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Post by Felix on Mar 25, 2010 9:28:39 GMT -5
… courtesy of [url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Mar.25.2010 ]Merriam Webster[/url], with slight modifications by me:
The Word of the Day for March 25, 2010 is: nefarious • \nih-FAIR-ee-us\ • adjective
: flagrantly wicked or impious : evil
Felix's Example Sentence:
Politics makes nefarious attacks on one's opponent defensible for some, even to the point of vandalizing the home of the politically incorrect victim.
Did you know?
"Vicious" and "villainous" are two wicked synonyms of "nefarious," and, like "nefarious," both mean "highly reprehensible or offensive in character, nature, or conduct." But these synonyms are not used in exactly the same way in all situations. "Vicious" may imply moral depravity or it may connote malignancy, cruelty, or destructive violence. "Villainous" applies to any evil, depraved, or vile conduct or characteristic, while "nefarious" (which derives from the Latin noun "nefas," meaning "crime") suggests flagrant breaching of time-honored laws and traditions of conduct. "Nefarious" first appeared in English in the early 17th century, whereas "vicious" and "villainous" preceded "nefarious" by about two hundred years.
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Post by Felix on Mar 30, 2010 3:32:22 GMT -5
… courtesy of [url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Mar.26.2010 ]Merriam Webster[/url], with slight modifications by me:
The Word of the Day for March 26, 2010 is: shibboleth • \SHIB-uh-luth\ • noun
1 : catchword, slogan
*2 : a widely held belief or truism
3 : a custom or usage regarded as distinctive of a particular group
Felix's Example Sentence:
Political parties assemble a list of shibboleths for the purpose of endless repetition, articles of faith for the true believers, such as the evil influence of the "mainstream media," who are credited with the decline and fall of everything from public morality to the undermining of freedom.
Did you know?
The Bible's Book of Judges (12:4-6) tells the story of the Ephraimites, who, after they were routed by the Gileadite army, tried to retreat by sneaking across a ford of the Jordan River that was held by their enemy. The Gileadites, wary of the ploy, asked every soldier who tried to cross if he was an Ephraimite. When the soldier said "no," he was asked to say "shibboleth" (which means "stream" in Hebrew). Gileadites pronounced the word "shibboleth," but Ephramites said "sibboleth." Anyone who left out the initial "sh" was killed on the spot. When English speakers first borrowed "shibboleth," they used it to mean "test phrase," but it has acquired additional meanings since that time.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by Felix on Mar 30, 2010 3:38:21 GMT -5
… courtesy of [url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Mar.27.2010 ]Merriam Webster[/url], with slight modifications by me:
The Word of the Day for March 27, 2010 is: esemplastic • \es-em-PLAS-tik\ • adjective
: shaping or having the power to shape disparate things into a unified whole
Felix's Example Sentence:
Lewis Carroll coined the phrase, "portmanteau word" to describe an esemplastic word combining two words into one, a prime example being "chortle," combining "chuckle" and "snort."
Did you know?
"Unusual and new-coined words are, doubtless, an evil; but vagueness, confusion, and imperfect conveyance of our thoughts, are a far greater," wrote English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Biographia Literaria, 1817. True to form, in that same work, he assembled "esemplastic" by melding the Greek phrase "es hen," meaning "into one," with "plastic" to fulfill his need for a word that accurately described the imagination's ability to shape disparate experiences into a unified whole (e.g., the poet's imaginative ability to communicate a variety of images, sensations, emotions, and experiences in the unifying framework of a poem). The verb "intensify" was another word that Coleridge was compelled to mint while writing Biographia. Coinages found in his other writings include "clerisy" and "psychosomatic," among others.
