A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Thu Apr 1 00:01:15 EST 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gadzookery X-Bonus: Marriage: a book of which the first chapter is written in poetry and the remaining chapters written in prose. -Beverly Nichols, author gadzookery (gad-ZOO-kuh-ree) noun Use of archaic words or expressions, e.g. wight (a human being), prithee (I pray thee), ye (you). [Apparently from gadzooks, once used as a mild oath, which may have been an alteration of God's hooks, a reference to the nails of Christ's crucifixion.] "Why does a novelist turn to history? Commonly it is for a new wealth of verifiable particulars, a ready supply of the circumstantial details that promise to make fiction probable. Rose Tremain followed this track for her commercially and critically successful novel, Restoration, a book full of the quirks and ruffles of a half-familiar past. There was, however, more than a hint of gadzookery about it." John Mullan; Life's Small Lendings; The Guardian (London, UK); May 3, 2003. "She (Georgette Heyer) wanted to write more serious historical novels. Unfortunately the books she wrote outside her period have a tendency towards the gadzookery of Baroness Orczy." The Romantic Novels of Georgette Heyer; BBC (London, UK); May 17, 2002. This week's theme: unusual words. -------- Date: Fri Apr 2 00:01:09 EST 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--petrichor X-Bonus: At bottom, every man knows perfectly well that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time. -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900) petrichor (PET-ri-kuhr) noun The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell. [From petro- (rock), from Greek petros (stone) + ichor (the fluid that is supposed to flow in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology). Coined by researchers I.J. Bear and R.G. Thomas.] "Petrichor, the name for the smell of rain on dry ground, is from oils given off by vegetation, absorbed onto neighboring surfaces, and released into the air after a first rain." Matthew Bettelheim; Nature's Laboratory; Shasta Parent (Mt Shasta, California); Jan 2002. "But, even in the other pieces, her prose breaks into passages of lyrical beauty that come as a sorely needed revivifying petrichor amid the pitiless glare of callousness and cruelty." Pradip Bhattacharya; Forest Interludes; Indianest.com; Jul 29, 2001. This week's theme: unusual words. -------- Date: Mon Apr 5 00:01:08 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--amicus curiae X-Bonus: The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second. -John Steinbeck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1902-1968) amicus curiae (uh-MY-kuhs KYOOR-ee-ee, uh-MI-kuhs KYOOR-ee-i) noun plural amici curiae A person or group, not party to a particular litigation, but permitted by the court to advise it on the matter related to the case. [From Latin, literally friend of the court, from amicus (friend) + curiae, from curia (court).] "Former attorney general Mahmudul Islam, appearing as amicus curiae to assist the court, submitted that the earlier remarks of the IGP against a sitting High Court judge were tantamount to contempt of court." IGP Sorry For Contemptuous Remarks About Judge; The Daily Star (Dhaka, Bangladesh); Jan 21, 2004. "FairTest and other groups argued in amicus curiae briefs that any decision relying heavily on the ACT or the SAT as a valid admissions factor would be wrong." Jay Mathews; The Bias Question; The Atlantic Monthly (Boston, Massachusetts); Nov 2003. "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." While there's truth in Plato's words, most of us fall somewhere between good and bad. And for people in that spectrum, laws serve as good deterrents. Like any other profession, the world of law has its own jargon. Even though legal terms may seem designed to keep lay persons in the dark so that the lawyers can charge hefty fees, there's a need for them. In a field where a single word can make a world of difference, a succinct, and more importantly, unambiguous vocabulary is essential. May you never have to consult a lawyer (or a barrister, solicitor, attorney, advocate, or whatever they are called in your land), but it's good to know some of the legal jargon. This week we summons five of these terms to AWAD. