A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Thu Dec 1 00:01:17 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--nival X-Bonus: I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart, and that is softness of head. -Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President (1858-1919) This week in AWAD: assorted words. nival (NY-vuhl) adjective Of, growing in, or relating to, snow. [From Latin nivalis (snowy), niv- (snow).] "Flow patterns can be further subdivided into arctic and subarctic nival regimes." Mark Nuttall and Terry V. Callaghan; The Arctic; Taylor & Francis; 2000. -------- Date: Fri Dec 2 00:01:26 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--somnific X-Bonus: I place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826) This week in AWAD: assorted words. somnific (som-NIF-ik) adjective Causing sleep. [From Latin somnificus (causing sleep), from somnus (sleep) + facere (to make). Ultimately from Indo-European root swep- (to sleep) that is also the source of insomnia, hypnosis, soporific (inducing sleep) and somnambulate (to walk in sleep).] "Each week in Horse & Hound, the showjumper's bible, advertisements for 'natural sedatives' with somnific names - Placid, So-Kalm, Tranquillity - promise to 'soothe away your horse's competition nerves and prevent nervousness and excitability without impairing performance'." Richard McClure; Skulduggery at the Stables; The Independent (London, UK); Aug 30, 1999. -------- Date: Mon Dec 5 00:01:19 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--prufrockian X-Bonus: It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. -Sydney Smith, writer and clergyman (1771-1845) Fact and fiction often feed on each other. And it's reflected in the names: a fictional character would be named to reflect his or her qualities. In turn, these characters often come alive in our imagination and we begin to use them to refer to real people. While eponyms -- words derived from people's names -- can be from real people as well as from fictional characters, all of this week's eponymy features fictional sources. The five characters we present include the hero of a poem, the subject of a book dedication, a character in a comic strip, the hero of an operetta, and a character in an animated series. It's quite a cast across a wide genre. Let the parade begin. Prufrockian (pru-FROK-i-uhn) adjective Marked by timidity and indecisiveness, and beset by unfulfilled aspirations. [After the title character in T.S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".] Prufrock, the aging hero of Eliot's 1915 poem, is haunted by his cautious, hesitant approach to life and his conforming existence, "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons." He wonders about the possible romances he didn't dare broach, "Do I dare disturb the universe?" If only he knew Tennyson's 1850 lines: "'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all." Listen to Eliot read his poem aloud: http://salon.com/audio/2000/10/05/eliot/ -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Striking the Prufrockian pose, [character Ben Sippy] worries about his decaying body, the romances he passed up as a youth, the timidities of his life." David Brooks; Books; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Oct 6, 1988. -------- Date: Tue Dec 6 00:01:20 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--dryasdust X-Bonus: Be good and you will be lonesome. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910) This week's theme: eponyms. dryasdust (DRY-az-dust) adjective Extremely dull, dry, or boring. [After Jonas Dryasdust, a fictitious person to whom Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) dedicated some of his novels.] At the beginning of the novel Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott writes: DEDICATORY EPISTLE TO THE REV. DR. DRYASDUST, F.A.S. Dr. Dryasdust however was the writer's own creation. He pretends to dedicate the novel to him for supplying him with dry historical details. Since then the term is used to describe a person devoted to dry, uninteresting details. Dryasdust -- dry as dust --- is obviously a charactonym. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "The report is written in the [Congressional Budget Office]'s dryasdust style, but for anyone with a tolerance for numbers and an interest in policy, it is as scary as a Stephen King novel." N. Gregory Mankiw; Government Debt: A Horror Story; Fortune (New York); Aug 3, 1998. -------- Date: Wed Dec 7 00:01:10 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cringeworthy X-Bonus: If only I could so live and so serve the world that after me there should never again be birds in cages. -Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen), author (1885-1962) This week's theme: eponyms. Cringeworthy (KRINJ-wur-thee) adjective Causing extreme embarrassment. [From Old English cringan (to yield or shrink). So someone cringeworthy makes you feeling crinkled, etymologically speaking.] The term was popularized by Cuthbert Cringeworthy, a character in the British comic strip The Bash Street Kids. Cuthbert is the brightest kid in the class, a bespectacled, hard-working Brit (I thought that was Harry Potter). Wait, Cuthbert is also bossy and rude. He is a teacher's pet and looks exactly like him. No one wants to be seen with him. Clearly, Cringeworthy is a charactonym, a name that suggests personality traits of a character. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Not that there was much cringeworthy in the Tiger Bay forum; everyone behaved nicely and stayed on message incessantly." David Warner; Matters of Primary Importance and Signs of Change; Weekly Planet (Tampa, Florida); Aug 25, 2004. -------- Date: Thu Dec 8 00:01:11 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--schmendrik X-Bonus: We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955) This week's theme: eponyms. schmendrik (SHMEN-drik) noun, also shmendrik, schmendrick, shmendrick A foolish, clueless, and naive person. [After the name of the title character in an operetta by Abraham Goldfaden (1840-1908).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "With his nasal whine and ill-fitting, slush-sprayed suit, [comedian Eugene Levy] played the sort of obnoxious schmendrik that would prove his trademark." Guy Leshinski; The Importance of Being Eugene; Toronto Life (Canada); Nov 2002. -------- Date: Fri Dec 9 00:01:22 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--poindexter X-Bonus: Whoever, in the pursuit of science, seeks after immediate practical utility, may generally rest assured that he will seek in vain. -H.L.F. von Helmholtz, physiologist and physicist (1821-1894) This week's theme: eponyms. poindexter (POIN-dek-stuhr) noun An extremely intelligent but socially inept person. [After Poindexter, a character in the animated series Felix the Cat.] Poindexter is a synonym of nerd or geek. In the cartoon, Poindexter is the nephew of The Professor, the arch-enemy of Felix the Cat. The creator of the cartoon series is said to have named the character Poindexter after his lawyer. Here is a picture: http://felixthecat.com/friends-poindexter.htm -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "As more companies try to recruit business-literate CIOs, the title looks increasingly attractive to Young Turks who might earlier have dismissed it as a job for Poindexters." Mindy Blodgett; Across the Great Divide; CIO (Framingham, Massachusetts); Dec 15, 1999. -------- Date: Mon Dec 12 00:01:09 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--degringolade X-Bonus: Earth is here so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest. -Douglas William Jerrold, playwright and humorist (1803-1857) The great humorist Mark Twain once said, "In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language." Well, that's the pitfall of learning a foreign language away from its natural habitat. We might become proficient in the grammar but there is never a certainty about the nuances of the language. No matter. Some of the terms we borrow from French have become an integral part of the English language. They often help us convey a whole idea succinctly, in just a word or two. This week let's see five such terms from French. degringolade (day-grang-guh-LAYD) noun A rapid decline, deterioration, or collapse (of a situation). [From French, from dégringoler (to tumble down, fall sharply), from Middle French desgringueler, from des- (de-) + gringueler (to tumble), from Middle Dutch crinkelen (to curl).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Even before the latest degringolade, Mr Duncan Smith's position had been disintegrating." Bruce Anderson; This is Duncan Smith's Last Stand; The Independent (London, UK); Feb 24, 2003. -------- Date: Tue Dec 13 00:01:11 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--carte blanche X-Bonus: Extreme justice is extreme injustice. -Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator, writer (106-43 BCE) This week's theme: terms from French. carte blanche (kart blanch, kart blansh) noun Unrestricted authority. [From French carte blanche (blank card or blank document).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Stewart says he has been given a clean slate and carte blanche by the ADT's board 'to do my thing'." Carolyn Collins; New ADT Direction Paying Off; The Australian (Sydney); Jun 30, 2000. -------- Date: Wed Dec 14 00:01:16 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--frisson X-Bonus: The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1882-1945) This week's theme: terms from French. frisson (free-SON) noun A sudden, brief moment of excitement or fear; thrill, shudder. [From French frisson (shiver), from Old French friçon, from Late Latin friction-, from Latin frictio (friction), from Latin frigere (to be cold).