GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Post by **Ghost** » Fri May 30, 2008 8:01 am

Word of the Day Friday May 30, 2008

grandee \gran-DEE\, noun: 1. A man of elevated rank or station. 2. In Spain or Portugal, a nobleman of the first rank.

Jack Byron still harbored delusions of being a local grandee, attempting to influence district politics; as the final humiliation, in the parliamentary election of 1786 his vote was disallowed.
-- Benita Eisler, Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame

Like Bellow, he is at once a snob and a democrat, a voracious brain and a churning gut, a seminar-room grandee and a barroom brawler.
-- A. O. Scott, "Trans-Atlantic Flights", New York Times, January 31, 1999

Seduced by his need to live like a grandee, Coppola can't afford not to work within the system.
-- Joseph McBride, "Offers He Should've Refused", New York Times, December 12, 1999

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Grandee comes from Spanish grande, from Latin grandis, "great, large, hence important, grand." Related words include grandeur, "the state or quality of being grand"; grandiose, "characterized by affectation of grandeur"; aggrandize, "to make great or greater"; and, of course, grand.

Post by **Ghost** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:16 am

Word of the Day Tuesday June 3, 2008

bagatelle \bag-uh-TEL\, noun: 1. A trifle; a thing of little or no importance. 2. A short, light musical or literary piece. 3. A game played with a cue and balls on an oblong table having cups or arches at one end.

Don't worry about that, a mere bagatelle, old boy!
-- Eric Ellis, "Error Message", Time, February 10, 2000

You know how it often happens; these strifes and disputes frequently originate from a mere bagatelle.
-- Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi

Excepting the regulars, the troops were raw as were likewise most of their officers; and this March of twenty-seven miles, which a year later would have been considered a bagatelle, was now a mighty undertaking.
-- James Ford Rhodes, History of the Civil War

So if you eat at his restaurant every day -- off the menu, of course -- and slosh the grub down with a 1966 Chateau Margaux (Â£800-Â£1,000 a bottle in a restaurant), even a Ritz bill will seem a mere bagatelle.
-- "Do you take cash?", The Guardian, December 23, 1999

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Bagatelle derives from Italian bagattella, "a trifling matter; a bagatelle," perhaps ultimately from Latin baca, "a berry."

Post by **Ghost** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:19 am

Word of the Day Wednesday June 4, 2008

lachrymose \LAK-ruh-mohs\, adjective: 1. Generating or shedding tears; given to shedding tears; suffused with tears; tearful. 2. Causing or tending to cause tears.

At the farewell party on the boat, Joyce was surrounded by a lachrymose family.
-- Edna O'Brien, "She Was the Other Ireland", New York Times, June 19, 1988

I promise to do my best, and if at any time my resolution lapses, pen me a few fierce vitriolic words and you shall receive by the next post a lachrymose & abject apology in my most emotional hand writing.
-- Rupert Brooke, "letter to James Strachey" , July 7, 1905

The game is perpetuated by the sons in a sometimes vicious sibling rivalry that inevitably subsides into lachrymose reconciliation.
-- Arthur Gelb and Barbara Gelb, O'Neill: Life With Monte Cristo

Meanwhile, a lachrymose new waltz, "After The Ball Is Over," was sweeping the nation.
-- Benjamin Welles, Sumner Welles: FDR's Global Strategist

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Lachrymose is from Latin lacrimosus, from lacrima,

Post by **Ghost** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:38 am

Word of the Day Thursday June 5, 2008

tremulous \TREM-yuh-luhs\, adjective: 1. Shaking; shivering; quivering; as, a tremulous motion of the hand or the lips; the tremulous leaf of the poplar. 2. Affected with fear or timidity; trembling.

With an address for his father at last in his possession, Sead could scarcely contain a tremulous excitement.
-- Roger Cohen, Hearts Grown Brutal

In any event, when I thrust myself out of bed so violently, my heart became tremulous, . . . and I had the direst sense of mortality I have ever experienced.
-- Jim Harrison, The Road Home

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Tremulous comes from Latin tremulus, from tremere, "to tremble."

