A.Word.A.Day --stridulous

A.Word.A.Day

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Nov 23, 2015

This week’s theme
Words to describe people

This week’s words
stridulous
torpid
fastuous
impertinent
bibulous

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Canadians elected their new prime minister last month. It was a long election campaign (78 days!).

Here in the US, the presidential election campaign lasts just two years. As the election day is known in advance (it’s always the same, the first Tuesday after Nov 1), you can start your engines as early as you want and get a headstart in campaigning and courting special interest groups.

We still have a year till we vote for our next president (Nov 8, 2016) and during all this time there will be plenty of debates, television ads, robocalls, and more.

One candidate in this race has ruled out negative campaigning (and raising money from special interests). But others may not be opposed to a little name-calling if they believe it would get them an inch closer to the White House.

If they have to go negative, we hope they will use some unusual words to describe their opponents, instead of the tired old words (and tired old politics). This week we’ll feature five words that presidential hopefuls may find handy to describe their rivals for the big office.

stridulous

PRONUNCIATION:

(STRIJ-uh-luhs)

MEANING:

adjective: 1. Having or making a harsh grating sound. 2. Shrill or grating.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin stridere (to make a harsh sound). Earliest documented use: 1611.

USAGE:

“Two weeks ago, bankers testifying before a Senate committee were treated with such uncharacteristic sympathy that their lobbyists felt compelled to gloat. ... There were no protesting community groups bringing bus loads of little, old men and ladies who had lost their homes in unscrupulous loan hustles; no stridulous lawmakers blasting the bankers about alleged redlining and other antidemocratic behavior.”
Jim McTague; Front Row on Washington; American Banker (New York); Mar 15, 1993.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Poetry is a sort of homecoming. -Paul Celan, poet and translator (23 Nov 1920-1970)

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