GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Thursday August 16, 2007

tattoo \ta-TOO\, noun: 1. A rapid, rhythmic drumming or rapping. 2. A beat of a drum, or sound of a trumpet or bugle, giving notice to soldiers to go to their quarters at night. 3. A display of military exercises given as evening entertainment.

Joss blew out her breath, stamped her feet in a short tattoo, and sat jiggling one leg.
-- John Casey, The Half-life of Happiness

There are more golf courses per person in Naples than anywhere else in the world, and in spite of the hot, angry weather everyone around the hotel was dressed to play, their cleated shoes tapping out a clickety-clickety-clickety tattoo on the sidewalks.
-- Susan Orlean, The Orchid Thief

With a steady tattoo of bad news beginning to offset what had been one of the most vibrant parts of the U.S. economy, "we are less optimistic than we were two months ago about the speed of the bounce back," Mr. Williams said.
-- Eduardo Porter, "California's Economic Slowdown Is Expected to Last Much Longer", Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2001

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Tattoo is an alteration of earlier taptoo, from Dutch taptoe, "a tap(house)-shut," from tap, "faucet" + toe, "shut" -- meaning, essentially, that the tavern is about to shut.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Friday August 17, 2007

agitprop \AJ-it-prop\, noun: Propaganda, especially pro-communist political propaganda disseminated through literature, drama, music, or art.

Despite its explicit program, when the symphony was first performed in 1957 a Russian audience always on the lookout for subtexts quickly interpreted it as being about the crushed Hungarian uprising of the previous year. This officially sanctioned work of agitprop was read as an encrypted denunciation of the Soviet regime.
-- Justin Davidson, "Musical Explosions, Moving and Martial", Newsday, May 22, 1999

The essay was a farewell to the men of the left, a brilliant, impassioned piece of agitprop that galvanized women in communes, bookstores, hippie coffee houses and underground newspaper offices all over the country.
-- "Memoirs by women writers get personal with a host of issues, from politics to pregnancy to parent care", Washington Post, January 14, 2001

Neither writer offers a shred of evidence for her claims, which makes these books second-rate agitprop rather than "first-rate sociology."
-- Kim Phillips-Fein, "Feminine Mystiquers", The Nation, March 19, 1999

. . .nationally televised agitprop designed to appear nonpartisan while actually pushing the ideology of the party in power.
-- Peter Beinart, "The sleazification of an American ritual", The New Republic, February 3, 1997

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Agitprop comes from Russian, from agitatsiya, "agitation" + propaganda.

[voralfred]

tattoo[/b] \ta-TOO\, noun: 1. A rapid, rhythmic drumming or rapping. 2. A beat of a drum, or sound of a trumpet or bugle, giving notice to soldiers to go to their quarters at night. 3. A display of military exercises given as evening entertainment.

I did know of this acception (well, three acceptions really, but more or less related) of the word "tattoo" but doesn't the same word also mean drawings made in the skin by inserting ink with a needle?



On a different topic:

I have decided to invest myself with full plenipotentiary powers to bombard this forum with a constant tattoo of agitprop.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Sunday August 19, 2007

temporize \TEM-puh-ryz\, intransitive verb: 1. To be indecisive or evasive in order to gain time or delay action. 2. To comply with the time or occasion; to yield to prevailing opinion or circumstances. 3. To engage in discussions or negotiations so as to gain time (usually followed by 'with'). 4. To come to terms (usually followed by 'with').

The best Dukakis game plan would seem to be to take a leaf from Jesse's book: make no final deals, temporize, and talk it to death.
-- John McLaughlin, "What to do with Jesse?", National Review, October 14, 1988

But when it comes to paying out claims, too many third-party providers stall, balk and temporize.
-- Stacie Zoe Berg, "Rx for reluctant health insurers", Insight on the News, September 22, 1997

On the big issues, Reagan rejected the importuning of his senior aides. He refused to temporize on the 1981 tax cut that ended Jimmy Carter's stagflation. At Reykjavik in 1985, he turned down State Department advice for an arms deal and stood fast to open the way for the Soviet collapse.
-- Robert Novak, "For the Great Communicator, presidency was about big dreams", Chicago Sun-Times, June 2004

The only alternative policy is to temporize, to make a series of concessions to North Korea as a way to buy time.
-- Charles Krauthammer, "U.S. should appease N. Korea -- temporarily", Deseret News, March 9, 2003

In the end, the price that was paid was tragically so much higher than it would have been if the democracies had shed their illusions that they could temporize with evil.
-- Mortimer B. Zuckerman, "It's time to fight back", US News & World Report, September 7, 1998

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temporize derives from Medieval Latin temporizare, "to pass the time," from Latin tempus, tempor-, "time." It is related to temporary.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Monday August 20, 2007

faction \FAK-shuhn\, noun: 1. A usually contentious or self-seeking group within a larger group, party, government, etc. 2. Party strife and intrigue; internal dissension.

