homily - Word of the Day - 31/07/16

homily

noun

Pronunciation

HAH-muh-lee

Definition

1 : a usually short sermon
2 : a lecture or discourse on a moral theme
3 : an inspirational catchphrase; also : platitude

Examples

The calendar features serene photographs captioned by inspirational proverbs and homilies.
"Deacons are ordained ministers in the Catholic Church but do not have the rank of priest. They can give homilies and preside at weddings, funerals and baptisms, but they cannot celebrate Mass." — Tom Kington, The Los Angeles Times, 13 May 2016

Did You Know?

Gather around for the history of homily. The story starts with ancient Greek homilos, meaning "crowd" or "assembly." Greeks used homilos to create the verb homilein ("to consort with" or "to address"), as well as the noun homilia ("conversation"). Latin speakers borrowed homilia, then passed it on to Anglo-French. By the time it crossed into Middle English, the spelling had shifted to omelie, but by the mid-16th century the term had regained its "h" and the "y" of the modern spelling was added.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of homily meaning "platitude": s _ i _ b _ l _ t _.
 
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littoral - Word of the Day - 30/07/16

littoral

adjective

Pronunciation

LIT-uh-rul

Definition

: of, relating to, or situated or growing on or near a shore especially of the sea

Examples

The report shows dramatic improvement in the condition of the state's littoral waters since the cleanup effort began.

"But this project will permanently add new sand to the beach and dune system of Dauphin Island's East End, and the new sand will stay in the littoral system for centuries." — Scott Douglass, The Mobile (Alabama) Register, 6 Mar. 2016

Did You Know?

You're most likely to encounter littoral in contexts relating to the military and marine sciences. A littoral combat ship is a fast and easily maneuverable combat ship built for use in coastal waters. And in marine ecology, the littoral zone is a coastal zone characterized by abundant dissolved oxygen, sunlight, nutrients, and generally high wave energies and water motion. Littoral can also be found as a noun referring to a coastal region or, more technically, to the shore zone between the high tide and low tide points. The adjective is the older of the two, dating from the mid-17th century; the noun dates from the early 19th century. The word comes to English from Latin litoralis, itself from litor- or litus, meaning "seashore."

Test Your Vocabulary

Unscramble the letters to create an adjective meaning "relating to or living or located on the bank of a river": PAIARNIR.

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flounder - Word of the Day - 29/07/16

flounder

verb

Pronunciation

FLOUN-der

Definition

1 : to struggle to move or obtain footing : thrash about wildly
2 : to proceed or act clumsily or ineffectually

Examples

"The four Royal Air Force pilots ditched their broken bomber and dropped into the North Sea, near Britain. It was February 23, 1942…. Floundering in the frigid water, the pilots released their last hope: a tiny, bedraggled carrier pigeon named Winkie." — Sarah Kaplan, The Washington Post, 9 June 2016

"But She-Ra's sales floundered from the start. Roger Sweet, a Mattel toy creator and the author of Mastering the Universe, estimated her total sales at $60 million, an anemic number compared with He-Man ($2 billion) or Barbie ($350 million)." — Maria Teresa Hart, The Atlantic, 16 June 2016

Did You Know?

Despite the fact that flounder is a relatively common English verb, its origins in the language remain obscure. It is thought that it may be an alteration of an older verb, founder. To founder is to become disabled, to give way or collapse, or to come to grief or to fail. In the case of a waterborne vessel, to founder is to sink. The oldest of these senses of founder, "to become disabled," was also used, particularly in reference to a horse and its rider, for the act of stumbling violently or collapsing. It may have been this sense of founder that later appeared in altered form as flounder in the sense of "to stumble."

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of flounder: _ lo _ n _ e.

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numinous - Word of the Day - 28/07/16

numinous

adjective

Pronunciation

 NOO-muh-nus

Definition

1 : supernatural, mysterious
2 : filled with a sense of the presence of divinity : holy
3 : appealing to the higher emotions or to the aesthetic sense : spiritual

Examples

Pilgrims to the shrine spoke to the congregation about their numinous experiences.

"… the stories, different as they were from one another, shared a sense of horror as something numinous and elusive, too tricky to be approached head-on." — Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times, 5 June 2016

Did You Know?

Numinous is from the Latin word numen, meaning "divine will" or "nod" (it suggests a figurative nodding, of assent or of command, of the divine head). English speakers have been using numen for centuries with the meaning "a spiritual force or influence." We began using numinous in the mid-1600s, subsequently endowing it with several senses: "supernatural" or "mysterious" (as in "possessed of a numinous energy force"), "holy" (as in "the numinous atmosphere of the catacombs"), and "appealing to the aesthetic sense" (as in "the numinous nuances of her art"). We also created the nouns numinousness and numinosity, although these are rare.

