GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 5:52 pm

Dee's husband was such a villain he did not hesitate to defalcate even the savings of poor old ladies suffering from severe decalcification.

Post by **Darb** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:10 pm

Not only that, but once he even defalcated Cate DeFalco's marital virtue, after getting her blind stinking drunk while her husband was away on business.

Post by **Ghost** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 7:57 am

Word of the Day Wednesday February 4, 2009

virtuoso \vur-choo-OH-soh\, noun, adjective; pl. virtuosos, virtuosi: 1. a person skilled in the techniques of an art, esp. playing a musical instrument; by extension, a person with a cultivated appreciation of artistry
adjective: 1. showing mastery in artistic skills

They applauded the virtuoso's performance.

Her virtuoso singing landed her a free graduate education at Yale.

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c. 1651, from Italian virtuoso, from Late Latin virtuosus. The meaning "person with great skill" (as in music) is first attested 1743.

Post by **Darb** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 12:05 pm

Dee's husband was such a virtuoso when it came to wanton defalcation that most people bemoaned being either unable, or unwilling, to prove who'd done them over.

Cate DeFalco, for instance, woke the next day with a hangover, and a highly compromising (and acrobatic) photo, that all but guaranteed her silence.

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 12:58 pm

This hangover, plus the digestive troubles due to eating (and later defecating) too many wontons, concurred to yielding her face a sallow color.

Post by **Ghost** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 7:56 am

Word of the Day Thursday February 5, 2009

unwitting \uhn-WIT-ing\, adjective: not knowing; unaware; unintentional

We are unwitting victims of the system.

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c 893, Old English unwitende, from un- (1) "not" + witting. Rare after c.1600; revived c.1800.

CodeBlower · Post by **CodeBlower** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:35 am

Thanks to the virtuosos, voralfred and Brad, I've been the unwitting witness of wanton wonton violence. They're positively unyielding.

Post by **Darb** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:30 pm

Heedless of the unwitting carnage inflicted to innocent bystanders and intended victims alike, Voralfred continued his wanton verbal pugilistic assaults with the sort of singlemindedness nominally attributed exclusively to the monomaniaclly insane or those overindulging on bottled bravery.

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 5:34 pm

This excursus of inkhorn confabulations deserves only to be quashed!

Post by **Darb** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:21 pm

Gadzooks ... we've been unwittingly and inadvertantly robbed of an entire week's posts, due to a server move !

Post by **Ghost** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 8:04 am

Word of the Day Tuesday February 17, 2009

burnish \BUR-nish\, verb, noun: 1. to make shiny by polishing
noun: 1. a polish or shine

A burnish on the copper pots made them very attractive.

The craftsman burnished and refurbished metalworks.

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c.1325, from Old French burniss-, extended stem of burnir, metathesis of brunir "to make brown/bright, polish," from brun "brown, polished," from a Germanic source

Post by **Darb** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 8:34 am

Dee Murdock idly burnished her press-on nails, while Kate DeFalco tried, unsuccessfully, to convince her friend that her late husband was an unfaithful defalcating pig who should not be missed.

Post by **Ghost** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 7:53 am

Word of the Day Wednesday February 18, 2009

consternation \kon-ster-NEY-shuhn\, noun: sudden dread or paralyzing terror

To our consternation, the phone rang just as we were about to leave.

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by 1611, from French consternation, from Latin consternationem, from consternare "overcome, confuse, dismay," from com- intensive prefix + sternare "throw down"

Post by **Ghost** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:54 am

Word of the Day Thursday February 19, 2009

tautological \taw-TOL-uh-guh-kuhl\, adjective: unnecessarily or uselessly repetitive

Perhaps the very term novel of ideas is tautological, for what novel is barren of ideas, unshaped by ideas?
-- Joyce Carol Oates, Loving the Illusions, New York Times, July 17, 1983

It may sound tautological to suggest that he wrote historically, because that was the way his culture had taught him to think, but that is the case nonetheless.
-- Donald Harman Akenson, Surpassing Wonder

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by 1620 from tautologic, from Late Latin tautologia "representation of the same thing", from Greek tautologia, from tautologos "repeating what has been said," from tauto "the same" + -logos "saying," related to legein "to say"

Post by **Darb** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:36 am

Kate, tired of the futile tautology of trying to convince her friend by gentler means, reluctantly resorted to the highly compromising photograph she kept hidden in her purse. Seeing Dee's sudden expression of horrified consternation was truly a phyrhic victory, because their friendship was now in dire peril.

