soi-disant - Word of the Day - 31/08/17

soi-disant

adjective

Pronunciation

swah-dee-ZAHNG

Definition

: self-proclaimed, so-called

Examples

"It's one of the few soi-disant walking boots we've seen this month that you might be able to, you know, walk in." — The Times (London), 3 Mar. 2010

"The scene was reminiscent of the heyday of the late, great Pasadena Art Museum in the 60s and 70s when an assortment of soi-disant art buffs regularly turned out, in cockamamie get-ups, for exhibition openings." — Patt Diroll, The Pasadena (California) Star-News, 24 Nov. 2014

Did You Know?

Soi-disant, which in French means literally "saying oneself," is one of hundreds of French terms that entered English in the 18th century, during the period known as the Enlightenment. Even as political antipathies between France and England were being played out on battlefields in Europe and America, English speakers were peppering their speech and writing with French. Soi-disant first began appearing in English texts in the mid-18th century as a disparaging term for someone who styles or fancies himself or herself in some role. Crêpe, vis-à-vis, étiquette, and sang-froid are a few of the other French terms that became naturalized in English at that time.

Test Your Memory

What former Word of the Day is a French-derived 4-letter word for vigorous spirit or enthusiasm?

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interstice - Word of the Day - 30/08/17

interstice

noun

Pronunciation

in-TER-stus

Definition

1 : a space that intervenes between things; especially : one between closely spaced things
2 : a short space of time between events

Examples

"The vehicle of this affirmation—if indeed it is that—is a message that the Mara character writes on a scrap of paper and then jams into an interstice in an archway before painting over it, evoking a prayer wedged in the Western Wall." — Nick Pinkerton, Artforum, 6 July 2017

"You will find no wittily sardonic yet sympathetic aunts who happen to write fiction in the interstices of the day's other duties, no talented and unmarried daughters of deceased clergymen negotiating with London publishers from a Hampshire cottage." — Nicholas Dames, The Atlantic, September 2017

Did You Know?

You don't need to read between the lines to understand the history of interstice; its etymology is plain to see. Interstice derives from the Latin interstitium, which is itself formed from the prefix inter-, meaning "between," and -stes, meaning "standing." Interstices are the cracks and crevices of life, and the word is often used for both the literal and figurative gaps of the world. In modern uses, interstice can even refer to gaps in time or to special niches in the larger expanse of something else. Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould used it, for example, to comment, "Dinosaurs held sway for 100 million years while mammals, all the while, lived as small animals in the interstices of their world."

Test Your Vocabulary

What verb can mean "to cause to permeate something by penetrating its interstices" or "to enter or become established in for subversive purposes"?

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coalesce - Word of the Day - 29/08/17

coalesce

verb

Pronunciation

 koh-uh-LESS

Definition

1 : to grow together
2 a : to unite into a whole : fuse
   b : to unite for a common end : join forces
3 : to arise from the combination of distinct elements

Examples

"Parties typically struggle to coalesce on complex legislative issues." — Frances Lee, The Washington Post, 23 July 2017

"Their first gig was at the Kennedy Center. More gigs followed, ... and the musicians coalesced into a working band, on the road three weeks out of every month." — Fred Kaplan, The New Yorker, 22 May 2017

Did You Know?

Coalesce unites the prefix co- ("together") and the Latin verb alescere, meaning "to grow." (The words adolescent and adult also grew from alescere.) Coalesce, which first appeared in English in the mid-16th century, is one of a number of verbs in English (along with mix, commingle, merge, and amalgamate) that refer to the act of combining parts into a whole. In particular, coalesce usually implies the merging of similar parts to form a cohesive unit.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a noun that refers to a growing together (a coalescence): c _ _ cr _ _ c _ _ ce.

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emissary - Word of the Day - 28/0817

emissary

noun

Pronunciation

EM-uh-sair-ee

 Definition

1 : one designated as the agent of another : representative
2 : a secret agent

Examples

As the company's emissary to the meeting, Sarah was tasked with presenting the proposal that had been the focus of the team's work for several months.
"In recent years, emissaries of Belgium's soccer association have been invited around the planet to advise larger, richer nations on how to develop young players." — Rory Smith, The New York Times, 4 July 2017

Did You Know?

An emissary is often a person who is sent somewhere in order to act as a representative. The key word in that sentence is sent; emissary derives from Latin emissus, the past participle of the verb emittere, meaning "to send out." Emissary first appeared in print in English in the early 1600s, not too long after the arrival of another emittere descendant: emit. In addition, emittere itself comes from Latin mittere ("to send"), which is an ancestor of many English words, including admit, commit, mission, omit, permit, premise, promise, and submit.

