gravid - Word of the Day - 01/11/16

gravid

adjective

Pronunciation

GRAV-id

Definition

1 : pregnant
2 : distended with or full of eggs

Examples

"We know by intuition and study that great books approach a condition both above and below human … and our job is to place ourselves somewhere on the continuum between those shifting poles, to welcome a gravid agitation …; to have our personhood both threatened and amplified." — William Giraldi, The New York Times, 26 Jan. 2014

"Her laugh overtakes her.… It's restorative; it brings light into her eyes and her high, round cheekbones into sharp relief. She has a radiance sometimes, almost gravid, and it's usually when she's been laughing." — Tom Junod, Esquire, 1 Feb. 2016

Did You Know?

Gravid comes from Latin gravis, meaning "heavy." It can refer to a female who is literally pregnant, and it also has the figurative meanings of pregnant: "full or teeming" and "meaningful." Thus, a writer may be gravid with ideas as she sits down to write; a cloud may be gravid with rain; or a speaker may make a gravid pause before announcing his remarkable findings.

Word Quiz

What verb derived from Latin gravis can mean "to make worse" or "to make angry"?

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sepulchre - Word of the Day -31/10/16

sepulchre

noun

Pronunciation

SEP-ul-ker

Definition

1 : a place of burial : tomb
2 : a receptacle for religious relics especially in an altar

Examples

"The secrets of business—complicated and often dismal mysteries—were buried in his breast, and never came out of their sepulchre save now…." — Charlotte Brontë, Shirley, 1849

"He had begun making plans for his sepulchre soon after his election to the papacy in 1503, ultimately conceiving of a memorial that was to be the largest since the mausoleums built for Roman emperors such as Hadrian and Augustus." — Ross King, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, 2002

Did You Know?

Sepulchre (also spelled sepulcher) first appeared in Middle English around the beginning of the 13th century. It was originally spelled sepulcre, a spelling taken from Anglo-French. Like many words borrowed into English from French, sepulchre has roots buried in Latin. The word arose from Latin sepulcrum, a noun derived from the verb sepelire, meaning "to bury." Sepultus, the past participle of sepelire, gave us—also by way of Anglo-French—the related noun sepulture, which is a synonym of burial and sepulchre.

Test Your Vocabulary

Unscramble the letters to create the name for a building in which bodies or bones are deposited: RHELANC.

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titivate - Word of the Day - 30/10/16

titivate

verb

Pronunciation

TIH-tuh-vayt

Definition

: to make or become smart or spruce

Examples

"It was instantly clear, however, that she had not been idle, but busy titivating: painting her nails, washing her hair, doing her face…." — Rosamunde Pilcher, September, 1990

"I came here as a student …, but I spent more time in Cannon Hill Park two miles from the city centre. I clearly remember watching the gardeners titivate the flower beds and strolling past the lake through the many choice trees." — Val Bourne, The Daily Telegraph (London), 21 May 2016

Did You Know?

Titivate, spruce, smarten, and spiff all mean "to make a person or thing neater or more attractive." Titivate often refers to making small additions or alterations in attire ("titivate the costume with sequins and other accessories"), but it can also be used figuratively (as in "titivating the script for Broadway"). Spruce up is sometimes used for cosmetic changes or renovations that give the appearance of newness ("spruce up the house with new shutters and fresh paint before trying to sell it"). Smarten up and spiff up both mean to improve in appearance often by making more neat or stylish ("the tailor smartened up the suit with minor alterations"; "he needed some time to spiff himself up for the party"). The origins of titivate are uncertain, but it may have been formed from the English words tidy and renovate.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create an adjective that is used to describe a neat and tidy appearance: n _ t _ y.

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osculate - Word of the Day -29/10/16

osculate

verb

Pronunciation

AHSS-kyuh-layt

Definition

: kiss

Examples

"One thing I forgot to ask the guy in the bar: When his significant other ended their relationship, did she at least osculate him goodbye?" — Mike Royko, "Love Lost in Lingo," 3 June 1981

"Attorney Dan Bailey was the officiant-with-a-sense-of-humor, advising the groom, 'You may now osculate your bride.'" — Business Observer (Sarasota, Florida), 24 May 2012

Did You Know?

Osculate comes from the Latin noun osculum, meaning "kiss" or "little mouth." It was included in a dictionary of "hard" words in 1656, but we have no evidence that anyone actually used it until the 19th century—except for scientists who used it differently to mean "to have contact with." Today, osculate is used in geometry for the action of a pair of curves or surfaces that touch so that they have a common tangent at the point of contact. When osculate is used to mean "kiss," the context is typically humorous.