Post by **Ghost** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:17 am

Word of the Day Monday June 9, 2008

raconteur \rack-on-TUR\, noun: One who excels in telling stories and anecdotes.

An excellent raconteur, he had a varied stock of stories and enjoyed the joke just as much when it was on himself as he did when it was on some one else.
-- "Rockefeller Wit Endeared Him to Friends; He Relished Quip by Will Rogers About Him", New York Times, May 24, 1937

Korda's tone of voice is affectionate and urbane, his manner that of the accomplished raconteur who never spoils the story with a heavy-handed moral, relying for his effect on the telling anecdote and the apt phrase.
-- Lewis Lapham, "Adventures in the Book Trade", New York Times, May 23, 1999

He has an excellent raconteur's mind, memory, vocabulary and tongue, brings in a story just at the right time, in the right manner, serves his anecdotes perfectly either piping hot or ice-cold as tragedies.
-- Anatole Pohorilenko and James Crump, When We Were Three

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Raconteur is from French, from raconter, "to relate, to tell, to narrate," from Old French, from re- + aconter,

Post by **Ghost** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:35 am

Word of the Day Tuesday June 10, 2008

surfeit \SUR-fit\, noun: 1. An excessive amount or supply. 2. Overindulgence, as in food or drink. 3. Disgust caused by overindulgence or excess.
transitive verb: 1. To feed or supply to excess.

This surfeit of high-ranking officers reflected a top-heaviness that existed throughout the SFOR coalition, starting in Sarajevo, where the headquarters for an entire corps had been set up to command the equivalent of a mere division.
-- William Langewiesche, "Peace is Hell", The Atlantic, October 2001

The Episcopalians actually hold people back from entering seminaries, because there is a surfeit of priests in some dioceses and a lack of open positions.
-- Paul Wilkes, "The Hands That Would Shape Our Souls", The Atlantic, December 1990

They were accustomed to eat till they became surfeited, and to drink till they were sick.
-- Derek Brown, "Millennium: 1082-1083", The Guardian, September 1998

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Surfeit is from Old French, from the past participle of surfaire, "to overdo," from sur-, "over" (from Latin super) + faire, "to do" (from Latin facere).

Post by **Ghost** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 8:05 am

Word of the Day Wednesday June 11, 2008

patrician \puh-TRISH-un\, noun: 1. A member of one of the original citizen families of ancient Rome. 2. A person of high birth; a nobleman. 3. A person of refined upbringing, manners, and taste.
adjective: 1. Of or pertaining to the patrician families of ancient Rome. 2. Of, pertaining to, or appropriate to, a person of high birth; noble; not plebeian. 3. Befitting or characteristic of refined upbringing, manners, and taste.

London possessed the manner of a patrician. He was a man whose stately elegance suggested that he deemed himself above the fray.
-- Martin Garbus, Tough Talk

In Senator Harrison G. Otis's words, King was the "last of the Romans," or those patrician Federalists who hoped to model the American Senate upon the aristocratic body of the Roman Republic and to keep the plebeian House in check.
-- Joseph Martin Hernon, Profiles in Character

A neutral observer could not have said whether the handsome gentleman with the black satin eye patch over his left eye, and the meticulously trimmed salt-and-pepper goatee, and the jaunty straw hat, and the air of patrician confidence, was betraying now and then a just-perceptible apprehension, or whether, like numerous others, quite naturally in these heightened circumstances, he is merely anticipating the contest to come.
-- Joyce Carol Oates, My Heart Laid Bare

I stuck up for patrician values, incarnate, as I imagined, in the professional class I issued from, exemplified by my grandfather.
-- David Laskin, Partisans

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Patrician derives from Latin patricius, from patres, "senators," plural of pater, "father."

Post by **Ghost** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 8:25 am

Word of the Day Thursday June 12, 2008

hyperbole \hy-PUHR-buh-lee\, noun: Extravagant exaggeration.

Oh God, was he a hater of hyperbole? A stickler for accuracy?
-- Delia Ephron, Big City Eyes

Even allowing for Wylie's hyperbole, his words seemed to me far removed from reality.
-- F. Carolyn Graglia, Domestic Tranquility

Those were the days when I still liked hyperbole, before an excess of real drama killed my taste for the manufactured kind.
-- Katherine Russell Rich, The Red Devil

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Hyperbole comes from Greek hyperbole, "excess," from hyperballein, "to exceed," from hyper, "beyond" + ballein, "to throw."

