Stridulous

Word of the Day for Thursday, December 27, 2012

Stridulous \STRIJ-uh-luhs\, adjective:

1. Also, strid·u·lant. Making or having a harsh or grating sound.
2. Pathology. Pertaining to or characterised by stridor.

He was about to leave when a stridulous voice cut through the din.
-- Stephen Marlowe, The Death and Life of Miguel De Cervantes

But at this moment the long-drawn, slightly stridulous utterances of Mrs. Brimmer rose through the other greetings like a lazy east wind.
-- The Writings of Bret Harte, The Crusade of the Excelsior

Stridulous came from the Latin word stridulus meaning "giving a shrill sound, creaking" from stridere meaning "to utter an inarticulate sound, grate, creak."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Avidity

Word of the Day for Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Avidity \uh-VID-i-tee\, noun:

1. Enthusiasm or dedication.
2. Eagerness; greediness.

One may speak about anything on earth with fire, with enthusiasm, with ecstasy, but one only speaks about oneself with avidity.
-- Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, "A Correspondence," Essential Turgenev

Come, walk up, and purchase with avidity, Overcome your diffidence and natural timidity!
-- William S. Gilbert, Arthur Seymour Sullivan, Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride

Avidity appeared in English in the mid-1500s, originating from the French word avide, meaning "to crave, long for." The term adds a dimension of intensity to the "eagerness" with which it is often equated.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Douce

Word of the Day for Sunday, December 23, 2012

Douce \doos\, adjective:

Sedate; modest; quiet.

“So should I have been, in my interview with Sir Thomas— how shall I put it— more douce?”
-- Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

Port Glasgow is to the east of Greenock, Gourock to the west. The latter town combines a douce middle-class residential area and a Ken MacLeod.
-- Edited by Gardner Dozois, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection

Douce comes from the French word of the same spelling meaning "sweet." It became widely used in English after it was used in the Chanson of Roland, a epic poem written about Charlemagne.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Decathect

Word of the Day for Saturday, December 22, 2012

Decathect \dee-kuh-THEKT\, verb:

To withdraw one's feelings of attachment from (a person, idea, or object), as in anticipation of a future loss: He decathected from her in order to cope with her impending death.

Freud argued that grieving involved a process of remembering and reflecting upon all the memories associated with the deceased in order to sever an emotional connection, or “decathect,” and make room for new bonds and relationships.
-- Maria Cizmic, Performing Pain

Jonathan was the name of the boy in the pagoda with Michael. “He will continue manipulating Jonathan. We must get Jonathan to decathect from Michael.”
-- Chaim Potok, The Promise

Decathect originates from a combination of the Latin prefix de- implying an undoing or removal, and the Greek term kathek meaning "to keep, hold on to." It was originally used by Freud in the 1930s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Algid

Word of the Day for Friday, December 21, 2012

Algid \AL-jid\, adjective:

Cold; chilly.

The sun weakens and grows pale as though seen through algid water and the air is stale and still.
-- Bryce Courtenay, The Family Frying Pan

There was an algid texture to the air, causing everyone to shiver involuntarily.
-- Richard K. Patterson, The Kaleidoscope Project

A late Renaissance term, algid is derived from the Latin algidus, meaning "cold."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Counterblast

Word of the Day for Thursday, December 20, 2012

Counterblast \koun-ter-blast\, noun:

An unrestrained and vigorously powerful response to an attacking statement.

In my view it's really a matter of style. For getting me most effective counterblast, I mean. You don't want to counterblast them in their own style. They're to meeting such counterblasts, anyhow.
-- William Cooper, You're Not Alone

On 26 September 1920 Woolf wrote in her diary that she was 'making up a paper upon Women, as a counterblast to Mr Bennett's adverse views reported in the papers' and this turned into 'A Society'.
-- Virginia Woolf, introduction by David Bradshaw, "The Proper Stuff for Fiction," The Mark on the Wall

Counterblast, predictably, comes from the roots "counter" and "blast." It came into common English usage in the 1560s. The prefix counter- originates in the Latin word contrā which meant "against, to return." Blast, on the other hand, originates in Old English, from the word blǽst, which meant "to blow."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Echolalia

Word of the Day for Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Echolalia \ek-oh-LEY-lee-uh\, noun:

1. The imitation by a baby of the vocal sounds produced by others, occurring as a natural phase of childhood development.
2. Psychiatry. The uncontrollable and immediate repetition of words spoken by another person.

