Fob

Word of the Day for Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Fob \FOB\, noun:

1. A short chain, usually with a medallion or similar ornament, worn hanging from a pocket.
2. A small pocket just below the waistline in trousers for a watch, keys, change, etc.

verb:
1. To cheat someone by substituting something spurious or inferior.
2. To put (someone) off by deception or trickery.

Out of the right fob hung a great silver chain, with a wonderful kind of engine at the bottom.
-- Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels

The father had bought the bridegroom a fob watch as a gift.
-- Sholem Aleichem, Aliza Shevrin, Tevye the Dairyman: And, Motl the Cantor's Son

Fob most likely derives from the Germanic fopke, "pocket."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Ogle

Word of the Day for Monday, November 19, 2012

Ogle \OH-guhl\, verb:

1. To look at amorously, flirtatiously, or impertinently.
2. To eye; look or stare at.

He always pretended to be deeply exhausted from his various adventures, but he was never too exhausted to ogle— as she knew and as Flap knew too.
-- Larry McMurtry, Terms of Endearment: A Novel

Couples ogle cakes in windows.
-- Simon Louvish, The Days of Miracles and Wonders: An Epic of the New World Disorder

Ogle traces its origins from the Lower German oeglen, "to look at," but ultimately comes from a now extinct word for "eye," oog.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Terpsichorean

Word of the Day for Sunday, November 18, 2012

Terpsichorean \turp-si-kuh-REE-uhn\, adjective:

1. Pertaining to dancing.

noun:
1. A dancer.

I even saw Major West that evening tapping his foot and picking up his feet in terpsichorean splendour with Mrs. West.”
-- Jackson Bailey, My Love and I

They're agile, they're flexible, they're terpsichorean."
-- Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full

Terpsichorean comes from the name of the Greek muse of dancing, Terpischore. The word is a 

combination of the Greek terpein, "to delight," and -khoros, "chorus."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Dog-ear

Word of the Day for Saturday, November 17, 2012

Dog-ear \DAWG-eer\, verb:

1. To fold down the corner of a page in a book.

noun:
1. (In a book) a corner of a page folded over like a dog's ear, as by careless use, or to mark a place.
2. In architecture, another term for a crossette.

This was uncharacteristic of him, territorial as he was over books, always reminding me not to dog-ear pages.
-- Kaye Gibbons, Sights Unseen

I will dog-ear the pages, maybe even fill out the order form, but I won't get anything.
-- Elizabeth Berg, Until the Real Thing Comes Along

Dog-ear as a metaphor for the folded pages of a book first appears in the 1650s.

Thanks t: www.dictionary.com 

Dovetail

Word of the Day for Thursday, November 15, 2012

Dovetail \DUHV-teyl\, verb:

1. To join or fit together compactly or harmoniously.
2. In carpentry, a joint formed of one or more such tenons fitting tightly within corresponding mortises.
3. To join or fit together by means of a carpentry dovetail or dovetails.

noun:
1. In carpentry, a tenon broader at its end than at its base; pin.

But in “Arcadia” the two periods don't dovetail until the last part of the play.
-- Tom Stoppard, Mel Gussow, Conversations With Stoppard

They seemed, after a fashion, to dovetail horribly with something which I had dreamed or read, but which I could no longer remember.
-- H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time

Dovetail originates in woodworking, with a joint that resembles the tail of a dove. The figurative sense derives from the tight fit made by such a joint.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Pigeonhole

Word of the Day for Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Pigeonhole \PIJ-uhn-hohl\, verb:

1. To lay aside for use or reference at some later, indefinite time.

noun:
1. One of a series of small, open compartments, as in a desk,cabinet, or the like, used for filing or sorting papers, letters,etc.
2. In printing, white space created by setting words or lines too far apart.

“Mobility’s hard in Spain; people pigeonhole you for life in the box where they think you belong.”
-- Enrique Vila-Mata, Dublinesque

Even his staunchest supporters didn't know where to pigeonhole him politically.
-- Bruce Duffy, The World As I Found It

Pigeonhole begins with the sense of a literal nesting place for the bird, then finds figurative usage in printing. The first use as a verb is recorded in 1854.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Disbosom

Word of the Day for Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Disbosom \dis-BOOZ-uhm\, verb:

To reveal; confess.

In the field of private space to relax, drink vodka and philosophise in the kitchen, to denounce officials, disbosom.
-- Sergey Gavrov, Modernization of the Empire

Desiring that some light refreshments, with wine and water, should be carried up into the library, she ran up thither instantly, thinking, it is true, very little about such matters, and eager only to disbosom herself to her father, as soon as possible, of her important tidings.
-- Henry William Herbert, Marmaduke Wyvil; or, The maid's revenge

Disbosom comes from the ancient word bosom, which possibly goes back to the roots of the Indo-European languages. Bosom can mean "breast; womb; surface; or ship's hold." The first recorded use of disbosom is in the 18th century.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com