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A Word A Day — flaneur
flaneur
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
A Magnificent Buffoon; Financial Times (London, UK); Jan 28, 2005.
“The dandy, on the other hand, is a flâneur, a jaded, narcissistic observer well-suited to the 7280 cell phone, whose screen becomes a mirror when not in use.”
Ed Tenner; Digital Dandies; Technology Review (Cambridge, Massachusetts); Jan 2005.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Life is an adventure in forgiveness. -Norman Cousins, author and editor (1915-1990)
A Word A Day — thewless
thewless
MEANING:
1. Cowardly.
2. Lacking energy.
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Irv C. Rogers; Motoo Eetee: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World; McBooks Press; 2002.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. -Leo Buscaglia, author (1924-1998)
A Word A Day — flagitious
An insult, real or perceived, once resulted in a duel. To defend one's honor meant to kill someone or to get killed. Thankfully, those times are behind us. Duels are now part of history, but bar-fights and other altercations show that we haven't outgrown our revenge mentality.
Here's another option. Imagine a world where a slight called for a verbal duel. The two parties get together and hurl the choicest adjectives at each other. Spectators cheer them on. And in the end the two shake hands and, having vented, go home.
Imagine that to prepare for this fight the parties involved don't drive to a gun shop. Instead they head to the biggest, baddest dictionary they could lay their hands on and pick out words. The more obscure, the more colorful, the better. If your opponent can't even understand the word you hurl at him what hope has he?
Consider this week's words as ammunition — don't let them fall into the hands of little children.
flagitious
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Wilbur Smith; Assegai; Macmillan; 2010.
Explore “flagitious” in the Visual Thesaurus.
The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge. -Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, professor, attorney, and writer (1914-2004)
A Word A Day — brass ring
brass ring
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
NOTES:
USAGE:
Rob Hubbard; English Pianist Cooper; Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minnesota); Mar 4, 2012.
Every increased possession loads us with new weariness. -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)
A Word A Day — tin god
tin god
MEANING:
1. A pompous, self-important person.
2. A person who regards himself or herself as infallible and tries to dictate standards of behavior or beliefs.
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Sandra Marton; Spring Bride; Harlequin; 1996.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
People change and forget to tell each other. -Lillian Hellman, playwright (1905-1984)
A Word A Day — copperplate
The word metal evokes different images based on who or where you are. To an investor it may be precious metals, to a music enthusiast it may mean heavy metal. Again, the term heavy metal has an entirely different meaning to a scientist.
This week we're going to get into metalinguistics, make that metal-linguistics. We're going metallic with words based on these metals and alloys: copper, tin, brass, iron, and silver.
copperplate
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Penny Vincenzi; Baby Knows Best; The Daily Express (London, UK); Mar 19, 2012.
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars. -Walt Whitman, poet (1819-1892)
A Word A Day — orthogonal
orthogonal
MEANING:
1. At right angles.
2. Unrelated or independent of each other.
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Now That's A Really Good Question; The Economist (London, UK); Feb 22, 2011.
Our chief want in life, is, somebody who shall make us do what we can. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)
A Word A Day — vicious circle
vicious circle
MEANING:
A vicious circle can also be a situation where an effort to solve a problem gives rise to the conditions which aggravate the original problem.
Also known as a vicious cycle. The opposite is a virtuous circle.
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Ariel Levy; Drug Test: Letter From Bangalore; The New Yorker; Jan 2, 2012.
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea. -Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)
A Word A Day — trapeze
trapeze
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Students in Rural Schools; The Centre Daily Times (Pennsylvania); Feb 6, 2005.
“Prime Minister and his advisers were hanging themselves in a trapeze of stale and false intelligence.”
Peter Newman; Harper's Election to Lose; Maclean's (Canada); Jun 21, 2004.
What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness. -Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)
A Word A Day — foursquare
foursquare
MEANING:
1. Firm; unyielding.
2. Frank; forthright.
3. Square in shape.
adverb:
In a firm or forthright manner.
