GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

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the grim squeaker
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condign \kuhn-DINE; KON-dine\, adjective:
Suitable to the fault or crime; deserved; adequate.

In a story as old as the Greeks, overweening pride brought condign disaster.
-- David Frum, How We Got Here.

He is a violent criminal and, like other criminals, he should be brought to condign punishment.
-- Kwasi Kwarteng, "The boy from Brazil should be behind bars", Daily Telegraph, November 14, 1997.

Condign ultimately derives from Latin condignus, "very worthy," from com-, here used intensively + dignus, "worthy."
'You can take our lives but you'll never take our freedom!' he screamed.
Carcer's men looked at one another, puzzled by what sounded like most badly thought-out war cry in the history of the universe.
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the grim squeaker
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Today's Word is

legerdemain \lej-ur-duh-MAIN\, noun:
1. Sleight of hand.
2. A display of skill, trickery, or artful deception.

We are inclined to regard the treatment of [paradoxes] . . . as a mere legerdemain of words.
-- Benjamin Jowett, Dialogues of Plato

Their alleged legerdemain at the blackjack table and roulette wheel of the luxurious Salle Anglaise was caught on closed-circuit television.
-- "Double dealing puts Monte Carlo in a spin", Daily Telegraph, February 23, 1997

There is a certain knack or legerdemain in argument.
-- Shaftesbury, Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times

Legerdemain is from Old French leger de main, literally "light of hand": leger, "light" + de, "of" + main, "hand."
'You can take our lives but you'll never take our freedom!' he screamed.
Carcer's men looked at one another, puzzled by what sounded like most badly thought-out war cry in the history of the universe.
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the grim squeaker
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dapple \DAP-uhl\, noun:
1. A small contrasting spot or blotch.
2. A mottled appearance, especially of the coat of an animal (as a horse).

transitive verb:
1. To mark with patches of a color or shade; to spot.

intransitive verb:
1. To become dappled.

adjective:
1. Marked with contrasting patches or spots; dappled.

Look at . . . his cows with their comic camouflage dapples . . . .
-- Arthur C. Danto, "Sometimes Red", ArtForum, January 2002

70 diamond- and hexagonal-shaped holes, 35 between the North End ramp and the northbound lanes, and 35 between the northbound and southbound lanes, allow light to filter through and dapple the river below.
-- Raphael Lewis, "A walk into the future", Boston Globe, May 9, 2002

Gentle shafts of sunlight . . . dapple the grass.
-- Gail Sheehy, Hillary's Choice

Dapple derives from Old Norse depill, "a spot."
'You can take our lives but you'll never take our freedom!' he screamed.
Carcer's men looked at one another, puzzled by what sounded like most badly thought-out war cry in the history of the universe.
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Meticulous
\meh-TIK-yuh-luhs\, adjective:
Extremely or excessively careful about details.

How much work gets done in the fall perennial garden depends somewhat on whether your gardening tendencies lean toward the meticulous or toward the casual.
-- Mary Robson, "Preparing for winter: What's to be done with plants as they go dormant?", The Seattle Times, October 30, 2002

Whatever else he taught me about science, Schotté also helped me understand that meticulous attention to detail and patience are as important to problem solving as a grand vision.
-- David Kessler, A Question of Intent: A Great American Battle With a Deadly Industry

Roosevelt was often persuasive and sometimes eloquent, displaying a power won in large part by his meticulous involvement in the writing process.
-- Carol Gelderman, All the Presidents' Words: The Bully Pulpit and the Creation of the Virtual Presidency

Meticulous ultimately derives from Latin meticulosus "fearful" (from metus, "fear"). The present sense stems from French méticuleux "overscrupulous." In present day English, the word usually carries a more positive connotation and is synonymous with precise and punctilious.
'You can take our lives but you'll never take our freedom!' he screamed.
Carcer's men looked at one another, puzzled by what sounded like most badly thought-out war cry in the history of the universe.
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Gustatory \GUS-tuh-tor-ee\, adjective:
Of or pertaining to the sense of taste.

