GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Thursday October 18, 2007

abscond \ab-SKOND\, intransitive verb: To depart secretly; to steal away and hide oneself -- used especially of persons who withdraw to avoid arrest or prosecution.

The criminal is not concerned with influencing or affecting public opinion: he simply wants to abscond with his money or accomplish his mercenary task in the quickest and easiest way possible so that he may reap his reward and enjoy the fruits of his labours.
-- Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism

Pearl, now an orphan (her father having absconded shortly after her conception), has been taken to live with her great-aunt Margaret in the north of England.
-- Zoe Heller, Everything You Know

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Abscond comes from Latin abscondere, "to conceal," from ab-, abs-, "away" + condere, "to put, to place."

[felonius]

{COMPLAINT: For the past three months, our resident spelling Nazi’s ongoing misuse of the word "quotidian" has become a seemingly quotidian occurrence. Clearly, he's still under the mistaken impression that it refers to someone who frequently engages in spouting famous quotations in tourettes-like fashion. The fact that he's also a known dealer in (and abuser of) black market ecstasy is probably contributing to the extancy of the situation.}

"Um...er...are you talking to me? I think you may have mistaken me for someone else. I'm merely standing here scarfing this last bit of tasty scone before absconding...er, adjourning for the evening. I did see a suspicious figure lurking over THAT way, however. He was muttering something about dry-smokers and roasters...yes, does sound rather ominous, doesn't it...what's that? Sure, you can quotidian me on that if you like..."

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Friday October 19, 2007

beholden \bih-HOHL-duhn\, adjective: Obliged; bound in gratitude; indebted.

Kate was quite fond of him and knew he was grateful to her for all the help and hospitality she and Oliver had given him during his period of gloom and puzzlement after his wife's defection, but she did not want him to feel beholden to her.
-- Mary Sheepshanks, Picking Up the Pieces

The likely new government, which draws only a negligible level of support from rural areas, will be much less beholden to the farming interests than any government in the past two decades.
-- "Reforming The EU Budget", Irish Times, October 8, 1998

Peter did not intend to be beholden to any of his relatives unless they proved their worth.
-- Lindsey Hughes, Russia in the Age of Peter the Great

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Beholden is derived from Old English behealden, "to hold firmly," from be-, intensive prefix + healden, "to hold."

[Darb]

Director Billy Wilder was deeply beholden to William Holden for the privilege of having beheld one of Holden's greatest acting moments. It occured on the set of Stalag 17, when Holden was being held back by several subordinates, after beholding the execution of one of his comarades at the hands of their Spelling Nazi captors.

Everyone beholding Holden holding the resulting academy award applauded at the 1954 Academy Awards.

Right back atcha, Felon.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Monday October 22, 2007

flummery \FLUHM-uh-ree\, noun: 1. A name given to various sweet dishes made with milk, eggs, flour, etc. 2. Empty compliment; unsubstantial talk or writing; mumbo jumbo; nonsense.

He had become disturbed by the number of listeners phoning in with such flummery as tales of self-styled clairvoyants' uncannily correct forecasts.
-- Suzanne Seixas, "One Man's Finances", Money, September 1, 1986

One reason there is so much flummery in the global warming debate is that the weather in the Northeast United States, where the opinion-makers live, has a disproportionate effect on whether greenhouse concerns are taken seriously.
-- Gregg Easterbrook, "Warming Up", New Republic, November 8, 1999

It is Dr. August's claim that he receives inspiration from spirits, that through his music the departed can speak to those they left behind. Although this is sometimes unabashed flummery, there are moments when Fitz seems to make a real connection with those who have crossed over.
-- Paul Quarrington, "Psychic Hotline", New York Times, September 3, 2000

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Flummery comes from Welsh llymru, a soft, sour oatmeal food.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Tuesday October 23, 2007

inimical \ih-NIM-ih-kul\, adjective: 1. Having the disposition or temper of an enemy; unfriendly; unfavorable. 2. Opposed in tendency, influence, or effects; antagonistic; adverse.

Here the planet under scrutiny is Venus -- a world even more inimical to human existence than Mars. With a poisonous CO2 atmosphere, hellish temperatures and atmospheric pressure 90 times that of Earth's, "a person exposed to Venus's surface . . . would flash-burn a split second before any remaining chemical residue was squashed flat."
-- Gerald Jonas, "Science Fiction", New York Times, February 27, 2000

Yeats's conflict with his father was not only about the conventional employment which J. B. Yeats believed was inimical to creative freedom.
-- Terence Brown, The Life of W. B. Yeats

T. H. Logan, an inimical police officer, drives his wife mad with grief by killing the seal she used to love to swim with.
-- Aoibheann Sweeney, "Gnawing on Bones", New York Times, June 11, 2000

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Inimical comes from Late Latin inimicalis, from Latin inimicus, unfriendly, adverse, hostile, from in-, not + amicus, friendly, well-wishing, favorable to, from amare, to love.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Wednesday October 24, 2007

recidivism \rih-SID-uh-viz-uhm\, noun: A tendency to lapse into a previous condition or pattern of behavior; especially, a falling back or relapse into prior criminal habits.

