Jackanapes

Word of the Day for Thursday, January 31, 2013

Jackanapes \JAK-uh-neyps\, noun:

1. An impertinent, presumptuous person, especially a young man; whippersnapper.
2. An impudent, mischievous child.
3. Archaic. An ape or monkey.

I blame those jackanapes on the council…
-- George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire

The long-established practitioners, Mr Wrench and Mr Toller, were just now standing apart and having a friendly colloquy, in which they agreed that Lydgate was a jackanapes, just made to serve Bulstrode's purpose.
-- George Eliot, Middlemarch

Jackanapes is a circuitous eponym. In the 1300s, it literally meant "jack of the apes" and was the nickname of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, whose badge was an ape's clog and chain. The word acquired the sense of "mischievous boy" two hundred years later.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Wellaway

Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Wellaway \WEL-uh-WEY\, interjection:

(Used to express sorrow.)

She entered under the dome weeping and wailing, “Wellaway!"
-- edited by Leonard Charles Smither, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night

"Wellaway. My little son so dear!" So sad he was that no one could cheer up at all…
-- Marijane Osborn, Romancing the Goddess

Wellaway is related to the contemporary word woe. It came from the Old English phrase wā lā wā meaning "woe! lo! woe!"

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Plotz

Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Plotz \plots\, verb:

To collapse or faint, as from surprise, excitement, or exhaustion.

And there would be no way to hide the official tail on her parents' manicured, sweeping drive. “God, Mother would plotz.”
-- Elizabeth Lowell, Die in Plain Sight

I mean, the consul would have plotzed, since it would have made him directly involved.
-- Avner Mandelman, Talking to the Enemy

Plotz is an Americanism that first arose in the 1940s. It comes from the Yiddish word platsn which meant "to crack, split, burst." That word in turn originated in the German word blatzen or platzen.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Word-hoard

Word of the Day for Monday, January 28, 2013

Word-hoard \WURD-hawrd\, noun:

A person's vocabulary.

It held what our Saxon forebears would have called his word-hoard. Prisk dipped into his invisible bag, drew out a word apparently at random, fingered it jealously for some minutes, returned it, and brought out another word.
-- Michael Innes, The Weight Of The Evidence

This audience, more than anything, perhaps, gave William the energy to once again unload his word hoard. And what a word hoard it was.
-- Victor Bockris, With William Burroughs

When Inman spoke to them they neither answered nor flickered an eye in his direction to even acknowledge the sound of his voice, and he began to assume that what the boy had spoken at the fire comprised their collective word hoard.
-- Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain

We need a well stocked word-hoard and should be avid to add to it.
-- Paul Edwards, The Practical Preacher

Word-hoard first occurred in modern English in the 1890s. It was a literal translation of the Old English word wordhord which meant "a store of words."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Antipathetic

Word of the Day for Saturday, January 26, 2013

Antipathetic \an-ti-puh-THET-ik\, adjective:

1. Opposed, averse, or contrary; having or showing antipathy: They were antipathetic to many of the proposed changes .
2. Causing or likely to cause antipathy: The new management was antipathetic to all of us.

The Psalms are really antipathetic to the modern mind, because the modern mind is so abstracted and logical, it cannot bear the non-logical imagery of the Hebrew hymns, the sort of confusion, the never going straight ahead.
-- D. H. Lawrence, Apocalypse and the Writings on Revelation

Collingswood's teachers had either been indifferent or mildly antipathetic to her. One man, her biology teacher, had more actively disliked her.
-- China Miéville, Kraken

Antipathetic stems from the Greek root pathos which meant "suffering, sensation." The Greek word antipathḗs meant "opposed in feeling."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Kibitzer

Word of the Day for Thursday, January 24, 2013

Kibitzer \KIB-it-ser\, noun:

1. A giver of uninvited or unwanted advice.
2. A spectator at a card game who looks at the players' cards over their shoulders, especially one who gives unsolicited advice.
3. A person who jokes, chitchats, or makes wisecracks, especially while others are trying to work or to discuss something seriously.

Your mother's heart, dear, will mend with the advent of children, and her father's father, a wobbly kibitzer pointing to Kat's mom and muttering, A beautiful strawberry girl, why all the fuss, why all the disunion over a strawberry girl?
-- Peter Orner, Love and Shame and Love

Bronzini looked on, sitting in when someone left but otherwise a kibitzer, unmeddlesome, content to savour the company and try the wine, sometimes good, sometimes overfermented, better used to spike a salad.
-- Richard Russo, Underworld

Kibitzer entered English first in America in the 1920s. It comes from the Yiddish word kibetsn (equivalent to German kiebitzen) meaning "to look on at cards."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

En règle

Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 23, 2013

En règle \ahn RE-gluh\, adjective:

In order; according to the rules; correct.