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Froma Harrop; We're Indebted to an Unfriendly Nation; The Dallas Morning News (Texas); Dec 22, 2010.
Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own, which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it. -Jonathan Swift, satirist (1667-1745)
A Word A Day — triangulate
Triangulation in politics Illustration: Leigh Heydon
Of all the shapes in the world, the square has a particularly bad reputation. No one wants to be called a square. To be square is to be unhip, uncool, not-with-it. As they say, be there or be square! What has this straightforward shape done to deserve it? Perhaps it *is* in its shape. All sides are the same, all angles are right, everything is perfect. And we know nobody likes those who have everything together.
But everything is not lost for our humble square. When it comes to describing upright behavior we go to no other than this much-maligned shape. A square deal is a fair and honest transaction, a square meal is a substantial and nourishing meal. We like square shooters, people who are honest and fair. It's best to square up (to pay a bill) and square things away (to put in order). Though sometimes in spite of our best efforts we get back to square one (from one of the games in which we traverse a sequence of squares, such as a board game). At any rate, whatever you do, just don't try to square the circle (attempt the impossible).
In this week's A.Word.A.Day we'll see words with allusions to geometrical shapes.
triangulate
MEANING:
1. To position between two extremes, for example, in politics to appeal to both left and right wings.
2. a. To make triangular.
b. To divide an area into triangles.
c. To determine a location by measuring angles to it from known points.
adjective:
Composed of or marked with triangles.
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Robin Sears; Progressive Leaders Need to Win Back the Middle Class; The Toronto Star (Canada); Mar 23, 2012.
“Nicholas Krushenick triangulated an eccentric sweet spot of his own in the field of painting.”
Ken Johnson; Nicholas Krushenick; The New York Times; Oct 13, 2011.
Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies. -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)
A Word A Day — unavailing
unavailing
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Salman Haidar; Special Article; The Statesman (New Delhi, India); Oct 1, 2011.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have. -Lee Iacocca, automobile executive (b. 1924)
A Word a Day — consuetudinary
consuetudinary
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
My Teacher, My Queen; The Miami Herald (Florida); May 5, 2000..
There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)
A Word a Day — discrepant
discrepant
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Judith Mackrell; Reviews: Dance; The Guardian (London, UK); Jul 19, 2010.
Explore “discrepant” in the Visual Thesaurus.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold. -Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Judith Mackrell; Reviews: Dance; The Guardian (London, UK); Jul 19, 2010.
\
Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold. -Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)
A Word a Day — casuistry
casuistry
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Gabriel Anda; Scissors, Rock, and Paper Doll; Xlibris; 2011.
Useless laws weaken the necessary laws. -Charles de Montesquieu, philosopher and writer (1689-1755)
A Word a Day — tenable
For a change, this week we won't fit words into pigeonholes, we won't put labels on them, we won't assign them to a particular category or arrange them into a theme. We'll just let them be.
The five words we've selected have nothing in common… well, if you try hard enough, you can probably find something, but enjoy this bouquet of assorted words, or a salmagundi of syllables, if you will.
tenable
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Stephen King; We're Stuck in a Time of Economic Permafrost; The Times (London, UK); Dec 27, 2011.
Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher. -Japanese proverb
A Word A Day — satyr
satyr
MEANING:
1. A lecherous man.
2. A man who has satyriasis: excessive and uncontrollable sexual desire. The female equivalent is nymphomania.
3. Any of several butterflies of the family Satyridae, having eyelike spots.
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
James Rampton; Sauciness and Silicone; The Independent (London, UK); Sep 19, 1998.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Hundreds of hysterical persons must confuse these phenomena with messages from the beyond and take their glory to the bishop rather than the eye doctor. -James Thurber, writer and cartoonist (1894-1961)
A Word a Day — hector
hector
MEANING:
verb tr., intr.: To bully or to bluster.
