Thetic

Word of the Day for Sunday, September 30, 2012

Thetic \THET-ik\, adjective:

Positive; dogmatic.

Thetic constructions, on the other hand, are not subject to this sort of contextual requirements.
-- Andreas Dufter and Daniel Jacob, Focus and Background in Romance Languages

His genius was not thetic, but synthetic, not creative but constructive.
-- Andrew Martin Fairbairn, "The Primitive Polity of Islam," The Contemporary Review

Thetic is derived from the Greek word thetikós from the root thet meaning "placed, set."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Catholicon

Word of the Day for Saturday, September 29, 2012

Catholicon \kuh-THOL-i-kuhn\, noun:

A universal remedy; panacea.

And then they sweep out again, leaving the fevered peasants their catholicon of faith, while, overhead, vultures ebonise the sky.
-- Thomas H. Cook, The Orchids

At any rate, this same humour has something, there is no telling what, of beneficence in it, it is such a catholicon and charm—nearly all men agreeing in relishing it, though they may agree in little else—and in its way it undeniably does such a deal of familiar good in the world, that no wonder it is almost a proverb, that a man of humour, a man capable of a good loud laugh—seem how he may in other things—can hardly be a heartless scamp.
-- Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man

Catholicon stems from the Greek word katholikós which meant "according to the whole, universal."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Fiducial

Word of the Day for Friday, September 28, 2012

Fiducial \fi-DOO-shuhl\, adjective:

1. Based on or having trust: fiducial dependence upon God.
2. Accepted as a fixed basis of reference or comparison: a fiducial point; a fiducial temperature.

Knowing the sincerity of her concern for my well-being as I did, I can say with fiducial confidence she was attached to the phone, where she'd no doubt made a beeline the very moment after I'd stormed out of the house, awaiting a call from me announcing I was alright.
-- William Cook, Love in the Time of Flowers

No, it was a par excellence speech, one that neither he nor anyone else was to give in front of an audience, one that wasn't going to be subjected to criticism, for how can you compare when you have no fiducial point?
-- Thomas Justin Kaze, The Year of the Green Snake

Fiducial comes from the Late Latin word fīdūciālis meaning "trust."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Austral

Word of the Day for Thursday, September 27, 2012

Austral \AW-struhl\, adjective:

1. Southern.
2. (Initial capital letter) Australian.

That, at least, was not difficult to do; as they filtered through branches and thick treetops, the rays of the austral sun covered bodies and houses and all the objects of the inhabited area with undulating patterns of light and shadow that blended spectrally into random jungle forms.
-- Carlos Fuentes, Terra Nostra

The church, from the north, seems a precious stone, on its austral side it is blood-coloured, to the west white as snow, and above it shine countless stars more splendid than those in our sky.
-- Umberto Eco, Baudolino

Austral is derived from the Latin word austrālis meaning "southern."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Palter

Word of the Day for Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Palter \PAWL-ter\, verb:

1. To talk or act insincerely or deceitfully; lie or use trickery.
2. To bargain with; haggle.
3. To act carelessly; trifle.

Since murder was that man's intention, why should he palter with small details?
-- Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad

Bathsheba would probably have terminated the conversation there and then by flatly forbidding the subject, had not her conscious weakness of position allured her to palter and argue in endeavours to better it.
-- Thomas Hardy, Far From the Maddening Crowd

Palter is of unknown origin. It first arose in the 1540s, and it may be a variation of the word falter.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Sententious

Word of the Day for Monday, September 24, 2012

Sententious \sen-TEN-shuhs\, adjective:

1. Abounding in pithy aphorisms or maxims: a sententious book.
2. Given to excessive moralizing; self-righteous.
3. Given to or using pithy sayings or maxims: a sententious poet.
4. Of the nature of a maxim; pithy.

For he was a poet and drowned untimely, and his verse, mild as it is and formal and sententious, sends forth still a frail fluty sound like that of a piano organ played in some back street resignedly by an old Italian organ-grinder in a corduroy jacket.
-- Virginia Woolf, "Street Haunting: A London Adventure," Collected Essays

It was inconceivable that she was using the boring, sententious, contentious Shepherd for anything but a hollow threat to him, but this semblance of wrongdoing could now be turned to advantage.
-- Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano

Sententious is related to sententia, the Latin root for the word sentence. The Latin word sententiosus meant "full of meaning, pithy."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Hustings

Word of the Day for Thursday, September 20, 2012

Hustings \HUHS-tingz\, noun:

1. The political campaign trail.
2. (Before 1872) the temporary platform on which candidates for the British Parliament stood when nominated and from which they addressed the electors.
3. Any place from which political campaign speeches are made.
4. Also called hustings court. A local court in certain parts of Virginia.

