Corsair

Word of the Day for Saturday, August 31, 2013

corsair \KAWR-sair\, noun:

1. a pirate, especially formerly of the Barbary Coast.

2. a fast ship used for piracy.

3. (initial capital letter) Military. a gull-winged, propeller-driven fighter plane built for the U.S. Navy in World War II and kept in service into the early 1950s.

 

The cassique of Kiawah is already known to us, and we may well conceive that he bore himself toward the little wife of the famous corsair with all proper kindliness.
-- William Glimore Simms, The Cassique of Kiawah: A Colonial Romance, 1859

We were five days at sea in the situation I have just described, and the captain entertained hopes of making the desired port in two days more, when a vessel was descried bearing down upon us, which proved to be an Algerine corsair…
-- Francis Lathom, The Mysterious Freebooter, or The Days of Queen Bess, 1806

Corsair came to English in the 16th century from the medieval Latin cursus meaning "hostile voyage."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Pittance

Word of the Day for Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Pittance \PIT-ns\, noun:

1. a small amount or share.
2. a small allowance or sum, as of money for living expenses.
3. a scanty income or remuneration.

He showed us a perfectly authentic mission-card which certified that his family had received a pittance from some charitable organisation situated in the Whitechapel neighbourhood, and that, moreover, they were in the habit of receiving this pittance; and that, finally, their claim to such pittance was amply justified by the poverty of their circumstances.
-- E. E. Cummings, The Enormous Room, 1922

Each daughter can claim an income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to a very serious extent.
-- Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1892

Pittance shares its root with the word pity. It entered English in the 13th century from the Latin pietatem meaning "piety," "loyalty" and "duty."

 

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Meander

Word of the Day for Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Meander \mee-AN-der\, verb:

1. to proceed by or take a winding or indirect course: The stream meandered through the valley.
2. to wander aimlessly; ramble: The talk meandered on.
3. Surveying. to define the margin of (a body of water) with a meander line.

noun:
1. Usually, meanders. turnings or windings; a winding path or course.
2. a circuitous movement or journey.
3. an intricate variety of fret or fretwork.

I had forgotten about muggers on our walk down the avenue, but as we meandered over toward Broadway the street got darker and I became acutely conscious of all we had read about them.
-- Larry McMurtry, Somebody's Darling, 1978

The rest of us climbed the cliffs and hills, looked at entrenched meanders, terminal moraines, glacial detritus, relief maps of the Delaware Water Gap, and outcroppings of the Wissahickon Mica Schist.
-- Renata Adler, Speedboat, 1976

The term meander comes from the Greek Maiandros which is the name of a winding river in Caria. The noun form entered English in the 1500s, and the verb form shortly followed.

 

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Gibbous

Word of the Day for Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Gibbous \GIB-uhs\, adjective:

1. Astronomy. (of a heavenly body) convex at both edges, as the moon when more than half full.
2. humpbacked

Saturday is full moon, so we will celebrate—if we are lucky with the weather—by the light of a waxing gibbous moon.
-- A. S. Byatt, The Children's Book, 2009

The stars and the gibbous moon demanded to be looked at, and when one meteorite had streaked across the sky, you could not help waiting, open-eyed and alert…
-- Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow, 1921

Gibbous entered English late 14th or early 15th century from the Latin gibbus meaning hump.

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Psaltery

Word of the Day for Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Psaltery \SAWL-tuh-ree\, noun:

1. an ancient musical instrument consisting of a flat sounding box with numerous strings which are plucked with the fingers or with a plectrum.
2. (initial capital letter) the Psalter.

Louise returned to her chair, and Eugénie took her psaltery from the floor, sat down and began to play.
-- Charles Gill, The Rich Woods, 2008

Then she heard music from beyond the arbor walk, a lighthearted turn on a psaltery...
-- Margaret Frazer, The Murderer's Tale, 1996

Psaltery came to English in the 14th century from the Greek psalterion meaning "stringed instrument."

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Od

Word of the Day for Monday, August 19, 2013

Od \od, ohd\, noun:

a hypothetical force formerly held to pervade all nature and to manifest itself in magnetism, mesmerism, chemical action, etc.

"I studied mind-cure, or metaphysical healing, which strikes at the root of disease; I went into hypnotism, mesmerism, and phreno-magnetism, and the od force—I don't suppose you know about the od which Reichenbach discovered."
-- Edward Eggleston, The Faith Doctor: a Story of New York, 1891

In these experiments, different substances from which the od was supposed to emanate were arranged on a collodion plate.
-- Edited by Clément Chéroux, The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult, 2005

The term od was coined by chemist and philosopher Karl Ludwig von Reichenbach as a name for his hypothetical force. He proposed the name od because he thought a short word starting with a vowel would be more easily combined in compound words.

 

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Cummerbund

Word of the Day for Friday, August 16, 2013

Cummerbund \KUHM-er-buhnd\, noun:

a wide sash worn at the waist, especially a horizontally pleated one worn with a tuxedo.

