Quadrille

Word of the Day for Tuesday 31^st December 2013

Quadrille \kwo-DRIL, kwuh-, kuh-\, noun:

1. a square dance for four couples, consisting of five parts or movements, each complete in itself.
2. the music for such a dance.

…I found that every one of the other couples had retired, and that we four were left to dance the quadrille by ourselves!
-- William Makepeace Thackeray, The Fitz-Boodle Papers, 1842

"What a delightful quadrille we are having!" she said enthusiastically as she passed him. "Delightful!" he acquiesced, with a sudden leap at his heart, and forthwith he resolved to engage her for the next dance as soon as ever he should be at liberty.
-- Ross Neil, The Heir Expectant, 1870

Quadrille entered English in the 1700’s from the Latin quadra meaning "square."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Hibernaculum

Word of the Day for Monday 30^th December 2013

Hibernaculum \hahy-ber-NAK-yuh-luhm\, noun:

1. a protective case or covering, especially for winter, as of an animal or a plant bud.
2. winter quarters, as of a hibernating animal.

Already it has become something much greater than a house or a home: a hibernaculum, for each of them, of some kind of ecstatic regeneration.
-- Kate Moses, Wintering: a Novel of Sylvia Plath, 2003

This winter home or hibernaculum of the peach-tree borer is a thin affair, with a smooth interior, and is made of bits of frass or particles of bark fastened together with silken threads, which simply covers the borer as it rests curled up on the bark.
-- Mark Vernon Slingerland, The Peach-tree Borer, 1899

Hibernaculum comes from the Latin hībernāculum meaning "winter residence." It entered English in the late 1600’s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Schmaltz

Word of the Day for Sunday 29^th December 2013

Schmaltz \shmahlts, shmawlts\, noun:

1. Informal. exaggerated sentimentalism, as in music or soap operas.
2. fat or grease, especially of a chicken.

The declining use of schmaltz, once a favoured ingredient for spreading, frying, and flavouring, is a case in point. Formerly common delicacies, well loved among the immigrant and second generations, are relegated to the status of fond memory.
-- Anne Kaplan, Marjorie Hoover, Willard Moore, The Minnesota Ethnic Food Book, 1986

"...And I'm not going to argue with you because you can argue the schmaltz out of a matzoh and I haven't got the strength for that today."
-- Rhoda Lerman, God's Ear: A Novel, 1989

Schmaltz comes from the Yiddish shmalts and the German Schmaltz meaning "fat." It entered English in the 1930’s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Parageusia

Word of the Day for Saturday 28^th December 2013

Parageusia \par-uh-GYOO-zhuh, -zhee-uh, -zee-uh\, noun:

an abnormal or hallucinatory sense of taste.

Neuritis of the facial and chorda tympani of rheumatic or inflammatory origin, as in otitis media, may produce parageusia, consisting in the inability to distinguish sweet from bitter and salty from sour.
-- Ludwig Grunwald, Atlas and Epitome of Diseases of the Mouth, Pharynx, and Nose, 1903

The sense of taste is usually slightly diminished on the anterior half of the tongue, and occasionally there may be parageusia or vertigo.
-- J. D. White, ‎John Hugh McQuillen, ‎George Jacob Ziegler, The Dental Cosmos: Volume 71, 1929

Parageusia has its roots in the Greek word geûs meaning "taste." The para- and -ia elements come from Latin.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Jigger

Word of the Day for Friday 27^th December 2013

Jigger \JIG-er\, noun:

1. a person or thing that jigs.
2. Nautical. a. the lowermost sail set on a jiggermast. b. jiggermast. c. a light tackle, as a gun tackle.
3. any of various mechanical devices, many of which have a jerky or jolting motion.
4. Informal. some contrivance, article, or part that one cannot or does not name more precisely: What is that little jigger on the pistol?
5. Ceramics. a machine for forming plates or the like in a plaster mold rotating beneath a template.
6. Mining. a jig for separating ore.
7. a jig for fishing.
8. Golf. a club with an iron head intermediate between a mashie and a midiron, now rarely used.
9. Billiards, Pool. a bridge.
10. a. a 1½-oz. (45-ml) measure used in cocktail recipes. b. a small whiskey glass holding 1½ ounces (45 ml).

