Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2008 8:39:04 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for September 6 is:
sanguine \SANG-gwin\ adjective 1 : bloodred 2 of the complexion : ruddy *3 : confident, optimistic
Example sentence: The coach remained sanguine about his team's chances in the playoffs, even though his star player was injured.
Did you know? "Sanguine" has quite a few relatives in English, including a few that might sound familiar to Word of the Day readers. "Sangfroid" ("self-possession especially under strain") and "sanguineous" ("bloodthirsty") are consanguineous with "sanguine." ("Consanguineous," meaning "descended from the same ancestor," is another former Word of the Day.) The tie that binds these words is "sanguis," the Latin word for blood. "Exsanguination" ("the draining or losing of blood"), "sanguinary" ("murderous" or "bloody"), and the rare "sangsue" ("leech") and "sanguinolent" ("tinged with blood") are also "sanguis" relatives. That's something you can raise a glass of "sangaree" or "sangria" ("a usually iced punch made of red wine, fruit juice, and soda water") to!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2008 11:02:45 GMT -5
Mumble mumble mumble.
The Word of the Day for September 25 is:
consigliere \kohn-sil-YEH-reh\ noun : counselor, adviser
Example sentence: After years of being a consigliere to the CEOs of Silicon Valley's top giants, Norman has decided to break out and head his own high-tech enterprise.
Did you know? If you're a fan of The Godfather series of movies, the character Tom Hagen may have already come to mind. Hagen, the Corleones' family lawyer, was famously dismissed by the Don's successor and son Michael Corleone because he was not a "wartime consigliere." The word "consigliere" comes from Italian and has been a part our language since 1615; it was originally used of someone who served on a council in Italy. Currently, it is most commonly used to designate advisers to the Mafia -- a use that first appeared in English in a document from a 1963 session of the U.S. Senate. It is also often used generally of a political or financial adviser, or any other trusted adviser for that matter.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2008 8:40:02 GMT -5
Here's a sweet story.
The Word of the Day for September 28 is:
oaf \OHF\ noun 1 : a stupid person : boob *2 : a big clumsy slow-witted person
Example sentence: When the waiter dropped a full plate of pasta into her lap, my sister yelled, "You clumsy oaf!"
Did you know? A long time ago in England, it was believed that goblins sometimes secretly exchanged their babies for human babies. This was used as an explanation when parents found themselves with a particularly ugly or deformed child: these parents wanted to believe that their real baby had been stolen by goblins, and the other left in its place. The label for such a child was "auf," or "alfe" (meaning "goblin's child"), terms that were later altered to form our present-day "oaf." Although the linguistic history is not entirely clear, "auf" and "alfe" are likely from the Middle English "alven" and "elven," meaning "elf" or "fairy." Today the word "oaf" is no longer associated with unattractive babies and is instead applied to anyone who appears especially unintelligent or graceless.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2009 10:32:38 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for February 14 is:
spoony \SPOO-nee\ adjective 1 : silly, foolish; especially : unduly sentimental *2 : being sentimentally in love
Example sentence: It was Valentine's Day and spoony couples were enjoying romantic candlelit dinners at the city's many fine restaurants.
Did you know? In 19th-century British slang, "spoon" meant "simpleton" (a meaning that may have been influenced by the "shallowness" of some spoons). That use of "spoon" brought about the adjective "spoony" to describe a silly or foolish person. In time, the foolish manner implied by "spoony" began to take on sentimental and amorous overtones, and it soon became the perfect word for those foolishly head over heels in love. Another "spoon" is a verb referring to love-making or necking. That use of "spoon" may stem from a Welsh custom in which an engaged man presented his fiance with an elaborately carved wooden spoon.
|
|
|
Post by OverAndUnder on Feb 14, 2009 13:33:18 GMT -5
I have long suspected that somewhere out there is a hippie child name Moon June Spoon.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2009 12:38:31 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for September 15 is:
sternutation \ster-nyuh-TAY-shun\ noun : the act, fact, or noise of sneezing
Example sentence: Julie knew that she had put on too much perfume when she entered the car and immediately heard a chorus of sternutation from the passengers.
