A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Mon Jul 1 00:01:04 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mumpsimus X-Bonus: The ring always believes that the finger lives for it. -Malcolm De Chazal, writer and painter (1902-1981) The French writer and philosopher Albert Camus once said, "Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal." Can you recognize people like that around you? This week's words will help you describe them. mumpsimus (MUMP-suh-muhs) noun 1. A view stubbornly held in spite of clear evidence that it's wrong. 2. A person who holds such a view. [According to an old story, a priest used the nonsense word mumpsimus (instead of Latin sumpsimus) in the Mass. Even when told it was incorrect, he insisted that he had been saying it for 40 years and wouldn't change it. The expression is "quod in ore sumpsimus" ('which we have taken into the mouth'). Earliest documented use: 1530.] "She knows the boss's behavior is wrong but mumpsimus has set in." Mary Lou Dobbs; Repotting Yourself; O Books; 2010. "Do not be a mumpsimus about networking. ... Resist the popular notion that networking is all fake sincerity and pushy behavior." Dean Lindsay; Cracking the Networking Code; World Gumbo; 2005. -------- Date: Tue Jul 2 00:01:02 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--fustilarian X-Bonus: Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage. -Ray Bradbury, writer (1920-2012) This week's theme: Words to describe people fustilarian (fuhs-tuh-LAR-ee-uhn) noun A fat and slovenly person. [From Middle English fusty (smelly, moldy). Earliest documented use: 1600.] NOTES: The first recorded use of the word is from Shakespeare's Henry IV in which Falstaff exclaims, "Away, you scullion! You rampallion! You fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe." https://wordsmith.org/words/scullion.html https://wordsmith.org/words/rampallion.html "I've no fancy to be guzzled up by a wolf or spitted on the tusks of one of the fustilarian wild boars." Joan Aiken; Whispering Mountain; Starscape; 2002. -------- Date: Wed Jul 3 00:01:06 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--hobbledehoy X-Bonus: Men are the devils of the earth and the animals are its tormented souls. -Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860) This week's theme: Words to describe people hobbledehoy (HOB-uhl-dee-hoy) noun An awkward young fellow. [Of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1540.] "Burleigh's breathless accounts of the many figures of the British peerage in the story read as though written by some overawed hobbledehoy, someone who fingers the noblemen's lamé draperies in envious amazement and wonders how much they would go for at Wal-Mart." Simon Winchester; 'The Nation's Attic'; The Boston Globe; Jan 11, 2004. -------- Date: Thu Jul 4 00:01:03 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--makebate X-Bonus: The most certain test by which we can judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities. -Lord Acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton), historian (1834-1902) This week's theme: Words to describe people makebate (MAYK-bayt) noun One who incites quarrels. [From make, from Old English macian (to make) + bate (contention), from Latin battuere (to beat) which also gave us abate, debate, and rebate. Earliest documented use: 1529.] "'You leave my ma out of this, you makebate! She always said you'd end on the gallows, and she was right.'" Barbara Metzger; Christmas Wishes; Signet; 2010. -------- Date: Fri Jul 5 00:01:03 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bellygod X-Bonus: The arrow has to draw back to fly ahead. -Proverb This week's theme: Words to describe people bellygod or belly-god (BEL-ee god) noun One who takes great pleasure in eating; a glutton. [A bellygod is one who makes a god of his belly, i.e. a glutton. From Old English belig (bag) + god. Earliest documented use: 1540.] "Hudibras becomes the puritan bellygod par excellence: Our knight did bear no less a pack Of his own buttocks on his back." Kristen Poole; Radical Religion from Shakespeare to Milton; Cambridge University Press; 2000. "The figure of Hercules [rebuked] Comus the belly-god for his 'drunken orgies' and addiction to swinish pleasure." Ian Donaldson; Ben Jonson: A Life; Oxford University Press; 2011. -------- Date: Mon Jul 8 00:01:04 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--poker-faced X-Bonus: Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. -Susan Sontag, author and critic (1933-2004) Summer is here (at least in the Northern Hemisphere). The heat expands everything and days