Word of the Day

[Gail]

Here is the answer for all you poets who have strived to find a rhyme for "David" (although King David was not pavid):

Word of the Day: Pavid (Adjective)

Pronunciation: ['pæv-id]

Definition: Easily frightened, fearful, pusillanimous, timorous.

Usage: Today's is a lovelier and more exotic substitute for "fearful," "scared," and "afraid" when these commonplace adjectives begin to weigh on your conversations. It doesn't take as long to say as "pusillanimous" and isn't easily confused with "timid," as is "timorous." We thought you might like to give it a whirl. The adverb is "pavidly" and the noun, "pavidity

Suggested Usage: Think of today's word as a bit of spice for your speech: "Olive Pitts is such a pavid lamb, she will never ask for a raise." You can use the tired old terms mentioned above, but this word 'kicks up' the flavor of the verbal cuisine you serve your chatmates: "I'm not sure that a watchdog with such a pavid demeanor is worth $800." Dispel the pavid pallor of your speech with this touch of lexical sparkle today.

Etymology: The etymology of today's word doesn't run very deep. It is a thinly veiled copy of Latin pavidus "fearful" from pavere "to quake with fear." The root here is the same found in putare "to cleanse, think over, reflect," found in "compute," "repute," "dispute," and others. Other relatives have long since dissipated.

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

we went to the park. we had fun.

pen.du.late (PEN-du-late, PEN-jeh-late) verb used without an object :

1. To swing as a pendulum.

-Webster’s Dictionary, 1913 edition

2. But pendulate has its more "secular" significance as a synonym to "oscillate," "vacillate," "fluctuate," or "undulate." It can describe the mind as it wavers from one position to the next or the will as it is first inclined in one direction and then the next. Because the visual image is of the pendulum in a clock that regularly swings from side to side, it can helpfully characterize our inability to make up our mind. –from http://www.drbilllong.com/Words/Pend.html

One rarely hears this ‘swinging’ word used as a verb but it can be a nice addition to one’s vocabulary. “How are things going, buddy?” “Oh, really pendulating, Jim. Just like clock work!” My granddaughter loves to “pendulate” at the park. "I am pendulating between two extremes, Dr. Freud!"

related words:

pen.du.lar adj. swinging back and forth

pen.dule, noun: a pendulum

pen.du.lous, (PEN.dyeh.lehs) adj.

1. Hanging loosely; suspended so as to swing or sway.

2. Wavering; undecided.

[From Latin pendulus, from pend re, to hang; see (s)pen- in Indo-European roots.]

pen.du.lous.ly adv.

pen.du.lous.ness n.

pen.du.los.i.ty, noun ; the state or quality of being pendulous

pen.du.la.tion, noun

[Gail]

Word of the Day: Peccable (Adjective)

Pronunciation: ['pek-ê-bêl]

Definition: Sinful, capable of sin, wrong-doing, or error—imperfect.

Usage: Orphan negatives are the negatives of words fallen out of use, such as "hapless," "inane," "insipid," "immaculate," "impromptu," "nonchalant." An unlucky person is hapless but a lucky person is doesn't have much hap. You're very clean if you’re immaculate but not maculate if you’re very dirty and, if you don't care, you’re indifferent, but if you do, it shouldn't make you all that different. However, if you’re not impeccable, "sinless and incapable of sin," you will be peccable for "impeccable" is a false orphan negative. The stem, "peccable," still lurks around the edge of language, still a part of language though not of speech, our use of language.

Suggested Usage: Today's word is a specialized term for one sense of "imperfect," "Miss Deeds led a peccable but overall agreeable life." Do allow for the double takes of those listening to you when you use it, though: "Weems may be too peccable to keep the company books."

