKUP-uhr) noun 1. An opening in the side of a ship at deck level to allow water to run off. 2. An opening for draining off water, as from a floor or the roof of a building. [Middle English scoper akin to possibly akin to scope, scoop.] "Roof life and effectiveness are prolonged by clean drains, water-tight flashing, scuppers to relieve overworked drains following downpours and controlled numbers of perforations." Jenny King, Out of sight, but not out of mind, Shopping Center World, 1 Aug 1998. This week's theme: nautical words. -------- Date: Sat Feb 13 00:04:27 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--rostrum X-Bonus: Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it, anything but live for it. -Charles Caleb Cotton rostrum (ROS-truhm, RO-struhm) noun 1. A dais, pulpit, or other elevated platform for public speaking. 2. The curved, beaklike prow of an ancient Roman ship, especially a war galley. The speaker's platform in an ancient Roman forum, which was decorated with the prows of captured enemy ships. 3. Biology. A beaklike or snoutlike projection. [Latin rostrum, beak.] "His predecessor Li Peng congratulated him on the rostrum, but it could not have failed to register that about 11 per cent of delegates opposed his 1993 election as premier ... " Carmen Cheung and Fong Tak-ho, Zhu sails in as law chief snubbed, Hong Kong Standard, 18 Mar 1998. This week's theme: nautical words. -------- Date: Sun Feb 14 00:04:28 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--landlubber X-Bonus: Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. -Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) landlubber (LAND-lub-uhr) noun A person unfamiliar with the sea or seamanship. "In February 1946, when Bombay, that super-epic motion picture of a city, was transformed overnight into a motionless tableau by the great naval and landlubber strikes, when ships did not sail, steel was not milled, textile looms neither warped nor woofed, and in the movie studios there was neither turnover nor cut ... " Salman Rushdie, The Moor's Last Sigh, The World & I, 1 May 1996. This week's theme: nautical words. -------- Date: Mon Feb 15 00:04:36 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cognate X-Bonus: When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness. -Joseph Campbell cognate (KOG-nayt) adjective 1. Related by blood; having a common ancestor. 2. Related in origin, as certain words in genetically related languages descended from the same ancestral root; for example, English name and Latin nomen from Indo-European no-men-. 3. Related or analogous in nature, character, or function. cognate noun 1. One related by blood or origin with another, especially a person sharing an ancestor with another. 2. A word related to one in another language. [Latin cognatus : co- + gnatus, born, past participle of nasci, to be born.] "...one thing languages do over time is get rid of old words and replace them with new ones. Take the word for fire. In most Germanic languages, Ringe says the various words are all cognate, they all share a common ancestor." The Evolution of Linguists Through Computers, Weekend Edition - Sunday (NPR), 10 Mar 1996. "Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them." With these powerful words from Nathaniel Hawthorne as preface, this week let's look at some words about words. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Feb 16 00:04:23 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--verbalism X-Bonus: Mistakes live in the neighbourhood of truth and therefore delude us. -Rabindranath Tagore, poet (1861-1941) verbalism (VUR-buh-liz-uhm) noun 1. An expression in words; a word or phrase. The manner in which something is phrased; wording. 2. A wordy phrase or sentence that has little meaning. 3. Abundant use of words without conveying much meaning. "Crimes against women were attacked at the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action in June 1993 with 160 countries and countless non-governmental organizations demanding not mere vitriolic verbalism but effective action to make gender justice a living reality." Iyer, V.R. Krishna, Witanage, Susie, In the Court of Women II-Asia Tribunal on Women's Human Rights in Tokyo, Contemporary Women's Issues Database, 12 Mar 1994. This week's theme: words about words. -------- Date: Wed Feb 17 00:04:27 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--homograph X-Bonus: Poor animals! How zealously they guard their pathetic bodies.. that which to us is merely an evening's meal, but to them is life itself. -T. Casey