Word of the Day

[D. Allan]

Is this word politically correct?

uxorious (uk-SOR-ee-us; ug-ZOR-), adjective:

Excessively fond of or submissive to a wife.

—Related forms and words:

ux.o.ri.ous.ly, adverb

ux.o.ri.ous.ness, noun

uxory, (UX-or-ee) noun [backformation from uxorious.] 1. Passionate attachment to a spouse. 2. Perfect blend of love and lust. source: http://www.langmaker.com/db/Uxory

uxorial, adjective, of, befitting, or characteristic of a wife.

uxoricide, the murder of a wife by her husband

“It is batty to suppose that the most uxorious of husbands will stop his wife's excessive shopping if an excessive shopper she has always been.”

- Angela Huth, "All you need is love", Daily Telegraph, April 24, 1998

“Flagler seems to have been an uxorious, domestic man, who liked the comfort and companionship of a wife at his side.”

- Michael Browning, "Whitehall at 100", Palm Beach Post, February 22, 2002

Uxorious is from Latin uxorius, from uxor, wife.

source: www.dictionary.com

In a review at www.Salon.com Kate Moss writes the following:

“Uxorious is a word I can hardly believe anyone possessed the far-flung imagination to make up. It comes at first glance as a disorienting shock, an unthinkable stroke of good luck -- like Ed McMahon showing up at your screen door with a big cardboard check. On second thought, though, its existence is a little troubling -- especially when you consider what being "excessively fond of one's wife" might mean. Isn't excessive fondness what all wives might reasonably expect?"

[color:#6600CC] You may read Ms Moss’ entire article at http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/1998/05/20feature.html

[Gail]

Word of the Day: Ravel (Verb)

Pronunciation: ['ræ-vêl]

Definition: To unweave, to disentangle, to unwind or untwist; to fray.

Usage: Here is another word we have bungled. Because raveling knitwear is undoing something previously done, we feel we need the prefix un- on this verb but the meaning of that suffix is built into the meaning of "ravel." The error is similar to the one which led us to remove the in- from "inflammable," thinking that it means "un-" when in fact it means "begin." Inflame means "to ignite," so inflammable means "ignitable." Well, guess what: unravel means "to reweave" that is, to un-unweave. The British like to double the [L] with suffixes: "ravelling," "ravelled," while North Americans prefer hobbling along on one: "raveling," "raveled." Both are correct.

Suggested Usage: Sweaters are not the only things that go raveling: "As Germaine explained her situation, Percy could see his plans for a quiet domestic life with her raveling before his ears." Things ravel outside the head, too: "Celeste could feel her new hair-do raveling in the wind and mist of Foggy Bottom." Harsh winters can ravel poorly maintained roads and the nerves of those who drive over them.

Etymology: The etymology of today's word is something of a disappointment. We only know that English borrowed it from an obsolete Dutch verb ravelen "ravel" from ravel "a loose thread". There is a dialectal English word raffle "tangle, ravel" but it is apparently a variant of today's word and no help in tracing the origin of "ravel."

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

effete (eh-FEET; ih-), adjective:

1. No longer capable of producing young; infertile; barren; sterile.

2. Exhausted of energy; incapable of efficient action; worn out.

3. Marked by self-indulgence or decadence; degenerate.

4. Overrefined; effeminate.

[ Effete derives from Latin effetus, "weakened by giving birth; worn out, exhausted;” from ex- + fetus, "bearing young, pregnant."

[color:#CC6600]

“In a democracy decadence does not arrive when the aristocracy becomes effete -- it shows up in the life of the average man.”

- Andrew Holleran, In September, the Light Changes

“He wasn't refined or effete, but a horse trader, smart, clever, always with his ear to the ground.”

- Bob Ortega, In Sam We Trust

"Effete results from virile efforts." - Mrs. Browning

Synonyms

(1.) unproductive, infecund, fruitless

(2.) used up, spent, exhausted, dissipated, depleted, frazzled, strengthless, debilitated, asthenic, devitalized, ineffectual, burnt-out.

(3.) dissipated, depraved, dissolute, degenerate, profligate

(4.) affected, precious, mincing, précieuse [Fr] ; womanish, muliebrous, soft, prissy

Synonyms do not alway have the same meaning as the tartet word, but looking at them may help one to find a more precise word; one that will make your language clear and pellucid.