Etymology: Today's word comes from Latin Latin peccabilis "sinful" from peccare "to stumble, sin." "Peccare" comes from a Proto-Indo-European construction *ped-ko, based on the root *ped-, which became Latin pes, pedis "foot," found in English "pedal," "pedestrian," and "impede" from Latin impedire "to hobble." In Russian the root emerged as pod "under," in Sanskrit as padam "footstep" and pat "foot, and in Greek as pous, pod- "foot," which we find in the eight-footed "octopus," the flat-footed "platypus," not to mention the three-footed "tripod." As we would expect, in English the [p] becomes [f] and the [d], [t], giving us "foot" and, with a lock of hair, "fetlock."

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[Gail]

There is a noun that goes with the word above, I just forget it at the moment

[D. Allan]

Peccability is probably the noun you are looking for, Gail. It means being capable of sinning. The other two words here below don't seem to be completly synonomous with your word - peccancy n. and peccant, adj. should be used when the sinning acutally happens.

Pec`ca`bil´i`ty

n. 1. The state or quality of being peccable; liability to sin.

The common peccability of mankind.

- Dr. H. More.

-from www.thefreedictionary.com

Pec´can`cy

n. 1. The quality or state of being peccant.

2. A sin; an offense.

pec·cant(pknt) adj.

1. Sinful; guilty.

2. Violating a rule or an accepted practice; erring.

Another nice word that belongs in this family reunion today is a Spanish relative: pecadillo, a "little sin".

[diminutive of pecado, sin, and Italian peccadiglio, diminutive of peccato, sin, both from Latin pecctum, from neuter of pecctus, past participle of peccre, to sin; see ped- in Indo-European roots.]

[Gail]

No I was looking for the word for the actual sins, a "pecc*" word.

[Nan]

peccadilos?

[Gail]

ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding

Way to go, Nan!! THAT'S the word I was looking for! Thank you so much! :)

[D. Allan]

I think it is spelled with two 'l's. I caught you not reading all my previous post - hahaha. Check out the last purple word in it! :0)

[Gail]

You're RIGHT! My eyes were going down the left side of the page and I completely missed it! Thanks!

[D. Allan]

The picture is by the fantastical Swiss artist, Paul Klee (1879-1940).

“Tread softly and circumspectly in this funambulous Track and narrow Path of Goodness: pursue Virtue virtuously; be sober and temperate, not to preserve your Body in a sufficiency to wanton Ends; not to spare your Purse; not to be free from the Infamy of common Transgressors that way, and thereby to ballance or palliate obscure and closer Vices; nor simply to enjoy Health: by all which you may leaven good Actions, and render Virtues disputable; but in one Word, that you may truly serve God; which every Sickness will tell you, you cannot well do without Health.”

So writes Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) in a Letter to a Friend of the “funambulous Track,“ in a lengthy sentence displaying a style of crooks and quirks that nevertheless ambulates steadily toward the goal. Funambulous, a strange-looking word it is; and what on earth does it mean? Ambulous can be recognized if one is familiar with such words as ambulate and ambulatory as having to do with walking; and from observing the contextual relationship of the funsome phrase as a parallelism with that other phrase, ‘narrow Path of Goodness,’ it can be guessed that Sir Browne is speaking of ’walking the straight and narrow.’ But how is the prefix ‘fun’ to be accounted for? Such a promenade is not an amusement or occasion for merriment, surely.

No dictionary shows an adjective, funambulous; but in the Unabridged Random House, I spy fu.nam.bu.list (fyoo NAM byeh list), noun, a tightrope walker! The word comes from Latin funambul(us) "rope dance". So it is from rope-dancing the fun comes into play-walking, tightrope walking or funambulism, which is amusing or at least entertaining for the spectators; however, in Sir Thomas’ usage all the fun has fallen from the wire, “Tread softly and circumspectly,” he writes, “in this funambulous Track and narrow Path of Goodness . . . that you may truly serve God; which every Sickness will tell you, you cannot well do without Health.”

Click for the full text of Sir Thomas' LETTER TO A FRIEND

[D. Allan]

hypermiler noun

A person who attempts to maximize gas mileage by using driving techniques that conserve fuel.

