fey - Word of the Day - 01/05/17

fey

adjective

Pronunciation

 FAY

Definition

1 : marked by a foreboding of death or calamity
2 a : marked by an otherworldly air or attitude
   b : crazy, touched
3 a : excessively refined : precious
   b : quaintly unconventional : campy

Examples

"Often I slipped into one of a few personas I had invented to make myself feel more authentically magical. Sometimes I was Cassandra, a husky-voiced Southern belle who called everyone 'honey child.' Other times I became Gabriel, a fey mystic with an accent that I imagined to be French-ish." — Bennett Madison, The New York Times, 5 Sept. 2016

"What children get is something even better. They get a Batman who isn't invulnerable and who needs his friends. They get a fey, effeminate hero who is every bit as brave and talented as his mentor…." — Louis McEvoy, Cherwell (Oxford University), 25 Feb. 2017

Did You Know?

Fey is a word that defies its own (original) meaning, since it has yet to even come close to the brink of death after being in our language for well over 800 years. In Old and Middle English it meant "feeble" or "sickly." Those meanings turned out to be fey themselves, but the word lived on in senses related to death, and because a wild or elated state of mind was once believed to portend death, other senses arose from these. The word fay, meaning "fairy" or "elf," may also have had an influence on some senses of fey. Not until the 20th century did the word's most recent meanings, "precious" and "campy," find their way into the dictionary.

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of fey that refers to an otherworldly quality: FNEIL.

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orientate- Word of the Day - 30/04/17

orientate

verb

Pronunciation

 OR-ee-un-tayt

Definition

1 : to set or arrange in a definite position especially in relation to the points of the compass
2 : to acquaint with the existing situation or environment
3 : to direct (as a book or film) toward the interests of a particular group

Examples

The program is designed to orientate new students to the college and community.

"… the conference's focus was orientated toward the production side of organic farming, which is most beneficial to individual farmers." — Nathan J. Tohtsoni, The Gallup (New Mexico) Independent, 28 Feb. 2017

Did You Know?

Orientate is a synonym of orient, and it has attracted criticism as a consequence. Orient, which dates from the early 18th century, is in fact the older of the two verbs—orientate joined the language in the mid-19th century. Both can mean "to cause to face toward the east" and, not surprisingly, they are related to the noun Orient, meaning "the East." Both also have broader meanings that relate to setting or determining direction or position, either literally or figuratively. Some critics dislike orientate because it is one syllable longer than orient, but you can decide for yourself how important that consideration is to you. Personal choice is the primary deciding factor, although orientate tends to be used more often in British English than it is in American English.

Test Your Memory

What is the meaning of brachiate, our April 3rd Word of the Day?

Merriam-Webster

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lethargic - Word of the Day - 29/04/17

lethargic

adjective

Pronunciation

luh-THAHR-jik

Definition

1 : of, relating to, or characterized by laziness or lack of energy : feeling or affected by lethargy : sluggish
2 : indifferent, apathetic

Examples

After eating a large plate of spaghetti and meatballs I often feel lethargic and sleepy.

"The cold water temperatures slow down the metabolism of the fish, and they become very lethargic." — Jim Hutchinson, Asbury Park (New Jersey) Press, 9 Mar. 2017

Did You Know?

In Greek mythology, Lethe was the name of a river in the underworld that was also called "the River of Unmindfulness" or "the River of Forgetfulness." Legend held that when someone died, he or she was given a drink of water from the river Lethe to forget all about his or her past life. Eventually this act of forgetting came to be associated with feelings of sluggishness, inactivity, or indifference. The name of the river and the word lethargic, as well as the related noun lethargy, all derive from lēthē, Greek for "forgetfulness."

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of lethargic: RITDPO.

Merriam-Webster

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slough - Word of the Day - 28/04/17

slough

verb

Pronunciation

 SLUFF

Definition

1 : to cast off or become cast off
2 : to crumble slowly and fall away
3 : to get rid of or discard as irksome, objectionable, or disadvantageous

Examples

"The glue [that affixes the tiling to the hull] is exposed to a wide variety of environmental conditions, including big temperature swings as well as the pressures of operating at 1,000 feet beneath the surface. The friction of moving underwater tugs at the coating, and running into objects contributes to it gradually sloughing off." — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 7 Mar. 2017

"After Monday’s [landslide], the Department of Public Works cut down two trees on the hillside, removed a loose mass of dirt that was unstable and reopened the road. But a significant chunk of the hillside sloughed off in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, with a valley resident alerting people that it had closed as early as 12:30 a.m." — Samantha Kimmey, Point Reyes Light (Marin County, California), 9 Mar. 2017

Did You Know?