[D. Allan]

moil (MOYL) intransitive verb: moiled, moil.ing, moils

1. To work with painful effort; to labor; to toil; to drudge.

2. To churn or swirl about continuously.

noun:

1. Toil; hard work; drudgery.

2. Confusion; turmoil.

moiler, noun

moil.ing.ly, adverb

Moil comes from Middle English moillen, "to soak, to wet," hence "to soil, to soil one's hands, to work very hard," from Old French moillier, "to soften, especially by making wet," ultimately from Latin mollis, "soft."

[color:#CC6600] “Why should he toil and moil, and be at so much trouble to pick himself up out the mud, when, in a little while hence, the strong arm of his Uncle will raise and support him?”

- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

“He saw himself in the sleepless moil of early parenthood, and felt a plunging anxiety.”

- Alan Hollinghurst, The Spell

source: www.dictionary.com

There is a word turmoil useful to describe the state of an overworked mind; especially when it has to make too many hard decisions!

[D. Allan]

Here's and juicy tidbit about Gail's word 'ravel' from yesterday:

ravel

1582, "to untangle, unwind," also "to become tangled or confused" (1585), from Du. ravelen "to tangle, fray, unweave," from rafel "frayed thread." The seemingly contradictory senses of this word (ravel and unravel are both synonyms and antonyms) are reconciled by its roots in weaving and sewing: as threads become unwoven, they get tangled.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper

[Gail]

Which is different from REVEL, which I am doing in this thread!

[D. Allan]

glad to hear it! much better than TURMOIL that is :-)

[nuff sed]

Word of the day...NOT

The word of the day is NOT Preventative............... when did That creep into the vocabulary??? The word is PREVENTIVE!

[D. Allan]

Your are absolutely right, Don. Preventive is the real word.

Prevent +ive

However if we were to keep our language 'pure' as the French try to do we would have to delete many words from dictionaries is my guess.

Anyway my 1968 Webster's New World's entry for preventative is 'adj. & n. preventive.

I have a 1935 The New Universities Webster Dictionary which does not even list 'preventative.' It does have some neat old words not listed in my newer dictionary such as 'babbler': one who babbles; a dog that gives tongue too frequently when on scent.

-----------------------------------

"preventive or preventative

"The words are often used interchangeably to denote whatever prevents something else happening or occurring, especially when it is undesirable. However, preventative is often applied to an actual object, especially in noun form, while preventive is mostly reserved for an abstract concept, and remains an adjective: Preventive medicine regards vitamin C as an effective preventative against colds."

© From the Hutchinson Encyclopaedia.

[D. Allan]

Use this word carefully when refering people! It may be considered complimentary when used as an adjective, but as a noun it refers to a 'stripper' also known as an 'ecdysiast'.

ex.ot.ic (ig-zot-ik)

–adjective:

1. of foreign origin or character; not native; introduced from abroad, but not fully naturalized or acclimatized: exotic foods; exotic plants.

2. strikingly unusual or strange in effect or appearance: an exotic hairstyle.

3. of a uniquely new or experimental nature: exotic weapons.

4. of, pertaining to, or involving stripteasing: the exotic clubs where strippers are featured.

–noun:

5. something that is exotic: The flower show included several tropical exotics with showy blooms.

6. an exotic dancer; stripper.

—Related forms

ex.ot.i.cal.ly, adverb

ex.ot.ic.ness, noun

- Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary

[color:#FF6600]etymology of exotic:

1599, "belonging to another country," from L. exoticus, from Gk. exotikos "foreign," lit. "from the outside," from exo- "outside," from ex "out of." Sense of "unusual, strange" first recorded in Eng. 1629, from notion of "alien, outlandish." In reference to strip-teasers and dancing girls, it is first attested 1954, Amer.Eng.

- Online Etymology Dictionary

[Stan]

hmmm so that is why she slapped me...

Well not really but it sounded funny in my head.

[D. Allan]

Yeah, , it is funny.

Would you like to see some exotics? I found several good ones a few minutes ago. I'm not refering to people, so don't get your hopes up or you'll be completely disappointed.

1.nakkele from Tulu (a language in India) meaning a man who licks whatever the food has been served on.

