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 » Fri May 21 2021 10:43am

macliam wrote:
Fri May 21 2021 9:50am
Word of the day - DUPLICATE (DOO-pli-cut)

1. one of two or more identical things.

2. A bit too copious

"Posts may be ignored if they are duplicates" ;)
OOOPs corrected now.
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macliam
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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by macliam » Fri May 21 2021 11:59am

Richard Frost wrote:
Fri May 21 2021 10:43am
macliam wrote:
Fri May 21 2021 9:50am
Word of the day - DUPLICATE (DOO-pli-cut)

1. one of two or more identical things.

2. A bit too copious

"Posts may be ignored if they are duplicates" ;)
OOOPs corrected now.
;) Just being altruistic...... :)
Just because I'm paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get me

Richard Frost
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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Fri May 21 2021 12:09pm

macliam wrote:
Fri May 21 2021 11:59am
Richard Frost wrote:
Fri May 21 2021 10:43am
macliam wrote:
Fri May 21 2021 9:50am
Word of the day - DUPLICATE (DOO-pli-cut)

1. one of two or more identical things.

2. A bit too copious

"Posts may be ignored if they are duplicates" ;)
OOOPs corrected now.
;) Just being altruistic...... :)
altruistic
[altruːˈɪstɪk]
ADJECTIVE
showing a disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others; unselfish.
"it was an entirely altruistic act"
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Richard Frost
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Sat May 22 2021 9:08am

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

heliacal

adjective hih-LYE-uh-kul

Definition
: relating to or near the sun — used especially of the last setting of a star before and its first rising after invisibility due to conjunction with the sun

Did You Know?
The word heliacal rose in the mid-16th century. Its source is the Greek word hēlios, meaning "sun." Helios is also the Sun god of ancient Greece. Heliacal often suggests a relationship between a star and the sun as they appear to the human eye in the sky. It is also used in reference to the ancient Egyptian year, which began on the date when Sirius (or the Dog Star) first appeared on the eastern horizon at sunrise. English speakers have referred to this year as the heliacal year or the Sothic year. (Sothic comes from "Sōthēs," the Greek word for Sirius.)

Examples
"Early sky watchers kept watch on the heavens in their attempts to correlate celestial and terrestrial activity and noticed that, during this brutally hot season, the star Sirius rose around the same time as the sun (its 'heliacal rising,' as we call it today), and the two moved across the daytime sky together." — Dennis Mammana, The Noozhawk (Santa Barbara, California), 9 Aug. 2020

"Throughout the ancient world, the reappearance of Sirius in the morning dawn was a significant event. In Egypt, its heliacal rising coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile River, as well as the most oppressive period of desert heat, including a greater frequency of thunderstorms brought about by a monsoon effect from the Red Sea." — David L. DeBruyn, The Muskegon (Michigan) Chronicle, 25 Aug. 2019
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Richard Frost
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Sun May 23 2021 7:44am

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

gadfly

noun GAD-flye

Definition
1 : any of various flies (such as a horsefly, botfly, or warble fly) that bite or annoy livestock

2 : a person who stimulates or annoys other people especially by persistent criticism

Did You Know?
The history of gadfly starts with gad, which now means "chisel" but which formerly could designate a spike, spear, or rod for goading cattle. Late in the 16th century, gad was joined with fly to designate any of several insects that aggravate livestock. Before too long, we began applying gadfly to people who annoy or provoke others. One of history's most famous gadflies was the philosopher Socrates, who was known for his constant questioning of his fellow Athenians' ethics, misconceptions, and assumptions. In his Apology, Plato describes Socrates' characterization of Athens as a large and sluggish horse and of Socrates himself as the fly that bites and rouses it. Many translations use gadfly in this portion of the Apology, and Socrates is sometimes referred to as the "gadfly of Athens."

Examples
"One of a handful of well-known corporate gadflies, she often cut a distinctive figure, appearing in costumes that she thought would underscore her messages to company leaders. For an American Broadcasting Company meeting in 1966, not long after the network's campy series 'Batman' had its premiere, she wore a Batman mask; for a meeting of U.S. Steel shareholders in 1968, she wore an aluminum dress." — Emily Flitter, The New York Times, 7 Nov. 2018

"Ever since the philosopher Nick Bostrom proposed in the Philosophical Quarterly that the universe and everything in it might be a simulation, there has been intense public speculation and debate about the nature of reality. Such public intellectuals as Tesla leader and prolific Twitter gadfly Elon Musk have opined about the statistical inevitability of our world being little more than cascading green code." — Fouad Khan, Scientific American, 1 Apr., 2021
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Mon May 24 2021 10:01am