In a land of ice and chains and endemic suffering, caviar provided gustatory salvation from grief and black days, a sensual escape from temporal woes.
-- Jeffrey Tayler, "The Caviar Thugs", The Atlantic, June 2001

Why . . . would something that provides such gustatory pleasure turn out to be supposedly the worst thing you could ever eat?
-- Richard Turner, "The Trendy Diet That Sizzles", Newsweek, September 6, 1999

Instead I seemed to be drawn to countries with the worst food imaginable, places like Turkistan and Africa, where every day you woke up hoping you could avoid gustatory terror but knowing that before you slept again, horrible things would be going inside your mouth. The best strategy was simply to try to eat as little as possible. But I seemed cursed by an ever hopeful palate. "Termites? Termite larva? Could be interesting. I'll try a handful." This was never a good idea.
-- Stuart Stevens, Feeding Frenzy

Gustatory derives from Latin gustatus, "taste," from gustare, "to taste, to take a little of." Other words that have the same root include disgust and gusto ("vigorous and enthusiastic enjoyment").
'You can take our lives but you'll never take our freedom!' he screamed.
Carcer's men looked at one another, puzzled by what sounded like most badly thought-out war cry in the history of the universe.
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I thought i'd join you on this one...

The word of the day is:

troglodyte

\TROG-luh-dyt\, noun:
1. A member of a primitive people that lived in caves, dens, or holes; a cave dweller.
2. One who is regarded as reclusive, reactionary, out of date, or brutish.

When the survivalists emerged blinking into the sunlight to restock their caves after the terror, my first reaction was to say, "Bless their dotty, troglodyte hearts."
-- Judy Mann, "Survivalists Flee Reality to Live in Fear", Washington Post, October 5, 2001

. . .an admitted electronics-averse troglodyte like myself, who writes with a fountain pen, shaves with a mug and brush, grinds his own coffee and spends summers in a Maine fishing town where the nearest latte is 45 minutes away.
-- Frank Van Riper, "Another Door Opens", Washington Post, May 5, 2000

For the first time, opening a fashion magazine didn't make me feel like a cloddish troglodyte who needed fixing.
-- Janelle Brown, "Keeping it real", Salon, June 4, 2001

Troglodyte comes from Latin Troglodytae, a people said to be cave dwellers, from Greek Troglodytai, from trogle, "a hole" + dyein, "to enter." The adjective form is troglodytic.
Silliness is the ground state of being.
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Word of the Day Wednesday July 9, 2008

emolument
\ih-MOL-yuh-muhnt\, noun: The wages or perquisites arising from office, employment, or labor; gain; compensation.

The record indicates that few grandees who pleaded poverty to avoid service were left without substantial maintenance grants and emoluments and that the Crown gladly financed their luxurious military lifestyles.
-- Fernando Gonzales de Leon, "Aristocratic draft-dodgers in 17th-century Spain", History Today, 7/1

Although not very rich, he is easy in his circumstances and would not with a view to emolument alone wish for employment.
-- Henry Dundas, quoted in The Elgin Affair, by Theodore Vrettos

And they are not obliged to follow those occupations, if they prefer leisure to emolument.
-- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

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Emolument derives from Latin emolumentum, originally a sum paid to a miller for grinding out one's wheat, from molere, "to grind." It is related to molar, the "grinding" tooth.
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
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Word of the Day Thursday July 10, 2008

contemn
\kuhn-TEM\, transitive verb: To regard or treat with disdain or contempt; to scorn; to despise.

Nor, despite his seeming Jansenist severity, would Pascal contemn such pleasures. Even he, the least therapeutic writer imaginable, admits that diversions can help to heal the beset soul.
-- Edward T. Oakes, "Pascal: The First Modern Christian", First Things, August 1, 1999

The spectrum of difference exhibited at these shows suggests varying relationships with the West: some artists identify with or at least acknowledge the Western tradition, some contemn it.
-- Thomas McEvilley, "Arrivederci Venice", ArtForum, November 1993

We may well pity those who find themselves in disagreement, for their lot is a hard one; but some of us who now warmly support the war cannot find it in our hearts to contemn all so-called pacifists, or even those who are torn by conflicting allegiances.
-- James Harvey Robinson, "The Threatened Eclipse of Free Speech", The Atlantic, December 1917

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Contemn is derived from Latin contemnere, from com-, intensive prefix + temnere, "to despise."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
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propound

\pruh-POWND\, transitive verb:
To offer for consideration; to put forward; to propose.