Test Your Memory

What former Word of the Day is derived from Latin mittere and means "to release from slavery"?

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accoutrement - Word of the Day - 27/08/17

accoutrement

noun

Pronunciation

uh-KOO-truh-munt

Definition

1 a : equipment, trappings; specifically : a soldier's outfit usually not including clothes and weapons — usually used in plural
   b : an accessory item of clothing or equipment — usually used in plural
2 : an identifying and often superficial characteristic or device — usually used in plural

Examples

The little closet was cluttered with belts and scarves and other accoutrements of use to a fashion-conscious teenager.

"Tour a contemporary American college campus and the guide will apologize for anything without the accoutrements of a yuppie condo. Stainless steel appliances and granite countertops became necessary to learning linear algebra while I wasn't looking." — Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe, Inside Higher Ed (insidehighered.com), 23 July 2017

Did You Know?

Accoutrement and its relative accoutre, a verb meaning "to provide with equipment or furnishings" or "to outfit," have been appearing in English texts since the 16th century. Today both words have variant spellings—accouterment and accouter. Their French ancestor, accoutrer, descends from an Old French word meaning "seam" and ultimately traces to the Latin word consuere, meaning "to sew together." You probably won't be too surprised to learn that consuere is also an ancestor of couture, a word referring to the business of making fashionable clothes, as well as to the clothes themselves.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of accoutrements meaning "trappings": ha _ _ li _ _ _ ts.

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burgle - Word of the Day - 26/08/17

burgle

verb

Pronunciation

BER-gul

Definition

1 : to break into and steal from
2 : to commit burglary against

Examples

The broken window alerted the security guard that the office may have been burgled.

"Residents … had long been complaining about a surge in crime. One area resident tells Newsweek her house had been burgled a few years ago while she and her husband were inside." — Jeff Stein, Newsweek, 16 Sept. 2016

Did You Know?

Burglary, which means "forcible entry into a building especially at night with the intent to commit a crime (such as theft)," and burglar ("one who commits burglary") have been with us since the 16th century. Burgle and its synonym burglarize didn't break into the language until the 19th century. Burgle is a back-formation (that is, a word formed by removing a suffix or prefix) from burglar. Burglarize comes from burglar as well, with the addition of the familiar -ize ending. Both verbs were once disparaged by grammarians—burgle was considered to be "facetious" and burglarize was labeled "colloquial"—but they are both now generally accepted. Burglarize is more common in American English, whereas burgle is preferred in British English.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of burglar: p _ c _ lo _ _.

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picaresque- Word of the Day - 25/08/17

picaresque

adjective

Pronunciation

pik-uh-RESK

Definition

: of or relating to rogues or rascals; also : of, relating to, suggesting, or being a type of fiction dealing with the episodic adventures of a usually roguish protagonist

Examples

"His specialty was the picaresque novel, which took the hero (with the reader happily perched on his shoulder) on a wild ride…." — Martin Rubin, The Washington Times, 16 Mar. 2012

"Rafting down the Mississippi, Twain captured pre-Civil War America with a picaresque tale of marks and swindlers, innocents and thugs." — Ron Charles, The Washington Post, 11 Jan. 2017

Did You Know?

Picaresque derives from Spanish picaresco, which means "of or relating to a picaro," the picaro being the rogue or bohemian usually at the center of picaresque fiction. The typical picaro is a wandering individual of low social standing who happens into a series of adventures among people of various higher classes, and often relies on wits and a little dishonesty to get by. The first known novel in this style is Lazarillo de Tormes (circa 1554), an irreverent work about a poor boy who works for a series of masters of dubious character. The novel has been attributed to Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, but his authorship is disputable.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete the name for a novel or drama dealing with a swaggering adventurer: s _ _ s _ _ uc _ _ e _.

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opine - Word of the Day - 24/.08/17

opine

verb

Pronunciation

 oh-PYNE

Definition

1 : to express opinions
2 : to state as an opinion

Examples

In a letter to the editor, the writer opined that the town library should be open for longer hours during the summer months to give bored children a place to go and something to do.

"Fans have opined about the merits and misfires of their team's uniforms since the middle of the 19th century. In 1909, the St. Louis Republic snarkily proclaimed 'really, baseball uniforms are the ugliest things in the world.'" — Todd Radom, The New York Times, 14 Apr. 2017

Did You Know?

Opine has been around since the 15th century, and while it certainly is not a rare word today, it hasn't always been taken seriously. Commentators have described it as a stilted word, appropriate only in facetious use—and, indeed, it does have a tendency to turn up in humorous writing. Recent evidence, however, suggests that it is being used in perfectly respectable contexts more often. It typically serves to emphasize that the opinion being reported is just that—an opinion. Opine is not a back-formation of opinion; both words derived independently from the Middle French opiner ("to express one's opinion") and the Latin opinari, meaning "to have an opinion" or "to think."

