A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Mon Dec 2 00:11:02 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--felicitous X-Bonus: We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and bones. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) Leah Palmer Preiss (curiouser at mindspring.com) creates art drenched in generous doses of whimsy and playfulness, filled with vibrant colors. I've invited her again this year to illustrate a week of words for us. Don't forget to click on the images to savor their rich details. See earlier years here https://wordsmith.org/words/redolent.html and here http://wordsmith.org/words/bursiform.html Also, don't forget to visit her website http://www.leahpalmerpreiss.com/ . felicitous (fi-LIS-i-tuhs) adjective 1. Well suited. 2. Pleasing. [From Latin felix (happy). Earliest documented use: 1641.] https://wordsmith.org/words/images/felicitous_large.jpg Art: Leah Palmer Preiss http://www.leahpalmerpreiss.com/ "As good actors age -- perhaps a more felicitous word would be mature -- they learn how to do more with less." Charles Isherwood; A Literary Life Can Turn Lonely When the Cheering Stops; The New York Times; Apr 29, 2010. -------- Date: Tue Dec 3 00:11:03 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--disprize X-Bonus: It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry. -Thomas Paine, philosopher and writer (1737-1809) This week's theme: Illustrated words disprize (dis-PRYZ) verb tr. To disdain or scorn. [From Old French desprisier (dispraise), from Latin pretium (price, worth, or reward). Ultimately from the Indo-European root per- (to traffic in, to sell) which also gave us praise, price, precious, appreciate, appraise, and interpret. Earliest documented use: 1480.] https://wordsmith.org/words/images/disprize_large.jpg Art: Leah Palmer Preiss http://www.leahpalmerpreiss.com/ "And disprize them [jingles] as we might, they are an art form." James Parker; Let Us Now Praise... Jingles; The Boston Globe; Dec 6, 2009. -------- Date: Wed Dec 4 00:11:03 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ineluctable X-Bonus: Truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it. -Flannery O'Connor, writer (1925-1964) This week's theme: Illustrated words ineluctable (in-i-LUHK-tuh-buhl) adjective Impossible to avoid: inescapable. [From Latin in- (not) + eluctari (to struggle out of), from ex- (out) + luctari (to struggle). Earliest documented use: 1623.] https://wordsmith.org/words/images/ineluctable_large.jpg Art: Leah Palmer Preiss http://www.leahpalmerpreiss.com/ "These qualms were squashed out of existence by the ineluctable pressure of necessity." Kate Christensen; In the Drink; Doubleday; 1999. -------- Date: Thu Dec 5 00:01:03 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--malinger X-Bonus: A library is thought in cold storage. -Herbert Samuel, politician and diplomat (1870-1963) This week's theme: Illustrated words malinger (muh-LING-guhr) verb intr. To feign illness in order to avoid work. [From French malingre (sickly). Earliest documented use: 1820.] https://wordsmith.org/words/images/malinger_large.jpg Art: Leah Palmer Preiss http://www.leahpalmerpreiss.com/ "Generally, staff did not malinger. Staff earned every penny they were paid by working seriously at their jobs. They appeared to enjoy their work and looked forward to being at work." Azubike Uzoka; Growing Up, Growing Old; iUniverse; 2011. -------- Date: Fri Dec 6 00:01:03 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--nimiety X-Bonus: If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. -Nelson Mandela, activist, South African president, Nobel Peace Prize (1918-2013) This week's theme: Illustrated words nimiety (ni-MY-i-tee) noun Excess or redundancy. [From Latin nimius (too much). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ne (not), which also gave us nil, null, not, never, nothing, nihilism, annihilate, and naughty. Earliest documented use: 1542.] https://wordsmith.org/words/images/nimiety_large.jpg Art: Leah Palmer Preiss http://www.leahpalmerpreiss.com/ "As he said it, a nimiety of memories came back to him of the sick, the wounded, the dying: disease, war, famine, flood, fire, devastation." Chelsea Quinn Yarbro; A Feast in Exile; Tor; 2001. -------- Date: Mon Dec 9 00:01:03 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--inoculate X-Bonus: A ship in port is safe; but that is not what ships are built for. -Grace Hopper, computer scientist and US Navy Rear Admiral (1906-1992) Foot heads arms body. That sounds like a random assortment of body parts, but it's a perfectly meaningful sentence. It was once a headline in The Times in the UK. As it happened, a British politician named Michael Foot was going to be leading a nuclear disarmament group. Like on the beaches near Vancouver, Canada, body parts have a way of showing up unexpectedly in the language. This week we'll feature five words that were coined from body parts, though it's not obvious until you look into their etymology. The parts we are looking at this week are eye, palm, neck, skin, and the posterior. inoculate (i-NOK-yuh-layt) verb tr. 1. To treat with a vaccine to induce immunity against a disease. 