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Post by Felix on Mar 30, 2010 3:43:17 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for March 28, 2010 is: pullulate • \PUL-yuh-layt\ • verb 1 a : germinate, sprout b : to breed or produce freely *2 : swarm, teem Felix's Example Sentence: On Saturday night, Chattanooga's Coolidge Park was suddenly filled with a pullulating crowd of young people, who were responding to a mass text message announcing an unscheduled party on the riverside. Did you know? To remember the history of "pullulate," think chickens. This may sound like odd advice, but it makes sense if you know that "pullulate" traces ultimately to the Latin noun "pullus," which means not only "sprout," but also "young of an animal" and, specifically, "chick." "Pullus" is also an ancestor of "pullet" ("young hen"), "poult" (meaning "young fowl" and especially "young turkey"), and even "poultry" ("domesticated fowl"). At first "pullulate" referred to sprouting, budding, and breeding around the farm; only later did it gain its "swarm" sense. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by Felix on Mar 30, 2010 3:47:08 GMT -5
… courtesy of [url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Mar.29.2010 ]Merriam Webster[/url], with slight modifications by me:
The Word of the Day for March 29, 2010 is: uxorial • \uk-SOR-ee-ul\ • adjective
: of, relating to, or characteristic of a wife
Felix's Example Sentence:
The past year has marked a time of uxorial joy for me, as my beloved and I face our future together, clasped tightly in the union of two into one.
Did you know?
With help from "-ial," "-ious," and "-icide," the Latin word "uxor," meaning "wife," has given us the English words "uxorial," "uxorious" (meaning "excessively fond of or submissive to a wife"), and "uxoricide" ("murder of a wife by her husband" or "a wife murderer"). Do we have equivalent "husband" words? Well, sort of. "Maritus" means "husband" in Latin, so "marital" can mean "of or relating to a husband and his role in marriage" (although "maritus" also means "married," and the "of or relating to marriage or the married state" sense of "marital" is far more common). And while "mariticide" is "spouse killing," it can also be specifically "husband-killing."
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Post by Felix on Mar 30, 2010 9:08:21 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for March 30, 2010 is: chevron • \SHEV-run\ • noun 1 a : a figure, pattern, or object having the shape of a V or an inverted V: as b : a heraldic charge consisting of two diagonal stripes meeting at an angle usually with the point up * c : a sleeve badge that indicates the wearer's rank and service (as in the armed forces) Felix's Example Sentence: The U. S. Army Sergeant Major standing at attention in full uniform on the parade ground, veteran of many overseas deployments in three wars, had so many chevrons and service bars on his sleeve that he pretty much had to retire, since his arms were insufficiently long for more such insignia. Did you know? First appearing in English in the 14th century, "chevron" derives via Middle English and Anglo-French from the Vulgar Latin word "caprio," meaning "rafter" (probably due to its resemblance to two adjoining roof beams). It is also related to the Latin noun "caper," meaning "goat," again likely based on the resemblance of a V-shape to a goat’s horns. "Caper" is also an ancestor of "Capricorn," the tenth sign of the zodiac, represented by a goat. The resemblance of "chevron" to "chèvre," the French word for "goat" and our word for a kind of cheese that comes from goat’s milk, is no coincidence, as that word derives from "caper" as well. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by Felix on Apr 3, 2010 21:41:25 GMT -5
… courtesy of [url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Apr.01.2010 ]Merriam Webster[/url], with slight modifications by me:
The Word of the Day for April 01, 2010 is: puerile • \PYUR-ul\ • adjective
1 : juvenile
*2 : childish, silly
Felix's Example Sentence:
The defining characteristic of early adolescence is the inability to distinguish puerile humor from the truly witty efforts.
Did you know?
"Puerile" may call to mind qualities of youth and immaturity, but the term itself is no spring chicken. On the contrary, it's been around for more than three centuries, and its predecessors in French and Latin, the adjectives "puéril" and "puerilis," respectively, are far older. Those two terms have the same basic meaning as the English word "puerile," and they both trace to the Latin noun "puer," meaning "boy" or "child." Nowadays, "puerile" can describe the acts or utterances of an actual child, but it more often refers (usually with marked disapproval) to occurrences of childishness where adult maturity would be expected or preferred.
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Post by Felix on Apr 3, 2010 21:43:09 GMT -5
… courtesy of [url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Apr.02.2010 ]Merriam Webster[/url], with slight modifications by me:
The Word of the Day for April 02, 2010 is: ruthless • \ROOTH-lus\ • adjective
: having no pity : merciless, cruel
Felix's Example Sentence:
In the pursuit of political advantage, most candidates, or their hirelings, are completely ruthless.
Did you know?