Brennan homograph (HOM-uh-graf, HOA-muh-) noun One of two or more words that have the same spelling but differ in origin, meaning, and sometimes pronunciation. "Whatever system is chosen, one must allow for homographs in some rational manner. DJPA uses an alphabetic arrangement; homographs are ordered by part of speech, and are numerically distinguished only when both the part of speech and consonantal orthography are identical." Kaufmann, Stephen A., Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic. (book reviews), The Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1 Apr 1994. This week's theme: words about words. -------- Date: Thu Feb 18 00:04:26 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--verbalist X-Bonus: Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority. -Thomas Huxley (1825-1895) verbalist (VUR-buh-list) noun 1. One skilled in the use of words. 2. One who favors words over ideas or substance. "Though not the most skilled verbalist on the mike. Pac forcefully spoke words of substance and wisdom with each breath." Dwayne Nelson, A Black `Soulja's Story': Tupac's Life And Death, New Pittsburgh Courier, 27 Nov 1996. This week's theme: words about words. -------- Date: Fri Feb 19 00:04:29 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--epigraph X-Bonus: Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing. -Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968) epigraph (EP-i-graf) noun 1. An inscription, as on a statue or building. 2. A motto or quotation, as at the beginning of a literary composition, setting forth a theme. [Greek epigraphe, from epigraphein, to write on.] "The collection's epigraph is a remark by Alexander Calder, the 20th-century sculptor famous for inventing the mobile." David Herd, Going down but not under, Independent on Sunday, 6 Oct 1996. This week's theme: words about words. -------- Date: Sat Feb 20 00:04:26 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--kenning X-Bonus: Those who give you a serpent when you ask for a fish, may have nothing but serpents to give. It is then generosity on their part. -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam] kenning (KEN-ing) noun A figurative, usually compound expression used in place of a name or noun, especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry; for example, storm of swords is a kenning for battle. [Old Norse, from kenna, to know, to name with a kenning.] "... No queenly way for woman to practise, though peerless she, that the weaver-of-peace*3 from warrior dear by wrath and lying his life should reave! ... [Footnote 3: Kenning for `wife.']" Traditional, Beowulf: Part XXVI, (Translation: Gummere, Francis B.) Great Works of Literature, 1 Jan 1992. This week's theme: words about words. -------- Date: Sun Feb 21 00:04:23 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--logograph X-Bonus: It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear. -Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) logograph (LO-guh-graf, LOG-uh-) noun A written symbol representing an entire spoken word without expressing its pronunciation; for example, for 4 read "four" in English, "quattro" in Italian. Also called ideogram, logogram. "We also chose such simple characters in order to reduce the difference in visual complexity between the logographs and lower-case letters." Green, David W., et al, Are visual search procedures adapted to the nature of the script?, British Journal of Psychology, 1 May 1996. This week's theme: words about words. -------- Date: Mon Feb 22 00:04:44 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--picayune X-Bonus: If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this. -Spencer Silver, the originator of Post-it Notepads picayune (pik-uh-YOON) adjective 1. Of little value or importance; paltry. 2. Petty; mean. picayune noun 1. A Spanish-American half-real piece formerly used in parts of the southern United States. 2. A five-cent piece. 