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

panacea

noun

Pronunciation

pan-uh-SEE-uh

Definition

: a remedy for all ills or difficulties : cure-all

Examples

Georgette said, "I don't know if hybrid cars are a panacea for the world's environmental issues, but they seem to be a step in the right direction."

"… while an uptick in subscriptions is certainly a good thing, it is unlikely to be a panacea for what ails newspapers." — Leonard Pitts, The Miami Herald, 3 Mar. 2017

Did You Know?

Panacea is from Latin, and the Latin word, in turn, is from Greek panakeia. In Greek, panakēs means "all-healing," combining pan- ("all") and akos, which means "remedy." The Latin designation Panacea or Panaces has been awarded to more than one plant at one time or other, among them the herb today known as Prunella vulgaris, whose common name is self-heal. More often than not, panacea is used when decrying a claim made for a remedy that seems too good to be true. Most likely that's what the author is doing in a 1625 anatomical treatise, describing "a certaine medicine made of saffron, quick silver, vermilion, antimonie, and certaine sea shels made up in fashion of triangular lozenges," and calling it a panacea.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of panacea: c _ t _ _ l _ c _ n.

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tetchy - Word of the Day - 07/05/17

tetchy

adjective

Pronunciation

TETCH-ee

Definition

: irritably or peevishly sensitive : touchy

Examples

"What's the use of being cross with this old man? … Seems to me you're getting awful tetchy! Don't you like your old friends any more?" — Booth Tarkington, Alice Adams, 1921

"A million years ago, when written communication between people was limited to emails, I had a policy of always engaging. It took effort to compose an email, and I found even the tetchy ones gratifying. As long as the sender wasn't too obviously insane, I would reply…." — Emma Brockes, The Guardian, 5 Apr. 2017

Did You Know?

One of the first cited uses of tetchy occurs in William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet (1596). Etymologists are not certain how the word came about, but some have suggested that it derives from tetch, an obsolete noun meaning "habit." The similarity both in meaning and pronunciation to touchy might lead you to conclude that tetchy is related to that word, but there is no conclusive evidence to suggest such a connection. The adjectives teched and tetched, meaning "mentally unbalanced," are variations of touched, and are probably also unrelated to tetchy.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of tetchy: h _ _ fy.

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demean - Word of the Day - 06/05/17

demean

verb

Pronunciation

dih-MEEN

Definition

: to conduct or behave (oneself) usually in a proper manner

Examples

Theresa was proud of how well her boys demeaned themselves during the ceremony.

"He knew that he had been lackadaisical, and was ashamed of himself; and at once resolved that he would henceforth demean himself as though no calamity had happened to him." — Anthony Trollope, The Small House at Allington, 1864

Did You Know?

There are two words spelled demean in English. The more familiar demean—"to lower in character, status, or reputation"—comes straight from mean, the adjective that means "spiteful." Today's featured word, on the other hand, comes from the Anglo-French verb demener ("to conduct"), which in turn comes from Latin minare, meaning "to drive." This verb has been with us since the 14th century and is generally used in contexts (especially formal ones) specifying a type of behavior: "he demeaned himself in a most unfriendly manner"; "she demeaned herself as befitting her station in life"; "they knew not how to demean themselves in the king's presence." As you may have already guessed, the noun demeanor, meaning "behavior," comes from this demean.

Word Quiz

Fill in the blanks to complete an adjective derived from Latin minare that means "willing to agree or to accept something": a _ _ na _ _ e.

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acronym - Word of the Day - 05/05/17

acronym

noun

Pronunciation

 AK-ruh-nim

Definition

: a word (such as NATO, radar, or laser) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term; also : an abbreviation (such as FBI) formed from initial letters : initialism

Examples

The new committee spent a fair amount of time choosing a name that would lend itself to an appealing acronym.

"For now, the Regional Acceleration and Mentoring Program—which goes by the acronym RAMP—looks like an average office space on the third floor of the old Gill Memorial Hospital Building in downtown Roanoke, complete with separate rooms for five companies, shared meeting areas and a kitchen." — Jacob Demmitt, The Roanoke (Virginia) Times, 17 Mar. 2017

Did You Know?