...he poured himself a jigger of whiskey and swallowed it neat...
-- Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1958

"Now, mates," I cried, "let's get upon the fore-top-sail yard and see what we can do there." And up we went, and in three quarters of an hour, with the help of a jigger, we had hauled out the earrings and tied every blessed reef-point in the sail.

-- William Clark Russell, The Wreck of Grosvenor, 1877

The origin of jiggers is unknown, though it likely entered English in the late 1600’s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Fiddlesticks

Word of the Day for Thursday 26^th December 2013

Fiddlesticks \FID-l-stiks\, interjection:

(used to express impatience, dismissal, etc.)

"...If he had been an English lad, he would have been off to his sweetheart long before this, without saying with your leave or by your leave; but being a Frenchman, he is all for Aeneas and filial piety,—filial fiddle-sticks!"
-- Elizabeth Gaskell, My Lady Ludlow, 1858

The lovers were fiddlesticks, he thought, collecting it all in his mind again. That's fiddlesticks, that's first-rate, he thought, putting one thing beside another. But he must read it again. He could not remember the whole shape of the thing.
-- Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, 1927

Fiddlesticks came to English in the 1400's from the late Middle English term fidillstyk.

Thanks to:www.dictionary.com 

Jollification

Word of the Day for Wednesday 25^th December 2013

Jollification \jol-ih-fuh-KAY-shuhn\ , noun:  

 
Merrymaking; festivity; revelry.

Some inform; some prompt the conscience; some entertain, while having more than jollification in mind.
-- Stuart Klawans, "A Greek Bearing Gifts", The Nation, June 21, 1999

In July, expect the usual impertinent jollifications in Key West: look-alike and Key-lime-pie-eating contests, arm-wrestling tournaments.
-- David Gates, "Resurrecting Papa", Newsweek, April 12, 1999

Jollification is from jolly (from Old French joli, jolif, "joyful, merry") + Latin -ficare, combining form of facere, "to make."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Foofaraw

Word of the Day for Tuesday 24th December 2013

Foofaraw \FOO-fuh-raw\ , noun:  
  
1. Excessive or flashy ornamentation or decoration.
2. A fuss over a matter of little importance.

A sombre, muted descending motif opens and closes the work, which is brief but effective. It provided much needed relief from the fanfares and foofaraw in which brass-going composers so often indulge.
-- Philip Kennicott, "Brass Spectacular is a Spectacle of Special Sound", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 17, 1997

As usual, with all cooperation with Tom Lea, Art becomes a "taking away" process rather than the adding of ornaments, rules, and other foofaraw.
-- David R. Farmer, Stanley Marcus: A Life With Books

Making the Times best-seller list, or a movie, or all that other foofaraw is not necessarily proof of [a novel's] lasting significance.
-- Roger K. Miller, "Peyton Place' was remarkably good bad novel", Minneapolis Star Tribune, December 29, 1996

Foofaraw is perhaps from Spanish fanfarrón, "a braggart."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Propinquity

Word of the Day for Monday 23^rd December 2013

Propinquity \pruh-PING-kwih-tee\ , noun:  

1. Nearness in place; proximity.
2. Nearness in time.
3. Nearness of relation; kinship.

Following the race he took umbrage at Stewart's rough driving so early in the day, and the propinquity of the two drivers' haulers allowed the Kid to express his displeasure up close and personal.
-- Mark Bechtel, "Getting Hot", Sports Illustrated, December 6, 2000

Technologically it is the top service among the women's fighting forces, and it also has the appeal of propinquity to gallant young airmen.
-- "After Boadicea -- Women at War", Time Europe, October 9, 1939

I was stunned by the propinquity of the events: I had never been in the same room with anyone who was later murdered.
-- Karla Jay, Tales of the Lavender Menace

Schultz came by her position through propinquity: her husband, older by 12 years, used to play music with De Maiziere and afterward chat about politics.
-- Johanna McGeary, "Challenge in the East", Time, November 8, 1990

Propinquity derives from Latin propinquitas, from propinquus, near, neighbouring, from prope, near.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Bluestocking

Word of the Day for Sunday 22^nd December 2013

Bluestocking \BLOO-stok-ing\ , noun:  

 
1. a woman with considerable scholarly, literary, or intellectual ability or interest.
2. a member of a mid-18th-century London literary circle: Lady Montagu was a celebrated bluestocking.