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

chouse

verb CHOWSS

Definition
: cheat, trick

Did You Know?
"You shall chouse him of Horses, Cloaths, and Mony," wrote John Dryden in his 1663 play Wild Gallant. Dryden was one of the first English writers to use chouse, but he wasn't the last. That term—which may derive from a Turkish word, çavuş, meaning "doorkeeper" or "messenger"—has a rich literary past, appearing in works by Samuel Pepys, Henry Fielding, Sir Walter Scott, and Charles Dickens, among others, but its use dropped off in the 20th century. In fact, English speakers of today may be more familiar with another chouse, a verb used in the American West to mean "to drive or herd roughly." In spite of their identical spellings, the two chouse homographs are not related (and the origin of the latter is unknown).

Examples
In Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, the miserable Mr. Cruncher fumes, "If I ain't … been choused this last week into as bad luck as ever a poor devil of a honest tradesman met with!"

"Why should not my friend be choused out of a little justice for the first time?" — David Garrick, The Irish Widow,1772
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Sarah
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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Sarah » Tue May 25 2021 10:20am

Word of the day from Susie Dent today:
Word of the day is ‘eedle-doddle’ (20th-century Scots): a muddle-headed individual who shows no initiative in a crisis.
https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1 ... 35748?s=20

Richard Frost
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Tue May 25 2021 10:23am

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

bumbershoot

noun BUM-ber-shoot

Definition
: umbrella

Did You Know?
Umbrellas have plenty of nicknames. In Britain, brolly is a popular alternative to the more staid umbrella. Sarah Gamp, a fictional nurse who toted a particularly large umbrella in Charles Dickens's novel Martin Chuzzlewit, has inspired some English speakers to dub oversize versions gamps. Bumbershoot is a predominantly American nickname, one that has been recorded as a whimsical, slightly irreverent handle for umbrellas since the late 1800s. As with most slang terms, the origins of bumbershoot are a bit foggy, but it appears that the bumber is a modification of the umbr- in umbrella and the shoot is an alteration of the -chute in parachute (since an open parachute looks a little like an umbrella).

Examples
"Actually, it may be time to dig out the underused bumbershoot from the back of your closet.… According to Bagnall, these balmy days may be over for a while as three coming storms line up to bring cooler and wetter conditions…." — Steven Mayer, The Bakersfield Californian, 22 Jan. 2021

"Someday, umbrellas may do more than just keep people dry. A researcher in the Netherlands has designed a simple sensor that 'listens' to rain. And that sensor can turn a bumbershoot into a rain-measuring whiz." — Cameron Walker, Science News for Students, 3 June 2014
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Wed May 26 2021 10:03am

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

desolate

adjective DESS-uh-lut

Definition
1 : devoid of inhabitants and visitors : deserted

2 : joyless, disconsolate, and sorrowful through or as if through separation from a loved one

3 a : showing the effects of abandonment and neglect : dilapidated

b : barren, lifeless

c : devoid of warmth, comfort, or hope : gloomy

Did You Know?
The word desolate hasn't strayed far from its Latin roots: its earliest meaning of "deserted" mirrors that of its Latin source dēsōlātus, which comes from the verb dēsōlāre, meaning "to leave all alone, forsake, empty of inhabitants." That word's root is sōlus, meaning "lone, acting without a partner, lonely, deserted," source too of sole, soliloquy, solitary, solitude, and solo. Desolate also functions as a verb with its most common meanings being "to lay waste" and "to make wretched; to make someone deeply dejected or distressed."

Examples
"In the final stretch of the long journey from Pyongyang to Moscow, a Russian diplomat loads his family's possessions onto a wooden cart.… Through the biting February cold, the cart inches through the desolate North Korean countryside as the diplomat pushes from behind to help the group of eight reach the Russian borders." — Jean H. Lee, The Wilson Quarterly, 3 Mar. 2021

"Julien Baker, as she's adding reverb to her guitar, strives to add chilling effects to her already desolate words, not to make them feel more relatable. She wants them to sting." — Bre Offenberger, The Post (Athens, Ohio), 5 Apr. 2021
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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Sarah » Wed May 26 2021 4:54pm

Susie Dent writes:
Origin of the day: a ‘grass’ or informant began with the rhyming slang ‘grasshopper/shopper’, because they shop a former accomplice.
https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1 ... 18113?s=20
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