"Ruthless" can be defined as "without ruth" or "having no ruth." So what, then, is ruth? The noun "ruth," which is now considerably less common than "ruthless," means "compassion for the misery of another," "sorrow for one's own faults," or "remorse." And, just as it is possible for one to be without ruth, it is also possible to be full of ruth. The antonym of "ruthless" is "ruthful," meaning "full of ruth" or "tender." "Ruthful" can also mean "full of sorrow" or "causing sorrow." "Ruth" can be traced back to the Middle English noun "ruthe," itself from "ruen," meaning "to rue" or "to feel regret, remorse, or sorrow."
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Post by Felix on Apr 3, 2010 21:44:48 GMT -5
… courtesy of [url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Apr.03.2010 ]Merriam Webster[/url], with slight modifications by me:
The Word of the Day for April 03, 2010 is: dossier • \DOSS-yay\ • noun
: a file containing detailed records on a particular person or subject
Felix's Example Sentence:
One of the necessary skills for the bureaucrats of a police state is the orderly collection of dossiers on potential enemies.
Did you know?
Gather together various documents relating to the affairs of a certain individual, sort them into separate folders, label the spine of each folder, and arrange the folders in a box. "Dossier," the French word for such a compendium of spine-labeled folders, was picked up by English speakers in the late 19th century. It comes from "dos," the French word for "back," which is in turn derived from "dorsum," Latin for "back." Our word "dorsal" ("situated on the back"), as in the dorsal fin of a whale, comes from the same Latin source
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Post by Felix on Apr 5, 2010 9:15:05 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 04, 2010 is: irrupt • \ih-RUPT\ • verb *1 : to rush in forcibly or violently 2 of a natural population : to undergo a sudden upsurge in numbers especially when natural ecological balances and checks are disturbed 3 : to become active or violent especially suddenly : erupt Felix's Example Sentence: The forces of Santa Anna breached the walls of the Alamo, and irrupted into the inner yards and buildings, killing defenders as they went. Did you know? "Irrupt" and "erupt” have existed as discrete words since the 1800s. Both are descendants of the Latin verb "rumpere," which means "to break," but "irrupt" has affixed to it the prefix "ir-" (in the sense "into") while "erupt" begins with the prefix "e-" (meaning "out"). So "to irrupt" was originally to rush in, and "to erupt" was to burst out. But it's sometimes hard to distinguish the precise direction of a violent rush, and "irrupt" came to be used as a synonym of "erupt" in the senses "to become active or violent especially suddenly" and "to break forth," as in our example sentence. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by Felix on Apr 5, 2010 9:17:13 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 05, 2010 is: sward • \SWORD\ • noun *1 : a portion of ground covered with grass 2 : the grassy surface of land Felix's Example Sentence: In Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem "Jabberwocky," the sward surrounding a sundial was called a "wabe." Did you know? "Sward," which sprouted up in the English language more than 500 years ago, is currently used more frequently as a surname than as a noun having to do with lawns and the like. Still, you'll find the occasional reference to a "green sward" or "grassy sward" in newspapers. And the term pops up in a number of old novels, such as in this quote from Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles: "The sun was so near the ground, and the sward so flat, that the shadows of Clare and Tess would stretch a quarter of a mile ahead of them...." "Sward" at one time referred to skin or rind, and especially to the rind of pork or bacon, although this meaning is now archaic. The word comes from the Old English "sweard" or "swearth," meaning "skin" or "rind." *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by Felix on Apr 7, 2010 7:32:55 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 06, 2010 is: tantalize • \TAN-tuh-lyze\ • verb : to tease or torment by or as if by presenting something desirable to the view but continually keeping it out of reach Felix's Example Sentence: If you tantalize a dog with doggie treats you offer, then withdraw, he will be confused, but if you do the same to a cat...bad things will happen to you. Did you know? Pity poor King Tantalus of Phrygia. The mythic monarch offended the ancient Greek gods. As punishment, he was plunged up to his chin in water in Hades, where he had to stand beneath overhanging boughs of a tree heavily laden with ripe, juicy fruit. But though he was always hungry and thirsty, Tantalus could neither drink the water nor eat the fruit. Anytime he reached for them, they would retreat from him. Our word "tantalize" is taken from the name of the eternally tormented king.