Post by **Ghost** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:07 am

Word of the Day Friday June 13, 2008

apprise \uh-PRYZ\, transitive verb: To give notice to; to inform; -- often followed by of; as, we will apprise the general of an intended attack; he apprised the commander of what he had done.

When Tyler, tuning in to channel seven, became apprised of this news, he raised his eyebrows and smiled.
-- William T. Vollmann, The Royal Family

I felt it a duty almost to stifle opinion: as a doctor, you are there to support the patient, apprise him of the bare clinical facts only.
-- David Loxterkamp M.D., A Measure of My Days

Baum soon apprised Denslow of his plan to mount a Wizard of Oz musical, and Denslow, eager to participate in the project, began to shop around for a producer.
-- Mark Evan Swartz, Oz Before the Rainbow

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Apprise comes from French appris, past participle of apprendre, from Old French aprendre, "to learn," from Vulgar Latin apprendere, from Latin apprehendere, "to take hold of (by the mind)," from ad- + prehendere, "to lay hold of, to seize."

Kahrey · Post by **Kahrey** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 10:01 am

I should use that word today... Thanks Ghost for posting these. :>

Post by **Ghost** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:07 am

Word of the Day Monday June 16, 2008

dilatory \DIL-uh-tor-ee\, adjective: 1. Tending to put off what ought to be done at once; given to procrastination. 2. Marked by procrastination or delay; intended to cause delay; -- said of actions or measures.

I am inclined to be dilatory, and if I had not enjoyed extraordinary luck in life and love I might have been living with my mother at that very moment, doing nothing.
-- Carroll O'Connor, I Think I'm Outta Here

And what is a slumlord? He is not a man who own expensive property in fashionable neighborhoods, but one who owns only rundown property in the slums, where the rents are lowest and the where the payment is most dilatory, erratic and undependable.
-- Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson

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Dilatory is from Latin dilatorius, from dilator, "a dilatory person, a loiterer," from dilatus, past participle of differre, "to delay, to put off," from dis-, "apart, in different directions" + ferre, "to carry."

Post by **Ghost** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 8:18 am

Word of the Day Tuesday June 17, 2008

verdure \VUR-jur\, noun: Green; greenness; freshness of vegetation; as, the verdure of the meadows in June.

A wide expanse of living verdure, cultivated gardens, shady groves, fertile cornfields, flowed round it like a sea.
-- Motley

The first white settlers in the area started as yeomen, scouring the land of trees and verdure to create and homesteads.
-- Claude Andrew Clegg III, An Original Man

The road silent, somnolent yet with a speech of its own, speaking back to them, father and child, through trappings of sun and fretted verdure, speaking of the old mutinies and a fresh crime mounting in the blood.
-- Edna O'Brien, Down by the River

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Verdure is from Old French verd, green, from Latin viridis.

the grim squeaker · Post by **the grim squeaker** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 8:28 am

acrimonious - adj.

Bitter and sharp in language or tone; rancorous: an acrimonious debate between the two candidates.

acrimoniously ac'riÂ·mo'niÂ·ousÂ·ly adv.
acrimoniousness ac'riÂ·mo'niÂ·ousÂ·ness n.

the grim squeaker · Post by **the grim squeaker** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 7:54 am

Ballistophobia: Fear of missles or bullets.

the grim squeaker · Post by **the grim squeaker** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 7:07 am

Sesquipedalophobia: Fear of long words.

AAAARGH!!

the grim squeaker · Post by **the grim squeaker** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:12 am

capacious \kuh-PAY-shuhs\, adjective:
Able to contain much; roomy; spacious.