are no exception. Long days ask for something to fill the time and if you have a small pack of playing cards in your pocket you can stay entertained for the rest of eternity. Each time you shuffle a deck, you've possibly created an arrangement never before seen in human history (details: http://www.matthewweathers.com/year2006/shuffling_cards.htm ). The popularity of playing cards has spilled over into the language. The English language is filled with metaphors having to do with card games. One can stack the deck (to cheat or manipulate) or play one's cards right (to act sensibly or cautiously). Some folks put their cards on the table (to be straightforward and open), some don't play with a full deck (to be insane or irrational), but ultimately, we all have to play the hand we're dealt. There are probably as many card games as the number of ways to arrange a deck, but this week we'll see terms that have come out from just one card game: poker. poker-faced (PO-kuhr fayst) adjective Having an expressionless face, giving no hints of one's thoughts and feelings. [From the necessity of not showing emotions in a game of poker to avoid giving other players an indication of the strength of one's hand. The origin of the term poker is uncertain. It may be from French poque (a similar card game that involves bluffing), from German pochen (to knock, brag). Earliest documented use: 1915 (for the word poker: 1832).] Poker Face: https://wordsmith.org/words/images/poker-faced_large.jpg Photo: Belle Monte http://www.flickr.com/photos/heartprincess/6055079779/ "Sonam Kapoor appears poker-faced in a few scenes when she is supposed to look romantic." Unexpected Spunky Romance; The Himalayan Times (Kathmandu, Nepal); Jun 21, 2013. -------- Date: Tue Jul 9 00:01:04 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--four-flush X-Bonus: Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough. -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1882-1945) This week's theme: Words from poker four-flush (FOHR-flush) verb intr. To bluff or act in a fraudulent manner. [In a game of poker, a full flush is five cards of the same suit. A four-flush, only four cards of the same suit, is almost worthless. A player pretending to have a full flush while holding only a four-flush, is said to be four-flushing. Earliest documented use: 1896.] "When you cheat in car racing, it's supposed to be inventive. This was just cheap, lousy, four-flushing chicanery." Sally Jenkins; A Rule Not Meant to Be Broken; The Washington Post; Feb 16, 2007. "Bruce Olds pushes his readers so far and so forcibly away from his subject that they come away feeling abused, or at least four-flushed." Donald Seacreast; Nodoby's Buckaroo; The World & I (Washington, DC); Dec 2001. -------- Date: Wed Jul 10 00:01:03 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--penny-ante X-Bonus: The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude. -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963) This week's theme: Words from poker penny-ante (PEN-ee AN-tee) adjective: Trivial. noun: A transaction involving very small sums. [In poker, penny ante is a game in which the bet is one cent (or other small amount). The term is coined from penny (the smallest denomination of currency) + ante (stake, share, cost), from the stake put up by a player in poker before receiving one's cards, from Latin ante- (before). Earliest documented use: 1855.] "By Bernie Madoff standards, Conrad Black's crimes are not just on the small side. They're penny-ante." Bryan Burrough; The Convictions Of Conrad Black; Vanity Fair (New York); Oct 2011. -------- Date: Thu Jul 11 00:01:04 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--standpat X-Bonus: Nothing so soothes our vanity as a display of greater vanity in others; it makes us vain, in fact, of our modesty. -Louis Kronenberger, writer (1904-1980) This week's theme: Words from poker standpat (STAND-pat) adjective: Refusing to consider change in one's beliefs and opinions, especially in politics. noun: One who refuses to consider change. [In a game of poker, to stand pat is to play one's hand as dealt, without drawing other cards. From pat (apt). Earliest documented use: 1910.] "This activism, rather than Mr Harper's standpat response, resonates with the average Canadian, says Nik Nanos, a pollster." Please Have the Decency to Panic; The Economist (London, UK); Oct 11, 2008. -------- Date: Fri Jul 12 00:01:02 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--blue chip X-Bonus: When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kind of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt. -Robert