This was all done en règle, and in our work we shall be en règle too. We shall not go so early that the policemen who have then little to think of, shall deem it strange.

-- Bram Stoker, Dracula

I told her it was not quite en règle to bring one so far out of our own set; but she said, 'Genius itself is not en règle; it comes into the world to make new rules.'
-- George Eliot, Daniel Deronda

En règle snuck into the English language in the 1810s. It came directly from the French phrase of the same spelling which meant literally "in rule."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Gorgonize

Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Gorgonize \GAWR-guh-nahyz\, verb:

To affect as a Gorgon; hypnotize; petrify.

Shorten it, then, to what is functional, direct and bluntly, derogatorily descriptive. Of his awful power to horrify, to gorgonize, to chill.
-- Christopher Rush, Last Lesson of the Afternoon

Mortimo Planno could gorgonize foes with a stony stare, but his deep baritone voice was seductive and unexpectedly disarming.
-- Colin Grant, The Natural Mystics

Gorgonize is the verbification of an ancient Greek mythological figure. The Gorgons were three sister monsters commonly represented as having snakes for hair, wings, and brazen claws. Their eyes turned anyone looking into them to stone. Thus to gorgonize someone is to turn them into stone.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Jubilarian

Word of the Day for Sunday, January 20, 2013

Jubilarian \joo-buh-LAIR-ee-uhn\, noun:

A person who celebrates or has celebrated a jubilee, as a nun observing 25 or more years of religious life.

To enable the school to open in 1916, Sisters Agnes Geraghty and Corona Hargrafen, golden jubilarians, had come out of retirement, and Sister Juliana Kritenbrink, another golden jubilarian, joined them the next year.
-- O. P. Dolores Enderle, Suzanne Noffke, The Dominicans of Racine, Wisconsin

The crowd was so great that when the doors were closed at a late hour to relieve the strain on the seventy-two-year-old jubilarian, a line of people still reached around the south and west sides of the Square.
-- Patrick Ryan, Archbishop Patrick John Ryan His Life and Times

In Biblical tradition, the jubilee is a yearlong celebration which occurs every 50 years. All debts are forgiven and lands returned to their original owners. Today jubilees are often celebrations of significant anniversaries, particularly every 25, 50, 60 or 75 years. Jubliarian refers to anyone who has or is celebrating a significant 25-year milestone.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Shindy

Word of the Day for Saturday, January 19, 2013

Shindy \SHIN-dee\, noun:

1. A row; rumpus.
2. A shindig.

"If the thing goes wrong," said a man by my side, "we shall see a shindy."
-- Maurice Leblanc, The Three Eyes

"Say," he said, "there's an awful shindy in the house. The dressmaker is pitching into papa for all she is worth, and there are some other folks, but she's goin' it loudest; but they are all going it! Cracky! Hear 'em!"
-- Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, The Debtor

Shindy is a peculiar Americanism that arose in the 1810s. It referred originally to shinny, a now-obsolete game resembling field hockey. The word came to be applied not just to sport but also to raucous events.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Camelot

Word of the Day for Friday, January 18, 2013

Camelot \KAM-uh-lot\, noun:

1. Any idyllic place or period, especially one of great happiness.
2. The legendary site of King Arthur's palace and court, possibly near Exeter, England.
3. The glamorous ambiance of Washington, D.C., during the administration of President John F. Kennedy, 1961–63.

A tiny house next to it had been the girl's home for all the summers of her short life. It was her castle, her retreat, her hideaway, her Camelot.
-- Matina Psyhogeos, Reaching for the Sky

His father's voice brought him out of his Camelot reverie. Probably the old man was reading his mind and that would account for his sardonic smile under the raised eyebrows.
-- Ward S. Just, Forgetfulness

Camelot may or may not have ever been a real place. Some have claimed that it corresponds to Camuladonum, the Roman forerunner of Colchester, which was an impressive palace in the Middle Ages, but Elizabethans tended to see it as Cadbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort near Glastonbury. Regardless, it has been associated with a place of wealth and beauty since the 1100s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Preconcert

Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Preconcert \pree-kuhn-SURT\, verb:

1. To arrange in advance or beforehand, as by a previous agreement.

adjective:
1. Preceding a concert: a preconcert reception for sponsors.