There are two verbs spelled slough in English, as well as two nouns, and both sets have different pronunciations. The first noun, referring to a swamp or a discouraged state of mind, is pronounced to rhyme with either blue or cow; it derives from Old English slōh, which is akin to a Middle High German slouche, meaning "ditch." Its related verb, which can mean "to plod through mud," has the same pronunciation. The second noun, pronounced to rhyme with cuff, refers to the shed skin of a snake (as well as anything else that has been cast off). Its related verb describes the action of shedding or eliminating something, just like a snake sheds its skin. This slough derives from Middle English slughe and is distantly related to slūch, a Middle High German word meaning "snakeskin."

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a verb that means "to cast off in thin scales or layers": _ _ f _ li _ te.


Merriam-Webster

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junket - Word of the Day - 27/04/17

junket

noun

Pronunciation

 JUNK-ut

Definition

1 : a dessert of sweetened flavored milk set with rennet
2 a : a festive social affair
   b : trip, journey: such as (1) : a trip made by an official at public expense (2) : a promotional trip made at another's expense

Examples

The senator is under fire for going on a weeklong lavish junket.

"When I was young, … our family often made junkets after church on Sunday, to Cook's, a massive arrangement of barns and sheds near New London. Purveyors of everything from household items to car parts, it … had such buyer appeal that it seemed to be swarming with shoppers every time we stopped in." — The Litchfield (Minnesota) Independent Review, 9 Feb. 2017

Did You Know?

The road junket has traveled has been a long one, with frequent stops for food along the way. Since at least the 15th century, the word has named various comestibles, ranging from curds and cream to sweet confections. By the 16th century, junket had also come to mean "banquet." Apparently, traveling must have been involved to reach some junkets because eventually the term was also applied to pleasure outings or trips (whether or not food was the focus). Today, the word usually refers either to a trip made by a government official and paid for by the public, or to a free trip by a member of the press to a place where something, such as a new movie, is being promoted.

Test Your Vocabulary

What 5-letter word begins with "j" and refers to a brief trip taken for pleasure?

Merriam-Webster

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upbraid - Word of the Day - 26/04/17

upbraid

verb

Pronunciation

up-BRAYD

Definition

1 : to criticize severely : find fault with
2 : to reproach severely : scold vehemently

Examples

"A helpful neighbor was able to contact the owner in Dorset and upbraided her for having her house stand empty while a young couple could find no place to live." — Kitty Ferguson, Stephen Hawking: An Unfettered Mind, 2012

"There was a steady stream of customers, mostly for takeout, and the experience was marred only by a guy we took to be the proprietor upbraiding one of his employees in front of the customers. Bad form, sir." — Heidi Knapp Rinella, The Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1 Apr. 2016

Did You Know?

Upbraid, scold, and berate all mean to reproach angrily, but with slight differences in emphasis. Scold usually implies rebuking in irritation or ill temper, either justly or unjustly. Upbraid tends to suggest censuring on definite and usually justifiable grounds, while berate implies scolding that is prolonged and even abusive. If you're looking for a more colorful term for telling someone off, try tongue-lash, bawl out, chew out, or wig—all of which are fairly close synonyms of berate. Among these synonyms, upbraid is the senior member in English, being older than the others by at least 100 years. Upbraid derives via Middle English from the Old English ūpbregdan, believed to be formed from a prefix meaning "up" and the verb bregdan, meaning "to snatch" or "to move suddenly."

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of upbraid, meaning "to criticize severely": f _ s _ i _ a _ e.

Merriam-Webster

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hummock - Word of the Day - 25/04/17

hummock

noun

Pronunciation

 HUM-uk

Definition

1 : a rounded knoll or hillock
2 : a ridge of ice
3 : a fertile area in the southern United States and especially Florida that is usually higher than its surroundings and that is characterized by hardwood vegetation and deep humus-rich soil

Examples

"Ah! I have penetrated to those meadows on the morning of many a first spring day, jumping from hummock to hummock, from willow root to willow root, when the wild river valley and the woods were bathed in so pure and bright a light as would have waked the dead, if they had been slumbering in their graves, as some suppose." — Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854

"Relying on a surveying device … Reeder set about measuring minute elevation changes across the land, searching for subtle gradations and anomalies. He zeroed in on a hummock that looked like the earthen side of a bunker, long since overgrown with moss and foliage, and roughly 100 feet away, a telltale dip in the earth." — Matthew Shaer, Smithsonian Magazine, March 2017

Did You Know?

Hummock first appeared in English in the mid-1500s as an alteration of hammock, another word which can be used for a small hill. This hammock is not related to the hammock we use to refer to a swinging bed made of netting or canvas. That hammock comes from the Spanish hamaca, and ultimately from Taino, a language spoken by the original inhabitants of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. The origins of the other hammock and the related hummock are still obscure, though we know they share an ancestor with Middle Low German hummel ("small height") and hump ("bump"). The latter of those is also a cousin of the English word hump, another word which can refer to a small hill or hummock.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word for an artificial hillock or mound over a grave: t _ m _ l _ s.

Merriam-Webster

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