[nakkele itself has been presumably borrowed from Tamil since 'nakku' means 'to lick' and 'ele' means a leaf, or in this case the plantain leaf out of which people eat their food in South India.]

2. madh from Albanian meaning a strange fascination for facial hair.

3.plimplampplettere from Dutch for skimming stones.

I especially like the last one; it is soo onomatopoetic! plim.plamp.plet.te.re ...... it practically dances!

- source: http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~shankar/p-l/041005.html

[Gail]

Word of the Day: Beatific (Adjective)

Pronunciation: [bee-ê-'tif-ik]

Definition: Exhibiting ultimate serenity, imparting or experiencing a state of utmost bliss (beatitude), usually associated with a religious experience.

Usage: This word family is used almost exclusively in a religious sense. The Christian "beatific vision" is the bliss aroused by the direct contact with God enjoyed by angels and other souls in heaven. "Beatific smiles" reflect that serenity and contentedness. The noun, beatitude, is associated with the list of blessings in Christ's Sermon on the Mount, commonly referred to as "The Beatitudes."

Suggested Usage: There is no reason why religion should usurp the services of this word family. There are secular situations where it might be used in the sense of a serene self-confidence like that of a religious faith. For example, "Louella entered the room with a beatific air that inspired confidence in every word she uttered," suggests the serene self-confidence inspired by the knowledge that the gods are watching over her. The noun is subject to similar application, "Manfred's attitude suggested beatitude more than mere self-confidence."

Etymology: Latin beatificus "making happy" from beatus "happy" (past participle of beare "to bless") + -fic (from fac-ere "make, do") + case ending -us. The ultimate root also underlies Latin bonus "good," bene "well" found in "benefit," "benevolent," and "benign," not to mention bellus "beautiful" from which we get "beauty" and "belle (of the ball)."

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

Here are two words having the same Latin source; however, they can have very different meanings: one referring to pleasing others and one to being pleased with one’s self. They are antonyms in that sense, and synonyms rarely these days is my guess. They are also homophones (sounding alike) unless one uses the ‘z’ in the alternate pronunciation for the first word defined here.

com.plai.sant (kuhm-PLEY-suhnt, -zuhnt), adjective

having a desire or willingness to please; obliging; agreeable or gracious; compliant.

related form

complaisantly, adverb

1647, from Fr. complaisant (16c.), from M.Fr., "pleasing," prp. of complaire "acquiesce to please," from L. complacere "be very pleasing" (see complacent, with which it overlapped till mid-19c.). – online Etymology Dictionary

com.pla.cent (kuhm-PLEY-suhnt), adjective ; (complacently, adverb)

1. pleased with oneself or one’s merits; self-satisfied and unconcerned.

2. complaisant.

“Complaisant was first recorded in 1647, deriving from Latin complacere. Complacent comes from the same Latin word, but is not found in writing until 1660.” –Dictionary.reference.com

[D. Allan]

Today's word was coined in Hollywood, 1942 for the film Bambi. Can we call it a Hollyword? OK, we'll forget about it. It is a neologism formed of twitter-, which is what birds do, and -pated which refers to the head.

twitterpated, adj.

confused by affection or infatuation

- Webster's New Millennium Dictionary

[color:#CC6600] It refers to the feelings you get when you think about your current object of desire. A contributor to the Urban Dictionary defined it as “An enjoyable disorder characterized by feelings of excitement, anticipation, high hopes, recent memories of interludes, giddiness, and physical overstimulation which occur simultaneously when experiencing a new love.”

One stimulus for its current popularity is its appearance in the film Bambi II (following on its invention generations ago in the original Bambi of 1942, in which Friend Owl says, “Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime.”) The Oakland Tribune remarked when the film first came out that “‘Twitterpated’ is perhaps the best adjective coined by Hollywood since the pixilated sisters were invented for ‘Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.’” -http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-twi1.htm

Some dialogue from Bambi, the movie.

Flower: [about two birds fluttering around] Well! What's the matter with them?

Thumper: Why are they acting that way?

Friend Owl: Why, don't you know? They're twitterpated.

Flower, Bambi, Thumper: Twitterpated?

Friend Owl: Yes. Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime. For example: You're walking along, minding your own business. You're looking neither to the left, nor to the right, when all of a sudden you run smack into a pretty face. Woo-woo! You begin to get weak in the knees. Your head's in a whirl. And then you feel light as a feather, and before you know it, you're walking on air. And then you know what? You're knocked for a loop, and you completely lose your head!