...if you rolled the whole group into one girl, she would be what Norine said — a rich, assured, beautiful bluestocking.
-- Mary McCarthy, The Group, 1963

She reads such deep books—all about facts and figures: she'll be quite a blue-stocking by and by.
-- Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters, 1864-1866

Bluestocking originally referred to cheap blue socks worn by men, in contrast to fine white silk stockings. In the mid-1700’s, these blue socks became associated with intellectuals who attended salons where female intellectuals were highly valued. Eventually bluestockings came to be a pejorative term for intellectual women, though it started out as a positive or neutral term.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Poultice

Word of the Day for Saturday 21st December 2013

Poultice \POHL-tis\, noun:

1. a soft, moist mass of cloth, bread, meal, herbs, etc., applied hot as a medicament to the body.

verb:
1. to apply a poultice to.

...he did not notice whether I was going to spike him or put on a poultice.
-- David Rattlehead, The Life and Adventures of an Arkansaw Doctor, 1851

"...I thought I could nurse her; I did my best. Was the poultice all right?"
-- George Moore, Spring Days: A Realistic Novel, 1888

Poultice came to English in the 1500's from the Latin puls meaning "porridge."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Ambulate

Word of the Day for Friday 20th December 2013

Ambulate \AM-byuh-leyt\, verb:

to walk about or move from place to place.

The woman walked slowly, with a halting gait, as if she'd been forced to ambulate with a pair of swim fins for shoes.
-- Sue Grafton, "E" is for Evidence, 1988

It must be admitted that we who ambulate in pants, lie to each other in business and bunco our neighbors, in order to secure the lithographs of commerce, so that we can furnish the gentle herd with the means to live, are not perfect.
-- Charles Summers, The Nomads, 1903

Ambulate comes from the Latin ambulāre meaning "to walk." It entered English in the 1600's.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Transpontine

Word of the Day for Thursday 19th December 2013

Transpontine \trans-PON-tin, -tahyn\, adjective:

1. across or beyond a bridge.
2. on the southern side of the Thames in London.

There was nothing left but to retreat against the railing, and with my back turned to the street, pretend to be admiring the barges on the river or the chimneys of transpontine London.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Vandergrift, "Narrative of the Spirited Old Lady," More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter, 1885

...he had come straight from a wretched transpontine lodging to this splendid Lincolnshire mansion, and had at the same time exchanged a stipend of thirty shillings a week for an income of eleven thousand a year…"
-- Mary Elizabeth Braddon, John Marchmont's Legacy, 1862–1863

Transpontine comes from the Latin trans- + pont- meaning "across" + "bridge."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Cathexis

Word of the Day for Wednesday 18th December 2013

Cathexis \kuh-THEK-sis\, noun:

1. Psychoanalysis. the investment of emotional significance in an activity, object, or idea.
2. Psychoanalysis. the charge of psychic energy so invested.

She remembered so clearly the surprise of that first cathexis with Earth across the light-years…
-- Ian Watson, Very Slow Time Machine, 1979

Now our primary libidinal cathexis is with machines. Cars, power tools, computers, Kitchen Aids, audiophile equipment.
-- Curtis White, Requiem, 2001

Cathexis ultimately comes from the Proto-Indo-European root segh- meaning "to hold." It entered English in the 1920's.

Thanks to:www.dictionary.com 

Klaxon

Word of the Day for Tuesday 17th December 2013

Klaxon \ KLAK-suhn \, noun :

a loud electric horn, formerly used on automobiles, trucks, etc.., and now Often used as a warning signal.