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) -------- Date: Tue Apr 6 00:01:10 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--nisi X-Bonus: To the complaint, 'There are no people in these photographs,' I respond, 'There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.' -Ansel Adams, photographer (1902-1984) nisi (NY-sy, NEE-see) adjective Not yet final, taking effect at a later date unless invalidated by a certain cause. The word usually appears in forms such as "decree nisi", "order nisi". [From Latin nisi (unless, if not), from ne- (not) + si (if).] A Latin injunction that uses this term is: De mortuis nil nisi bonum (Say nothing but good of the dead). "The following divorces were granted decree nisi on December 19, 2003." Divorces Granted; The Royal Gazette (Bermuda); Jan 25, 2004. This week's theme: words from law. -------- Date: Wed Apr 7 00:01:17 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--embracery X-Bonus: Growth in wisdom can be measured precisely by decline in bile. -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900) embracery (em-BRAY-suh-ree) noun, also imbracery. An attempt to influence a jury illegally as by bribery, threats, or promises. One guilty of embracery is known as an embraceor. [From Middle English embracerie, ultimately from em- + brace (the two arms).] "A Columbia County man pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge of embracery, an illegal attempt to influence a juror, in his drunken-driving trial." Mayor's Bucks Back Skyfest; Augusta Chronicle (Georgia); Sep 27, 2002. "Further, every night the non-sequestered civil jury went home where they were exposed to the local and nationally syndicated radio and television talk shows and also the Los Angeles Times... is a form of embracery, the act of attempting to influence a juror or jury in its most high-tech form." Dennis Schatzman; Race, Media, American Law and O.J. Simpson; Sentinel (Los Angeles, California); Apr 30, 1997. This week's theme: words from law. -------- Date: Thu Apr 8 00:01:13 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--champerty X-Bonus: Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. -Joseph Addison, writer (1672-1719) champerty (CHAM-puhr-tee) noun Aiding in a lawsuit in return for a share in the proceeds. [From Middle English champartie, from Middle French champart (part of the field: a feudal lord's share of his tenant's crop), from champ (field), from Latin campus (field) + part.] A related term is barratry, the stirring up of baseless lawsuits. "Champerty, which is illegal in many, but not all, states, occurs when someone helps pay the costs of someone else's lawsuit in exchange for a share of any proceeds." Wade Lambert and Arthur S Hayes; Investing in Patents to File Suits is Curbed; The Wall Street Journal (New York); May 30, 1990. "Maconochie had been using a British Virgin Islands company called North-South to raise money to take on the bank without breaching the rule of champerty and maintenance. This bans individuals from seeking outside financial help to finance their cases." Mark Westfield; Mac Attack to Tap Backers; The Australian (Sydney); Sep 22, 2000. This week's theme: words from law. -------- Date: Fri Apr 9 00:31:08 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bright-line X-Bonus: One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time. -Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (1934-1996) bright-line (bryt-lyn) noun, adjective An unambiguous criterion on some issue. For example, what gift would be considered acceptable to an office-holder versus what would amount to bribery? In this hypothetical case, the bright-line might be the value of the gift, say $20 or below is legal but above that one must return it. [Apparently from spectrography. A bright-line spectrum has distinct bright lines as contrasted with a continuous spectrum which has a continuous band of frequencies.] "If the court establishes a bright-line rule barring police from forcing such disclosures, it will highlight a new focus by the justices on individual liberty." Warren Richey; If Police Ask Who You Are, Do You Have to Say?; The Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts); Mar 22, 2004. "There is no bright line, in Starr's account, between 'news' (good) and 'entertainment' (bad)." Nicholas Lemann; Spheres of Influence; New Yorker; Apr 12, 2004. This week's theme: words from law. -------- Date: Mon Apr 12 00:01:10 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--chuffed X-Bonus: There is pleasure in the pathless woods, / There is rapture in the lonely shore, / There is society where none intrudes, / By the deep sea, and music in its roar: / I love not man the less, but nature more. -Lord Byron, poet (1788-1824) chuffed (chuft) adjective Pleased; satisfied. [From English dialect chuff (pleased, puffed, swollen with pride).] Displeased; annoyed. [From chuff (boor, churl), from Middle English chuffe.] "And she was a little chuffed at Elliot's infamous plug for Harvie's SBS screening while accepting his Oscar on stage in Los Angeles." When Oscar Met Harvie; Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia); Mar 12, 2004. "The former England