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Post by Felix on Apr 7, 2010 7:34:49 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 07, 2010 is: eloquent • \EL-uh-kwunt\ • adjective *1 : marked by forceful and fluent expression 2 : vividly or movingly expressive or revealing Felix's Example Sentence: An eloquent leader can inspire those who follow him, but at some point robust actions have to match fluent speeches. Did you know? Since "eloquent" can have to do with speaking, it makes sense that it comes from the Latin verb "loqui," which means "to speak." "Loqui" is the parent of many "talkative" offspring in English. "Loquacious," which means "given to fluent or excessive talk," also arose from "loqui." Another "loqui" relative is "circumlocution," a word that means someone is talking around a subject to avoid making a direct statement ("circum-" means "around"). And a "ventriloquist" is someone who makes his or her voice sound like it’s coming from another source. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by Felix on Apr 9, 2010 12:56:15 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 08, 2010 is: inkling • \INK-ling\ • noun 1 : a slight indication or suggestion : hint, clue *2 : a slight knowledge or vague notion Felix's Example Sentence: I had no inkling of the reason a cluster of people were intently watching a television in the Corner drugstore on Friday, November 22, 1963, and idle curiosity led me through the door, into another version of the history I had known while still on the sidewalk. Did you know? Originating in English in the early 16th century, "inkling" derives from Middle English "yngkiling," meaning "whisper or mention," and perhaps further from the verb "inclen," meaning "to hint at." It also shares a distant relationship with the Old English noun "inca," meaning "suspicion." An early sense of the word meant "a faint perceptible sound or undertone" or "rumor," but now people usually use the word to refer to a tiny bit of knowledge or information that a person receives about something. One related word you might not have heard of is the verb "inkle," a back-formation of "inkling" that occurs in some British English dialects and means "to have an idea or notion of." *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by Felix on Apr 9, 2010 12:58:15 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 09, 2010 is: waif • \WAYF\ • noun 1 a : a piece of property found (as washed up by the sea) but unclaimed b plural : stolen goods thrown away by a thief in flight 2 a : something found without an owner and especially by chance * b : a stray person or animal; especially : a homeless child Felix's Example Sentence: A staple movie character is the spunky waif who persuades adults to help her in some important quest. Did you know? Today's "waif" came from Anglo-French "waif," meaning "stray" or "unclaimed," and, further back, probably from a Scandinavian ancestor. It entered English in the 14th century and was followed approximately a century later by another "waif," this one meaning "a pennant or flag used to signal or to show wind direction," which English speakers derived independently, possibly from the same Scandinavian word. In its earliest uses, today's word referred to a piece of unclaimed property. It eventually developed other extended meanings before acquiring the "stray person or animal" sense. The skinny appearance typical of waifs resulted in the word being applied to people with skinny body types, beginning in the 1980s, though this sense hasn't yet found a home on the pages of our dictionaries. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by Felix on Apr 11, 2010 12:20:25 GMT -5
… courtesy of [url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Apr.10.2010 ]Merriam Webster[/url], with slight modifications by me:
The Word of the Day for April 10, 2010 is: tatterdemalion • \tatt-er-dih-MAIL-yun\ • adjective
1 : ragged or disreputable in appearance
*2 : being in a decayed state or condition : dilapidated
Felix's Example Sentence:
Emerging from the D.C. transit entrance early one morning, I saw tatterdemalion figures of homeless men and women, wandering across the Mall, just awakened from sleep on steam vents.
Did you know?
