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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2009 17:17:14 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for December 16 is:
sastruga \SAS-truh-guh\ noun : a wavelike ridge of hard snow formed by the wind -- usually used in plural
Example sentence: "Over the sastrugi it is all up and down hill, and the covering of ice crystals prevents the sledge from gliding even on the down-grade." (Robert Falcon Scott, Journals: Captain Scott's Last Expedition)
Did you know? If "sastruga" and its plural "sastrugi" seem like unusual English words, that may be because in some ways they are. Many of the words we use in English can be traced to one of two sources: about one-quarter of our vocabulary can be traced back to English's Germanic origins, and another two-thirds comes from Latinate sources (most such words come by way of French or from Latin directly, but Spanish and Italian have made their contributions as well). "Sastruga" was borrowed from German, but is not Germanic in origin. It's originally from "zastruga," a word that comes from a dialect of Russian and means "groove," "small ridge," or "furrow." "Sastruga" is not widely used in English, and when it is used, it often takes the plural form, as in our example sentence.
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Post by cruncher on Dec 16, 2009 20:27:05 GMT -5
Example sentence: "I had to trudge through a sastruga was up to my as$ to get to the bus after the match!!" (Chris Poole: Post-match interview after Regional Final loss to Minnesota)
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Post by rogue VB fan on Dec 17, 2009 14:54:29 GMT -5
Example sentence: "I had to trudge through a sastruga was up to my as$ to get to the bus after the match!!" (Chris Poole: Post-match interview after Regional Final loss to Minnesota) Nice usage!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2010 8:51:32 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for January 5 is:
myrmidon \'MER-muh-dahn\ noun : a loyal follower; especially : a subordinate who executes orders unquestioningly or unscrupulously
Example sentence: The boss was more likely to offer promotions to her myrmidons than to those workers who occasionally questioned her tactics or proposed alternate solutions.
Did you know? The Myrmidons, legendary inhabitants of Thessaly in Greece, were known for their fierce devotion to their king, Achilles, who led them in the Trojan War. "Myrmex" means "ant" in Greek, an image that evokes small and insignificant workers mindlessly fulfilling their duty. Whether the original Myrmidons were given their name for that reason is open to question. The "ant" association is strong, however. Some say the name is from a legendary ancestor who once had the form of an ant; others say the Myrmidons were actually transformed from ants. In any case, since the 1400s, we've employed "myrmidon" in its not-always-complimentary, ant-evoking, figurative sense.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2010 8:53:04 GMT -5
When I actually get some minions, I want them to be myrmidons.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2010 15:18:42 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for January 16 is:
interdigitate \in-ter-DIJ-uh-tayt\ verb : to become interlocked like the fingers of folded hands
Example sentence: "The edges [of bridge expansion joints] often are shaped like combs, the teeth of one interdigitating with teeth of the other." (The Washington Post, January 14, 1998)
Did you know? It probably won’t surprise you to learn that "interdigitate" comes from the prefix "inter-," as in "interlock," and the Latin word "digitus," meaning "finger." "Digitus" also gave us "digit," which is used in English today to refer to (among other things) the finger or toe of any animal. "Interdigitate" usually suggests an interlocking of things with fingerlike projections, such as muscle fibers or the teeth of an old-fashioned bear trap. The word can also be used figuratively to imply a smooth interweaving of disparate things, such as the blending of two cultures within a shared region.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2010 9:02:37 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for January 20 is:
Augean stable \aw-JEE-un-STAY-bul\ noun : a condition or place marked by great accumulation of filth or corruption
Example sentence: The presidency of Ulysses S. Grant was marred by his refusal to clean out the Augean stables of his own administration.
Did you know? "Augean stable" most often appears in the phrase "clean the Augean stable," which usually means "clear away corruption" or "perform a large and unpleasant task that has long called for attention." Augeas, the mythical king of Elis, kept great stables that held 3,000 oxen and had not been cleaned for thirty years -- until Hercules was assigned the job. Hercules accomplished this task by causing two rivers to run through the stables. The word "Augean" is sometimes used by itself, too -- it has come to mean "extremely difficult and usually distasteful." We can refer to "Augean tasks," "Augean labor," or even "Augean clutter."
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2010 9:03:24 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for February 23 is:
logomachy \loh-GAH-muh-kee\ noun 1 : a dispute over or about words *2 : a controversy marked by verbiage
Example sentence: The surprising election results have opened the floodgates of logomachy in the political media outlets.