midfielder told Sky Sports News, 'We should not have been here, we should have won the game at our place but we're here, we've done well and I'm just chuffed to bits.'" Millwall Down Tranmere to Set Up Clash With Sunderland in Semi; The Star (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia); Mar 18, 2004. I call them fence-sitters. They sit on the fences, ready to say one thing or its opposite, depending on which side they appear. I'm not talking about politicians. These are words, known by many names: autoantonym, antagonym, contranym, enantiodromic, amphibolous, Janus word, and so on. To cleave is to cling or to split? Ravel is to tangle or to untangle? When you sanction a project, do you approve or disapprove of it? When a proposal is tabled, is it being brought forward for discussion or being laid aside? In this case, it depends on which side of the Atlantic you live. It's the former in UK, the latter in the US. Should one be commended for oversight (watchful care) or reprimanded for oversight (error or omission)? When you resign from a job, do you leave it or re-join (re-sign!) it? (OK, that last one was a stretch.) Sometimes it's a result of two distinct words evolving into the same form (cleave from Old English cleofian and cleofan) but often a single word develops a split personality and takes on two contradictory senses. All of us have a bit of yin and yang and these words are no exception. The context usually provides a clue to help us understand the right sense in a given place. Look for more such words in AWAD this week. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) -------- Date: Tue Apr 13 00:01:13 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sententious X-Bonus: What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul. -Joseph Addison, essayist and poet (1672-1719) sententious (sen-TEN-shuhs) adjective 1. Full of pithy expressions. 2. Full of pompous moralizing. [From Middle English, from Latin sententiosus (full of meaning), from sententia (opinion), from sentire (to feel or to have an opinion). Some other words derived from the same root are: sense, sentence, sentiment, sentinel, assent, consent, dissent, resent.] "I enjoyed every glowing frame of the leisurely trip, which is punctuated by sententious epigrams. ('Lies are dreams caught red-handed,' or 'Marriage is the perfect murder of love.')" Joe Morgenstern; Film Review; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Aug 1, 2003. "But 'The Reckoning,' like a great many medieval melodramas before it, is a talky, sententious affair." A.O. Scott; Seeking Human Truths Through the Stage; The New York Times; Mar 5, 2004. This week's theme: contranyms, words with opposite meanings. -------- Date: Wed Apr 14 00:01:08 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--endsville X-Bonus: The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts. -Edmund Burke, statesman and writer (1729-1797) endsville (ENDZ-vil) adjective, noun 1. Most excellent or the best. 2. Most undesirable; the end. [From end + -ville (place, city).] "'To have peace in yourself - that must be the greatest thing in the world,' he said soberly. 'That is what I am looking for. To me that is the greatest thing in living. It is Endsville itself.'" Hal Boyle; La Rosa Hopes to Launch Own Television Program; Zanesville Signal (Ohio); Oct 19, 1954. "'Once they start involving the cattle grounds and building networks of roads it will be Endsville for the caribou,' he warns." Darcy Henton; Diamond Fever Gripping N.W.T. Amid Enthusiasm Comes Concern Over Environment, Land Claims; Toronto Star (Canada); Mar 31, 1996. This week's theme: contranyms, words with opposite meanings. -------- Date: Thu Apr 15 00:01:09 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--excrescence X-Bonus: Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right. -Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992) excrescence (ik-SKRES-uhns) noun 1. An abnormal outgrowth, e.g. wart. 2. A normal outgrowth, e.g. hair or nail. 3. An unwanted, unnecessary, or disfiguring extension or addition. [From Middle English, from Latin excrescentia, from excrescent- (stem of excrescens), present participle of excrescere (to grow out), from ex- (out), + crescere (to grow). Other derivatives from the same Latin root are crew, crescendo, crescent, accrue, concrete, decrease, increase, recruit.] "We opined in these columns three weeks ago that the Rainbow Alliance is an excrescence in the ruling party and will not fly as an idea inside Kanu, only out of it." Mathayo Ndekere; A New Ball Game As Saitoti is Off-Loaded; The East African Standard (Nairobi, Kenya); Sep 1, 2002. "When it is erected next fall at Michigan and Wacker Drive as part of the rebuilding of Michigan Avenue south of the Chicago River, this florid excrescence will be 75 feet tall, with a stylized version of the four-star Chicago flag draped from its crossbar." Blair Kamin; Boul Mich Pylon Plan Reason to Hoist Warning Flags; Chicago Tribune; May 1, 1997. This week's theme: contranyms, words with opposite meanings. -------- Date: Fri Apr 16 00:01:10 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--simon-pure X-Bonus: Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955) simon-pure (SY-muhn PYOOR) adjective 1. Genuinely pure; also used to describe an amateur as opposed to a professional. 