Test Your Memory

What former Word of the Day is based on the Latin verb liquēre, meaning "to be fluid," and is used to refer to the softening or liquefying of mushrooms as they age?

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variegated - Word of the Day - 28/10/16

variegated

adjective

Pronunciation

VAIR-ee-uh-gay-tud
 

Definition

1 : having discrete markings of different colors
2 : various, diverse, varied

Examples

The flower has bright variegated petals.

"Everyone of significance in the region has multiple agendas and variegated geopolitical interests." — Robert Robb, The Arizona Republic, 21 Aug. 2016

Did You Know?

Variegated has been adding color to our language since the 17th century. It is used in botany to describe the presence of two or more colors in the leaves, petals, or other parts of plants, and it also appears in the names of some animals (such as the variegated cutworm). It can be used by the general speaker to refer to anything marked with different colors ("a variegated silk robe," for instance) or to things that are simply various and diverse ("a variegated collection"). Variegated has a variety of relatives in English—it is ultimately derived from the Latin root varius, meaning "varied," which also gave us vary, various, and variety.

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of variegated: FAIMDNLO

Merriam-Webster

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myriad - Word of the Day -27/10/16

myriad

noun

Pronunciation

MEER-ee-ud

Definition

1 : ten thousand
2 : a great number

Examples

"After sold-out shows in New York and Los Angeles, Rise will make its debut in Boston with a myriad of hand-carved jack o' lanterns that will light up a trail that people can walk on as music plays in the background." — Matt Juul, Boston Magazine, 21 Sept. 2016

"The robust and metallic nest-like venue, which is the first ever arena to be run entirely on solar power, features additional popular local restaurants, grab-and-go fresh fruits and vegetables, a touch of Sacramento history with their refurbished neon signs, and a myriad of local microbreweries." — Michael Morris, The Vallejo (California) Times-Herald, 28 Sept. 2016

Did You Know?

In English, the "ten thousand" sense of myriad mostly appears in references to Ancient Greece, such as the following from English historian Connop Thirwall's History of Greece: "4000 men from Peloponnesus had fought at Thermopylae with 300 myriads." More often, English speakers use myriad in the broad sense—both as a singular noun ("a myriad of tiny particles") and a plural noun ("myriads of tiny particles"). Myriad can also serve as an adjective meaning "innumerable" ("myriad particles"). While some usage commentators criticize the noun use, it's been firmly established in English since the 16th century, and in fact is about 200 years older than the adjective. Myriad comes from Greek myrias, which in turn comes from myrioi, meaning "countless" or "ten thousand."

Name That Synonym

What 4-letter word beginning with "h" is a synonym of myriad?

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beatific - Word of the Day -26/10/16

beatific

adjective

Pronunciation

bee-uh-TIFF-ik

Definition

1 : of, possessing, or imparting a state of utmost bliss
2 : having a blissful appearance

Examples

"She was Italian, funny, a beatific tomboy, with just the hint of a lazy eye, and wore a pair of glasses that made me think of the wonders of the library." — Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run, 2016

"Maybe it was the unexpected warmth of the gesture….  Maybe it was his response, the beatific expression on his face, eyes almost closed, head tilted toward her shoulder.… But when Michelle Obama hugged former President George W. Bush … at a ceremony to open the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the image quickly took flight online." — Mark Landler, The New York Times, 26 Sept. 2016

Did You Know?

Beatific—which derives from Latin beatificus, meaning "making happy"—has graced the English language as a word describing things that impart consummate bliss since the 17th century. In theology, the phrase "beatific vision" gained meaning as an allusion to the direct sight of God enjoyed by the blessed in heaven. Today, the word more frequently describes a blissful look or appearance. A closely related word is beatitude, which can refer to a state of utmost bliss or to any of the declarations made by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of beatific: e _ _ si _ n.

Merriam-Webster

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imbue - Word of the Day -25/10/16

imbue

verb

Pronunciation

im-BYOO

Definition

1 : to permeate or influence as if by dyeing
2 : to tinge or dye deeply
3 : to provide with something freely or naturally : endow

Examples

The children were imbued with a passion for nature by their parents, both biologists.

"For a 23-year-old newly imbued with national fame, Jacoby Brissett is a man of few vices. One of them is chocolate chip cookies, which in college he baked for his offensive linemen." — Adam Kilgore, The Washington Post, 22 Sept. 2016

Did You Know?

