Word of the Day

[D. Allan]

sobriquet ( so-brih-KAY; -KET) also soubriquet, noun:

A nickname; an assumed name; an epithet.

—Related forms

so•bri•quet•i•cal, adjective

[color:#993300] In addition to his notorious amours, he became distinguished for a turbulent naval career, particularly for the storms he weathered, thus bringing him the sobriquet "Foulweather Jack".

- Phyllis Grosskurth, Byron: The Flawed Angel

At a small reception on the occasion of my twenty-fifth anniversary in this position, my good friend Izzy Landes raised a glass and dubbed me the Curator of the Curators, a sobriquet I have worn with pride ever since.

- Alfred Alcorn, Murder in the Museum of Man

There was an omnivorous intellect that won him the family sobriquet of Walking Encyclopedia.

- Eric Liu, The Accidental Asian

1646; Sobriquet is from the French, from Old French soubriquet, "a chuck under the chin, hence, an affront, a nickname."

- www.dictionary.com

At boarding school, our beloved principal was given the sobriquet 'the great white chief' by us little indians; but usually we called him 'Prof.'

[D. Allan]

mumblecore (MUM-bull-kawhr), noun; adj.

of or relating to a genre of independent, low budget, improvisatory movies, characterized by the ordinary and trivial in conversation and subject matter and plot.

related words:

mumblecorps, noun

mumblecordian, noun

The term "mumblecore" was coined by Eric Masunaga, a sound editor who has worked with Bujalski. It is sometimes written as "mumblecorps," as in press corps. –wikipedia.com

“ Recent rumblings -- perhaps one should say mumblings -- indicate an emerging movement in American independent film. Specimens of the genre share a low-key naturalism, low-fi production values and a stream of low-volume chatter often perceived as ineloquence. Hence the name: mumblecore.” - “A Generation Finds Its Mumble”, August 19, 2007, Sunday, By DENNIS LIM (New York Times)

“Quiet City” belongs to the movie genre labeled mumblecore, so named partly because the young, nerdy characters in these films rarely address any subject outside their immediate social sphere. If they don’t actually mumble their words, the tone of their conversations is restricted to various shades of chat, much of which seems trivial. – “Between the Mumbles, Images of Sorrowful Poetry” By STEPHEN HOLDEN, Published: August 29, 2007 (New York Times)

“The mumblecore genre, with its minimalist aesthetics, minuscule budgets, home-movie casting of friends and acquaintances and its fly-on-the-wall, quasi-documentary spontaneity, is so wide-open for parody that it is a sitting duck for the most withering send-up. “Quiet City” is fortunate to arrive just before the inevitable demolition crews arrive to tear it to shreds. Tender and sad, it is a fully realized work of mumblecore poetry.” –ibid

“Mumblecore is demographically self-contained. Straight, white, middle class. The movies suggest college, without the course load. There are almost no grown-ups—which is to say anyone over 30. . . . Whether breaking up or hooking up, Mumblecordians spend much time pondering what to do and say. . . . Mumblecore’s compulsive navel-gazing, paucity of external references, and narrow field of interest is not for every taste— . . . . The least to be said for Bujalski, Swanberg, Katz et al is that they are confronting the conditions of their lives, including making their movies. It’s impossible to predict how the Mumblecorps will mature but, given their immersion in the moment, I suspect that the films they’ve made will age very well.” – “It's Mumblecore! - Films by, for, and about twentysomethings are having a moment” by J. Hoberman, August 17th, 2007 12:57 AM, (The Village Voice)

[D. Allan]

solecism (SOL-uh-siz-uhm), noun:

1. A nonstandard usage or grammatical construction; also, a minor blunder in speech.

2. A breach of good manners or etiquette.

3. Any inconsistency, mistake, or impropriety.

An accurate report of anything that has ever been said in any parliament would be blather, solecism, verbiage and nonsense.

- "Hansard of the Highlands", Times (London), February 17, 2001

Her English is good, apart from a few stubborn idiosyncrasies of preposition and tense, but these are music to me, sung solecisms - how else to describe "I am already loving you," her first declaration of feeling for me, now two years old?

- Ronan Bennett, The Catastrophist

In those days smoking in the streets was an unpardonable solecism.

