Excogitate

Word of the Day for Friday, February 3, 2012

excogitate \eks-KOJ-i-teyt\, verb:

1. To think out; devise; invent.
2. To study intently and carefully in order to grasp or comprehend fully.

But observe the singular phenomenon — on approximately the same date several thousand men and women of letters retire to secluded corners to excogitate a thing described as "charm"; each cudgeling his or her head for some variety which can possibly be regarded as original...
-- Upton Sinclair, Money Writes!

I preferred to relate aloud, to excogitate in a lively, external manner, with a flow of invention as useless as was my declamation of it, a whole novel crammed with adventure, in which the Duchess, fallen upon misfortune…
-- Marcel Proust, Swann's Way

Excogitate is related to the word cogitate which means "to think." The prefix ex- typically means "out of", but in this case it means "thoroughly."

With thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/

Peroration

Word of the Day for Thursday, February 2, 2012

peroration \per-uh-REY-shuhn\, noun:

1. A long speech characterised by lofty and often pompous language.
2. Rhetoric. The concluding part of a speech or discourse, in which the speaker or writer recapitulates the principal points and urges them with greater earnestness and force.

Thus he apostrophised his house and race in terms of the most moving eloquence; but when it came to the peroration—and what is eloquence that lacks a peroration?—he fumbled. He would have liked to have ended with a flourish to the effect that he would follow in their footsteps and add another stone to their building.
-- Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography

This person always provides a dramatic peroration; it is expected of him and he seldom disappoints. Tamsour is the theme; and the substance is usually personal aggrandisement, sometimes a bit of self-pity, but never apologies for past misdeeds, real or imaginary.
-- Jack Vance, Night Lamp

Peroration comes from the Latin word perōrātiōn which meant "a closing speech."

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

Doyenne

Word of the Day for Wednesday, February 1, 2012

doyenne \doi-EN\, noun:

A woman who is the senior member of a group, class, or profession.

Inspector Neele propounded to himself three separate highly coloured reasons why the faithful doyenne of the typists' room should have poisoned her employer's mid-morning cup of tea, and rejected them as unlikely.
-- Agatha Christie, A Pocket Full of Rye

Her physical characteristics had shifted over time, from soft to hard, from blond to gray, and tight to slack and swollen. This doyenne of crochet and pregnancy was to me one woman and all women, because everything about her was variable, including her temperament.
-- Darin Strauss, Chang and Eng

Doyenne only came into common English use in the early 1900s, but it originates in the Old French word deien, which is also the root of the word dean. The suffix -enne is a French suffix for a personal female noun.

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

Idoneous

Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 31, 2012

idoneous \ahy-DOH-nee-uhs\, adjective:

Appropriate; fit; suitable; apt.

As far as benefices are concerned no one could be more idoneous, fitting or suitable than Martin, since he is an Anglican clergyman.
-- Patrick O'Brian, The Truelove

It would hardly be possible to apply less idoneous adjectives to it than Watson's reiterated "wailing" and "haunting."
-- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone

Idoneous is derived from the Latin word idōneus which meant "suitable."

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

Neoterism

Word of the Day for Monday, January 30, 2012

neoterism \nee-OT-uh-riz-uhm\, noun:

1. An innovation in language, as a new word, term, or expression.
2. The use of new words, terms, or expressions.

These impressions were not merely of things physical—the contrast, for instance, between the overwhelming antiquity of the western deserts and the neoterism of humanity; or the fabulous nature of the Grand Canyon.
-- Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier

In his gesture of breaking with the canon of great national literature, Catullus had opened the way to the ambition of future poets to provide Rome with a new canon of works, which would combine the new requirements of neoterism on the levels of research into subjectivity, and stylistic elegance, with the breadth and the depth of a literature intended to represent the cultural patrimony of a nation.
-- Peter E. Knox, A Companion to Ovid

Though it did not come into English usage until the late 1800s, neoterism originally comes from the Greek word neōterismós which meant "an attempt to change."

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

Hotchpot

Word of the Day for Sunday, January 29, 2012

hotchpot \HOCH-pot\, noun:

the bringing together of shares or properties in order to divide them equally.

She continued, "This is what I can give into the hotchpot." I could not but note the quaint legal phrase which she used in such a place, and with all seriousness? "What will each of you give?..."
-- Bram Stoker, Dracula

These amounts are to be deducted from my boys only in the event that their shares may be large enough to permit and are not to be brought into hotchpot, and shall be paid to my two daughters Elizabeth and Katharine in equal shares.
-- Wallace Stevens, The Letters of Wallace Stevens

Dating back to the early 1200s, hotchpot literally meant "shake-pot" in Anglo-French. It is related to the word hodgepodge.

With thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/

Birr

Word of the Day for Saturday, January 28, 2012

birr \bur\, noun:

1. A whirring sound.
2. Emphasis in statement, speech, etc.
3. A whirring sound.

verb:
1. To move with or make a whirring sound.

She pursed her lips and, expertly, imitated the red-winged blackbird's call: not the liquid piping of the wood thrush, which dipped down into the dry tcch tchh tchh of the cricket's birr and up again in delirious, sobbing trills…
-- Donna Tartt, The Little Friend: A Novel

I turn to the woman. There's a wheezing birr coming from her own bleached-out face.
-- Irvine Welsh, Filth

Birr is derived from the Icelandic word byrr meaning "favorable wind."

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