Like its synonym infuse, imbue implies the introduction of one thing into another so as to affect it throughout. A nation can be imbued with pride, for example, or a photograph might be imbued with a sense of melancholy. In the past imbue has also been used synonymously with imbrue, an obscure word meaning "to drench or stain," but etymologists do not think the two words are related. Imbue derives from the Latin verb imbuere, meaning "to dye, wet, or moisten." Imbrue has been traced back through Anglo-French and Old French to the Latin verb bibere, meaning "to drink."

Word Quiz

Fill in the blanks to create a noun derived from Latin bibere: b _ _ er _ _e.

Merriam-Webster

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glaucous - Word of the Day -23/10/16

glaucous

adjective

Pronunciation

GLAW-kus

Definition

1 a : of a pale yellow-green color
   b : of a light bluish-gray or bluish-white color
2 : having a powdery or waxy coating that gives a frosted appearance and tends to rub off

Examples

"Her eyes, a clear, glaucous gray, express unambiguous yearning." — Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 26 May 2016

"Waxy, hard, hairy and glaucous leaves help prevent water loss." — Patrice Hanlon, The Mercury News (California), 10 Aug. 2016

Did You Know?

Glaucous came to English—by way of Latin glaucus—from Greek glaukos, meaning "gleaming" or "gray," and has been used to describe a range of pale colors from a yellow-green to a bluish-gray. The word is often found in horticultural writing describing the pale color of the leaves of various plants as well as the powdery bloom that can be found on some fruits and leaves. The stem glauc- appears in some other English words, the most familiar of which is glaucoma, referring to a disease of the eye that can result in gradual loss of vision. Glauc- also appears in the not-so-familiar glaucope, a word used to describe someone with fair hair and blue eyes (and a companion to cyanope, the term for someone with fair hair and brown eyes).

Test Your Vocabulary

What 5-letter adjective beginning with "h" and ending in "y" is used to describe someone or something that is gray or white with age or that is extremely old?

Merriam-Webster

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frieze - Word of the Day -22/10/16

frieze

noun

Pronunciation

FREEZ

Definition

1 : the part of an entablature between the architrave and the cornice
2 : a sculptured or richly ornamented band (as on a building or piece of furniture)
3 : a band, line, or series suggesting a frieze

Examples

"The house commands a hilltop and is forbidding, imposing, but softened with a frieze of beautiful American elms." — Lady Bird Johnson, A White House Diary, 1970

"But many of the iconic features of the old ballpark, such as the curved frieze atop the three-tiered grandstand, have been preserved." — Kevin Baxter, The Los Angeles Times, 17 Aug. 2016

Did You Know?

Today's word is not the only frieze in English. The other frieze refers to a kind of heavy wool fabric. Both of the frieze homographs derive from French, but each entered that language through a different channel. The woolen homograph is from the Middle Dutch word vriese, which also refers to coarse wool. The frieze that we are featuring as our word today is from the Latin word frisium, meaning "embroidered cloth." That word evolved from phrygium and Phrygia, the name of an ancient country of Asia Minor whose people excelled in metalwork, wood carving, and (unsurprisingly) embroidery. That embroidery lineage influenced the use of frieze for the middle division of an entablature, which commonly has a decorated surface resembling embroidered cloth.

Word  Quiz

Unscramble the letters to create a noun related to Phrygia that can refer to elaborate embroidery or to an ornamental band:

Merriam-Webster

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evanescent - Word of the Day -21/10/16

evanescent

adjective

Pronunciation

ev-uh-NESS-unt

Definition

: tending to vanish like vapor

Examples

"As stunning as his dishes could be, in the end, the maestro understood its evanescent nature. Furstenberg remembers Richard telling him, 'It's supposed to be food.'" — Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post, 15 Aug. 2016

"I think because we are young, issues we encounter with mental health are often excused as evanescent, and therefore not something to be taken seriously." — Morgan Hughes, The Marquette Tribune (Marquette University), 6 Sept. 2016

Did You Know?

The fragile, airy quality of things evanescent reflects the etymology of the word evanescent itself. It derives from a form of the Latin verb evanescere, which means "to evaporate" or "to vanish." Given the similarity in spelling between the two words, you might expect evaporate to come from the same Latin root, but it actually grew out of another steamy Latin root, evaporare. Evanescere did give us vanish, however, by way of Anglo-French and Vulgar Latin.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of evanescent: f _ g _ c _ o _ s.