Litter was picked up non stop during the week (mostly by that nice governor with the capacious pockets).
-- Faysal Mikdadi, "'Why shouldn't it be like this all the time?'", The Guardian, September 2, 2002

Out of those capacious receptacles he brought forth a small bottle of Scotch whiskey, a lemon, and some lump sugar.
-- Ellen M. Calder, "Personal Recollections of Walt Whitman", The Atlantic, June 1907

Is it worth pointing out that the boot seems remarkably capacious for a little car?
-- Giles Smith, "Er what's the sixth gear for?", The Guardian, January 8, 2002

Capacious is derived from Latin capax, capac-, "able to hold or contain."

the grim squeaker · Post by **the grim squeaker** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:14 am

Yesterdays word was:
malediction \mal-uh-DIK-shun\, noun:
A curse or execration.

There Justice Minister Bola Ige, confronted with the general incivility of local police, placed a malediction on the cads. Said the Hon. Bola Ige, "I pray that God will make big holes in their pockets."
-- "Sic Semper Tyrannis! Oppressors Face People's Justice", American Spectator, May 1, 2001

A conspiracy of infamy so black that, when it is finally exposed, its principals shall be forever deserving of the maledictions of all honest men.
-- Joseph McCarthy, quoted in Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America, by Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes

Malediction comes from Latin maledictio, from maledicere, "to speak ill, to abuse," from Latin male, "badly" + dicere, "to speak, to say."

Post by **Ghost** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 2:27 pm

Word of the Day Monday June 23, 2008

capacious \kuh-PAY-shuhs\, adjective: Able to contain much; roomy; spacious.

Litter was picked up non stop during the week (mostly by that nice governor with the capacious pockets).
-- Faysal Mikdadi, "'Why shouldn't it be like this all the time?'", The Guardian, September 2, 2002

Out of those capacious receptacles he brought forth a small bottle of Scotch whiskey, a lemon, and some lump sugar.
-- Ellen M. Calder, "Personal Recollections of Walt Whitman", The Atlantic, June 1907

Is it worth pointing out that the boot seems remarkably capacious for a little car?
-- Giles Smith, "Er what's the sixth gear for?", The Guardian, January 8, 2002

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Capacious is derived from Latin capax, capac-, "able to hold or contain."

the grim squeaker · Post by **the grim squeaker** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:50 am

glutinous \GLOOT-nuhs\, adjective:
Of the nature of glue; resembling glue; sticky.

What do you mean? I said, my mouth glutinous with melted marshmallow and caramel.
-- T. Coraghessan Boyle, T. C. Boyle Stories

At this point Leonardo wakes, decides the sensation is extraordinary but not death, and gazing up through the glutinous film of boiled carrot drippings, says: No, Salai will be riding a horse.
-- R. M. Berry, Leonardo's Horse

Besides, the sensation of glutinous raw egg-yolk sliding down my throat like a plump mollusc would not necessarily be helpful in my current state.
-- Victoria Moore, "Dog daze - young alcoholics' way of life", New Statesman, January 1, 1999

Glutinous derives from Latin glutinosus, from gluten, glutin-, "glue."

the grim squeaker · Post by **the grim squeaker** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 4:12 am

Thanks to gollum, I had to look this one up anyway.

Laconic: using few words; expressing much in few words; concise: a laconic reply.

Post by **Ghost** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:00 am

Word of the Day Wednesday June 25, 2008

forlorn \fur-LORN; for-\, adjective: 1. Sad and lonely because deserted, abandoned, or lost. 2. Bereft; forsaken. 3. Wretched or pitiful in appearance or condition. 4. Almost hopeless; desperate.

Henry had felt guilty at abandoning his sister; he had married not once but twice, leaving Rose forlorn.
-- Anita Brookner, Visitors

In these forlorn regions of unknowable dreary space, this reservoir of frost and snow, where firm fields of ice, the accumulation of centuries of winters, glazed in Alpine heights above heights, surround the pole, and concentre the multiplied rigours of extreme cold.
-- Francis Spufford, I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination

Bloch remembers that Stephen was a member of the Milk Squad, comprised of children who were considered to need extra nutrition, and early photographs do show him as one of the smaller boys, in the front row, looking forlorn.
-- Meryle Secrest, Stephen Sondheim: A Life

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Forlorn comes from Old English forleosan, "to abandon," from for- + leosan, "to lose."

