Word of the day

Discussion about miscellaneous topics not covered by other forums
macliam
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Re: Word of the day

Post by macliam » Wed Jun 17 2020 11:33am

Dream on wrote:
Wed Jun 17 2020 10:53am
AAAlphaThunder wrote:
Wed Jun 17 2020 10:48am
A day shall come to pass when imutual shall have a myriad of active members.
We all have our fantasies, i'm sure.
.....and, as they'd say on Blue Peter, "Here's one we made earlier"
AAAlphaThunder wrote:
Sat May 09 2020 6:52pm
I had a close encounter with a femme fatale and I must say she was worth it.
Just because I'm paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get me

BeautifulSunshine
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Re: Word of the day

Post by BeautifulSunshine » Wed Jun 17 2020 4:35pm

macliam wrote:
Wed Jun 17 2020 11:33am
Dream on wrote:
Wed Jun 17 2020 10:53am
AAAlphaThunder wrote:
Wed Jun 17 2020 10:48am
A day shall come to pass when imutual shall have a myriad of active members.
We all have our fantasies, i'm sure.
.....and, as they'd say on Blue Peter, "Here's one we made earlier"
AAAlphaThunder wrote:
Sat May 09 2020 6:52pm
I had a close encounter with a femme fatale and I must say she was worth it.
LOL.
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Richard Frost
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Thu Jun 18 2020 9:59am

June 18, 2020 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/

risibility
[ riz-uh-bil-i-tee ]
noun

the ability or disposition to laugh; humorous awareness of the ridiculous and absurd.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF RISIBILITY?
Risibility comes via Middle French risibilité “something or someone that provokes laughter,” from Late Latin rīsibilitās (inflectional stem rīsibilitāt-) “a disposition to laugh,” a very rare noun first occurring in the works of Boethius, the most important philosopher and statesman of the late Western Roman Empire, who Dante described in his Paradiso as “the last of the Romans and first of the Scholastics.” (The Scholastics were followers of a system of theology and philosophy predominant in the Middle Ages, based chiefly upon the church fathers, Aristotle, and Aristotle’s commentators). Boethius’ most important work Dē Consōlātiōne Philosophiae “The Consolation of Philosophy,” which he wrote in prison while awaiting execution, was important enough to be translated (into English) by King Alfred the Great, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Queen Elizabeth I. Perhaps the most enduring contemporary image of the Consolation is the Wheel of Fortune, now the name of a TV show. Risibility entered English in the first half of the 17th century.

HOW IS RISIBILITY USED?
He shocked the company by maintaining that the attributes of God were two,—power and risibility; and that it was the duty of every pious man to keep up the comedy. - RALPH WALDO EMERSON, "ILLUSIONS," THE ATLANTIC, NOVEMBER 1857

In this high-humored sendup of arty photography, the photographer Duane Michals shoots for risibility and against pretension. - GRACE GLUECK, "ART IN REVIEW: 'WHO IS SIDNEY SHERMAN?'" NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 16, 2001
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Fri Jun 19 2020 9:14am

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Augean

Augean adjective

Au·​ge·​an | \ ȯ-ˈjē-ən \
Definition of Augean
: extremely formidable or difficult and occasionally distasteful
an Augean task

Synonyms
arduous, backbreaking, challenging, demanding, difficult, effortful, exacting, formidable, grueling (or gruelling), hard, heavy, hellacious, herculean, killer, laborious, moiling, murderous, pick-and-shovel, rigorous, rough, rugged, severe, stiff, strenuous, sweaty, tall, testing, toilsome, tough, uphill

Antonyms
cheap, easy, effortless, facile, light, mindless, simple, soft, undemanding

Examples of Augean in a Sentence
dreaded the Augean task of cleaning the bathroom after an overflow of the toilet

First Known Use of Augean
1676, in the meaning defined above

History and Etymology for Augean
Latin Augeas, king of Elis, from Greek Augeias; from the legend that his stable, left neglected for 30 years, was finally cleaned by Hercules
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Sat Jun 20 2020 9:40am

Today is the summer solstice

Word of the day - https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dicti ... heliolatry

heliolatry
in British English
(ˌhiːlɪˈɒlətrɪ )
NOUN
worship of the sun

Derived forms
heliolater (ˌheliˈolater) NOUN
heliolatrous (ˌheliˈolatrous) ADJECTIVE

in American English
(ˌhiliˈɑlətri )
NOUN
sun worship

Word origin
[1820–30; helio- + -latry]
This word is first recorded in the period 1820–30. Other words that entered English at around the same time include: acetate, blouse, morphology, phonetic,

EXAMPLE SENTENCES FROM THE WEB FOR HELIOLATRY
The heliolatry organized principally for political ends by the Incas of Peru, stands alone in the religions of the red race.
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kevinchess1
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Re: Word of the day

Post by kevinchess1 » Sat Jun 20 2020 10:56am

Richard Frost wrote:
Fri Jun 19 2020 9:14am
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Augean