The exact origin of "tatterdemalion" is uncertain, but it’s probably connected to either the noun "tatter" ("a torn scrap or shred") or the adjective "tattered" ("ragged" or "wearing ragged clothes"). We do know that "tatterdemalion" has been used in print since the 1600s. In its first documented use in 1608, it was used as a noun (as it still can be) to refer to a person in ragged clothing -- the type of person we might also call a ragamuffin. ("Ragamuffin," incidentally, predates "tatterdemalion" in this sense. Like "tatterdemalion," it may have been formed by combining a known word, "rag," with a fanciful ending.) Within half a dozen years of the first appearance of "tatterdemalion," it came to be used as an adjective to describe anything or anyone ragged or disreputable.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by Felix on Apr 13, 2010 11:42:04 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 12, 2010 is: frog-march • \FROG-march\ • verb : to seize from behind roughly and forcefully propel forward Felix's Example Sentence: Twisting the teen-aged thug's arm to a 90-degree angle across the back, the expressionless policeman frog-marched the boy to the patrol car, firmly propelling the delinquent into the back seat. Did you know? There are a couple variations of the "frog's march" used to carry off an unruly person. The first involves carrying the person face downward by the arms and legs; when this is done by four people each holding a limb, the person's body resembles a stretched out frog. In another version the person is carried off by his collar and the seat of his pants, again giving the image of a frog but this time with limbs uselessly flailing about. These ways of moving a person gave us the verb "frog-march" in the late 19th century. The verb was also extended to cover more general, less frog-like, methods of removal, such as forcing the intractable individual forward with arms held in back or at the sides.
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Post by Felix on Apr 13, 2010 11:43:54 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 13, 2010 is: cordial • \KOR-jul\ • adjective 1 : tending to revive, cheer, or invigorate 2 a : sincerely or deeply felt * b : warmly and genially affable Felix's Example Sentence: Pious expressions of regret for the lack of cordial relations in Congress would be more believable if election season did not inevitably feature vitriol and insults. Did you know? "Cordial" shares the Latin root "cor" with "concord" (meaning "harmony") and "discord" (meaning "conflict"). "Cor" means "heart," and each of these "cor" descendants has something to do with the heart, at least figuratively. "Concord," which comes from "con-" (meaning "together" or "with") plus "cor," suggests that one heart is with another. "Discord" combines the prefix "dis-" (meaning "apart") with "cor," and it implies that hearts are apart. When "cordial" was first used in the 14th century, it literally meant "of or relating to the heart," but this sense has not been in use since the 17th century. Today anything that is "cordial," be it a welcome, a hello, or an agreement, comes from the heart in a figurative sense. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by Felix on Apr 15, 2010 13:08:42 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 14, 2010 is: vulnerable • \VUL-nuh-ruh-bul\ • adjective 1 : capable of being physically or emotionally wounded *2 : open to attack or damage : assailable Felix's Example Sentence: Recently cable TV has been playing "13 Days," about the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when it seemed the U.S.A. was on the verge of vulnerability to first-strike nuclear attack by Soviet missiles being deployed in Cuba. Did you know? "Vulnerable" is ultimately derived from the Latin noun "vulnus" ("wound"). "Vulnus" led to the Latin verb "vulnerare," meaning "to wound," and then to the Late Latin adjective "vulnerabilis," which became "vulnerable" in English in the early 1600s. "Vulnerable" originally meant "capable of being physically wounded" or "having the power to wound" (the latter is now obsolete), but since the late 1600s, it has also been used figuratively to suggest a defenselessness against non-physical attacks. In other words, someone (or something) can be vulnerable to criticism or failure as well as to literal wounding. When it is used figuratively, "vulnerable" is often followed by the preposition "to." *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by Felix on Apr 15, 2010 13:11:01 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 15, 2010 is: scour • \SKOW-er\ • verb 1 : to move about quickly especially in search *2 : to go through or range over in or as if in a search Felix's Example Sentence:In preparing our tax return, I scour locations high and low for proof of deductions to lessen the bite, and perhaps gain a refund. Did you know?There are two verbs "scour" in English. One means to clean something by rubbing it hard with a rough object; that sense, from the 14th century, probably derives via Middle Dutch and Old French from a Late Latin verb meaning "to clean off." Today’s "scour," however, dates from the 13th century and is believed to derive via Middle English from Old Norse "skūr," meaning "shower" (it also shares a distant relationship with our word "shower"). Many disparate things can be scoured. For example, one can scour an area (as in "scoured the woods in search of the lost dog") or publications (as in "scouring magazine and newspaper articles"). *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence
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Post by Felix on Apr 16, 2010 10:08:03 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 16, 2010 is: cap-a-pie • \kap-uh-PEE\ • adverb : from head to foot Felix's Example Sentence: The conventional picture of the forest spirit of Northern Europe, the Green Man, shows a figure garlanded cap-a-pie with leaves and vines, growing from and around him. Did you know? Think of a medieval knight riding off to battle completely encased (from head to foot, as it were) in armor. Knights thus outfitted were said to be "armed cap-a-pie." The term "cap-a-pie," which has been used in English since at least the 16th century, descends from the Middle French phrase "de cap a pe," meaning "from head to foot." Nowadays, it is generally extended to more figurative armor, as in "armed cap-a-pie against criticism." "Cap-a-pie" has also been credited with parenting another English phrase. Some people think the expression "apple-pie order," meaning "perfect order," may have originated as a corruption of "cap-a-pie order." The evidence for that theory is far from orderly, however, and it must be regarded as speculative.
