GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

A home for our "Off-Topic" Chats. Like to play games? Tell jokes? Shoot the breeze about nothing at all ? Here is the place where you can hang out with the IBDoF Peanut Gallery and have some fun.

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Ghost
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Word of the Day Tuesday March 4, 2008

probity
\PRO-buh-tee\, noun: Complete and confirmed integrity; uprightness.

Unless some light is shed on shady dealings and some probity restored, more young lives will be blighted and careers choked off.
-- Norman Lebrecht, Who Killed Classical Music?

To suggest that this exemplar of financial probity was enriching himself at public expense was to shake the very foundations of the new Republic.
-- William Safire, Scandalmonger

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Probity is from Latin probitas, from probus, "good, upright, virtuous."
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 March 5, 2008

busker
\BUS-kur\, noun: A person who entertains (as by playing music) in public places.

Jakub is a student of mathematics, a likable but callow young man who seduces a blind busker, Alzbeta, who plays for the tourists in modern Prague.
-- Andrew Miller, "Waiting for Something to Happen", New York Times, October 24, 1999

When Singapore decided to legalize street performances in 1997, artists were required to audition and to donate any money collected to charity. The government recently lifted a ban on audience participation, but the streets remain largely busker-free.
-- Wayne Arnold, "In Singapore, the Start-Up Dance Is Still Difficult to Do", New York Times, September 19, 1999

. . .a busker who simultaneously plays the drums, cymbals, bells and a mouth organ.
-- Murray Bail, Homesickness: A Novel

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Busker is from busk, "to seek to entertain by singing and dancing," probably from Spanish buscar, "to seek."
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 March 6, 2008

rara avis
\RAIR-uh-AY-vis\, noun; plural rara avises \RAIR-uh-AY-vuh-suhz\ or rarae aves \RAIR-ee-AY-veez\: A rare or unique person or thing.

He was, after all, that rara avis, a Jewish Catholic priest with a wife and children.
-- Jeremy Sams, "Lorenzo the magnificent", Independent, May 16, 2000

"First of all," Arthur said, "Jack is that rara avis among Ivy League radicals, a birthright member of the proletariat."
-- Charles McCarry, Lucky Bastard

Rara avis. You'd have to go far and wide to find someone like that, especially in these times.
-- Andrew Holleran, In September, the Light Changes

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Rara avis is Latin for "rare bird."
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 March 13, 2008

rodomontade
\rod-uh-muhn-TADE; roh-duh-; -TAHD\, noun: Vain boasting; empty bluster; pretentious, bragging speech; rant.

These are rejoinders born out of a need to deflate a balloon filled with what others view as pomposity or rodomontade.
-- Corey Mesler, "Dispatch #1: Buying the Bookstore (The Early Days)", ForeWord, August 2000

The very absurdity of some of his later claims (inventors of jazz, originators of swing) . . . has made him an easy target in a way far beyond anything generated by that other (and in some ways quite similar) master of rodomontade, Jelly Roll Morton.
-- Richard M. Sudhalter, Lost Chords

. . .the me-me-me rodomontade of macho rap.
-- Nicholas Barber, "In the very bleak midwinter", Independent, January 7, 1996

But what he said -- that if any official came to his house to requisition his pistol, he'd better shoot straight -- was more rodomontade than a call to arms or hatred.
-- William F. Buckley Jr., "What does Clinton have in mind?", National Review, May 29, 1995

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Rodomontade comes from Italian rodomontada, from Rodomonte, a great yet boastful warrior king in Italian epics of the late 15th - early 16th centuries. At root the name means "roller-away of mountains," from the Italian dialect rodare, "to roll away" (from Latin rota, "wheel") + Italian monte, "mountain" (from Latin mons).
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 March 14, 2008

bedizen
\bih-DY-zuhn\, transitive verb: To dress or adorn in gaudy manner.

