A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Fri Jul 1 00:01:05 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--micawber X-Bonus: A neurosis is a secret that you don't know you're keeping. -Kenneth Tynan, critic and writer (1927-1980) This week's theme: Eponyms Micawber (mih-KAW-buhr) noun An eternal optimist. [After Wilkins Micawber, an incurable optimist in the novel David Copperfield (1850) by Charles Dickens. Earliest documented example of the word used allusively: 1852.] Mr Micawber https://wordsmith.org/words/images/micawber_large.jpg Illustration: Fred Barnard (1846-1896) "As the shadow work-and-pensions secretary, David Willetts, said yesterday, he takes the Mr Micawber approach to economics: something will turn up." Larry Elliott; Mr Micawber May Find Result Misery; The Guardian (London, UK); Nov 4, 2004. -------- Date: Mon Jul 4 00:01:07 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ravel X-Bonus: The world looks with some awe upon a man who appears unconcernedly indifferent to home, money, comfort, rank, or even power and fame. The world feels not without a certain apprehension, that here is someone outside its jurisdiction; someone before whom its allurements may be spread in vain; someone strangely enfranchised, untamed, untrammelled by convention, moving independent of the ordinary currents of human action. -Winston Churchill, politician and statesman (1874-1965) Sometimes people, even Supreme Court justices, turn to a dictionary to resolve disputes. They may believe language is something exact, well-defined, as if words were precision molded in a foundry under exact specifications. But the truth is different. Words can be vague, they may have multiple shades of meanings, and even completely opposite senses. In my mother tongue, Hindi, for instance, the word "kal" can mean both "yesterday" and "tomorrow". Is that a problem? Not at all. Context brings clarity. I have never seen anyone become confused by the use of the word -- would this meeting take place tomorrow or do I need a time machine to go back to yesterday? Sometimes, though, the contrary senses of a word can be confusing. When you table a proposal, your intention depends on what side of the pond you are on. In American English you put it on the back burner, while in British English you bring it forward. This week we've picked five such words. Each of these words has meanings as different as black and white. Call them contranyms, heteronyms, janus words, two-faced, words with split personalities, or coin your own word! ravel (RAV-uhl) verb tr. intr. 1. To fray or to become disjoined; to untangle. 2. To entangle or to become tangled. noun: A tangle or complication. [From Middle Dutch ravelen (to fray out), from ravel (loose thread). Earliest documented use: before 1540.] "Ministries like the Gathering Place always run on a shoestring. In today's economic climate, the shoestring is raveling." Helen Colwell Adams; Band Aids Booked To Benefit Patients; Sunday News (Lancaster, Pennsylvania); Apr 12, 2009. "W.B. Yeats's vision involved the notion that at any moment forces were raveling and unraveling, forming and disintegrating." Roger Cohen; The Arab Gyre; International Herald Tribune (Paris, France); Apr 26, 2011. -------- Date: Tue Jul 5 00:01:05 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--adjure X-Bonus: When you want to fool the world, tell the truth. -Otto von Bismarck, statesman (1815-1898) This week's theme: Contranyms, or words with an opposite set of meanings adjure (uh-JOOR) verb tr. 1. To command solemnly. 2. To request earnestly. [From Latin adjurare (to put under oath), from ad- (to) + jurare (to swear), from jus (law). Ultimately from the Indo-European root yewes- (law), which is also the source of jury, judge, just, injury, perjury, conjure, and de jure https://wordsmith.org/words/de_jure.html . Earliest documented use: before 1425.] "If you go to Las Vegas -- and so many do -- please pay mind to the signs in the park. They don't adjure you from feeding the pigeons. They forbid feeding the homeless." Jacquelyn Mitchard; Please Do Feed the Unsightly Homeless; Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, Wisconsin); Oct 1, 2006. "'Use Absolut,' he adjures a waiter at the restaurant." Amanda Vaill; A Story of Reckless Passion and Race; Chicago Tribune; May 25, 2003. -------- Date: Wed Jul 6 00:01:05 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--avocation X-Bonus: The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it. -Laurence Sterne, novelist and clergyman (1713-1768) This week's theme: Contranyms, or words with an opposite set of meanings avocation (av-uh-KAY-shuhn) noun 1. One's regular job or occupation. 