Gull

Word of the Day

Friday, August 31, 2012

Gull \ guhl \  , verb;

1. To deceive, trick, or cheat.

noun:

1. A person who is easily deceived or cheated; dupe.

Quotes:

What new commodities have you brought to gull us with?

-- Sir Walter Scott, The Waverly Novels

People always ended up trying to gull her. It happened sooner or later. Trent hadn't 

shown any likelihood of trying something like this. A pang of regret at her naivety lodged in her chest.

-- Lorelie Brown, Jazz Baby

Origin:

Gull  is of uncertain origin, but it may come from the now-obsolete word gull which meant "to guzzle."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Crucible

Word of the Day for Thursday, August 30, 2012

Crucible \KROO-suh-buhl\, noun:

1. A severe, searching test or trial.
2. A container of metal or refractory material employed for heating substances to high temperatures.
3. Metallurgy. A hollow area at the bottom of a furnace in which the metal collects.

From the crucible of such inner turmoil come the various metals, soft or brittle, flawed or pure, precious or common, that determine the good runners, the great runners, and perhaps the former runners.
-- John L. Parker, Once a Runner

It was true that as one watched life in its curious crucible of pain and pleasure, one could not wear over one's face a mask of glass…
-- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Crucible stems from the Old French word croisol which referred to a night lamp.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Truncate

Word of the Day for Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Truncate \TRUHNG-keyt\, verb:

1. To shorten by cutting off a part; cut short: Truncate detailed explanations.
2. Mathematics, Computers. To shorten (a number) by dropping a digit or digits: The numbers 1.4142 and 1.4987 can both be truncated to 1.4.

adjective:
1. Truncated.
2. Biology. A. Square or broad at the end, as if cut off transversely. B. Lacking the apex, as certain spiral shells.

He pointed out that it was relatively easy to pronounce, though there was the danger that Americans, obsessed with abbreviation, would truncate it to Nick.
-- Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

Tonight we had to truncate the chorus work and replace it with rehearsal of the larger scenes.
-- Chuck Zito, A Habit for Death

Truncate comes from the Latin word truncātus which meant "to lop." The mathematical and computer usage arose in the 1950s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Compère

Word of the Day for Monday, August 27, 2012

Compère \KOM-pair\, noun:

1. A host, master of ceremonies, or the like, especially of a stage revue or television program.

verb:
1. To act as compère for: to compère the new game show.

Just then, the compère got up on the stage and picked up the microphone. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen…"
-- Kenneth Turpin, Nosy

Then a tall, sidling young man appeared and, after some confusion with the compère, unceremoniously proposed to drink a pint of brown ale without at any point using his hands…
-- Martin Amis, Heavy Water

Compère literally means "godfather" in French. It entered English in the 1730s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Antic

Word of the Day for Saturday, August 25, 2012

Antic \an-tik\, adjective:

1. Ludicrous; funny.
2. Fantastic; odd; grotesque: an antic disposition.

noun:
1. Usually, antics. A. A playful trick or prank; caper. B. A grotesque, fantastic, or ludicrous gesture, act, or posture.
2. Archaic. A. An actor in a grotesque or ridiculous presentation. B. A buffoon; clown.
3. Obsolete. A. A grotesque theatrical presentation; ridiculous interlude. B. A grotesque or fantastic sculptured figure, as a gargoyle.

From the subversive to the antic, the uproarious to the disturbing, the stories of Bruce Sterling are restless, energy-filled journeys through a world running on empty.
-- Bruce Sterling, A Good Old-Fashioned Future

Grey Magic is a work of great scope and stylistic virtuosity, combining antic humour with immense sophistication, an Anglo-American setting with an Anglo-European sensibility and a profound insight into contemporary issues of both personal and collective resonance.
-- Richard Leigh, Grey Magic

Antic comes from the Italian word antico which meant "ancient." Apparently, it was associated with the fantastic figures of the Roman ruins and came to mean "grotesque."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Concertina

Word of the Day for Friday, August 24, 2012

Concertina \kon-ser-TEE-nuh\, verb:

1. To fold, crush together, or collapse in the manner of a concertina: The car concertinaed when it hit the truck.
2. To cause to fold or collapse in the manner of a concertina.

noun:
1. A musical instrument resembling an accordion but having buttonlike keys, hexagonal bellows and ends, and a more limited range.
2. Concertina wire.