—hypermiling pp.

—hypermile adj.

Example Citations:

She accelerates gently when the light turns green, and coasts down hills to save gas. On highways, she stays in the right lane and watches the big SUVs zoom past.

"When I see someone roar past me, I think, `They just used enough gas to last me a week,'" she said.

She is part of a small and extremely dedicated group of drivers around the country who call themselves "hypermilers." They almost exclusively drive hybrid vehicles, and their goal is simple: squeeze every mile they can out of each drop of gas.

—Chris Williams, "'Hypermiler' drivers try to squeeze every mile they can out of a gallon of gas," The Associated Press, May 29, 2007

But Gerdes isn't just slow. He's deliberate. And he's the best hypermiler in the world. Hypermiling? What's that, you ask? It's the art of getting the most mileage out of every drop of gas in your tank. Gerdes never uses air-conditioning. He takes alternative routes to avoid red lights. Stepping on the brakes just wastes gas in his estimation. And he's known to tailgate 18-wheelers and let them pull him along.

—Francesca Segre, "Getting more mileage is an art form," American Public Media, April 27, 2007

Earliest Citation:

In April, he found a smooth stretch of Route 65 where he was able to hit 100 mpg.

After more than a year's practice, Kroushl proposed his idea in online forums and discussion groups for Prius owners.

The challenge caught the attention of Reece, Gerdes and Bassage, three of the highest-reaching hypermilers on the Web.

—Jacqueline Shoyeband Moustafa Ayad. "2 days, 1,400 miles, 110 mpg 1 tank," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 8, 2005

[Gail]

Word of the Day: Nabob (Noun)

Pronunciation: ['ney-bahb]

Definition: A governor or deputy governor of a town or district in India under the Mogul Empire (also nawab); a person of wealth, influence and prominence.

Usage: Vice President Spiro Agnew probably uttered the most famous example of today's word when, on November 13, 1969 in Des Moines, Iowa, he called the US press corps "nattering nabobs of negativism." ("Natter" can mean simply "to chatter" or "to grumble.") The phrase was actually written by former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, who was then a speech writer for President Nixon.

Suggested Usage: Because of the humor associated with today's word, a minor industry producing derivations of it has grown up over the years: a nabobery is a place frequented by nabobs, nabobical is the adjective meaning "pertaining to a nabob," while nabobish means "rather like a nabob," as does its adverb, "nabobishly." "Nabobism" is great wealth and luxury and the class of all nabobs is the nabobry. (Networking with your local nabobry could do wonders for your career.)

Etymology: Today's word was borrowed from Hindi "nawab, nabab," itself borrowed from Arabic "nuwwab," the plural of na'ib "representative," the active participle of the verb naba "to represent." An interesting twist of this word is that it came to be the mispronounced name of the exclusive neighborhood of the nabobs of San Francisco, now known simply as "Nob Hill." It is unrelated to "hobnob."

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

.......dancing around.......

“Poetry is a fine art. It proceeds by indirection, by a kind of perichoresis (a dancing around by) of all its elements in relation to its main theme. With this in mind, it is clear that readers of Gerard Manley Hopkins's poem "The Windhover" have remained in large measure immobile in a glue, as it were, of conventionalized metaphor safely thickening into some sort of baroque allegory: In "The Windhover," the bird is Christ our Lord who, striking, snatches up souls like a bird of prey and consumes them in the spiritual ardor of total commitment to the graces of the Crucifixion; that is, in the total immolation of the ego in the service of exemplary redemptive witness.”

- "Gliding": a note on the exquisite delicacy of the religious glissade motif in Hopkins's "The Windhover", by Nathan Cervo in Victorian Newsletter > March 22, 2007

Perichoresis is a transliteration straight from the Greek περιχώρησις. It can be described literally as the act of “dancing around,” or of a group of individuals dancing together as one unit. In the quotation above Mr. Cervo has used the term nicely as a metaphor: the elements of a fine poem all dance around together yet their differing paths, functions and qualities end up producing one fine artistic event.