Did you know? It doesn't take much to start people arguing about words, but there's no quarrel about the origin of "logomachy." It comes from the Greek roots "logos," meaning "word" or "speech," and "machesthai," meaning "to fight," and it entered English in the mid-1500s. If you're a word enthusiast, you probably know that "logos" is the root of many English words ("monologue," "neologism," "logic," and most words ending in "-logy," for example), but what about other derivatives of "machesthai"? Actually, this is a tough one even for word whizzes. Only a few very rare English words come from "machesthai." Here are two of them: "heresimach" ("an active opponent of heresy and heretics") and "naumachia" ("an ancient Roman spectacle representing a naval battle").
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2010 8:33:06 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for March 15 is:
haywire \HAY-wyre\ adverb or adjective *1 : being out of order or having gone wrong 2 : emotionally or mentally upset or out of control : crazy
Example sentence: The company's e-mailing system went haywire and sent out multiple copies of the advertisement to its subscribers.
Did you know? The wire used in baling hay -- haywire -- is often used in makeshift repairs. This hurried and temporary use of haywire gave rise to the adjective "haywire." When the adjective was first used in the early 20th century, it was primarily found in the phrase "haywire outfit," which originally denoted a poorly equipped group of loggers and then anything that was flimsy or patched together. This led to a "hastily patched-up" sense, which, in turn, gave us the more commonly used meaning, "being out of order or having gone wrong." The "crazy" sense of "haywire" may have been suggested by the difficulty of handling the springy wire, its tendency to get tangled around legs, or the disorderly appearance of the temporary repair jobs for which it was used.
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Post by coachtrex on Mar 17, 2010 1:26:49 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for March 15 is:
haywire \HAY-wyre\ adverb or adjective *1 : being out of order or having gone wrong 2 : emotionally or mentally upset or out of control : crazy Example sentence: The company's e-mailing system went haywire and sent out multiple copies of the advertisement to its subscribers. Did you know? The wire used in baling hay -- haywire -- is often used in makeshift repairs. This hurried and temporary use of haywire gave rise to the adjective "haywire." When the adjective was first used in the early 20th century, it was primarily found in the phrase "haywire outfit," which originally denoted a poorly equipped group of loggers and then anything that was flimsy or patched together. This led to a "hastily patched-up" sense, which, in turn, gave us the more commonly used meaning, "being out of order or having gone wrong." The "crazy" sense of "haywire" may have been suggested by the difficulty of handling the springy wire, its tendency to get tangled around legs, or the disorderly appearance of the temporary repair jobs for which it was used. All of the transferring this off-season has made the volleytalkers go haywire.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2010 9:45:22 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for March 26 is:
shibboleth \SHIB-uh-luth\ noun 1 : catchword, slogan *2 : a widely held belief or truism 3 : a custom or usage regarded as distinctive of a particular group
Example sentence: "Taxpayers beware: Don't buy into the shibboleth that more money automatically translates into better schools." (Press Journal [Vero Beach, FL], July 27, 2003)
Did you know? The Bible's Book of Judges (12:4-6) tells the story of the Ephraimites, who, after they were routed by the Gileadite army, tried to retreat by sneaking across a ford of the Jordan River that was held by their enemy. The Gileadites, wary of the ploy, asked every soldier who tried to cross if he was an Ephraimite. When the soldier said "no," he was asked to say "shibboleth" (which means "stream" in Hebrew). Gileadites pronounced the word "shibboleth," but Ephramites said "sibboleth." Anyone who left out the initial "sh" was killed on the spot. When English speakers first borrowed "shibboleth," they used it to mean "test phrase," but it has acquired additional meanings since that time.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2010 9:46:20 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for March 27 is:
esemplastic \es-em-PLAS-tik\ adjective : shaping or having the power to shape disparate things into a unified whole
Example sentence: "The prison walls of self had closed entirely round him; he was walled completely by the esemplastic power of his imagination -- he had learned by now to project mechanically, before the world, an acceptable counterfeit of himself...." (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel)
Did you know? "Unusual and new-coined words are, doubtless, an evil; but vagueness, confusion, and imperfect conveyance of our thoughts, are a far greater," wrote English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Biographia Literaria, 1817. True to form, in that same work, he assembled "esemplastic" by melding the Greek phrase "es hen," meaning "into one," with "plastic" to fulfill his need for a word that accurately described the imagination's ability to shape disparate experiences into a unified whole (e.g., the poet's imaginative ability to communicate a variety of images, sensations, emotions, and experiences in the unifying framework of a poem). The verb "intensify" was another word that Coleridge was compelled to mint while writing Biographia. Coinages found in his other writings include "clerisy" and "psychosomatic," among others.