2. Pretentiously or hypocritically virtuous. [From the phrase the real Simon Pure, after a character named Simon Pure who was impersonated by another in the play A Bold Stroke for a Wife, by Susannah Centlivre (1669-1723).] "We get some perverse joy in pulling all but the most simon-pure heroes back into the muck with us." Bruce Dowbiggin; Bailey-bashing Fashionable, But Undeserved; Calgary Herald (Canada); May 28, 2001. "Those of us who live Simon-pure lives don't like to admit it, but most of us turn out pretty well only because we were born with the advantage of a normal home life and a reasonably happy childhood." Bill Hughes; Why I Oppose The Death Penalty; Oakland Post (California); Mar 2, 1994. This week's theme: contranyms, words with opposite meanings. -------- Date: Mon Apr 19 00:01:31 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--drawcansir X-Bonus: The highest exercise of charity is charity towards the uncharitable. -J.S. Buckminster, clergyman and editor (1784-1812) drawcansir (draw-CAN-suhr) noun A blustering, bragging bully. [From the name of a character in the play The Rehearsal (1671) by George Villiers (1628-1687), 2nd Duke of Buckingham. The character was apparently named for his potvaliant tendencies: Draw can (of liquor). The play was a satire on poet John Dryden's inflated tragedies and the character Drawcansir was modeled as a parody of Almanzor in Dryden's Conquest of Granada. Dryden in turn lampooned Villiers in a passage in his poem Absalom and Achitophel (1681).] "Drawcansir rakes and Tunbelly Clumseys alike become, to progressive eyes, inadmissible relics of a barbaric past." Roy Porter; The Culture of Sensibility; Journal of Social History; (Fairfax, Virginia); Jun 1995. "The arrogant nephew and his two drawcansir uncles appeared ..." Washington Irving; The Widow's Tale; Defiance Democrat (Ohio); Oct 13, 1855. Eponyms -- AWAD's perennial favorites -- make their appearance once again. We've had 38 weeks of them over the last 10 years. Eponyms are words derived from people's names. There is a reason for their popularity: where else can you find a whole story in just one word? This week's selection features words named after people famous and infamous, real and fictional, well-known and relatively obscure. We'll see words derived from characters in Greek mythology, French royalty, US law, and English fiction. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) -------- Date: Tue Apr 20 00:01:10 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--thersitical X-Bonus: I'm proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money. -Arthur Godfrey, television host, entertainer (1903-1983) thersitical (thur-SIT-i-kuhl) adjective Foulmouthed; scurrilous. [After Thersites, a Greek in Iliad known for his abusive and foulmouthed nature. He called Agamemnon greedy and Achilles a coward.] "The self-described beneficiaries of most of this I.Q. increase, Princeton's 'Smart Fans,' have railed at season's end against thersitical cheers and jouncing the stands at basketball games." Bullyrag; The Princeton Spectator (New Jersey); Mar 3, 1998. "To conclude, after the fashion of our Thersitical Magazinist, Mr. Poe is about 39. He may be more or less." Hiram Fuller; Mr Poe and the New York Literati; Evening Mirror (New York); May 26, 1846. This week's theme: eponyms. -------- Date: Wed Apr 21 03:24:08 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--antaean X-Bonus: In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642) antaean (an-TEE-uhn) adjective 1. Very large. 