In theology the same metaphor can be observed in the usage of the word perichoresis to refer to the existence of multiple divine persons in one another, such as the Trinity of Christianity, and the relationship spoken of by Jesus when He said, “ I am in my Father, and my Father is in me.” Perichoresis also is associated with deification as part of salvation, as mentioned by Jesus in John 17:20-23, 26:

“I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me… that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”

[Gail]

Word of the Day: Abulia (Noun)

Pronunciation: [ê-'bu-li-yê]

Definition: A loss of volition or the ability to make decisions.

Usage: The adjective is "abulic," also used to refer to a person suffering from this dysfunction.

Suggested Usage: Medically speaking, abulia usually results from damage to the right (occasionally the left) parietal lobe of the brain. However, some smokers seem abulic when it comes to kicking the habit. Chocolate triggers abulia in weaklings like me. In fact, many foods are suspected of triggering this frailty; ice cream is at the top of the list. Sports leave many men abulic; shopping, many women. Currently, no antidote is available.

Etymology: From Greek aboulia "indecision" comprising a- "without" + boule "will." "Boule" comes from PIE *gwel-/gwol-/gwl "throw, pierce." It turns up in Greek as ballein "to throw" and ballizein "to dance" whence "ball" (the dance), "ballad," and "ballet." The same original root ended up in "quell" from Old English cwellan "to kill, destroy," not to mention "kill," itself.

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

While browsing the web, a little word peeked out at me from under a pile of everyday familiar words and captured my interest. Its name is sparge. Maybe we have a real Anglo-Saxon or Germanic word here for a change, I thought; but, no, it is another of those ubiquitous Latin offspring of those prolific Italians. The old grandmother is spargere, to scatter. Therefore to sparge something with water or even with sand is to scatter water or sand on it. An infant may be baptized by sparging (sprinkling and splashing) with water. A vehicle stuck in mud can easily bespatter or sparge anyone trying to push it out of its rut. I know.

sparge ('spärj) transitive verb [also intransitive says another dictionary]

Inflected Forms : sparged; sparging

1. to sprinkle, bespatter, especially to spray

2. to agitate (a liquid) by means of compressed air or gas entering through a pipe

- sparge noun

- sparger noun - Merriam-Webster Dictionary

-spargefication noun - Hutchinson Encyclopaedia

Several questions have raised their hands, but it is time for recess. Play nicely!

...a viola sparged with water...

[Gail]

I didn't know that there actually was a word for this! Gail

Word of the Day: Clart (Noun)

Pronunciation: [klah®t]

Definition: (1) Lumps of mud on the shoes. (2) The mud itself from which the lumps are formed.

Usage: In the dialect known as Geordie, spoken in Northumberland around Newcastle-on-Tyne, you might be warned, "divvent waak in the clarts," meaning "do not walk in the mud." ("Geordie" is a Scottish affectionate form for "George.") If you do walk in the clarts, you will come home with clarty shoes or boots—or feet if you forgot to pull on your shoes or boots before going out.

Suggested Usage: Lumps usually do not fall away, if you think of lumps on your head or in your oatmeal. So speaking of lumps of mud on your shoes tests the extent of "lump's" meaning. That is where "clart" comes in handy, "Get the clarts off your shoes and pants before you come inside," gets to the point quicker—and saves you two words. This term is sometimes used to refer to lumps of other substances, too. Some speak of clarts of snow on their clothing and sheep-ranchers sometimes use the term to refer to an earlier Word of the Day, "dags" (for which see our Archives).

Etymology: Today's word has been around since at least the13th century but no one has any idea of its origin. It is distinguished from "glar," a word it could be related to, by its thick consistency. Glar has more of a liquid nature more likely to soak into your clothes.