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hoick - Word of the Day -20/10/16

hoick

verb

Pronunciation

HOIK

Definition

: to move or pull abruptly : yank

Examples

"Occasionally he hoicks up the waistband of his trousers when he thinks no one is looking." — Elizabeth Day, The Observer, 24 Feb. 2015

"The flutist … looks forward, unfolding a retinue of futuristic techniques—sounds that purr like a cat, pop like a cork or hoick like a spitball—on the way to a final improvisation…." — David Allen, The New York Times, 29 Mar. 2016

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of hoick: THTICW.

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colubrine - Word of the Day -19/10/16

colubrine

adjective

Pronunciation 

KAHL-yuh-bryne

Definition

1 : of, relating to, or resembling a snake
2 : of or relating to a large cosmopolitan family (Colubridae) of chiefly nonvenomous snakes

Examples

The trellis's latticework was covered with colubrine ivy.

"Most of the colubrine snakes are entirely harmless, and are the common snakes that we meet everywhere." — Theodore Roosevelt, Through the Brazilian Wilderness, 1914

Did You Know?

Colubrine may be less common than other animal words—such as canine, feline, and bovine—but it has been around for a good long while. Ultimately derived from the Latin colubra ("snake"), it slithered into the English language in the 16th century. (Cobra, by the way, comes from the same Latin word, but it entered English through Portuguese.) Some other words for "snakelike" are serpentine (a more common alternative) and ophidian (from the Greek word for snake: ophis).

Test Your Vocabulary

What kind of animal does the adjective lupine refer to?

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jacquerie - Word of the Day - 18/10/16

jacquerie

noun

Pronunciation

zhah-kuh-REE

Definition

: (often capitalized Jacquerie) a peasants' revolt

Examples

"There were no bloodthirsty sansculottes preparing to erect guillotines; nor were farmers, however angry about government excise taxes and other matters—as Shays's Rebellion suggested—ready to burn down the manorial estates of their feudal overlords in some version of an American jacquerie." — Steve Fraser, Wall Street: America's Dream Palace, 2008

"The thicker the masonry, the more likely the fortress would withstand the anticipated Jacquerie." — Michael Knox Beran, National Review, 7 Sept. 2009

Did You Know?

The first jacquerie was an insurrection of peasants against the nobility in northeastern France in 1358, so-named from the nobles' habit of referring contemptuously to any peasant as "Jacques," or "Jacques Bonhomme" (in French bonhomme means "fellow"). It took some time—150 years—for the name of the first jacquerie to become a generalized term for other revolts. The term is also occasionally used to refer to the peasant class, as when Madame Defarge in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities tells her husband to "consider the faces of all the world that we know, consider the rage and discontent to which the Jacquerie addresses itself with more and more of certainty every hour."

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create a word that refers to the defiance of and revolt against social or artistic conventions: Ti _ _ n _ s _.

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ab initio - Word of the Day -17/10/16

ab initio

adverb

Pronunciation

ab-ih-NISH-ee-oh

Definition

: from the beginning

Examples

"Like many of contemporary architecture's most celebrated figures, [Zaha] Hadid is often presented as an artist who conceives her buildings entirely ab initio." — Ellis Woodman, The Daily Telegraph (London), 3 Sept. 2012

"Two months ago, the Supreme Court ruled that Federal Court judges are not eligible to represent Quebec on its bench. Justice Nadon's nomination was therefore void ab initio." — André Pratte, The Globe and Mail (Canada), 29 May 2014

Did You Know?

We'll tell you right from the beginning where ab initio comes from. This adverb was adopted at the beginning of the 17th century directly from Latin, where it translates as "from the beginning." (Initio is a form of the noun initium, meaning "beginning," which gave rise to such English words as initial, initiate, and initiative.) Ab initio most frequently appears in legal contexts, but it is not surprising to find it used outside of the courtroom. The phrase is also used as an adjective meaning "starting from or based on first principles" (as in "predicted from ab initio calculations").

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create a word that is synonymous with beginning: i _ _ ip _ e _ cy.

Merriam-Webster

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lavation - Word of the Day -16/10/16

lavation

noun

Pronunciation

lay-VAY-shun

Definition

: the act or an instance of washing or cleansing

Examples

"… we cannot keep the skin healthy without frequent lavations of the whole body in pure water. It is impossible to calculate the benefits of this simple practice." — Walt Whitman, "Bathing, Cleanliness, Personal Beauty," June 1846

"In Maycomb County, it was easy to tell when someone bathed regularly, as opposed to yearly lavations…." — Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960

Did You Know?