ETYMOLOGY:
NOTES:
USAGE:
Tom Chiarella; A Man's Guide to the Holidays; Esquire (New York); Dec 2011.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
One who condones evils is just as guilty as the one who perpetrates it. -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., civil-rights leader (1929-1968)
A Word a Day — tartar
tartar
MEANING:
1. A fierce, uncontrollable person.
2. One who proves to be unexpectedly formidable. Usually used in the idiom “to catch a tartar”.
3. A hard yellowish deposit that forms on the teeth.
4. A reddish deposit on the sides of wine casks.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 3, 4: From Latin tartarum, from Greek tartaron. Earliest documented use: around 1386.
USAGE:
Derek Cohen; Apartheid at the Edges; Sewanee Review (Tennessee); Fall 2010.
“[The racehorse Mad About You had] success a month ago, but she caught a tartar in John Hayden's Emily Blake.”
Damien McElroy; Curtain Cruise Thrills Cumani; Irish Independent (Dublin); May 5, 2009.
No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same. -Viktor Frankl, author, neurologist and psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor (1905-1997)
A Word a Day — nestor
nestor
Art: Joseph-Désiré Court, 1820
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Bruce Anderson; The Long-Life Cocktail; The Spectator (London, UK); Nov 19, 2011.
That sorrow which is the harbinger of joy is preferable to the joy which is followed by sorrow. -Saadi, poet (c.1213-1291) [Gulistan]
A Word a Day — mentor
Actors act, curators curate, and orators orate. But doctors don't doct*, victors don't vict, and pastors don't past. Such is the English language. And we certainly don't want ancestors to ancest, traitors to trait, or gators to gate.
This week A.Word.A.Day will feature five people, real and fictional, whose names may appear to be derived from a verb form, but aren't. Mentors, for example, don't ment, though that doesn't prevent people from forming nouns such as 'mentee' and verbs like 'to mentor'.
This week's words are eponyms, a word derived from someone's name.
mentor
MEANING:
verb tr., intr.: To serve as an adviser or teacher.
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Mark Evans; Age No Barrier; Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Mar 30, 2012.
Society is like a lawn, where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by the smiling verdure of a velvet surface; he, however, who would study nature in its wildness and variety, must plunge into the forest, must explore the glen, must stem the torrent, and dare the precipice. -Washington Irving, writer (1783-1859)
A Word a Day — touche
touché
MEANING:
1. Used as an acknowledgment of a valid or clever point made by another.
2. In fencing, an acknowledgment of a hit by an opponent.
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Thomas Massaro; Beyond Doubt; America (New York); Feb 13, 2012.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Art is the elimination of the unnecessary. -Pablo Picasso, painter, and sculptor (1881-1973)
A Word a Day — riposte
riposte or ripost
MEANING:
verb tr.: To make a quick, clever reply.
verb intr.: In fencing, to make a quick return thrust.
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Sam Borden; Kansas State Sets Up Melting Pot; The New York Times; Mar 16, 2012.
Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best. Genius must always have lapses proportionate to its triumphs. -Max Beerbohm, essayist, parodist, and caricaturist (1872-1956)
A Word a Day — elan
elan
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Labor Party Forever Indebted to Margaret Whitlam; AAP (Australia); Mar 17, 2012.
A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. -Walt Whitman, poet (1819-1892)
A Word a Day — forte
forte
MEANING:
1. A strong point: something in which a person excels.
2. The stronger, lower part of a sword blade.
Used in music direction (FOHR-tay)
adjective: 3. Loud.
adverb: 4. In a forceful manner.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 3, 4: From Italian forte (strong, loud), from Latin fortis (strong). Also see sforzando. Earliest documented use: 1724.
NOTES:
USAGE:
European Redemption; The Economist (London, UK); Oct 11, 2008.
I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs. -Joseph Addison, essayist and poet (1672-1719)
A Word A Day — foible
At one time learning how to wield a sword was an essential part of a classical education for a man. Thankfully we have come a long way from those days when every problem had to be solved by picking up a weapon.