At 18, he attended a party "frizzled, powdered and curled, in radiant pink satin, with waistcoat bedizened with gems of pink paste and a mosaic of colored foils and a hat blazing with 5,000 metallic beads," according to Michael Battersberry in "Fashion, The Mirror of History."
-- Donna Larcen, "Details Details: Everything Old Is New Again", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 19, 1994

. . .Ford's 2001-model F-150 SuperCrew "Harley-Davidson" model. This special edition pickup truck is bedizened with enough chrome, leather, and H-D logos to bring a RUBbie (Rich Urban Biker) weeping to his knees.
-- "Summer Autos 2001", Newsday, May 19, 2001

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Bedizen is the prefix be-, "completely; thoroughly; excessively" + dizen, an archaic word meaning "to deck out in fine clothes and ornaments," from Middle Dutch disen, "to dress (a distaff) with flax ready for spinning," from Middle Low German dise, "the bunch of flax placed on a distaff."
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 March 17, 2008

indolent
\IN-duh-luhnt\, adjective: 1. Avoiding labor and exertion; habitually idle; lazy; inactive. 2. Conducive to or encouraging laziness or inactivity. 3. Causing little or no pain. 4. Slow to heal, develop, or grow.

We worked very hard--at least Iris did; I was more naturally indolent.
-- John Bayley, Elegy for Iris

Charles was too indolent -- he never applied himself to the business of kingship as Louis XIV did.
-- John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination

There, people did as much as they chose and few ripples ever disturbed the prevailing atmosphere of indolent tranquillity.
-- Rufina Philby, "et al.", The Private Life of Kim Philby

Now, though, researchers understand that some cancers are indolent -- so indolent, in fact, that they will never grow large enough in the patient's lifetime to cause medical problems.
-- Gina Kolata, "Test Proves Fruitless, Fueling New Debate on Cancer Screening", New York Times, April 9, 2002

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Indolent is from Latin in-, "not" + dolens, "hurting, suffering pain," from dolere, "to suffer 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 March 18, 2008

nefarious
\nuh-FAIR-ee-uhs\, adjective: Wicked in the extreme; iniquitous.

Despite involvement in protection, narcotics, strong-arm debt collecting, strikebreaking, and blackmail, among other nefarious activities, all of them professed to be a cut above mobsters in other lands.
-- Robert Whiting, Tokyo Underworld

The liar, however, can become a truly subversive and scandalous figure, whose nefarious influence may extend far more widely than her own individual actions.
-- John Forrester, Truth Games

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Nefarious is from Latin nefarius, from nefas, "that which is contrary to divine command; a crime, transgression, sin," from ne-, "not" + fas, "divine command or law."

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iniquitous , adjective: characterized by iniquity; wicked because it is believed to be a sin; "iniquitous deeds"; "he said it was sinful to wear lipstick"; "ungodly acts"
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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CodeBlower
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Just to hear them roll off the tongue, it sounds more fun to be iniquitous than nefarious .. ;)
"Budge up, yeh great lump." -- Hagrid, HP:SS
-=-
The gelding is what the gelding is, unlike people who change in response to their perceptions of events that may benefit or threaten their power. -- Lorn, Chapter LXXXII, Magi'i of Cyador
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Word of the Day Thursday March 20, 2008

acerbic
\uh-SUR-bik\, adjective: Sharp, biting, or acid in temper, expression, or tone.

But more than that, he is a social critic, and an efficient one, acerbic and devastating.
-- Benoit Aubin, "Quebec's King of Comedy", Maclean's, August 27, 2001

Since I started out as a writer many years ago, I have built a reputation as an acerbic, mean-spirited observer of the human condition.
-- Joe Queenan, My Goodness: A Cynic's Short-Lived Search for Sainthood

Joey gained a reputation as a smart aleck adept at delivering acerbic one-liners.
-- "Joseph Heller, Author of 'Catch-22,' Dies at 76", New York Times, December 14, 1999

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Acerbic comes from Latin acerbus, "bitter, sour, severe, harsh."
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 March 25, 2008

repine
\rih-PINE\, intransitive verb: 1. To feel or express discontent. 2. To long for something.