It sounds logical that you would perform a lavation in a lavatory, doesn't it? And it is logical: both words come from Latin lavare, meaning, appropriately, "to wash." English picked up a few other words from this root as well. In medicine, the therapeutic washing out of an organ is lavage. There is also lavabo (in Latin, literally, "I shall wash"), which in English can refer to a ceremony at Mass in which the celebrant washes his hands, to the basin used in this religious ceremony, or to other kinds of basins. Even the word lavish, via a Middle French word for a downpour of rain, comes to us from lavare.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of lavation: a _ l _ t _ o _.

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waggish - Word of the Day - 15/10/16

waggish

adjective

Pronunciation

WAG-ish

Definition

1 : resembling or characteristic of a wag : displaying good-humored mischief
2 : done or made for sport : humorous

Examples

"A warm person who enjoys banter with often-waggish reporters, [Elizabeth] Brenner joked that her next move would be to take a newspaper-carrier route in Pewaukee. 'No, that's not what I'm going to do,' she quickly added. 'Can't get up that early.'" — Rick Romell, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 17 May 2016

"The waggish reaction to Guaranteed Rate's name and arrow logo is like the feedback Energy Solutions received when its name replaced that of Delta Air Lines on the Utah Jazz's arena a decade ago. Energy Solutions' business—disposing of low-level nuclear waste in the Utah desert—led to people calling the arena the Dump, the Isotope and Radium Stadium." — Richard Sandomir, The New York Times, 25 Aug. 2016

Did You Know?

One who is waggish acts like a wag. What, then, is a wag? Etymologists think wag probably came from waghalter, a word that was once used for a gallows bird (that is, a person who was going to be, or deserved to be, hanged). Waghalter was apparently shortened to wag and used jokingly or affectionately for mischievous pranksters or youths. Hence a wag is a joker, and waggery is merriment or practical joking. Waggish can describe the prank itself as well as the prankster type; the class clown might be said to have a "waggish disposition" or be prone to "waggish antics."

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of waggish: f _ _ eti _ _ _.

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nemesis - Word of the Day - 14/10/16

nemesis

noun

Pronunciation

NEM-uh-siss

Definition

1 a : one that inflicts retribution or vengeance
b : a formidable and usually victorious rival or opponent
2 a : an act or effect of retribution
b : a source of harm or ruin : curse

Examples

"My nemesis was a young woman who, at the end of the film, had the honour of sending me to my doom at the bottom of a well. Her name meant nothing to me then: Jennifer Aniston." — Warwick Davis, Dailymail.com, 10 Apr. 2010

"The leaves were pale … and, upon closer inspection, the stems had small nibble marks on them. I immediately suspected slugs since they've been my nemesis in the past so I sprang into action." — Susan Mulvihill, The Spokesman Review (Spokane, Washington), 21 Aug. 2016

Did You Know?

Nemesis was the Greek goddess of vengeance, a deity who doled out rewards for noble acts and punishment for evil ones. The Greeks believed that Nemesis didn't always punish an offender immediately but might wait generations to avenge a crime. In English, nemesis originally referred to someone who brought a just retribution, but nowadays people are more likely to see animosity than justice in the actions of a nemesis.

Name That Synonym

What 4-letter word begins with "b" and is a synonym of nemesis meaning "curse"?

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univocal - Word of the Day - 13/10/16

univocal

adjective

Pronunciation

yoo-NIV-uh-kul

Definition

1 : having one meaning only
2 : unambiguous

Examples

The president declared that it was important to send a univocal message of support to the beleaguered country.

"Often cited as America's greatest indigenous art form, jazz wriggles away from any univocal definition, resisting the confines of a single track like water flowing on broken ground." — Charles Donelan, The Santa Barbara (California) Independent, 23 Sept. 2010

Did You Know?

Earliest known print evidence of univocal, in the sense of "having one meaning only," dates the word to the mid-1500s, somewhat earlier than its more familiar antonym equivocal (meaning "often misleadingly subject to two or more interpretations"). Both words trace back to the Latin noun vox, which means "voice." The prefix uni- ("one") was combined with vox to create the Late Latin word univocus, from which English speakers borrowed univocal. Univocal was indeed once used in the sense of "speaking in one voice" (or "unanimous") as its etymology would imply, but that use is now obsolete.

Word Family Quiz

Fill in the blanks to create a word derived from Latin vox that means "to utter or cry out loudly": vo _ i _ e _ _ te.