Wilson stood gloomily by his bed in the Bedford Hotel and contemplated his cummerbund, which lay ruffled like an angry snake…
-- Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter, 1948

He was now dressed for the evening, in a white tuxedo shirt, black cummerbund, and bowtie.
-- Tom Clancy, Rainbow Six, 1998

Cummerbund came to English in the 17th century from the Urdu and Persian kamarband, meaning "waistband."

 

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Impolitic

Word of the Day for Thursday, August 15, 2013

Impolitic \im-POL-i-tik\, adjective:

not politic, expedient, or judicious.

"The cruelty, the impolitic cruelty," he replied, with great feeling, "of dividing, or attempting to divide, two young people long attached to each other, is terrible…"
-- Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, 1811

"From my point of view it might be impolitic," said Stephen. Jack looked at him, saw that the matter had to do with intelligence and nodded. "Are there any others you would object to?" he asked.
-- Patrick O'Brian, The Wine-Dark Sea, 1993

Impolitic combines the prefix im- meaning "not," with the Greek root politikos meaning "of citizens" or "pertaining to public life." It entered English around 1600.

 

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Dither

Word of the Day for Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Dither \DIHTH-er\, verb:

1. to act irresolutely; vacillate.
2. North England. to tremble with excitement or fear.

noun:
1. a trembling; vibration.
2. a state of flustered excitement or fear.

...his sense of being in an unfamiliar place, affected his powers of coordination, always weak, and he began to dither slightly, caught his foot against one of the legs of the bed, opened his arms to save his balance and so let fall his parcels.
-- Barry Unsworth, Mooncranker's Gift, 1973

You make mistakes, don't you--dither, get things wrong…?
-- Penelope Lively, Pack of Cards, 1978-86

Dither entered English in the 1600s. It's a phonetic variation of the Old English didder, though its ultimate origins are unknown.

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Jilt

Word of the Day for Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Jilt \jilt\, verb:

1. to reject or cast aside (a lover or sweetheart), especially abruptly or unfeelingly.

noun:
1. a woman who jilts a lover.

But for the sake of some of her relations, I shall give my fair jilt a feigned name.
-- Aphra Behn, The Fair Jilt, 1688

"...we know very well women scarcely ever jilt men; 'tis the men who jilt us."
-- Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, 1874

The origin of jilt is uncertain, but it is perhaps from the Middle English gille meaning "lass" or "wench," which was a shortening of the women's name Gillian, a variant of Jill.

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Matador

Word of the Day for Monday, August 12, 2013

Matador \MAT-uh-dawr\, noun:

1. the principal bullfighter in a bullfight who passes the bull with a muleta and then, in many countries, kills it with a sword thrust; a torero.
2. one of the principal cards in skat and certain other games.
3. (initial capital letter) a jet-powered U.S. surface-to-surface missile.

He watched with disgust as the matador called to the bull. With a flamboyant flourish, the matador took over.
-- Tess Uriza Holthe, The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes, 2007

The matador who was ill was careful never to show it and was meticulous about eating a little of all the dishes that were presented at the table.
-- Ernest Hemingway, "The Capital of the World," The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories, 1936

...the matador moved closer and now the animal bunched tired legs to run but one leg slipped throwing up a cloud of dust.
-- Jack Kerouac, Lonesome Traveller, 1960

Matador entered English in 1600s directly from the Spanish matar meaning "to kill or wound."

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Kloof

Word of the Day for Sunday, August 11, 2013

Kloof \kloof\, noun:

(in South Africa) a deep glen; ravine.

There are the sheer kloofs cut in the hills by the rushing rains of centuries, down which the rivers sparkle...
-- H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines, 1885

Take any poor Tommy, out at his picket on the bare hillside or rocky kloof, either blistering in 104-degree heat or shivering under his waterproof sheet, and he could easily believe it so.
-- Giles Foden, Ladysmith, 1999

Kloof came to English in the 1700s from the Dutch word meaning "cleft."

Helter- Skelter

Word of the Day for Saturday, August 10, 2013

Helter-Skelter \HEL-ter-SKEL-ter\, adverb:

1. in headlong and disorderly haste: The children ran helter-skelter all over the house.
2. in a haphazard manner; without regard for order: Clothes were scattered helter-skelter about the room.

adjective:
1. carelessly hurried; confused: They ran in a mad, helter-skelter fashion for the exits.
2. disorderly; haphazard: Books and papers were scattered on the desk in a helter-skelter manner.

noun:
1. tumultuous disorder; confusion.

The same obstacle appeared in a minor degree to cling about his verbal exposition, and accounted perhaps for his rather helter-skelter choice of remarks bearing on the number of unaddressed letters sent to the post-office…
-- George Eliot, Impressions of Theophrastus Such, 1879

His enormous bellow of rage was the signal for Mrs. Hook to run helter-skelter down the alley to take up station in their traditional battleground at its entrance.
-- John Moore, Portrait of Elmbury, 1945

The origin of helter-skelter is unknown, though it is perhaps onomatopoetic. It entered English in the late 1500s and employs a reduplicated rhyme similar to the words hurry-scurry and harum-scarum.