2. An activity taken up besides the regular work; a hobby. [From Latin avocare (to call away), from a- (off, away) + vocare (to call), from vox (voice). Earliest documented use: before 1617.] Notes: Originally the word vocation was used in a religious sense, as a divine calling. If a vocation was a calling, literally speaking, an avocation was a calling away, a distraction, which could be a hobby or a diversion. Sometimes the business that calls away can be of greater importance. Over time the two opposite senses of the word avocation became muddled and now it can connote either sense depending on the context. "For librarian Maureen Sullivan, the world of libraries is much more than an avocation." James Craven; Groups to Honor Librarian; The Bulletin (Norwich, Connecticut); Jun 20, 2011. "Harley Garbani was a one-time plumber who gained unexpected renown pursuing his lifelong avocation as a fossil hunter, discovering some of the world's most significant dinosaur fossils." Dennis McLellan; Obituary; Los Angeles Times; May 1, 2011. -------- Date: Thu Jul 7 00:01:05 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--inure X-Bonus: A cult is a religion with no political power. -Tom Wolfe, author and journalist (b. 1931) This week's theme: Contranyms, or words with an opposite set of meanings inure (in-YOOR, i-NOOR) verb tr.: To accustom to something unpleasant. verb intr.: 1. To become beneficial. 2. To take effect. [From the phrase in/en ure (in use, customary), from French oeuvre (work), from Latin opera, plural of opus (work). Ultimately from the Indo-European root op- (to work, produce) that is also the ancestor of words such as opera, opulent, optimum, operose https://wordsmith.org/words/operose.html , maneuver, and manure. Earliest documented use: 1489.] NOTES: The intransitive form of the word is usually used in legal contexts and also spelled as enure. "We were never able to tell our daughter that things would get better. No amount of repetition can inure you to these things." Aleksandar Hemon; The Aquarium; The New Yorker; Jun 13, 2011. "'Jody Henderson voted on measures which he knew would inure to the special private gain of a business associate,' the commission stated." Tom McLaughlin; Trustee Will Likely be Fined for Voting Conflict; The Walton Sun (Santa Rosa Beach, Florida); May 27, 2011. -------- Date: Fri Jul 8 00:01:08 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--adumbrate X-Bonus: How far should one accept the rules of the society in which one lives? To put it another way: at what point does conformity become corruption? Only by answering such questions does the conscience truly define itself. -Kenneth Tynan, critic and writer (1927-1980) This week's theme: Contranyms, or words with an opposite set of meanings adumbrate (a-DUM-brayt, AD-uhm-brayt) verb tr. 1. To foreshadow. 2. To give a rough outline or to disclose partially. 3. To overshadow or obscure. [From Latin umbra (shade, shadow), which also gave us the words umbrella, umbrage, and somber. Earliest documented use: 1599.] "Mr Cameron should adumbrate painful decisions; he should sketch out the principles that will inform them; but he should not be drawn into spelling out what exactly they will be." Coming Clean; The Economist (London, UK); Mar 26, 2009. "To create her three-dimensional composition, Robin Osler variedly manipulated floor and ceiling planes so as to adumbrate virtual spaces." Monica Geran; Shadow Play; Interior Design (New York); Apr 2000. -------- Date: Mon Jul 11 00:01:07 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--chandler X-Bonus: It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910) Imagine life a few hundred years from now. Cars drive themselves. Faucets don't leak any more. Fire is tamed. Can you imagine people having names such as John Driver or Jane Plumber or Mary Firefighter? Would those surnames mean anything to most people? It may sound fanciful, but that's how people were named in the past. Among other things, what you did gave you a name, Baker, Gardner, Cook, and so on. Even though John Smith may be a programmer today, chances are one of his ancestors worked with metal, as a smith. This week we look at some professions from the past, most of which exist only as surnames. chandler (CHAND-luhr) noun 1. One who makes or sells candles. 