- Edmund Yates, Recollections

. . .another of her fabrications or flat-footed solecisms or, at any rate, a simple indication of the boundless ineptitude with which she manages Leonardo's affairs.

- R.M. Berry, Leonardo's Horse

Solecism comes from Latin soloecismus, from Greek soloikizein, "to speak incorrectly," from soloikos, "speaking incorrectly," literally, "an inhabitant of Soloi," a city in ancient Cilicia where a dialect regarded as substandard was spoken.

-from http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/

—Related forms

solecist, noun

solecistic, solecistical, adjective

solecistically, adverb

A solecism is a grammatical mistake or absurdity. Some examples of usages often regarded as solecisms in standard English are:

"This is just between you and I" for "This is just between you and me." (hypercorrection to avoid the common, non-standard "you and me" form in the subject of sentences while "me" is, nonetheless, the standard pronoun for the object of a preposition.)

"He ain't going nowhere" for "He isn't [or he's not] going anywhere." (dialectic usage)

"Whom ate the food?" for "Who ate the food?" (hypercorrection resulting from the perception that "whom" is a formal version of "who")

"He's the person whom I believe is the fastest" for "He's the person who I believe is the fastest." (hypercorrection resulting from the perception that the relative pronoun is functioning as an object in the dependent clause when, in fact, it is a subject, with the predicate "is the fastest"; contrast "whom I believe to be the fastest," in which "whom" is the object of "I believe.")-from wikipedia.com

[D. Allan]

com•mi•na•tion [kom-uh-ney-shuhn]

–noun

1. a threat of punishment or vengeance.

2. a denunciation.

3. (in the Church of England) a penitential office read on Ash Wednesday in which God's anger and judgments are proclaimed against sinners.

Origin: 1400–50; late ME (< AF) < L commin&#257;ti&#333;n- from commination-, from comminari, "to threaten," from com-, intensive prefix + minari, "to threaten."

—Related forms

com•mi•na•tor, noun

com•min•a•to•ry [kuh-min-uh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee, kom-uh-nuh-], com•mi•na•tive, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

“Vishnevskaya's powerful story is full of ferocious, grandly operatic comminations of vicious authorities and toadying colleagues.”

- Terry Teachout, review of Galina: A Russian Story by Galina Vishnevskaya, National Review, March 22, 1985

“At last the leaders of the Democratic Party have moved decisively, hauling out their ripest comminations and hurling them at -- no, not at George Bush.”

- Alexander Cockburn, "No place in the Democratic Party", The Nation, March 31, 2003

“An early copy had been seen by Anne Fine, our retiring Children's Laureate, and, as one of her final acts..., she issued a commination against it in the Guardian newspaper, buttressed by many spicy quotations.”

- Brian Alderson, "Message in a bottle", Horn Book Magazine, September 1, 2003

-Dictionary.com

[D. Allan]

Not sure where I first ran into this word - I'm beginning to fit into the category with my eyeglasses and hearing-aid; however nothing implanted - yet. Some consider computers and the internet to be extensions of our nervous systems - they certainly do extend our mental abilities but could mental abilities be considered physiological processes?

cyborg , noun

a person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by machine tech-nology. - Concise Oxford Dictionary, Ninth Edition.

A human who has certain physiological processes aided or controlled by mechanical or electronic devices. - American Heritage Dictionary

cyborgian, adjective

“I am caught, not only as a woman, as a painter but as a human, with an actual body not a virtual one, albeit slightly cyborgian, looking out from my contact lens implants.” - Janet Jones / UAAC Conference: Vancouver, British Columbia, November, 1997. Conference Paper: Painting: The Body & Technology

“The quasi-cyborgian ways in which hospitalized humans have been connected to machines, and more generally to technological systems, has disturbed in sometimes macabre ways the very meaning of what it means to die, and has rendered ambiguous even such a seemingly straightforward question of when someone can be said to be dead.” - Rhetorics of Biology in the Age of Biomechanical Reproduction David Depew, Guest Editor, Poroi, 2, 1, August, 2003

“The most powerful thing that happens in the Cyborg boundary-crossing is that the dualisms we often use to distinguish human being, nature, culture, and technology are rendered obsolete. In the final analysis, there are no lasting ontological distinctions between them.” - The Created Co-Creator Meets Cyborg, by Philip Hefner at http://www.metanexus.net/Magazine/ArticleDetail/tabid/68/id/8780/Default.aspx

“Through our mobile and ubiquitous devices we will be constantly engaged in, or have available, the possibility for numerous hyper-interactions such as those above, that will collectively create a hyper-reality that we will effortlessly live in. Indeed, this new cyborgian world will become the norm, so in fact our machine-mediated hyper-reality will actually become our new reality.” - Andrew Ravenscroft , London Metropolitan University, http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/ice3/papers/ravenscroft.html

[Gail]

I like that word, D! (cyborg, she repeats to herself...)

