GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Monday August 23, 2004

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

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


/while we do have some heated discussions, we try to maintain our amicable web site.

[Aunflin]

/while we do have some heated discussions, we try to maintain our amicable web site.

Indeed!

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Tuesday August 24, 2004

fungible \FUHN-juh-buhl\, adjective:
1. (Law) Freely exchangeable for or replaceable by another of like nature or kind in the satisfaction of an obligation.
2. Interchangeable.

noun:
Something that is exchangeable or substitutable. Usually used in the plural.

People think this tax is for Social Security. But tax monies are really fungible. They get raided all the time.
--Eugene Ludwig, "Motivated to Work," interview by Kerry A. Dolan, Forbes, March 20, 2000

The setting is Ireland in the 1950's, but, a cynical reader might reflect, this sort of fiction is so common that the characters will be completely fungible.
--Susan Isaacs, "Three Little Girls From School," New York Times, December 30, 1990

Genuine eros makes us desire a particular person; crude desire is satisfiable by fungible bodies.
--Edward Craig (general editor), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fungible comes from Medieval Latin fungibilis, from Latin fungi (vice), "to perform (in place of)."

[Ghost]

nimbus \NIM-buhs\, noun:
1. (Fine Arts) A circle, or disk, or any indication of radiant light around the heads of divinities, saints, and sovereigns, upon medals, pictures, etc.; a halo.
2. A cloud or atmosphere (as of romance or glamour) that surrounds a person or thing.
3. (Meteorology) A rain cloud.

Sometimes when she stood in front of a lamp, the highlights on her hair made a nimbus.
--James Morgan, The Distance to the Moon

The two lights over the front steps were haloed with a hazy nimbus of mist, and strange insects fluttered up against the screen, fragile, wing-thin and blinded, dazed, numbed by the brilliance.
--Karen V. Kukil (Editor), The Journals of Sylvia Plath, 1950-1962

Mara felt she could practically see a nimbus of light around her, like the biblical Esther before she becomes queen.
--Anna Shapiro, The Scourge

Decorated in royal green and gold with crystal chandeliers and plush furniture, the office featured a lighted full-length portrait of Johnson leaning against a bookcase and two overhead lamps projecting "an impressive nimbus of golden light" as Lyndon sat at his desk.
--Robert Dallek, Flawed Giant

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nimbus is from the Latin nimbus, "a rain cloud, a rain storm."

/me always wanted a Nimbus-2001!

[laurie]

Quidditch, anyone?

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Thursday August 26, 2004

eddy \ED-ee\, noun:
1. A current of air or water running in a direction contrary to the main current, or moving in a circular direction; a whirlpool.
2. A tendency or current (as of opinion or history) contrary to or separate from a main current.

intransitive verb:
To move in an eddy or as if in an eddy; to move in a circle.

transitive verb:
To cause to move in an eddy or as if in an eddy.

Many inanimate systems have lifelike qualities -- flickering flames, snowflakes, cloud patterns, swirling eddies in a river.
--Paul Davies, The Fifth Miracle

Egypt, like many countries, was caught up in the eddies of the Great Depression, which overtook Europe and America and which came in Egypt just as the new graduates of the expanded schooling were entering the workforce, looking for the professional opportunities their education had promised.
--Leila Ahmed, A Border Passage

The indifferent river swirls on, eddying past small promontories where grass peeks through the snow.
--Roger Cohen, Hearts Grown Brutal

The fragrant water is not completely still but, stirred perhaps by his own entry, seems to eddy around him as if he were being bathed in a rippling brook fed by hot springs, one that cleanses itself even as it cleanses him.
--Robert Coover, Ghost Town

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Friday August 27, 2004

Methuselah \muh-THOO-zuh-luh\, noun:
1. The name of a biblical patriarch said to have lived 969 years.
2. An extremely old man.

And he must've got it from his great-grandpa, who must've bought it off Methuselah!
--Trevanian, Incident at Twenty-Mile

Opass is 80 years old, a Parisian Methuselah living alone on the 13th floor of a tower block.
--Dominic Bradbury, "A picture never quite in focus," Times (London), January 10, 2001

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Methuselah is from Hebrew Methushelah, Biblical patriarch represented as having lived 969 years.