When Samuelson first propounded this potentially radical idea, it was greeted with astonishment, bordering on outrage.
-- Jonathan Davis, "Samuelson's argument still holds true", Independent, October 4, 1997

Aristarchus not only challenged God, but he, and then Copernicus, propounded a theory that seemed so stupid on the face of it that even a fool would not believe it.
-- William E. Burrows, This New Ocean

Propound is a variation of earlier propone, from Latin proponere, "to set forth, to propose," from pro, "for, before, in favor of" + ponere, "to put."
'You can take our lives but you'll never take our freedom!' he screamed.
Carcer's men looked at one another, puzzled by what sounded like most badly thought-out war cry in the history of the universe.
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Word of the Day Monday July 14, 2008

cupidity
\kyoo-PID-uh-tee\, noun: Eager or excessive desire, especially for wealth; greed; avarice.

Curiosity was a form of lust, a wandering cupidity of the eye and the mind.
-- John Crowley, "Of Marvels And Monsters", Washington Post, October 18, 1998

At the end, all but rubbing his hands with cupidity, Rockefeller declares he will now promote abstract art--it's better for business.
-- Stuart Klawans, "Rock in a Hard Place", The Nation, December 27, 1999

This strain of cupidity sprang from the mean circumstances of his youth in the Finger Lakes district of upstate New York.
-- Jack Beatty, "A Capital Life", New York Times, May 17, 1998

For such is human cupidity that we Thoroughbreds have but one chance to survive it -- to run so fast and to win so much money that we are retired in comfort in our declining days.
-- William Murray, "From the Horse's Mouth", New York Times, August 8, 1993

Myself, I have always believed that BMWs achieve their presence (and their grip on the collective imagination and cupidity of the middle classes) because they combine an athletic, masculine bulk and stance with feminine details and lines.
-- Stephen Bayley, "The evolution of the curve", Independent, October 22, 1998

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Cupidity ultimately comes from Latin cupiditas, from cupidus, "desirous," from cupere, "to desire." It is related to Cupid, the Roman god of love.
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
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the grim squeaker
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Gregarious

\grih-GAIR-ee-us\, adjective:
1. Tending to form a group with others of the same kind.
2. Seeking and enjoying the company of others.

True locusts, which are actually certain kinds of grasshoppers, are usually solitary and rather sluggish, but when they are crowded they enter a gregarious and highly active migratory phase.
-- Gilbert Waldbauer, Millions of Monarchs, Bunches of Beetles

In the newly discovered gene, the change of a single unit of DNA converts the worm from a solitary forager into a gregarious diner.
-- "Can Social Behavior of Man Be Glimpsed in a Lowly Worm?", New York Times, September 7, 1998

My efforts to cultivate an identity as a strong silent type have consistently been undermined by my gregarious nature and my delight in conversation.
-- Marty Jezer, Stuttering: A Life Bound Up in Words

Although social and gregarious when he wants to be, Phil learned, during our early years together, not only to savor but also to require long periods of hermitlike solitude.
-- Frances K. Conley, Walking Out on the Boys

Gregarious is from Latin gregarius, "belonging to a herd or flock," from grex, greg-, "herd, flock."
'You can take our lives but you'll never take our freedom!' he screamed.
Carcer's men looked at one another, puzzled by what sounded like most badly thought-out war cry in the history of the universe.
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Tenebrous

\TEN-uh-bruhs\, adjective:
Dark; gloomy.

He found the Earl, who is eight feet tall and has the family trait of a Cyclops eye, standing stock still, dressed from head to foot in deepest black, in one of the most tenebrous groves in all his haunted domains.
-- Peter Simple, "At Mountwarlock", Daily Telegraph, March 20, 1998

We are so used to the tenebrous atmosphere that can be created in indoor theatres that it's a shock to realise that this murkiest of tragedies first saw the literal light of day at the Globe theatre.
-- Paul Taylor, "Cool, calm, disconnected", Independent, June 7, 2001

And lurking behind our every move is the knowledge of our own mortality. It gives life its edgy disquiet, its tenebrous underside.
-- Douglas Kennedy, "Sudden death", Independent, June 3, 1999

Tenebrous derives from Latin tenebrosus, from tenebrae, "darkness."
'You can take our lives but you'll never take our freedom!' he screamed.
Carcer's men looked at one another, puzzled by what sounded like most badly thought-out war cry in the history of the universe.
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Word of the Day Thursday July 17, 2008

anodyne
\AN-uh-dyn\, adjective: 1. Serving to relieve pain; soothing. 2. Not likely to offend; bland; innocuous.
noun: 1. A medicine that relieves pain. 2. Anything that calms, comforts, or soothes disturbed feelings.