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word for an opinion reflective of one's feelings: s _ n _ _ m _ _ t.

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flagrant - Word of the Day - 23/08/17

flagrant

adjective

Pronunciation

 FLAY-grunt

Definition

: conspicuously offensive; especially : so obviously inconsistent with what is right or proper as to appear to be a flouting of law or morality

Examples

In a flagrant violation of the family's code of ethics, someone had finished the ice cream and left the empty container in the freezer.

"The history of acting, in [Dan] Fox's account, is one of constant flux between naturalism and styles of flagrant artifice, but both are modes of pretending." — Christian Lorentzen, The New York Magazine, 4 Apr. 2016

Did You Know?

In Latin, flagrare means "to burn," and flagrans means "burning" or "fiery hot" (both literally and figuratively). When it was first used in the 16th century, flagrant had the same meaning as flagrans, but by the 18th century it had acquired its current meaning of "conspicuously bad." Some usage commentators warn against using flagrant and blatant interchangeably. While both words denote conspicuousness, they are not exact synonyms. Blatant is usually used of some person, action, or thing that attracts disapproving attention (e.g., "a blatant grammatical error"). Flagrant is used similarly, but usually carries a heavier weight of violated morality (e.g., "flagrant abuse of public office").

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of flagrant: _ _ r _ g _ o _ s.

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nobby - Word of the Day - 22/08/17

nobby

adjective

Pronunciation

 NAH-bee

Definition

: cleverly stylish : chic, smart

Examples

The restaurant was a bit too nobby for my tastes, but I did enjoy the food.

"Sponsorship of nobby events seems to be the favourite PR trick for City firms in the soup." — Patrick Hosking, The New Statesman, 2 June 2003

Did You Know?

Nobby comes from the noun nob, which is used in British English to mean "one in a superior position in life." (Nob may have begun as a slang word for "head," but etymologists aren't completely sure. A possible connection to noble has been suggested as well.) Appearing in English in the 18th century, nobby was first used to describe people in society's upper echelons. It has since extended in usage to describe the places frequented by such people, as well as their genteel customs. Charles Dickens, for example, wrote in Bleak House (1853) of "[r]especting this unfortunate family matter, and the nobbiest way of keeping it quiet."

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of nobby: c _ i _ h _.

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hebetude - Word of the Day - 21/08/17

hebetude

noun

Pronunciation

HEB-uh-tood

Definition

: lethargy, dullness

Examples

Tired from being out late the night before, Jennifer allowed herself to fall into the hebetude of a lazy Sunday afternoon."The leaden weight of an irremediable idleness descended upon

General Feraud, who having no resources within himself sank into a state of awe-inspiring hebetude." — Joseph Conrad, "The Duel: A Military Story," 1908

Did You Know?

Hebetude usually suggests mental dullness, often marked by laziness or torpor. As such, it was a good word for one Queenslander correspondent, who wrote in a letter to the editor of the Weekend Australian of "an epidemic of hebetude among young people who … are placing too great a reliance on electronic devices to do their thinking and remembering." Hebetude comes from Late Latin hebetudo, which means pretty much the same thing as our word. It is also closely related to the Latin word for "dull," hebes, which has extended meanings such as "obtuse," "doltish," and "stupid." Other hebe- words in English include hebetudinous ("marked by hebetude") and hebetate ("to make dull").

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of hebetude: _ an _ u _ r.

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depredate - Word of the Day - 20/08/17

depredate

verb

Pronunciation

 DEP-ruh-dayt

Definition

1 : to lay waste : plunder, ravage
2 : to engage in plunder

Examples

The bear that depredated the beekeeper's hives has been caught and relocated.

"IDFG Director Virgil Moore … talked to the commissioners about possible solutions to the growing problem of destructive elk tearing down fences, depredating ranch haystacks and pushing beef cows and calves off their feed." — The Challis (Idaho) Messenger, 10 Nov. 2016

Did You Know?

Depredate derives primarily from the Latin verb praedari, meaning "to plunder," an ancestor to our words predator and prey. Dating to the 17th century, the word most commonly appears in contexts relating to nature and ecology, where it is often used to describe the methodical, almost automatic destruction of life. That's how the film critic Stanley Kauffman, for example, used it to summarize the plot of the famous horror movie Jaws (1975): "A killer shark depredates the beach of an island summer resort. Several people are killed. Finally, the shark is killed. That's the story."

Name That Synonym

What 5-letter word is a synonym of depredate and also a noun meaning "great confusion and disorder"?