Monk is so tall his knees seem to concertina against the dashboard.
-- Michael Robotham, Shatter

As Henderson looked down at his hands, the folds of skin on his face seemed to concertina into a soft place for his chin to rest.
-- Jacquelin Winspear, A Lesson in Secrets

A concertina was named by the inventor who made the instrument, Charles Wheatstone, in 1837. It was first used as a verb in the early 1900s.

Thanks to; www.dictionary.com 

Bole

Word of the Day for Thursday, August 23, 2012

Bole \bohl\, noun:

the stem or trunk of a tree.

...this time found that it was nought alive, but the bole of a tree sitting high out of the water.
-- William Morris, The Water of the Wondrous Isles

He moved toward the bole eagerly. The tree was shorter than it was wide, the branches enormous appendages that flung to the sides in a giant welcome.
-- K.M. Frontain, The Gryphon Taint

Bole stems directly from the Old Norse word bolr which meant "trunk."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Hieratic

Word of the Day for Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Hieratic \hahy-uh-RAT-ik\, adjective:

1. Highly restrained or severe in emotional import: Some of the more hieratic sculptures leave the viewer curiously unmoved.
2. Also, hi·er·at·i·cal. of or pertaining to priests or the priesthood; sacerdotal; priestly.
3. Noting or pertaining to a form of ancient Egyptian writing consisting of abridged forms of hieroglyphics, used by the priests in their records.
4. Noting or pertaining to certain styles in art in which the representations or methods are fixed by or as if by religious tradition.

noun:
1. Ancient Egyptian hieratic writing.

She raised her hands from the side of the pen in a gesture hieratic and profound.
-- Flannery O'Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge

At first, in a hieratic performance, as if in slow motion, the king submitted with mournful joy, bowing his meek head.
-- Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum

The silence here is even more overpowering. Lina is there, hieratic and pale. They approach the bed stealthily, as if fearful of waking a wildcat or a snake.
-- Laurent Binet, HHhH

Related to the word hierarchy, hieratic comes from the Greek word hierātikós meaning "priestly."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Velleity

Word of the Day for Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Velleity \vuh-LEE-i-tee\, noun:

1. Volition in its weakest form.
2. A mere wish, unaccompanied by an effort to obtain it.

Fortunately it did no more than stress, the better to mock if you like, an innate velleity.
-- Samuel Beckett, Molloy

My guess is that instead of being men of decision we are in reality men of velleity.
-- Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

Have you come across the word velleity? A nice Thomistic ring to it. Volition at its lowest ebb. A small thing, a wish, a tendency. If you're low-willed, you see, you end up living in the shallowest turns and bends of your own preoccupations.
-- Don DeLillo, Underworld

Velleity stems from the Latin word velle which meant "to be willing." The suffix -ity is used for abstract nouns.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Simper

Word of the Day for Monday, August 20, 2012

Simper \SIM-per\, verb:

1. To smile in a silly, self-conscious way.
2. To say with a simper.

noun:
1. A silly, self-conscious smile.

