Word of the day strikes back

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Richard Frost
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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Thu Jun 24 2021 9:51am

THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 2021 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/

non sequitur

[ non -sek-wi-ter, -toor ]
noun

something said or written that is unrelated to what immediately precedes.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF NON SEQUITUR?
The Latin sentence non sequitur, “it doesn’t follow” in English is used as a noun whose original meaning was “an inference or a conclusion that does not follow from the premises,” i.e., a logical fallacy, a usage established by Cicero in the 1st century b.c. A typical example of such a fallacy is: “If X is true, then Y is true. But Y is true. Therefore, X is true.” Nowadays non sequitur mostly means “a statement containing an illogical conclusion,” especially a conclusion that is amusing, whether intentional or not, or “something said or written that is unrelated to what immediately precedes.”

HOW IS NON SEQUITUR USED?
And who would want to forget, say, “Mr. F’s Aunt,” whose outbursts of demented rage at poor Arthur Clennam in “Little Dorrit” make no sense at all. “There’s milestones on the Dover Road!” “When we lived at Henley, Barnes’s gander was stole by tinkers.” … Mr. F’s Aunt’s malign non sequiturs would be immortal in whatever book Dickens had chosen to insert them.ROBERT GOTTLIEB, "ROBERT GOTTLIEB ON DICKENSWORLD — THE GREAT NOVELIST'S GRAND UNIVERSE," NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 6, 2020

But every day many people find themselves sitting across the table from a negotiation partner they can’t abandon or replace: their kids. How might parents manage these often fraught, exasperating conversations in which their counterpart, lacking self-awareness, sometimes seems to think it strategic to respond with complete non sequiturs?JOE PINSKER, "HOW A NEGOTIATION EXPERT WOULD BARGAIN WITH A KID," THE ATLANTIC, JUNE 13, 2019

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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Sarah » Thu Jun 24 2021 1:07pm

Word of the day from Susie Dent today:
Word of the day is 'gigglemug' (19th century): one who is perpetually and annoyingly cheery and only adds to your bad mood.
https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1 ... 08065?s=20
Thanked by: Richard Frost, Kelantan

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Fri Jun 25 2021 9:20am

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

neophyte

[ nee-uh-fahyt ]
noun

a beginner or novice.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF NEOPHYTE?
Neophyte “a beginner or novice” ultimately comes from Greek neóphytos “newly planted” (grains, vines), a compound of neo-, a combining form of the adjective néos “new,” and –phytós “planted,” a derivative of phýein “to make grow, bring forth, beget.” Neóphytos first appears in the works of the Athenian comic dramatist Aristophanes (died ca. 385 b.c.), and it keeps its literal, agricultural sense down to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that was completed by the 1st century b.c. Neóphytos in the sense “new convert” (to Christianity) first appears in I Timothy, one of the Pastoral Epistles traditionally ascribed to St. Paul. Neóphytos in its new sense was adopted by Christian Latin authors as neophytus; neophytus was sufficiently established for St. Jerome to use it in his Latin translation from the Greek I Timothy. The general, modern sense “beginner” first appears in Ben Jonson’s play Every Man out of His Humor (1600). Neophyte entered English in the 15th century.

HOW IS NEOPHYTE USED?
Maybe it takes a ruthless, calculating egoist to transform pain into product. Or maybe all the attention that the neophyte clamors for feels suffocating to the full-grown artist. DANIELLE CHAPMAN, "SWEET BOMBS," POETRY, OCTOBER 2006

Macron, who exit polls project as the winner of Sunday’s first round presidential election in France, is a political neophyte. KRISHNADEV CALAMUR, "THE REBUKE OF FRANCE'S POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT," THE ATLANTIC, APRIL 23, 2017