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "I get to find small but interesting differences related to communication in Japan and the United States that still give me a pleasurable frisson of surprise." Kate Elwood; Surprising Differences; The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo, Japan); Jan 24, 2005. -------- Date: Thu Dec 15 00:01:14 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--lese majesty X-Bonus: These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. -Gilbert Highet, writer (1906-1978) This week's theme: terms from French. lese majesty or lèse majesté (leez MAJ-uh-stee) noun 1. An offense against a sovereign power. 2. An attack against someone's dignity or against a custom or institution held sacred. [From French lèse-majesté, from Latin crimen laesae maiestatis (the crime of injured majesty).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "There was, though, one small sign of disenchantment. In a field well away from the airport, there was a scarecrow, dressed in the usual tatters, except for a pair of All Blacks tracksuit bottoms. Such lese majesty would have been unthinkable before the World Cup." New Zealand: Natural Born Thriller; The Guardian (London, UK); Feb 5, 2000. -------- Date: Fri Dec 16 00:01:20 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--qui vive X-Bonus: Intolerance of ambiguity is the mark of an authoritarian personality. -Theodor Adorno, philosopher and composer (1903-1969) This week's theme: terms from French. qui vive (kee VEEV) noun Alert, lookout. (Used in the phrase "on the qui vive"). [From French qui vive, literally "(Long) live who?" It was used by a sentry to challenge someone approaching the gate. A proper response might be "Vive le roi!" or "La France!"] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Are there some more subtle signals a man ought to be on the qui vive for?" James Ahearn; Ask Mr. Manners; The Record (Bergen County, New Jersey); Oct 23, 1991. -------- Date: Mon Dec 19 00:01:15 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mogigraphia X-Bonus: For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner ... on an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies. ... That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that. -Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (1934-1996) Last spring, I spoke to my daughter's second-grade (or standard) class. I told the children I was a writer and spent 20 delightful minutes with them talking about words and wordplay, anagrams and palindromes, puns and more. Little hands went up throughout the talk. They had questions to ask, they had answers to give, and they had their own wordplay to share. I thought they enjoyed it but the real test came at the end. I told them artists worked with paints, musicians worked with notes, and I, as a writer, worked with words. Then I asked who would want to be a writer. About half the class raised its hands. * * * As an exception to shoemakers' children having no shoes, the English language has ample words to describe itself, its words, writing, speech, and other modes of expression. This week's AWAD features five of them. mogigraphia (moj-i-GRAF-ee-uh) noun Writer's cramp. [From Greek mogis (with difficulty) + graph (writing).] Tennis players have their elbows, athletes have their feet, so what do writers get? They get their cramps. Mogigraphia is a fancy name for a writer's cramp. Advanced writers go for a block. For the ultimate, we recommend carpal tunnel syndrome. A synonym of mogigraphia is graphospasm. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Some could barely put down their name. Eventually, they improved. Mogigraphia can be stubborn. Its cause is not always easily ascertained." Chronicle Telegram (Elyria, Ohio); Feb 22, 1971. -------- Date: Tue Dec 20 00:01:13 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sprachgefuhl X-Bonus: In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful. -Leo Tolstoy, author (1828-1910) This week's theme: words related to words, writing, and language. Sprachgefuhl (SHPRAKH-guh-fyool) noun A feeling for language or a sensitivity for what is correct language. [From German Sprachgefühl, from Sprache (language) and Gefühl (feeling).] If you have Sprachgefuhl, you have an ear for idiomatically appropriate language. The best illustration of Sprachgefuhl, or the lack of it, was an 1855 Portuguese-English phrase book intended to help Portuguese speakers master