Mr. Atrens's basic argument is that it's physiologically almost impossible for many people to lose weight, as evidenced by a high recidivism rate and the unflagging profitability of diet paraphernalia, from liquid concoctions to surgeons' staples.
-- Karen Stabiner, review of Don't Diet, by Dale M. Atrens, New York Times, March 27, 1988

I was engaged in a major research project that involved twenty-six countries, studying how to prevent recidivism in juvenile delinquents released from prison.
-- Peggy Claude-Pierre, The Secret Language of Eating Disorders

According to the best available estimates, the . . . program has reduced the recidivism rate among participants to roughly half that of the general prison population in the state.
-- James McQueeny, "And a Prison Helps Out, Too", New York Times, February 7, 1982

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Recidivism derives from Latin recidivus, "falling back," from recidere, "to fall back," from re-, "back" + cadere, "to fall." One who relapses or who is an incorrigible criminal is a recidivist.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Thursday October 25, 2007

stentorian \sten-TOR-ee-uhn\, adjective: Extremely loud.

Around his family, Sergeant Charles Mingus Sr. was easily angered and often violent and closemouthed the rest of the time, except when he gave orders in a stentorian voice that carried the assumption of command.
-- Gene Santoro, Myself When I Am Real

He broke the tradition of stentorian tenors, whose big voices and melodramatic high notes were needed to fill the concert halls and vaudeville houses.
-- Richard Corliss, "The Book on Bing Crosby", Time, May 17, 2001

Then a stentorian voice blared an all-points bulletin: "Calling the G-men! Calling all Americans to war on the underworld!"
-- Strobe Talbott, "Resisting the Gangbusters Option", Time, October 15, 1990

The bearded, often curmudgeonly Knoller can be found in the press filing center on most every presidential trip, his stentorian voice booming out 35-second takes for radio -- as many as 20 a day -- and shaping the day's news for dozens of journalists who can't help but hear him.
-- Dana Milbank, "Bush by the Numbers, as Told by a Diligent Scorekeeper", Washington Post, September 3, 2002

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Stentorian comes from Stentor, a Greek herald in the Trojan War. According to Homer's Iliad, his voice was as loud as that of fifty men combined.

[Darb]

The oxen paced back and forth, clearly flummoxed by the fact that their paddock door was still locked, and that their feed trough was still empty, even though the sun was already high in the sky.

Inside the farmhouse, the inimicale Mrs. Danforth was yelling at her wayward husband in Stentorian fashion, clearly annoyed by his regular recidivism into alcoholism and beastiality.

[voralfred]

Inimical comes from Late Latin inimicalis, from Latin inimicus, unfriendly, adverse, hostile, from in-, not + amicus, friendly, well-wishing, favorable to, from amare, to love.

the inimicale Mrs. Danforth

I am beholden to Brad for teaching me that, in english, adjectives that come from Latin take -e at the end when applied to feminine nouns, as in french.

Or am I just falling back in a recidivism of flummery?

[Darb]

D'oh !

[felonius]

With effort, Farmer Danforth opened bleary eyes and raised his head - only to feel hundreds of razor-studded hammers begin to pound it inimically from within, each impact accompanied by a cowbell clang of stentorian volume. What sweet flummeries had his prize Jersey-herd whispered in his ear evening past, that he should have so easily rescinded his stance of anti-recidivism??

[Darb]

I love these commercials ... they've been airing in my area for much of the past year.

http://www.splendad.com/brands/show/337 ... nia-Cheese

[felonius]

Funny.

[Darb]

Ghost is late, so here goes ...

Friday October 26, 2007

bravado \bruh-VAH-doh\, noun;
plural bravados or bravadoes \bruh-VAH-dohz\:
A real or pretended show of courage or boldness.