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Post by Felix on Apr 19, 2010 8:47:44 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 17, 2010 is: omnium-gatherum • \ahm-nee-um-GA-thuh-rum\ • noun : a miscellaneous collection (as of things or persons) Felix's Example Sentence: Making wry use of the phrase " omnium-gatherum," Anthony Trollope created for his Palliser novels the character of the immensely rich Duke of Omnium, whose family seat is Gatherum Castle. Did you know? English abounds in Latin phrases. They roll off the learned tongue like peas off a fork. "Tabula rasa"; "ab ovo"; "a posteriori"; "deus ex machina"; "ex cathedra"; "mea culpa"; "terra firma"; "vox populi"; "ad hominem"; "sub rosa." "Omnium-gatherum" belongs on that list too, right? Not exactly. "Omnium-gatherum" sounds like Latin, and indeed “omnium” (the genitive plural of Latin "omnis," meaning "all") is the real thing. But "gatherum" is simply English "gather" with "-um" tacked on to give it a classical ring. We're not suggesting, however, that the phrase is anything less than literate. After all, the first person known to have used it was John Croke, a lawyer educated at Eton and Cambridge in the 16th century.
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Post by Felix on Apr 19, 2010 8:51:07 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 18, 2010 is: paean • \PEE-un\ • noun 1 : a joyous song or hymn of praise, tribute, thanksgiving, or triumph *2 : a work that praises or honors its subject : encomium, tribute Felix's Example Sentence: Hamlet's sardonic paean to human perfection, that begins "What a piece of work is man...", ends with the bitter "...Man delights not me—", a combination of disgust and melancholy. Did you know? According to the poet Homer, the Greek god Apollo sometimes took the guise of Paean, physician to the gods. The earliest musical paeans were hymns of thanksgiving and praise that were dedicated to Apollo. They were sung at events ranging from boisterous festivals to public funerals, and were the traditional marching songs of armies heading into battle. Over time, the word became generalized, and it is now used for any kind of tribute. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by Felix on Apr 19, 2010 8:54:21 GMT -5
… courtesy of [url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Apr.19.2010 ]Merriam Webster[/url], with slight modifications by me:
The Word of the Day for April 19, 2010 is: frowsy • \FROW-zee\ • adjective
1 : musty, stale
*2 : having a slovenly or uncared-for appearance
Felix's Example Sentence:
After the bitter cold and repeated storms of the winter just past, yards throughout the city are looking frowsy and in need of yard workers.
Did you know?
The exact origins of this approximately 330-year-old word may be lost in some frowsy, old book somewhere, but some etymologists have speculated that "frowsy" (also spelled "frowzy") shares a common ancestor with the younger, chiefly British word "frowsty," a synonym of "frowsy" in both its senses. That ancestor could be the Old French word "frouste," meaning "ruinous" or "decayed," or the now mostly obsolete English word "frough" or "frow," meaning "brittle" or "fragile." The English dramatist Thomas Otway is the first person (as far as we know) to have used "frowsy" in print. In his comedy "The Souldier's Fortune," published in 1681, the character Beau refers to another character as "a frouzy Fellmonger."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Felix
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Post by Felix on Apr 20, 2010 11:37:24 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 20, 2010 is: tousle • \TOW-zul\ • verb : dishevel, rumple Felix's Example Sentence: Our granddaughter is an acrobatic sleeper, leaving her sheets a tousled and twisted mass when she awakens in the morning. Did you know? "Tousle" is a word that has been through what linguists call a "functional shift." That's a fancy way of saying it was originally one part of speech, then gradually came to have an additional function. "Tousle" started out as a verb back in the 15th century. By the late 19th century, "tousle" was also being used as a noun meaning "a tangled mass (as of hair)." Etymologists connect the word to an Old High German word meaning "to pull to pieces."