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alleviate - Word of the Day - 19/08/17

alleviate

verb

Pronunciation

uh-LEE-vee-ayt

Definition

: relieve, lessen such as a : to make (something, such as suffering) more bearable  b : to partially remove or correct (something undesirable)

Examples

Mom suggested that ibuprofen and tea would perhaps alleviate some of the misery of my cold.

"National Park Service rangers struggle to cope with overcrowded tour buses and alleviate damage to Zion's natural wonders, including soil erosion and human waste near trails." — Lindsay Whitehurst, The San Diego Union Tribune, 23 July 2017

Did You Know?

Alleviate derives from the past participle of Late Latin alleviare ("to lighten or relieve"), which in turn was formed by combining the prefix ad- and the adjective levis, a Latin word meaning "having little weight," which also gave rise to the adjective light (as in "not heavy") in English. We acquired alleviate in the 15th century, and for the first few centuries the word could mean either "to cause (something) to have less weight" or "to make (something) more tolerable." The literal "make lighter" sense is no longer used, however, and today we have only the "relieve" sense. Incidentally, not only is alleviate a synonym of relieve, it's also a cousin; relieve comes from levare ("to raise"), which in turn comes from levis.

Word Family Quiz

What is the meaning of legerity, a noun related to Latin levis?

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waif - Word of the Day - 18/08/17

waif

noun

Pronunciation

WAYF

Definition

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
3 : an extremely thin and usually young woman

Examples

At the center of the novel is a parentless waif who is befriended by the first mate of a ship she is hiding aboard.

"Parker, playing a souped-up version of her trademark crazy-eyed waif, reprises her role as Georgie Burns, a character whose lack of a filter suggests a personality disorder in search of a diagnosis." — Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2017

Did You Know?

Waif itself is a stray, if we consider its first meaning the home from which it came. Tracing back to an Anglo-French adjective waif meaning "stray, unclaimed," the English noun waif referred in its earliest 14th century uses to unclaimed found items, such as those gone astray (think cattle) and those washed ashore (think jetsam), as well as to the king's (or lord's) right to such property. Stolen goods abandoned by a thief in flight eventually came to be referred to as waifs as well, as later did anything found without an owner and especially by chance. (It's interesting to note that the verb waive, used in modern English in phrases like "waive a fee" or "waive one's rights" comes from the same Anglo-French source as waif and was at one time used to mean "to throw away (stolen goods).") The emphasis on being found faded as waif came to be applied to any stray animal or person, and especially to a homeless child, and in the late 20th century the current most common meaning of "an extremely thin and usually young woman" developed.

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of waif meaning "a homeless child": TAERLWS.


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oppugn - Word of the Day - 17/08/17

oppugn

verb

Pronunciation

 uh-PYOON

Definition

1 : to fight against
2 : to call in question

Examples

"Carmel Valley speller Justin Song navigated the second and third rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee yesterday with a precision no one could oppugn." — Paul M. Krawzak, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 May 2008

"However, if [bicyclists] consider themselves excellent climbers, here's the real question: How fast can they ascend a hill or mountain? That's the real point to oppugn." — Ken Allen, The Morning Sentinel (Waterville, Maine), 16 Mar. 2013

Did You Know?

Oppugn was first recorded in English in the 15th century. It came to Middle English from the Latin verb oppugnare, which in turn derived from the combination of ob-, meaning "against," and pugnare, meaning "to fight." Pugnare itself is descended from the same ancient word that gave Latin the word pugnus, meaning "fist." It's no surprise, then, that oppugn was adopted into English to refer to fighting against something or someone, either physically (as in "the dictatorship will oppugn all who oppose it") or verbally (as in "oppugn an argument"). Other descendants of pugnare in English include the equally aggressive pugnacious, impugn, repugnant, and the rare inexpugnable ("incapable of being subdued or overthrown").

Name That Synonym

What synonym of oppugn comes from the Latin word putare, meaning "to think"?

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perfunctory - Word of the Day - 16/08/17

perfunctory

adjective

Pronunciation

per-FUNK-tuh-ree

Definition

1 : characterized by routine or superficiality : mechanical
2 : lacking in interest or enthusiasm

Examples

Clearly exhausted after a long day on her feet, our server gave us only a perfunctory greeting before taking our drink orders.

"Yet avoiding the heat altogether and watching Netflix from the confines of your cool couch—even while performing a perfunctory sit-up or two—is not the way to stay healthy and active this summer." — Leslie Barker, The Dallas Morning News, 13 June 2017

Did You Know?