Even Hancock, though he might regret the source of this sudden wealth, could not repine at its consequences.
-- David Nokes, Jane Austen: A Life

Deserted at birth by his natural father, sentenced at the age of 11 to Colored Waif's Home in New Orleans, Armstrong did not repine; instead, he returned love for hatred and sought salvation through work.
-- Terry Teachout, "Top Brass", New York Times, August 3, 1997

One may repine over the ineffectiveness of the policies applied to Iraq without quite giving up hope that in some way not visible now Saddam has been undermined.
-- Martin Woollacott, "Iraq's devastation is due to Saddam, not sanctions", The Guardian, February 23, 2001

Thus 250 years ago the philosopher David Hume bemoaned the lack of economic cooperation among countries, blaming the "narrow malignity and envy of nations, which can never bear to see their neighbors thriving, but continually repine at any new efforts towards industry made by any other nation."
-- Benjamin Schwarz, "Why America Thinks It Has to Run the World", The Atlantic, June 1996

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Repine is re- (from the Latin) + pine, from Old English pinian, "to torment," ultimately from Latin poena, "penalty, punishment."
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 March 31, 2008

xenophobia
\ZEN-uh-FOE-bee-uh\, noun: Fear or hatred of strangers, people from other countries, or of anything that is strange or foreign.

After calling for peace in 61 languages and beseeching the world to end racism and xenophobia, the pope made a surprise announcement.
-- "Will the Next Pope Be Catholic", SF Weekly, April 26, 2000

In Europe today, it is xenophobia and the political manipulation of fear of foreigners that pose the greatest threat to democracy, or at least to the quality of democracy.
-- Kofi Annan, "Democracy: An international issue", UN Chronicle, June-August, 2001

The news, the incidents and accidents of everyday life, can be loaded with political or ethnic significance liable to unleash strong, often negative feelings, such as racism, chauvinism, the fear-hatred of the foreigner or, xenophobia.
-- Pierre Bourdieu, On Television

In the embattled atmosphere of wartime France, Apollinaire's quenchless appetite for the new was not widely shared. Xenophobia reigned.
-- Ruth Brandon, Surreal Lives: The Surrealists 1917-1945

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The word xenophobia was formed from the Greek elements xenos "guest, stranger, foreigner" + phobos "fear."
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 April 3, 2008

bellwether
\BEL-weth-uhr\, noun: A leader of a movement or activity; also, a leading indicator of future trends.

Raised to believe they were among their generation's best and brightest, my class can be seen as a bellwether for a generation caught without a compass on the cutting edge of uncharted territory.
-- Elizabeth Fishel, Reunion: The Girls We Used to Be, the Women We Became

Before that election, Maine's proud citizens had fancied their state to be a sort of bellwether, a notion embodied in the saying "As Maine goes, so goes the nation."
-- Robert Shogan, The Fate of the Union

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Bellwether is a compound of bell and wether, "a male sheep, usually castrated"; from the practice of hanging a bell from the neck of the leader of the flock.
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 April 7, 2008

woebegone
\WOE-bee-gon\, adjective: 1. Beset or overwhelmed with woe; immersed in grief or sorrow; woeful. 2. Being in a sorry condition; dismal-looking; dilapidated; run-down.

Socrates, condemned to death by the people of Athens, prepares to drink a cup of hemlock, surrounded by woebegone friends.
-- Alain De Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy

This woebegone lot includes Henry, a real-estate developer whose dream project has, like his marriage, slipped into bankruptcy; Henry's sister, Wiloma, who has hurled herself headlong into the arms of a New Age church to survive her own divorce; and Henry and Wiloma's decrepit Uncle Brendan, a former monk whose faith has eroded along with his health, stranding him in a nursing home.
-- Jennifer Howard, review of The Forms of Water by Andrea Barrett, New York Times, June 13, 1996

After 40 years as a producer he thinks of himself as a battered, scarred but well-armoured animal, "like an old turtle"; and if such creatures could speak they would probably sound like [him], a bit woebegone but drolly unsurprised by life's vicissitudes.
-- "Time for another Hugo hit", Times (London), May 22, 2000

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Woebegone is from Middle English wo begon, from wo (from Old English wa, used to express grief) + begon, past participle of begon, "to go about, to beset," from Old English began, bigan, from bi-, "around, about" + gan, "to go."
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 April 8, 2008

voluble
\VOL-yuh-buhl\, adjective: 1. Characterized by a ready flow of speech. 2. Easily rolling or turning; rotating. 3. (Botany) Having the power or habit of turning or twining.