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of numinous meaning "mysterious": AYUCNNN.


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doff - Word of the Day - 27/07/16

doff

verb

Pronunciation

DAHF

Definition

1 a : to remove (an article of wear) from the body
b : to take off (the hat) in greeting or as a sign of respect
2 : to rid oneself of : put aside

Examples

We'd only planned to stop briefly at the pond, but the children couldn't resist doffing their shoes and were quickly waist-deep in the cool water.

"He received a standing ovation when he batted in the second inning. He stepped out of the batter's box and doffed his helmet to the 36,491 fans." — Michael Kelly, The Boston Herald, 28 June 2016

Did You Know?

Time was, people talked about doffing and donning articles of wear with about the same frequency. But in the mid-19th century the verb don became significantly more popular and left doff to flounder a bit in linguistic semi-obscurity. Doff and don have been a pair from the start: both date to the 14th century, with doff coming from a phrase meaning "to do off" and don from one meaning "to do on." Shakespeare was first, as far as we know, to use the word as it's defined at sense 2. He put it in Juliet's mouth: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet. / … Romeo, doff thy name; / And for that name, which is no part of thee, / Take all myself."

Test Your Vocabulary

What 4-letter verb beginning with "v" and ending in "l" refers to the lowering of a weapon, such as a spear or staff, as a sign of submission?
 

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pidgin - Word of the Day - 26/07/16

pidgin

noun

Pronunciation

PIJ-in

Definition

: a simplified speech used for communication between people with different languages

Examples

"In his 1992 book, A History of American English, the late linguist J.L. Dillard … demonstrates that the most originally American form of English was a pidgin, originating with sailor's language. Early explorers of North America, he argues, would have used nautical pidgins and passed those on to native people." — Sarah Laskow, Atlas Obscura, 17 July 2015

"Hawaiian Pidgin English developed during the 1800s and early 1900s, when immigrant laborers from China, Portugal, and the Philippines arrived to work in the plantations; American missionaries also came around that time. The immigrants used pidgins—first one that was based in Hawaiian and then one based in English—to communicate." — Alia Wong, The Atlantic, 20 Nov. 2015

Did You Know?

The history of pidgin begins in the early 19th century in the South China city of Guangzhou. Chinese merchants interacting with English speakers on the docks in this port adopted and modified the word business in a way that, by century's end, had become pidgin. The word itself then became the descriptor of the unique communication used by people who speak different languages. Pidgins generally consist of small vocabularies (Chinese Pidgin English has only 700 words), but some have grown to become a group's native language. Examples include Sea Island Creole (spoken in South Carolina's Sea Islands), Haitian Creole, and Louisiana Creole. The word pidgin also gave us one particular meaning of pigeon—the one defined as "an object of special concern" or "accepted business or interest," as in "Tennis is not my pigeon."

Test Your Memory

What former Word of the Day derives from the Latin noun stirps, meaning "trunk" or "root," and can mean "to pull up by the root" or "to cut out by surgery"?

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berate - Word of the Day - 25/07/16

berate

verb

Pronunciation

bih-RAYT

Definition

: to scold or condemn vehemently and at length

Examples

When her son arrived home way past curfew without so much as a phone call or text, Nancy berated him for his lack of consideration.

"We'd announced the tour and Mick looked at it and went, 'I can't do this,' which was not great news at all. I wanted to slightly berate him, 'What the heck?!,' but he sounded so sad. He really wasn't up to it." — Paul Rodgers, Billboard.com, 13 April 2016

Did You Know?

Berate and rate can both mean "to scold angrily or violently." This sense of rate was first recorded in the 14th century, roughly two centuries before the now more familiar (and etymologically unrelated) rate meaning "to estimate the value of." We know that berate was probably formed by combining be and the older rate, but the origins of this particular rate itself are somewhat more obscure. We can trace the word back to the Middle English form raten, but beyond that things get a little murky. It's possible that rate, and by extension berate, derives from the same ancient word that led to the Swedish rata (meaning "to find blame, despise") and earlier the Old Norse hrata ("to fall, stagger"), but this is uncertain.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of berate: v _ _ up _ r _ _ e.

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simulacrum - Word of the Day - 24/07/16

simulacrum

noun

Pronunciation

sim-yuh-LAK-rum

Definition

1 : image, representation
2 : an insubstantial form or semblance of something : trace

Examples

"Most theater shows aim to conjure a simulacrum of reality onstage." — Rohan Preston, The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 21 Apr. 2015

"There, hanging above you, is a simulacrum of a tardigrade, otherwise known as a water bear or moss piglet, at about 5,000 times larger than life-size." — James Gorman, The New York Times, 3 Apr. 2015

Did You Know?

