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Word of the Day
argy-bargy
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Fri, 06/11/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 11, 2010 is:
argy-bargy • \ahr-jee-BAHR-jee\ • noun
: a lively discussion : argument, dispute
Example sentence:
After much argy-bargy, Paul and Hugh finally came up with a plan that satisfied them both.
Did you know?
"Argy-bargy" and its slightly older variant "argle-bargle" have been a part of British English since the second half of the 19th century. "Argy" and "argle" evolved in certain English and Scottish dialects as variant forms of "argue." As far as we can tell, "bargy" and "bargle" never existed as independent words; they only came to life with the compounds as singsong reduplications of "argy" and "argle." Some other words that can be used for a dispute in English are "squabble," "contretemps," and "donnybrook."
ambuscade
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Thu, 06/10/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 10, 2010 is:
ambuscade • \AM-buh-skayd\ • noun
: a trap in which concealed persons lie in wait to attack by surprise; also : the persons so concealed or their position
Example sentence:
"They were apprized of the ambuscade by one of the flanking party, before the Indians fired upon them…." (George Washington, letter, August 4, 1756)
Did you know?
"Ambuscade" derives from Middle French "embuscade," a modification of an Old Italian word formed by combining the prefix "in-" and the Latin noun "bosco," meaning "forest." This is appropriate, since many such surprise attacks have involved the attacking force hiding out in and emerging from a wooded area. "Ambuscade" has not changed in meaning since General Washington’s day, though nowadays we are more likely to use its synonym "ambush." That word actually took a slightly different path to English -- via Middle English "embushen," from Anglo-French "en-" ("in-") and "busche" ("log" or "firewood") -- though the two words ultimately share a relationship.
delegate
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Wed, 06/09/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 09, 2010 is:
delegate • \DEL-uh-gayt\ • verb
*1 : to entrust to another 2 : to appoint as one's representative 3 : to assign responsibility or authority
Example sentence:
In order to get everything done on time, the committee leader chose to delegate some of the minor tasks to junior members.
Did you know?
To "delegate" is literally or figuratively to send another in one's place, an idea that is reflected in the word’s origin; it is a descendant of Latin "legare," meaning "to send as an emissary." Other English words that can be traced back to "legare" include "legate" ("a usually official emissary"), "legacy," "colleague," and "relegate." The noun "delegate," meaning "a person acting for another," entered English in the 15th century, followed by the verb in the next century.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
obstreperous
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Tue, 06/08/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 08, 2010 is:
obstreperous • \ub-STREP-uh-rus\ • adjective
1 : marked by unruly or aggressive noisiness : clamorous *2 : stubbornly resistant to control : unruly
Example sentence:
On her first day of substitute teaching, Joanna expected to encounter a classroom of obstreperous teenagers, but the students were mostly well behaved.
Did you know?
The handy Latin prefix "ob-," meaning "in the way," "against," or "toward," occurs in many Latin and English words. "Obstreperous" comes from "ob-" plus "strepere," a verb meaning "to make a noise," so someone who is obstreperous is literally making noise to rebel against something, much like a protesting crowd or an unruly child. The word has been used in English since around the beginning of the 17th century. "Strepere" has not played a role in the formation of any other notable English words, but "ob-" words abound; these include "obese," "obnoxious," "occasion," "offend," "omit," "oppress," and "oust."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
balletomane
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Mon, 06/07/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 07, 2010 is:
balletomane • \ba-LET-uh-mayn\ • noun
: a devotee of ballet
Example sentence:
Balletomanes across the country eagerly bought tickets to the famous ballerina's final performance.
Did you know?
If you suspected that "balletomane" originated with the idea of a "mania" for ballet, you are correct. What you may not have guessed is that the language that inspired English speakers to borrow the word in the 1930s was Russian. "Balletomane" derives from the Russian noun "baletoman," which in turn combines the word for "ballet" ("balet") and the suffix "-man," from "maniya" (meaning "mania"). The English words "mania" and "ballet" did not, however, come from Russian. ("Mania" comes from Latin and Greek, and "ballet" comes from French and Italian.) "Balletomane" is therefore somewhat unusual, both for its Russian origins and for the fact that it does not follow the more traditional "-phile" model for words meaning "someone who likes a specified thing."
olla podrida
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Sun, 06/06/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 06, 2010 is:
olla podrida • \ah-luh-puh-DREE-duh\ • noun
1 : a rich seasoned stew of slowly simmered meat and vegetables that is a traditional Spanish and Latin-American dish *2 : hodgepodge
Example sentence:
Ask around for ideas on how to stop hiccups and you’ll get an olla podrida of bizarre remedies.