M. Pirsig, author and philosopher (b. 1928) This week's theme: Words from poker blue chip (BLOO chip) adjective: Having high value and reliability. noun: A reliable and highly valuable asset, such as a stock, a company, etc. [In poker (and other gambling games), a blue chip typically represents high value. Earliest documented use: 1873.] "Mr Shibulal is not the first boss to have to lead a blue-chip company to a less glamorous, lower-margin future." Shibulal's Struggles; The Economist (London, UK); Apr 20, 2013. -------- Date: Mon Jul 15 00:01:03 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mensal X-Bonus: Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. -Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (1899-1961) Science-fiction author Robert Heinlein once said, "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." While the world has become so complex we do need specialists, there's a point to Heinlein's assertion. Not a bad idea to be able to do a whole bunch of things, even if not to perfection. If words were to heed Heinlein's advice, the word 'set' would win the prize. It's listed with more than 400 definitions in the Oxford English Dictionary. The words featured in this week's A.Word.A.Day are not as multi-faceted, but they do have multiple meanings. mensal (MEN-suhl) adjective Monthly. [From Latin mensis (month). Earliest documented use: 1475.] Relating to the table. [From Latin mensa (table). Earliest documented use: 1440.] "I refer to your addled account of an exchange between you and Mike Butler relative to mensal checks from home." John Lewis-Stempel; Fatherhood; Simon & Schuster; 2001. "Daphne was good at mensal ceremony; her each gesture and nibble, each sip from her tea bowl, was as graceful as a small ballet." John C. Wright; The Golden Age; Tor Books; 2003. -------- Date: Tue Jul 16 00:01:04 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sconce X-Bonus: If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956) This week's theme: Words that have many unrelated meanings sconce (skons) noun: An ornamental bracket for holding candles or lights. [From Latin abscondere (to conceal). Earliest documented use: 1392.] noun: 1. The head or skull. 2. Sense or wit. [Of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1567.] noun: A small fort or defensive earthwork to defend a bridge, castle-gate, etc. [From Dutch schans (entrenchment). Earliest documented use: 1587.] "You'll want to snap photos of wish-list pieces like wall sconces, fireplace grilles, and sculptures." Joanne Latimer; Montreal: Griffintown; Chatelaine (Toronto, Canada); May 2013. "I shaved my head! My noggin, my sconce, my bean." Gary J. Whitehead; Shaving Cream on My Pate Became Icing on the Cake; The Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts); Aug 19, 2002. -------- Date: Wed Jul 17 00:01:03 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mortify X-Bonus: For blocks are better cleft with wedges, / Than tools of sharp or subtle edges, / And dullest nonsense has been found / By some to be the most profound. -Samuel Butler, poet (1612-1680) This week's theme: Words that have many unrelated meanings mortify (MOR-tuh-fy) verb tr.: 1. To humiliate, shame, or embarrass. 2. To discipline (one's body) by self-denial, self-inflicted suffering, etc. verb intr.: 1. To endure self-denial, self-inflicted pain, etc. 2. To become gangrened or necrosed. [From Latin mortificare (to kill). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mer- (to rub away or to harm) that is also the source of morsel, premorse https://wordsmith.org/words/premorse.html , mordant, morbid, mortal, mortgage, nightmare, amaranth, and ambrosia https://wordsmith.org/words/ambrosia.html . Earliest documented use: 1382.] "Kate Bannan is mortified by her son's conviction for drink-driving." Keith McLeod; Barry Bannan's Mum; Daily Record (Glasgow); Dec 23, 2011. "You can only understand why he mortified himself and renounced all pleasures if you have lived a long time." Fanny Howe; Outremer; Poetry (Chicago); Sep 2011. -------- Date: Thu Jul 18 00:01:03 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cloaca X-Bonus: In some circumstances, the refusal to be defeated is a refusal to be educated. -Margaret Halsey, novelist (1910-1997) This week's theme: Words that have many unrelated meanings cloaca (klo-AY-kuh) noun, plural cloacae (klo-AY-se, -kee) 1. An outhouse. 2. A sewer. 