Rostow was voluble, exuberant and full of good and sometimes foolish ideas.
-- Kai Bird, The Color of Truth

Two glasses of wine made him voluble and three made him bellicose, sentimental and sometimes slurred.
-- "How Nixon turned into Tricky Dicky", Daily Telegraph, March 9, 1999

He listened patiently and with quiet amusement to my enthusiasm. Indeed, this turned out to be our pattern: I, more ignorant but more voluble, would babble on, while he would offer an occasional objection or refinement.
-- Phillip Lopate, Totally, Tenderly, Tragically

Her tongue, so voluble and kind,
It always runs before her mind.
-- Matthew Prior, "Truth and Falsehood"

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Voluble derives from Latin volubilis, "revolving, rolling, fluent," from volvere, "to roll."
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 April 9, 2008

afflatus
\uh-FLAY-tuhs\, noun: A divine imparting of knowledge; inspiration.

Whatever happened to passion and vision and the divine afflatus in poetry?
-- Clive Hicks, "From 'Green Man' (Ronsdale)", Toronto Star, November 21, 1999

Aristophanes must have eclipsed them . . . by the exhibition of some diviner faculty, some higher spiritual afflatus.
-- John Addington Symonds, Studies of the Greek Poets

The miraculous spring that nourished Homer's afflatus seems out of reach of today's writers, whose desperate yearning for inspiration only indicates the coming of an age of "exhaustion.
-- Benzi Zhang, "Paradox of origin(ality)", Studies in Short Fiction, March 22, 1995

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Afflatus is from Latin afflatus, past participle of afflare, "to blow at or breathe on," from ad-, "at" + flare, "to puff, to blow." Other words with the same root include deflate (de-, "out of" + flare); inflate (in-, "into" + flare); soufflé, the "puffed up" dish (from French souffler, "to puff," from Latin sufflare, "to blow from below," hence "to blow up, to puff up," from sub-, "below" + flare); and flatulent.
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 April 11, 2008

caesura
\sih-ZHUR-uh; -ZUR-\, noun; plural caesuras or caesurae \sih-ZHUR-ee; -ZUR-ee\: 1. A break or pause in a line of verse, usually occurring in the middle of a line, and indicated in scanning by a double vertical line; for example, "The proper study || of mankind is man" [Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man]. 2. Any break, pause, or interruption.

After an inconclusive day spent discussing the caesura of "Sonnet"'s opening line, Luke and his colleagues went for cocktails at Strabismus.
-- Martin Amis, Heavy Water and Other Stories

The crucial event of the Robedaux family occurs offscreen, in a narrative caesura between the film's two "acts."
-- Richard Corliss, "The Patter of Little Footes", Time, May 13, 1985

Say her name today in the right circles and you'll notice a sudden intake of breath, a caesura of pure awe.
-- Michael Dirda, "In which our intrepid columnist visits the Modern Language Association convention and reflects on what he found there", Washington Post, January 28, 2001

During the historical caesura between the total destruction of Aquileia and the seventh-century foundation of the city of Heraclea as the first political capital of the second Venice, the refugees lived on Grado and the other islands, just as Cassiodorus had seen them: humbly, simply, and by the toil of their hands.
-- Patricia Fortini Brown, Venice and Antiquity

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Caesura comes from Latin caesura, "a cutting off, a division, a stop," from the past participle of caedere, "to cut."
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 April 14, 2008

pin money
\pin money\, noun: 1. An allowance of money given by a husband to his wife for private and personal expenditures. 2. Money for incidental expenses. 3. A trivial sum.