Merriam-Webster

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phlegmatic - Word of the Day - 12/10/16

phlegmatic

Pronunciation

adjective

Pronunciation

 fleg-MAT-ik

Definition

1 : resembling, consisting of, or producing the humor phlegm
2 : having or showing a slow and stolid temperament

Examples

"She said 'Good morning, Miss,' in her usual phlegmatic and brief manner; and taking up another ring and more tape, went on with her sewing." — Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, 1847

"You are aware of the finality of fate, and tend to have a phlegmatic and sometimes unhappy compromise with your life, even when you long for a definitive resolution." — Molly Shea, The New York Post, 31 Aug. 2016

Did You Know?

According to the ancient Greeks, human personalities were controlled by four bodily fluids or semifluids called humors: blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm. Each humor was associated with one of the four basic elements: air, earth, fire, and water. Phlegm was paired with water—the cold, moist element—and it was believed to impart the cool, calm, unemotional personality we now call the "phlegmatic type." That's a bit odd, given that the term derives from the Greek phlegma, which literally means "flame," perhaps a reflection of the inflammation that colds and flus often bring.

Test Your Memory

What is the meaning of implacable, our September 15th Word of the Day?

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scion - Word of the Day - 11/10/16

scion

noun

Pronunciation

SYE-un

Definition

1 : a detached living portion of a plant (as a bud or shoot) joined to a stock in grafting and usually supplying solely aerial parts to a graft
2 : descendant, child; especially : a descendant of a wealthy, aristocratic, or influential family
3 : heir

Examples

"The duke was the billionaire owner of swaths of central London, a friend of Britain's royal family and the scion of an aristocratic family stretching back to the Norman Conquest." — The Boston Herald, 14 Aug. 2016

"The vibe of the place is a mixture of old-school cool and Brit eccentric. There are poems etched onto the wall by the artist Hugo Guinness, … a scion of the famous Anglo-Irish brewing family." — Christa D'Souza, W, September 2016

Did You Know?

Scion derives from the Middle English sioun and Old French cion and is related to the Old English cīth and the Old High German kīdi (meaning "sprout" or "shoot"). When it first sprouted in English in the 14th century, scion meant "a shoot or twig." That sense withered in horticultural contexts, but the word branched out, adding the grafting-related meaning we know today. A figurative sense also blossomed referring to one's descendants, with particular reference to those who are descendants of notable families.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create a word that refers to the female branch of a family: d _ _ ta _ f.

Merriam-Webster

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roister - Word of the Day - 10/10/16

roister

verb

Pronunciation

ROY-ster

Definition

: to engage in noisy revelry : carouse

Examples

Hugh didn't get much sleep last night because his neighbors were roistering until the wee hours of the morning.

"North Highlands, apparently, is also what they call a part of Scotland where the prince's grandmum (the Queen Mother) kept a wee castle where the little royals used to roister." — Carlos Alcala, The Sacramento (California) Bee, 27 Oct. 2005

Did You Know?

As British writer Hugo Williams asserted in The Times Literary Supplement (November 15, 1991), roistering tends to be "funnier, sillier and less harmful than standard hooliganism, being based on nonsense rather than violence." Boisterous roisterers might be chagrined to learn that the word roister derives from a Middle French word that means "lout" or "boor," rustre. Ultimately, however, it is from the fairly neutral Latin word rusticus, meaning "rural." In the 16th century, the original English verb was simply roist, and one who roisted was a roister. Later, we changed the verb to roister and the corresponding noun to roisterer.

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of roister: ISALWSA.

Merriam-Webster

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odious - Word of the Day - 09/10/16

odious

adjective

Pronunciation

OH-dee-us

Definition

: arousing or deserving hatred or repugnance : hateful

Examples

Volunteers gathered on Saturday morning to scrub away the odious graffiti spray-painted on the school.

"I can't help being reminded of the progress we've made as a nation, as well as the odious past of slavery, the many men and women who have lost their lives in wars…." — Candi Castleberry Singleton, quoted in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 5 Sept. 2016

Did You Know?

Odious has been with us since the days of Middle English. We borrowed it from Anglo-French, which in turn had taken it from Latin odiosus. The Latin adjective came from the noun odium, meaning "hatred." Odium is also an ancestor of the English verb annoy (another word that came to Middle English via Anglo-French). And, at the beginning of the 17th century, odium entered English in its unaltered form, giving us a noun meaning "hatred" or "disgrace" (as in "ideas that have incurred much odium").

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of odious: _ nvi _ _ o _ s.