2. A dealer or supplier in other goods, for example, a ship chandler. [From Latin candela (candle), from candere (to shine). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kand- (to shine) which is also the source of incense, incandescent, candid, candida, and candidate (in reference to white togas worn by Romans seeking office). Earliest documented use: 1389.] "The sisters at Deepdale were lucky to have received a request for beeswax from a chandler in York." Cassandra Clark; The Law of Angels; Minotaur Books; 2011. -------- Date: Tue Jul 12 00:00:06 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--wainwright X-Bonus: If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. -Thomas Szasz, author, professor of psychiatry (b. 1920) This week's theme: Professions that exist mainly as surnames wainwright (WAYN-ryt) noun One who builds or repairs wagons. [From Old English waen/waegen (wagon) + wryhta/wyrhta (worker). Earliest documented use: around 1000.] "Macon engaged a wainwright to build one of the great wagons." Lily Lashley Price; Taste of Ashes; Trafford; 2010. -------- Date: Wed Jul 13 00:00:07 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--collier X-Bonus: If you have a weak candidate and a weak platform, wrap yourself up in the American flag and talk about the Constitution. -Matthew Stanley Quay, senator (1833-1904) This week's theme: Professions that exist mainly as surnames collier (KOL-yuhr) noun 1. A coal miner. 2. A ship for carrying coal. [From Old English col (coal). Earliest documented use: before 1375.] "Gunar turned to find a grimy-faced man, black as a collier." Lisa Hendrix; Immortal Champion; Berkley; 2011. -------- Date: Thu Jul 14 00:00:06 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--chamberlain X-Bonus: Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., US Supreme Court Justice (1841-1935) This week's theme: Professions that exist mainly as surnames chamberlain (CHAYM-buhr-lin) noun 1. An official of a royal household who manages the living quarters. 2. A treasurer of a municipality or another public body. 3. A high-ranking official of a royal court. [Via French and Frankish, from Latin camera (chamber), from Greek kamara (vault) + -ling (a person/thing belonging to or concerned with). Earliest documented use: around 1225.] "A chamberlain whose watchful gaze seems closer to that of a prison guard (or nanny), rattles off the royal schedule, which includes 'time for private thought'." Manohla Dargis; When Dusk Finally Settled on the Emperor; The New York Times; Nov 18, 2009. -------- Date: Fri Jul 15 00:00:24 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--granger X-Bonus: Naive you are / if you believe / life favours those / who aren't naive. -Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996) This week's theme: Professions that exist mainly as surnames granger (GRAYN-juhr) noun A farmer. [Via French from Latin granum (grain). Earliest documented use: around 1112.] "Megan glared. She touched Sena's hair like a granger examining blight." Anthony Huso; The Last Page; Tor Books; 2010. -------- Date: Mon Jul 18 00:00:08 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--nouveau riche X-Bonus: Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence. -Thomas Szasz, author, professor of psychiatry (b. 1920) In Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass", the Red Queen tells Alice, "Speak in French when you can't remember the English for a thing." That's perhaps not bad advice considering that many words in the English language have arrived from or via French. While French is a Romance language and English a Germanic one, the twists and turns of history have led to the two tongues having much in common -- the English language borrowed from French, and vice versa. This borrowing often resulted in English having two near-synonyms to describe something (e.g. freedom/liberty, answer/respond). Sometimes the word then travels back to French. English budget came via French bougette (little bag), and was then exported back to French with its new sense. This week we'll look at five French terms that have been borrowed into English. nouveau riche (noo-voh-REESH) noun, plural nouveaux-riches Someone who has recently acquired wealth, especially one who displays this in an ostentatious