Perfunctory is a word whose origins are found entirely in Latin. It first appeared in English in the late 16th century and is derived from the Late Latin perfunctorius, meaning "done in a careless or superficial manner." (Perfunctorius was also borrowed for the synonymous, and now archaic, English adjective perfunctorious at around the same time.) Perfunctorius comes from the earlier Latin perfunctus, a past participle of perfungi, meaning "to accomplish" or "to get through with." That verb is formed by combining the prefix per-, meaning "through," with the verb fungi, meaning "to perform." Fungi can be found in the roots of such words as function, defunct, and fungible.

Test Your Memory

What former Word of the Day beginning with "g" literally means "left" in French and in English means "lacking social experience or grace"?

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lamster - Word of the Day - 15/08/17

lamster

noun

Pronunciation

 LAM-ster

Definition

: a fugitive especially from the law

Examples

"After the Vivian Gordon furor died down, I began to think of going home. I needed money, I was bored with Miami, and tired of living the life of a lamster." — Polly Adler, A House Is Not a Home, 1953

"During his time as a lamster, Lepke was looked after by gangsters associated with a gang based in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn." — Marc Mappen, Prohibition Gangsters: The Rise and Fall of a Bad Generation, 2013

Did You Know?

Lamsters as a class are probably as old as the law from which they flee, but the term lamster didn't sneak into our language until the early 1900s, less than ten years after the appearance of the earliest known evidence of the noun lam, meaning "sudden or hurried flight especially from the law" (as in the phrase "on the lam"). Both words have an old verb relation, though. Lam has meant "to beat soundly" or "to strike or thrash" since the late 16th century (and consequently gave us our verb lambaste), but in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it developed another meaning: "to flee hastily." The origins of the verb are obscure, but etymologists suggest that it is Scandinavian in origin and akin to the Old Norse lemja, meaning "to thrash."

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word for a forecaster of the outcome of future events: d _ _ _ ster.

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bifurcate - Word of the Day - 14/08/17

bifurcate

verb

Pronunciation

BYE-fer-kayt

Definition

: to divide or cause to divide into two branches or parts

Examples

"If colleges don't begin to also focus on middle-income families, they will end up with campuses bifurcated by income that don't reflect the economic diversity of the United States." — Jeffrey J. Selingo, The Washington Post, 15 May 2017

"In the late 14th century [secretary] meant a 'person entrusted with secrets,' a trusted counselor, with some letter-writing and note-taking duties. The word has since bifurcated to refer either to the kind of secretary who nowadays prefers to be known as an executive assistant, thank you, or the kind who heads an executive department of the federal government." — Ruth Walker, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 June 2017

Did You Know?

Yogi Berra, the baseball great who was noted for his head-scratching quotes, is purported to have said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi's advice might not offer much help when making tough decisions in life, but perhaps it will help you remember today's word, bifurcate. A road that bifurcates splits in two like the one in Yogi's adage. Other things can bifurcate as well, such as an organization that splits into two factions. Bifurcate derives from the Latin bifurcus, meaning "two-pronged," a combination of the prefix bi- ("two") and the noun furca ("fork"). Furca, as you can probably tell, gave us our word fork.

Test Your Vocabulary

What is a runcible spoon?

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vermicular - Word of the Day - 13/08/17

vermicular

adjective

Pronunciation

ver-MIK-yuh-ler

Definition

1 a : resembling a worm in form or motion
   b : vermiculate
2 : of, relating to, or caused by worms

Examples

"The 36-by-60 inch panel includes a strange botanical form at far right, and layers of misty white, blue and orange oil color partially obscure vermicular forms that seem to burrow into the painting's 'atmosphere.'" — Marc Awodey, Seven Days (Burlington, Vermont), 7–14 Apr. 2010

"Born recyclers, worms transform the plant material they eat into vermicular compost, otherwise known as worm castings—a fancy name for worm poo—coveted by farmers to enrich their garden soil." — Debbie Hightower, The Thomasville (North Carolina) Times, 7 Nov. 2015

Did You Know?

What does the word vermicular have in common with the pasta on your plate? If you're eating vermicelli (a spaghetti-like pasta made in long thin strings) the answer is vermis, a Latin noun meaning "worm." If you dig deep enough, you'll find that vermis is the root underlying not only vermicular and vermicelli, but also vermiculate, which can mean either "full of worms" or "tortuous." It is also the source of vermin and worm, both of which in their earliest usage referred, despite their vermicular etymology, to any creeping or crawling creature, including wingless insects and reptiles.

Test Your Vocabulary

What pasta's name derives from the Italian word meaning "tongue"?