Merriam-Webster

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truncate - Word of the Day - 08/10/16

truncate

verb

Pronunciation

TRUNG-kayt
 

Definition

: to shorten by or as if by cutting off

Examples

"Apparently, a federal law … requires printed credit card receipts truncate not only the credit card number, but also the expiration date." — Jack Greiner, The Cincinnati Enquirer, 28 Aug. 2016

"Google's own URL shortener service … instantly truncates the URL you're visiting and copies the new address to the clipboard for use anywhere." — Eric Griffith, PCMag.com, 23 Aug. 2016

Did You Know?

Truncate descends from the Latin verb truncare, meaning "to shorten," which in turn can be traced back to the Latin word for the trunk of a tree, which is truncus. Incidentally, if you've guessed that truncus is also the ancestor of the English word trunk, you are correct. Truncus also gave us truncheon, which is the name for a police officer's billy club, and the obscure word obtruncate, meaning "to cut the head or top from."

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of truncate: IURLTAC.
Merriam-Webster

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

macadam

noun

Pronunciation

muh-KAD-um
 

Definition

: a roadway or pavement of small closely packed broken stone

Examples

The sloping, curved street saw light traffic and had a smooth macadam surface that made it popular with skateboarders.

"Littered on the beach are nearly a dozen big slabs of macadam and even larger chunks of concrete that have slid down the cliff." — Chris Burrell, The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Massachusetts), 20 Aug. 2016

Did You Know?

In 1783, inventor John Loudon McAdam returned to his native Scotland after amassing a fortune in New York City. He became the road trustee for his district and quickly set his inventiveness to remedying the terrible condition of local roads. After numerous experiments, he created a new road surfacing material made of bits of stone that became compressed into a solid mass as traffic passed over them. His invention revolutionised road construction and transportation, and engineers and the public alike honored him by using his name (respelled macadam) as a generic term for the material or pavement made from it. He is further immortalized in the verb macadamise, which names the process of installing macadam on a road.

Test Your Memory

What is the meaning of myrmidon, our September 11th Word of the Day?

Merriam-Webster

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vulnerary - Word of the Day - 06/10/16

vulnerary

adjective

Pronunciation

VUL-nuh-rair-ee

Definition

: used for or useful in healing wounds

Examples

"Rebecca examined the wound, and having applied to it such vulnerary remedies as her art prescribed, informed her father that if fever could be averted … there was nothing to fear for his guest's life, and that he might with safety travel to York with them on the ensuing day." — Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, 1820

"St. John’s wort can also help those with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) due to lower sunlight exposure in the winter months. Its anti-inflammatory, vulnerary, astringent, and antimicrobial actions make it a powerful healer for wounds, bruises, burns, sprains, and muscle pain." — Jane Metzger, Mother Earth News, 13 July 2015

Did You Know?

In Latin, vulnus means "wound." You might think, then, that the English adjective vulnerary would mean "wounding" or "causing a wound"—and, indeed, vulnerary has been used that way, along with two obsolete adjectives, vulnerative and vulnific. But for the lasting and current use of vulnerary, we took our cue from the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder. In his Natural History, he used the Latin adjective vulnerarius to describe a plaster, or dressing, for healing wounds. And that's fine—the suffix -ary merely indicates that there is a connection, which, in this case, is to wounds. (As you may have already suspected, vulnerable is related; it comes from the Latin verb vulnerare, which means "to wound.")

Test Your Vocabulary

Unscramble the letters to create an adjective that means "having the power to cure or heal": VNAEITSA.

Merriam-Webster

http://grammarandpunctuationmodule4.blogspot.com.au/

invective - Word of the Day - 05/10/16

invective

noun

Pronunciation

in-VEK-tiv

Definition

1 : an abusive expression or speech

2 : insulting or abusive language : vituperation

Examples

"The ongoing collapse of responsible broadcast and cable journalism and the explosive role that social media has assumed in this campaign have made for a nasty brew of invective, slurs and accusations…." — Susan J. Douglas, In These Times, July 2016

"At a moment when American political discourse has descended to almost unimaginable levels of … invective, we need our teachers to model a better way to discuss our differences." — Jonathan Zimmerman, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 14 Aug. 2016

Did You Know?

Invective originated in the 15th century as an adjective meaning "of, relating to, or characterized by insult or abuse." In the early 16th century, it appeared in print as a noun meaning "an example of abusive speech." Eventually, the noun developed a second sense applying to abusive language as a whole. Invective comes to us from the Middle French word invectif, which in turn derives from Latin invectivus, meaning "reproachful, abusive." (Invectivus comes from Latin invectus, past participle of the verb invehere, one form of which means "to assail with words.") Invective is similar to abuse, but it tends to suggest not only anger and vehemence but verbal and rhetorical skill. It sometimes implies public denunciation, as in "blistering political invective."