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Sat Jun 26 2021 9:13am

SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 2021 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/

paucity

[ paw-si-tee ]
noun

smallness of quantity; scarcity; scantiness.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF PAUCITY?
Paucity “smallness of quantity; scarcity; scantiness,” comes via Old or Middle French paucité from Latin paucitāt-, the inflectional stem of paucitās “smallness of quantity; scarcity; scantiness,” a derivative of the adjective paucus “few” (because of its intrinsic meaning, paucus is usually used in the plural). Paucus is also the source of Italian poco “a little,” i.e., the musical direction meaning “somewhat, a little,” and of poco a poco “little by little, gradually.” The Proto-Indo-European root underlying the Latin words is pau-, pōu-, pəu-, pu– (with still more variants) “few, a few, little, low,” which also usually is extended by consonant suffixes. Latin pau– with a suffixed –l forms the adjective paulus, paullus “little, small,” the Roman surname Paullus, and the English forename Paul. The variant root pu– with a suffixed –er forms the Latin noun puer “boy, child”; the diminutive of puer is puellus “a young boy,” and puella, the feminine of puellus, therefore means “girl.” The root pau– becomes the Proto-Germanic root faw-; its derived adjective fawaz “few, a little,” becomes fēawa, fēa in Old English, and few in modern English. Paucity entered English in the first half of the 15th century.

HOW IS PAUCITY USED?
Watching American films from the 1970s today, you may be struck by the paucity of music: filmmakers then did not want to depend on the emotional ground base a continuous music track provides—they wanted to focus your attention on their images. JAMES MONACO, HOW TO READ A FILM, 2009

Ambiguous references to what may have been hats of vegetable materials are to be found in the works of almost all ancient writers, but very little that is specific can be discovered. Perhaps one reason for the paucity of information on this subject may be that the homemade hats of plaited straws or rushes were probably worn only by the common people. DAN PIEPENBRING, "STRAW HATS: THEIR HISTORY AND MANUFACTURE," THE PARIS REVIEW, MAY 5, 2015

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Sun Jun 27 2021 8:19am

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

desiccate

verb DESS-ih-kayt

Definition
1 : to dry up or become dried up

2 : to preserve (a food) by drying : dehydrate

3 : to drain of emotional or intellectual vitality

Did You Know?
Raisins are desiccated grapes; they're also dehydrated grapes. And yet, a close look at the etymologies of desiccate and dehydrate raises a tangly question. In Latin siccus means "dry," whereas the Greek stem hydr- means "water." So how could it be that desiccate and dehydrate are synonyms? The answer is in the multiple identities of the prefix de-. It may look like the same prefix, but the de- in desiccate means "completely, thoroughly," as in despoil ("to spoil utterly") or denude ("to strip completely bare"). The de- in dehydrate, on the other hand, means "remove," the same as it does in defoliate ("to strip of leaves") or in deice ("to rid of ice").

Examples
"Horticultural oils work by smothering insect and mite pests/eggs, and in breaking down their protective coatings, causing them to desiccate (dry out)." — Bracken Henderson, The Preston (Idaho) Citizen, 28 Apr. 2021

"A title like 'pungent dins concentric' conjures minor Language poetry circa 1986, but Vanessa Couto Johnson's debut couldn't be less desiccated. Her strophic prose unfolds at a synaptic pace…." — Michael Robbins, The Chicago Tribune, 11 Dec. 2018

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Mon Jun 28 2021 9:11am

Word of the Day : June 28, 2021 - https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

whilom

adjective WYE-lum

Definition
: former

Did You Know?
Whilom shares an ancestor with the word while. Both trace back to the Old English word hwīl, meaning "time" or "while." In Old English hwīlum 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 19th century it was being used with the meaning "former." It's a relatively uncommon word, but it does see occasional use.

Examples
"On the eastern side settlement and agriculture have all but obliterated the whilom tallgrass prairie, so that it is hardly visible to anyone who would not seek it out on hands and knees...." — William Least Heat-Moon, PrairyErth, 1991

"Alamo project leadership dropped its plan to move the cenotaph after the [Texas Historical Commission] denied the relocation last year…. [General Land Office] Commissioner George P. Bush, a whilom supporter of the move, laid fears of relocation to rest earlier this year as San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg shuffled committee leadership to adapt to the new plan." — Isaiah Mitchell, The Texan (Austin, Texas), 30 Mar. 2021

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Tue Jun 29 2021 9:15am

Word of the Day : June 29, 2021 - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gyre

gyre
noun

Definition of gyre (Entry 1 of 2)
: a circular or spiral motion or form
especially : a giant circular oceanic surface current
gyre verb

Definition of gyre (Entry 2 of 2)
intransitive verb

: to move in a circle or spiral

William Butler Yeats opens his 1920 poem, "The Second Coming," with the following lines: "Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…." Often found in poetic or literary contexts as an alternative to the more familiar "circle" or "spiral," "gyre" comes via the Latin gyrus from the Greek gyros, meaning "ring" or "circle." Today, "gyre" is most frequently encountered as an oceanographic term that refers to vast circular systems of ocean currents, such as the North Atlantic Gyre, a system of currents circling clockwise between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. "Gyre" is also sometimes used of more localized vortices such as those produced by whirlpools or tornados.