fashion. [From French nouveau riche (new rich). Earliest documented use: 1796. A term coined after this is nouveau pauvre (newly impoverished).] "The mainland's nouveau riche increasingly spend their weekends cruising up and down various waterfronts." Emma An; Growing Yacht Industry Has Some Wind in Its Sales; China Daily (Beijing); Jun 15, 2011. -------- Date: Tue Jul 19 00:00:09 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--voulu X-Bonus: Religious freedom should work two ways: we should be free to practice the religion of our choice, but we must also be free from having someone else's religion practiced on us. -John Irving, novelist (b. 1942) This week's theme: Words of French origin voulu (voo-LOO) adjective Contrived; forced. [From French voulu, past participle of vouloir (to wish or want). Earliest documented use: 1909.] "In real literature, as in real life, nothing much happens, and stirring up interest in paranormal phenomena is a rather voulu means of making life more interesting." Nicholas Lezard; Review: High on Giraffe Liver; The Guardian (London, UK); Jan 27, 2007. -------- Date: Wed Jul 20 00:00:08 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mise en scene X-Bonus: We have, I fear, confused power with greatness. -Stewart I. Udall, politician (1920-2010) This week's theme: Words of French origin mise en scene (mee-zan* SEN) noun [* this syllable is nasal] 1. The setting of a scene in a play, movie, etc. 2. The setting or background of an event. [From French mise en scène, literally "put on stage". Earliest documented use: 1833.] NOTES: Scenery, costumes, lighting, props, placement of actors, everything that appears in a scene falls under the umbrella term mise en scene. Since a director is ultimately in charge of all this, he is referred to as a metteur en scene, literally, putter of a scene. "Forces inimical to democracy may be involved in fanning the flames of violence, setting the mise en scene for the military to step in once again." Tariq Karim; Benazir's Assassination; The Daily Star (Dhaka, Bangladesh); Jul 30, 2007. -------- Date: Thu Jul 21 00:00:06 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--pur sang X-Bonus: There are stars whose radiance is visible on Earth though they have long been extinct. There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for humankind. -Hannah Senesh, poet, playwright, and paratrooper (1921-1944) This week's theme: Words of French origin pur sang (pyoor saN*) [* this syllable is nasal] adjective: Pure; genuine. noun: Someone or something that is genuine. adverb: Genuinely; in all respects. [From French pur sang (pure blood). Earliest documented use: 1846.] "The Durango is a pur sang truck wagon. There has been no namby-pamby dilution of its place in life." Cam McRae; Battles for First Place; The Toronto Star (Canada); Nov 8, 1997. -------- Date: Fri Jul 22 00:00:25 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--coup de main X-Bonus: Ideas that enter the mind under fire remain there securely and for ever. -Leon Trotsky, revolutionary and writer (1879-1940) This week's theme: Words of French origin coup de main (kood-uh-MAN*) noun [* this syllable is nasal] A surprise attack or sudden action. [From French, literally "blow of the hand" (as opposed to from the artillery). Earliest documented use: 1759.] "This astonishing coup de main had results which were decisive on the development of the first day's fighting." Major John Howard: Obituary; The Times (London, UK); May 7, 1999. -------- Date: Mon Jul 25 00:00:07 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--hircine X-Bonus: The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests, and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance. -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826) We often use our friends from the animal kingdom to characterize the behavior of our fellow human beings: "She is as crafty as a fox. He is savage as a wolf..." These terms are frequently unfair -- the word asinine used to refer to a donkey, but now it primarily means someone stupid. Are these gentle creatures silly? Who are we to say? This week AWAD presents more words in a similar vein. So the next time you employ one of these words to refer figuratively to a two-legged creature around you, be careful. You may be slandering someone -- the four-legged one. hircine (HUHR-syn, -sin) adjective 1. Of or relating to a goat. 2. Having a strong odor. 