2. To introduce an idea into someone's mind. 3. To safeguard or protect. [From Latin in- (in) + oculus (eye; bud, referring to grafting of a bud into a plant of a different type). Earliest documented use: 1420.] "Michael G. Gartner observed last week: 'You see these young people come and you see them every day and you try to inoculate them with your values and you take great pride when they move up.'" Felicity Barringer; News Executive Leaving It Behind For a Baseball Life; The New York Times; Sep 6, 1999. "It's a way to help inoculate her campaign from the program's troubles." John Frank; Will Hagan's New Tough Talk on Healthcare Work?; News & Observer; Nov 12, 2013. -------- Date: Tue Dec 10 00:01:03 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--palpable X-Bonus: Learning is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily. -Chinese proverb This week's theme: Words coined from body parts palpable (PAL-puh-buhl) adjective 1. Easily perceived; obvious. 2. Capable of being touched or felt; tangible. 3. Capable of being discerned by touching (as an illness or a disease). [From Latin palpare (to touch, caress), from palpus (palm, stroke, caress). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pal- (to touch, feel, or shake), which also gave us palpate, palpitate, feel, and sprachgefuhl https://wordsmith.org/words/sprachgefuhl.html . Earliest documented use: 1395.] "And with that peace has come a palpable prosperity: last year GDP grew by over 7%." Not Quite the Usual Walkover; The Economist (London, UK); Jul 13, 2013. -------- Date: Wed Dec 11 00:01:03 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cullet X-Bonus: The luck of having talent is not enough; one must also have a talent for luck. -Hector Berlioz, composer (1803-1869) This week's theme: Words coined from body parts cullet (KUHL-it) noun Scrap glass suitable for remelting. [From French collet, diminutive of col (neck), from Latin collum (neck), apparently referring to a bottle's neck. Earliest documented use: 1817.] "The resulting cullet is purchased by Owens Corning and remanufactured into fiberglass used in home insulation." Melissa Treolo; New Metro-Wide Glass Recycling Venture Finds Success; Basehor Sentinel (Kansas); Mar 11, 2010. -------- Date: Thu Dec 12 00:01:02 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--skint X-Bonus: What a heavy oar the pen is, and what a strong current ideas are to row in! -Gustave Flaubert, novelist (1821-1880) This week's theme: Words coined from body parts skint (skint) adjective Having no money; broke; poor. [A variant spelling of the word skinned, as in, so broke that even one's skin is shaved off. Earliest documented use: 1925.] Most of the time we make the past participle of a verb by adding -ed to it (walk/walked), but sometimes we use the phonetic spelling as in today's word. Some other examples are burnt, learnt, spilt, and spoilt. The -t ending is usually used when the past participle is employed as an adjective. By the way, the word 'past' itself is a phonetic spelling of 'passed'. "I've had a run of bad luck recently and I'm totally skint." Mark McGivern; Bookie Refuses to Pay Out; Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland); Nov 13, 2013. "Much of the information contained in the early reports was ambitious in tone but skint on detail." Philip Wen; China's Communist Party; The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Nov 13, 2013. -------- Date: Fri Dec 13 00:01:03 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--pratfall X-Bonus: What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious. -Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator, writer (106-43 BCE) This week's theme: Words coined from body parts pratfall (PRAT-fawl) noun A humiliating failure, blunder, or defeat. [A pratfall is literally a fall on the buttocks. The word is figuratively used to describe embarrassing errors or failures. From prat (buttocks, fool) + fall. Earliest documented use: 1939.] "Some caution that stockpiling is ending and both markets are in for a pratfall." Ray Turchansky; Asian Consumers Likely Spend Us Out of Our Financial Mess; The Vancouver Sun (Canada); Aug 21, 2009. -------- Date: Mon Dec 16 00:01:03 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--descant X-Bonus: One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don't come home at night. -Margaret Mead, anthropologist (1901-1978) A sentence has its cast of characters. Each word has a role. Let's call those roles parts of speech. What function do the various parts of speech perform? Nouns and pronouns name. Adjectives describe. Adverbs qualify. The best of this lineup are verbs, always ready for action. Verbs do. They move the plot forward. Verbs bring life to the story. This week we'll bring you five words that are verbs (from Latin verbum: word). descant (verb: des-KANT, dis-, noun: DES-kant) verb intr.: 1. To talk tediously. 