Examples of gyre in a Sentence

To get those tags on, though, the crew of banders would first need to get past the two angry parents, who circled around in a widening gyre.— BostonGlobe.com, 27 May 2021

Ghost nets foul oceans throughout the world, but the Hawaiian Islands — with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to the east and another gyre of floating trash to the west — are an epicenter for marine waste.— Fox News, 27 May 2021

First Known Use of gyre was in 1566

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Wed Jun 30 2021 8:31am

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

hale

adjective HAIL

Definition
: free from defect, disease, or infirmity : sound; also : retaining exceptional health and vigor

Did You Know?
English has two words hale: the adjective that is frequently paired with hearty to describe those healthy and strong, and the somewhat uncommon verb that has to do with literal or figurative hauling or pulling. (One can hale a boat onto shore, or hale a person into a courtroom with the aid of legal ramifications for resistance.) The verb comes from Middle English halen, also root of our word haul, but the adjective has a bifurcated origin, with two Middle English terms identified as sources, hale and hail. Both of those come from words meaning "healthy," the former from Old English hāl, and the latter from Old Norse heill. Middle English hail is also the source of the three modern English words hail (the verb, interjection, and noun) that have to do with greeting.

Examples
"Uncle Charles was a hale old man with a well tanned skin, rugged features and white side whiskers." — James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 1916

"Buying healthy, thriving plants is as much art as science. But knowing what to look for when you buy your spring plants is one of the best ways to get your garden off to a good start. Starting with hale and hearty plants is one of the 'secrets' of successful gardeners." — Rob Howard, The Hamilton (Ontario, Canada) Mountain News, 6 May 2018

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Thu Jul 01 2021 9:59am

Word of the day 1st July 2021 - https://www.bing.com/search?FORM=U523DF ... of+the+day

languor

[ˈlaNG(ɡ)ər]
NOUN

the state or feeling, often pleasant, of tiredness or inertia.
"he remembered the languor and warm happiness of those golden afternoons"
synonyms:
lassitude · lethargy · listlessness · tiredness · torpor · fatigue · weariness · [More]
an oppressive stillness of the air.
"the afternoon was hot, quiet, and heavy with languor"
synonyms:
stillness · tranquillity · calm · calmness · lull · silence · windlessness · oppressiveness · heaviness

Recent Examples on the Web

Everything, always, is drenched in heavy yellow sunlight, as if the nation were basking in the languor of eternal late afternoon.— Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2021

And yet Irene is mesmerized by Clare’s blond hair, her beautiful shoulders, her languor.— Hilton Als, The New Yorker, 22 Feb. 2021

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Fri Jul 02 2021 10:06am

Word of the Day : July 2, 2021 - https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

gormandize

verb GOR-mun-dyze

Definition
: to eat greedily, gluttonously, or ravenously : devour

Did You Know?
Gormandize entered English in the mid-1500s as a modification of gourmand, a term borrowed from the French that served as a synonym for glutton. The meanings of both gourmand and gormandize were clearly disparaging until the 19th century, when gourmet came into use to refer to a connoisseur of food and drink. Since then, the meaning of gourmand has softened, so that it now simply suggests someone who likes good food in large quantities. Gormandize still carries negative connotations of gluttony, but it can also imply that a big eater has a discriminating palate as well as a generous appetite.

Examples
Lady Baleforth watched in horror as Lord Hoggwood gormandized the hors d'oeuvres, polishing off the entire lot before any of the other guests even arrived.

"That's because—unless you live in the Sistine Chapel—there are very few other things to focus on while staring at the ceiling from the couch after gormandizing the Thanksgiving feast." — John O. Marlowe, The Paper of Montgomery County (Indiana), 30 Nov. 2017

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