Merriam-Webster

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temporise - Word of the Day - 12/08/17

temporise

verb

Pronunciation

TEM-puh-ryze

Definition

1 : to act to suit the time or occasion : to yield to current or dominant opinion
2 : to draw out discussions or negotiations so as to gain time

Examples

"The pontiff's recent declaration to that effect brought headlines but no action….  Francis wouldn't be the first leader who temporized before doing something that had to be done. Think of Lincoln, who vexed abolitionists by waiting two years after his election before issuing the Emancipation Proclamation." — Rich Barlow, WBUR.org, 5 June 2014

"Ostensibly, 'Dan in Real Life' is about how Dan and Marie … figure out how to deal with their mutual attraction, even as she's supposed to be on the arm of Dan's genial but dim brother Mitch …. Of course, this particular problem isn't beyond the purview of mature adults: You smolder, you ponder, you temporize, it gets messy, you deal." — Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post, 26 Oct. 2007

Did You Know?

Temporize comes from the Medieval Latin verb temporizare ("to pass the time"), which itself comes from the Latin noun tempus, meaning "time." Tempus is also the root of such words as tempo, contemporary, and temporal. If you need to buy some time, you might resort to temporizing—but you probably won't win admiration for doing so. Temporize can have a somewhat negative connotation. For instance, a political leader faced with a difficult issue might temporize by talking vaguely about possible solutions without actually doing anything. The point of such temporizing is to avoid taking definite—and possibly unpopular—action, in hopes that the problem will somehow go away. But the effect is often just to make matters worse.

Word Quiz

What is the meaning of contretemps, a French-derived word rooted in Latin tempus?

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Pandemonium - Word of the Day - 11/08/17

pandemonium

noun

Pronunciation

 pan-duh-MOH-nee-um

Definition

1 : the capital of Hell in Milton's Paradise Lost
2 : the infernal regions : hell
3 : (not capitalized) a wild uproar : tumult

Examples

The power failure occurred during rush hour, and with none of the traffic lights working, pandemonium ensued as drivers struggled to get home.

"Czernowin's score includes eruptions of orchestral, vocal, and electronic pandemonium that evoke with unnerving immediacy the chaos of battle and its aftermath." — Alexander M. Ross, The New Yorker, 15 May 2017

Did You Know?

When John Milton needed a name for the gathering place of all demons for Paradise Lost, he turned to the classics as any sensible 17th-century writer would. Pandæmonium, as the capital of Hell is known in the epic poem, combines the Greek prefix pan-, meaning "all," with the Late Latin daemonium, meaning "evil spirit." (Daemonium itself traces back to the far more innocuous Greek word daimōn, meaning "spirit, deity.")  Over time, Pandæmonium (or Pandemonium) came to designate all of hell and was used as well for earthbound dens of iniquity. By the late-18th century, the word implied a place or state of confusion or uproar, and from there, it didn't take long for pandemonium to become associated with states of utter disorder and wildness.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word meaning "hell" or "eternal damnation": p _ r _ i _ _ on.

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élan - Word of the Day -19/06/17

élan

noun

Pronunciation

 ay-LAHN

Definition

: vigorous spirit or enthusiasm

Examples

Jeremy told the story of his trip to Mexico with such élan that by the next week people were begging him to share it again.

"The Waldorf has long had a reputation for elegance and élan, a reputation that began when it opened in 1931 as the largest, tallest and most expensive hotel ever built...." — James Barron, The New York Times, 25 Feb. 2017

Did You Know?

Once upon a time, English speakers did not have élan (the word, that is; we have always had the potential for vigorous spirit). We had, however, the verb elance, meaning "to throw," that was used for the launching of darts, javelins, and similar weaponry. Elance is derived from the Middle French (s')eslancer, meaning "to rush or dash" (that is, "to hurl oneself forth"). Elance enjoyed only a short flight in English, largely falling into disuse by the mid-1800s, around which time English speakers picked up élan, another French word that traces back, via the Middle French noun eslan ("dash, rush"), to (s')eslancer. We copied élan in form from the French, but we dispensed with the French sense of a literal "rush" or "dash," retaining the sense of enthusiastic animation that we sometimes characterize as dash.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of élan: v _ _ v _.

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garble - Word of the Day - 09/08/17

garble

verb

Pronunciation

GAR-bul

Definition

1 : to sift impurities from
2 a : to alter or distort as to create a wrong impression or change the meaning
   b : to introduce textual error into (a message) by inaccurate encipherment, transmission, or decipherment

Examples

The best man was nervous and garbled the inspirational quote at the end of his speech.

"Some calls are garbled, making it difficult for dispatchers to understand the caller." — Joe Wilson, quoted in The Cleveland Daily Banner, 5 June 2017

Did You Know?