But for the most part the British charts were clogged with anodyne ballads.
-- Nigel Williamson, "Here's a little story, to tell it is a must", Times (London), January 11, 2000

He is alternately accused of being too much the warrior and too anodyne.
-- Hanna Rosin, "The Madness of Speaker Newt", New Republic, March 17, 1997

Numbness . . . may have replaced pain as the complaint of our century now that aspirin analgesia, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDS), and other anodynes can take away the pains of the civilized world.
-- Howard M. Spiro, Facing Death

An avid fisherman himself, McGarr shares Nellie's philosophy: "I do not merely fish for fish," she would say, "I fish for doubt's anodyne and care's surcease."
-- Marilyn Stasio, "Crime", New York Times, September 19, 1993

This third novel by a reporter for The New York Times shrewdly examines love as an anodyne for rural isolation.
-- "Notable Books of the Year 1997", New York Times, December 7, 1997

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Anodyne comes, via Latin, from Greek anodunos, "free from pain," from a-, an-, "without" + odune, "pain."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
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Word of the Day Tuesday July 22, 2008

supernumerary
\soo-puhr-NOO-muh-rair-ee; -NYOO-\, adjective: 1. Exceeding the stated, standard, or prescribed number. 2. Exceeding what is necessary or desired; superfluous.
noun: 1. A supernumerary person or thing. 2. An actor without a speaking part, as a walk-on or an extra in a crowd scene.

The Justice Department contractor, the Biogenics Corporation, of Houston, studied blood samples from thirty-six residents and concluded that eight of the people had a rare aberration it called "supernumerary acentric fragments," or extra pieces of genetic material.
-- Michael H. Brown, "A Toxic Ghost Town", The Atlantic, July 1989

Momart is where private collections are put out to pasture, where works that are too big, too precious, too fragile or simply supernumerary to their owners' homes are discreetly tended by expert staff.
-- Laura Cumming, "What the Sensationalists did next", The Observer, April 23, 2000

And yet, important as its role has been in the history of civilization, the bookshelf seldom even gets mentioned in the program; it is treated as a supernumerary, taken for granted, and ignored.
-- Henry Petroski, The Book on the Bookshelf

Sweetums, the Swiss chef and many others serve principally as supernumeraries in the picture's extravagant production numbers.
-- Rita Kempley, "Seeworthy Muppets", Washington Post, February 16, 1995

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Supernumerary is from Latin supernumerarius, from super, "over" + numerus, "number."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
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Word of the Day Wednesday July 23, 2008

vituperation
\vy-too-puh-RAY-shuhn, -tyoo-\, noun: 1. The act or an instance of speaking abusively to or about. 2. Sustained and severely abusive language.

It was a bitter attack on those who had sneered at his father, an astonishingly poised performance for a twenty-six-year-old, and an early demonstration of Bron's gift for vituperation.
-- Geoffrey Wheatcroft, "Bron and His 'Affec. Papa'", The Atlantic, May 2001

Everybody was very nice except the Liberal women -- who have a repertoire of vituperation that I cannot believe to be equalled anywhere.
-- Bonnie Kime Scott (Editor), Selected Letters of Rebecca West

Ratifying Wylie's vituperations against the homemaker, feminists have scorned the domestic role and exhorted other women to join them in forsaking it as unworthy of their talents.
-- F. Carolyn Graglia, Domestic Tranquility

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Vituperation comes from Latin vituperatio, from the past participle of vituperare, "to blame," from vitium, "a fault" + parare, "to prepare." The verb form is vituperate; the related adjective is vituperative. One who vituperates is a vituperator.
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
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Word of the Day Thursday July 24, 2008

melange
\may-LAHNZH\, noun: A mixture; a medley.

Interspersed with diverse lectures and classroom activities were periods of financial difficulty, military service, and employment as a private tutor, all of which added to the curious melange of experiences that would ultimately blossom into his unexpected and remarkable life's work.
-- Norman Brosterman, Inventing Kindergarten

The smell in the car . . . was a pungent, sour melange of garlic, unwashed bodies, vodka, musty woolen overcoats, and Bulgarian tobacco.
-- Fen Montaigne, Reeling in Russia

Many books in popular psychology are a melange of the author's comments, a dollop of research, and stupefyingly dull transcriptions from interviews.
-- Carol Tavris, "A Remedy But Not a Cure", New York Times, February 26, 1989

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Melange derives from Old French meslance, from mesler, "to mix," ultimately from Latin miscere, "to mix."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
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Word of the Day Friday July 25, 2008

sempiternal
\sem-pih-TUR-nuhl\, adjective: Of never ending duration; having beginning but no end; everlasting; endless.