At the time when speech is being learned, there begins a period of echolalia in which the child repeats with tireless continuation all the words or sentences it hears; either completely, or else their closing cadences.
-- Kurt Koffka, The Growth of the Mind: An Introduction to Child Psychology

These "terrestrial echoes" where the "swamp's echolalia," according to Kiwi, who liked to make geography as pretentious as possible.
-- Karen Russell, Swamplandia!

I had cultivated a mild sort of insanity, echolalia, I think it's called. All the tag ends of the night's proofreading danced on the tip of my tongue.
-- Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer

Echolalia originates from two Greek roots: echo derived from the name of the mythic nymph Echo fabled to have pined herself away to nothing but her name, combined with lalia meaning "talk or prattle."

thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Whinge

Word of the Day for Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Whinge \hwinj\, verb:

To complain; whine.

Sorry Tom. Canadian idiom. Whinge. Complain. Petition for redress. Assemble. March in those five-abreast demonstrating lines. Shake upraised fists in unison.
-- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

It was a tough life but you could never whinge because you knew you'd got to heaven and therefore, logically and rationally, you had to be happy. To whinge would have been an unforgivable sin.
-- Susan Howatch, The High Flyer

Whinge is a Northern variant of the Old English word hwinsian meaning, "to whine."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Lagan

Word of the Day for Monday, December 17, 2012

Lagan \LAG-uhn\, noun:

Anything sunk in the sea, but attached to a buoy or the like so that it may be recovered.

But hear what your Grace does not know. In the sea there are three kinds of things: those at the bottom, lagan; those which float, flotsam; those which the sea throws up on the shore, jetsam.
-- Victor Hugo, The Man Who Laughs

"Wreck" shall include jetsam, flotsam, lagan, and derelict found in or on the shores of the sea or any tidal water.
-- Harry Newsom, The Law of Salvage, Towage, and Pilotage

Lagan is not as well known as its contextual brethren, flotsam and jetsam. The word comes from the Old Norse word lǫgn which meant "a net laid in the sea."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Buttress

Word of the Day for Saturday, December 15, 2012

Buttress \BUH-tris\, verb:

1. To give encouragement or support to (a person, plan, etc.).
2. To support by a buttress; prop up.

noun:
1. Any external prop or support built to steady a structure by opposing its outward thrusts, especially a projecting support built into or against the outside of a masonry wall.
2. Any prop or support.
3. A thing shaped like a buttress, as a tree trunk with a widening base.
4. A bony or horny protuberance, especially on a horse's hoof.

But that our cause, our very life and future hopes and past pride, should have been thrown into that balance with men like that to buttress it—men with valour and strength but without pity of honour.
-- William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!

It occurred to me that perhaps my brother gilder, Elegant, had with sly intent used these facts to buttress his false accusations.
-- Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red

In its current form, buttress is a derivative of the Old French boteret, referring to 'support.'

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Apopemptic

Word of the Day for Friday, December 14, 2012

Apopemptic \ap-uh-PEMP-tik\, adjective:

1. Pertaining to leave-taking or departing; valedictory.

noun:
1. Obsolete. A farewell address; valedictory.

The others followed suit and, politely apopemptic, vanished into the night.
-- Sōseki Natsume, Aiko Ito, Graeme Wilson, I Am a Cat

Only to the fool who believes all truths debatable, who believes true virtue resides not in men but in eulogies, true sorrow not in partings but in apopemptic hymns…
-- John Gardner, Jason and Medeia

Rising to prominence in the middle 1700s, apopemptic derives from the Greek apopemptikós, pertaining to 'sending away.'

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Plication

Word of the Day for Thursday, December 13, 2012

Plication \plahy-KEY-shuhn\, noun:

1. The act or procedure of folding.
2. The state or quality of being folded; a fold.
3. Surgery. A. The folding in and suturing of tucks, so as to tighten weakened or stretched tissue. B. The folding of an organ, as a section of the intestine, and the attaching of it to another organ or tissue.

The distribution of sediment by the polar currents, and the lines of plication and upheaval of the crust, as well as the distribution of successive floras, prove that the poles have remained since the Laurentian period where they now are.
-- W.C. and F.P. Church, The Galaxy

For the purpose of this text the term plication will be used in reference to grasping the SMAS [Superficial Muscular Aponeurotic System, in the face] and folding it over on itself by means of a suture.
-- Michael S. Kaminer, Kenneth A. Arndt, Jeffrey S. Dover, Atlas of Cosmetic Surgery

Plication is derived from the Medieval Latin stem plicātiō, relating to a 'fold' or 'pleat.'

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Adiaphorous

Word of the Day for Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Adiaphorous \ad-ee-AF-er-uhs\, adjective:

Doing neither good nor harm, as a medicine.

