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