/back in the days, me and Methushelah used to .........

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Monday August 30, 2004

contrite \KON-tryt; kuhn-TRYT\, adjective:
1. Deeply affected with grief and regret for having done wrong; penitent; as, "a contrite sinner."
2. Expressing or arising from contrition; as, "contrite words."

Contrite sinners forgiven, yes.
--Richard de Mille, My Secret Mother

Within days, a contrite Clarence Arthur was sending her roses and violets, even a bad poem.
--Paul Mariani, The Broken Tower

Often he'd look contrite and even apologize.
--Rafer Johnson with Philip Goldberg, The Best That I Can Be

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contrite derives from Latin conterere, "to rub away, to grind," hence "to obliterate, to abase," from con- + terere, "to rub, to rub away."

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Tuesday August 31, 2004

sere, also sear \SEER\, adjective:
Dry; withered.

. . . a country that has been transformed from a place of lush abundance to a sere, mutilated, inhospitable land.
--Zofia Smardz, "A Nice Place for Extinction," New York Times, June 15, 1997

Recent rains have done little to relieve the sere conditions.
--Thomas Omestad, "The struggle over water," U.S. News and World Report, April 10, 2000

Mr. Campbell, a biologist, spent three seasons in the Antarctic and returned with eerily clear perceptions of that sere and uninhabitable place.
--Review of The Crystal Desert, by David G. Campbell New York Times, December 5, 1993

There was a lavatory at the end of the garden beyond a scraggy clump of Michaelmas daisies that never looked well in themselves, always sere, never blooming, the perennial ghosts of themselves, as if ill-nourished by an exhausted soil.
--Angela Carter, Shaking a Leg

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sere comes from Old English sear, "dry."


/yeh, it's hot but it's a sere heat. (Arizona +100)

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Wednesday September 1, 2004

dolorous \DOH-luh-ruhs\, adjective:
Marked by, causing, or expressing grief or sorrow.

Climbing out on to a narrow ledge, we waving cheerily at the people passing by on the street below, until my mother was informed of our misdemeanour -- by a waitress wickedly known to great-aunt Mary, behind her table napkin, as Sourpuss for her perpetually dolorous expression -- and we were lured back inside.
--Mary Varnham, "Voices of young and old are rarely heard," The Evening Post (Wellington, New Zealand), March 30, 1995

And at the centre of this intense display of devotion Carlo himself, bearing aloft the relic of the Holy Nail from the cathedral, shoeless and oblivious to his bleeding feet, walked amid a dolorous procession of penitents.
--Helen Langdon, Caravaggio: A Life

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dolorous derives from Latin dolor, "pain, grief, sorrow," from dolere, "to suffer pain, to grieve."

/going on a date with Dolorous was not fun

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Thursday September 2, 2004

plenipotentiary \plen-uh-puh-TEN-shee-air-ee; -shuh-ree\,
adjective: Containing or conferring full power; invested with full power; as, "plenipotentiary license; plenipotentiary ministers."
noun: A person invested with full power to transact any business; especially, an ambassador or diplomatic agent with full power to negotiate a treaty or to transact other business.

There were two accounts, one in a news article, the second in the editorial section, telling the minihistory of Pol Pot, sometime plenipotentiary ruler of Cambodia.
--William F. Buckley Jr., The Redhunter

At that time, Egypt was our protectorate, which meant the High Commissioner was the plenipotentiary of George V and carried independent authority.
--David Freeman, One of Us

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plenipotentiary derives from Latin plenus, "full" + potens, "powerful."

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Friday September 3, 2004

myriad \MIR-ee-uhd\, adjective:
1. Consisting of a very great, but indefinite, number; as, myriad stars.
2. Composed of numerous diverse elements or aspects.

noun:
1. The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things.
(Chiefly in reference to the Greek numeral system, or in translations from Greek or Latin).
2. An immense number; a very great many; an indefinitely large number.

