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