3. Lustful; lewd. [From Latin hircus (goat). Earliest documented use: 1656.] "The showgirls, all looking to be in their early 20s, came out and posed next to the hircine and bearded Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill, the guitarist and the bassist." Peter Watrous; America's Pulse as Taken by ZZ Top; The New York Times; Jun 8, 1994. -------- Date: Tue Jul 26 00:00:06 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--porcine X-Bonus: It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not. -Jean de la Bruyere, essayist and moralist (1645-1696) This week's theme: Animal-related words that are used metaphorically porcine (POR-syn) adjective 1. Of or related to swine. 2. Piggish: greedy; sloppy; boorish. [From Latin porcus (hog, pig). Ultimately from the Indo-European root porko- (a young pig) that is also the source of farrow, aardvark, porcelain, pork, porcupine, and porpoise. Earliest documented use: before 1425.] See a week of piggish words from AWAD archives: https://wordsmith.org/words/pignus.html "The lipstick on this pig was thick and expertly applied by a PR machine with a tremendous amount of porcine makeup experience." Frank Bailey; Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin; Howard Books; 2011. http://amazon.com/o/asin/1451654405/ws00-20 -------- Date: Wed Jul 27 00:00:05 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--anserine X-Bonus: Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry. -William Butler Yeats, writer, Nobel laureate (1865-1939) This week's theme: Animal-related words that are used metaphorically anserine (AN-suh-ryn, -rin) adjective, also anserous 1. Of or relating to a goose. 2. Stupid; silly. [From Latin anser (goose). Earliest documented use: 1839.] "The geese take to the air in squadron after squadron, covering the sky with a glorious anserine calligraphy." Simon Barnes; 30,000 Honking, Flapping Reasons; The Times (London, UK); Jan 21, 2006. "The Tory shot back, 'Well, I've listened to your candidates, and they're simply anserine.'" John Worsley Simpson; Election Enhances Word Power of All Political Parties; National Post (Canada); Jul 3, 2004. -------- Date: Thu Jul 28 00:00:06 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bovine X-Bonus: I'd like to widen people's awareness of the tremendous timespan lying ahead -- for our planet, and for life itself. Most educated people are aware that we're the outcome of nearly 4bn years of Darwinian selection, but many tend to think that humans are somehow the culmination. Our sun, however, is less than halfway through its lifespan. Six billion years from now, it will not be humans who watch the sun's demise. Any creatures that then exist will be as different from us as we are from bacteria or amoebae. -Martin Rees, cosmologist and astrophysicist (b. 1942) This week's theme: Animal-related words that are used metaphorically bovine (BO-vyn, -veen) adjective 1. Of or relating to cattle, especially a cow. 2. Dull; sluggish; stupid. [From Latin bos (cow, ox), from Greek bous (ox). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gwou- (cow, bull) that is also the source of beef, bugle (literally, an instrument made of ox horn), bulimia (literally, hunger like an ox), boustrophedon https://wordsmith.org/words/boustrophedon.html , and Hindi gai (cow). Earliest documented use: 1845.] Here is another word that refers to cows: vaccine. It comes from vacca, Latin for cow, after inoculation prepared from cows. "The arrogant assumption was that it is acceptable to express one view for the consumption of a bovine public, and another contrary opinion in private." Duncan Hamilton; MPs' Revelations; Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland); Dec 26, 2010. -------- Date: Fri Jul 29 00:00:05 EDT 2011 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--pavonine X-Bonus: There comes a point when a man must refuse to answer to his leader if he is also to answer to his own conscience. -Hartley Shawcross, barrister, politician, and prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal (1902-2003) This week's theme: Animal-related words that are used metaphorically pavonine (PAV-uh-nyn) adjective 1. Of or resembling a peacock. 2. Vain; showy. [From Latin pavo (peacock). Earliest documented use: 1656.] "The artists were attacked for being a narcissistic, pavonine, and self-regarding group." Arifa Akbar; The Cult of Beauty; The Independent (London, UK); Mar 29, 2011.