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Post by daworm on Apr 20, 2010 12:47:43 GMT -5
Odd, I always have pronounced this like TUSS-uhl... Live and learn.
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Felix
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Post by Felix on Apr 22, 2010 10:52:31 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 21, 2010 is: hawthorn • \HAW-thorn\ • noun : any of a genus (Crataegus) of spring-flowering spiny shrubs or small trees of the rose family with glossy and often lobed leaves, white or pink fragrant flowers, and small red fruits Felix's Example Sentence: Away! the foul fiend follows me! Through the sharp hawthornblows the cold wind. Humh! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee. Shakespeare,King Lear III, 4 Did you know? A hawthorn is a thorny shrub or tree which can be planted into a hedge, and this fact provides a hint about the origins of the plant's name. The word "hawthorn" traces back to the Old English word "hagathorn," a combination of "haga" ("hedge") and "thorn" (same meaning as the modern "thorn" or "thornbush"). "Haga" was also used in Old English for the hawthorn itself, but by the 12th century the "thorn" had been added to its name.
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Felix
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Post by Felix on Apr 22, 2010 10:54:53 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 22, 2010 is: alacrity • \uh-LAK-ruh-tee\ • noun : promptness in response : cheerful readiness Felix's Example Sentence: ... and you may know by my size that I have a kind of alacrity in sinking; if the bottom were as deep as hell, I should down. Shakespeare, Merry Wi\ves of Windsor, III, 5 Did you know? "I have not that alacrity of spirit / Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have," says Shakespeare’s King Richard III in the play that bears his name. When Shakespeare penned those words some 400 years ago, "alacrity" was less than a hundred years old. Our English word derives from the Latin word "alacer," which means "lively." It denotes physical quickness coupled with eagerness or enthusiasm. Are there any other words in English from Latin "alacer"? Yes -- "allegro," which is used as a direction in music with the meaning "at a brisk lively tempo.” It came to us via Italian (where it can mean "merry") and is assumed to be ultimately from "alacer."
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Felix
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Post by Felix on Apr 23, 2010 8:53:26 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 23, 2010 is: collogue • \kuh-LOHG\ • verb 1 : intrigue, conspire *2 : to talk privately : confer Felix's Example Sentence: If you collogue with the Devil, you had best use teleconferencing. Did you know? "Collogue" has been with us since the 17th century, but beyond that little is known about its origin. In Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary, he defined "collogue" as "to wheedle, to flatter; to please with kind words." The "intrigue or conspire" meaning of "collogue" was also common in Johnson's day, but Johnson missed it; his oversight suggests that sense of the word was probably part of a dialect unfamiliar to him. The earliest known use of the "confer" sense of the word is found in an 1811 letter by Sir Walter Scott: "We shall meet and collogue upon it." *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by Felix on Apr 24, 2010 8:48:43 GMT -5
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me: The Word of the Day for April 24, 2010 is: hale • \HAIL\ • adjective : free from defect, disease, or infirmity : sound; also : retaining exceptional health and vigor Felix's Example Sentence: Women in my family have strong longevity genes, remaining hale, alert and enjoying life to their late eighties or early nineties, except for my mother, who smoked all her life and succumbed to lung cancer at 75. Did you know? When you need a word to describe someone or something in good health, you might pick "hale" or a synonym such as "healthy," "sound," or "robust." Of those terms, "healthy" is the most general, implying full strength and vigor or simply freedom from signs of disease. "Sound" generally emphasizes the complete absence of defects of mind or body. "Robust" implies the opposite of all that is delicate or sickly and usually suggests muscular strength as well as the ability to work or play long and hard. "Hale" applies especially to robustness in later life. The phrase "hale and hearty" is often used to describe an older person who retains the physical qualities of youth
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