Lay or Lie - Word of the Day - 07/03/16

How to Use Lay and Lie

Tripping Up English Speakers for 700 Years
 
Incorrect "I'm going to lay down"
Correct - "I'm going to lie down,"

Lay means - to place (something or someone) down in a flat position.

Lie - to be in a flat position on a surface."

Lay is transitive - the verb (lay) must have an object.

A thing or person being placed - Lay it down.

Lie is intransitive. 

You can lie down there.
You can lie there all day.

Tricky - using the words beyond the present tense.

lay 

I was told to lay the book down.
I laid it down as I have laid other books down.
I am laying more books down now.

lie

I was told to lie down.
I lay down.
I have lain here since.
I'm still lying here.

Note 

 For lay, we have lay, laid, have laid, laying.
 For lie, we have lie, lay, have lain, lying.

Unrelated verb meaning - to tell an untruth.

lie   lie, lied, have lied, lying.

Jettison - Word of the Day - 06/03/16

Jettison

verb

Pronunciation

\JET-uh-sun\

 Definition

1 - to throw (goods) overboard to lighten a ship or aircraft in distress

2 - discard

Examples

As the boat began to take on water, the pirates argued over whether they should jettison some of the heavy, stolen loot.

"… [Wayne Pathman, chair of the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce] says banks have not yet jettisoned the 30-year mortgage, but 'it's out there,' and he expects them to 'start looking at how they give mortgages and protect their collateral' as sea levels rise." — Nina Burleigh, Newsweek, 28 Jan. 2016

 Did You Know?

Jettison comes from the Anglo-French noun geteson, meaning "action of throwing," and is ultimately from the Latin verb jactare, meaning "to throw." The noun jettison ("a voluntary sacrifice of cargo to lighten a ship's load in time of distress") entered English in the 15th century; the verb has been with us since the 19th century. The noun is also the source of the word jetsam ("jettisoned goods"), which is often paired with flotsam ("floating wreckage"). These days you don't have to be on a sinking ship to jettison something. In addition to literally "throwing overboard," jettison means simply "to get rid of." You might jettison some old magazines that are cluttering your house, or you might make a plan but jettison it at the last minute.

Quiz

What word is derived from Latin jactare and refers to the tossing to or fro of the body or to the jerking or twitching of its parts?

Merriam-Webster

Zaftig - Word of the Day - 05/03/16

Zaftig  

Adjective

Pronunciation

\ZAHF-tig\

Definition

- having a full rounded figure : pleasingly plump.

Examples 

"… Marilyn is lucky that … the Hollywood powers at least had the smarts not to put her on a diet. She looked plenty good zaftig." — Bookwormroom.com, 31 May 2012

 "But Oprah—now there's a woman who has run the dieting gauntlet over the years. In 1988, she pulled a wagon full of 67 pounds of quivering fat onto the stage to show what she had lost on a liquid diet. Then she ballooned up to 200 pounds after a thyroid malfunction, before running the Marine Corps Marathon at a healthy zaftig size." — Leah McLaren, The Globe and Mail (Canada), 23 Oct. 2015

 Did You Know?

 Over the centuries, some women have been approvingly described as full-figured, shapely, womanly, curvy, curvaceous, voluptuous, and statuesque. Such women are, in a word, zaftig. Zaftig has been juicing up our language since the 1930s (the same decade that gave us Yiddish-derived futz, hoo-ha, and schmaltz, not to mention lox). It comes from the Yiddish zaftik, which means "juicy" or "succulent" and which in turn derives from zaft, meaning "juice" or "sap."

 Quiz

Unscramble the letters to create an adjective that can mean "notably plump": TDUONR.

Merriam-Webster

Camaraderie - Word of the Day - 04/03/16

Camaraderie

Noun

Pronunciation

\kahm-RAH-duh-ree\

  

Definition

 - a spirit of friendly good-fellowship

Examples

The sense of camaraderie among colleagues in the sales department is the main reason Julie enjoys coming to work each day.

"Today, visits combine adventure, relaxation and camaraderie. The latter is hard to come by in winter when snow and cold isolate people in this already desolate part of the state." — Paul Post, The New York Times, 2 Feb. 2016

Did You Know?