Sun and Mr. Allworthy are united, but with a difference: the sun, in all his majesty and splendour is, in the words of Boyle, "adiaphorous" unthinking matter, whereas Mr. Allworthy is a moral agent . . .
-- Jina Politi, The Novel and Its Presuppositions

. . .which participates of neither extreme, as for example, all those things which, as being neither good nor evil in themselves, we call adiaphorous, or indifferent.
-- William Watson Goodwin, Plutarch's Morals

Adiaphorous is derived from the Greek, adiaphoros, meaning 'indifferent.'

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Cruciverbalist

Word of the Day for Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Cruciverbalist \kroo-suh-VUR-buh-list\, noun:

A designer or aficionado of crossword puzzles.

"What kind of writer are you, then?" prods Middle. "A cruciverbalist," Claire says, regretting the word even as it leaves her lips.
-- Elise Juska, One for Sorrow, Two for Joy

In high school I was a closet cruciverbalist [because] working on crosswords seemed so uncool.
-- Kristin Tillotson, "The Life and Times of a Crossword Addict," Minneapolis Star Tribune

This young word was coined in the late 1970s and entered the vernacular in 1990. Cruciverablist is derived from two Latin roots crux meaning 'cross' and verbum, meaning 'word.'

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Howdah

Word of the Day for Friday, December 7, 2012

Howdah \HOU-duh\, noun:

(In the East Indies) a seat or platform for one or more persons, commonly with a railing and a canopy, placed on the back of an elephant.

Above the musket smoke and the gritty dust that was drifting over the battlefield, he saw the howdahs of some of Hemu's war elephants approaching.
-- Alex Rutherford, Ruler of the World

Now she made a picture of an elephant, with four lines for the howdah, in which was seated a princess wearing a crown.
-- Qurratulʻain Ḥaidar, "The Housing Society," The Sound of Falling Leaves

Howdah has both Hindi and Arabic origins, both referring to the load carried by an elephant or camel: haudah in Hindi, and haudaj in Arabic.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Quench

Word of the Day for Thursday, December 6, 2012

Quench \kwench\, verb:

1. To slake, satisfy, or allay (thirst, desires, passion, etc.).
2. To put out or extinguish (fire, flames, etc.).
3. To cool suddenly by plunging into a liquid, as in tempering steel by immersion in water.
4. To subdue or destroy; overcome; quell: to quench an uprising.
5. Electronics. To terminate (the flow of electrons in a vacuum tube) by application of a voltage.

Foul water will quench fire as well as fair.
-- John Heywood, Proverbs

Which was not the first day at all, not Eden morning at all because girls' weather and boys' luck is the sum of all the days: the cup, the bowl proffered once to the lips in youth and then no more; proffered to quench or sip or drain that lone one time and even that sometimes premature, too soon.
-- William Faulkner, The Town

Quench originates from the old English cwincan, meaning 'to go out, to be extinguished.'

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Erinaceous

Word of the Day for Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Erinaceous \er-uh-NEY-shuhs\, adjective:

Of the hedgehog kind or family.

At times even more ruthless, their erinaceous fingernails used as claws, as dangerous as any blade.
-- Richard W. Hoffman, The Bamboo American

[Thoreau was] the most erinaceous of American writers. Ideas stuck out from his writings like porcupine quills, guaranteed to prick the hide of even the most thick-skinned, reader.
-- Walter Harding, The Days of Henry Thoreau: A Biography

Erinaceous originates from the Latin ērināceus for hedgehog, followed by the suffix -ous referring to the possession of a quality.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Pontificate

Word of the Day for Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Pontificate \pon-TIF-i-keyt\, verb:

1. To speak in a pompous or dogmatic manner.
2. To perform the office or duties of a pontiff.
3. To serve as a bishop, especially in a Pontifical Mass.

noun:
1. The office or term of office of a pontiff.

His image is to appear as the guardian of robust morality as opposed to the business world, and he is invited pretty regularly to pontificate on television.
-- Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The teacher's vanity and desire to pontificate had, he was vaguely aware, got the better of him.
-- Michael Antony, The Apocalypse Syndrome

Originating from the Latin pontificatus, meaning 'to speak in the manner of a pontiff,' pontificate fell into common usage in 1825.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Effervescent

Word of the Day for Monday, December 3, 2012

Effervescent \ef-er-VES-uhnt\, adjective:

1. High-spirited; vivacious; lively.
2. Effervescing; bubbling.

One of them was a thickset young man who played doggedly without speaking, the other was an effervescent young man with white eyebrows and a nervous manner.
-- James Joyce, Stephen Hero

Bobbing up and down, for a few seconds, like an apple in a bowl of toddy, he, at length, finally disappeared amid the whirlpool of foam which, in the already effervescent liquor, his struggles easily succeeded in creating.
-- Edgar Allan Poe, King Pest

That night, when Jennifer and I go out to dinner, she is effervescent with plans for our future.
-- Isaac Asimov, Science Fiction Magazine, Volume 8, 1984

Effervescent originated as a French verb in the 1650s meaning, 'the action of boiling up' (as in water), though it did not assume its figurative meaning relating to personality until 1748.