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Finagle

Word of the Day for Friday, August 9, 2013

Finagle \fi-NEY-guhl\, verb:

1. to trick, swindle, or cheat (a person) (often followed by out of): He finagled the backers out of a fortune.
2. to get or achieve (something) by guile, trickery, or manipulation: to finagle an assignment to the Membership Committee.
3. to practice deception or fraud; scheme.

But the law's the law now, and not a contest between a lot of men paid to grin and lie and yell and finagle for whatever somebody wanted them to grin and lie and yell and finagle about.
-- Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano, 1952

The high school biology department had been given a gift of some three hundred hamsters for the purpose of dissection, and Jerry diligently finagled to collect the skins from the biology students…
-- Philip Roth, American Pastoral, 1997

Finagle likely comes from the English dialect term fainaigue meaning "to cheat." It entered English in the 1920s.

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Holograph

Word of the Day for Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Holograph \HOL-uh-graf, -grahf, HOH-luh-\, adjective:

1. wholly written by the person in whose name it appears: a holograph letter.

noun:
1. a holograph writing, as a deed, will, or letter.

The will was holograph, for Mr. Utterson, though he took charge of it now that it was made, had refused to lend the least assistance in the making of it...
-- Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1886

“An unexpectedly thoughtful young man," said Chase, straightening the frame of (Queen Victoria's holograph letter. Originally, he had planned to put the Emerson autograph between those of Longfellow and Tennyson but then he had had second thoughts about keeping a valuable letter addressed not so much to him as the Secretary of the Treasury and so, with a sad heart, he handed it over to the Treasure archives...
-- Gore Vidal, Lincoln: A Novel, 1984

Holograph entered English in the 18th century from the Greek holos + graph, meaning "whole written."

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Hyperhidrosis

Word of the Day for Monday, August 5, 2013

Hyperhidrosis \hahy-per-hi-DROH-sis\, noun:

abnormally excessive sweating.

“I have hyperhidrosis,” Tinkle said. “What's hyperhidrosis?” I asked. “I sweat too much.” “Were you actually diagnosed by a doctor?” “Yes.” “How do you get hyperhidrosis?” “Genetics. And stress. Stress sets up the genetics.”
-- Jonathan Ames, Wake Up, Sir!, 2004

Outside the Riviera, where the air is hot enough to give me hyperhidrosis, everyone gives the driver a two or three dollar tip.
-- William T. Vollmann, Thirteen Stories and Thirteen Epitaphs, 1991

Hyperhidrosis comes directly from the Greek meaning "excessive sweating." It entered English in the late 1800s.

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Spigot

Word of the Day for Saturday, August 3, 2013

Spigot \SPIG-uht\, noun:

1. a small peg or plug for stopping the vent of a cask.
2. a peg or plug for stopping the passage of liquid in a faucet or cock.
3. a faucet or cock for controlling the flow of liquid from a pipe or the like.
4. the end of a pipe that enters the enlarged end of another pipe to form a joint.

The gray hut is five feet away, a raised window above the spigot of the hose.
-- Christopher Bram, Gods and Monsters, 1995

He worked his way around the trunk until he found a spigot. He turned it on and caught a little fluid in the palm of one hand. He sipped it.
-- Piers Anthony, Two to the Fifth, 2008

Spigot came to English in the late 14th century from the Latin spica meaning "ear of grain." It shares its root with the word spike.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Lam

Word of the Day for Friday, August 2, 2013

Lam \lam\, verb:

1. to beat; thrash.
2. to beat; strike; thrash (usually followed by out or into).

Like kingpins, one steel tier lammed into another, then they all crashed to the floor with a sound as of the roof falling.
-- Richard Wright, Black Boy, 1945

That was just before he lammed out—the time he knocked off that crumb from uptown. I remember once when Harry cut up a guy so bad, the guy couldn't walk.
-- Ed McBain, Learning to Kill, 2006

Lam likely finds its roots in the Old Norse lemja meaning "to lame." It entered English in the late 16th century.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Bemused

Word of the Day for Thursday, August 1, 2013

Bemused \bih-MYOOZD\, adjective:

1. bewildered or confused.
2. lost in thought; preoccupied.

He was not only bemused by the voice he had heard. He was bemused by to the very grandeur of the position which he aspired.
-- Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men, 1946

She said nothing else, she just watched his quiet bemused and intent face as he plumbed his empty pockets one by one.
-- William Faulkner, Pylon, 1935

Bemused comes from the Old French muser meaning "to ponder," "dream" or "waste time." It entered English in the late 1800s, though the verb form bemuse has existed in English since the early-to-mid 1700s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com