Indeed she did not really suspect the visitor, who was one too ingenuous in his nature to preconcert so subtle and so wicked a scheme.
-- Anthony Trollope, Dr. Wortle's School

If personal accidents, and accidents so trivial, could, to any serious extent, be amongst the causes of war, then it would become a hopeful duty to preconcert personal combinations that should take an opposite direction.
-- Thomas De Quincey, The Works of Thomas De Quincey

Though today concert is most often a noun, it was usually used as a verb in the 1700s typically in the sense of "to bring together" or "to arrange." Preconcert thus meant "to arrange beforehand."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Vertex

Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Vertex \VUR-teks\, noun:

1. The highest point of something; apex; summit; top: the vertex of a mountain.
2. Anatomy, Zoology. The crown or top of the head.
3. Craniometry. The highest point on the midsagittal plane of the skull or head viewed from the left side when the skull or head is in the Frankfurt horizontal.
4. Astronomy. A point in the celestial sphere toward which or from which the common motion of a group of stars is directed.
5. Geometry. A. The point farthest from the base: the vertex of a cone or of a pyramid. B. A point in a geometrical solid common to three or more sides. C. The intersection of two sides of a plane figure.

When the six-pointed star was laid perfectly over the Great Seal of the United States, the star's top vertex fit perfectly over the Masonic all-seeing eye…
-- Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

Some way off from its near vertex (which happened to be between terrible Dino and Pemphredo the stinger), I hid behind a shrub of briar to reconnoiter…
-- John Barth, Chimera

Vertex stems from the Latin word of the same spelling which meant "a whirl" or "top (of the head)." It comes from the same stem as the word vortex, vert meaning "to turn." The sense of "the highest point" arose in the 1640s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Pseudepigraphy

Word of the Day for Friday, January 11, 2013

pseudepigraphy \soo-duh-PIG-ruh-fee\, noun:

The false ascription of a piece of writing to an author.

But the apocalyptic seers were usually not content with mere anonymity; they generally practiced pseudepigraphy.
-- Shaye J. D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah

Even this gimmick exactly parallels the ancient scriptural practice of pseudepigraphy whereby a later, undistinguished writer, would hide behind the name of a greater figure of the past, claiming venerable authority for his own innovations.
-- R. M. Price, C. A. Smith, The Book of Eibon

Pseudopigraphy was first used in the 1830s, but a related word pseudepigrapha dates back to the 1600s. In Greek, the word epigraph meant "title, ascription to an author." With the prefix pseud, it literally means "false ascription to an author."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Pseudology

Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Pseudology \soo-DOL-uh-jee\, noun:

Lying considered as an art.

For example, listening to the life history account of András Albert, a Transylvanian lumberman, the outsider may wonder how to distinguish fact from fiction, poetry from lie, and how to regard the relationship between pseudology and storytelling.
-- Linda Dégh, Narratives in Society

So many people would love to get their hands on a machine that can inhibit pseudology, mendacity and falsehood. The police, Intelligence services, all sorts and conditions of interested agencies and institutions.
-- Stephen Fry, The Liar

Pseudology comes from two Greek roots, pseudo- meaning "false" and -logy meaning "study of." The word does not literally mean "the study of lying" but has come to embody the sense of "the art of lying."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Couthie

Word of the Day for Friday, January 4, 2013

Couthie \KOO-thee\, adjective:

Agreeable; genial; kindly.

Occasionally he'd stab one of the buttons, never managing to stop the machines' couthie chatter of grunts and whistles.
-- James Meek, The Heart Broke In

… That her coming away from home was no small loss to England, not but that England, as we all knew, had many ladies, yet could not have many so couthie, and kind, and willing to help, as Mrs. Doctor More.
-- William Tait, "The Roads Through the World," Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 24

Couthie stems from the Old English word cūth, originally meaning "to know." It arose in the 1700s in Scotland in the sense of "agreeable."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Violescent

Word of the Day for Thursday, January 3, 2013

Violescent \vahy-uh-LES-uhnt\, adjective:

Tending to a violet colour: a violescent twilight sky.

Scriabin's prelude is dark in colour, violescent, like moiré unfurling in the evening wind.
-- Gabriele D'Annunzio, Notturno

The portrait was vile, a dirty grey colour with large violescent patches.
-- Emile Zola, Thérèse Raquin

Violescent is clearly related to the more common word violet. The suffix -escent means "beginning to show" as in the word luminescent.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Advert

Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Advert \ad-VURT\, verb:

1. To remark or comment; refer (usually followed by to): He adverted briefly to the news of the day.
2. To turn the attention (usually followed by to): The committee adverted to the business at hand.

To understand the nature of those commotions, and the part which Baxter took in them, it will be necessary to advert to the state of religion in the country at large.
-- Richard Baxter, William Orme, The Practical Works of Richard Baxter

He had not the tact, or the art, to effect such a purpose by skillfully drawing out my sentiments or ideas through the real or apparent statement of his own, or leading the conversation by imperceptible gradations to such topics as he wished to advert to: but such gentle abruptness, and such single-minded straightforwardness, could not possibly offend me.
-- Anne Bronte, Agnes Grey

Advert comes from the Latin word advertere meaning "to pay attention."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com