Did you know?
In 1599, lexicographer John Minsheu wanted to know "from whence or why they call it olla podrida." Good question. No one is sure why the Spanish used a term that means "rotten pot" to name a tasty stew, but there has been plenty of speculation on the subject. One theory holds that the name developed because the long, slow cooking process required to make the stew was compared to the process of rotting, but there's no definitive evidence to support that idea. It is more certain that both French and English speakers borrowed "olla podrida" and later adapted the term for other mixtures whose content was as varied as the stew. The French also translated "olla podrida" as "pot pourri," an expression English speakers adapted to "potpourri."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
ferret
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Sat, 06/05/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 05, 2010 is:
ferret • \FAIR-ut\ • verb
1 : to hunt game with ferrets 2 : to drive out of a hiding place *3 : to find and bring to light by searching -- usually used with out
Example sentence:
The program was intended to ferret out inefficiency in the state's pension programs.
Did you know?
Since the 14th century, English speakers have used "ferret" as the name of a small domesticated animal of the weasel family. The word came to us by way of Anglo-French and can be traced back to Latin "fur," meaning "thief." These days ferrets are often kept as pets, but prior to that they were typically used to hunt rabbits, rats, and other vermin, and to drive them from their underground burrows. By the 15th century, the verb "ferret" was being used of the action of hunting with ferrets. By the late 16th century, the verb had taken on figurative uses as well. Today, we most frequently encounter the verb "ferret" in the sense of "to find and bring to light by searching."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
Gretna Green
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Fri, 06/04/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 04, 2010 is:
Gretna Green • \gret-nuh-GREEN\ • noun
: a place where many eloping couples are married
Example sentence:
"During the 1920s through the '40s, Greenwich had a world-reputation as the 'Gretna Green' of the nation, the magnet for couples in a hurry to get married." (Bernie Yudain, Connecticut Post Online, May 26, 2009)
Did you know?
In the England of the 1700s, a person could not marry without parental consent until age 21. The Scottish were more lenient, allowing young people to marry without parental permission at 16. England also had rules that made it difficult to marry quickly, but Scottish law required only that couples declare their desire to be married in front of witnesses before tying the knot. So it isn't surprising that many English couples ran to Gretna Green, a small village on the English-Scottish border, when they decided to elope. In Gretna Green, the wedding ceremony was typically performed by the blacksmith at a roadside tollhouse, but it was all perfectly legal.
apotheosis
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Thu, 06/03/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 03, 2010 is:
apotheosis • \uh-pah-thee-OH-sis\ • noun
*1 : elevation to divine status : deification 2 : the perfect example : quintessence
Example sentence:
"Long before celebrity reached its apotheosis, the great gossip columnist and radio broadcaster Walter Winchell … understood that celebrity was a basis for an ongoing, daily national conversation…." (Neal Gabler, Newsweek, December 21, 2009)
Did you know?
Among the ancient Greeks, it was sometimes thought fitting -- or simply handy, say if you wanted a god somewhere in your bloodline -- to grant someone or other god status. So they created the word "apotheosis," meaning "making into a god." (The prefix "apo-" can mean simply "quite" or "completely," and "theos" is the Greek word for "god.") There's not a lot of Greek-style apotheosizing in the 21st century, but there is hero-worship. Our extended use of "apotheosis" as "elevation to divine status" is the equivalent of "placement on a very high pedestal." Even more common these days is to use "apotheosis" in reference to a perfect example or ultimate form. For example, one might describe a movie as "the apotheosis of the sci-fi movie genre."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
nidifugous
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Wed, 06/02/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 02, 2010 is:
nidifugous • \nye-DIFF-yuh-gus\ • adjective
: leaving the nest soon after hatching
Example sentence:
"Little is known about the mortality of nidifugous shorebird chicks." (Hans Schekkerman, et al., Journal of Ornithology, January 2009)
Did you know?
"Nidifugous" hatched from the Latin words "nidus," meaning "nest," and "fugere," meaning "to flee." Its contrasting word "nidicolous," meaning "reared for a time in a nest," combines "nidus" with the English combining form "-colous" ("living or growing in or on"). Another relevant term is "precocial." A precocial bird is capable of a high degree of independent activity as soon as it emerges from the egg. While all nidifugous birds are also necessarily precocial, some nidicolous birds are also precocial -- that is, they are capable of leaving the nest soon after hatching, but instead they stick around. Other nidicolous birds are "altricial," which is to say they are hatched in a very immature and helpless condition and require care for some time.
brainiac
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Tue, 06/01/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 01, 2010 is:
brainiac • \BRAY-nee-ak\ • noun
: a very intelligent person
Example sentence:
The company employs an army of geeky brainiacs who are devoted to providing the best in computer game graphics and technology.