3. Something of very little value; a trifle. [Louisiana French picaillon, small coin, from French, from Provencal picaioun, from picaio, money, perhaps from Old Provencal piquar, to jingle, clink, from Vulgar Latin *piccare, to pierce.] "One could criticize the book as having a progovernment bias, but such criticism would be picayune and, I believe, wrong." Hawley, F. Frederick, Terrorism in America: Pipe Bombs and Pipe Dreams. (book reviews), Social Forces, 1 Mar 1995. "Well, it is not supposed to be good form these days to dwell on the picayune personal problems, especially of Republicans, but, you know, I've never been much for form. So, of the speaker, Gingrich's three recent personal problems - his mother, his historian and his book - the book is potentially, I think, the most serious." Schorr - Reality Sets in for New Congress, Weekend Edition - Saturday NPR, 14 Jan 1995. While Times, Journal, Post, Reporter, News, Voice, etc., are common as the names of newspapers, there are many papers with rather offbeat words in their names such as Crier, Bee, Pennysaver, and Reflector. (Q: What happens when the "Daily Reflector" and the "Sun News" decide to merge? A: You get the "Daily News," and a sun reflector). This week, we have selected words from the names of newspapers you read every day and will tell you what they really mean. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Feb 23 00:04:23 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--excelsior X-Bonus: Our sincerest laughter \ With some pain is fraught; \ Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. -Shelley excelsior (ik-SEL-see-uhr) noun Slender, curved wood shavings used especially for packing. [Originally a trade name.] "In a glint of needle light, of grass seeds, dew flecks, a friend is throwing her voice while far inside a grainy heaven a butcher's apron ripples its dried blood in the wind. The bark strippings, excelsior, the panicles of the garden. In the midst of summer a friend cuts greens and places them in a bowl as if they were fronds. A friend is a vinegar - and now, pearl-shaped, in clusters, faces among her face, A globes rise on the lawn, each above a root of recriminations." Upton, Lee, Garden solstice, The Antioch Review, 1 Jun 1996. This week's theme: Words from the names of newspapers. One may wonder why a newspaper (and other entities such as hotels and the State of New York, which has the word on its official seal) would want to describe their assets as excelsior. Excelsior is commonly used to mean `higher', the comparative degree of the Latin word excelsus, high. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, excelsior was "used by Longfellow (quasi-int. as an expression of incessant aspiration after higher attainment) as the refrain of a popular poem; hence employed with similar sense by many later writers ... The adverbial meaning (= `upwards') commonly given to the motto cannot be justified by Latin grammar. According to S. Longfellow _Life H. W. Longfellow_ I. 384, the poet was at first unaware of the solecism in the motto as thus interpreted, and when it was pointed out to him suggested that the word might be taken to stand for Scopus meus excelsior est, `My goal is higher.' It is not clear whether the original use on the (NY) seal is a blunder, or whether it was meant as an abbreviation for some grammatically admissible phrase." Several of you have asked for some examples of newspapers that use the day's word in their names. Yesterday's word, Picayune, appears in the names of "The Times-Picayune", New Orleans, and the "Westlake Picayune", Texas. Some newspapers that use today's word are the "Daily Excelsior", India and the "Excelsior", Mexico. -Anu -------- Date: Wed Feb 24 00:14:19 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--beacon X-Bonus: Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty. -Stanislaw J. Lec beacon (BEE-kuhn) noun 1. A signaling or guiding device, such as a lighthouse, located on a coast. 2. A radio transmitter that emits a characteristic guidance signal for aircraft. 3. A source of guidance or inspiration. 4. A signal fire, especially one used to warn of an enemy's approach. verb tr. To provide with or shine as a beacon. [Middle English beken, from Old English beacen.] "As well, environmentalists are concerned that the proposed array of beacons could entice animals from winter hibernation and cause flowers to bloom prematurely." Peter Calamai, Space mirror not just a flashy idea, The Toronto Star, 3 Feb 1999. "Shortly after my mother died, I saw a white sparrow on the lawn at a relative's house. I had never seen a white sparrow; nor have I since... I wanted the sparrow to be some beacon of hope, a quiet nod between two old friends. " Taylor, Angela E, Silences Between Mothers and Daughters, Contemporary Women's Issues Database, 1 Nov 1998. This week's theme: Words from the names of newspapers. (Some newspapers that use today's word in their names are the Akron Beacon-Journal, Ohio and the Beacon News, Aurora, Illinois.) -------- Date: Thu Feb 25 00:04:24 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--repository X-Bonus: Make me, oh God, the prey of the lion, ere You make the rabbit my prey. -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam] repository (ri-POZ-i-tor-ee, -tore-ee) noun 1. A place where things may be put for safekeeping. 