Word of the day strikes back

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Richard Frost
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Fri Apr 23 2021 9:21am

23rd April

quash
VERB

quashed (past tense) · quashed (past participle)

reject as invalid, especially by legal procedure.
"his conviction was quashed on appeal"

synonyms:
cancel · reverse · rescind · repeal · revoke · retract · countermand · withdraw · take back · rule against · disallow · overturn · override · overrule · veto · set aside · overthrow

put an end to; suppress.

synonyms:
put an end to · stamp out · put a stop to · end · finish · get rid of · crush · put down · check · crack down on · curb · nip in the bud · thwart · frustrate · squash
"A group of 42 sub-postmasters and postmistresses will learn later whether convictions for stealing money will be quashed amid a Post Office IT scandal." BBC News 23/4/21
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56496207
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56859357
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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Sarah » Fri Apr 23 2021 12:06pm

Posted by Susie Dent today:
The use of 'white elephant' for a useless or troublesome possession is from a story that kings of Siam (now Thailand) would give a highly-revered white elephant to anyone they disliked, knowing the animals were considered too sacred to be put to work, and cost a fortune to keep.
https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1 ... 15648?s=20

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Sat Apr 24 2021 8:32am

April 24, 2021 - https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

impresario
noun im-pruh-SAHR-ee-oh

Definition
1 : the promoter, manager, or conductor of an opera or concert company

2 : a person who puts on or sponsors an entertainment (such as a television show or sports event)

3 : manager, director

Did You Know?
English borrowed impresario directly from Italian, whose noun impresa means "undertaking." A close relative is the English word emprise ("an adventurous, daring, or chivalric enterprise"), which, like impresario, traces back to the Latin verb prehendere, meaning "to seize." (That verb is also the source of apprehend, comprehend, and prehensile.) English speakers were impressed enough with impresario to borrow it in the 1700s, at first using it, as the Italians did, especially of opera company managers. It should be noted that, despite their apparent similarities, impress and impresario are not related. Impress is a descendant of the Latin pressare, a form of the verb premere, which means "to press."

Examples
The former heavyweight retired from the ring and later became a boxing impresario.

"Not only has he amassed more than 7.5 million views, the new poster boy for sailors' working songs has attracted a celebrity fan base, with musical impressario Andrew Lloyd Webber even recording himself singing along." — Katie Grant, iNews.co.uk (London), 21 Jan. 2021
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Sun Apr 25 2021 8:58am

Word of the Day : April 25, 2021 - https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

clandestine
adjective klan-DESS-tun

Definition
: marked by, held in, or conducted with secrecy : surreptitious

Did You Know?
In 1658, the English poet John Milton wrote of "clandestine Hostility cover'd over with the name of Peace." Today, clandestine is used in much the same way. The word often substitutes for secret and covert, and it is commonly applied to actions that involve secrecy maintained for an evil, illicit, or unauthorized purpose. It comes to English by way of Middle French, from Latin clandestinus, which is itself from Latin clam, meaning "secretly."

Examples
"Salons have been shut down under stay-at-home orders to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. In Los Angeles, the result has been a robust clandestine haircut scene." — Emily Guerin, NPR, 23 May 2020

"In 1993, [Tom Stoppard] met his aunt's granddaughter, Sarka, with whom his mother had embarked on a semi-clandestine correspondence (after keeping her past quiet for more than half a century)." — Gaby Wood, The Atlantic, 7 Feb. 2021
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Mon Apr 26 2021 9:11am

Word of the Day : April 26, 2021 - https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

epicure
noun EP-ih-kyur

Definition
: one with sensitive and discriminating tastes especially in food or wine

Did You Know?
The word epicure is currently associated with indulging the appetite, but that is a long way from the teachings of the man to whom we owe the word. The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus taught a philosophy of simple pleasure, friendship, and a secluded life. He believed in the pursuit of pleasure, but pleasure for him comprised tranquility and freedom from pain—not the indulgence of the senses. Detractors of Epicurus in his own time and later, however, reduced his notions of pleasure to material and sensual gratification. When epicure entered English in the 16th century, it was synonymous with the modern term hedonist; later use carried the notion of refinement of palate that we see in the word today.