Women's groups have contended that jobs that usually go to men pay more because of the old-fashioned idea that a man is supporting a family while a woman is merely working for pin money.
-- Juan Williams, "A Question of Fairness", The Atlantic, February-1987

Many young people take jobs in hotels and pubs as a way of earning a bit of pin money, or to top up the student loans and parental hand-outs that see them through the cash-strapped college years
-- Nick Pandya, "Failed to make the grade? You're still wanted", The Guardian, September 7, 2002

A record-smashing fine sounds tough, but it's pin money for Credit Suisse.
-- Nick Cohen, "Life in a bubble bath", The Observer, December 22, 2002

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Pin money originally referred to money given by husbands to their wives for the specific purpose of buying pins.
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 April 15, 2008

miasma
\my-AZ-muh; mee-\, noun: 1. A vaporous exhalation (as of marshes or putrid matter) formerly thought to cause disease; broadly, a thick vaporous atmosphere or emanation. 2. A harmful or corrupting atmosphere or influence; also, an atmosphere that obscures; a fog.

The critics, he says, "will sit in their large automobiles, spewing a miasma of toxic gas into the atmosphere, and they will thank you for not smoking a cigarette."
-- Charles E. Little, "No One Communes Anymore", New York Times, October 17, 1993

To destroy such prejudices, which many a time rise and spread themselves like a miasma, is an imperative duty of theory, for the misbegotten offspring of human reason can also be in turn destroyed by pure reason.
-- Carl von Clausewitz, On War (translated by Colonel James John Graham)

He spends whatever money he has on hash and eventually heroin . . . and proceeds to sink into a miasma of anger and alienation.
-- Jhumpa Lahiri, "Money Talks in Pakistan", New York Times, March 12, 2000

Girls of my generation stumbled through much of our early adolescence in a dense miasma of longing.
-- Ellen Pall, "She had a Crush on Them", New York Times, July 29, 1990

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Miasma comes from Greek miasma, "pollution," from miainein, "to pollute."
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 April 17, 2008

roister
\ROY-stur\, intransitive verb: 1. To engage in boisterous merrymaking; to revel; to carouse. 2. To bluster; to swagger.

For some people, she was the archetype of the roistering New Russians, with their love of partying, fast cars and foreign holidays.
-- Alan Philps, "Brezhnev's outrageous daughter dies at 69", Daily Telegraph, July 2, 1998

Back in our expatriate days, we roistering provincials, slap-happy to be in Paris, drunk on the beauty of our surroundings, were fearful of retiring to our Left Bank hotel rooms lest we wake up back home, retrieved by parents who would remind us of how much they had invested in our educations, and how it was time for us to put our shoulders to the wheel.
-- Mordecai Richler, Barney's Version

. . .the bullying, lying, lily-livered, lecherous, roistering, brandy-swigging, battle-fleeing, toad-eating Harry Paget Flashman, whose charming roguery has won him a worldwide following.
-- Michael Browning, "Flashman' Trio Fine Fun, Leaves Us Shouting 'More!'", Palm Beach Post, September 24, 2000

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Roister is probably from Middle French rustre, "a boor, a clown; clownish," from Latin rusticus, "rustic," from rus, "country."
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 April 18, 2008

inveigle
\in-VAY-guhl; -VEE-\, transitive verb: 1. To persuade by ingenuity or flattery; to entice. 2. To obtain by ingenuity or flattery.