Garble developed from Late Latin cribellare, a verb meaning "to sift." Arabic speakers borrowed cribellare as gharbala, and the Arabic word passed into Old Italian as garbellare; both of these words also meant "to sift." When the word first entered Middle English as garbelen, its meaning stayed close to the original; it meant "to sort out the best." But that sort of sifting can cause a distortion, and in early Modern English garble came to mean "to distort the sound or meaning of."

Test Your Vocabulary

What 4-letter verb beginning with "s" can mean "to distort from a true value (as statistical data)"?

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immense - Word of the Day - 08/08/17

immense

adjective

Pronunciation

 ih-MENSS

Definition

1 : marked by greatness especially in size or degree; especially : transcending ordinary means of measurement
2 : supremely good

Examples

"At the bridge site, teams of workers watched over drills the size of redwood trees, which rammed steel piles into the seafloor. The scale of construction was almost too immense to comprehend." — Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 29 May 2017

"Sometimes it's very humorous and camp and silly. Strutting around in leather and furs and huge metal helmets and what have you. Other days it's exciting. It's exciting because it somehow harks back to Old Hollywood and the idea of being in something immense and epic." — Jude Law, quoted in The Los Angeles Times, 23 Apr. 2017

Did You Know?

Just how big is something if it is immense? Huge? Colossal? Humongous? Ginormous? Or merely enormous? Immense is often used as a synonym of all of the above and, as such, can simply function as yet another way for English speakers to say "really, really, really big." Immense is also used, however, in a sense which goes beyond merely really, really, really big to describe something that is so great in size or degree that it transcends ordinary means of measurement. This sense harks back to the original sense of immense for something which is so tremendously big that it has not been or cannot be measured. This sense reflects the word's roots in the Latin immensus, from in- ("un-") and mensus, the past participle of metiri ("to measure").

Name That Antonym

Fill in the blanks to complete an antonym of immense that means "immeasurably small": i _ _ _ n _ t _ s _ _ al.


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schadenfreude - Word of the Day - 07/08/17

schadenfreude

noun

Pronunciation

SHAH-dun-froy-duh

Definition

: enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others

Examples

Elaine couldn't help but feel a tinge of schadenfreude when her chief rival was kicked off the soccer team.

"Much attention (and a decent amount of schadenfreude) has been paid to the relative erosion of the NFL's massive television ratings in recent years…." — Chad Finn, The Boston Globe, 26 May 2017

Did You Know?

Schadenfreude is a compound of the German nouns Schaden, meaning "damage" or "harm," and Freude, meaning "joy," so it makes sense that schadenfreude means joy over some harm or misfortune suffered by another. "What a fearful thing is it that any language should have a word expressive of the pleasure which men feel at the calamities of others," wrote Richard Trench of Dublin, an archbishop with literary predilections, of the German Schadenfreude in 1852; perhaps it was just as well he didn't live to see the word embraced by English speakers before the century was out.

Test Your Vocabulary

What is the meaning of German-derived homburg?


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chthonic - Word of the Day - 06/08/17

chthonic

adjective

Pronunciation

THAH-nik

Definition

: of or relating to the underworld : infernal

Examples

"In Greek mythology, the Eumenides were three goddesses tasked with protecting the cause of justice.… In Aeschylus' tragedies, they are chthonic, ambiguous forces. They do not tire and they do not stop; their persistence … feels almost monstrous." — Katy Waldman, Slate, July/August 2017

"Yet Dean's music inducts us more gently, with a deep, almost chthonic orchestral rumble, punctuated by occasional drum and electronic sounds as we first see young Hamlet, head in his hands, almost paralysed at the edge of his father's grave." — John Carmody, The Australian, 14 June 2017

Did You Know?

Chthonic might seem a lofty and learned word, but it's actually pretty down-to-earth in its origin and meaning. It comes from chthōn, which means "earth" in Greek, and it is associated with things that dwell in or under the earth. It is most commonly used in discussions of mythology, particularly underworld mythology. Hades and Persephone, who reign over the underworld in Greek mythology, might be called "chthonic deities," for example. Chthonic has broader applications, too. It can be used to describe something that resembles a mythological underworld (e.g., "chthonic darkness"), and it is sometimes used to describe earthly or natural things (as opposed to those that are elevated or celestial).

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete the name for the Greek judge of the underworld: R _ _ d _ ma _ t _ u _.

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regimen - Word of the Day - 05/08/17

regimen

noun

Pronunciation

 REJ-uh-mun

Definition

1 a : a systematic plan (as of diet, therapy, or medication) especially when designed to improve and maintain the health of a patient
   b : a regular course of action and especially of strenuous training
2 : government, rule
3 : the characteristic behavior or orderly procedure of a natural phenomenon or process

Examples

Sherry's personal trainer at the gym started her on a workout regimen of 30 minutes on the treadmill followed by 30 minutes of weight training.