While the popular mood in Belgrade remains defiant, unease beneath the bravado is growing.
-- "No end in sight", The Economist, April 15, 1999

His guerrilla operations, near Kabul, were known for their bravado and a level of organization unusual among the rather haphazard mujahedeen.
-- Lisa Schiffren, "Remembering Abdul Haq: The Taliban executes an Afghan patriot", The Weekly Standard, November 12, 2001

The company's culture of swashbuckling bravado encouraged risk taking without accountability.
-- Ram Charan and Jerry Useem, "Why Companies Fail", Fortune, May 27, 2002

His mom was a nurse, incredulous at his bravado. "Why would anybody want to go to war?" she asked.
-- Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War

The students often compared public schools to prisons, with fear in their voices mixing with bravado.
-- Alissa Quart, "Classroom Consciousness", The Nation, June 10, 2002

Bravado derives from Spanish bravada and French bravade, "swagger, bravery," and is related to brave, "bold, courageous," bravura, "a brilliant style or performance," and the Italian interjections bravo! and brava! used when expressing approval of male and female performers respectively.

Saturday October 27, 2007

impecunious \im-pih-KYOO-nee-uhs\, adjective:
Not having money; habitually without money; poor.

Her father, Bronson, was a respected but impecunious New England transcendentalist who had 'no gift for money making', according to [Louisa May] Alcott's journal.'
-- "Blood and Thunder in Concord", New York Times, September 10, 1995

He had gotten to know Garibaldi during the impecunious soldier's last years and would send him woolen socks, underwear, and money.
-- Tag Gallagher, The Adventures of Roberto Rossellini

It may be urged that an impecunious defendant would be unable to bear the expense of an appeal and would have to let it go by default.
-- Charles C. Nott Jr., "Coddling the Criminal", The Atlantic, February 1911

Impecunious is derived from Latin im-, in-, "not" + pecuniosus, "rich," from pecunia, "property in cattle, hence money," from pecu, "livestock."

Sunday October 28, 2007

valetudinarian \val-uh-too-din-AIR-ee-un; -tyoo-\, noun:
1. A weak or sickly person, especially one morbidly concerned with his or her health.

adjective:
1. Sickly; weak; infirm.
2. Morbidly concerned with one's health.

He is the querulous bedridden valetudinarian complaining of his asthma or his hay fever, remarking with characteristic hyperbole that "every speck of dust suffocates me."
-- Oliver Conant, review of Marcel Proust, Selected Letters: Volume Two 1904-1909, edited by Philip Kolb, translated by Terrence Kilmartin, New York Times, December 17, 1989

All this from a wasted valetudinarian, who . . . once referred to "this long convalescence which is my life."
-- Michael Dirda, "Devil or Angel", Washington Post, March 31, 1996

Other than the Holy Scripture, he cared for no book as well as the book of decay, its truths written in the furrows scored on the brows of old men and women; in the sagging timbers of decrepit barns; in the lichenous masonry of derelict buildings; in the mangy fur of a valetudinarian lion.
-- Simon Schama, Rembrandt's Eyes

Valetudinarian derives from Latin valetudinarius, "sickly; an invalid," from valetudo, "state of health (good or ill)," from valere, "to be strong or well."

Monday October 29, 2007

terminus \TUR-muh-nuhs\, noun:
1. The finishing point; the end.
2. A boundary; a border; a limit.
3. A post or stone marking a boundary.
4. Either end of a railroad or other transportation line; also, the station house, town, or city at that place.

Rather their train would come up from Southampton to Paddington railway station, the terminus for Queen Victoria's special train whenever she traveled to London from Windsor.
-- Jonathan Schneer, London 1900

Roth had reached a kind of terminus -- the end of the beginning, as it were.
-- Jason Cowley, "The Nihilist", The Atlantic, May 2001

Terminus is from the Latin word meaning "limit or boundary." It is related to term, "a limited period of time," and terminate, "to bring to an end."

[Ghost]

Ghost is late, so here goes ...

I was feeling kind of bloated.

Word of the Day Tuesday October 30, 2007

soi-disant \swah-dee-ZAHN\, adjective: Self-styled; so-called.

The study exposes most varieties of 'human resource management' as a complete waste ofttimes promoted by soi-disant gurus and self-serving consultants with an eye for a quick buck.
-- "Support for an old-fashioned view", Independent, May 12, 1994

The troupe, soi-disant egalitarians, mostly turn out to be royal phonies.
-- Craig Offman, "Whiz Kid", Time, February 1, 1999

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Soi-disant comes from the French, from soi, "oneself" + disant, "saying," present participle of dire, "to say."

[Darb]

People everywhere were gob smacked when the erstwhile poster boy of dissolute impecunious valetudinarians, and a well-known germophobe to boot, reached the terminus of his heavily-publicized AIDs awareness march ... the deathbed of his estranged billionaire ex-lover ... and planted one last passionate kiss goodbye on the dying man’s lips.