It's not a figment of your imagination; there is a similarity between simulacrum and simulate. Both of those English words derive from simulare, a Latin verb meaning "to copy, represent, or feign." In its earliest English uses, simulacrum named something that provided an image or representation (as, for instance, a portrait, marble statue, or wax figure representing a person). Perhaps because a simulacrum, no matter how skillfully done, is not the real thing, the word gained an extended sense emphasizing the superficiality or insubstantiality of a thing.

Test Your Vocabulary

What 6-letter word begins with "e" and refers to an image or representation of a person?


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vatic - Word of the Day - 23/07/16

vatic

adjective

Pronunciation

VAT-ik

Definition

: prophetic, oracular

Examples

"Compared with [Stan] Lee's wisecracking dialogue and narrative prose, [Jack] Kirby's writing was stilted and often awkward, though at times it rose to a level of vatic poetic eloquence." — Jeet Heer, The New Republic, 7 Aug. 2015

"[Walt Whitman] dreamed of a new democratic civilization, which he pictured ultimately as a worldwide revolutionary democracy of labor—the vision that you can see in his vatic and ecstatic processional poem 'Song of the Broad-Axe.'" — Paul Berman, Tablet (tabletmag.com), 3 May 2016

Did You Know?

Some people say only thin lines separate poetry, prophecy, and madness. We don't know if that's generally true, but it is in the case of vatic. The adjective derives directly from the Latin word vates, meaning "seer" or "prophet." But that Latin root is, in turn, distantly related to the Old English wōth, meaning "poetry," the Old High German wuot, meaning "madness," and the Old Irish fáith, meaning both "seer" and "poet."

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of vatic: fa _ i _ _ c.

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usufruct - Word of the Day - 22/07/16

usufruct

noun

Pronunciation

YOO-zuh-frukt

Definition

1 : the legal right of using and enjoying the fruits or profits of something belonging to another
2 : the right to use or enjoy something

Examples

He has willed all of his property to the conservation society, though his children will retain the house as a 50-year usufruct.

"When there's no will, the state of Louisiana gives the surviving spouse a usufruct on the property." — Mary Anna Evans, Plunder, 2012

Did You Know?

Thomas Jefferson said, "The earth belongs in usufruct to the living." He apparently understood that when you hold something in usufruct, you gain something of significant value, but only temporarily. The gains granted by usufruct can be clearly seen in the Latin phrase from which the word developed, usus et fructus, which means "use and enjoyment." Latin speakers condensed that phrase to ususfructus, the term English speakers used as the model for our modern word. Usufruct has been used as a noun for the legal right to use something since the mid-1600s. Any right granted by usufruct ends at a specific point, usually the death of the individual who holds it.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create a verb that means "to deprive of a legal right": _ is _ _ fr _ _ c _ i _ e.

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tactile - Word of the Day - 21/07/16

tactile 

adjective

Pronunciation

TAK-tul

Definition

1 : perceptible by touch : tangible
2 : of, relating to, or being the sense of touch

Examples

"The keyboard has good tactile feedback, and the touch pad is responsive without being too twitchy." — Bruce Brown, PC Magazine, 20 Feb. 2001
"Sensitive 'robot skin' was developed by researchers at Georgia Tech in 2014. The skin makes use of flexible touch sensors that communicate with a memory device that can store tactile interactions, mimicking human sensory memory." — Karen Turner, The San Diego Union Tribune, 29 May 2016

Did You Know?

Tangible is related to tactile, and so are intact, tact, contingent, tangent, and even entire. There's also the uncommon noun taction, meaning "the act of touching." Like tactile, all of these words can be traced back to the Latin verb tangere, meaning "to touch." Tactile was adopted by English speakers in the early 17th century (possibly by way of the French tactile) from the Latin adjective tactilis ("tangible"). Tactilis comes from tactus, a past participle of tangere.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create the name for the stiff hairs that are located about the nostrils in many mammals and that serve as tactile organs: vi _ r _ s _ ae.

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winkle - Word of the Day - 20/07/16

winkle

verb

Pronunciation 

WINK-ul

Definition

1 : (chiefly British) to displace, remove, or evict from a position
2 : (chiefly British) to obtain or draw out by effort

Examples

"In 1483 a new English king, Richard III, tried again to winkle Henry out of Brittany, but he found that the young man was now a significant pawn on the European chessboard." — Nigel Calder, The English Channel, 1986

"The reclusive actress, 48, had been winkled out of her New Mexico ranch and flown halfway around the world only to stand there and be ignored as Amal battled with her chiffon frills and the cameras rattled like gunfire." — Jan Moir, The Daily Mail (UK), 20 May 2016

Did You Know?