Yet, traces of that time are still with us in the form of words about fencing (from the same root as defense), and swords that we use without realizing their origins.
Enjoy this week's words about swords, but remember even words can have sharp edges, even words can hurt. It doesn't take much to turn words into a sword. Use them with caution, and use them only for good.
foible
MEANING:
1. A minor weakness or an idiosyncrasy in someone's character.
2. The weaker, upper part of a sword blade.
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Faye Flam; Humans Are More Cooperative Than Chimps; The Philadelphia Inquirer; Mar 2, 2012.
Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on “I am not too sure.” -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)
A Word A Day — bluff
bluff
MEANING:
noun: 2. An instance of bluffing; also one who bluffs.
adjective: 3. Good-naturedly direct in speech or manner.
noun: 4. A broad, steep cliff or promontory. 5. A grove or clump of trees.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 3-5: From obsolete Dutch blaf (flat), or Middle Low German blaff (broad, smooth). Earliest documented use: 1666.
USAGE:
Karen Hardy; Parents Must Teach, Too; The Canberra Times (Australia); Mar 10, 2012
“Kip Hawley, the man who runs the TSA, is a bluff, amiable fellow who is capable of making a TSA joke. 'Do you want three ounces of water?' he asked me.”
Jeffrey Goldberg; The Things He Carried; Atlantic (New York); Nov 2008.
“Record snowfall of more than 16 feet on the bluff has chased moose to the lower elevations.”
Naomi Klouda; Moose Don't Mix With Dogs, People; Homer Tribune (Alaska); Mar 28, 2012.
The world, we are told, was made especially for man — a presumption not supported by all the facts… Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation? -John Muir, naturalist and explorer (1838-1914)
A Word A Day — tarry
tarry
* for adjective
MEANING:
verb tr.: To wait for.
noun: A short stay; a sojourn.
adjective: Of, like, or smeared with tar.
ETYMOLOGY:
For adjective: From Old English teru. Earliest documented use: 1552.
USAGE:
Amy Schatz; Hospital Talks Continue; St. Petersburg Times (Florida); Apr 3, 1998.
“The story of Jesus's three-day-long tarry with the elders of the temple becomes, in Ms. Rice's hands, a fever dream.”
Benjamin Lytal; The Gospel According to the Goth; The Sun (New York); Oct 31, 2005.
“Otters are mainly detected by their characteristic spraints*, which have a tarry smell.”
Michael McCarthy; The Incredible Journey of an Intrepid Otter; The Independent (London, UK); Nov 21, 2008.
* otter dung
To have great poets, there must be great audiences. -Walt Whitman, poet (1819-1892)
A Word A Day — gloze
gloze
MEANING:
To minimize or to explain away.
verb intr.:
1. To use flattery.
2. To make an explanation.
3. To shine brightly.
noun:
1. A comment.
2. Flattery.
3. A pretense.
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Geoffrey Wheatcroft; Her Russia Right or Wrong; The Spectator (London, UK); Sep 18, 1999.
“From the pyramid's apex 42.3 billion candlepower's worth of white light shines, glozes, fulgurates, burns.”
Josh Axelrad; Repeat Until Rich: A Professional Card Counter's Chronicle of the of the Blackjack Wars; Penguin; 2010.
What is the purpose of the giant sequoia tree? The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse. -Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)
A Word A Day — countenance
countenance
MEANING:
To tolerate or support.
noun:
1. Appearance, especially the facial expression.
2. The face.
3. Composure.
4. Approval or support.
ETYMOLOGY:
USAGE:
Obama Seeks to Calm 'Drumbeat of War' Over Iran; The Buenos Aires Herald (Argentina); Mar 6, 2012.
“Thomas has long possessed a fierce countenance known to intimidate.”
Matt Calkins; NBA Veteran Journeyman Kurt Thomas; Columbian (Vancouver, Washington); Dec 13, 2011.
In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965)