Did you know?
As Superman fans know, "Brainiac" was the superintelligent villain in the Action Comics series and its spin-offs. You don't need x-ray vision to see the connection here -- etymologists think Superman's brainy adversary was probably the inspiration for our term "brainiac." We didn't coin the term right away though. The comic-book series was launched in 1938, and the general use of "brainiac" was first recorded in print in 1982.
callithump
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Mon, 05/31/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 31, 2010 is:
callithump • \KAL-uh-thump\ • noun
: a noisy boisterous band or parade
Example sentence:
Energized with cookies, cake, ice cream, fruit punch, and other sugary treats, the children erupted into a callithump, blowing noisemakers and banging pails.
Did you know?
"Callithump" and the related adjective "callithumpian" are Americanisms, but their roots stretch back to England. In the 19th century, the noun "callithumpian" was used in the U.S. of boisterous roisterers who had their own makeshift New Year's parade. Their band instruments consisted of crude noisemakers such as pots, tin horns, and cowbells. The antecedent of "callithumpians" is an 18th-century British dialect term for another noisy group, the "Gallithumpians," who made a rumpus on election days in southern England. Today, the words "callithump" and "callithumpian" see occasional use, especially in the names of specific bands and parades. The callithumpian bands and parades of today are more organized than those of the past, but they retain an association with noise and boisterous fun.
qui vive
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Sun, 05/30/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 30, 2010 is:
qui vive • \kee-VEEV\ • noun
: alert, lookout
Example sentence:
Newspaper copy editors must always be on the qui vive for factual as well as grammatical errors.
Did you know?
When a sentinel guarding a French castle in days of yore cried, "Qui vive?" your life depended upon your answer -- the right one was usually something like "Long live the king!" The question the sentinel was asking was "Long live who?" but the act of calling out apparently impressed English listeners more than the meaning of the phrase, because when they adopted it in the early 1700s they used "qui vive" to mean "alert." Nowadays, the term is most often used in the phrase "on the qui vive," meaning "on the lookout."
disaster
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Sat, 05/29/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 29, 2010 is:
disaster • \dih-ZAS-ter\ • noun
: a sudden calamitous event bringing great damage, loss, or destruction; broadly : a sudden or great misfortune or failure
Example sentence:
As soon as we saw the storm clouds gathering to the west, we knew our picnic was going to be a disaster.
Did you know?
"Disaster" has its roots in the belief that the positions of stars influence the fate of humans, often in destructive ways; its original meaning in English was "an unfavorable aspect of a planet or star." The word comes to us through Middle French and the Old Italian word "disastro," from the Latin prefix "dis-" and Latin "astro," meaning "star." Another unfortunate word that comes to us from astrological beliefs is "ill-starred." Now generally used in the sense of "unlucky" or "having or destined to a hapless fate," "ill-starred" was originally used literally to describe someone born under or guided by an evil star. We also have "star-crossed," meaning "not favored by the stars" or "ill-fated."
juxtapose
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Fri, 05/28/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 28, 2010 is:
juxtapose • \JUK-stuh-pohz\ • verb
: to place side by side
Example sentence:
"His expansive narrative poems juxtapose themes of melancholy and loss with a sense of elation and pure joy…." (Daina Savage, Sunday News [Lancaster, Pennsylvania], April 4, 2010)
Did you know?
A back-formation is a word that has come about through the removal of a prefix or a suffix from a longer word. Etymologists think "juxtapose" is a back-formation that was created when people trimmed down the noun "juxtaposition." Historical evidence supports the idea: "juxtaposition" was showing up in English documents as early as 1654, but "juxtapose" didn't appear until 1851. "Juxtaposition" is itself thought to be a combination of Latin "juxta," meaning "near," and English "position."
vibrissa
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Thu, 05/27/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 27, 2010 is:
vibrissa • \vye-BRISS-uh\ • noun
*1 : one of the stiff hairs that are located especially about the nostrils or on other parts of the face in many mammals and that often serve as tactile organs 2 : one of the bristly feathers near the mouth of many and especially insectivorous birds that may help to prevent the escape of insects
Example sentence:
The manatee’s prehensile lips are studded with vibrissae that it uses to discriminate between food plants and also to manipulate those plants.