2. To sing or play a descant. noun: 1. A comment on a subject. 2. An ornamental melody sung or played above a basic melody. [From Latin discantus (refrain), from dis- (apart, away) + cantus (song), from canere (to sing). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kan- (sing), which also gave us hen, chant, accent, enchant, incentive, recant, cantor, and charm. Earliest documented use: 1380.] "These disappointments were descanted on, bitterly and frequently." John Gross; Lessons of an Immoderate Master; The New York Review of Books; Jun 26, 1997. -------- Date: Tue Dec 17 00:21:02 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--hebetate X-Bonus: The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think. -Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE) This week's theme: Verbs hebetate (HEB-i-tayt) verb tr. To make dull or obtuse. [From Latin hebetare (to make blunt), from hebes (blunt). Earliest documented use: 1574.] "Habit then while it hebetates our sentiments, improves our judgments of things." Xavier Bichat; Physiological Researches on Life and Death; Longman; 1815. -------- Date: Wed Dec 18 00:01:06 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--blandish X-Bonus: A person usually has two reasons for doing something: a good reason and the real reason. -Thomas Carlyle, historian and essayist (1795-1881) This week's theme: Verbs blandish (BLAN-dish) verb intr. To coax with flattery. [From Latin blandiri (to flatter). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mel- (soft), which also gave us bland, melt, smelt, malt, mild, mulch, mollify, mollusk, emollient, enamel, smalto https://wordsmith.org/words/smalto.html , and schmaltz https://wordsmith.org/words/schmaltz.html . Earliest documented use: 1305.] "In his first speech in the Parliament, Mussolini insulted and blandished the legislature by turns." Thomas Bokenkotter; Church and Revolution; Doubleday; 1998. -------- Date: Thu Dec 19 00:01:02 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--importune X-Bonus: Love truth, but pardon error. -Voltaire, philosopher and writer (1694-1778) This week's theme: Verbs importune (im-pawr-TOON, im-pawr-TYOON, im-PAWR-chuhn) verb tr. To ask someone, repeatedly or annoyingly, to do something. [From Latin importunus, from in- (not) + portus (port, refuge). Ultimately from the Indo-European root per- (to lead, pass over), which also gave us support, comport, petroleum, sport, passport, petrify https://wordsmith.org/words/petrify.html , colporteur (a peddler of religious books) https://wordsmith.org/words/colporteur.html , Swedish fartlek (a training technique) https://wordsmith.org/words/fartlek.html , Norwegian fjord (bay) https://wordsmith.org/words/fjord.html , and Sanskrit parvat (mountain). Earliest documented use: 1530.] "José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain's prime minister, has cast dignity aside and importuned all and sundry with a request to be invited to a conference." After the Fiesta; The Economist (London, UK); Nov 6, 2008. -------- Date: Fri Dec 20 00:01:06 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--colligate X-Bonus: All men are brothers, we like to say, half-wishing sometimes in secret it were not true. But perhaps it is true. And is the evolutionary line from protozoan to Spinoza any less certain? That also may be true. We are obliged, therefore, to spread the news, painful and bitter though it may be for some to hear, that all living things on earth are kindred. -Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989) This week's theme: Verbs colligate (KOL-i-gayt) verb tr. To bind or group together. [From Latin colligare, from com- (together) + ligare (bind). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leig (to bind), which is also the source of oblige, alloy, ally, rely, lien, league, liable, ligature, and furl. Earliest documented use: 1545.] "Chizz made a quick overview of the situation, attempting to colligate the loose ends of a somewhat fragmented movie." Ihebom C. Reginald; Forbidden Choice; Xlibris; 2013. -------- Date: Mon Dec 23 00:01:03 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--lickspittle X-Bonus: The sleep of reason produces monsters. -Francisco Goya, painter and printmaker (1746-1828) Do you see in black and white: good or bad, cool or uncool? Describe others as saintly or evil? Humans actually come in many shades in between. This week we'll introduce you to five colorful words to describe them. lickspittle (LIK-spit-l) noun