2. Having extraordinary strength. [After Antaeus, a giant in Greek mythology. The son of Gaia and Poseidon, he challenged all who came across him to wrestle. He invariably won, because he received strength from his mother, the earth, as long as he was in touch with her. Hercules discovered his secret, lifted him off the ground, and crushed him.] "The former a rich pastry of layered filo and custard and both will be among the array of Greek cuisine prepared in Antaean-proportioned quantities ..." Rodney Bosch; Letting the Good Times Roll; Los Angeles Times; Aug 16, 2001. This week's theme: eponyms. -------- Date: Thu Apr 22 00:01:06 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mirandize X-Bonus: When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings. -William Clifford Roberts, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The American Journal of Cardiology Mirandize (muh-RAN-dyz) verb tr. To advise (a person under arrest) of his or her legal rights, such as the right to remain silent under questioning, right to legal counsel, etc. [After Ernesto A. Miranda (1941-1976).] To Mirandize is to read someone his or her Miranda Rights or give that person a Miranda warning. Ernesto A. Miranda's conviction was thrown out by the US Supreme Court in 1966 after the Court, in the case Miranda v. Arizona, determined that he had confessed without having been told of his right to remain silent under questioning. The landmark ruling upheld the right against self-incrimination as guaranteed in the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. Miranda's story has an ironical ending. He was later stabbed to death. Police arrested a suspect who chose to remain silent after having been read his Miranda rights. No one was ever convicted. "(Attorneys) worked to prove that detectives weren't required to Mirandize or inform (Kobe) Bryant of the warrants or the surreptitious recording because the law enforcement personnel never formally took Bryant into custody." Marcia C. Smith; Bryant Defense Targets Early Actions by Police; San Jose Mercury News (California); Feb 4, 2004. "Says Lawrence Korb, a former Reagan Assistant Defense Secretary: `We train them (soldiers) to vaporize, not Mirandize.'" Matthew Miller; Nation/Campaign '96; Time (New York); Mar 4, 1996. This week's theme: eponyms. -------- Date: Fri Apr 23 00:01:15 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--pompadour X-Bonus: Home is not where you live but where they understand you. -Christion Morgenstern, writer (1871-1914) pompadour (POM-puh-dor) noun A hairstyle where the hair at the front is brushed up into a mound or a roll, above the forehead. Also known as quiff. [After the Marquise de Pompadour, the title of Jeanne Antoinette Poisson (1721-1764), mistress of Louis XV of France, who popularized the style.] Elvis Presley had a pompadour, so does Kim Jong Il. "Gil, who added extra colour with his pompadour hairpieces and red suits, was in sixth and last spot in voter surveys." Anti-Arroyo Pact Falls Through in Philippines; Manila Bulletin (Philippines); Mar 16, 2004. "The bridegroom wears a Hawaiian shirt. The bride is wearing a tasteful cream-colored suit. The celebrant is wearing an iridescent blue sports coat and sunglasses; his hair is combed into a pompadour." Jane Glenn Haas; Sin City is Also the Wedding Capital of the World; Seattle Times; Feb 18, 2004. This week's theme: eponyms. -------- Date: Mon Apr 26 00:29:07 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gregarious X-Bonus: Money may be the husk of many things but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty; days of joy, but not peace or happiness. (Author Unknown, but often misattributed to Henrik Ibsen) gregarious (gri-GAIR-ee-uhs) adjective 1. Enjoying the company of others; sociable. 2. (Of plants) growing together in clusters, but not matted. 3. (Of animals) living in groups. [From Latin gregarius (belonging to a flock), from greg- (stem of grex-). Ultimately from Indo-European root ger- (to gather) which is also the source of such words as aggregate, congregation, egregious, and segregate.] "Gregarious to the point of effervescence, at one point he (Gary Shteyngart) even tries to talk this reporter into moving to Vietnam, or possibly Moscow." Evan Rail; Return of the Emigre; The Prague Post (Czech Republic); Apr 1, 2004. "Also when you see masses of animals get together, it's impressive -- whether you're looking at people in downtown Manhattan or at herds of walruses. They touch a lot. They're gregarious and social. In that way, there are a lot of human comparisons." Brian Handwerk; Filmmaker on Shooting Walruses Underwater; National Geographic (Washington, DC); Apr 2, 2004. AWAD subscribers read this newsletter for many different reasons. For some, it's the joy of learning fascinating stories of the origins of words or their etymologies. For others, it's discovering unusual words, whether it's their meanings or sounds or spelling. Many, especially students, read it to improve their vocabulary for one of the many standardized tests or for personal enrichment. Those readers sometimes write back to say, "OK, so this word petrichor is interesting, but I'd like to see words that I can use more often in my daily life." Each word featured in AWAD includes examples taken from newspapers, magazines, and books to illustrate it and to show that it has been used in the real world. Still, we take their point. This week we present words you might encounter in your next test. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) -------- Date: Tue Apr 27 03:31:07 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bedizen X-Bonus: America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. -Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1809-1865) bedizen (bi-DY-zuhn) verb tr. To dress or decorate in a showy or gaudy manner. [From be- + dizen, from [possibly Low German] disen (to put flax on a distaff for spinning), from dis- (bunch of flax).] Today's word and the word distaff share the same origin, dis- (a bunch of flax). A distaff is a staff with a cleft for holding wool, flax, etc. from which thread is drawn while being spun by hand. In olden times, spinning was considered a woman's work, so distaff figuratively referred to women. Distaff side (also spindle side) refers to the female side of a family. The corresponding male equivalent of the term is spear side (also sword side). Distaffs and spears are long gone -- what would be the modern stereotypical replacements of these terms? "When Daisy wants to bedizen herself to impress tout San Francisco, she has her servants add the crowning touch by dusting her with gold." Dennis Drabelle; Frisco Business; The Washington Post; Jan 24, 1992. "It was still basically 'Krausmeyer's Alley,' but it was a 'Krausmeyer's Alley' adorned and bedizened with reminiscences of every other burlesque-show curtain raiser and afterpiece in the repertory.' H.L. Mencken; Stare Decisis (later renamed A Bum's Christmas); New Yorker; Dec 30, 1944. This week's theme: miscellaneous words. -------- Date: Wed Apr 28 00:15:07 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--indigent X-Bonus: You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame. -Erica Jong, writer (1942- ) indigent (IN-di-juhnt) adjective Lacking necessities of life, such as food, clothing, etc.; impoverished. noun A person who is extremely poor. [From Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin indigent- (stem of indigens), present participle of indigere (to lack in), from indu (in-) + egere (to lack, to need).] "The most indigent families can't even afford to keep their children in school because they do not have the $10 per term to pay supplemental fees." Seth Kaplan; China's Boom Leaves Many Behind; International Herald Tribune (Paris, France); Mar 26, 2004. "The UPU president-general expressed delight at Marwa's decision to grant scholarships to indigent students in the region and said it was a welcome gesture." Okumagba Commends Marwa; This Day (Lagos, Nigeria); Apr 12, 2004. This week's theme: miscellaneous words. -------- Date: Thu Apr 29 00:01:11 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--contemn X-Bonus: Did you know that the worldwide food shortage that threatens up to five hundred million children could be alleviated at the cost of only one day, only ONE day, of modern warfare. -Peter Ustinov, actor, writer and director (1921-2004) contemn (kuhn-TEM) verb tr. To treat with contempt; to despise. [From Middle English contempnen, from Latin contemnere, from com- + temnere (to despise).] "Sarah's personality, after all, is almost singularly defined by her caring, symbiotic relationship with Leon and several other friends; in departing so abruptly, she seems to contemn this central dimension of her identity." Alex Raksin; The Dreams of Zoo Animals by Valmai Howe; The Los Angeles Times; May 7, 1989. "Matthew Rees explains the ins and outs of the failed coup that has left Newt Gingrich contemning Dick Armey, Tom DeLay, and John Boehner, his GOP subalterns." Scot Lehigh; Sermon on Sex; The Boston Globe; Jul 30, 1997. This week's theme: miscellaneous words. -------- Date: Fri Apr 30 00:01:09 EDT 2004 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--salutary X-Bonus: The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, and author (1872-1970) salutary (SAL-yuh-ter-ee) adjective 1. Beneficial; useful; remedial. 2. Healthful. [Via French salutaire, or directly from Latin salutaris, from salut-, stem of salus- (health). Ultimately from Indo-European root sol- (whole). A few other words derived from this root are salute, safe, salvage, solemn, and save.] "'The measures are bound to have a salutary effect. We hope that the consumers now would not have to wait for years for redressal of their grievances,' said Prabir Basu, president of Consumer Lawyers' Association." Sanjay Mandal; Forum for Consumers Cuts Red Tape; The Telegraph (Calcutta, India); Apr 11, 2004. "For the left, (Bob) Dylan is sometimes a bitter medicine, but also a salutary tonic." Mike Marqusee; Scourge of All Masters of War; The Guardian (London, UK); Oct 25, 2003. This week's theme: miscellaneous words.