"Her exchanges with the pharmacy staff served as informal check-ins that gave her a little extra help adhering to an unfamiliar medication regimen." — Stacy Torres, The New York Times, 23 June 2017

Did You Know?

We borrowed regimen straight from Latin, spelling and all—but in Latin, the word simply meant "rule" or "government." In English, it usually refers to a system of rules or guidelines, often for living a healthy life or taking a regular dose of exercise. The Latin regimen derives from another Latin word, the verb regere, which means "to lead straight" or "to rule." If you trace straight back from regere, you'll find that regimen has plenty of lexical kin, including correct, erect, region, rule, and surge. If you are using the training sense of regimen, be careful not to confuse the word with regiment, another regere descendant, which is used for a military unit.

Test Your Vocabulary

What 6-letter synonym of plan has an archaic meaning of "a representation of the astrological aspects of the planets at a particular time"?

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manumit - Word of the Day - 04/0817

manumit

verb

Pronunciation

 man-yuh-MIT

Definition

: to release from slavery

Examples

"This 27.5-acre parcel was purchased by an African-American man ... who was manumitted from slavery by his father...." — Janice Hayes-Williams, The Capital (Annapolis, Maryland), 17 May 2013

"A slave woman and her children were manumitted by her husband, who had probably bought them to free them." — Michael E. Ruane, The Chicago Tribune, 1 Mar. 2017

Did You Know?

To set someone free from captivity is in effect to release that person from the hand, or control, of the captor. You can use this analogy to remember that manumit derives ultimately from the Latin noun manus, meaning "hand," and the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to let go" or "send." The two roots joined hands in Latin to form the verb manumittere (meaning "to free from slavery"), which in turn passed into Anglo-French as manumettre and eventually into Middle English as manumitten. Manus has handed down other words to English as well. One of them is emancipate, which is both a relative and synonym of manumit.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of manumit: di _ _ n _ h _ al _.
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splenetic - Word of the Day - 03/08/17

splenetic

adjective

Pronunciation

 splih-NET-ik

Definition

: marked by bad temper, malevolence, or spite

Examples

Drew emailed the article to Kara, warning her to avoid the splenetic comments at the bottom of the page.

"On the basis of his excoriating blog—which exposes 'lies, pretensions and stupidity in the world of food'—I had been expecting a bilious, splenetic man with wild eyes, his skin covered in tattoos. Instead, I'm sat across from a mild-mannered nerdy type with a tidy beard and black-framed spectacles." — Tim Lewis, The Guardian, 18 June 2017

Did You Know?

In early Western physiology, a person's physical qualities and mental disposition were believed to be determined by the proportion of four bodily humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. The last of these was believed to be secreted by the spleen, causing feelings of disposition ranging from intense sadness (melancholia) to irascibility. This now-discredited association explains how the use of splenetic (deriving from the Late Latin spleneticus and the Latin splen, meaning "spleen") came to mean both "bad-tempered" and "given to melancholy" as well as "of or relating to the spleen." In later years, the "melancholy" sense fell out of use, but the sense pertaining to ill humor or malevolence remains with us today.

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of splenetic: NAYEIRVG.

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arbitrary - Word of the Day - 02/08/17

arbitrary

adjective

Pronunciation

AHR-buh-trair-ee

Definition

1 : depending on individual discretion (as of a judge) and not fixed by law
2 : autocratic, despotic
3 a : based on or determined by individual preference or convenience rather than by necessity or the intrinsic nature of something
   b : existing or coming about seemingly at random or by chance or as a capricious and unreasonable act of will

Examples

"He had wanted to do something sudden and arbitrary, something unexpected and refined…." — Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady, 1881

"Most of The Economist's style book entry on hyphens consists of seemingly arbitrary rulings on disputable cases: 'non-existent' but 'nonaligned,' 'arch-rival,' but 'archangel.' …  The overarching rule is that, at the very least, you should be consistent, so that readers don't find 'arch-rival' and 'archrival' on the same page." — The Economist, 10 June 2017

Did You Know?

Arbitrary is derived from the same source as arbiter. The Latin word arbiter means "judge," and English adopted it, via Anglo-French, with the meaning "one who judges a dispute"; it can now also be used for anyone whose judgment is respected. Arbitrary traces back to the Latin adjective arbitrarius ("done by way of legal arbitration"), which itself comes from arbiter. In English arbitrary first meant "depending upon choice or discretion" and was specifically used to indicate the sort of decision (as for punishment) left up to the expert determination of a judge rather than defined by law. Today, it can also be used for anything determined by or as if by a personal choice or whim.

Test Your Memory

What former Word of the Day is the name for a coward and is related to pullet, the name for a young hen?

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