Spruik

Word of the Day for Wednesday, May 16, 2012

spruik \sprook\, verb:

To make or give a speech, especially extensively; spiel.

He started to spruik again, but I managed to get in first.
-- C.E. Murphy, Raven Calls

Cain and Leek spruik their foul and immoral stories by the fire at night and the rest of the men grow excited and the mood of the camp becomes restless.
-- Tim Winton, Shallows

Don't go into your spruik for me. I don't care what words you call it.
-- A. E. Martin, The Outsiders

Spruik is Australian slang that arose in the early 1900s. It is of unknown origin.

Thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/

Altiloquent

Word of the Day for Tuesday, May 15, 2012

altiloquent \awl-TIL-uh-kwuhnt\, noun:

High-flown or pretentious language.

He remembered that the politeness seemed too elaborate, too florid, altiloquent to the extent of insincerity.
-- Holman Day, All-Wool Morrison

The meaning of the music was made further explicit by explanations in his own, altiloquent (but purposefully avoiding the technical) Wagnerian prose, wrapped solicitously around the Goethe passages.
-- Alessandra Comini, The Changing Image of Beethoven

Altiloquent stems from the Latin roots atli meaning "high" and loquentem meaning "speaking."

Thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/

Intromit

Word of the Day for Monday, May 14, 2012

intromit \in-truh-MIT\, verb:

To introduce; to send, put, or let in.

Mrs. Tappitt had frequently offered to intromit the ceremony when calling upon his generosity for other purposes, but the September gift had always been forthcoming.
-- Anthony Trollope, Rachel Ray

But in this I found a great difficulty, arising from the policy and conduct of Mr. Andrew McLucre, who had a sort of investment, as may be said, of the office of dean of guild, having for many years been allowed to intromit and manage the same.
-- John Galt, Annals of the Parish

Intromit comes from the Latin roots intro- meaning "inwardly" and mittere meaning "to send."

Thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/

Matrilineal

Word of the Day for Sunday, May 13, 2012

matrilineal \ma-truh-LIN-ee-uhl\, adjective:

Inheriting or determining descent through the female line.

In a matrilineal society, in a matriarchy, and especially in this particular matriarchy, the women, as I've already said, control the houses, the lineage of the children, and a lot of decisions about marriage and so forth.
-- Patrice E. M. Hollrah, The Old Lady Trill, the Victory Yell

Several of the women I talked to had decided to challenge the influence of the matrilineal clan and to bequeath part of their land to their sons. The ways they had chosen in this regard were however quite different.
-- Birgit Englert and Elizabeth Daley, Women's Land Rights & Privatisation in Eastern Africa

Matrilineal was first used in the early 1900s by anthropologists. It derives from the Late Latin roots matri- meaning "mother" and lineal meaning "line."

Thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/

Sibilant

Word of the Day for Friday, May 11, 2012

sibilant \SIB-uh-luhnt\, adjective:

1. Hissing.
2. Phonetics. Characterised by a hissing sound; noting sounds like those spelled with s in this.

noun:
1. Phonetics. A sibilant consonant.

This is the way the presence of a ghost was detected: Some sound would be heard, such as a sibilant noise, a soft whistle, or something like murmurs, or some sensation in a part of the body might be felt.
-- George H. Ellis, Legends of Gods and Ghosts: Hawaiian Mythology

He just drank his coffee, making a little sibilant sound, and watched the earth mover lumber back and forth, back and forth, its shovel going up and down and over and up and down and over again.
-- Anna Quindlen, Object Lessons

The wind in the patch of pine woods off there—how sibilant.
-- Walt Whitman, Prose Works 1892: Specimen Days

Sibilant stems from the Latin word sībilant- which meant "whistling or hissing." It is assumed to imitative of the sound itself.

Thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/

Obtest

Word of the Day for Thursday, May 10, 2012

obtest \ob-TEST\, verb:

1. To supplicate earnestly; beseech.
2. To invoke as witness.
3. To protest.
4. To make supplication; beseech.

I constrain, adjure, obtest and strongly command you.
-- Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering

And whosoever she be, even with the form of words which to miserable wretches is granted most exaudible, I pray, and do with those prayers most heartily obtest, which are in the ears of the hearers of them most effectual, that she may never taste of such bitter miseries.
-- Giovanni Boccaccio, Amorous Fiametta

Obtest comes from the Latin roots ob-, a prefix meaning "toward", and the root test, meaning "witness."

Thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/

Cicatrix

Word of the Day for Wednesday, May 9, 2012

cicatrix \SIK-uh-triks\, noun:

1. New tissue that forms over a wound.
2. Botany. A scar left by a fallen leaf, seed, etc.

A new relationship can develop. But the cicatrix of the old one remains. And nothing grows on a cicatrix. Nothing grows through it.
-- Elizabeth George, Playing for the Ashes

He discriminates also very properly between the cicatrix, which is produced by the healing of wounds which have penetrated the cutis, and those in which the surface only is affected.
-- James Moore, "Differtation on Healing of Wounds," The Analytical Review, Volume 5

Cicatrix is derived from the Latin word cicatrix meaning "scar." The Latin word has no clear origin.

Thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/