3. The common duct into which intestinal, urinary, and genital tracts open in birds, reptiles, most fishes, and some mammals. [From Latin cloaca (sewer, canal), from cluere (to cleanse). Earliest documented use: 1656.] "David Walsh has found that cloaca happens. Having spent $180 million establishing Museum of Old and New Art, the most famous exhibit being Cloaca, a complicated poo-producing machine, Mr Walsh is now involved in a legal stoush* with the Australian Tax Office." MONA founder in Tax Office sights; The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Jun 7, 2012. * fight "Anne had balked at hanging her mistress's most beautiful clothes in the cloaca ... because of the smell." Posie Graeme-Evans; The Anne Trilogy; Atria; 2002. -------- Date: Fri Jul 19 00:01:04 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--confabulate X-Bonus: Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790) This week's theme: Words that have many unrelated meanings confabulate (kuhn-FAB-yuh-layt) verb intr. 1. To talk informally. 2. To replace fact with fantasy to fill in gaps in memory. [From Latin confabulari (to talk together), from con- (with) + fabulari (to talk), from fabula (tale). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bha- (to speak) that is also the source of fable, phone, fame, boon, and infant. Earliest documented use: 1604.] "Senior party leaders from across the state were expected to attend the meet and confabulate on issues pertaining to tribals in the state." Congress Takes a Diwali Break; The Indian Express (New Delhi); Oct 13, 2011. "The majority of the subjects failed to notice the switch, and confabulated reasons why they chose the picture they had been given." Neil Levy; Are You Racist? You May Be Without Even Knowing It; The Bundaberg News-Mail (Australia); May 31, 2013. http://www.news-mail.com.au/news/are-you-racist-you-may-be-without-even-knowing-it/1889869/ -------- Date: Mon Jul 22 00:01:03 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--olid X-Bonus: The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it. -Madame De Stael, writer (1766-1817) Old Ma tried, the yuppie son too... What are the Ma and the son up to? Well, they are trying to solve a puzzle. Maybe you can help. What was the selection criterion for picking this week's words? If you think you know the answer, send it to (contest at wordsmith.org). Make sure to include your location. The first person to send the correct answer wins a prize, as does a person randomly selected from all correct entries. They each get to choose a copy of any of my books https://wordsmith.org/awad/books.html or a copy of the word game One Up! http://uppityshirts.com/oneup.shtml One entry per person please. Send your answers by Friday this week. Results will be announced over the weekend. olid (O-lid) adjective Foul-smelling. [From Latin olere (to smell) which also gave us the opposite of today's word: redolent https://wordsmith.org/words/redolent.html . Earliest documented use: 1680.] "Ducks' blood smells no less olid than pig's blood." Merilyn Oniszczuk Jackson; A Sow of Violence; The Massachusetts Review (Amherst); Autumn 2004. -------- Date: Tue Jul 23 00:01:02 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sook X-Bonus: There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life. -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592) This week's theme: Yours to discover sook (sook, rhymes with book) noun A timid or coward person; a crybaby. [Probably from English dialect suck. Earliest documented use: 1933.] "I usually put on a brave face. I didn't want anyone to think I was a sook." Rosemary Howden; Episodes from a Fractured Childhood; Ginninderra Press; 2008. -------- Date: Wed Jul 24 00:01:06 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--zymic X-Bonus: Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence. -Honore de Balzac, novelist (1799-1850) This week's theme: Yours to discover zymic (ZAI-mik) adjective Relating to fermentation. [From Greek zym- (ferment). Earliest documented use: 1817.] "The figs squelched and split apart, emitting a zymic gas that made her mouth and nose curl back." Paul David Adkin; Purgatory; Nubooks; 2013. -------- Date: Thu Jul 25 00:01:05 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--meed X-Bonus: Lower your voice and strengthen your argument. -Lebanese proverb This week's theme: Yours to discover meed (meed) noun Reward; recompense; wage. [From Old English med. Earliest documented use: before 900.] "And speaking of seats, the folding chairs were hideously uncomfortable -- something like that fabled throne in Hades, which demanded a meed of blood and bone if you tried to leave it." Craig Smith; Axelrod Quartet and NMSO; The Santa Fe New Mexican; Oct 17, 2003. -------- Date: Fri Jul 26 00:01:04 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--pica X-Bonus: There is a field beyond all notions of right and wrong. Come, meet me there. -Rumi, poet and mystic (1207-1273) This week's theme: Yours to discover pica (PY-kuh) noun A tendency or craving for eating substances other than normal food (such as clay, chalk, and dirt), common during childhood or pregnancy. [From Latin pica (magpie, craving), from a magpie's indiscriminate feeding. Earliest documented use: 1563.] 