Deep Blue had tried to inveigle Kasparov into grabbing several pawn offers, but the champion was not fooled.
-- Robert Byrne, "Kasparov and Computer Play to a Draw", New York Times, February 14, 1996

He used to tell one about Kevin Moran ringing him up pretending to be a French radio journalist and inveigling Cas, new in France, into parlaying his three words of French into an interview.
-- Tom Humphries, "Big Cas cameos will be missed", Irish Times, May 4, 2000

Once a soft touch for these ragged moralists who inveigled her into sparing them her change, Agnes began to cross the road, begging for some change in her circumstances.
-- Rachel Cusk, Saving Agnes

In fact, he spent the entire time in the car park, waiting for eye witnesses from whom to inveigle quotes he could use as his own.
-- Matthew Norman, "Diary", The Guardian, January 1, 2003

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Inveigle comes from Anglo-French enveogler, from Old French aveugler, "to blind, to lead astray as if blind," from aveugle, "blind," from Medieval Latin ab oculis, "without eyes."
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 April 21, 2008

chimera
\ky-MIR-uh\, noun: 1. (Capitalized) A fire-breathing she-monster represented as having a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail. 2. Any imaginary monster made up of grotesquely incongruous parts. 3. An illusion or mental fabrication; a grotesque product of the imagination. 4. An individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution, produced as a result of organ transplant, grafting, or genetic engineering.

Asa Whitney, with no previous experience and having nothing but his faith and self-assurance to tell him he was not pursuing a chimera, began to outline how he would get a railroad across the vast, uninhabited middle of the American continent to the Pacific shores, where the lure of Asia beckoned, within reach.
-- David Haward Bain, Empire Express

She seems to spend most of the book sobbing, throwing up and generally marinating in a stew of self-absorption while searching fruitlessly for that chimera, her true self, inexpertly aided by astrologers and new-age therapists.
-- "Cutting through fantasies to crazy life", USA Today, December 2, 1999

These "chimeras" can be created because of our power--derived from the recombinant DNA technology developed in the early 1970s--to move DNA from one species to another.
-- Bryan Appleyard, Brave New Worlds

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Chimera comes from Latin chimaera, from Greek chimaira "she-goat, chimera."



[Note]: For years I mis-pronounced this shim-mer-a
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 April 23, 2008

ubiquitous
\yoo-BIK-wih-tuhs\, adjective: Existing or being everywhere, or in all places, at the same time.

In spite of the ubiquitous beggars, gypsies and 'naked urchins', Skopje was an attractive town in the early part of the century.
-- Anne Sebba, Mother Teresa: Beyond the Image

Airborne gambling, shopping and videoconferencing may all be ubiquitous in the future.
-- Peter H. Lewis, "The Cybercompanion", New York Times, February 7, 1999

Adding to my perplexity, this lack of clarity even appeared evident among the best and brightest sociologists, historians, literary scholars, art historians, those working in cultural studies, American Studies, and journalism; the problem looked to be ubiquitous.
-- Michael Kammen, American Culture, American Tastes

Before Tarzan, nobody understood just how big, how ubiquitous, how marketable a star could be.
-- John Taliaferro, Tarzan Forever

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Ubiquitous derives, via French, from Latin ubique, "everywhere," from ubi, "where." The noun form is ubiquity.
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 April 25, 2008

epigone
\EP-uh-gohn\, noun: An inferior imitator, especially of some distinguished writer, artist, musician, or philosopher.

He probably was influenced by John le Carré. . . . But Mr. Crisp . . . is no mere epigone.
-- Newgate Callendar, "Who's The Mole?", New York Times, October 9, 1988

No novelist is dearer to me than Robert Musil. He died one morning while lifting weights. When I lift them myself, I keep anxiously checking my pulse, and I am afraid of dropping dead, for to die with a weight in my hand like my revered author would make me an epigone so unbelievable, frenetic and fanatical as immediately to assure me of ridiculous immortality.
-- Milan Kundera, Immortality

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Epigone derives from Greek epigonos, from epigignesthai, to be born after, from epi-, "upon, after" + gignesthai, "to be born." The adjective form is epigonic.
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 for Saturday, April 26, 2008

confluence \KON-floo-uhn(t)s\, noun:

1. A flowing or coming together; junction.
2. The place where two rivers, streams, etc. meet.
3. A flocking or assemblage of a multitude in one place; a large collection or assemblage.
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At the confluence of continents, at the narrow neck of the Nile Valley just before it spreads into the flat water-maze of the Delta, this has always been a place where elements mingle and cultures collide.
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