Test Your Vocabulary

What 2-word term can refer to a writer specializing in invective or to a person hired to ruin another's reputation? [Hint: the first word refers to a type of cutting tool]

Merriam-Webster

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banausic - Word of the Day - 04 /10/16

banausic

adjective

Pronunciation

buh-NAW-sik

Definition

: relating to or concerned with earning a living — used pejoratively; also : utilitarian, practical

Examples

"At the far end was a wooden board on which were hung saws, chisels, knives and other banausic instruments of the trade." — Sebastian Faulk, Human Traces, 2005

"That story is followed by a brilliant allegory of reality TV and the cult of personality, Rumours About Me, in which a simple company man sees his banausic daily life … broadcast by the media until he is transformed into 'a nobody who was known by everybody.'" — Christine Thomas, The Miami Herald, 2 Nov. 2008

Did You Know?

The ancient Greeks held intellectual pursuits in the highest esteem, and they considered ideal a leisurely life of contemplation. A large population of slaves enabled many Greek citizens to adopt that preferred lifestyle. Those who had others to do the heavy lifting for them tended to regard professional labor with contempt. Their prejudice against the need to toil to earn a living is reflected in the Greek adjective banausikos (the root of banausic), which not only means "of an artisan" (from the word for "artisan," banausos) but "nonintellectual" as well.

Test Your Memory

What former Word of the Day can mean "to attack with false charges" or "to sprinkle"?

Merriam-Webster

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guerdon - Word of the Day - 03/10/16

guerdon

noun

Pronunciation

GUR-dun

Definition

: reward, recompense

Examples

"The big hurdle … was early promotion to captain. … This early promotion, this small dry irrevocable statistic in the record, was his guerdon for a quarter of a century of getting things done." — Herman Wouk, The Winds of War, 1971

"The guerdon in attending a repertory company's concert is being able to savor the variety of work on display." — Juan Michael Porter II, Broadway World, 7 June 2016

Did You Know?

Guerdon dates back to the 14th century, when Geoffrey Chaucer used it in The Romaunt of the Rose (ca. 1366): "He quitte him wel his guerdon there." It derives from Anglo-French and is thought to be related to the Old High German widarlōn, meaning "reward." Shakespeare used guerdon a couple of times in his plays. In Love's Labour's Lost, for example, Berowne, attendant to King Ferdinand, sends the clown Costard to deliver a letter to Rosaline, attendant to the princess of France, handing him a shilling with the line, "There's thy guerdon; go." Guerdon is a rare word today, but contemporary writers do use it on occasion for poetic effect.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of guerdon: r _ _ ui _ al.

Merriam-Webster

http://grammarandpunctuationmodule4.blogspot.com.au/

deliquesce - Word of the Day - 03/10/16

deliquesce

verb

Pronunciation

del-ih-KWESS

Definition

1 : to dissolve or melt away
2 : to become soft or liquid with age or maturity—used of some fungal structures (as the gills of a mushroom)

Examples

"'Number Nine,' a 16-minute bonbon of a ballet …, keeps its yellow-clad ensemble and four principal couples wheeling through kaleidoscopic patterns that surprise as they smoothly crystallize and deliquesce, sometimes matching the musical rhythms, sometimes working against them." — Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times, 26 Sept. 2012

"But wait. If you have the brisket, will there be room for the beef rib? There'd better be, because it is a triumph. The salt-and-pepper-coated smoked meat and fat deliquesce into a sort of beef confit." — Mark Vamos, The Dallas Morning News, 25 Dec. 2015

Did You Know?

Deliquesce derives from the prefix de- ("from, down, away") and a form of the Latin verb liquēre, meaning "to be fluid." Things that deliquesce, it could be said, turn to mush in more ways than one. In scientific contexts, a substance that deliquesces absorbs moisture from the atmosphere until it dissolves in the absorbed water and forms a solution. When plants and fungi deliquesce, they lose rigidity as they age. When deliquesce is used in non-scientific contexts, it is often in a figurative or humorous way to suggest the act of "melting away" under exhaustion, heat, or idleness, as in "teenagers deliquescing in 90-degree temperatures."

Quiz

Fill in the blanks to create an adjective derived from Latin liquēre that is synonymous with wordy: p _ _ li _.

Merriam-Webster

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