Augean adjective

Au·​ge·​an | \ ȯ-ˈjē-ən \
Definition of Augean
: extremely formidable or difficult and occasionally distasteful
an Augean task
As in 'Read though alpathunderdig posts is an Augean task.'
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Politically incorrect since 69

BeautifulSunshine
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Re: Word of the day

Post by BeautifulSunshine » Sat Jun 20 2020 1:33pm

kevinchess1 wrote:
Sat Jun 20 2020 10:56am
Richard Frost wrote:
Fri Jun 19 2020 9:14am
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Augean

Augean adjective

Au·​ge·​an | \ ȯ-ˈjē-ən \
Definition of Augean
: extremely formidable or difficult and occasionally distasteful
an Augean task
As in 'Read though alpathunderdig posts is an Augean task.'
Very clever the way you wrote that.
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Richard Frost
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Sun Jun 21 2020 9:27am

antepenultimate - https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictio ... enultimate

ADJECTIVE
antepenultimate (adjective)

last but two in a series; third last.

"the antepenultimate item on the agenda"

EXAMPLES of antepenultimate

Although stress falls predominantly on the penultimate syllable in nouns, antepenultimate and final syllable stress occur as well.
From the Cambridge English Corpus

This follows from constraint interactions that occlude underlying stress from surfacing on any syllable to the left of the antepenultimate syllable.
From the Cambridge English Corpus

X is the antepenultimate letter of the alphabet
Last edited by Richard Frost on Mon Jun 22 2020 9:06am, edited 1 time in total.
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Mon Jun 22 2020 9:03am

Word of the Day : June 21, 2020 - https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

masterful
adjective MASS-ter-ful

Definition
1 a : inclined and usually competent to act as master

b : suggestive of a domineering nature

2 : having or reflecting the power and skill of a master

Did You Know?
Some commentators insist that masterful must only mean "domineering," reserving the "expert, skillful" sense for masterly. The distinction is a modern one. In earlier times, the terms were used interchangeably, with each having both the "domineering" and "expert" senses. The "domineering" sense of masterly fell into disuse around the 18th century, however, and in the 20th century the famous grammarian H. W. Fowler decided that masterful should be similarly limited to a single meaning. He summarily ruled that the "expert" definition of masterful was incorrect. Other usage writers followed his lead. But the "expert" meaning of masterful has continued to flourish in standard prose in spite of the disapproval, and, considering the sense's long history, it cannot really be called an error.

Examples

"But he hasn't stopped challenging himself or his players or opponents on the baseball field.... Maddon has earned a reputation as a bright and innovative tactician, but more as a masterful leader and developer of young players in particular." — Kirk Wessler, The Journal Star (Peoria, Illinois), 9 Oct. 2015

"'The Last Dance' surpassed Netflix's hit 'Tiger King' in global popularity after last week's two episodes (3 and 4).... [E]ven two decades after their masterful run, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls are still so interesting." — Joe D’Amodio, SILive.com (Staten Island, New York), 3 May 2020
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Tue Jun 23 2020 8:39am

TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2020 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/
ad hominem
[ ad hom-uh-nuhm -nem, ahd‐ ]
adjective

attacking an opponent's character or motives rather than answering the argument or claim.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF AD HOMINEM?
The phrase ad hominem, literally “to a person,” originally meant in rhetoric and logic “by appealing to the audience’s feelings, emotions, or interests, not to their intelligence or reason.” Nowadays the usual meaning of ad hominem is “by attacking an opponent’s character or motives, not their arguments.” Hominem, the object of the preposition ad “to,” is the accusative singular case of the Latin noun homō (inflectional stem homin-) “human being (of either sex), individual, person.”Homō is also used colloquially in Roman comedy (Plautus): Mī homō et mea mulier, vōs salūtō, literally “My man and my woman, I greet you.” In the example from Plautus we can clearly see that homō “man” is contrasted with mulier “woman.” In fact, all the Romance languages use a form of homin– to mean “man” as opposed to woman, e.g., Italian uomo, Spanish hombre (dissimilated from omne, which is contracted from omine), Portuguese homem, Catalan home, French homme, Sardo (Sardinian) omine, and Romanian om. The unpleasant counterpart ad fēminam “appealing to one’s personal feelings about or prejudices against women,” appeared in the 19th century. Ad hominem entered English in the 16th century.

HOW IS AD HOMINEM USED?

In the case of online harassment, that instinctive preference for “free speech” may already be shaping the kinds of discussions we have, possibly by discouraging the participation of women, racial and sexual minorities, and anyone else likely to be singled out for ad-hominem abuse. - KEFELA SANNEH, "THE HELL YOU SAY," THE NEW YORKER, AUGUST 3, 2015

Greta Thunberg, at age 16, has quickly become one of the most visible climate activists in the world. Her detractors increasingly rely on ad hominem attacks to blunt her influence. - SCOTT WALDMAN, E&E NEWS, "CLIMATE DENIERS LAUNCH PERSONAL ATTACKS ON TEEN ACTIVIST," SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, AUGUST 9, 2019
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