DERVISH

Pronunciation: ['dêr-vish]

Definition: A Muslim friar or fakir belonging to a sect that induces mystical trances by dancing feverishly while chanting religious phrases ("whirling dervish" or "howling dervish"), hence anyone possessed of frenetic energy.

Usage: Whirling dervishes belong to the Mevlevi (Mawlawiyya) sect of the Sufi order of Islam. This sect was founded by Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi in the 13th century. In a ritual called the sema, the dervishes spin to the music of reed pipes and drums. Chanting religious aphorisms, they remove black cloaks to reveal underlying voluminous white skirts that flare outward. The belief is that the feverish dancing releases their souls from their earthly ties and allows them to interact freely with the divine.

Suggested Usage: This word serves well in referring to someone who acts frenetically, "Thelma spends most of her days watching television but she works like a dervish the night before exams." The simile applies to any activity: "Darwin seems a normal guy during the day but at night he fiddles like a dervish at a country-western dance hall outside Sparta."

Etymology: "Dervish" is a Turkish word borrowed from the Persian "darvesh," the equivalent of Arabic fakir "beggar, mendicant, friar" from Middle Persian "dreeyosh."

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

cybrarian (sye-BRAIR-ee-un)

1. a person whose job is to find, collect, and manage information that is available on the World Wide Web

Example Sentence:

The library provided an e-mail address to submit inquiries to the cybrarian.

We've been using "librarian" for the people who manage libraries since at least the beginning of the 18th century, and the word was used for scribes and copyists even earlier than that. "Cybrarian," on the other hand, is much newer; its earliest documented use is from 1992. "Librarian" combines "library" (itself from "liber," the Latin word for book) and the noun suffix "-an," meaning "one specializing in." When people wanted a word for a person who performed duties similar to those of a librarian by using information from the Internet, they went a step further and combined "cyber-," meaning "of, relating to, or involving computers or a computer network," with "librarian" to produce the new "cybrarian."

- Merriam-Webster online

2. Cyberspace Librarian. A person able to command almost absolutely anything from the internet on whim. Cybrarians download too much, and know where to find whatever it is they don't have.

example: “I came across this crazy cybrarian in chat who had every video they ever made.”

- urbandictionary.com

3. a librarian who uses computers and the Internet for their work; any person who works doing online research and information retrieval, esp. one who answers reference questions online; also called data surfers, super searchers

- Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary

[D. Allan]

ginormous (je-NOR-muss, -mehs), adjective

gigantic + enormous circa 1948

extremely large ; humongous

Just two years after a majority of visitors to Merriam-Webster OnLine declared it to be their "Favorite Word (Not in the Dictionary)," the adjective "ginormous" (now officially defined as "extremely large: humongous"), has won a legitimate place in the 2007 copyright update of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Eleventh Edition

[color:#993300] Examples: "Millicent, that 32 pound cat of yours is ginormous!" - unwords.com

1986 Jazz (Autobot) - Transformers The Movie "This is Jazz, a ginormous weird looking planet just showed up in the suburbs of Cybertron."