Home is a place to which one is attached by myriad habits of thought and behavior--culturally acquired, of course, yet in time they become so intimately woven into everyday existence that they seem primordial and the essence of one's being.
--Yi-Fu Tuan, Escapism

Hawks and condors hunted all along the river, while myriad other bird species including cuckoos, owls, vireos, and woodpeckers inhabited the willow groves that flourished along its course.
--Blake Gumprecht, The Los Angeles River

The myriad mind of Shakespeare.
--H. Reed, Lectures on the British Poets

The catastrophic melting of Earth's surface is just one out of a myriad of events that are waiting to occur as the universe and its contents grow older.
--Fred Adams and Greg Laughlin, The Five Ages of the Universe

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Myriad is from Greek myrias, myriad-, "ten thousand; a myriad," from myrios, "numberless; countless; ten thousand."

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Tuesday September 7, 2004

epicene \EP-uh-seen\, adjective:
1. Having the characteristics of both sexes.
2. Effeminate; unmasculine.
3. Sexless; neuter.
4. (Linguistics) Having but one form of the noun for both the male and the female.

noun:
1. A person or thing that is epicene.
2. (Linguistics) An epicene word.

He has a clear-eyed, epicene handsomeness -- cruel, sensuous mouth; cheekbones to cut your heart on -- the sort of excessive beauty that is best appreciated in repose on a 50-foot screen.
--Franz Lidz, "Jude Law: He Didn't Turn Out Obscure at All," New York Times, May 13, 2001

She smothers (almost literally at times) her weak, epicene son Vladimir, and is prepared to commit any crime to see him become Tsar, despite his reluctance.
--Ronald Bergan, Sergei Eisenstein: A Life in Conflict

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Epicene derives from Latin epicoenus, from Greek epikoinos, "common to," from epi-, "upon" + koinos, "common."

/everyone should use this word today - hopefully to your boss in a complimentary way!

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Wednesday September 8, 2004

skulduggery, also skullduggery \skul-DUG-uh-ree\, noun:
Devious, dishonest, or unscrupulous behavior or activity; also: an instance thereof.

And then the inquests, and the coroner's reports, and the hints of diplomatic cover-ups, and skulduggery in high places.
--Hilary Mantel, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street

Laptop theft was the third most common electronic skulduggery, behind viruses (84 percent) and unauthorized employee use of computers and software (78 percent), according to the survey by the Computer Security Institute in San Francisco.
--Michael Cooper, "Low Tech Joins the Fight Against High-Tech Theft," New York Times, April 23, 1998

For instance, the Federal Trade Commission already goes after some kinds of Internet skulduggery, like selling products that promise more than they deliver.
--David Stout, "New Internet Anti-Fraud Center Announced by Attorney General," New York Times, May 8, 2000

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The origin of skulduggery is unknown.

[laurie]

One of those bloody Kidds probably made it up.

/me thinks it might truly have a pirate origin

[Darb]

Alas, poor Yorik ... I think you may be right

[laurie]

You forgot your usual "Ye Invertebrate Punster" closing - you sick or something?

P.S. Where's Ghostie with the WOTD

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Friday September 10, 2004

wizened \WIZ-und\, adjective:
Dried; shriveled; withered; shrunken; as, "a wizened old man."

Her eyes were clear and shining, full of love, and set deeply in the creases of her wizened face.
--Catherine Whitney, The Calling

At five foot six, 130 pounds, Erdos had the wizened, cadaverous look of a drug addict, but friends insist he was frail and gaunt long before he started taking amphetamines.
--Paul Hoffman, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers

A thorny bramble bearing wizened leaves grew with the bittersweet in a crevice that ran downhill from the duo of trees.
--Mary Parker Buckles, Margins: A Naturalist Meets Long Island Sound

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wizened is the past participle of wizen, "to wither, to dry," from the Old English wisnian.

One of those bloody Kidds probably made it up.

/me thinks it might truly have a pirate origin

The Iron Tom Kidd made up the word skulduggery to describe the actions of the Flints.

[laurie]

And Iron Tom Kidd is a wizened old........

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Monday September 13, 2004

appellation \ap-uh-LAY-shun\, noun:
1. The word by which a particular person or thing is called and known; name; title; designation.
2. The act of naming.