The next day, the soi-disant gurus of tabloid journalism were all atwitter, speculating if it was bravado inspired by genuine love and a hitherto unseen streak of late-life selflessness and social conscience, or if it was merely the opening salvo of what was sure to be an all-out and decidedly salacious battle over his ex-lover’s billions in assets.

[voralfred]

I wonder if the physiognomy of this recreant sufficiently revealed that his only purpose was to abscond with the billions of his soon-to-be-ex lover, or if the latter remained purblind to the extent of leaving extant his will that marked the terminus of the germophobe termagant's impecuniouness.

[Darb]

Personally, I think speculating excessively about this sort of tabloid flummery is entirely inimical to our goal of maintaining a high level of discourse around here. However, those who feel differently are welcome to continue indulging in their quotidian intellectual imprecunities.

To each their own, I suppose.

[Darb]

Today's epistemological zen koans:

1) Does recidivism into nescience constitute a philosophical and philological division by zero error ?

2) Perhaps "God" is a crashed supercomputer, and the quotidian appearance of blue vault of the heavens is simply his version of the dreaded blue screen of death, as the cosmos thrashes endlessly across time, from one failed reboot to the next ?

3) Would fixing the implied error in #1 solve #2, and if implemented, what would happen ?

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Wednesday October 31, 2007

ensorcell \en-SOR-suhl\, transitive verb: To enchant; to bewitch.

Had she tried to ensorcell him with a charm spell?
-- Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb, Finder's Bane

That was a very serious accusation to make, and Gruffydd realized he'd gone too far; he had no proof whatsoever that Joanna had ever used the Black Arts to ensorcell his father.
-- Here be Dragons, Sharon Kay Penman

I have been a journalist too long to be ensorcelled by conspiracy theories.
-- Nat Hentoff, Speaking Freely

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Ensorcell comes from Middle French ensorceler, alteration of Old French ensorcerer, from en-, intensive prefix + sorcier, "sorcerer."

[Darb]

The angry young sorceress flipped the lecherous Professor of Sorcery the middle finger, and told him to go ensorcell himself with his own wand.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Thursday November 1, 2007

forcible \FOR-suh-buhl\, adjective: 1. Using force against opposition or resistance; effected or accomplished by force; as, "forcible entry or abduction." 2. Characterized by force, efficiency, or energy; powerful.

Robbery, the forcible taking of property from the person of the victim, is the crime most likely to be committed by a stranger; 75 percent of victims are robbed by strangers.
-- Adam Walinsky, "The Crisis of Public Order", The Atlantic, July 1995

The separation of religion from the state does not mean the establishment of irreligion by the state, still less the forcible imposition of an anti-religious philosophy.
-- Bernard Lewis, "The Roots of Muslim Rage", The Atlantic, September 1990

Mr. Wilson replied to Mr. Evarts in a forcible argument, wasting no words, and showing clearly that there was no precedent in any impeachment case tried by the Senate for granting so much delay at this stage of the proceedings.
-- "President Johnson's Answer to the Charges and Specifications", New York Times, March 23, 1868

It was a masterpiece, the Cincinnati Daily Gazette declared, "the most pointed and most forcible political letter ever written."
-- "Thomas Jefferson: Radical and Racist", The Atlantic, October 1996

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Forcible ultimately derives from Latin fortis, "strong."

[Darb]

PG-13 Pun Advisory:

Spoiler: show

Confronted with the angry young sorceress' forcible repudiation and scathing contempt, the lecherous old professor promptly turned her into a frog, and counter-quipped that if she kissed his fly, she'd turn into a princess ... and earn a passing grade in the process.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day Friday November 2, 2007

myrmidon \MUR-muh-don; -duhn\, noun: 1. (Capitalized) A member of a warlike Thessalian people who followed Achilles on the expedition against Troy. 2. A loyal follower, especially one who executes orders without question, protest, or pity.

He risked assassination, torture or . . . retaliation, the defining signatures of Mr. Milosevic and his ultranationalist myrmidons.
-- Bruce Fein, "Follow U.S. war crimes advice?", Washington Times, May 10, 2001

Those who created EMU [(European) Economic and Monetary Union] -- mainly politicians and their myrmidons in the offices and conference rooms of Brussels -- portray a beckoning landscape of wealth, liberty and economic power that will rival the United States and surpass Asia.
-- James O. Jackson, "The One-Way Bridge", Time, May 11, 1998

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Myrmidon derives from Greek Myrmidones, a warlike people of ancient Thessaly.