1988 Andrew Radford - Transformational Grammar: A First Course : “When new Adjectives are created (e.g. ginormous concocted out of gigantic and enormous) then the corresponding Adverb form (in this case ginormously) can also be used.“

1999 Gabrielle Charbonnet: Adventure at Walt Disney World Book #7 page 20: “Walt Disney World is ginormous. Even after you’re on the property, you have to drive about fifteen minutes to get to different places.” - wiktionary.com

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — "It was a ginormous year for the wordsmiths at Merriam-Webster. Along with embracing the adjective that combines "gigantic" and "enormous," the dictionary publishers also got into Bollywood, sudoku and speed dating." – USA Today, July 10, 2007, by Adam Gorlick, AP writer

[D. Allan]

Le Clerc du Tremblay, Francois

capuched (kuh-POOSHd, kuh-POOCHd), adjective

hooded or cowled

capuche (kuh-POOSH, kuh-POOCH), noun

a hood or cowl, especially the long pointed one worn by Capuchins

1590-1600 The word comes from Middle French < Italian, cappuccino

cappuccino, noun

equal parts of expresso and hot milk topped with cinnamon, nutmeg and whipped cream

Word History: The history of the word cappuccino exemplifies how words can develop new senses because of resemblances that the original coiners of the terms might not have dreamed possible. The Capuchin order of friars, established after 1525, played an important role in bringing Catholicism back to Reformation Europe. Its Italian name came from the long pointed cowl, or cappuccino, derived from cappuccio, "hood," that was worn as part of the order's habit. The French version of cappuccino was capuchin (now capucin), from which came English Capuchin. The name of this pious order was later used as the name (first recorded in English in 1785) for a type of monkey with a tuft of black cowl-like hair. In Italian cappuccino went on to develop another sense, "espresso coffee mixed or topped with steamed milk or cream," so called because the color of the coffee resembled the color of the habit of a Capuchin friar. The first use of cappuccino in English is recorded in 1948. – dictionary.com

capuchin, noun

1. an order of monks who wore long pointed cowls.

2. a hooded cloak worn by women

3. a type of central and south American monkey with hair on the head resembling a cowl.

[color:#993300] "Sancho II, King of Portugal, rarely translated as Sanctius II in English, nicknamed "the Pious" and "the Caped" or "the Capuched" , the fourth King of Portugal born on September 8, 1207 in Coimbra, was the eldest son of Alfonso II of Portugal." –wikipedia.com

“Again, Between the Cicada and that we call a Grashopper, the differences are very many, as may be observed in themselves, or their descriptions in Mathiolus, Aldrovandus and Muffetus. For first, They are differently cucullated or capuched upon the head and back, and in the Cicada the eyes are more prominent: the Locusts have Antennæ or long horns before, with a long falcation or forcipated tail behind; and being ordained for saltation, their hinder legs do far exceed the other. The Locust or our Grashopper hath teeth, the Cicada none at all; nor any mouth according unto Aristotle: the Cicada is most upon trees; and lastly, the fritinnitus or proper note thereof is far more shrill then that of the Locust; and its life so short in Summer, that for provision it needs not have recourse unto the providence of the Pismire in Winter.” - Sir Thomas Browne, (1646; 6th ed., 1672) Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.iii , p.274

“It was as if someone had poured tons of coffee and milk into the ocean, then switched on a giant blender. Suddenly the shoreline north of Sydney were transformed into the Cappuccino Coast.” Daily Mail, Aug 28, 2007

[Gail]

Word of the Day: Grimalkin (noun)

Pronunciation: [gri-'mal-kin]

Definition: An old female cat or a spiteful jealous old woman.

Usage: You may use this word recklessly in speaking of cats but we recommend caution in its use referring to women.

Suggested Usage: Clearly, the word may be used ailurophilically: "Charity's cats included a grimalkin with a personality quite compatible with her own." But vocabulary-building, like charity, begins in the home, "Christine narrowly escaped the clutches of the grimalkin she once called 'Mother' to become a self-composed, cosmopolitan libertine in her own right."

Etymology: Probably a corruption of British gray + malkin (Shakespeare refers to a "Gray Malkin" in MacBeth). "Malkin" is the nickname for "Maude," from Malde, hence Mal(de) + kin with the diminutive marker also found in "napkin" from French nape "tablecloth" + kin. "Malkin" was sometimes used as a name for a cat but its meaning also commonized to refer to an messy female or a maidservant.

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

plangent (PLAN-juhnt), adjective:

1. Beating with a loud or deep sound, as, "the plangent wave."

2. Expressing sadness; plaintive.

Plangent derives from the present participle of Latin plangere, to beat, to strike (noisily), especially to strike the breast, head, etc. as a sign of grief.

plan•gen•cy, noun

plan•gent•ly, adverb

[color:#993300] She moans along with the woman who is singing -- wailing, really -- her hands gripping the steering wheel to the plangent cries of the singer and the sobbing of violins.