For most of his colleagues, Leonid Ilich Brezhnev, who had succeeded Khrushchev as First (later General) Secretary, was a far more reassuring figure -- affable, lightweight and patient in reconciling opposing factions, though skillful in outmaneuvering his political rivals.
-- Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield

Leaders of the party's reform faction, decisively defeated for top posts, have not heeded the call for post-election unity.
-- "El Salvador: Orthodox Faction Holds on to Power in the FMLN", NotiCen, December 6, 2001

As Madison wrote in Federalist no. 10, the purpose of the Constitution was to constrain special interest politics, or what he called "the violence of faction."
-- James T. Bennett and Thomas J. Di Lorenzo, CancerScam

While Britannia Triumphans opened with a scene in which rebellious citizens of past reigns are dispelled by Heroic Virtue, faction, disorder and rebellion were much harder to deal with in British society.
-- John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination

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Faction comes from Latin factio, faction-, from the past participle of facere, "to do, to make."

[CodeBlower]

I did know of this acception (well, three acceptions really, but more or less related) of the word "tattoo" but doesn't the same word also mean drawings made in the skin by inserting ink with a needle?

I'm guessing the definition "1. A rapid, rhythmic drumming or rapping." (as a description of the action of the needle) is what gave the ink-design its name.

This was new for me .. as was acception. I learn two new words today.

[spiphany]

Nope. The word meaning "tapping" and the one meaning "body art" are completely unrelated. From etymology online:

to mark the skin with pigment," 1769 (noun and ver, both first attested in writing of Capt. Cook), from a Polynesian noun (e.g. Tahitian and Samoan tatau, Marquesan tatu "puncture, mark made on skin").

(Honestly, it's better to check up on these things rather than speculating -- people have enough misconceptions about language as it is.)

"acception" sounds extremely archaic to me. Voralfred, I think you'd be better off using "definition" if you want people to understand what you mean. I have never heard the word in actual usage in my life, and "definition" is pretty standard.

[tollbaby]

Brenda, considering that voralfred is learning as he goes, I thought that this assumption for tattoo was quite insightful. It may not have been factually correct, but give the guy a break.

In addition, "acception" is a more formal usage that is much more common in Europe than it is here (I've heard it used on BBC many times).

[voralfred]

"acception" sounds extremely archaic to me. Voralfred, I think you'd be better off using "definition" if you want people to understand what you mean. I have never heard the word in actual usage in my life, and "definition" is pretty standard.

I'm sorry. "Acception" is rather standard in french (well, I have seen it used quite a few times), and I just assumed that as a "latin" word, it would be just the same in english. Somehow, when a word has just one meaning, I would speak of "its definition", but when it has several ones, as here, the phrase "plusieurs acceptions" comes naturally to my mind. But that does not take into account frnch/english or maybe europe/US differences.


The "insightful assumption" on the origin of the "drawing" definition of tattoo was Codeblower's, by the way, not mine. I just asked whether that definition also existed in english. In french it is the only one (Edit: as tatouer, verb, tatouage, noun, but a Frenchman would automatically understand "tattoo" in that sense, even without knowing english).
The first time I met Ghost's definition of "tattoo" (under its third variant) was when visiting Edinburgh. There was "the" tattoo that evening and there were signs everywhere that all tickets were sold out. It took me some time to understand why so many people would be so anxious to get their skin tattooed.

[gollum]

I can recall being quietly confident about the meaning of 'military tattoo'. What else could it mean except some sort of blokey bonding thing, where all the guys in a squad - or whatever - get the same tattoo. After all, those crazy armed forces people are always doing something strange.

[spiphany]

Look, if people would prefer that I not make occasional corrections, I won't. I do realize English isn't everyone's first language here, and I certainly don't think it would be appropriate to correct every single minor grammatical mistake. I understand perfectly well that it's easy to incorrectly extrapolate from another language (or to misuse a word in your native language which you're not particularly familiar with).