Thumper: Gosh, that's awful.

Flower: Gee whiz.

Bambi: Terrible!

Friend Owl: And that ain't all. It could happen to anyone, so you'd better be careful.

[points at Bambi]

Friend Owl: It could happen to you…

[points at Thumper]

Friend Owl: … or you, or even...

[Flower looks at Owl shyly]

Friend Owl: Yes, it could even happen to you!

Thumper: Well, it's not gonna happen to me.

Bambi: Me neither.

Flower: Me neither.

Friend Owl: Same thing every spring. "Tweet-tweet, tweet-tweet! Tweet-tweet, tweet-tweet!" Love's sweet song. Hm! Pain in the pinfeathers, I call it!

[Gail]

Perhaps you know somebody like this:

Word of the Day: Edentate (Adjective)

Pronunciation: [ee-'den-teyt]

Definition: Lacking teeth (the dental correlate of "bald"). The antonym of dentate "having or shaped like teeth."

Usage: The verb, also "edentate," means to extract or otherwise remove teeth. "Edentation" is the noun from the verb. "Edentulous" [ee-'den-tyu-lês] or [ee-'den-chê-lês] has the same meaning as "edentate," deriving from Latin "edentulus" with the same meaning. The term is common in biology in referring to animals without teeth (ducks?)

Suggested Usage: The concrete uses of this word are rather obvious, "Her biscuits are not for the weak or edentate." But why not abstract extensions like, "Has congress passed another edentate law restricting handguns?" Rather than threatening to knock someone's teeth out, try, "If you don't leave me alone I'll edentate you!" If that doesn't return everyone's sense of humor, nothing will.

Etymology: From the past participle ("edentatus") Latin edentare "to knock out the teeth." Latin dens, dentis "tooth" is akin to Sanskrit "dantas," Greek "odous," Gothic "tunthus," German "Zahn," and English "tooth," which seems to have lost the "n" somewhere along the way. The original PIE word was the present participle of *ed- "eat, bite": *ed-ent = "biting, biter." For a bigger slice of PIE, read "How is a Hippo like a Feather?" in our library.

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[Jeannieb43]

Great, Gail! I love interesting words.

Thanks for this one --especially for illustrating all the various forms of its possible uses!

[D. Allan]

Today, for a change, here is a snippet from the OED's (Oxford English Dictionary's) web site of six words they are keeping an eye on for possible inclusion in the OED; and at the bottom three words that made it last year.

amigurumi, n.: a type of cuddly crocheted doll with a large head, originating in Japan and just beginning to gain popularity in the U.S.

black site, n.: a classified military site, the existence of which is officially denied.

carbon-neutral, adj.: designating a process or product which makes no net contribution to the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, often by utilising a compensatory tree-planting programme. [A somewhat older item, but representative of an increasingly prominent concern]

emo, n.: a fan of emo music; a member of the subculture associated with this. [As the name of a genre, emo has been around a while, but has only recently begun to be used to refer to a person.]

insourcing, n.: the action or process of obtaining goods or services in-house, esp. by using existing resources or employees. [Again, an older word, but indicative of the continued life of the -sourcing suffix in business contexts; see also the very new crowdsourcing, the contracting out of a business process to a 'community' of people over the Internet]

made-for-mobile, adj.: designating content (usually audio-visual material) specifically designed to be viewed on a mobile phone.

Nutrigenomics, n.: a science which attempts to tailor a person's diet to his or her genetic make-up.

pay by touch, n. and adj.: a system for paying for purchases without cards or cash, based on the biometric scanning of fingerprints. [Currently being trialled in the U.S.]

softphone, n.: a piece of software which enables telephone calls to be made via a computer. [This technology is beginning to become widely available.]

And here are three that made the grade in 2006:

chowhound, n.

bouncebackability, n.

dromaeosaurid, n.

source: http://www.oed.com/newsletters/2006-12/newword.html

[D. Allan]

Chowhound, we know that one, don't we!

bouncebackability, the meaning seems obvious.

But dromaeosaurid?

If you are curious, CLICK HERE

[nuff sed]

In Chile they call young men "lolos" and young women "lolas".