Thanks to: www.dictinary.com 

Trundle

Word of the Day for Friday, November 30, 2012

Trundle \TRUHN-dl\, verb:

To move or walk with a rolling gait.

They get her into a wheelbarrow and trundle her all over town.
-- Alice Munroe, Meneseteung

Fling leaflets down basements; expose them in stalls; trundle them along streets on barrows to be sold for a penny or given away.
-- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own: Three Guineas

Trundle, first used in the 1500s, may originate from the Old English trendel, "ring or disk," which is also the root of the modern English trend.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Svelte

Word of the Day for Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Svelte \SFELT\, adjective:

1. Slender, especially gracefully slender in figure.
2. Suave; blandly urbane.

In 1944 his mother had been a relatively svelte one hundred and eighty pounds.
-- Stephen King, It: A Novel

“When I walk under one of the pathway lamps and look down you can indeed see the silhouette of my body which doesn’t look quite as svelte and hourglassy as I believe it did just an hour ago when I was admiring myself in the mirror.
-- Terry McMillan, How Stella Got Her Groove Back

Svelte enters English in 1800s from the French, and originally derives from the Latin verb exvellere, "to stretch out."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Rime

Word of the Day for Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Rime \RAHYM\, noun:

A coating of tiny, white, granular ice particles, caused by the rapid freezing of water droplets.

The Chief’s follow spot cast a light like a rime of ice into the murk, and mom swam inside this circle across the entire length of the lake.
-- Karen Russell, Swamplandia!

When it got real fierce, when your very speech would freeze as it emanated from your lips and blow back in stinging rime against the cheeks, we hung close to the tepees and ate the dried meat taken the summer before and stored in rawhide parfleches and pemmican, the greasier the better on account of a bellyful of melting fat will warm you sooner and stick longer than most anything I know.
-- Thomas Berger, Little Big Man

Rime, also known as hoarfrost, comes from the Old English hrim. Used mainly in Northern England and Scotland for centuries, it was revived in literature in the 19th century.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Fainaigue

Word of the Day for Monday, November 26, 2012

Fainaigue \fuh-NEYG\, verb:

1. To shirk; evade work or responsibility.
2. To renege at cards.

I finally fainaigue a tin plate out of the mess department, for which I am required to give two lire.
-- Harry Partch, Thomas McGeary, Bitter Music: Collected Journals, Essays, Introductions, and Librettos

I've a two-year stretch up here, unless I quit or fainaigue a transfer.
-- "Astounding Science fiction, Volume 31, issue 21943"

Fainaigue stems from British dialect, but its exact origins are unclear. Whether or not it has a relationship to finagle is a source of debate.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Agape

Word of the Day for Thursday, November 22, 2012

Agape \ah-GAH-pey\, noun:

1. Unselfish love of one person for another without sexual implications.
2. The love of Christians for other persons, corresponding to the love of God for humankind.

In theological sermons we are used to hearing of a great distinction between fleshly and spiritual love, eros and agape.
-- Joseph Campbell, The Flight of the Wild Gander: Essays

Not even the shift that Auden himself saw in the poem, that from erotic love with its inevitable undertones of egotism and potential failure to a brotherly love embodied in agape, is completely evident.
-- Rainer Emig, W.H. Auden: Towards a Postmodern Poetics

Agape originates as the Greek agapen, "to greet with affection." The term was adopted by early Christians in connection with celebrations. The general sense of "love without sexual aspects" came into use in the 1800s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Giblets

Word of the Day for Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Giblets \JIB-lits\, noun:

The heart, liver, gizzard, and the like, of a fowl, often cooked separately.

She prods the chicken, flexes a wing, pokes a finger into the cavity, fishes out the giblets.
-- Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale

Whatever you say to such people, they think you're talking about their problem, like the story of the cat, where the couple was arguing about a divorce but the cat thought they were disagreeing about the giblets for its lunch.
-- Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum

Giblets most likely derives from the Old French gibelet, "a stew made from wild game."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com