the English language. Titled "English As She Is Spoke", it was authored by one Pedro Carolino. The only problem was that Pedro didn't know any English. On the plus side, he did have a Portuguese-French phrase book. Pedro simply picked up a French-English dictionary and tried the circuitous route: Portuguese to French to English. The result was such gems as: Names for body parts: "Of the Man: The inferior lip; The superior lip; The fat of the leg." Food: "Eatings: Some black pudding; A little mine; Hog fat; Some wigs; Vegetables boiled to a pap." Swimming instructions: "For to swim: I row upon the belly on the back and between two waters." Idioms: "Idiotism: Cat scalded fear the cold water." This book was even used as a textbook in the Portuguese colony of Macao. I regret to say they eventually stopped using it. Imagine, in just a few years, we could have witnessed a lovely new strain of the English language take root. Pedro was simply ahead of his time. Today anyone can achieve the same results with computer translation: http://google.com/language_tools -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Despite this fecundity (perhaps because of it) Avallone had major problems with his raw material: words, and the uses to which they can be put. He was not, in short, a man with an innate Sprachgefuhl." Jack Adrian; Obituary: Michael Avallone; Independent (London, UK); Mar 20, 1999. -------- Date: Wed Dec 21 00:01:10 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--verso X-Bonus: Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power. -John Steinbeck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1902-1968) This week's theme: words related to words, writing, and language. verso (VUR-so) noun 1. A left-hand page. 2. The back of a page. [Short for Latin verso folio, from verso (turned) and folio (leaf). From versus (turning), from vertere (to turn). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wer- (to turn or bend), also the source of wring, weird, writhe, worth, revert, and universe.] The counterpart of this word is recto, the right-hand page. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Nagyszalanczy's commonsense approach is evident from the verso of the title page to the captions of the hundreds of photos and drawings." Alexander Hartmann; Setting Up Shop; Library Journal (New York); Mar 15, 2000. -------- Date: Thu Dec 22 00:01:11 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--epos X-Bonus: Don't wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day. -Albert Camus, writer and philosopher (1913-1960) This week's theme: words related to words, writing, and language. epos (EP-os) noun 1. An epic. 2. A number of poems, not formally united or transmitted orally, that treat an epic theme. [From Latin, from Greek epos (speech, word).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Not many people outside South Sulawesi know about this most unique epos, La Galigo." Carla Bianpoen; Jakarta Post; Ancient Bugis Epos Goes International; The Jakarta Post (Indonesia); Jan 15, 2004. -------- Date: Fri Dec 23 00:01:11 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--curlicue X-Bonus: We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person. -William Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965) This week's theme: words related to words, writing, and language. curlicue or curlycue (KUR-li-kyoo) noun A decorative curl or twist, in a signature, calligraphy, etc. [From curly, from curl, from crul (yes, that's how it was spelled earlier) + cue, from Old French cue (tail).] To find some great curlicues, try the US Declaration of Independence http://archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/declaration_zoom_2.html The most prominent signature is of John Hancock, the first signer of the document. Today the term John Hancock has become an eponym for a signature. Happy holidays and Happy New Year to all of you from all of us at Wordsmith.org! -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Book covers are likely to be pink with snappy titles in curlicue fonts and images of a woman's body part (often long, bare legs tapering to a couple of high-heeled exclamation points)." Tahree Lane; Women's Lives Are Reflected in 'Chic Lit' Genre; Toledo Blade (Ohio); Nov 13, 2005. -------- Date: Mon Dec 26 00:01:12 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--moulin X-Bonus: We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our embarrassment when alone together. -Jean de la Bruyere, essayist and moralist (1645-1696) Back in the 1870s, naturalist and explorer John Muir said, "One day's exposure to mountains is better than cartloads of books." Today, we might update his words for our time: "One day's exposure to mountains is better than heaps of