flack - Word of the Day - 07/04/17

flack

verb

Pronunciation

 FLACK

Definition

: to provide publicity : engage in press-agentry

Examples

The singer spent two weeks on the talk-show circuit, flacking for her new memoir.

"Celebrity endorsements for soda have been around for years.… More recently, Taylor Swift (Diet Coke), Beyonce (Pepsi) and Steve Harvey (Coke again) have flacked for soda." — Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, The Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA), 18 Sept. 2015

Did You Know?

The verb flack comes from a noun flack: during the late 1930s, flack came to be used as a name for a press agent. According to one rumor, the word was coined in tribute to a well-known movie publicist of the time, Gene Flack. Another rumor holds that it derives from a similar-sounding Yiddish word for someone who talks about someone else's affairs. The editors of Merriam-Webster dictionaries remain skeptical about these claims and have listed the etymology of flack as "unknown." You may also be familiar with another flack—a noun meaning "criticism" or "opposition." This unrelated homograph stems from a misspelling of flak, a German acronym and English word for antiaircraft guns.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a verb that can mean "to favor strongly" or "to drop suddenly or heavily": _ l _ m _.

Merriam-Webster

http://writingthestorypruthpunton.blogspot.com.au/

cloying - Word of the Day - 06/04/17

cloying

adjective

Pronunciation

 KLOY-ing

Definition

: disgusting or distasteful by reason of excess; also : excessively sweet or sentimental

Examples

"In Raymond Chandler's first novel The Big Sleep (1939), Philip Marlowe visits a client in his orchid house, where the air was thick, wet, steamy and larded with the cloying smell of tropical orchids in bloom." — Amy Henderson, The Weekly Standard, 20 Feb. 2017

"A snap of the Eiffel Tower using only the #ParisLove hashtag requires no elaboration—been there, done that—while a photo of the Taj Mahal, simply tagged #EternalLove, can feel more cloying than compelling." — Adam Bisby, The Globe and Mail (Canada), 25 Feb. 2017

Did You Know?

"Can one desire too much of a good thing?" asks Rosalind in William Shakespeare's play As You Like It. Cloying suggests that you can because it implies a repugnant excess of something that might be pleasing in smaller doses. An exploration into the history of cloying, however, leads us eventually to roots that are neither sweet nor excessive, but rather tough as nails. Cloying derives from the verb cloy, which now means "to supply or indulge to excess," but which once meant "to clog" and earlier "to prick a horse with a nail in shoeing." Cloy itself traces via Middle English to Anglo-French encloer (which also meant "to prick a horse with a nail in shoeing") and ultimately to Latin clavus, meaning "nail."

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of cloying: WIHAMSK.

Merriam-Webster

http://plotsandtension.blogspot.com.au/

defile - Word of the Day - 05/04/17

defile

verb

Pronunciation

dih-FYLE

Definition

: to march off in a line

Examples

The generals gazed on impassively as the troops defiled past.

"He watched as the troops defiled across the bridge; their thinned ranks made a noticeable impression on the monarch." — Michael V. Leggiere, Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany, 2015

Did You Know?

It's likely that when you hear the verb defile, what comes to mind is not troop movements but, rather, something being contaminated or desecrated. That more commonly encountered homograph of defile, meaning "to make unclean or impure," dates back to the 15th century and is derived from the Anglo-French verb defoiller, meaning "to trample." Today's word, on the other hand, arrived in English in the early 18th century. It is also from French but is derived from the verb défiler, formed by combining dé- with filer ("to move in a column"). Défiler is also the source of the English noun defile, which means "narrow passage or gorge."

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a French-derived English verb meaning "to march out into open ground": d _ b _ _ ch.

Merriam-Webster

http://creatingcharactersforfictionwriters.blogspot.com.au/

gimcrack - Word of the Day - 04/04/17

gimcrack

noun

Pronunciation

JIM-krak

Definition

: a showy object of little use or value : gewgaw

Examples

The harmonica that Carrie kept in her desk drawer was a gimcrack that she had won as a carnival prize many years ago.

"He painted his office a deep crimson …, and then added period sconces, arrangements of pheasant feathers and various other gimcracks all meant to resemble, get this, the Red Room of the PBS show 'Downton Abbey.'" — Margaret Carlson, The Morning Call, 19 Mar. 2015

Did You Know?

