Word of the day strikes back

Discussion about miscellaneous topics not covered by other forums
Richard Frost
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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Sun Jul 18 2021 4:59pm

If you google (other search engines are available) SOFAKING, Sofa King appears very prominently in the results.

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Mon Jul 19 2021 9:26am

MONDAY, JULY 19, 2021 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/

perambulate

[ per-am-byuh-leyt ]
verb (used without object)

to walk or travel about; stroll.

THE ORIGIN OF PERAMBULATE
Perambulate, “to walk or travel about; stroll,” is in origin a Scots word that meant “to travel through (land) and inspect it for measuring or dividing or determining ownership,” a process called perambulation. Perambulate comes from Latin perambulātus, the past participle of perambulāre “to walk through, walk about, walk around in, tour, make the rounds,” a compound of the preposition and prefix per, per– “through” and the simple verb ambulāre “to walk; go about; travel; march” (source of English amble). Perambulate entered English in the mid-15th century.

HOW IS PERAMBULATE USED?
Mary and I liked to perambulate along the river Arno in Florence, or through the pedestrianised Roman thoroughfares. ELIZABETH WALSH PEAVOY, "PREAMBLE," IN A CAFÉ: SELECTED STORIES BY MARY LAVIN, 1995

Mr. Cleese may sometimes perambulate strangely but he still types perfectly fine, and he has agreed to write a book about his life …. DAVE ITZKOFF, "AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY LITERATE: A MEMOIR FROM JOHN CLEESE," NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 8, 2012
Last edited by Richard Frost on Tue Jul 20 2021 8:53am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Tue Jul 20 2021 8:53am

Word of the day 20th July 2021

maelstrom

[ˈmālˌsträm, ˈmālˌstrəm]
NOUN

maelstrom (noun) · maelstroms (plural noun)

a powerful whirlpool in the sea or a river.

a situation or state of confused movement or violent turmoil.
"the train station was a maelstrom of crowds"

Origin
Maelstrom comes from an early Dutch proper noun that literally meant "turning stream." The original Maelstrom is a channel that has dangerous tidal currents located off the northwest coast of Norway. The word became popularized in the general vocabulary of English in reference to a powerful whirlpool, or something akin to one, in the 19th century (1659). This was partly due to its use by writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Jules Verne (whose writing was widely translated from French) in stories exaggerating the tempestuousness of the Norwegian current and transforming it into a whirling vortex.

Recent Examples on the Web
Much like the maelstrom of crazed sports and Pokemon card collectors, investors seem to be gaga for assets that are non-correlated to the stock market right now.
— Elan Jacoby, Rolling Stone, 1 July 2021

At the end, the stage is flooded by a maelstrom of waltzing couples, dozens of them, multiplied by mirrors.
— New York Times, 3 June 2021

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Wed Jul 21 2021 10:03am

WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 2021 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/

verklempt

[ ver-klempt, vuh-, fer-, fuh- ]
adjective

overly emotional and unable to speak.

THE ORIGIN OF VERKLEMPT
Verklempt, “overcome with emotion and unable to speak,” is an American colloquialism from Yiddish verklempt, farklempt “overcome with emotion,” from German verklemmt “inhibited, uptight,” literally “pinched, squeezed,” the past participle of verklemmen “to become stuck.” Verklempt was popularized by the TV show Saturday Night Live in 1991.

HOW IS VERKLEMPT USED?
Listening to your story, I’m a little verklempt myself. Give me a second. Talk amongst yourselves (holds it all in). There I feel better. LINDA RICHMAN (PLAYED BY MIKE MYERS), "COFFEE TALK," SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, OCTOBER 12, 1991

“I’m so verklempt,” he says. “I need a hug.” She assumes he’s being sarcastic, but when she glances at him he’s teared up for real. CURTIS SITTENFELD, "THE PRAIRIE WIFE," THE NEW YORKER, FEBRUARY 5, 2017

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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Sarah » Wed Jul 21 2021 10:15am

Word of the day from Susie Dent today:
Word of the day is ‘forwallowed’ (15th century): weary from tossing and turning all night.
https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1 ... 65024?s=20
Thanked by: Richard Frost, Kelantan

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Thu Jul 22 2021 9:12am

Word of the Day : July 22, 2021 - https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of ... 2021-07-22

guttural

adjective GUTT-uh-rul

Definition
1 : articulated in the throat

2 : velar

3 : being or marked by utterance that is strange, unpleasant, or disagreeable

Did You Know?
Though it is now used to describe many sounds or utterances which strike the listener as harsh or disagreeable, the adjective guttural was originally applied only to sounds and utterances produced in the throat. This is reflected in the word's Latin root—guttur, meaning "throat." Despite the similarity in sound, guttural is not related to the English word gutter, which comes (by way of Anglo-French) from Latin gutta, meaning "drop."

Examples
We asked the bouncer for directions, but he only responded with an inarticulate guttural grunt.