2. A warehouse. 3. A museum. 4. A burial vault; a tomb. 5. One that contains or is a store of something specified. 6. One who is entrusted with secrets or confidential information. [Latin reponere, reposit- : re- + ponere, to place.] "Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a $190 million project begun by UNESCO in the late 1980s and recently put entirely in the care of the Egyptian government, is now under rapid construction and is expected to be officially inaugurated in the fall of 1999. It promises to be a major repository of both printed books and of high-technology informationas well as a training center for the entire Mediterranean region. Raymond Stock, Alexandrina Rises, Egypt Today, 13 Feb 1998. This week's theme: Words from the names of newspapers. (Example: The Repository of Canton, Ohio.) -------- Date: Fri Feb 26 00:04:31 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--tribune X-Bonus: In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place. -Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) tribune (TRIB-yoon, tri-BYOON) noun 1. An officer of ancient Rome elected by the plebeians to protect their rights from arbitrary acts of the patrician magistrates. 2. A protector or champion of the people. [Middle English, from Old French tribun, from Latin tribunus, from tribus, tribe.] tribune noun A raised platform or dais from which a speaker addresses an assembly. [French, from Old French, part of a church, speaking platform, from Old Italian tribuna, from Medieval Latin tribuna, alteration of Latin tribunal.] "Cola di Rienzi became the champion of the people and tried to revive the ancient Roman institutions, as envisaged also by Petrarch and Dante; in 1347 he was made tribune, but his dreams were doomed." Rome, city, Italy, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, 1 Jan 1993. This week's theme: Words from the names of newspapers. (Examples: The Albuquerque Tribune, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.) -------- Date: Sat Feb 27 00:04:26 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sentinel X-Bonus: The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. -Dorothy Nevill sentinel (SEN-tuh-nuhl) noun One that keeps guard; a sentry. verb tr. 1. To watch over as a guard. 2. To provide with a guard. 3. To post as a guard. [French sentinelle, from Italian sentinella, probably from Old Italian sentina, vigilance, from sentire, to watch, from Latin sentire, to feel.] "What is the Citadel? Sir, it is a fortress of duty, a sentinel of responsibility, a bastion of antiquity, a towering bulwark of rigid discipline, instilling within us high ideals, honor, uprightness, loyalty, patriotism, obedience, initiative, leadership, professional knowledge and pride in achievement -- from the school handbook." Rick Reilly, What is the Citadel?, Sports Illustrated, 14 Sep 1992. This week's theme: Words from the names of newspapers. (Example: The Orlando Sentinel, Florida.) -------- Date: Sun Feb 28 00:04:22 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--laconic X-Bonus: Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play. -Heraclitus, Greek philosopher (500 BCE) laconic (luh-KON-ik) adjective Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise. [Latin Laconicus, Spartan, from Greek Lakonikos, from Lakon, a Spartan (from the reputation of the Spartans for brevity of speech).] WORD HISTORY: As the study of the classics has disappeared from the curriculum, so has the ready understanding that terms such as laconic once possessed. Laconic, which comes to us via Latin from Greek Lakonikos, is first recorded in 1583 with the sense "of or relating to Laconia or its inhabitantsb" Lakonikos is derived from Lakon, "a Laconian, a person from Lakedaimon," the name for the region of Greece of which Sparta was the capital. The Spartans, noted for being warlike and disciplined, were also known for the brevity of their speech, and it is this quality that English writers still denote by the use of the adjective laconic, which is first found in this sense in 1589. "A studied cool prevails, the athletes communicating through laconic signals, minimalist gestures, and misdirected glances." Brant, John, Sights set on Sydney, Runner's World, 1 Sep 1998. This week's theme: Words from the names of newspapers. (Example: The Standard Laconic, Snow Hill, North Carolina.)