Camaraderie made its first appearance in English in the middle of the 19th century. It comes from camarade, the French word whose Middle French ancestor was also the source for our word comrade. In Middle French, camarade was used to mean "roommate," "companion," or "a group sleeping in one room." It derived by way of Old Spanish from the Late Latin camera, or camara, meaning "chamber." We also have the word comradery, which means the same thing as camaraderie but did not take the same etymological route as its synonym. That word, formed by attaching the -ry suffix (as found in wizardry and citizenry) to comrade, didn't appear in English until almost 40 years after camaraderie.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create a verb that means "to display excessive cordiality or goodwill": b _ _ ks _ _ p.

Merriam-Webster

Somnolent - Word of the Day - 03/03/16

Somnolent

adjective

Pronunciation

\SAHM-nuh-lunt\

Definition

1 - of a kind likely to induce sleep

2 - a - inclined to or heavy with sleep : drowsy

     b  - sleepy

Examples

"George, a somnolent ginger [cat] curled in an orange felt bed, was sleeping through the overtures of Molly Flanagan…." — Penelope Green, The New York Times, 6 Nov. 2015

"Traditionally, Bordeaux had turned its back on its tourists. Sooty and somnolent, it was an insular place where the streets were clogged with traffic and shutters snapped closed on weekends." — Suzanne Mustacich, Wine Spectator, 31 Mar. 2012

Did You Know?

Somnolent first appeared in the late 15th century in the redundant phrase "somnolent sleep." It came into English by way of Anglo-French from the Latin word somnolentus, which itself comes from somnus, meaning "sleep." Another offspring of somnus is somnambulism, a synonym of sleepwalking. Insomnia is also a member of this sleepy word family, though it might be considered the black sheep, since it means, of course, "the inability to sleep."

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of somnolent: s _ p _ r _ _ ic.

Merriam-Webster

Expurgate - Word of the Day - 01/03/16

Expurgate

Line breaks: ex|pur|gate

Pronunciation:

 /ˈɛkspəːɡeɪt/

Verb

Definition of expurgate in English:

Remove matter thought to be objectionable or unsuitable from (a text or account):

EXAMPLE SENTENCES

An expurgated English translation.

It had been on the books since 1897, when expurgated editions of the classics, especially for consumption in classrooms, were common.

She found that most of them had been expurgated to remove anything that was remotely controversial, in some cases making the author's intention unrecognizable.

Thomas Jefferson expurgated his own version by cut and paste method.

SYNONYMS

censor, bowdlerize, blue-pencil, redact, cut, edit; clean up, purge, purify, sanitize, make acceptable, make palatable, make presentable, water down, emasculate

Derivatives

Expurgation

Pronunciation:

/ɛkspəːˈɡeɪʃ(ə)n/

Noun

Expurgator

Pronunciation:

 /ˈɛkspəːɡeɪtə/

Noun

Expurgatory

Pronunciation: /ɛkˈspəːɡət(ə)ri/

adjective

Origin

Early 17th century (in the sense 'purge of excrement'): from Latin expurgat- 'thoroughly cleansed', from the verb expurgare, from ex- 'out' + purgare 'cleanse'.

  

Oxford Dictionary

Glean - Word of the Day - 01/03/16

Glean

Verb

Pronunciation

\GLEEN\

Definition

1 - to gather grain or other produce left by reapers.

2 - a - to gather (as information) bit by bit.

     b - to pick over in search of relevant material.

 3 - to find out.

  

Examples

Investigators have been able to glean some useful information from the seized documents.

"He won four gold medals in London on his talent and the experience he gleaned from three previous Olympics." — Suzanne Halliburton, The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, 15 Jan. 2016

Did You Know?

Glean comes from Middle English glenen, which traces to Anglo-French glener, meaning "to glean." The French borrowed their word from Late Latin glennare, which also means "to glean" and is itself of Celtic origin. Both the grain-gathering sense and the collecting-bit-by-bit senses of our glean date back at least to the 14th century. Over the years, and especially in the 20th and 21st centuries, glean has also come to be used frequently with the meaning "to find out, learn, ascertain." This sense has been criticized by folks who think glean should always imply the drudgery involved in the literal grain-gathering sense, but it is well established and perfectly valid.

Test Your Vocabulary

What 6-letter verb beginning with "g" refers to the gathering of grain into a granary and can mean "to acquire by effort" or "to accumulate"? 

Merriam-Webster