But he still had to go out to the hustings, a word whose meaning he'd never learned, and campaign for people, or at least give speeches.
-- Tom Clancy, Executive Orders

Now, do not let them lure you to the hustings, my dear Mr. Brooke.
-- George Eliot, Middlemarch

Hustings is derived from the Old Danish word hūs-thing which meant "house meeting." 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Bollix

Word of the Day for Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Bollix \BOL-iks\, verb:

1. To do (something) badly; bungle (often followed by up): His interference bollixed up the whole deal.

noun:
1. A confused bungle.

People always bollix up the things that are most important to them.
-- Eric Gabriel Lehman, Summer's House

It was a sort of cruel fun watching this guy bollix up his life, like watching a cat fight duct tape.
-- Sarah Smith, Chasing Shakespeares

Bollix arose in the 1930s. It's a variation on the slang word bollocks. 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Tartuffery

Word of the Day for Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Tartuffery \tahr-TOOF-uh-ree\, noun:

Behaviour or character of a Tartuffe, especially hypocritical piety.

When Terry had finished showing his contempt and had left the office in disgust at the head's Tartuffery, Jan had calmly got up from her seat and looked hard at the shell-shocked, speechless woman before addressing her.
-- Derryl Flynn, The Albion

Not the sophistry, the malevolence, the restless apathy of the masses, the arrogance and insensitivity of the ruling class, the vulgarity, the bigotry, the intemperance, the maniacal piety and the ungodly Tartuffery.
-- W.E. Gutman, Nocturnes

Tartuffery comes from the comedy by French playwright Molière. The central character of the eponymous play Tartuffe was a hypocritical pretender.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Coetaneous

Word of the Day for Sunday, September 16, 2012

Coetaneous \koh-i-TEY-nee-uhs\, adjective:

Of the same age or duration.

Bear with these distractions, with this coetaneous growth of the parts: they will one day be members, and obey one will.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance and Other Essays

We could say that all living people are contemporaneous but not necessarily coetaneous; they live at different age levels.
-- Harold C. Raley, A Watch Over Mortality

Coetaneous stems from the Latin roots co- meaning "with, together with," ætat- meaning "age," and the suffix -aneus (which is an adjectival suffix meaning "resembling").

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Heliotrope

Word of the Day for Thursday, September 13, 2012

Heliotrope \HEE-lee-uh-trohp\, noun:

1. A light tint of purple; reddish lavender.
2. Any hairy plant belonging to the genus Heliotropium, of the borage family, as H. arborescens, cultivated for its small, fragrant purple flowers.
3. Any of various other plants, as the valerian or the winter heliotrope.
4. Any plant that turns toward the sun.
5. Surveying. An arrangement of mirrors for reflecting sunlight from a distant point to an observation station.
6. Bloodstone.

But the heliotrope envelope with the feminine handwriting and the strange odour immediately suggested queries along lines of investigation which had never before entered her thoughts.
-- George Gibbs, The Vagrant Duke

Blown by steady volumes of roaring wind, everyone's hair is riffled and tangled and leaping in antic wisps, and the heliotrope robes bulk like tumours but flip up in sudden swoops.
-- Edmund White, Forgetting Elena

Heliotrope literally meant "turn towards the sun" in Greek. Flowers that turned towards the sun became associated with this word.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Celadon

Word of the Day for Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Celadon \SEL-uh-don\, noun:

1. A pale gray-green.
2. Any of several Chinese porcelains having a translucent, pale green glaze.
3. Any porcelain imitating these.

adjective:
1. Having the color celadon.

The detail was striking and the cream, salmon, and celadon of the offset colors realistic, if slightly dated.
-- David Foster Wallace, The Pale King

Far out, the bay had a glaze like celadon.
-- Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

The word celadon stems from the name of a character in the 1610 book L'Astrée by Honoré d'Urfé. The character Céladon was a sentimental lover who wore bright green clothes. 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Cerise

Word of the Day for Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Cerise \suh-REES\, 

noun: moderate to deep red.

That it did not strike her, Molly Notkin, as improbable that the special limited-edition turkey-shaped gift bottle of Wild Turkey Blended Whiskey-brand distilled sprits with the cerise velveteen gift-ribbon around its neck with the bow tucked under its wattles on the kitchen counter...
-- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

It was made of a purple satin sheath with layers of cerise tarleton underskirts.
-- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Cerise comes from the French word of the same spelling meaning "cherry." It entered English in the 1850s describing a shade of cherry red. 

thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Primrose

Word of the Day for Monday, September 10, 2012

Primrose \PRIM-rohz\, noun:

1. Pale yellow.
2. Any plant of the genus Primula, as P. vulgaris (English primrose), of Europe, having yellow flowers, or P. sinensis (Chinese primrose), of China, having flowers in a variety of colors. Compare primrose family.
3. Evening primrose.