- Alice Walker, By the Light of My Father's Smile

What undoubtedly touched those soldiers is the play's plangent nostalgia, the ache for home, for home's rootedness and security.

- J. D. McClatchy, "Wilder and the Marvels of the Heart", New York Times, April 13, 1997

- www.dictionary.com

“A gorgeous, plangent work: a cri de coeur for the cranes’ protection and a testament to Matthiessen’s enduring high caliber as writer and world traveler . . . [He] projects an undiminished passion for the specific creature, the distinct landscape, the cultural oddity, the startling word. In The Birds of Heaven, he conveys that feeling through serendipitous prose as elegant as the stately birds that inspire him.” —The New York Times Book Review

[Gail]

I like pronouncing this- Gail

Word of the Day: Lagniappe (noun)

Pronunciation: [lahn-'yahp]

Definition: A gratuity given by a merchant to a customer beyond the value of a purchase; a bonus or additional benefit of any sort.

Usage: Today's word entered US English directly from the language of the Acadians (Cajuns) of Louisiana and has spread rapidly eastward. In 'Life on the Mississippi' (1883) Mark Twain writes, "We picked up one excellent word—a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word 'lagniappe.'" He was so right. The custom of tipping the customer is wide-spread around the world but it must be new in the English-speaking world, since English had to go elsewhere for a word expressing it.

Suggested Usage: Kids, here a way to really impress your parents with your progress in school, "Guess what, Mom? Linda gave me two of her kittens as a lagniappe for taking one of the puppies!" Adults will find uses for it, too, whenever they need a word for a pleasant, unexpected bonus, "Frieda had thoroughly enjoyed the party and seeing the dog bite her boss' leg was the perfect lagniappe to cap the evening off."

Etymology: Louisiana French Creole, from American Spanish la ñapa "the gift, tip" from la "the," derived from Latin illa, feminine of ille "that," originally "yonder." The same pronoun is also the origin of French "le" and "la" which also mean "the." This word traces its root to *al- which we find in alter "other" at the base of English "altercation," "alter ego," and "alternate." In English it emerged as "else." The noun ñapa is even more interesting. It comes from yapa, which means "gift" in the South American Indian language, Quechua, from the verb yapay "to give more."

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

psychograph, noun

1. A photographic image attributed to a supernatural or spiritualistic cause.

1882 ‘M. A. OXON.’ Psychography (ed. 2) 11 The book is illustrated by thirty fac-similes of Psychographs thus obtained. Ibid. 12 He..obtained his..Psychographs by the simple process of putting blank paper on the table of his room. 1920 London Mag. July 443/1 Most puzzling of all forms of super-normal pictures is the psychograph so-called because it is assumed to be psychic in its origin and production. 1939 H. PRICE Fifty Yrs. Psychical Res. i. 35 If a message in writing or a drawing spontaneously appears on a photographic plate, with or without it being exposed in the camera it is known as a scotograph or a psychograph. 1973 D. A. SPENCER Focal Dict. Photogr. Technologies 496 All available evidence suggests that these psychographs were fakes or the result of a combination of chemical fog and wishful thinking.

2. = PSYCHOGRAM 2.

1909 Q. Rev. Oct. 500 This is no caricature, but almost a psychograph of the spirit which permeates many if not most of the descriptive reports of cricket matches in popular sporting papers. 1921 Education XLI. 513 A character psychograph of the individual is obtained. 1932 C. LANDIS in K. S. Lashley Stud. in Dynamics of Behav. 299 In order to visualize more clearly the results of the tests, three psychographs were drawn to represent the performance of each subject.

3. = PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY a.

1932 Sunday Times 6 Mar. 8/2 It was with some anxiety I saw Dame Una Pope-Hennessy was committed to writing a psychograph of Walter Scott. 1961 Times Lit. Suppl. 29 Sept. 637/2 Professor Edward Wagenknecht has been driven to compose a ‘psychograph’, in which he competently balances opinion against opinion in the hope of discovering what Hawthorne was really like. 1967 Amer. N. & Q. Sept. 14/2 Forrest, first of the American tragic actors in this assemblage of ‘psychographs’. 1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 11 Oct. 1130/3 Dickens was the principal exemplar, and Wilson's penetrating psychograph, ‘The Two Scrooges’, coincided with George Orwell's revaluation in focusing upon a great novelist whose very popularity had caused him to be critically neglected.