1. In printing, a unit of type size, equal to about 1/6 of an inch. 2. A type size for typewriters, having ten characters to the inch. [Of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a book or church rules. Earliest documented use: 1588.] "'Raw potatoes. Mom ate them unwashed with the dirt still on the skin. She'd send them back if Dad rinsed them.' 'That's sick! Didn't she take prenatal vitamins?' 'Yes, but she still had potato pica.'" Anne Marie Duquette; Pregnant Protector; Harlequin; 2011. -------- Date: Mon Jul 29 00:01:02 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--auspices X-Bonus: Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once. -Cyril Connolly, critic and editor (1903-1974) When you are accustomed to seeing people in a particular way -- perhaps dressed in a pinstriped suit, with heavy makeup on, or in a soccer uniform -- and then meet them in their everyday clothes, they appear unfamiliar. You have become so used to looking at them in a particular way that when you see them in their natural state, they may be unrecognizable. This week's words are like that. We see them so often in their plural form that their singular form appears odd, perhaps misspelled. Who does something under auspice of something? Who writes a graffito? This week we'll see five words that are more prevalent in their plural form. auspices (AW-spi-seez) noun 1. Patronage, support, or sponsorship. 2. A favorable sign. [Plural of auspice, from Latin auspicium (divination from flight of birds), from auspex (bird watcher), from avis (bird) + specere (to look at). Ultimately from the Indo-European root awi- (bird), which is also the source of avian, ostrich, osprey, oval, ovum, ovary, egg, and caviar. Earliest documented use: 1611.] "In March, Serbian and Kosovo officials met under EU auspices for their first high-level face-to-face talks." Kosovo Parliament Rejects Move to Cancel Talks; Agence France Presse (Paris); May 5, 2011. -------- Date: Tue Jul 30 00:01:03 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--paparazzi X-Bonus: Don't judge men's wealth or godliness by their Sunday appearance. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790) This week's theme: Words seen in their plural forms paparazzi (pah-puh-RAT-see) noun Photographers who follow famous people to take their pictures for publication. [Plural of paparazzo, from the name of a photographer in Federico Fellini's 1959 film La Dolce Vita. Fellini got the name via scriptwriter Ennio Flaiano who picked it from the 1901 travel book By the Ionian Sea. The book mentions a hotel owner named Coriolano Paparazzo. Fellini claimed at another time that the name Paparazzo suggested to him "a buzzing insect, hovering, darting, stinging". Earliest documented use: 1961.] See the "original" paparazzi in La Dolce Vita: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5g26WMFpdM . And modern paparazzi in Beverly Hills: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uegvMPjZizA . "I wasn't even in the same ballpark as most of the fathers, who were tripping over each other to record their progenies' squeaky, off-key performances. It was worse than a restaurant full of drunken paparazzi realizing they'd caught the president." Tony Hicks; The Parent Paparazzi; Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, California); Jan 30, 2012. -------- Date: Wed Jul 31 00:01:03 EDT 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cognoscenti X-Bonus: Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words. -Robert Frost, poet (1874-1963) This week's theme: Words seen in their plural forms cognoscenti (kon-yuh-SHEN-tee, kog-nuh-) noun Those with informed appreciation of a particular topic, such as fine arts or literature. [Plural of obsolete Italian cognoscente, from conoscere (to know). Modern Italian form of the word, conoscente, means acquaintance -- you want to use the word intenditore or conoscitore if you mean cognoscente. Earliest documented use: 1777.] "Some passages in 'Hergé, Son of Tintin' seem directed at the cognoscenti. The excursions into prewar Belgian politics are not for everyone." Cullen Murphy; Georges Remi: Learning His Lines; The New York Times; Jan 20, 2012.