Acronym was created by combining acr- ("beginning" or "top") with -onym ("name" or "word"). You may recognize -onym in other familiar English words, such as pseudonym and synonym. English speakers borrowed -onym from the Greek onyma ("name") and acr- from the Greek akros (meaning "topmost, extreme"). When acronym first entered English, some usage commentators decreed that it should refer to combinations of initial letters that were pronounced as if they were whole words (such as radar and scuba), differentiated from an initialism, which is spoken by pronouncing the component letters (as in FBI and CEO). These days, however, that distinction is largely lost, and acronym is a common label for both types of abbreviation.

That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of acronym: ac _ o _ _ ic.

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

visceral

adjective

Pronunciation

VISS-uh-rul

Definition

1 : felt in or as if in the internal organs of the body : deep
2 : not intellectual : instinctive, unreasoning
3 : dealing with crude or elemental emotions : earthy
4 : of, relating to, or located on or among the internal organs of the body : splanchnic

Examples

"My mom is the only one who still writes me letters. And there's something visceral about opening a letter—I see her on the page. I see her in her handwriting." — Steve Carell, quoted in The Boston Globe Magazine, 24 July 2011

"After months of drama, the gravity of the coming week is hard to grasp and, totally untested, feels strangely abstract. What is tangible, however, is the spitting acrimony and visceral anger that still animate both sides of the Brexit debate." — Louis McEvoy, Cherwell (Oxford University), 25 Feb. 2017

Did You Know?

The viscera are the internal organs of the body—especially those located in the large cavity of the trunk (e.g., the heart, liver, and intestines). The word viscera comes from Latin, in which it has essentially the same meaning. Something visceral has to do with the viscera, and in a more figurative sense, something visceral is felt "deep down." Even in the early years of its use, visceral often referred to things emotional rather than physiological. For example, in 1640 an English bishop named Edward Reynolds wrote, "Love is of all other the inmost and most visceral affection." This figurative use is the most common use of visceral, but the word continues to be used in medical contexts as well.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete the word that precedes jar in this name for the jar in which the ancient Egyptians preserved the viscera of a deceased person: c _ n _ pi _  (jar).

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refurbish - Word of the Day - 03/05/17

refurbish

verb

Pronunciation

 rih-FER-bish

Definition

: to brighten or freshen up : renovate

Examples

"Ann Eliza noticed that Evelina now took the precaution of putting on her crimson bow every evening before supper, and that she had refurbished with a bit of carefully washed lace the black silk which they still called new because it had been bought a year after Ann Eliza's." — Edith Wharton, Bunner Sisters, 1916

"The company doesn't make jet engines, but it does build and refurbish critical components that protect them and enable them to power aircraft through the skies." — Lawrence Specker, The Mobile (Alabama) Register, 19 Mar. 2017

Did You Know?

If you're wondering if refurbish implies the existence of an earlier furbish, you are on the right track. Furbish was borrowed into English in the 14th century from Anglo-French furbiss-, a distant relative of Old High German furben, meaning "to polish." In its earliest uses furbish also meant "to polish," but it developed an extended sense of "renovate" shortly before English speakers created refurbish with the same meaning in the 17th century. These days refurbish is the more common of the two words, although furbish does continue to be used.

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of refurbish: APRVME.

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majordomo - Word of the Day 02/05/17

majordomo

noun

Pronunciation

may-jer-DOH-moh

Definition

1 : a head steward of a large household (such as a palace)
2 : butler, steward
3 : a person who speaks, makes arrangements, or takes charge for another; broadly : the person who runs an enterprise

Examples

"Arriving at the Palace, he was informed that His Highness had gone out shortly after breakfast, and had not returned. The majordomo gave the information with a tinkle of disapproval in his voice." — P. G. Wodehouse, The Prince and Betty, 1912

"When Hinton died, his will transferred half of his interest in the property to Robert Kelly, an Army buddy who was working as Hinton's majordomo at the ranch." — John Cannon, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 May 2015

Did You Know?

Majordomo has relatives in Spanish (mayordomo) and Italian (the now obsolete maiordomo), and English speakers borrowed the term from one of these languages. All three words—majordomo, mayordomo, and maiordomo—ultimately come from the Medieval Latin major domus, meaning "chief of the house." In its earliest uses, majordomo referred to the head steward of a royal household. The position was a high one with some relatively weighty responsibilities. Later, in the U.S., the word was used for the steward or overseer of a ranch. Since then, the word's meaning has extended even further; today, majordomo can designate any person who takes charge of another's affairs, be they business or personal.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word for a steward of a college or monastery: m _ _ci _ le.

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