- Word of the Day at the Oxford English Dictionary http://www.oed.com/cgi/display/wotd

[Gail]

Word of the Day: Obnubilate (verb)

Pronunciation: [êb-'nu-bê-leyt or ahb-'nyu-bê-leyt]

Definition: To darken, dim, especially to becloud.

Usage: The adjective, obnubilate [êb-'n(y)u-bê-lêt] "beclouded" is rarely used in favor of the regular past participle, "obnubilated," as in "The faces in the room became obnubilate in the thick cigar smoke." As you can see, it deserves better.

Suggested Usage: This is a swell word with which to obnubilate the fact that you aren't very smart (if that is the case), "This is a purely intuitive issue, Francine; don't obnubilate it with facts and figures." If you are smart, there are many more ways to use it: "Esther did not allow her husband's funeral to obnubilate her Saturday morning golf match with Francine."

Etymology: Latin obnubilat-, past participle of obnubilare "to cover with clouds or fog" from nubilus "cloudy" the adjective from nubes "cloud." This word is akin to nebula "vapor, fog, smoke," nimbus "rainstorm," and nubo "to cover, veil." The same ancient root gave Sanskrit nabhas "vapor, cloud," German Nebel "fog, mist," Greek nephos "clouds," Russian nebo "sky." This word is unrelated to "nubile" which comes from nubilis "marriageable" the adjective from nubere "take a husband."

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[Gail]

Word of the Day: Jejune (adjective)

Pronunciation: [ji-'jun]

Definition: Lacking in nutrient content, hence insipid, dull, lacking in intellectual content.

Usage: This is another word that has recently picked up an illegitimate meaning that has become so widespread that it now appears in many dictionaries. Because of its resemblance to French jeune "young" and Latin juvenilus (whence "jeune"), it is occasionally used in the sense of "puerile, childish." We recommend you use "puerile" and "childish" for those meanings and limit "jejune" to the work it was designed for. However you use it, "jejunely" is the adverb and "jejuneness" is the noun.

Suggested Usage: Do not forget that today's word may refer to physical lack of nutrients, "Their promise of a feast brought us to a dinner of unidentifiable meat surrounded by jejune vegetables boiled of all their taste and bodily good." The promise itself turns out a bit jejune in this example. This is the word to use where less careful speakers would ask, "Where's the meat?" "His first novel is so jejune I read only half of it. There is more content in the telephone directory."

Etymology: Latin jejunus "empty of food, hungry, meager."

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[Gail]

I never knew there was a name for this- Gail

Word of the Day: Quincunx (noun)

Pronunciation: ['kwing-kungks]

Definition: Five objects arranged so that four are at the corners of a square or rectangle and one is at the center; the pattern of "five" on a 6-sided die.

Usage: Sir Francis Galton used a box with a triangular arrangement of pegs inside which he called a quincunx in order to explore laws of variation. Beads dropped from the top of the box hit each peg with equal probability of going left to right. But at the bottom of the triangle, the beads form a bell curve, suggesting that variation leads to mediocrity. The pinball machine works along the same principles: any ball that hits a series of obstacles is more likely to end up in the middle, where the gap between the flippers lies, than on either side.

Suggested Usage: "Aurora blamed her divorce from George on a quincunx in their horoscopes." Yes, the quincunx is important in astrology, where it means two planets are 150 degrees from each other and have very little in common. In Christianity, the quincunx means the four wounds in Jesus' hands and feet, plus the spear through the side. To the ancient Greeks, the quincunx signified divine perfection—the four elements of fire, water, earth and air, plus the fifth, mystery element, the quintessence.

Etymology: From the Latin for "five ounces," from quinque "five" + uncia "ounce, a twelfth part." Latin "quinque" [kwenkwe] originates in the Indo-European root *penkwe after an anticipatory assimilation of the [p] to the final [kw]. German fünf "five" is expected. English "five" suffers a loss of the nasal [n] which did not drop out of "finger," originally meaning a "fiver." Russian pjat' "five"comes from *penti and Greek penta provides the name of the five-sided Pentagon.