In all the works on view, Mariani conjures a sempiternal realm that exists parallel to mundane reality and which is accessible through art, reverie and the imagination.
-- Gerard Mccarthy, "Carlo Maria Mariani at Hackett-Freedman", Art in America, September 1999

This is a sempiternal truth for institutions of high prestige. Someone will pay (almost) anything for Ivy-ish credentials.
-- Dennis O'Brien, "A 'Necessary' of Modern Life?", Commonweal, March 28, 1997

Finally, Syon's orchards are the world as our imagination would like it to be -- not wilderness, since orchards are after all planted and cultivated by farmers, but a sempiternal and ideal region of the mind.
-- Thomas L. Jeffers, "That which sustains us", Commentary, June 2002

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Sempiternal comes from Medieval Latin sempiternalis, from Latin sempiternus, a contraction of semperaeternus, from semper, "always" + aeternus, "eternal."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
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Word of the Day Monday July 28, 2008

quondam
\KWAHN-duhm; KWAHN-dam\, adjective: Having been formerly; former; sometime.

A quondam flower child, she spent seven years at the Royal College of Art, before becoming a lecturer at Edinburgh School of Art.
-- "Interview: Cool, calm collector", Independent, December 13, 1997

For the unregenerate "peasant" . . . had gone there with the successful glass distributor, shrewd investor, versatile talker, and quondam bon vivant whose motto was "The best is good enough for me."
-- Ted Solotaroff, Truth Comes in Blows: A Memoir

There was an exception to this in the form of Mrs Edna Parsons, a formidable Englishwoman who had once been the Prince's nanny and now served as proctor, supervising his behaviour. She was about fifty and true to her quondam profession, she could be quite strict.
-- David Freeman, One of Us

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Quondam comes from the Latin quondam, "formerly," from quom, "when."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
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Word of the Day Wednesday July 30, 2008

sesquipedalian
\ses-kwuh-puh-DAYL-yuhn\, adjective: 1. Given to or characterized by the use of long words. 2. Long and ponderous; having many syllables.
noun: 1. A long word.

As a sesquipedalian stylist, he can throw a word like 'eponymous" into a sentence without missing a beat.
-- Campbell Patty, "The sand in the oyster", The Horn Book Magazine, May 15, 1996

Plus he has a weakness for what we can mischievously call sesquipedalian excess: Look out for such terms as "epiphenomenal," "diegetic" and "proprioceptive."
-- Jabari Asim, "Reel Pioneer", Washington Post, November 19, 2000

They walk and speak with disdain for common folk, and never miss a chance to belittle the crowd in sesquipedalian put-downs or to declare that their raucous and uncouth behavior calls for nothing less than a letter to the Times, to inform proper Englishmen of the deplorable state of manners in the Colonies.
-- William C. Martin, "Friday Night in the Coliseum", The Atlantic, March 1972

. . .her eccentric family's addiction to sesquipedalians (that big word for "big words"), and her furtive passion for flossy mail-order-catalog prose.
-- David Browne, "Books/The Week", Entertainment Weekly, October 23, 1998

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Sesquipedalian comes from Latin sesquipedalis, "a foot and a half long, hence inordinately long," from sesqui, "one half more, half as much again" + pes, ped-, "a foot."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
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Word of the Day Thursday July 31, 2008

egress
\EE-gress\, noun: 1. The act of going out or leaving, or the right or freedom to leave; departure. 2. A means of going out or leaving; an exit; an outlet.
\ee-GRESS\, intransitive verb: 1. To go out; to depart; to leave.

Today gates and walls, much more hard and fixed barriers than street patterns, control entrance and egress in suburban subdivisions and urban neighborhoods around the country.
-- Edward J. Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder, Fortress America

New York's superb natural harbor and its links westward via the Erie Canal and, later, several trunk railroads made it an ideal entry and egress point for goods and people.
-- Joshua B. Freeman, Working-Class New York

In order to keep the crowds moving through the exhibits in his traveling show . . . Mr. [P.T.] Barnum posted signs that read: "This Way to the Egress." Eager to view this presumably strange and exotic exhibit, the throngs would push through the door labeled "Egress" -- and find themselves in the street.
-- Laurie A. O'Neill, "Almanac Is Itself a Rare Occurrence", New York Times, December 27, 1981

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Egress is from Latin egressus, from egredi, "to go out," from e-, "out" + gradi, "to step."
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
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Word of the Day
Friday August 1, 2008


Panoply \PAN-uh-plee\, noun:
1. A splendid or impressive array.
2. Ceremonial attire.
3. A full suit of armor; a complete defense or covering.