If you have ever extracted a winkle from its shell, then you understand how the verb winkle came to be. The word winkle is short for periwinkle, the name of a marine or freshwater snail. Periwinkle is ultimately derived from Latin pina, the name of a mussel, and Old English wincle, a snail shell. Evidently the personnel of World War I's Allied Powers found their duty of finding and removing the enemy from the trenches analogous to extracting a well-entrenched snail and began using winkle to describe their efforts. The action of "winkling the enemy out" was later extended to other situations, such as "winkling information out of someone."

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create another word for a marine snail: w _ e _ k.

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raconteur - Word of the Day - 19/07/16

raconteur

noun

Pronunciation

ra-kahn-TER

Definition

: a person who excels in telling anecdotes

Examples

A bona fide raconteur, Taylor can turn even mundane experiences into hilariously entertaining stories.

"Her fans, any of whom would welcome the chance to share … a bowl of pimento cheese with her, know [Julia] Reed as a tremendous wit, a sharp observer of the complexities of Southern culture, a great storyteller and fabulous raconteur." — Greg Morago, The Houston Chronicle, 1 June 2016

Did You Know?

The story of raconteur is a tale of telling and counting. English speakers borrowed the word from French, where it traces back to the Old French verb raconter, meaning "to tell." Raconter in turn was formed from another Old French verb, aconter or acompter, meaning "to tell" or "to count," which is ultimately from Latin computare, meaning "to count." Computare is also the source of our words count and account. Raconteur has been part of the English vocabulary since at least 1828.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create the name for a storyteller of western Africa: g _ _ ot.

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astute - Word of the Day - 18/07/16

astute

adjective

Pronunciation

uh-STOOT

Definition

1 : having or showing shrewdness and perspicacity
2 : crafty, wily

Examples

The candidate made a number of astute observations about both foreign and domestic policy during the debate.

"Sure, he was funny, but George Carlin was also an astute observer of the way humans think and behave." — Keith Magill, The Shawnee (Oklahoma) News-Star, 12 June 2016

Did You Know?

Astute is similar in meaning to shrewd and sagacious, but there are subtle differences in connotation among them. All three suggest sharp thinking and sound judgment, but shrewd stresses practical, hardheaded cleverness and judgment ("a shrewd judge of character"), whereas sagacious implies wisdom and foresight combined with good judgment ("sagacious investors"). Astute, which derives from the Latin noun astus, meaning "craft," suggests cleverness, mental sharpness, and diplomatic skill ("an astute player of party politics").

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of astute: c _ n _ y.

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parlay - Word of the Day - 17/07/16

parlay

Definition

1 : to bet in a parlay
2 a : to exploit successfully
   b : to increase or otherwise transform into something of much greater value

Examples

"Leong said she parlayed a measly $5 winning ticket into her big bonanza. First she exchanged the $5 winning ticket for another that won $10, and with that she bought a $10 ticket that won $100. She decided to try her luck two more times and used the winnings to buy two $20 tickets, one of which hit the mother lode." — Megan Cerullo & Nancy Dillon, The New York Daily News, 8 June 2016

"Johnson parlayed the experience she gained while writing her own fashion and lifestyle blog into her first job at New York social media marketing agency Attention." — Samantha Masunaga, The Waterbury (Connecticut) Republican-American, 13 June 2016

Did You Know?

If you're the gambling type, you may already know that parlay can also be used as a noun describing a series of bets in which a person places a bet, then puts the original stake of money and all of its winnings on new wagers. But you might not know that parlay represents a modified spelling of the French name for such bets: paroli. You might also be unaware that the original French word is still occasionally used in English with the same meaning as the noun parlay. Be careful not to mix up parlay with the similar word parley, meaning "to discuss terms with an enemy." Although the spellings are very close, parley comes from the Latin word for "speech."

Test Your Memory

What is the meaning of dolorous, our June 19th Word of the Day?

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caesura - Word of the Day - 16/07/16

caesura

noun

Pronunciation

sih-ZYUR-uh

Definition

1 : a break in the flow of sound usually in the middle of a line of verse
2 : break, interruption
3 : a pause marking a rhythmic point of division in a melody

Examples

"The Anglo-Saxon idiom of Beowulf sounds particularly alien to modern ears: four stresses per line, separated in the middle by a strong pause, or caesura, with the third stress in each line alliterating with one or both of the first two." — Paul Gray, Time, 20 Mar. 2000

"Whenever anyone asks what I studied in school, the caesura of a deep breath inserts itself before the next line—the time it takes to summon the strength it takes to summon the word: 'poetry.'" — Michael Andor Brodeur, The Boston Globe, 14 June 2016

Did You Know?