For as long as Olympia can remember, her mother has been referred to, within her hearing and without, as an invalid -- an appellation that does not seem to distress her mother and indeed appears to be one she herself cultivates.
--Anita Shreve, Fortune's Rocks

A communist or a revolutionary, for example, would likely readily accept and admit that he is in fact a communist or a revolutionary. Indeed, many would doubtless take particular pride in claiming either of those appellations for themselves.
--Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism

I feel honored by yet undeserving of the appellation "novelist." I am merely a craftsperson, a cabinetmaker of texts and occasionally, I hope, a witness to our times.
--Francine Du Plessix Gray, "I Write for Revenge Against Reality," New York Times, September 12, 1982

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appellation comes from Latin appellatio, from appellare, "to name."

/me felt admiration by yet not good enough of the appellation "wizened old . . ."

[laurie]

Maybe not you, Ghost, but Iron Tom's a different story. All those years aboard ship, with the hot sun and the salty seaspray....... "peaches and cream" he ain't !

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Tuesday September 14, 2004

longueur \long-GUR\, noun: A dull and tedious passage in a book, play, musical composition, or the like.

One of the commentators compared my speech to one of Gladstone's which had lasted five hours. "It was not so long, but some of the speech's . . . longueurs made Gladstone seem the soul of brevity," he wrote.
--Lord Lamont of Lerwick, "Been there, done that," Times (London), March 6, 2001

If this book of 400 pages had been devoted to her alone, it would have been filled with longueurs, but as the biography of a family it has the merit of originality.
--Peter Ackroyd, review of Gwen Raverat: Friends, Family and Affections, by Frances Spalding, Times (London), June 27, 2001

This book . . . has its defects. Sometimes it loses focus (as in a longueur on Chechens living in Jordan).
--Colin Thubron, "Birth of a Hundred Nations," New York Times, November 19, 2000

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Longueur is from French (where it means "length"), ultimately deriving from Latin longus, "long," which is also the source of English long.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Wednesday September 15, 2004

rivulet \RIV-yuh-lut\, noun:
A small stream or brook; a streamlet.

But Stephen speaks of water in the desert, and triumphal swelling progress: raindrop, runnel, rivulet, river, sea.
--Blake Morrison, As If

There was a rivulet of scummy water heading for his highly polished black shoe.
--Joanne Harris, Chocolat

After two minutes in the steam chamber, sweat began to flow in rivulets from every pore in my body, dripping steadily from my fingertips.
--Fen Montaigne, Reeling in Russia

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rivulet is from Italian rivoletto, diminutive of rivolo, from Latin rivulus, diminutive of rivus, "a brook, a stream."

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Thursday September 16, 2004

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

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

/what do they mean in definition 2. "Any imaginary monster", me seen a chimera.

[Ghost]

Word of the Day for Friday September 17, 2004

avoirdupois \av-uhr-duh-POIZ; AV-uhr-duh-poiz\, noun:
1. Avoirdupois weight, a system of weights based on a pound containing 16 ounces or 7,000 grains (453.59 grams).
2. Weight; heaviness; as, a person of much avoirdupois.

Claydon . . . was happy to admit that he has shed some avoirdupois.
--Mel Webb, "Claydon's loss leads to net gain," Times (London), February 18, 2000

Yet until middle age and avoirdupois overtook her, Mary was no slouch.
--John Updike, "How to Milk a Millionaire," New York Times, March 29, 1987

Tired of putting on and taking off the same five pounds? Don't delay, buy this book today -- and watch yourself shed both respectability and surplus avoirdupois!
--David Galef, "'J. Faust's Guide to Power' And Other Self-Help Classics," New York Times, December 18, 1994

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avoirdupois is from Middle English avoir de pois, "goods sold by weight," from Old French aveir de peis, literally "goods of weight," from aveir, "property, goods" (from aveir, "to have," from Latin habere, "to have, to hold, to possess property") + de, "from" (from the Latin) + peis, "weight," from Latin pensum, "weight."

/me thinks me will stay away from this word.