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

devotion

noun

Pronunciation

dih-VOH-shun

Definition

1 a : religious fervor : piety
  b : a religious exercise or practice for private use
2 : the act of devoting
  b :  the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal

Examples

"Intensely competitive and a gifted athlete, [Mariano]  Rivera will delight baseball fans. But the memories recounted here … ultimately reveal something deeper: Rivera's almost incredible humility, unshakeable faith, and devotion to his family (he married his childhood sweetheart, Clara)." — Publisher's Weekly Review, 12 Mar. 2014

"Precious made headlines last December for her act of devotion. The protective dog with big brown eyes guarded her owner after a fire broke out at their … home." — Erica Jones, NBCWashington.com, 23 July 2016

Did You Know?

When we take a vow, we pledge our devotion—whether to remain true to a partner, to uphold the law, or to honor the word of God. It should be no surprise then that devotion and its related verb devote come from the act of taking a vow. Both words originate from Latin devotus, which is the past participle of devovēre, a union of the prefix de- ("from") and the verb vovēre ("to vow"). Devote was once used as an adjective that could mean either "devout" or "devoted." While devout often connotes faithfulness of a religious nature, the adjective devoted conveys the sense of one's commitment to another through love and loyalty ("a devoted husband and father"; "the singer's devoted fans").

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create a word for a person's unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others: a _ t _ u _ s _.


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misanthrope - Word of the Day - 06/08/16

misanthrope

noun

Pronunciation

MISS-un-throhp

Definition

: a person who hates or distrusts humankind

Examples

"The conventional image of Groucho [Marx] was that he was on the side of the little guy, and he spoke defiantly and insolently to powerful people and wealthy people. But my feeling is that Groucho was out to deflate everybody—that he was a thoroughgoing misanthrope." — Lee Siegel, speaking on NPR, 23 Jan. 2016

"Many feared that we would become asocial creatures, misanthropes who would rather hide behind the safety of a screen than face the intimacy of a spoken conversation." — Jenna Wortham, The New York Times, 22 May 2016

Did You Know?

The word misanthrope is human to the core—literally. One of its parents is the Greek noun anthrōpos, meaning "human being." Its other parent is the Greek verb misein, meaning "to hate." Misein also gave English misogamy ("a hatred of marriage"), misogyny ("hatred of women"), misology ("a hatred of argument, reasoning, or enlightenment"), and misoneism ("a hatred, fear, or intolerance of innovation or change"). Anthrōpos also joined forces with phil- (a combining form meaning "loving") to form the Greek ancestor of philanthropy ("active effort to help other people"). We also find anthrōpos when we delve into the foundations of the word anthropology.

Name That Antonym

What name of a fictional character beginning with "p" became an antonym of misanthrope?

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kith - Word of the Day - 05/08/16

kith

noun

Pronunciation

KITH

Definition

: familiar friends, neighbors, or relatives

Examples

"The joy of returning to kith and kin was greater than all her former joys. … Never before … had Shelby seen such an outpouring of affection." — Dorothy West, The Wedding, 1995

"Cooking and sharing food are inseparable. Our labor in the kitchen culminates not in profit but in praise … and it makes sweating in the kitchen worth it—the more so when kith and kin … gather around a holiday table." — Ken Albala, The San Francisco Chronicle, 23 Nov. 2014

Did You Know?

Kith has had many meanings over the years. In its earliest uses it referred to knowledge of something, but that meaning died out in the 1400s. Another sense, "one's native land," had come and gone by the early 1500s. The sense "friends, fellow countrymen, or neighbors" developed before the 12th century and was sometimes used as a synonym of kinsfolk. That last sense got kith into hot water after people began using the word in the alliterative phrase "kith and kin." Over the years, usage commentators have complained that kith means the same thing as kin, so "kith and kin" is redundant. Clearly, they have overlooked some other historical definitions, but if you want to avoid redundancy charges, be sure to include friends as well as relatives among your "kith and kin."

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create a noun that is synonymous with kinship and can mean "sympathy marked by community of interest": a _ _ ini _ _.

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edify - Word of the Day - 04/08/16

edify

verb

Pronunciation

ED-uh-fye

Definition

: to instruct and improve especially in moral and religious knowledge : uplift; also : enlighten, inform

Examples

"Reading Lawrence, I am amazed and edified by the raw emotional intensity of his characters. I’m looking for ways to internalize this rich, untamed emotion and try to impart something of it to the characters who come to life in my keyboard." — A. B. Yehoshua, quoted in The New York Times Book Review, 16 June 2016

"He said he hopes the group takes away the community they began to build, so they can unify and edify each other to do the work of recovery." — Taylor Stuck, The Herald-Dispatch (Huntington, West Virginia), 15 May 2016

Did You Know?