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

as.per.i.ty (as-PAIR-eh-tee), noun

1. Roughness of surface; unevenness.

2. Roughness or harshness of sound; a quality that grates upon the ear.

3. Roughness of manner; severity; harshness. – Dictionary.com

4. something rough or harsh. –Random House Unabridged

"The separation wave probes all the rocks in its path, moving forward until it hits another asperity or fault bend, whereupon it abruptly stops."

-- Sandra Blakeslee, "Quake Theory Attacks Prevailing Wisdom On How Faults Slip and Slide", New York Times, April 14, 1992

"Many years later, when I was sketching in Rome, a grim-looking Englishwoman came up to me and said with some asperityp, "I see you are painting MY view."

-- Lord Berners, A Distant Prospect

"She spoke with great authority, with an asperity that didn't allow for sentimental accountings or ideological projections.

-- Daphne Merkin, "A Passion for Order", New York Times, November 17, 1996

Asperity comes from Latin asperitas, from asper, "rough." It is related to exasperate, "to irritate in a high degree," from ex- (here used intensively) + asperatus, past participle of asperare, "to roughen," from asper.

Synonyms : harshness, sharpness, roughness, severity, acerbity, bitterness, acrimony, sourness, astringency, virulence, sarcasm, irritability, irascibility, churlishness, crabbedness, peevishness, ... From: The Oxford Pocket Thesaurus of Current English | Date: 2006

This gives you some idea of the rough surface available on the Moon. (Photo 35.) Of course, the maria on the front side are smoother than this, but in general the back side of the Moon is quite rough. I have a series of slides which, in the interest of time, I'm not going to dwell on, but I just like to point out that we did take a number of pictures, I believe, from Columbia. We took probably a thousand stills and some of them show very interesting surface features, various types of unusual craters, and some of them pose many riddles which we hope the geologists will, in time, be able to answer for us. - Collins, on the history of the FIRST LUNAR LANDING.

[D. Allan]

If you are particularly or especially moved by Beethoven’s late works, it may be due to certain qualities of an artistic late-style as identified by Edward Said: it is “the prerogative of late style to render disenchantment and pleasure without resolving the contradiction between them. What holds them in tension, as equal forces straining in opposite directions, is the artist's mature subjectivity, stripped of hubris and pomposity, unashamed either of its fallibility or of the modest assurance it has gained as a result of age and exile.”

- Edward Said, As quoted by Stathis Gourgouis in “The Late Style of Edward Said”, Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics (Jan. 01, 2005)

hu.bris (HYOO-bris, HOO-bris), noun

Overbearing pride or presumption.

[Etymology: 1884, from Greek. hybris "wanton violence, insolence, outrage," originally "presumption toward the gods," of unknown origin.]

hubristic (hyoo-BRIS-tic), adjective

hubristically (hyoo-BRIS-teh-cah-lee), adverb

hy.bris (hahy-bris), noun, is a variant having the same meaning.

"During his long tenure in the financial world, Friedman has watched dozens of his competitors' businesses killed by hubris born of success rather than by unsound business decisions or adverse market conditions."

-- Lisa Endlich, Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success

"This is the actor's hubris, to imagine the world possessed of a single, avid eye fixed solely and always on him."

-- John Banville, Eclipse

"With dizzying hubris, Shelley elevated the vocation of the poet above that of priest and statesman.

-- Peter Gay, Pleasure Wars

... hubristic Hitler ...(from Homes and Gardens, Nov. 1938)

[Gail]

Word of the Day: Blether (Verb)

Pronunciation: ['ble-dhêr]

Definition: To jabber blether (nonsense); to blabber nonsensically.

Usage: Seldom is the vowel so unimportant in a word as it is in today's. In the US today, a blithering idiot blathers. How come? Not everything melts in the melting pot. The original word is "blether," which offers us today the choice of [e], [a] or as a root vowel from different dialects. Today, "blither" and "blather" are acceptable alternative spellings and pronunciations. In his poem 'Vision' (1786), Robert Burns describes how he wasted his youth "stringing blethers up in rhyme, For fools to sing." As you can see, "blether" is also a noun. "Blithe" is unrelated.