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Post by PurpleisGold on Mar 27, 2010 10:35:01 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for March 26 is:
shibboleth \SHIB-uh-luth\ noun 1 : catchword, slogan *2 : a widely held belief or truism 3 : a custom or usage regarded as distinctive of a particular group Example sentence: "Taxpayers beware: Don't buy into the shibboleth that more money automatically translates into better schools." (Press Journal [Vero Beach, FL], July 27, 2003) Did you know? The Bible's Book of Judges (12:4-6) tells the story of the Ephraimites, who, after they were routed by the Gileadite army, tried to retreat by sneaking across a ford of the Jordan River that was held by their enemy. The Gileadites, wary of the ploy, asked every soldier who tried to cross if he was an Ephraimite. When the soldier said "no," he was asked to say "shibboleth" (which means "stream" in Hebrew). Gileadites pronounced the word "shibboleth," but Ephramites said "sibboleth." Anyone who left out the initial "sh" was killed on the spot. When English speakers first borrowed "shibboleth," they used it to mean "test phrase," but it has acquired additional meanings since that time. One who can, personally, appreciate the reference to the bible and, yes, in complete agreement with 'Example sentence'. Taxpayers are to beware...shibolleth...and better schools (not!). Thanks for the effort(s) in promoting words of the day. I'll know how much you'll enjoy this one, BUT You may or not know that The No Spin Zone does exactly the same, daily... perhaps you were doing it before O'Reilly (in any case).
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Post by PurpleisGold on Mar 27, 2010 10:44:49 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for March 27 is:
esemplastic \es-em-PLAS-tik\ adjective : shaping or having the power to shape disparate things into a unified whole Example sentence: "The prison walls of self had closed entirely round him; he was walled completely by the esemplastic power of his imagination -- he had learned by now to project mechanically, before the world, an acceptable counterfeit of himself...." (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel) Did you know? "Unusual and new-coined words are, doubtless, an evil; but vagueness, confusion, and imperfect conveyance of our thoughts, are a far greater," wrote English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Biographia Literaria, 1817. True to form, in that same work, he assembled "esemplastic" by melding the Greek phrase "es hen," meaning "into one," with "plastic" to fulfill his need for a word that accurately described the imagination's ability to shape disparate experiences into a unified whole (e.g., the poet's imaginative ability to communicate a variety of images, sensations, emotions, and experiences in the unifying framework of a poem). The verb "intensify" was another word that Coleridge was compelled to mint while writing Biographia. Coinages found in his other writings include "clerisy" and "psychosomatic," among others. 'Those esemplastic facts that were once made for use, for all the different uses of daily life, have mostly disappeared.' Thank you progressives..way to go dems in the routine splintering of 'American Culture' as history has known it. ,
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Post by lonewolf on Mar 28, 2010 17:02:36 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for March 27 is:
esemplastic \es-em-PLAS-tik\ adjective : shaping or having the power to shape disparate things into a unified whole Example sentence: "The prison walls of self had closed entirely round him; he was walled completely by the esemplastic power of his imagination -- he had learned by now to project mechanically, before the world, an acceptable counterfeit of himself...." (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel) Did you know? "Unusual and new-coined words are, doubtless, an evil; but vagueness, confusion, and imperfect conveyance of our thoughts, are a far greater," wrote English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Biographia Literaria, 1817. True to form, in that same work, he assembled "esemplastic" by melding the Greek phrase "es hen," meaning "into one," with "plastic" to fulfill his need for a word that accurately described the imagination's ability to shape disparate experiences into a unified whole (e.g., the poet's imaginative ability to communicate a variety of images, sensations, emotions, and experiences in the unifying framework of a poem). The verb "intensify" was another word that Coleridge was compelled to mint while writing Biographia. Coinages found in his other writings include "clerisy" and "psychosomatic," among others. 'Those esemplastic facts that were once made for use, for all the different uses of daily life, have mostly disappeared.' Thank you progressives..way to go dems in the routine splintering of 'American Culture' as history has known it. , Please stop bringing politics to the Off the Net forum.
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