He invented the Klaxon , a horn That relied on electricity to vibrate a metal diaphragm, That was a sound emitting shrill yet guttural, yet unending abrupt, ugly yet lifesaving. 
- Julie M. Fenster, The Spirit of Invention , 2009

Everybody Has heard a klaxon on a car suddenly begin to sound, I understand it is a short circuit That causes it. 
- James Thurber, "Let Your Mind Alone!," The New Yorker , 1937

Klaxon got its name from an American manufacturing company that made ​​horns for automobiles. It entered English in the early 1900s.

Misoneism

Word of the Day for Monday 16th December 2013

Misoneism \ mis-NEE-oh-iz-uhm, mahy-soh-\, noun :

hatred or dislike of What's New or Represents change.

But is it Necessary to note that hereditary anomaly, if it provokes an anomaly in the moral sense, Also suppresses misoneism , the horror of novelty Which is almost the general rule of humanity. 
- Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent 1907

He saw ... he was the only one to stand ready for the new thing, Because The others were all exhibiting Symptoms of misoneism . 
- Brian Aldiss, Brian Aldiss , 1967

Misoneism comes from the Greek miso- + neos meaning "hatred" and "new."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Whitherward

Word of the Day for Sunday 15th December 2013

Whitherward \ HWITH-er-werd, WITH-\, adverb :

Archaic. toward what place, in what direction.

West, West! Whitherward point fav prophet-fingers, whitherward to kneel at sunset worshippers of fire, whitherward in mid-ocean the great whales turn to die, whitherward face to the Moslem dead in Persia, whitherward lie Heaven and Hell! 
- Herman Melville, Mardi: And Voyage Thither , 1849

... The only question now was, Whitherward to vanish, in what hole to hide oneself! 
- Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution , 1837

Whitherward comes from Old Inglese hwinder + -weard meaning "toward where?"

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Umbriferous

Word of the Day for Saturday 14th December 2013

Umbriferous \ BRIF-um-er-uhs \, adjective :

casting or making shade.

Its white umbriferous blooms cover fields, Ditches, and anywhere it can. 
- Wesley Henry, A Pilgrim's Path , 2007

Every city front or rear yard Should Be ornamented with one or two Of These fruitiferous and umbriferous trees. 
- George J. Drews, Unfired Foods and Hygienic Dietetics for Prophylactic (preventative) Feeding 1909

Umbriferous comes from the Latin word umbra meaning "shade," and is related to the word "umbrella."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Lipogram

Word of the Day for Friday 13th December 2013

Lipogram \ LIP-uh-gram, LAHY-puh-\, noun :

in written work composed of words chosen so as to avoid the use of one specific alphabetic characters or blackberries.

I suddenly felt possessive of our boat, our game, a travel set with tiny magnetic letters. "Our board is missing a few tiles," I said. "Just makes it more of a challenge ... to lipogram." 
- Gayle Brandeis Delta Girls: A Novel , 2010

So the poet Whose hunger is simply to speak-tell truths, right wrongs-what he Has need for thelipogram , for colors of rhetoric, antilibrations of phrase on phrase? 
- John Gardner, Jason and Medeia , 1973

Lipogram entered English at the turn of the 18th century from the Greek lipográmmatos meaning "missing a letter."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Cusp

Word of the Day for Wednesday, December 11, 2013
cusp \kuhsp\, noun:

1. a point or pointed end.
2. Anatomy, Zoology, Botany. a point, projection, or elevation, as on the crown of a tooth.
3. Also called spinode. Geometry. a point where two branches of a curve meet, end, and are tangent.
4. Architecture. a decorative device, used especially in Gothic architecture to vary the outlines of intradoses or to form architectural foils, consisting of a pair of curves tangent to the real or imaginary line defining the area decorated and meeting at a point within the area.
5. Astronomy. a point of a crescent, especially of the moon.
6. Astrology. a. the zodiacal degree that marks the beginning of a house or a sign. b. Informal. a person born on the first day of a sign.
7. a point that marks the beginning of a change: on the cusp of a new era.