Suggested Usage: What this means is that you may substitute either [a] or for the vowel of the word in the following examples. "I told him I would rather eat okra than go out with him and left him blethering billingsgate by the water cooler." You may consider the [e] a place-holder for the other two vowels unless you live in a region that actually uses the original pronunciation: "Bernadette blethered all evening about her previous boyfriends while I sat by her thinking about mama's cooking."

Etymology: Originally from the PIE *bhle-. With different suffixes, this root appears in "blast," "blow," "blaze," "bladder," not to mention German blasen "blow." English borrowed it from Old Norse bladhra "chatter," probably related to the idea of blowing hot air in English. The initial PIE [bh] became [f] in Latin, so the same root can be found in Latin flare "blow," which underlies both "flatulent" and "flavor" in English. For another slice of PIE, please read our FAQ sheet, linked to the front page.

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

ex.ig. u.ous (ig-ZIG-yoo-us, ik-SIG-yoo-us), adjective:

Extremely scanty; meager.

related forms:

ex.i.gu.i.ty (ek-si-gyoo-i-tee), noun

ex.ig.u.ous.ness, noun

ex.ig.u.ous.ly, adverb

Exiguous comes from Latin exiguus, "strictly weighed; too strictly weighed," hence "scanty, meager," from exigere, "to determine; to decide; to weigh."

Quotations:

1912 – “The path on which I then planted my feet was quite unprecedentedly narrow. I had never had to walk along a thoroughfare so exiguous.” - G. K. Chesterton, Manalive, chapter VII

1998 – “They are entering the market, setting up stalls on snowy streets, moonlighting to supplement exiguous incomes.”

- Michael Ignatieff, "Rebirth of a Nation: An Anatomy of Russia", New Statesman, February 6, 1998

“Among the pressures provoking these distresses were a father's financial inadequacy and a growing awareness that, by finding employment himself, he could ameliorate the family's exiguous circumstances.”

- Terence Brown, The Life of W. B. Yeats: A Critical Biography

2007 – “An exiguous vocabulary can be a cause of imprecision in the expression of ideas, and perhaps of an exiguity of thought itself.” - A. Nonny-Mouse

Yul Brynner has an exiguous population of hairs on his head.

[Gail]

Word of the Day: Groupthink (Noun)

Pronunciation: ['grup-thingk]

Definition: Yale psychologist Irving Janis originally defined groupthink as ‘‘a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when...strivings for unanimity override...motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action." In other words, the surrender of independent thought to group dynamics.

Usage: Groupthink is not an evil; it is the attempt by members of a prestigious group to contribute to consensus, as well as to protect themselves by siding with the majority. However, it often leads to bad decisions. It is generally accepted as a major factor in Roosevelt's ignoring evidence of the impending attack on Pearl Harbor and in Kennedy's miscalculations in invading Cuba. Now it is being suggested that it was a factor in the miscalculation of weapons of mass destruction and Al Qaeda activity in Iraq.

Suggested Usage: Since the noun "think" means "one instance of thinking," "Groupthink," is not the best of terms. It was selected, no doubt, for its scary association with Orwell's "doublethink," "goodthink," etc. in the novel '1984.' The sentiment is one long associated with the thought conformity of committees: "A camel is a horse designed by groupthink (a committee)."

Etymology: The word "think" comes from Old English "thencan" akin to "thancian "to thank." Its origin is Proto-Indo-European *tong-/teng which rarely appears outside Germanic: Albanian tangë "resentment" and Tocharian—a dead language—tunk "love." These examples seem to refer to feelings but in Old English "think" originally meant "to seem, appear," as Thomas Heywood so aptly put it in 1635, "Him thought that in his depth of sleepe he saw A Souldier arm'd." This led to the impersonal verb, "methinks," found often in the works of Shakespeare. It is easy to see how "it appears to me" could slip into "I think."