A servile flatterer. [From lick, from Old English liccian + spittle, from old English spittan. A term with a similar idea is brown-noser. Earliest documented use: 1825.] "Murdoch is one of the greatest lickspittles in history, always prepared to kowtow to power whatever its shape or nature, in order to make more money for himself." Martin Rowson; The Dog Allusion: Pets, Gods, and How to be Human; Vintage; 2008. https://wordsmith.org/words/kowtow.html -------- Date: Tue Dec 24 00:01:02 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--tosspot X-Bonus: It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere. -Voltaire, philosopher and writer (1694-1778) This week's theme: Words to describe people tosspot (TOS-pot) noun 1. A drunkard. 2. An idiot. [From the phrase to toss off (to drink rapidly). Earliest documented use: 1568.] "It's like a cast of tosspots who don't know their limit and then get into a car." Tim Goodman: Television; The San Francisco Chronicle; Nov 2, 2007. -------- Date: Wed Dec 25 00:01:03 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--milksop X-Bonus: The true test of a civilization is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops -- no, but the kind of man the country turns out. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist (1803-1882) This week's theme: Words to describe people milksop (MILK-sop) noun One who is timid or indecisive. [A milksop is, literally, a piece of bread soaked in milk, a diet considered suitable for babies and the sick. A synonym of this term is milquetoast https://wordsmith.org/words/milquetoast.html . Earliest documented use: 1390.] "This is for the milksop who does not want a mouse in the house but is too timid or pious to do anything about it." Nicholas Lezard; Down and Out; New Statesman (London, UK); Mar 27, 2013. -------- Date: Thu Dec 26 00:01:03 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--hayseed X-Bonus: Don't be yourself. Be someone a little nicer. -Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (1913-1983) This week's theme: Words to describe people hayseed (HAY-seed) noun An unsophisticated person who comes from a rural area. [Alluding to a person with straw in his clothes or smelling of hayseed and regarded as a country bumpkin. Earliest documented use: 1577.] "A hayseed with a Midwestern twang, Carnegie arrived in New York in his 20s with the usual mix of big dreams and shallow pockets." How to Succeed; Dale Carnegie; The Economist (London, UK); Nov 2, 2013. -------- Date: Fri Dec 27 00:01:03 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gadabout X-Bonus: There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to -- if there are no doors or windows -- he walks through a wall. -Bernard Malamud, novelist and short-story writer (1914-1986) This week's theme: Words to describe people gadabout (GAD-uh-bout) noun One who roams around in search of amusement. [From gad (to go around from one place to another aimlessly). Earliest documented use: 1817.] "The film charted Zelda Kaplan's transformation from homemaker to social gadabout flitting from party to party." Ruth La Ferla; Zelda Kaplan; The New York Times; Feb 18, 2012. -------- Date: Mon Dec 30 00:01:03 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bleb X-Bonus: Nothing so soon the drooping spirits can raise / As praises from the men, whom all men praise. -Abraham Cowley, poet (1618-1667) The poet Robert Southey once said, "It is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn." While he was talking about using fewer words, the same might be said about using fewer letters. That is, using short words. While days are now getting longer, words are still short, at least for this week. This week we bring you one-syllable words. bleb (bleb) noun 1. A small blister or swelling. 2. A bubble. [Perhaps alteration of blob. Earliest documented use: 1607.] "His worried face shone with moisture; rivulets of sweat slid down his jaw bone. A bleb hung from his chin." William Boyd; A Good Man in Africa; William Morrow; 1982. -------- Date: Tue Dec 31 00:01:02 EST 2013 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--jilt X-Bonus: Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. -Carl Sandburg, poet (1878-1967) This week's theme: Short words jilt (jilt) verb tr.: To end a relationship suddenly or callously. noun: A person, especially a woman, who discards a lover. [Of uncertain origin, perhaps from the name Gillian (or Jillian/Jill). Earliest documented use: 1660.] "Even so, it is unlikely, analysts said, that China would jilt Khartoum for Juba [capital of South Sudan] -- that would probably alarm other repressive and corrupt regimes, such as those in Angola and Equatorial Guinea, where China has forged highly profitable oil relationships." Sudarsan Raghavan & Andrew Higgins; China Caught Between Two Sudans; The Washington Post; Mar 24, 2012.