It was more a simper than a smile; a pleased, self-satisfied simper.
-- John L'Heureux, A Woman Run Mad

The women Sam usually dates simper and flutter and hang on his every word.
-- Kristine Rolofson, Pillow Talk

Simper is derived from the Danish word sippe, which referred to a woman who sipped her drink in an affected manner.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Lodestar

Word of the Day for Sunday, August 19, 2012

Lodestar \LOHD-stahr\, noun:

1. Something that serves as a guide or on which the attention is fixed.
2. A star that shows the way.
3. Polaris.

Hilola Bigtree was the lodestar that pulled our visored, sweaty visitors across the water.
-- Karen Russell, Swamplandia

It boasts a transportation system second to none amongst the great cities of the world, and it is, most significantly, the lodestar of Japanese culture in modern times.
-- Lawrence William Rogers, Tokyo Stories

Lodestar comes from the Old English word lode which meant "way, course." The word has been used in navigation since the 1400s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Nomothetic

Word of the Day for Saturday, August 18, 2012

Nomothetic \nom-uh-THET-ik\, adjective:

1. Giving or establishing laws; legislative.
2. Founded upon or derived from law.
3. Psychology. Pertaining to or involving the study or formulation of general or universal laws (opposed to idiographic).

Historical studies have been called 'idiographic' as describing dates and place particulars, as do many phases in geology or astronomy, in contrast to 'nomothetic' studies such as physics and chemistry, which are supposed to lay down rules to hold regardless of date.
-- Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam

The data are usually presented statistically, demographically, or epidemiologically. The nineteenth-century Germany philosopher Wilhelm Windelband called this view the nomothetic approach to knowledge.
-- Edwin S. Shneidman, Autopsy of a Suicidal Mind

Nomothetic stems from Greek roots nomo- meaning "law, custom" and thet meaning "place, set."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Belletristic

Word of the Day for Thursday, August 16, 2012

Belletristic \bel-li-TRIS-tik\, adjective:

Related to literature regarded as a fine art, especially as having a purely aesthetic function.

Soon we were eagerly talking about our belletristic efforts. Butler was a short story writer who favoured the “avant-garde” and who had translated several of Raymond Roussel's obscure “texts” into a stiff-jointed English. Lynne was writing a thesis on Max Jacob and his influence on Picasso.
-- Edmund White, The Farewell Symphony

Usually what I do is spread out my notebooks and Fielding's Guide to Worldwide Cruising 1995 and pens and various materials all over the bed, so when the Cabin Service guy appears at the door he'll see all this belletristic material and figure I'm working really hard on something belletristic right here in the cabin and have doubtless been too busy to have hit all the public meals and am thus legitimately entitled to the indulgence of Cabin Service.
-- David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

Belletristic is derived from the imported French phrase belles-lettres, which literally means "fine letters." It entered English in the early 1700s. 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Aseptic

Word of the Day for Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Aseptic \uh-SEP-tik\, adjective:

1. Free from the living germs of disease, fermentation, or putrefaction.

noun:
1. A product, as milk or fruit juice, that is marketed in an aseptic package or container.
2. Aseptics, (used with a singular verb) a system of packaging sterilised products in airtight containers so that freshness is preserved for several months.

The development of aseptic packaging is so highly regarded in food industry circles that in 1983 members of the Institute of Food Technologists… voted it the number-one food innovation in the last fifty years.
-- Vince Staten, Can You Trust a Tomato in January?

He was taken to an aseptic, white barracks on the opposite bank of the Moldau.
-- Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths

Aseptic was invented in the 1850s by chemists. It is based on the root septic meaning "infected."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Fallow

Word of the Day for Monday, August 13, 2012

Fallow \FAL-oh\, adjective:

1. Not in use; inactive: My creative energies have lain fallow this year.
2. (Of land) plowed and left unseeded for a season or more; uncultivated.

noun:
1. Land that has undergone plowing and harrowing and has been left unseeded for one or more growing seasons.

verb:
1. To make (land) fallow for agricultural purposes.

The two men stopped in the road and looked out at the valley, green tinged from the early rains. Samuel said softly, “I wonder you do not feel a shame at leaving that land fallow.”
-- John Steinbeck, East of Eden

They were a limited, narrow-minded people, whose inert intellects lay fallow in incurious resignation.
-- T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Fallow comes from the Old English word fælging from the tool that was used to break up clods of dirt.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com