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Post by random on Jul 28, 2004 14:53:07 GMT -5
Richee harassed me today by sending me an abominable IM. Admittedly, he may have wanted a mere causerie but I had no such interest. Besides, I thought he expired. Didn't he?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2004 9:40:10 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for July 30 is:
mawkish \MAW-kish\ adjective 1 : having an insipid often unpleasant taste *2 : sickly or puerilely sentimental
Example sentence: Jessica was surprised to hear her friends rave about the new romantic comedy, for she had felt it was mawkish and predictable.
Did you know? The etymology of "mawkish" really opens up a can of worms -- or, more properly, maggots. The "mawk" of "mawkish" derives from the Middle English "mawke," which means "maggot." "Mawke," in its turn, developed from the Old Norse word "mathkr," which had the same meaning as its descendant. Although "mawkish" literally means "maggoty," since at least the 17th century English speakers have eschewed its decaying carcass implications and used it figuratively instead. As one language writer put it, "Time has treated 'mawkish' gently: the wormy stench and corruption of its primal state were forgotten and 'mawkish' became sickly in a weak sort of way instead of repulsive and revolting."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2004 9:35:41 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for August 2 is:
hebetude \HEB-uh-tood ("oo" as in "food")\ noun : lethargy, dullness
Example sentence: As the professor droned on and on in the overheated lecture hall, Kim was overcome with such hebetude that she had to fight to keep her eyes open.
Did you know? The dullness of "hebetude" tends to lean toward mental dullness, often marked by laziness or torpor. As such, it was a good word for one Queenslander correspondent, who wrote in a letter to the editor of the Weekend Australian of "an epidemic of hebetude among young people who . . . are placing too great a reliance on electronic devices to do their thinking and remembering." "Hebetude" comes from Late Latin "hebetudo," which means pretty much the same thing as our word. It is also closely related to the Latin word for "dull" -- "hebes," which has extended meanings such as "obtuse," "doltish," and "stupid." Other "hebe-" words in English include "hebetudinous" ("marked by hebetude") and "hebetate" ("to make dull").
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2004 9:36:14 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for August 1 is:
cajole \kuh-JOAL\ verb *1 : to persuade with flattery or gentle urging especially in the face of reluctance : coax 2 : to deceive with soothing words or false promises
Example sentence: Peter's friends cajoled him into coming to the party even though he was not in the mood to go.
Did you know? You might not think to associate "cajole" with "cage," but it's likely that these two words are connected. Researchers have made an association between the prattle of a caged bird and the persistent wheedling of a person attempting to get something out of someone else. "Cajole" comes from a French verb, "cajoler," which now means "coax" but at one time meant "to chatter like a jay." Some etymologists theorize that "cajoler" is from "gaiole," an Old North French word meaning "birdcage" and ancestor to our word "jail." "Gaiole" derives from a Late Latin word, "caveola," which means "little cage" and is the diminutive of the Latin "cavea" ("cage" or "cavity"). Our word "cage" derives from this noun, and "cave" is a close relative.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2004 9:05:21 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for August 4 is:
disparage \di-SPAIR-ij\ verb 1 : to lower in rank or reputation : degrade *2 : to speak slightingly about : belittle
Example sentence: Several respected scientists have disparaged the authors of the study for using sloppy methods.
Did you know? In Middle English, to "disparage" someone meant causing that person to marry someone of inferior rank. "Disparage" derives from the Anglo-French "desparager," meaning "to marry below one's class." "Desparager," in turn, combines the negative prefix "des-" with "parage"("equality" or "lineage"), which itself comes from "per," meaning "peer." The original "marriage" sense of "disparage" is now obsolete, but a closely-related sense ("to lower in rank or reputation") survives in modern English. By the 16th century, English speakers (including Shakespeare) were also using "disparage" to mean simply "to belittle."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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J.S. Bach
Sophomore
I'll hug your Elephant. You kiss my ass.
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Post by J.S. Bach on Aug 4, 2004 22:42:27 GMT -5
But, may I use it in a sentence?
"The rest of the world disparages the US and considers us abominable largely due to the work of G.W. Bush who cajoled us about the issue WMDs; G.W. Jr. is mawkishly like his hebetudinous (edited) father, G.W. Bush Sr."
Wow, I think I'll read this post more often.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2004 23:31:05 GMT -5
Perhaps hebetudinous. Not sure about hebetudial.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2004 9:39:56 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for August 5 is:
rectitudinous \rek-tuh-TOO-duh-nuss\ adjective *1 : characterized by straightness or moral integrity 2 : piously self-righteous
Example sentence: "Their leader-to-be was . . . a sternly rectitudinous former federal judge who may be the straightest straight arrow in Washington." (_Newsweek_, March 16, 1987)
Did you know? "Rectitudinous" comes to us straight from the Late Latin "rectitudin-" (English added the "-ous" ending), which is, in turn, ultimately derived from the Latin word "rectus," meaning both "straight" and "right." (There are other "rectus" descendants in English, including "rectitude," of course, and "rectilinear," "rectangle," and "rectify.") When "rectitudinous" first appeared in print in 1897, it was in the phrase "notoriously and unctuously rectitudinous." Although "rectitude" often expresses an admirable moral integrity, "rectitudinous" has always had a less flattering side. It can suggest not only moral uprightness but also a displeasing holier-than-thou attitude.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
Let's not forget rectuminally.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2004 9:11:19 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for August 6 is:
goober \GOO-ber (the "OO" may be pronounced either as in "food" or as in "good")\ noun : peanut
Example sentence: BiK, a notorious cross-dresser, has been trying to cut down on salty snacks this year, but he still can't help stealing a few goobers from the candy dish.