Gimcrack is one of many peculiar-sounding words that have pervaded our language to refer to something ornamental and of little value. Others include bauble, trinket, knickknack, gewgaw, kickshaw and tchotchke. Bauble appears to be the oldest among the group, with known evidence of usage dating back to the 14th century. The earliest available evidence of gewgaw and kickshaw is from the 16th century, whereas gimcrack and knickknack established themselves in the 17th century. Tchotchke, borrowed from Yiddish, is by far the most recent addition to our language, first appearing as an English word in the 20th century.

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of gimcrack: LRETFI.


Merriam-Webster

http://writinghaikup.blogspot.com.au/

brachiate - Word of the Day - 03/04/17

brachiate

verb

Pronunciation

BRAY-kee-ayt

Definition

: to progress by swinging from hold to hold by the arms

Examples

Sarah sat on the park bench and watched as her five-year-old son confidently brachiated along the monkey bars.

"Designed to replicate the natural forest environment, Gibbon Forest encourages its animals to display their natural behaviours, which include loud calling, rarely descending to the ground and brachiating…." — Nick Reid, The Tamworth (UK) Herald Series, 16 Feb. 2017

Did You Know?

Certain members of the ape family, such as the gibbon, have the ability to propel themselves by grasping hold of an overhead tree branch (or other projection) and swinging the body forward. (Chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans are less likely to travel in this manner, due to the weight of their bodies; when they do, it is only for very short distances.) The word for this action, brachiate, derives from bracchium, the Latin word for "arm." Brachiate shares etymological ancestors with such words as bracelet (an ornamental band or chain worn around the wrist) and brachiopod (a category of marine organisms with armlike feeding organs called lophophores). Another relative is pretzel. That word's German root, Brezel, is related to the Latin brachiatus, meaning "having branches like arms."

Test Your Vocabulary

What word means "adapted for seizing or grasping by wrapping around" and describes the tail of some monkeys?

Merriam-Webster

http://writingforchildrenstage.blogspot.com.au/

ignoble - Word of the Day - 02/04/17

ignoble

adjective

Pronunciation

 ig-NOH-bul

Definition

1 : of low birth or common origin : plebeian
2 : characterized by baseness, lowness, or meanness

Examples

"Luthor has been hanging around Superman's arctic fortress … devising plans for world dictatorship and other ignoble acts." — Kevin Canfield, The Journal News, 27 Jun. 2006

"Suburbs are sometimes portrayed as ignoble compared to cities, and media centers like New York and Washington attract young, pro-urban writers who trumpet their hometown virtues." — Tyler Cowen, The Bay City (Michigan) Times, 17 Oct. 2016

Did You Know?

The word noble, in addition to referring to someone born to aristocratic ranks, can also be used to describe someone of outstanding character. That word first appeared in English in the 13th century, and its antonym, ignoble, came about two centuries later. Ignoble derives via Middle English and Middle French from the Latin prefix in- ("not") and the Old Latin gnobilis ("noble"). Originally, ignoble described someone born to common or plebeian origins, but by the late 16th century it had come to describe people of dishonorable character, or the actions performed by such people.

Name That Antonym

Fill in the blanks to complete an antonym of ignoble: hi _ _ _ or _.

Merriam-Webster

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

vaticination - Word of the Day - 01/04/17

vaticination

noun

Pronunciation

vuh-tiss-uh-NAY-shun

Definition

1 : something foretold : prediction
2 : the act of prophesying

Examples

"In fact, origin stories are not about the past at all: they are not eyewitness reportage, they are not history, they are not diary entries detailing actual bygone events. Similarly, end-time stories are not about the future at all: they are not predictions, they are not vaticinations, they are not crystal-ball visions.… The stories are fictive efforts offered as instructions for the present moment." — J. H. McKenna, The Huffington Post, 5 Dec. 2016

"Imagined futures that are really thinly disguised commentaries on current affairs are not chiefly concerned with reliable prediction. Yet look in the periphery of such allegorical tales and you can find some surprisingly accurate vaticination." — The Economist, 10 June 2006

Did You Know?

When George Orwell's novel 1984 was published in 1949, a displeased critic said it broke "all records for gloomy vaticination." (In Orwell's favor, another critic asserted, "It is impossible to put the book down.") While it's about as difficult to predict the future of a word as the future of the world, hindsight reveals that vaticination has endured better than other words based on Latin vates, meaning "prophet." Vaticinian ("prophetic"), vaticinar ("prophet"), vaticinatress ("prophetess"), and vaticiny ("prophesy") have all faded into obscurity (although two synonyms of prophetic, vatic and vaticinal, also keep the vates lineage alive today).

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word for mischievous or playful activity: m _ n _ e _ s _ i _ es.

Merriam-Webster

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