Every step taken to that end which appeases the obsolete hatreds and vanished oppressions, which makes easier the traffic and reciprocal services of Europe, which encourages nations to lay aside their precautionary panoply, is good in itself.
-- Winston Churchill, quoted in This Blessed Plot, by Hugo Young

The beige plastic bedpan that had come home from the hospital with him after his deviated-septum operation . . . now held ail his razors and combs and the panoply of gleaming instruments he employed to trim the hair that grew from the various features of his face.
-- Michael Chabon, Werewolves in Their Youth

To the east, out over the Ocean, the winter sky is a brilliant panoply of stars and comets, beckoning to adventurers, wise and foolish alike, who seek to divine its mysteries.
-- Ben Green, Before His Time

Labor was hard pressed to hold the line against erosion of its hard-won social wage: the panoply of government-paid benefits such as unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, Medicare, and Social Security.
-- Stanley Aronowitz, From the Ashes of the Old

Panoply is from Greek panoplia, "a full suit of armor," from pan, "all" + hoplia, "arms, armor," plural of hoplon, "implement, weapon."
'You can take our lives but you'll never take our freedom!' he screamed.
Carcer's men looked at one another, puzzled by what sounded like most badly thought-out war cry in the history of the universe.
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Ghost
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Post by Ghost »

Word of the Day Monday August 4, 2008

obeisance
\oh-BEE-suhn(t)s; oh-BAY-suhn(t)s\, noun: 1. An expression of deference or respect, such as a bow or curtsy. 2. Deference, homage.

They made obeisance right to the floor, coiling like bright snakes from the arms of their astonished handlers.
-- Ann Wroe, Pontius Pilate

His presence was betrayed to Miloš, who ordered his execution and then sent his rival's head to the Sultan to demonstrate his obeisance.
-- Misha Glenny, The Balkans

In all, it had served to create a highly restrictive societywhere the arrogance of superiors was as ingrained as their subordinates'fawning obeisance.
-- Robert Whiting, Tokyo Underworld

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Obeisance comes from Old French obeissance, from obeissant, present participle of obeir, to obey, from Latin oboedire, to listen to, from ob-, to + audire, to hear. The adjective form is obeisant.
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
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Post by Ghost »

Word of the Day Tuesday August 5, 2008

vituperate
\vy-TOO-puh-rate, -TYOO-, vi-\, verb: To find fault with; to scold; to overwhelm with wordy abuse; to censure severely or abusively; to rate.

There are moments in life when true invective is called for, when it becomes an absolute necessity, out of a deep sense of justice, to denounce, mock, vituperate, lash out, in the strongest possible language.
-- Charles Simic, quoted in "The argument culture", Irish Times, December 17, 1998

The incensed priests...continued to raise their voices, vituperating each other in bad Latin.
-- Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

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Vituperate comes from Latin vitupero, vituperare, to scold, blame, censure.
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you,
S Adams
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umsolopagas
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Post by umsolopagas »

the grim squeaker wrote:
Instead I seemed to be drawn to countries with the worst food imaginable, places like Turkistan and Africa, where every day you woke up hoping you could avoid gustatory terror but knowing that before you slept again, horrible things would be going inside your mouth. The best strategy was simply to try to eat as little as possible. But I seemed cursed by an ever hopeful palate. "Termites? Termite larva? Could be interesting. I'll try a handful." This was never a good idea.
-- Stuart Stevens, Feeding Frenzy

That is the whiniest, most pompous, condescending, one-buttocked statement.....

Who's this Stuart Stevens idiot? Non-entity, name forgotten already...
Blackadder: Is it cunning?
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the grim squeaker
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Post by the grim squeaker »

What the hell, where the hell did you get that, I never wrote that or quoted it or anything! And why the hell is this in word of the day, wheres the source?
Last edited by the grim squeaker on Thu Aug 07, 2008 7:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
'You can take our lives but you'll never take our freedom!' he screamed.
Carcer's men looked at one another, puzzled by what sounded like most badly thought-out war cry in the history of the universe.
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