Caesuras (or caesurae) are those slight pauses one makes as one reads verse. While it may seem that their most obvious role is to emphasize the metrical construction of the verse, more often we need these little stops (which may be, but are not necessarily, set off by punctuation) to introduce the cadence and phrasing of natural speech into the metrical scheme. The word caesura, borrowed from Late Latin, is ultimately from Latin caedere meaning "to cut." Nearly as old as the 450-year-old poetry senses is the general meaning of "a break or interruption."

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create a word that refers to half a poetic line of verse divided by a caesura: h _ m _ s _ _ ch.

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ostracize - Word of the Day - 15/07/16

ostracize

verb

Pronunciation

AH-struh-syze

Definition

1 : to exile by ostracism
2 : to exclude from a group by common consent

Examples

Athletes who cheat risk being ostracized by their peers and colleagues—in addition to suffering professional ruin.

"Hateful speech is employed to offend, marginalize and ostracize. It's replaced reasonable persuasion by those too lazy or ignorant to be thoughtful." — Tom Fulks, The San Luis Obispo (California) Tribune, 26 Dec. 2015

Did You Know?

In ancient Greece, prominent citizens whose power or influence threatened the stability of the state could be exiled by a practice called ostracism. Voters would elect to banish another citizen by writing that citizen's name down on a potsherd. Those receiving enough votes would then be subject to temporary exile from the state (usually for ten years). The English verb ostracize can mean "to exile by the ancient method of ostracism," but these days it usually refers to the general exclusion of one person from a group at the agreement of its members. Ostracism and ostracize derive from the Greek ostrakizein ("to banish by voting with potsherds"). Its ancestor, the Greek ostrakon ("shell" or "potsherd"), also helped to give English the word oyster.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of ostracize: b _ _ c _ b _ l _.

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éclat - Word of the Day - 14/07/16

éclat

noun

Pronunciation

ay-KLAH

Definition

1 : ostentatious display : publicity
2 : dazzling effect : brilliance
3 a : brilliant or conspicuous success
   b : praise, applause

Examples

"The … protagonist is a familiar archetype, that washed-up star who can't quite reclaim the éclat of decades past." — Kevin Zawacki, Paste, 25 Aug. 2014

"A woman, a hostess, could play an important subterfuge.… She could serve dinner with éclat, put people at ease, and spice the conversation with the wit that obscured the politics in political discussions." — Louisa Thomas, New York Magazine, 14 Apr. 2016

Did You Know?

Éclat burst onto the scene in English in the 17th century. The word derives from French, where it can mean "splinter" (the French idiom voler en éclats means "to fly into pieces") as well as "burst" (un éclat de rire means "a burst of laughter"), among other things. The "burst" sense is reflected in the earliest English sense of the word, meaning "ostentatious display or publicity." This sense found its own idiomatic usage in the phrase "to make an éclat," which at one time meant "to create a sensation." By the 1740s, éclat took on the additional meaning of "applause or acclamation," as in "The performer was received with great éclat."


Unscramble the letters to create a noun that refers to a round of applause: UIPDALT.

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natant - Word of the Day - 13/07/16

natant

adjective

Pronunciation

NAY-tunt

Definition

: swimming or floating in water

Examples

The pond was quiet, though occasionally a fish would rise to make a little splash among the natant lily pads.

"The life cycle of spiny lobsters consists of two major phases: a lengthy planktonic larval phase that develops in oceanic water, and a benthic phase that begins when the natant post-larvae … settle onto some benthic habitat." — Patricia Briones-Fourzán and Enrique Lozano-Álvarez, in Lobsters: Biology, Management, Aquaculture and Fisheries, 2013

Did You Know?

Natant and the smattering of other words birthed in the waters of Latin natare, meaning "to swim," can sound overly formal in many contexts. Rather than use the word natatorium, for example, we're more likely to refer simply to an indoor swimming pool. Similarly, instead of complimenting a friend's skills in natation, you're probably more apt to tell her she's a good swimmer. The common German-derived word swimming suits most of us just fine. Science, though, often prefers Latin, which is why you're most likely to encounter natare words in scientific contexts.

Test Your Vocabulary

Unscramble the letters to create an adjective that can mean "capable of floating" or "cheerful": YNUTOAB.

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gust - Word of the Day - 12/07/16

gust

noun

Pronunciation

gust

Definition

: keen delight

Examples

"He was pleased to find his own importance, and he tasted the sweets of companionship with more gust than he had yet done." — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Godolphin, 1833

"… the more pampered burgess and guild-brother was eating his morsel with gust, or curiously criticising the quantity of the malt and the skill of the brewer." — Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, 1820

Did You Know?