Did you know?
The whiskers of a cat qualify as vibrissae (that’s the plural of "vibrissa"), as do the hairlike feathers around the bill of some birds -- especially the insect-feeding kind. And when scientists first used "vibrissa" in the late 17th century, they used the word to refer specifically to the hairs inside the human nostril. Science got this word, as it has many others, from Latin. "Vibrissa" comes from "vibrare," which means all of the following: "to brandish," "to wave," "to rock," and "to propel suddenly." Other "vibrare" descendents in English include "vibrate," "vibrato," and "veer."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
whilom
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Wed, 05/26/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 26, 2010 is:
whilom • \WYE-lum\ • adjective
: former
Example sentence:
"His fatal miscalculation, however, might be his personal attacks on his whilom friend...." (The Baltimore Sun, May 2003)
Did you know?
"Whilom" shares an ancestor with the word "while." Both trace back to the Old English word "hwil," meaning "time" or "while." In Old English "hwilum" was an adverb meaning "at times." This use passed into Middle English (with a variety of spellings, one of which was "whilom"), and in the 12th century the word acquired the meaning "formerly." The adverb's usage dwindled toward the end of the 19th century, and it has since been labeled "archaic." The adjective first appeared on the scene in the 15th century, with the now-obsolete meaning "deceased," and by the end of the 16th century it was being used with the meaning "former." It's a relatively uncommon word, but it does see occasional use.
foppery
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Tue, 05/25/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 25, 2010 is:
foppery • \FAH-puh-ree\ • noun
*1 : foolish character or action : folly 2 : the behavior or dress of a fop
Example sentence:
"There was certainly no harm in his travelling sixteen miles twice over on such an errand; but there was an air of foppery and nonsense in it which she could not approve." (Jane Austen, Emma)
Did you know?
The word "fop" once referred to a foolish or silly person, a meaning that is now obsolete. The current sense of "fop" -- a man who is extremely devoted to or vain about his appearance or dress -- still holds a rather quaint charm. "Fop," which derives from Middle English, is related loosely to a Middle High German word meaning "to deceive" and dates from the 15th century. The noun "foppery" arrived on the scene in English about a century later. Its "folly" sense can be found in Shakespeare’s King Lear, where Edmund speaks of "the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars…."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
luscious
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Mon, 05/24/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 24, 2010 is:
luscious • \LUSH-us\ • adjective
*1 : having a delicious sweet taste or smell 2 : sexually attractive 3 a : richly luxurious or appealing to the senses b : excessively ornate
Example sentence:
The luscious aroma of freshly baked apple pies drifted from the open window of the farmhouse kitchen.
Did you know?
Have you ever heard a young child say something is "licius" when he or she really means it's "delicious"? Back in the Middle Ages, the word "licius" was sometimes used as a shortened form of "delicious" by adults and kids alike. Linguists believe that "luscious" developed when "licius" was further altered by 15th-century speakers. Both words ultimately derive from the Latin verb "delicere," meaning "to entice by charm or attraction." The adjective "lush," which can sometimes mean "delicious" as well, is not a shortened form of "luscious"; it derived on its own from the Middle English "lusch," meaning "soft or tender."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
defalcation
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - Sun, 05/23/2010 - 01:15
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 23, 2010 is:
defalcation • \dee-fal-KAY-shun\ • noun
*1 : the act or an instance of embezzling 2 : a failure to meet a promise or an expectation
Example sentence:
"'She made off with the money, an act of defalcation that disqualifies her from receiving a bankruptcy discharge,' the judge ruled." (Orlando Sentinel, March 21, 2004)
Did you know?
"The tea table shall be set forth every morning with its customary bill of fare, and without any manner of defalcation." No reference to embezzlement there! This line, from a 1712 issue of Spectator magazine, is an example of the earliest, and now archaic, sense of "defalcation," which is simply defined as "curtailment." "Defalcation" is ultimately from the Latin word "falx," meaning "sickle" (a tool for cutting), and it has been a part of English since the 1400s. It was used early on of monetary cutbacks (as in "a defalcation in their wages"), and by the 1600s it was used of most any sort of financial reversal (as in "a defalcation of public revenues"). Not till the mid-1800s, however, did "defalcation" refer to breaches of trust that cause a financial loss, or, specifically, to embezzlement.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