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

prob.i.ty (PRO-buh-tee), noun

complete and confirmed integrity; uprightness; honesty

[Origin: 1505–15; < L probit&#257;s uprightness, equiv. to prob(us) upright + -it&#257;s –ity. “Prove” also derives from L. probus.]

A person of probity is one who has been tested, tried and proven to be trustworthy.

The probity of our first president, George Washington, is legendary and present when he was yet a child.

In the Bible there is Joseph, a youth of probity who truly deserved Potifer's trust in him.

[Gail]

Word of the Day: Imprimatur (Noun)

Pronunciation: [im-'prim-ê-tyUr or im-pri-'mah-tUr]

Definition: The official stamp of a censorial authority allowing a publication to go to press hence any stamp of approval from an authority.

Usage: It is still used in the literal sense in those states practicing censorship and in most churches. The imprimatur of the Roman Catholic censor in approving a book or motion picture, for example, was nihil obstat "nothing stands in the way." The Motion Picture Association of America uses several imprimaturs, G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17, to restrict the ages of people viewing a motion picture.

Suggested Usage: The word implies approval by a very strong authority. "Nothing reaches the desk of the coach without Reilly's imprimatur," means that Reilly has absolute approval over whatever crosses the coach's desk. It may also be stretched to simply mean "mark": "The glass with traces of chocolate milk is your imprimatur, Frieda; I suggest you were the one who raided the refrigerator last night."

Etymology: New Latin imprimatur "let it be printed," third person singular present subjunctive passive of Latin imprimere "to press, print" from in "in(to) + primere "press." Before [l], "in-" assimilates to "il-," before [r] to "ir-," and before , [p], and [m], to "im-." It is a variant of "en" and both share the same source as English "in" and Russian v "in(to)!" "Primere" is akin to "press," "pressure," "pregnant," and "espresso," the delightful little caffeinated potable brewed under pressure.

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

...the quiddity of door-ness...

quiddity (KWID-ih-tee), noun:

1. The essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity of a thing.

2. A hairsplitting distinction; a trifling point; a quibble.

3. An eccentricity; an odd feature.

He wanted to capture not just live animals, but the aliveness of animals in their natural state: their wildness, their quiddity, the fox-ness of the fox and the crow-ness of the crow. -- Thomas Nye, quoted in "Ted Hughes, 68, a Symbolic Poet And Sylvia Plath's Husband, Dies", New York Times, October 30, 1998

So far, I have tried to intimate, through meshed parallels and contrasts, something of the nature, the quiddity, of Japanese and of American literature. -- Ihab Hassan, "In the mirror of the sun: reflections on Japanese and American literature, Basho to Cage", World Literature Today, March 1, 1995

Boswell set biography a new ambition: capturing the copiousness and quiddity of a personality -- the self peculiarly revealed in odd quirks and, especially, in unpredictable, evanescent talk.

-- John Mullan, "Dreaming up the Doctor", The Guardian, November 11, 2000

It is neither grammatical subtleties nor logical quiddities, nor the witty contexture of choice words or arguments and syllogisms, that will serve my turn.

-- Michel de Montaigne, "Of Books"

She has looked after my interests with consummate skill, dealt with my quiddities and constantly kept up my spirits.

-- John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination

I began . . . to give some thought to the memoir I had promised to write and wondered how I would go about it -- his freaks, quiddities, oddities, his eating, drinking, shaving, dressing and playfully savaging his students.

-- Saul Bellow, Ravelstein

Quiddity comes from the scholastic Medieval Latin term quidditas, "essence," from quid, "what."

-from Dictionary.com

quiddity : 1539, "captious nicety in argument" from M.L. quidditas, lit. "whatness," from L. quid "what," neut. of quis (see who). Sense developed from scholastic disputes over the nature of things. Original meaning "real essence or nature of a thing" is attested in Eng. from 1569.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper