Oracular

Word of the Day for Sunday, March 4, 2012

oracular \aw-RAK-yuh-ler\, adjective:

1. Ambiguous; obscure.
2. Of the nature of, resembling, or suggesting an oracle.
3. Giving forth utterances or decisions as if by special inspiration or authority.
4. Uttered or delivered as if divinely inspired or infallible; sententious.
5. Portentous; ominous.

"If you want me to understand, you'll have to be less oracular," Daisy said, patience wearing thin.
-- Carola Dunn, Mistletoe and Murder

His demurrals, disclaimers, and protestations of ignorance were completely ineffective. Whatever guess he was finally strong-armed into hazarding was received as oracular.
-- Deborah Eisenberg, Twilight of the Superheroes

Oracular comes from the Latin word oracle, meaning "a message from god." The suffix -ar forms an adjective from a noun, like the word lunar.

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

Liege

Word of the Day for Saturday, March 3, 2012

liege \leej\, adjective:

1. Loyal; faithful.
2. Owing primary allegiance and service to a feudal lord.
3. Pertaining to the relation between a feudal vassal and lord.

noun:
1. A feudal lord entitled to allegiance and service.
2. A feudal vassal or subject.

The materialist, liege to his own system, is incapable of doing anything but put one after another the results of his observations.
-- Agostino Da Montefeltro, Conferences Of; Delivered in Rome During Lent 1889

Subjects were required to give their liege to their lord.
-- Paul L. Williams, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Crusades

Liege is of uncertain origin. It either came from the Middle English word leidig meaning "free" or from the Late Latin word for serf, laeticus. Both roots identified the relationship between a vassal, or serf, and his superior.

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

Cant

Word of the Day for Friday, March 2, 2012

cant \kant\, verb:

1. To talk hypocritically.
2. To speak in the whining or singsong tone of a beggar; beg.

noun:
1. Insincere, especially conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness, or piety.
2. The private language of the underworld.
3. The phraseology peculiar to a particular class, party, profession, etc.
4. Whining or singsong speech, especially of beggars.

I don't deny but that may sooner teach a Man to Cant and talk Gibberish, or use fair, smooth, formal Phrases, and religious Words.
-- Richard Ward and Sarah Hutton, The Life of Henry More

A philanthropist by nature, he is not one of "those dreamers" who hate all that will not aid their one pet scheme, and "cant" about a general brotherhood which exempts them from particular charity.
-- Robert Alfred Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics

Cant comes from the same Latin word as chant, the Latin word for song, cantus. The sense of "insincere talk" arose in the early 1700s.

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

Alembic

Word of the Day for Thursday, March 1, 2012

alembic \uh-LEM-bik\, noun:

1. Anything that transforms, purifies, or refines.
2. A vessel with a beaked cap or head, formerly used in distilling.

The dream-world of their experiences in the wood near Athens becomes a kind of 'alembic' which they pass through to a truer perception of reality.
-- Ronald P. Draper, Shakespeare, The Comedies

But the more he read the more he was astonished to find how the facts had passed through the alembic of Carlyle's brain and had come out and fitted themselves, each as a part of one great whole, making a compact result, indestructible and unrivaled...
-- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Alembic is derived from the Arabic word al-anbiq, which means "a distilling cup." It developed its broader meaning in the 1300s.

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

Quadrennial

Word of the Day for Wednesday, February 29, 2012

quadrennial \kwo-DREN-ee-uhl\, adjective:

1. Occurring every four years.
2. Of or lasting for four years.

noun:
1. An event occurring every four years, as an anniversary or its celebration.

...all we merely have here is just what Rod might call an exaggerated example of a quadrennial problem any administration with vision is going to have to face eventually anyway.
-- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

The inauguration of a President of the United States, I think, has always been treated as a great quadrennial ceremonial.
-- United States Senate, Subcommittee of the Committee on the District of Columbia, Suffrage Parade

Clearly, quadrennial comes from the Latin words quadri- meaning four and annus meaning years, with the suffix -ial meaning pertaining to.

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

Pettifog

Word of the Day for Tuesday, February 28, 2012 pettifog \PET-ee-fog\, verb: 1. To bicker or quibble over trifles or unimportant matters. 2. To carry on a petty, shifty, or unethical law business. 3. To practice chicanery of any sort. Marius, my boy, you are a baron, you are rich, don't pettifog, I beg of you. -- Victor Hugo, Les Misérables Naturally, the wonderful tubers Brillat-Savarin dug up and dished out lacked the penultimate refinements of washing and cooking, but it would've been gauche to pettifog. -- Elizabeth Gundy, The Disappearance of Gregory Pluckrose Pettifog comes from the Middle Dutch word voeger meaning one who arranges things and the word petty meaning insignificant. Thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/

Flexuous

Word of the Day for Monday, February 27, 2012

flexuous \FLEK-shoo-uhs\, adjective:

Full of bends or curves; sinuous.

Her flexuous and stealthy figure became an integral part of the scene. At times her whimsical fancy would intensify natural processes around her till they seemed a part of her own story.
-- Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles

What is anomalous about Nietzsche in this context is scarcely the hold this plot has on him, but indeed the flexuous sweetness with which sometimes he uniquely invests it...
-- Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet

Flexuous is derived from the Latin word flexuōsus which meant full of turns or crooked. This is an interesting example where the suffix changes the implication of the word. Unlike the more common word flexible, which means "capable of being bent" because of the suffix -ible, flexuous has the suffix, -ous meaning "full of."

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