video games and countless episodes of TV shows." In this week's A.Word.A.Day, we'll offer you exposure to words for various features of our planet: mountains, glaciers, and more. So in the coming year pull the plug on those artificial electronic devices, and plug in to the greatest of all reality shows: nature. moulin (MOO-lan) noun A nearly vertical, cylindrical shaft or cavity worn in a glacier, carved by melted surface water falling through a crack in the ice. [From French moulin (mill), from Latin molinum. The name refers to the swirling motion of water falling down the hole and the accompanying noise.] Moulin Rouge, the famous Paris cabaret, has nothing to do with ice. A glacier wouldn't last long in a hot place like that. Rather, a large red windmill on its roof gives it its name. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "The blue of a moulin is one of the purest and most unearthly colors on the planet." Jon Carroll; The Cold Monster At My Feet; San Francisco Chronicle; Sep 4, 1991. -------- Date: Tue Dec 27 00:01:10 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--fumarole X-Bonus: A society that presumes a norm of violence and celebrates aggression, whether in the subway, on the football field, or in the conduct of its business, cannot help making celebrities of the people who would destroy it. -Lewis H. Lapham, editor and writer (1935- ) This week's theme: words to describe the Earth's features. fumarole (FYOO-muh-rol) noun A hole or vent in a volcanic region from which hot gases and steam are emitted. [Via Italian or French from Latin fumariolum (smoke hole), diminutive of Latin fumarium (smoke chamber), from fumus (smoke).] Picture of a fumarole: http://lvo.wr.usgs.gov/cdf_main.htm -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Travel further round to the south to Fumarole and experience a sauna -- nature's way." Therms of Endearment; Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland); Dec 29, 2001. "Pop open a bottle of champagne and pour yourself a glass. Take a sip. The elegant surface fizz -- a boiling fumarole of rising and collapsing bubbles -- launches thousands of golden droplets into the air, conveying the wine's enticing flavors and aromas to tongue and nostrils alike." Gerard Liger-Belair; The Science of Bubbly; Scientific American (New York); Jan 2003. -------- Date: Wed Dec 28 00:01:09 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--couloir X-Bonus: I don't hate my enemies. After all, I made 'em. -Red Skelton, comedian (1913-1997) This week's theme: words to describe the Earth's features. couloir (KOOL-wahr) noun A steep mountainside gorge or gully. [From French couloir (passage), from couler (to flow), from Latin colare (to filter), from colum (sieve).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "The nearby Mont Blanc tunnel provides an easy way through the heart of the Alps, which allows us to challenge ourselves in Switzerland on Verbier's couloirs and bowls." Liane Beam Wansbrough; Joie de Ski in Chamonix; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Jan 26, 2005. "Standing at the top of a vertiginous couloir above Zermatt, the multi-choice business option is a familiar one for an investment banker used to taking momentous decisions under pressure." Felice Hardy; Time to Get Out of the Bored Room; Evening Standard (London, UK); Feb 1, 2005. -------- Date: Thu Dec 29 00:01:11 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--lithosphere X-Bonus: Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970) This week's theme: words to describe the Earth's features. lithosphere (LITH-uh-sfeer) noun The solid outer portion of the Earth consisting of the crust and upper mantle, approximately 100 km (62 miles) thick. [From litho- (stone) + -sphere.] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "The relatively cold temperatures of the old, thick lithosphere beneath southern Africa and the Northwest Territories of Canada are prime locations where diamonds are mined." J. Hope Babowice; Diamonds Reflect Elements of Our Solar System; Chicago Daily Herald; Oct 30, 2002. -------- Date: Fri Dec 30 00:01:11 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--peneplain X-Bonus: Literature is the language of society, as speech is the language of man. -Louis de Bonald, philosopher and politician (1754-1840) This week's theme: words to describe the Earth's features. peneplain (PEE-nuh-playn, pee-nuh-PLAYN) noun An area of nearly flat, featureless land formed by a long period of erosion. [From pene- (almost), from Latin paene + plain, from Latin planus.] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "You are Xerxes in Persia. Your army spreads on a vast and arid peneplain." Annie Dillard; Pilgrim at Tinker Creek; Harper's Magazine Press; 1974.