However, since this thread in particular is at least in part intended to help people expand their vocabulary (I know it's a game as well), it doesn't seem like it is out of place to make occasional comments on word usage which is obviously unusual or incorrect. It's intended to be helpful, not critical: if no one ever tells you "we don't generally use a word that way, this is what we say instead" how will you ever find out?

That's all it's intended as. Nothing more.

And I do adhere to the principle that researching a piece of information -- this is true in matters of language as well as anything else -- instead of guessing is to be preferred. But if people are offended, I can keep my mouth closed.

[voralfred]

But if people are offended, I can keep my mouth closed.

I never felt offended by your corrections! On the contrary, I am just happy to learn better english. I just wanted to point out that using "acception" was not with the intention to show off, but the effect of translating straight into US english a "technical" french word.

[tollbaby]

Brenda, it was more the following comment:

Honestly, it's better to check up on these things rather than speculating -- people have enough misconceptions about language as it is.

that I felt was unnecessary. I apologize for getting the wrong source, voralfred... But honestly, what's wrong with speculating? It was an interesting theory, one I wouldn't have thought of. There was also the "extremely archaic" comment that came off badly (in my mind, anyway).

There's nothing wrong with correcting, but that entire post just left me feeling that maybe someone had whizzed in your cornflakes or something.

[laurie]

I can recall being quietly confident about the meaning of 'military tattoo'. What else could it mean except some sort of blokey bonding thing, where all the guys in a squad - or whatever - get the same tattoo. After all, those crazy armed forces people are always doing something strange.

The first time I saw the phrase "The Edinburgh Tattoo" (in an ad in a Scottish magazine), I thought What? A thistle or a tartan plaid?

Then I saw a video of it...

[voralfred]

When introducing himself, Bmat wrote

5. How you found IBDoF

A friend found it by googling "pissaciously"

I checked, and indeed, not only does IBDoF appear when googling this word, but it is the only website that does. I followed the link and found a few hilarious pages of WOTD of a few years ago that I had not yet read.

Has the mystery been solved since?


Edit:
BTW, Bmat, why on earth did your friend google "pissaciously"? Did he find in in any other place than Cherry's _Explorer_?

[voralfred]

Rather than going for each other's throats, the various factions each advocating a different acception for the word pissaciously should rather temporize. Titivating your house is a better occupation than gouging the eyes of your contradictors before defenestrating them, as only flagitious and mordacious termagants would do.


Edit: I just realized that the reason that I did not find these pages before is because they are not in this thread, but a different one also called "Word of the Day"

[spiphany]

I fail to see what was derisive about my earlier post, unless it was a bit blunt because I was in a hurry. I simply stated my impressions.

I would ask, again, though: Why should speculating about language be any more acceptable than speculating about any other kind of fact (history, say)? I don't think it's unreasonable to expect people to check something which is readily verifiable -- and etymology generally is.
It's not that I mind when people wonder about language -- quite the contrary -- but the problem is that too often people will accept anything that sounds plausible without really questioning it (i.e., the idea that women talk more than men, or that Shakespeare invented thousands of words). As native speakers and users of at least one language, all of us tend to assume we know how it works. On one level that's true, of course, but it's not the same kind of knowledge that can be gained from studying it.

[Ghost]

spiphany,

Your post was fine - let it go.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Tuesday August 21, 2007

indurate \IN-dur-it; -dyur-\, adjective: 1. Physically or morally hardened; unfeeling; stubborn.
transitive verb: 1. To make hard; to harden. 2. To harden against; to make hardy; to habituate. 3. To make hardened; to make callous or stubborn. 4. To establish; to fix firmly.
intransitive verb: 1. To grow hard; to harden. 2. To become established or fixed.

They are completely indurate. They aren't hard-nosed; they live without any sense of malice. There is no time or need for others.
-- John Stone, "Evil in the Early Cinema of Oliver Stone", Journal of Popular Film and Television, Summer 2000

First off, the avoid-terminal-prepositions rule is the invention of one Fr. R. Lowth, an eighteenth-century British preacher and indurate pedant who did things like spend scores of pages arguing for hath over the trendy and degenerate has.
-- David Foster Wallace, "Tense Present", Harper's Magazine, April 2001

New findings in science point toward a buoyant view of our being: one in which life is favored, not improbable, and the universe a welcoming place, not an indurate domain.
-- Gregg Easterbrook, "Science sees the light", New Republic, October 12, 1998

Only an exceptionally strong personality or a criminal indurated by bitter experience can withstand prolonged, skillful interrogation in silence.
-- Charles E. O'Hara and Gregory L. O'Hara, Fundamentals of Criminal Investigation

The terrain he walked over still looked like sand, but the sand was cemented together, firm as concrete. Indurated soil.
-- Geoffrey A. Landis, Mars Crossing

But "hard cheeses indurate, soft cheeses collapse." (Flaubert's Parrot). People don't change, they set in.
-- Antonia Quirke, "Jack of all trades", New Statesman, October 29, 2001

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Indurate is derived from the past participle of Latin indurare, from in-, intensive prefix + durare, "to harden," from durus, "hard."