Post by **Ghost** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:56 am

Word of the Day Friday June 27, 2008

harbinger \HAR-bin-juhr\, noun: 1. (Archaic) One who provides lodgings; especially, the officer of the English royal household who formerly preceded the court when traveling, to provide and prepare lodgings. 2. A forerunner; a precursor; one that presages or foreshadows what is to come.
transitive verb: 1. To signal the approach of; to presage; to be a harbinger of.

Comets have been mistakenly interpreted by humans in times past as harbingers of doom, foretelling famine, plague, and destruction.
-- Walter Alvarez, T. Rex and the Crater of Doom

More than the steamboat, more than anything else, the railroads were the harbinger of the future, and the future was the Industrial Revolution.
-- Stephen E. Ambrose, Nothing Like It In the World

The airy draughts felt to him like the undoing of everything, the unfastening of ties, a harbinger of chaos.
-- Pauline Melville, The Ventriloquist's Tale

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Harbinger, which originally signified a person sent ahead to arrange lodgings, derives from Middle English herbergeour, "one who supplies lodgings," from Old French herbergeor, from herbergier, "to provide lodging for," from herberge, "a lodging, an inn" (cp. modern French auberge), ultimately of Germanic origin.

the grim squeaker · Post by **the grim squeaker** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 5:47 am

Yesterdays word was indigent \IN-dih-juhnt\, adjective:
Extremely poor; not having the necessities of life, such as food, clothing and shelter.

That which goes under the general Name of Charity... consists in relieving the Indigent.
-- Joseph Addison, The Spectator

Long-term reliance on Government benefits is corrupting for the well-to-do and the indigent alike, Mr. Longman argues.
-- Nicholas Eberstadt, "The Great Chain Letter", review of The Return Of Thrift, by Phillip Longman, New York Times, August 4, 1996

In a landmark case 35 years ago, Gideon v Wainwright, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that indigent defendants must be provided with a lawyer at state expense because there could be no fair trial in a serious criminal case without one.
-- "Too poor to be defended", The Economist, April 9, 1998

Indigent derives from Latin indigens, indigent-, present participle of indigere, "to need."

the grim squeaker · Post by **the grim squeaker** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 5:48 am

And todays is interpolate \in-TUR-puh-layt\, transitive verb:
1. To alter or corrupt (as a book or text) by the insertion of new or foreign matter.
2. To insert (material) into a text or conversation.
3. To insert between other elements or parts.
4. [Mathematics] to estimate a value of (a function) between two known values.

intransitive verb:
1. To make insertions.

Twenty years earlier, Rodgers was not so pleased when, at the request of the star Belle Baker, Berlin had written a song for her to interpolate into an otherwise all-Rodgers-and-Hart score for the Broadway musical "Betsy."
-- Richard Corliss, "That Old Feeling: A Berlin Bio-pic", Time, December 30, 2001

The staging is by Peter Konwitschny, one of Germany's most progressive directors, and the controversy derives from his decision to interpolate an on-stage disruption that breaks the score at a crucial moment and leads to an additional scene of dialogue.
-- Tim Ashley, "Wagner interrupted", The Guardian, November 23, 2002

A new cover might be designed to replace the original one if a song sold well enough to warrant further printings, however, particularly if the piece had been taken up by a popular performer or interpolated into a show.
-- Charles Hamm, Irving Berlin: Songs from the Melting Pot

To that end, contends Judis, echoing the Progressive-era founder of the New Republic Herbert Croly, we need strong, multifaceted federal institutions that set rules, impose limits, and interpolate themselves into nearly every sphere of society.
-- Chester E. Finn Jr., "The Paradox of American Democracy", Commentary, March 2000

Interpolate comes from the past participle of Latin interpolare, "to polish up, to furbish, to vamp up; hence to falsify," from inter-, "between" + polire, "to polish."

the grim squeaker · Post by **the grim squeaker** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:59 am

The day before yesterdays word was

Avatar
noun
1:a new personification of a familiar idea: "the embodiment of hope"

2:the manifestation of a Hindu deity (especially Vishnu) in human or superhuman or animal form: "the Buddha is considered an avatar of the god Vishnu"