"And when you hear the strange guttural call of the Red Bellied Woodpecker, you wonder, who would respond to that weird sound?" — Joseph Palmer, The Brooklyn (New York) Eagle, 14 June 2021

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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Fri Jul 23 2021 11:50am

Word of the Day : July 23, 2021 - https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

expropriate

verb ek-SPROH-pree-ayt

Definition
1 : to deprive of possession or proprietary rights

2 : to transfer (the property of another) to one's own possession

Did You Know?
If you guessed that expropriate has something in common with the verb appropriate, you're right. Both words ultimately derive from the Latin adjective proprius, meaning "own." Expropriate came to English by way of the Medieval Latin verb expropriare, itself from Latin ex- ("out of" or "from") and proprius. Appropriate descends from Late Latin appropriare, which joins proprius and Latin ad- ("to" or "toward"). Both the verb appropriate ("to take possession of" or "to set aside for a particular use") and the adjective appropriate ("fitting" or "suitable") have been with us since the 15th century, and expropriate was officially appropriated in the 17th century. Other proprius descendants in English include proper and property.

Examples
The city council rejected a proposal to expropriate private property for the highway expansion.

"Newspapers, in particular, have had their content unfairly expropriated by the lords of the internet, even as the advertising that once sustained the news business has been snatched away by the same online behemoths." — David Horsey, The Seattle Times,18 Mar. 2021

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Sat Jul 24 2021 10:52am

Word of the day: 24th July 21 - https://www.bing.com/search?q=define+syzygy

syzygy

[ˈsɪzɪdʒi]
NOUN
syzygy (noun) · syzygies (plural noun)

astronomy
a conjunction or opposition, especially of the moon with the sun.
"the planets were aligned in syzygy"
a pair of connected or corresponding things.

Origin
early 17th century: via late Latin from Greek suzugia, from suzugos ‘yoked, paired’, from sun- ‘with, together’ + the stem of zeugnunai ‘to yoke’.

The word is often used in reference to the Sun, Earth, and either the Moon or a planet, where the latter is in conjunction or opposition. Solar and lunar eclipses occur at times of syzygy, as do transits and occultations. The term is often applied when the Sun and Moon are in conjunction (new moon) or opposition (full moon).

The word syzygy is often used to describe interesting configurations of astronomical objects in general. For example, one such case occurred on March 21, 1894, around 23:00 GMT, when Mercury transited the Sun as would have been seen from Venus, and Mercury and Venus both simultaneously transited the Sun as seen from Saturn. It is also used to describe situations when all the planets are on the same side of the Sun although they are not necessarily in a straight line, such as on March 10, 1982.

On June 3, 2014, the Curiosity rover on Mars observed the planet Mercury transiting the Sun, marking the first time a planetary transit has been observed from a celestial body besides Earth.

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Sun Jul 25 2021 9:39am

SUNDAY, JULY 25, 2021 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/

perorate

[ per-uh-reyt ]
verb (used without object)

to speak at length; make a long, usually grandiloquent speech.


THE ORIGIN OF PERORATE
The verb perorate, “to speak at length; make a long, grandiloquent speech,” comes from Latin perōrātus, the past participle of perōrāre “to plead, harangue, argue a case to the end; deliver the final part of a speech, wind up a case.” Perōrāre is a compound of the preposition and intensive prefix per, per– “through, thoroughly” and the simple verb ōrāre “to beseech, supplicate; speak before a court, plead.” Perōrāre and its derivative noun perōrātiō (inflectional stem perōrātiōn– “peroration”) in Latin imply grandiloquence and forcefulness, but not length, let alone long-windedness, which is a connotation that has always existed in English. Perorate entered English in the early 17th century.

HOW IS PERORATE USED?
And it’s simply impossible to exit a Zoom lecture gracefully. Believe me, I’ve tried. After I painstakingly perorate on Plato, a virtual red-velvet curtain should fall with flourish at the designated moment and cue the applause. Instead, we mumble, “that’s it,” and awkwardly fumble for the mouse before the screen freezes on our half-gaping mouths.
SHAHIDHA BARI, "WHAT WE'VE LOST IN A YEAR OF VIRTUAL TEACHING," THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, FEBRUARY 17, 2021

She began to perorate. Her speech went on endlessly, as was always the case when Lily Young took the floor. ANTOINE VOLODINE, MINOR ANGELS, TRANSLATED BY JORDAN STUMP, 2004
LISTEN TO THE WORD OF THE DAY

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Mon Jul 26 2021 9:13am

26th July 2021 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/

hugger-mugger

[ huhg-er-muhg-er ]
noun

secrecy; reticence.

THE ORIGIN OF HUGGER-MUGGER
The noun hugger-mugger, “disorder or confusion; secrecy; reticence,” has the earlier spellings hucker-mucker, hukermoker, hoker moker, hocker-mocker, hugger mucker, and the Scots variants huggrie-muggrie and hudge-mudge. All of these variant forms share reduplication, similar sounds, and nearly identical meanings, but there is no secure origin or origins for them. The word or element mucker leads some scholars to see a connection with Middle English moker “worldly possessions, wealth” and mokeren, mokren “to heap up (money); hoard.” Hugger-mugger entered English in the first half of the 16th century.

HOW IS HUGGER-MUGGER USED?
Usually, Victor enjoyed hidden doors, secret passageways, and the hugger-mugger that was necessarily part of any scheme to destroy civilization. DAN KOONTZ AND ED GORMAN, CITY OF NIGHT, 2005

Newsom doesn’t relish the rote functions of politics. His smile when he poses with voters is a rictus, he ducks fund-raising calls, and he lacks patience for the backroom hugger-mugger required to pass legislation. TAD FRIEND, "GAVIN NEWSOM, THE NEXT HEAD OF THE CALIFORNIA RESISTANCE," THE NEW YORKER, OCTOBER 29, 2018

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