[felonius]

the idea that women talk more than men

Just to let you know, I've never agreed with that one! In my experience, quite often the opposite is true. I guess it depends on the people one knows.

(BTW, don't stop your occasional corrections and comments, I for one enjoy them - they're always interesting and not indurate in the least. )

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Wednesday August 22, 2007

manumit \man-yuh-MIT\, transitive verb: To free from slavery or servitude.

The prime reason, I suspect, will be that we don't need any liberator to manumit our "corporate slaves" because we've never had any.
-- Victor S. Navasky, "Time is money", The Nation, July 17, 1989

Mobilization difficulties led the government to manumit hundreds of slaves and scores of convicts to fight at the front.
-- Peter M. Beattie, "Conscription versus penal servitude", Journal of Social History, June 22, 1999

Possessed of more than one hundred slaves, Tucker resisted the appeals of relatives to manumit in his will even favored household servants.
-- Christopher Doyle, "Judge St. George Tucker and the case of Tom v. Roberts", Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Autumn 1998

It even seemed possible that they could improve the conditions of slaves and persuade ever more planters to manumit their bondsmen.
-- Larry Gragg, "A heavenly visitation", History Today, February 1, 2002

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Manumit comes from Latin manumittere, "to emancipate a slave," from manu mittere, "to release from control," from manus, "hand" (hence "power of control") + mittere, "to let go; to send." The noun form is manumission.

[felonius]

After thirty years managing a prosperous stone-carving business in Athens, Achaikos retired, bought a villa on Santorini, and passed word to his sons to manumit his many monument-makers. Most left the lands in peace. Only young Socrates was disgruntled, claiming he hadn't received enough credit for his work and vowing to make a name for himself. Achaikos was unperturbed; the lad had always spouted off. He'd never forget that whole "knowing that you do not know" spiel Socrates had handed him when being disciplined for a missed deadline. Achaikos had secretly chewed on it for weeks until his wife berated him for being too distracted in bed.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Thursday August 23, 2007

amicable \AM-ih-kuh-buhl\, adjective: Characterized by friendliness and good will; friendly; peaceable.

He is back on amicable terms with his first wife and with his children.
-- Bruce Weber, "Raymond Carver: A Chronicler of Blue-Collar Despair", New York Times, June 24, 1984

While the discussion was very spirited, the most amicable feelings were displayed on all sides.
-- "The Inauguration of the President of the Southern Confederacy", New York Times, February 18, 1861

The stage was set for simmering hostility between the two sects, and the breakdown in amicable relations was hastened by the high-handed attitude of the Maronite emirs towards the Druze barons, who lost many of their ancestral privileges and lands.
-- Robin Waterfield, Prophet: The Life and Times of Kahlil Gibran

Quarrels over property, for example, severed long-amicable bonds between siblings and neighbors.
-- Katherine Verdery, The Political Lives of Dead Bodies

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Amicable derives from Latin amicus, "friend," from amare, "to love."

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Friday August 24, 2007

effrontery \ih-FRUN-tuh-ree\, noun: Insulting presumptuousness; shameless boldness; insolence.

Who would have the effrontery to treat the chairman in this way?
-- Tom King, The Operator

Passionately she sang of Yoshitsune, her love and yearning for him, and her joy that he had successfully managed to evade his evil half-brother Yoritomo. Yoritomo was torn between rage at such effrontery and pleasure at the exquisite beauty of her voice.
-- Lesley Downer, Women of the Pleasure Quarters

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Effrontery is from French effronterie, ultimately from Late Latin effrons, effront-, "shameless," literally "without forehead" (to blush with), from Latin ex-, "out of" + frons, front-, "forehead."

[Darb]

I think Ghost is deliberately staying dead just to avoid doing any meaningful DE/linkdev work ... but being weightless and discorporeal is insufficient grounds for not carrying one's own weight.

Shamed by the amicable faux-effrontery, Ghost resumed getting his overdue memoirs ready for posthumous publication (and subsequent and database entry).