The word for dinosaur is "dinosauria........... they have combined the two words to "lolasauria" as 'slangwidge' for "old maid"..

[D. Allan]

That is one cool nugget, Don.

Can we translate that into English as 'galosaurs?'

And 'guyosaur' for old batchlors?

[Gail]

Word of the Day: Fricassee (Noun)

Pronunciation: [fri-kê-'see or 'fri-kê-see]

Definition: A dish made of poultry or meat, fresh or leftover, cut into small pieces, sauteed, then stewed in a gravy.

Usage: Remember that today's word is a rare one that contains two contiguous double letters, ss+ee. It is also commonly used as a verb, as Elmer Fudd's perennial attempts to fricassee the ever elusive Bugs Bunny.

Suggested Usage: Today's word is used almost exclusively to refer to a cooking style: "Molly had to rename the 'Roadkill Fricassee' on her menu because her patrons were never quite sure it was a joke." Of course, that never stops us from finding metaphorical applications, "Sullivan's proposal contains nothing new; it is just a fricassee of leftover ideas from the proposal he made last year."

Etymology: Today's word is the untarnished French past participle, "fricassee," from fricasser "to fricassee." The French verb probably comes from a compound of frire "to fry" + casser "to break up, break apart." French "frire" descended from Latin frigere "to roast, fry" which shares a root with its near antonym fridigus "frigid" in the same way that "cold" and "scald" share the same original root. French "cassare" comes from Latin quassare "to shake, shatter." It would seem to be unrelated to "quake" despite the similarity in sound and meaning.

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

crufty (KRUHF-tee), adjective

[very common; origin unknown; poss. from `crusty' or `cruddy']

1. Poorly built, possibly over-complex. The canonical example is "This is standard old crufty DEC software". In fact, one fanciful theory of the origin of `crufty' holds that was originally a mutation of `crusty' applied to DEC software so old that the `s' characters were tall and skinny, looking more like `f' characters.

2. Unpleasant, especially to the touch, often with encrusted junk. Like spilled coffee smeared with peanut butter and catsup.

3. Generally unpleasant.

4. n. A small crufty object (sometimes spelled `cruftie') ; often one that doesn't fit well into the scheme of things. "A LISP property list is a good place to store crufties (or, collectively, random cruft)."

[color:#CC6600] This term is one of the oldest in the jargon and no one is sure of its etymology, but it is suggestive that there is a Cruft Hall at Harvard University which is part of the old physics building; it's said to have been the physics department's radar lab during WWII. To this day (early 1993) the windows appear to be full of random techno-junk. MIT or Lincoln Labs people may well have coined the term as a knock on the competition.

cruft (kruhft)

[very common; back-formation from crufty]

1. n. An unpleasant substance. The dust that gathers under your bed is cruft; the TMRC Dictionary correctly noted that attacking it with a broom only produces more.

2. n. The results of shoddy construction.

3. vt. [from `hand cruft', pun on `hand craft'] To write assembler code for something normally (and better) done by a compiler (see hand-hacking).

4. n. Excess; superfluous junk; used esp. of redundant or superseded code.

5. [university of Wisconsin] n. Cruft is to hackers as gaggle is to geese; that is, at UW one properly says "a cruft of hackers".

Jargon File 4.2.0 at dictionary.com

[Jeannieb43]

Word of the Day: Fricassee (Noun)

Usage: Remember that today's word is a rare one that contains two contiguous double letters, ss+ee.

In the English language, I think there's only one word which contains three contiguous double letters: bookkeeper.

[D. Allan]

resipiscent (re-si-PIS-uhnt) adjective

Having returned to a saner mind.

[From Latin resipiscere (to recover one's senses), from re- (again) + sapere (to taste, to know). Ultimately from Indo-European root sep- (to taste or perceive) that is also the source of sage, savant, savvy, savor, sapid, sapient, and insipid.]

[color:#CC6600] "I am a recidivist, frequently guilty of overwriting and overciting. But I am at least a resipiscent recidivist. I have come around to the view that, though it may take discipline to cut more quickly to the chase and to doff the security blanket that writers weave from string citations, we, as judges, must dedicate ourselves to the task." Excerpt from Hon. Bruce M. Selya; In Search of Less; Texas Law Review; Volume 74, 1996.

source: www.wordsmith.org