You're no doubt familiar with the simple gust that means "a brief burst of wind." At least a century and a half before that word first appeared in print in the late 16th century, however, a differently derived homograph came on the scene. The windy gust is probably derived from an Old Norse word gustr, whereas our older featured word (which is now considerably rarer than its look-alike) comes to us through Middle English from gustus, the Latin word for "taste." Gustus gave English another word as well. Gusto (which now usually means "zest" but can also mean "an individual or specific taste") comes to us from gustus by way of Italian.

 Quiz

What French borrowing beginning with "r" is related to Latin gustus and is the name for a dish of seasoned meat and vegetables cooked in a thick sauce?

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liminal - Word of the Day - 11/07/16

liminal

adjective

Pronunciation

LIM-uh-nul

Definition

1 : of or relating to a sensory threshold
2 : barely perceptible
3 : of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition : in-between, transitional

Examples

"Kipling is drawn to images of his characters sitting in perilous places, because he aims to communicate a liminal anxiety about identity and imperial history." — Tom Paulin, The Times Literary Supplement, 8 Mar. 2002

"Solnit suggests that separating the feeling of becoming lost from a feeling of fear leads to a certain kind of spiritual growth. In that liminal space, between what we know and what we can't imagine, we are remade." — Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 24 May 2016

Did You Know?

The noun limen refers to the point at which a physiological or psychological effect begins to be produced, and liminal is the adjective used to describe things associated with that point, or threshold, as it is also called. Likewise, the closely related word subliminal means "below a threshold"; it can describe something inadequate to produce a sensation or something operating below a threshold of consciousness. Because the sensory threshold is a transitional point where sensations are just beginning to be perceptible, liminal acquired two extended meanings. It can mean "barely perceptible" and is now often used to mean "transitional" or "intermediate," as in "the liminal zone between sleep and wakefulness."

Test Your Memory

What former Word of the Day refers to something that keeps a plot in motion despite lacking importance and was first used by Alfred Hitchcock?


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iconoclast - Word of the Day - 10/07/16

iconoclast 

noun

Pronunciation

eye-KAH-nuh-klast

Definition

1 : a person who destroys religious images or opposes their veneration
2 : a person who attacks settled beliefs or institutions

Examples

"Hollywood loves trotting out some irascible iconoclast who denies love's potency, only to have them felled by their own emotion like a sapling in a hurricane." — Piers Marchant, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 20 May 2016

"But the two men are … both unrepentant iconoclasts and gleeful disrupters of art world conventions. Warhol scandalized with his soup cans in 1962; three decades later, Mr. Ai defiled neolithic Chinese pottery with tutti-frutti-colored paint…." — Andrew Jacobs, The New York Times, 4 June 2016

Did You Know?

Iconoclast is a word that often shows up on vocabulary lists and College Board tests. How will you remember the meaning of this vocabulary-boosting term? If you already know the word icon, you're halfway there. An icon is a picture that represents something. The most common icons today are those little images on our computers and smartphones that represent a program or function, but in the still-recent past, the most common icons were religious images. Icon comes from the Greek eikōn, which is from eikenai, meaning "to resemble." Iconoclast comes to us by way of Medieval Latin from Middle Greek eikonoklastēs, which joins eikōn with a form of the word klan, meaning "to break." Iconoclast literally means "image destroyer."

Test Your Memory

What is the meaning of tocsin, our June 13th Word of the Day?

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jovial - Word of the Day - 09/07/16

jovial 

adjective

Pronunciation

JOH-vee-ul

Definition

1 : (capitalized Jovial) of or relating to Jove
2 : markedly good-humored especially as evidenced by jollity and conviviality

Examples

He was fondly remembered for his jovial temperament and generosity.

"Inside, the crowd was boisterous and jovial, the young and fashionable sharing space with old regulars, all of them out despite the cold…." — Michael Snyder, Saveur, 13 June 2016

Did You Know?

Jupiter, also called Jove, was the chief Roman god and was considered a majestic, authoritative type—just the kind of god to name a massive planet like Jupiter for. Our word jovial comes by way of Middle French from the Late Latin adjective jovialis, meaning "of or relating to Jove." When English speakers first picked up jovial in the late 16th century, it was a term of astrology used to describe those born under the influence of Jupiter, which, as a natal planet, was believed to impart joy and happiness. They soon began applying jovial to folks who shared the good-natured character of Jupiter, regardless of their birth date.

Test Your Memory

What former Word of the Day is derived from parcel and refers to a large number or amount?

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lout - Word of the Day - 08/07/16

lout 

noun

Pronunciation

LOUT
 

Definition

: an awkward brutish person

Examples

To get away from the obnoxious louts making noise in the restaurant, Jared and Fiona asked the waiter if they could be moved to another table.

"Leaf blowers kick a lot of dust up. Often, after I've just washed my car I will drive past some lout who is blowing crud directly at my passenger door." — Paul Mulshine, The Newark Star Ledger, 2 June 2016

Did You Know?

Lout belongs to the large group of words we use to indicate an undesirable person, a boor, a bumpkin, a dolt, a clod. We've used lout in this way since the mid-1500s. As early as the 800s, however, lout functioned as a verb with the meaning "to bow in respect." No one is quite sure how the verb sense developed into a noun meaning "a brutish person." Perhaps the awkward posture of one bowing down led over time to the idea that the person was personally low and awkward as well.

Word Puzzles

What 4-letter word beginning with "g" is a synonym of lout and can also mean "to stare stupidly"?

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hoity-toity - Word of the Day - 07/07/16

hoity-toity

adjective

Pronunciation

hoy-tee-TOY-tee

Definition

1 : thoughtlessly silly or frivolous : flighty

2 : marked by an air of assumed importance : highfalutin

Examples

"… she was by no means hoity-toity, but a thinking, reasoning being of the profoundest intellectual, or, rather, the highest artistic tendencies." — Theodore Dreiser, The Titan, 1914

"Usually Tanglewood's summer lineup is too hoity-toity for the great unwashed to care, but Beach Boys' legend and cofounder Brian Wilson performing the entire album 'Pet Sounds' is enough to give any summer concertgoer a good vibration." — Craig S. Semon, The Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Massachusetts), 3 June 2016

Did You Know?

Today we most often use hoity-toity as an adjective, but before it was an adjective it was a noun meaning "thoughtless giddy behavior." The noun, which first appeared in print in 1668, was probably created as a singsongy rhyme based on the dialectal English word hoit, meaning "to play the fool." The adjective hoity-toity can stay close to its roots and mean "foolish" ("… as though it were very hoity-toity of me not to know that royal personage." — W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge), but in current use it more often means "pretentious."

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of hoity-toity: PSUMOOP.

Merriam-Webster

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negotiate - Word of the Day - 06/07/16

negotiate

verb

Pronunciation

nih-GOH-shee-ayt

Definition

1 : to confer with another so as to arrive at the settlement of some matter; also : to arrange for or bring about by such conferences
2 : to transfer to another by delivery or endorsement in return for equivalent value
3 : to get through, around, or over successfully

Examples

Our driver had lived on the island all her life, and was adept at negotiating the narrow, winding roads along the island's coast.

"In recent years, however, using the courts to negotiate 'fair value' has become a full-time industry for investment funds and lawyers looking for a quick score." — Andrew Ross Sorkin, The New York Times, 7 June 2016

Did You Know?

For the first 250 years of its life, negotiate had meanings that hewed pretty closely to its Latin root, negotiari, meaning "to carry on business." Around the middle of the 19th century, though, it developed the meaning "to successfully travel along or over." Although this sense was criticized in the New York Sun in 1906 as a "barbarism creeping into the language," and Henry Fowler's 1926 A Dictionary of Modern English Usage declared that any writer who used it was "literally a barbarian," it has thrived and is now fully established.

Test Your Vocabulary

Unscramble the letters to create a verb having the meaning "to discuss terms with an enemy": YALPER.


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felicitous - Word of the Day - 05/07/16

felicitous 

adjective

Pronunciation

fih-LISS-uh-tus

Definition

1 : very well suited or expressed : apt
2 : pleasant, delightful

Examples

The warm air and clear, dark skies made for felicitous conditions for the fireworks show.

"Experience has been instructive to Moulder, who has learned that churches have been particularly felicitous spaces. Granted, the general public may associate the music with nightclubs and sensuality, but jazz has deep roots in the church that flowered in the form of works such as John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme'…." — Howard Reich, The Chicago Tribune, 3 Mar. 2016

Did You Know?

The adjective felicitous has been a part of our language since the late 18th century, but felicity, the noun meaning "great happiness," and later, "aptness," was around even in Middle English (as felicite, a borrowing from Anglo-French). Both words ultimately derive from the Latin adjective felix, meaning "fruitful" or "happy." The connection between happy and felicitous continues today in that both words can mean "notably fitting, effective, or well adapted." Happy typically suggests what is effectively or successfully appropriate (as in "a happy choice of words"), and felicitous often implies an aptness that is opportune, telling, or graceful (as in "a felicitous phrase").

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of felicitous: _ _ ng _ n _ _ l.

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Yankee - Word of the Day - 04/07/16

Yankee

noun

Pronunciation

YANG-kee

Definition

1 a : a native or inhabitant of New England
b : a native or inhabitant of the northern United States
2 : a native or inhabitant of the United States

Examples

"I am an American. I was born and reared in Hartford, in the State of Connecticut…. So I am a Yankee of the Yankees…." — Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, 1889

"Laura Secord wasn't really Canadian. Secord was born south of the border in Massachusetts, making her a Yankee by birth." — James Culic, Niagara This Week, 23 Mar. 2016

Did You Know?

Many etymologies have been proposed for Yankee, but its origin is still uncertain. What we do know is that in its earliest recorded use Yankee was a pejorative term for American colonials used by the British military. The first evidence we have is in a letter written in 1758 by British General James Wolfe, who had a very low opinion of the New England troops assigned to him. We also have a report of British troops using the term to abuse citizens of Boston. In 1775, however, after the battles of Lexington and Concord had shown the colonials that they could stand up to British regulars, Yankee became suddenly respectable and the colonials adopted the British pejorative in defiance. Ever since then, a derisive and a respectable use of Yankee have existed side by side.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of independence: au _ a ­_ k _.

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ossify - Word of the Day - 03/07/16

ossify 

verb

Pronunciation

AH-suh-fye

Definition

1 : to become or change into bone or bony tissue
2 : to become or make hardened or set in one's ways

Examples

When a baby is born, many of the bones in its body have yet to ossify.

"Bargaining systems that address legitimate problems today may ossify into cumbersome bureaucracies over time." — Dante Ramos, The Boston Globe, 27 Mar. 2016

Did You Know?

The skeletons of mammals originate as soft cartilage that gradually transforms into hard bone (in humans, the process begins in the womb and continues until late adolescence). English speakers have referred to this bone-building process as ossification since the late 17th century, and the verb ossify appeared at roughly the same time. English speakers had begun to use both ossification and ossify for more figurative types of hardening (such as that of the heart, mind, or soul) by the 19th century. Both words descend from the Latin root os, meaning "bone." Os is also an English word that appears in scientific contexts as a synonym of bone, and the Latin term is an ancestor of the word osseous, which means "consisting of or resembling bone."

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create a verb that can mean "to harden" as well as "to make unfeeling or stubborn": i _ d _ r _ _ e.

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defalcation - Word of the Day - 02 /07/16

defalcation 

noun

Pronunciation

dee-fal-KAY-shun

Definition

1 : the act or an instance of embezzling
2 : a failure to meet a promise or an expectation

Examples

"Early in my career, I uncovered a defalcation that resulted from one individual having too much control over the cash handling process." — James Williams, quoted in The Washington Business Journal, 30 Jan. 2015

"The sum of $39,400 was borrowed on this line of credit, some of which was repaid using District funds. The defendants then conspired to conceal the borrowing to protect their employment and to conceal their own defalcations and thefts of District funds." — The Nevada Daily Mail, 25 May 2016

Did You Know?

"The tea table shall be set forth every morning with its customary bill of fare, and without any manner of defalcation." No reference to embezzlement there! This line, from a 1712 issue of Spectator magazine, is an example of the earliest, and now archaic, sense of defalcation, which is simply defined as "curtailment." Defalcation is ultimately from the Latin word falx, meaning "sickle," and it has been a part of English since the 1400s. It was used early on of monetary cutbacks (as in "a defalcation in their wages"), and by the 1600s it was used of most any sort of financial reversal (as in "a defalcation of public revenues"). Not till the mid-1800s, however, did defalcation refer to breaches of trust that cause a financial loss, or, specifically, to embezzlement.

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of embezzle: ACETPUEL.

Merriam-Webster

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qua - Word of the Day - 01/07/16

qua

preposition

Pronunciation

KWAH

Definition

: in the capacity or character of : as

Examples

"Coben's novels have made him rich, but that's not what's important to him. It's sales qua sales—his statistical record—that motivates Coben, rather than the money his sales bring in." — Eric Konigsberg, The Atlantic, July/August 2007

"Sure, there have been other big pop music phenomena over the years … but the Beatles qua phenomenon was due to a confluence of forces that defined a historical moment." — Candy Leonard, The Huffington Post, 18 Dec. 2014

Did You Know?

Which way? Who? No, we're not paraphrasing lines from the old Abbott and Costello routine "Who's on First?" We're referring to the etymology of qua, a term that comes to us from Latin. It can be translated as "which way" or "as," and it is a derivative of the Latin qui, meaning "who." Qua has been serving English in the capacity of a preposition since the 17th century. It's a learned but handy little word that led one 20th-century usage writer to comment: "Qua is sometimes thought affected or pretentious, but it does convey meaning economically."

Test Your Memory

What type of act does ablution (our June 4th Word of the Day) refer to?


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