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

genial (JEE-nee-ul), adjective

1 : favorable to growth or comfort : mild

*2 : marked by or diffusing sympathy or friendliness

3 : displaying or marked by genius

Example Sentence:

Our genial host immediately offered us refreshments and introduced us to everyone.

Did you know?

"Genial" derives from the Latin adjective "genialis," meaning "connected with marriage." When "genial" was first adopted into English in the mid-16th century, it meant "of or relating to marriage," a sense that is now obsolete. "Genialis" was formed in Latin by combining the "-alis" suffix (meaning "of, relating to, or characterized by") with "genius," meaning "a person's disposition or inclination." As you may have guessed, Latin "genius" is the ancestor of the English word "genius," meaning "extraordinary intellectual power"-- so it's logical enough that "genial" eventually developed a sense (possibly influenced by the German word "genial") of "marked by very high intelligence."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

[D. Allan]

deliquesce (del-ih-KWESS), verb

*1 : to dissolve or melt away

2 : to become soft or liquid with age or maturity -- used of some fungal structures (as the gills of a mushroom)

Example Sentence:

Someone forgot to put the butter back in the refrigerator, instead leaving it to deliquesce on the kitchen counter.

Did you know?

"Deliquesce" derives from the prefix "de-" ("completely, away") and a form of the Latin verb "liqu&#275;re," meaning "to be fluid." Things that deliquesce, it could be said, turn to mush in more ways than one. In scientific contexts, a substance that deliquesces absorbs moisture from the atmosphere until it dissolves in the absorbed water and forms a solution. When plants and fungi deliquesce, they lose rigidity as they age. When "deliquesce" is used in non-scientific contexts, it is often in a figurative or humorous way to suggest the act of "melting away" under exhaustion, heat, or idleness, as in "teenagers deliquescing in 90-degree temperatures."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

- Merriam-Webster Online

[D. Allan]

acerbic (uh-SER-bik), adjective

: acid in temper, mood, or tone

Example Sentence:

Liam's speech was punctuated by his usual acerbic wit, and some people in the audience thought that his comments went too far.

Did you know?

English speakers created "acerbic" in the 19th century by adding "-ic" to the adjective "acerb." "Acerb" had been around since the 17th century, but for most of that time it had been used with only a literal "sour-tasting" sense. (The word "acerb" is still around today, but it is now simply a less common synonym of "acerbic.") "Acerbic" and "acerb" ultimately come from the Latin adjective "acerbus," which can mean "harsh," "bitter," or "unpleasant." Another English word that comes from "acerbus" is "exacerbate," which means "to make more violent, bitter, or severe."

-Merriam-Webster Online

[Gail]

Word of the Day: Lexiphanic (adjective)

Pronunciation: [lex-ê-'fahn-ik]

Definition: Employing pretentious words; using overblown language in speech or writing.

Usage: Lexiphanic has a lot of synonyms: bombastic, pompous, ostentatious, affected, showy and splashy are just a few. With such a wide variety of similar meanings to choose from, we run the risk of sounding lexiphanic ourselves if we use this rare word to talk about somebody else's fustian language.

Suggested Usage: "Lexiphanic" is a word pretty much restricted to describing the way we write and talk. "The content of Richard's paper was simple enough, but the way he put his ideas was lexiphanic." "A lexiphanic choice of words doesn't necessarily impress people, but often confuses them."

Etymology: From Greek lexifanis "a phrase monger." Lexis "speech" comes from the PIE root leg-, which gives us the word lexicon "dictionary," of course. It also lends us dialect, dialogue, allege, delegate, prologue, and syllogism—all of which have to do with language use.

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

refluent (REH-floo-unt), adjective

: flowing back

Example Sentence:

There are some lakes in Louisiana that appear to be formed by the refluent waters of the Mississippi River.

"Refluent" was first documented in English during the 15th century, and it can be traced back to the Latin verb "refluere," meaning "to flow back." "Refluere," in turn, was formed from the prefix "re-" and the verb "fluere" ("to flow"). Other "fluere" descendants in English include "confluent" ("flowing together"), "fluent" and "fluid" (both of which share the earliest sense of "flowing easily"), "circumfluent" ("flowing around"), and even "affluent" (which first meant "flowing abundantly"). "Refluent" even has an antonym derived from "fluere" -- "effluent," meaning "flowing out."