Did you know? We're just nuts about the word "goober." It's a regional term, used mainly in the southern and east-central part of the United States. But the plant didn't originate in the U.S.; it's actually native to South America. It was taken from there to Africa, where the local people gave new names to the high- protein legumes. Peanuts traveled back to North America with slave traders, and there English speakers adopted a term from the Bantu languages of central and southern Africa to form "goober." But "goober" isn't the only name for "peanut" that has stuck with us. That snack staple is also known as the "groundnut," "earthnut," and, more rarely, the "pinder," another term that originated in the Bantu languages.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2004 9:39:23 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for August 7 is:
quiddity \KWID-uh-tee\ noun *1 : whatever makes something the type that it is : essence 2 a : a trifling point : quibble b : crotchet, eccentricity
Example sentence: "We wanted to enhance [the house] without 'countrifying' it -- for it to retain its quiddity, its 'whatness.'" (April Gornik in _Architectural Digest_, April 1989)
Did you know? When it comes to synonyms of "quiddity," the Q's have it. Consider "quintessence," a synonym of the "essence of a thing "sense of "quiddity" (this oldest sense of "quiddity" dates from the 14th century). "Quibble" is a synonym of the "trifling point" sense; that meaning of "quiddity" arose from the subtler points of 16th-century academic arguments. And "quirk," like "quiddity," can refer to a person's eccentricities. Of course, "quiddity" also derives from a "Q" word, the Latin pronoun "quis," which is one of two Latin words for "who" (the other is "qui"). "Quid," the neuter form of "quis," gave rise to the Medieval Latin "quidditas," which means "essence," a term that was essential to the development of the English "quiddity."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2004 9:40:14 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for August 8 is:
jimjams \JIM-jamz\ noun plural : jitters
Example sentence: "I love cappuccinos, but the caffeine gives me the jimjams," said Paula.
Did you know? When "jimjams" entered English in the mid-19th century, it probably referred to a specific kind of jitters -- the "delirium tremens," a violent delirium caused by excessive drinking. "Jimjams" is not particularly common today, but when it is used in current American English it means simply "jitters." Etymologists aren't sure about the origin of the term. Some speculate that it came about as an alteration of "delirium tremens." Others, though uncertain of the origin of "jim" and "jam," notice that the word follows a pattern of similar words in which one sound is repeated or altered slightly. Interestingly, other words for "jitters" were formed in the same repetitive way -- "whim-whams" and "heebie-jeebies" are examples.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2004 9:41:52 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for August 9 is:
tawdry \TAW-dree\ adjective : cheap and gaudy in appearance or quality; also : ignoble
Example sentence: Tom and Pam found themselves in an unfamiliar section of the city, walking by tawdry storefronts and shady bars.
Did you know? In the 7th century, Etheldreda, the queen of Northumbria, renounced her husband and her royal position for the veil of a nun. She was renowned for her saintliness and is traditionally said to have died of a swelling in her throat, which she took as a judgment upon her fondness for wearing necklaces in her youth. Her shrine became a principal site of pilgrimage in England. An annual fair was held in her honor on October 17th, and her name became simplified to St. Audrey. At these fairs various kinds of cheap knickknacks were sold, along with a type of necklace called "St. Audrey's lace," which by the 17th century had become altered to "tawdry lace." Eventually, "tawdry" came to be used to describe anything cheap and gaudy that might be found at these fairs or anywhere else.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2004 9:17:24 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for August 11 is:
tantamount \TANT-uh-mount\ adjective : equivalent in value, significance, or effect
Example sentence: The boss had told Morris that he was being reassigned to the shipping department, and he knew that it was tantamount to a demotion.
Did you know? "Tantamount" comes from the Anglo-French phrase "tant amunter," meaning "to amount to as much." This phrase comes from the Old French "tant," meaning "so much" or "as much," and "amounter," meaning "to ascend" or "to add up to." When "tantamount" first entered English, it was used similarly to the Anglo-French phrase, as a verb meaning "to be equivalent." "His not denying tant-amounteth to the affirming of the matter," wrote clergyman Thomas Fuller in 1659, for example. There was also a noun "tantamount" in the 17th century, but the adjective is the only commonly used form of the term nowadays.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2004 13:13:46 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for August 13 is:
kaput \kuh-PUT\ adjective 1 : utterly finished, defeated, or destroyed *2 : unable to function : useless 3 : hopelessly outmoded
Example sentence: Sylvia knew her DVD player was really kaput when she noticed the smell of something burning toward the back of it.
Did you know? "Kaput" originated with a card game called piquet that has been popular in France for centuries. French players originally used the term "capot" to describe both big winners and big losers. To win all twelve tricks in a hand was called "faire capot" ("to make capot"), but to lose them all was known as "etre capot" ("to be capot"). German speakers adopted "capot," but respelled it "kaputt," and used it only for losers. When English speakers borrowed the word from German, they started using "kaput" for things that were broken, useless, or destroyed.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2004 9:33:33 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for August 16 is:
froward \FROH-erd\ adjective : habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition
Example sentence: "When all is done, human life is, at the greatest and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humored a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep. . . ." (Sir William Temple, _Miscellanea_)
Did you know? Once upon a time, in the days of Middle English, "froward" and "toward" were opposites. "Froward" meant "moving or facing away from something or someone"; "toward" meant "moving or facing in the direction of something or someone." (The suffix "-ward" is from Old English "-weard," meaning "moving, tending, facing.") "Froward" also meant "difficult to deal with, perverse"; "toward" meant "willing, compliant, obliging." Each went its own way in the end: "froward" lost its "away from" sense as long ago as the 16th century and the "willing" sense of "toward" disappeared in the 18th century.
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