From behind the cusp a figure had stepped out, entirely black, unfolding slowly, as though from a crouch.
-- David Herter, Ceres Storm, 2000
"I have put your father into it! There are the initial letters W. C. let into the cusp of the York rose, and the date, three years before the battle of Bosworth, over the chimneypiece."
-- Baron Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Caxtons: A Family Picture, 1849
Cusp came to English in the late 1500s from the Latin cuspis meaning "a point."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Ochlophobia

Word of the Day for Wednesday 10 December 2013

Ochlophobia \ok-luh-FOH-bee-uh\, noun:

Psychiatry. an abnormal fear of crowds.

"The man's got pedophobia, homichlophobia, dromophobia, xenophobia, ochlophobia, haphephobia, planomania, kleptophobia, thanatophobia, he's an onychophagist, he's got gerontophobia, but notice he has no dysphagia…"
-- George Friel, Mr. Alfred, M.A., 1972

As the plane leveled her discomfort ebbed. Agoraphobia. Demophobia. Enochlophobia. Ochlophobia. She knew the terms but refused to label her condition a phobia.
-- Rick Mofina, The Panic Zone, 2010

Ochlophobia entered English in the late 1800s from the Greek roots meaning "mob" and "fear."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Jocose

Word of the Day

Saturday 7th December 2013

Jocose

 \ joh-KOHS, juh- \  , adjective; 

1.

given to or characterized by joking; jesting; humorous; playful: a jocose and 
amusing manner.

Quotes:

The jocose  talk of haymakers is best at a distance; like those clumsy bells round the 
cows' necks, it has rather a coarse sound when it comes close, and may even grate 
on your ears painfully...

-- George Eliot, Adam Bede , 1859

Lord Boardotrade was there, making semi- jocose  speech, quite in the approved 
way for a cognatepaterfamilias.

-- Anthony Trollope, Ayala's Angel , 1878

Origin:

Jocose  comes from the Latin jocōsus  meaning "joking." It entered English in the 1600s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Hoosgow

Word of the Day for Thursday, October 3, 2013

Hoosgow \HOOS-gou\, noun:

Slang. a jail.

“You told Vera that Carl Webster dropped you off here. This policeman who wants to put me in the hoosgow.”
-- Elmore Leonard, Up in Honey's Room, 2007

"...I got on his tail when they sprung him yesterday noon. He went from the hoosgow to a hotel on Kearny Street and got himself a room."
-- Dashiell Hammett, The Dain Curse, 1929

Hoosgow is likely a mispronunciation of the Mexican Spanish juzgao meaning "tribunal, court." This ultimately comes from the Latin judicare meaning "to judge."

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Instauration

Word of the Day for Monday, September 30, 2013

Instauration \in-staw-REY-shuhn\, noun:

1. renewal; restoration; renovation; repair.
2. Obsolete. an act of instituting something; establishment.

Hence, the Pope proclaimed the instauration of the Roman Empire, under two Emperors, a Northern Emperor and a Southern Emperor; and confirmed the same to the King of Prussia and the King of Italy as representatives of the dynasties of Hohenzollern and Savoy respectively.
-- Frederick Rolfe, Hadrian the Seventh, 1904

Books such as those of Galileo and Copernicus were meant to stir up debates among scholars and astronomers, he insisted, to challenge old prejudices and enlighten the ignorant, to work towards a great instauration of knowledge.
-- Ross King, Ex Libris, 1913

Instauration comes from the Latin word instaurātiōn- meaning "a renewing, repeating."

Fleer

Word of the Day for Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Fleer \fleer\, verb:

1. to grin or laugh coarsely or mockingly.
2. to mock or deride.
3. a fleering look; a jeer or gibe.

Talley's lips fleer back, baring his teeth.
-- David L. Robbins, Scorched Earth, 2009

They fleered at Kit; they jostled.
-- Kelly Link, Trampoline, 2003

Fleer originally comes from the Norwegian word flire meaning "a grin."

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com