Merriam-Webster Online

[Gail]

I like this word!- Gail

Word of the Day: Rhinorrhea (noun)

Pronunciation: [rI-nê-'ree-ê]

Definition: No, not a rhino with an upset tummy but the medical term for a runny nose.

Usage: We examined rhinoplasty "a nose-job" earlier, so we should have a pretty good idea by now how "rhino-" combines in English compounds. "Rhinorragia" is a nose-bleed and "rhinophonia," as I'm sure you've been told many times, is not an orchestra of nose-blowers, but the resonance of the nose, which causes the speech of some of us to sound a bit nasal.

Suggested Usage: As runny-nose season spreads slowly over us here in America, we need a more imposing and sympathetic word to express this condition than the English counterpart: "I only missed work yesterday because I was laid low by acute rhinorrhea." Not only will your boss be impressed and forgiving, he will avoid contact with you for a month at least. Why risk your reputation calling someone a snot-nosed jerk when you can actually build it by calling them a rhinorreal smellfungus?

Etymology: From the Greek words "rhinos "of the nose" (from rhis, rhin- "nose") and rhoia "a flow." "Rhinos" is most famous for rhinoceros, the nose-horn, based on "rhinos" + keras "horn." In fact, "keras" and "horn" derive from the same original Proto-Indo-European root. Greek karoton "carrot," which entered English via Latin carota "carrot," also comes from the same root, which suggests a horn-like shape. We know far less about the relationships of "rhinos."

–Dr. Language, YourDictionary.com

[D. Allan]

crambo (KRAM-boh), noun

: a game in which one player gives a word or line of verse to be matched in rhyme by other players

Example Sentence:

According to his early letters, James Boswell, friend and biographer of English lexicographer Samuel Johnson, was a keen crambo player.

Did you know?

We've called the game "crambo" since at least 1660, but it was originally dubbed "crambe." The now-obsolete word "crambe" literally meant "cabbage," but it was rarely used for the leafy plant. Instead, it was used figuratively (in reference to a Latin phrase meaning "cabbage repeated or served up again") for things that were overused or repeated. The game, which was popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, began with one player picking a word. A second player then tried to guess it by asking questions. For example: "I know a word that rhymes with 'bird.'" "Is it ridiculous?" "No, it is not absurd." "Is it a part of speech?" "No, it is not a word." And so on, until the word was guessed.

- Merriam-Webster Online

[D. Allan]

syncategorematic (sin-kat-uh-gor-uh-MAT-ik), adjective

: forming a meaningful expression only in conjunction with a denotative expression (as a content word)

Example Sentence:

"In any language, there will be what are called syncategorematic words, such as prepositions and articles," explained Dr. Lewis. \

Did you know?

In ancient Greek logic, "kat&#275;gor&#275;ma" referred to something that was affirmed or denied about the subject in a proposition. For instance, in "the paper is white," "whiteness" would be the "kat&#275;gor&#275;ma." Seventeenth-century logicians extended this concept, which they called "categorem," to cover the subject of the proposition as well. So, in the proposition "All men are mortal," "mortality" is a categorem and so is "man." But what about "all"? Words like "all" that signify quantity (as well as words that function as adverbs, prepositions, or conjunctions) are syncategoremata -- that is, they are words that have meaning in propositions only when used in conjunction "with" other words. ("Syn-" means "with.")

- Merriam Webster Online

[D. Allan]

infrangible (in-FRAN-juh-bul), adjective

1 : not capable of being broken or separated into parts

*2 : not to be infringed or violated

Example Sentence:

Page explained that family is sacred to her because she believes that few things in life are more infrangible than the bonds of kinship.

Did you know?

"Infrangible" comes to us via Middle French from the Late Latin "infrangibilis" and is ultimately derived from the prefix "in-" and the Latin verb "frangere," meaning "to break." (Believe it or not, our "break" is ultimately derived from the same ancient word that gave rise to "frangere.") "Infrangible" first appeared in print in English in the 16th century with the literal meaning "impossible to break"; it was later extended metaphorically to things that cannot or should not be broken.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence

- Merriam-Webster Online