The thoughts circling Sarah's head kept time with the rhythm of her spoon as she stirred the pale-primrose mixture of egg yolks and cream in the pan.
-- India Grey, Powerful Italian, Penniless Housekeeper

The room was high and white and primrose gold, flanked by Greek columns that caught the lickety amber light of a thousand candles.
-- Don DeLillo, Underworld

Primrose literally meant "first rose" in Old French. It was so called because the yellow rose is one of the earliest blooming roses in the Spring.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Spleenful

Word of the Day for Sunday, September 9, 2012

Spleenful \SPLEEN-fuhl\, adjective:

1. Ill-humoured; irritable or peevish; spiteful; splenetic.
2. Full of or displaying spleen.

For a blink, Ratcliffe himself, who hated almost beyond telling this spleenful fellowman now well handcuffed and clamped at the ankles with cold stout bilboes, did believe in his intentions, and would have resigned all proceedings if he could; but once the doctor prescribes a purge, how can he countermand himself?
-- William T. Vollmann, Argall

Their attention was focused on Guy Fowler, a surly, spleenful man, but one of few old-salts of white blood.
-- Virginia Van Druten, Bound to Sea

The spleen was regarded as the seat of morose feelings and bad tempers in Medieval physiology. The adjective spleenful arose from this association in the late 1500s. 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Manifold

Word of the Day for Saturday, September 8, 2012

Manifold \MAN-uh-fohld\, adjective:

1. Of many kinds; numerous and varied: manifold duties.
2. Having numerous different parts, elements, features, forms, etc.: a manifold program for social reform.

noun:
1. Something having many different parts or features.
2. A copy or facsimile, as of something written, such as is made by manifolding

verb:
1. To make copies of, as with carbon paper.

The possible moves being not only manifold, but involute, the chances of such oversights are multiplied; and in nine cases out of ten, it is the more concentrative rather than the more acute player who conquers.
-- Edgar Allen Poe, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Whatever his arrangements are, however, they are always a pattern of neatness; and every one of the manifold articles connected with his manifold occupations is to be found in its own particular place.
-- Charles Dickens, Master Humphrey's Clock

Manifold comes from the Old English word monigfald meaning "varied in appearance." The English suffix -fold originally meant "of so many parts."

thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Rollick

Word of the Day for Friday, September 7, 2012

Rollick \ROL-ik\, verb:

To move or act in a carefree, frolicsome manner; behave in a free, hearty, gay, or jovial way.

Also in old, jolly fishwives, squatted under arches, obscene old women, how deeply they laugh and shake and rollick, when they walk, from side to side, hum, ha!
-- Virginia Woolf, "The String Quartet," Monday or Tuesday: Eight Stories

A deeper ripple of mirth this time and Bronzini was sad for the boy, skinny Alfonse, but did not rebuke them, kept talking, talked over the momentary rollick—skinny sorry Alfonse, grape-stained with tragic acne.
-- Don DeLillo, Underworld

Rollick is a portmanteau of "frolic" and "romp." It arose in the 1820s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Piceous

Word of the Day for Thursday, September 6, 2012

Piceous \PIS-ee-uhs\, adjective:

1. Inflammable; combustible.
2. Of, pertaining to, or resembling pitch.
3. Zoology. Black or nearly black as pitch.

In the silent and piceous hour just before dawn, they advanced at a slow trot, fanning out through the slave quarters and into the yard that divided the gin house, the mill, and the buildings where Canning and I slept unaware.
-- Geraldine Brooks, March

Dark pink for the brick buildings, dark green for the doorjambs and the benches, dark iron for the hinges, dark stone for Nathaniel's Tomb; darkness in the piceous roots of trees that broke through the earth like bones through skin.
-- Roger Rosenblatt, Beet

Piceous stems from the Latin word piceus meaning "made of pitch."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Ataraxia

Word of the Day for Monday, September 3, 2012

Ataraxia \at-uh-RAK-see-uh\, noun:

A state of freedom from emotional disturbance and anxiety; tranquility.

The former breathes only peace and liberty; he desires only to live and be free from labour; even the ataraxia of the Stoic falls far short of his profound indifference to every other object.
-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and a Discourse on Political Economy

Thus, hedonism ends in ataraxia, which confirms the paradoxical relation between sadism and stoicism.
-- Marquis de Sade, 120 Days of Sodom and Other Writings

Ataraxia stems from the Greek word of the same spelling that meant "impassiveness."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Demulcent

Word of the Day for Saturday, September 1, 2012 Demulcent \dih-MUHL-suhnt\, adjective: 1. Soothing or mollifying, as a medicinal substance. noun: 1. A demulcent substance or agent, often mucilaginous, as for soothing or protecting an irritated mucous membrane. It will do you no harm to keep close, drink nothing but demulcent barley-water and eat gruel, thin gruel—no beef or mutton, no wine or spirits. -- Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander She knew where sour grass grew, which you chew for dyspepsy, and mint, excellent for the nau-shy, and the slippery elm, whose fragrant inner bark was the favorite demulcent of a hundred years ago—the thing to use for raw throat and other sore tishas. -- James Thurber, Writings and Drawings Demulcent comes from the Latin word dēmulcere which meant "to soften." Thanks to: www.dictionary.com