Post by **Ghost** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 7:56 am

Word of the Day Friday February 20, 2009

ellipsis \i-LIP-sis\, noun: three dots used to show an omission in writing or printing; the omission of a word or words in text

These efforts are to no avail, however, because the author can't leave anything unsaid, any ellipsis gaping: sooner or later someone will say what everything means, and maybe more than once.
-- Frank Rich, Arthur Miller's 'Danger: Memory!', New York Times, February 9, 1987

Mr. Gabler postulates the skip of an eye from one ellipsis to another, leading to the omission of several lines -- the longest omission in the book.
-- Richard Ellmann, Finally, the Last Word on 'Ulysses': The Ideal Text, and Portable Too, New York Times, June 15, 1986

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by 1570, from Latin ellipsis, from Greek elleipsis "a falling short, defect, ellipse," from elleipein "to fall short, leave out," from en- "in" + leipein "to leave." Grammatical sense first recorded 1612.

Post by **Darb** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 3:03 pm

"... and the Pirelli PSI Sport Z-Rated 255's are one of our best sellers !" finished the young tire salesman, after delivering a sales pitch that was as breathtaking as it was exhausting to listen it.

Post by **Darb** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:04 pm

And of course the most famous elipsis humor of all ...

Credit to cartoonist Sidney Harris.

Post by **Darb** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:02 pm

Word of the Day Archive - Saturday February 21, 2009

hermetic \hur-MET-ik\, adjective:
1. closed tightly; airtight
2. obscure; magical

French control of the border in barring foreign volunteers is so hermetic that Mrs. Stattelman, a former Red Cross nurse who served with the French Army during the World War and is a Swiss citizen, 60 years old, was refused a passport into Spain both at Toulouse and Bordeaux.
-- Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway Finds France is Neutral, New York Times, March 17, 1937

Even the famous obscurity of some of his poetry seems driven by this desire always to be seen setting forth; what is a hermetic idiom but the sign of a new language getting itself under way?
-- Nicholas Jenkins, A Life of Beginnings, New York Times, January 4, 1998

Post by **Darb** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:03 pm

Word of the Day Archive - Sunday February 22, 2009

nocuous \NOK-yoo-uhs\, adjective:
very hurtful; noxious

The most important conclusions are that the bile of nocuous or venomous serpents is the most powerful antidote to venom.
-- Nature, May-October 1898

"Let us take for example a nocuous stimulus, such as a strong electric current or wounding or cauterization of the skin."
-- Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, Conditioned Reflexes

by 1627 from Latin nocuus "hurtful," from root of nocere "to injure, harm," from causative form of Proto Indo-European *nek- "death."

Post by **Darb** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:10 pm

The innocuous looking hermit swallowed the highly nocuous emetic, and emitted a loud belch.

Post by **Ghost** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 8:10 am

Word of the Day Monday February 23, 2009

beseech \bi-SEECH\, verb; beseech, besought or beseeched, beseeching: to ask earnestly; implore

In this purgatory, the narrator feels threatened by more recent emigres who beseech him for help and force him to face the hard fact of his own displacement.
-- Laura Winters, Moscow on the Thames, New York Times, January 5, 1997

"Spare your poor children these vulgarities, I beseech you," his wife might protest, to hone her point that he was not a gentleman.
-- Peter Matthiessen, Bone by Bone

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c 1175, Old English bisecen "to beseech, beg urgently," from be- + Middle English secen "to seek"

Post by **Darb** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 5:10 pm

"Please don't cut my beech tree !", beseeched the winsome Dryad, as the lumberjack thumbed his axe.

Post by **Ghost** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:55 am

Word of the Day Tuesday February 24, 2009

peculate \PEK-yuh-leyt\, verb: to steal money or goods entrusted to one; embezzle

Not surprisingly, they use their positions to demand bribes and peculate public funds.
-- Christian Parenti, Taliban Rising, The Nation, December 10, 2006

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by 1715, from Latin peculatus/ peculari "to embezzle," from peculum "private property"

Post by **Darb** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 8:25 am

The unscrupulous lumberjack leered at the winsome dryad while pondering all sorts of pernicious pecuinary peculation ... particularly in regards to her beloved beech tree, and her virtue.