Did you know? "Sternutation" comes from Latin and is a descendant of the verb "sternuere," meaning "to sneeze." One of the earliest known English uses occurred in a 16th-century edition of a book on midwifery, in a passage about infants suffering from frequent "sternutation and sneesynge." The term has long been used in serious medical contexts, but also on occasion for humorous effect. In 1850, for example, author Grace Greenwood observed that U.S. senators from opposing political parties would often come together to share snuff: "And all three forget their sectional differences in a delightful concert of sternutation. No business is too grave, no speaker too eloquent, to be 'sneezed at.'"
|
|
|
Post by romeo on Sept 15, 2009 13:01:22 GMT -5
My dad's sternutation often startled people, especially when it was in church. Man, he could sneeze!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2009 10:29:14 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for September 16 is:
pink \PINK\ verb 1 a : to perforate in an ornamental pattern *b : to cut a saw-toothed edge on 2 a : pierce, stab b : to wound by irony, criticism, or ridicule
Example sentence: "The sleek curtain requires no sewing; we pinked the edges to add a bit of detail." (Jennie Voorhees, Martha Stewart Living, April 2002)
Did you know? Our unabridged dictionary, Webster's Third New International, includes 13 distinct entries for "pink," whereas our abridged volume, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate, satisfies itself with the five most common. (Words get distinct entries in our dictionaries when they have different etymologies or different parts of speech.) Today's "pink," the only verb of the five, is from a Middle English word meaning "to thrust." Of the remaining four, the only "pink" older than the verb (which dates to 1503) is a 15th century noun referring to a kind of ship. The next-oldest noun has since 1573 referred to a genus of herbs. The noun referring to the color pink and its related adjective date to 1678 and 1720, respectively. Evidence suggests that a new verb "pink" -- a synonym of the verb "pink-slip" -- is also emerging.
Pink as a verb should never be put in the corner.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2009 15:10:34 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for September 20 is:
sockdolager \sock-DAH-lih-jer\ noun 1 : something that settles a matter : a decisive blow or answer : finisher *2 : something outstanding or exceptional
Example sentence: For a while I was completely stumped, but then, all of a sudden, I got a sockdolager of an idea.
Did you know? The verb "sock" ("to punch") and the noun "doxology" ("a hymn of praise to God") may seem like an odd pairing, but it is a match that has been promoted by a few word mavens when discussing the origins of the Americanism "sockdolager." Don't be too quick to believe the hype, however. When a word's origin is simply unknown, as is the case with "sockdolager," there's a tendency for folks to fill in the gap with an interesting story, whether or not it can be verified. In the case of "sockdolager," the "sock" part is plausible but unproven, and the "doxology" to "dolager" suggestion is highly questionable. The theory continues to have many fans, but it can't deliver the knockout punch.
|
|
|
Post by Thrill of the 'ville on Sept 20, 2009 19:29:42 GMT -5
That might just be the coolest word ever
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2009 8:18:36 GMT -5
There's competition:
eldritch: Dictionary.com Word of the Day eldritch: unearthly; weird; eerie.
(Not for coolest word ever, just for WotD.)
|
|
|
Post by romeo on Sept 23, 2009 9:53:33 GMT -5
This is a shocking turn of events. Not using Webster's. I'd even say it is an eldritch event.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2009 17:42:08 GMT -5
Dictionary.com Weird Word Wednesday
furfuraceous [fur-fyuh-REY-shuhs]: relating to or resembling bran; also, scaly.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2009 9:39:30 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for October 1 is:
pukka \PUCK-uh\ adjective genuine, authentic; also : first-class
Example sentence: Ellingsworth stood framed in the door of his club, the picture of a pukka gentleman, immaculately groomed, upper lip appropriately stiff, perfectly genteel.
Did you know? "Pukka" tends to evoke the height of 18th- and 19th-century British imperialism in India, and, indeed, it was first used in English at the 1775 trial of Maha Rajah Nundocomar, who was accused of forgery and tried by a British court in Bengal. The word is borrowed from Hindi and Urdu "pakka," which means "solid." The English speakers who borrowed it applied the "sound and reliable" sense of "solid" and thus the word came to mean "genuine." As the British Raj waned, "pukka" was occasionally appended to "sahib" (an Anglo-Indian word for a European of some social or official status). That expression is sometimes used as a compliment for an elegant and refined gentleman, but it can also imply that someone is overbearing and pretentious. These days, "pukka" is also used as a British slang word meaning "excellent" or "cool."
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2009 21:36:53 GMT -5
Dictionary.com
ambisinister: [am-bi-SIN-uh-ster]: clumsy or unskillful with both hands.
|
|