The Latin noun aedes, meaning "house" or "temple," is the root of aedificare, a verb meaning "to erect a house." Generations of speakers built on that meaning, and by the Late Latin period, the verb had gained the figurative sense of "to instruct or improve spiritually." The word eventually passed through Anglo-French before Middle English speakers adopted it as edify during the 14th century. Two of its early meanings, "to build" and "to establish," are now considered archaic; the only current sense of edify is essentially the same as that figurative meaning in Late Latin, "to instruct and improve in moral and religious knowledge."

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of edify: _ _ lu _ i _ _ te.

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amity - Word of the Day - 03/08/16

amity

noun

Pronunciation

AM-uh-tee

Definition

: friendship; especially : friendly relations between nations

Examples

"Cousin friendships really are special. They provide an unmatched level of amity and support, without the rivalries that often exist between siblings." — Helaine Becker, Today's Parent, June 2006

"The amity between the two leaders was palpable from the start as Mr. Modi broke with protocol to greet Mr. Obama at the airport with a warm handshake and hug." — Peter Baker and Ellen Barry, The New York Times, 26 Jan. 2015

Did You Know?

Amity has been used in English to describe friendship or friendliness for well over 500 years. It is derived from the Latin word for "friend," amicus, and has come to be used especially for relationships between political leaders and nations in which goodwill is shown despite differences that might exist between the two parties. Amicus is also the root of the adjectives amiable and amicable. Amiable implies having qualities that make one liked and easy to deal with—for example, "The owners of the bed-and-breakfast were very amiable." Amicable is closer in meaning to amity: it implies friendliness and politeness with the desire to avoid disagreement and argument. A relationship between coworkers might be described as amicable. Other family members of amicus are the Spanish borrowing amigo ("friend") and the antonymous enemy, which developed from the Latin combination of the prefix in- ("not") with amicus.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create a noun that can refer to a friendly social atmosphere or social harmony: _ _ mity.

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glower - Word of the Day - 02/08/16

glower

verb

Pronunciation

GLOUR

Definition

: to look or stare with sullen annoyance or anger

Examples

Kelly glowered at me after I sided with Brenda in their dispute about the chores.

"Outside the subway stop, he glowered for each photo, then bade each of his fans farewell with a stately handshake. He never spoke a word." — Steven Borowiec, The Orlando (Florida) Sentinel, 1 May 2016

Did You Know?

Do words of uncertain origin make you scowl? If so, glower may put a frown on your face because only part of its history can be validated. The well-established part of its story leads us to Scotland, where glower (or glowren, to use the older Scottish form of the word) has been used since the late Middle Ages. Originally, the word meant simply "to look intently" or "to stare in amazement," but by the late 1700s, glowering stares were being associated with anger instead of astonishment. Beyond that, however, the history of the word is murky. The most we can say is that glower is a distant relative of Middle Low German glūren, which means "to be overcast," and of Middle Dutch gloeren, meaning "to leer."

Test Your Memory

Fill in the blank in the following sentence from our July 5th Word of the Day: "The warm air and clear, dark skies made for __________ conditions for the fireworks show." [Hint: The word can also mean "very well suited or expressed."]

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kerfuffle - Word of the Day - 01 /08/16

kerfuffle

noun

Pronunciation

ker-FUFF-ul

Definition

: (chiefly British) disturbance, fuss

Examples

I didn't mean to start such a kerfuffle when I suggested that we hold the company picnic at a different location this year.

"… there was quite a kerfuffle (in visual-arts circles, anyway) this fall when the Jeff Wall show that was supposed to open the museum was suddenly cancelled by the artist. The works had become unavailable." — Marsha Lederman, The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario), 4 Dec. 2015

Did You Know?

Fuffle was first used in Scottish English, as early as the 16th century, as a verb meaning "to dishevel." The addition of the prefix car- (possibly derived from a Scottish Gaelic word meaning "wrong" or "awkward") didn't change the meaning of the word considerably. In the 19th century carfuffle, with its variant curfuffle, became a noun, and in the 20th century it was embraced by a broader population of English speakers and standardized to kerfuffle. There is some dispute among language historians over how the altered spelling came to be favored. One theory holds that it might have been influenced by imitative words like kerplunk, where the syllable ker- is simply added for emphasis.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to create an adjective meaning "awry" or "kaput": _ e _ f _ o _ ey.

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