Examples
"At the back of the shop, Atwell and his apprentice, former chef Ryan Perrier, sharpen upwards of 3,500 blades a year on Japanese whetstones for a range of customers, including local chefs and at-home epicures." — Sara Anne Donnelly, Down East, June 2020

"Tucci has long been a masterful actor, but he has more recently unlocked a second career as an epicure and an object of internet thirst.… Searching for Italy, then, is a gift, equally wholesome in intention—Tucci tours Italy and explores how its food intermingles with its history—and knowing in subtext." — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 3 Mar. 2021
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Tue Apr 27 2021 9:42am

Word of the Day : April 27, 2021 - https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

rococo
adjective ruh-KOH-koh

Definition
1 a : of or relating to an artistic style especially of the 18th century characterized by fanciful curved asymmetrical forms and elaborate ornamentation

b : of or relating to an 18th century musical style marked by light gay ornamentation and departure from thoroughbass and polyphony

2 : excessively ornate or intricate

Did You Know?
In the 18th century, French artists rebelled against the ponderousness of baroque style and began to create light, delicate interior decorations, furniture, and architectural elements characterized by fanciful, curved, asymmetrical forms and elaborate ornamentation. The name of their new style, rococo, has been traced to the French rocaille, a term that evoked the ornamental use of rock and shell forms. In time, rococo was also applied to similarly ornamented and intimate styles of painting and music. But all fashions fade, and by the mid-1800s the rococo style was deemed excessively ornate and out-of-date. Now rococo is often used with mild disdain to describe the overly elaborate.

Examples
Among the items being auctioned off is a beautiful set of six chairs carved in a rococo style.

"Like most outdoor theatre, it is as much about the experience of being in the open air as it is about the performance, and the evening I went, there were other things to take in: propeller planes humming by overhead, mammoth dragonflies swooping low, the crazy rococo pink of the wispy sunset clouds." — Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times, 14 Aug. 2019
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Wed Apr 28 2021 10:02am

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2021 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/

mammock
[ mam-uhk ]
verb

to break, tear, or cut into fragments; shred.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF MAMMOCK?
Mammock, a noun and verb meaning “a fragment; to break,” has several spellings, including mommick, mommock, mammick. Unfortunately, the word has no reliable etymology: the only thing scholars agree on is the suffix –ock, used to form diminutive nouns such as hillock (“a small hill”). The noun sense of mammock entered English in the first half of the 16th century; the verb sense first appears in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus (1623).

HOW IS MAMMOCK USED?
whether his fall enraged him, or how ’twas, he did so set his teeth and tear it; O, I warrant it, how he mammocked it!
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, CORIOLANUS, 1623

he paced along the avenues, taking great strides, a stick in his hand, breaking the branches of the shrubs, mammocking the flower-beds, decapitating the flowers with lashing blows, leaving petals flying in his wake.
PATRICK RAMBAUD, NAPOLEON'S EXILE, TRANSLATED BY SHAUN WHITESIDE, 2005
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Thu Apr 29 2021 9:31am

29th April - https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictio ... alfeasance

malfeasance

noun [ U ] LAW specialized
UK /mælˈfiː.zəns/ US /mælˈfiː.zəns/

an example of dishonest and illegal behaviour, especially by a person in authority:
Several cases of malpractice and malfeasance in the financial world are currently being investigated.

LAW
the fact of someone in a position of authority intentionally doing something dishonest or illegal:
These laws were put in place to discourage malfeasance by public officials.

Examples
Against a background of corporate greed and malfeasance, a renewed focus on transparency and accountability is or seems to be permeating the business world.
From the Cambridge English Corpus

Donors have often stressed the lack of 'political will ', to account for limited action against high-level state malfeasance.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
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Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Fri Apr 30 2021 10:58am

Word of the Day : April 30, 2021 - https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

dross
noun DRAHSS

Definition
1 : the scum or unwanted material that forms on the surface of molten metal

2 : waste or foreign matter : impurity

3 : something that is base, trivial, or inferior

Did You Know?
Dross has been a part of the English language since Anglo-Saxon times. It comes from the Old English word drōs, meaning "dregs," those solid materials that fall to the bottom of a container full of a liquid such as coffee or wine. While dross today is used to refer to anything of low value or quality, its earliest use is technical: dross is a metallurgy term referring to solid scum that forms on the surface of a metal when it is molten or melting—remove the dross to improve the metal. The metallurgical sense of the word is often hinted at in its general use, with dross set in contrast to gold, as when 19th century British poet Christina Rossetti wrote "Besides, those days were golden days, / Whilst these are days of dross."

Examples
"From King John's compulsion by feudal lords to sign the Magna Carta to the execution of King Charles by Parliamentarian forces, English governance was forged, with the dross constantly falling away, in situations as real and uncertain as in our time." — Douglas D. Ford, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3 Nov. 2020

"Mark Kurlansky is a shining example of a writer who can turn seeming dross into gold. Books like Salt and Cod elevate humdrum topics to objects of fascination by revealing them as pivotal players in the dramas of human history." — Barbara Lane, The San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Jan. 2021
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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Sarah » Fri Apr 30 2021 5:07pm

Two words today from Susie Dent:
Two epithets from the past, should you need them:

philodox (17th century): one who is entirely in love with their own opinion.
mumpsimus (16th century): one who insists that they're right, despite clear evidence that they are not.
https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1 ... 28544?s=20
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