Corsair

Word of the Day for Saturday, August 31, 2013

corsair \KAWR-sair\, noun:

1. a pirate, especially formerly of the Barbary Coast.

2. a fast ship used for piracy.

3. (initial capital letter) Military. a gull-winged, propeller-driven fighter plane built for the U.S. Navy in World War II and kept in service into the early 1950s.

 

The cassique of Kiawah is already known to us, and we may well conceive that he bore himself toward the little wife of the famous corsair with all proper kindliness.
-- William Glimore Simms, The Cassique of Kiawah: A Colonial Romance, 1859

We were five days at sea in the situation I have just described, and the captain entertained hopes of making the desired port in two days more, when a vessel was descried bearing down upon us, which proved to be an Algerine corsair…
-- Francis Lathom, The Mysterious Freebooter, or The Days of Queen Bess, 1806

Corsair came to English in the 16th century from the medieval Latin cursus meaning "hostile voyage."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Pittance

Word of the Day for Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Pittance \PIT-ns\, noun:

1. a small amount or share.
2. a small allowance or sum, as of money for living expenses.
3. a scanty income or remuneration.

He showed us a perfectly authentic mission-card which certified that his family had received a pittance from some charitable organisation situated in the Whitechapel neighbourhood, and that, moreover, they were in the habit of receiving this pittance; and that, finally, their claim to such pittance was amply justified by the poverty of their circumstances.
-- E. E. Cummings, The Enormous Room, 1922

Each daughter can claim an income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to a very serious extent.
-- Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1892

Pittance shares its root with the word pity. It entered English in the 13th century from the Latin pietatem meaning "piety," "loyalty" and "duty."

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Meander

Word of the Day for Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Meander \mee-AN-der\, verb:

1. to proceed by or take a winding or indirect course: The stream meandered through the valley.
2. to wander aimlessly; ramble: The talk meandered on.
3. Surveying. to define the margin of (a body of water) with a meander line.

noun:
1. Usually, meanders. turnings or windings; a winding path or course.
2. a circuitous movement or journey.
3. an intricate variety of fret or fretwork.

I had forgotten about muggers on our walk down the avenue, but as we meandered over toward Broadway the street got darker and I became acutely conscious of all we had read about them.
-- Larry McMurtry, Somebody's Darling, 1978

The rest of us climbed the cliffs and hills, looked at entrenched meanders, terminal moraines, glacial detritus, relief maps of the Delaware Water Gap, and outcroppings of the Wissahickon Mica Schist.
-- Renata Adler, Speedboat, 1976

The term meander comes from the Greek Maiandros which is the name of a winding river in Caria. The noun form entered English in the 1500s, and the verb form shortly followed.

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Gibbous

Word of the Day for Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Gibbous \GIB-uhs\, adjective:

1. Astronomy. (of a heavenly body) convex at both edges, as the moon when more than half full.
2. humpbacked

Saturday is full moon, so we will celebrate—if we are lucky with the weather—by the light of a waxing gibbous moon.
-- A. S. Byatt, The Children's Book, 2009

The stars and the gibbous moon demanded to be looked at, and when one meteorite had streaked across the sky, you could not help waiting, open-eyed and alert…
-- Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow, 1921

Gibbous entered English late 14th or early 15th century from the Latin gibbus meaning hump.

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Psaltery

Word of the Day for Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Psaltery \SAWL-tuh-ree\, noun:

1. an ancient musical instrument consisting of a flat sounding box with numerous strings which are plucked with the fingers or with a plectrum.
2. (initial capital letter) the Psalter.

Louise returned to her chair, and Eugénie took her psaltery from the floor, sat down and began to play.
-- Charles Gill, The Rich Woods, 2008

Then she heard music from beyond the arbor walk, a lighthearted turn on a psaltery...
-- Margaret Frazer, The Murderer's Tale, 1996

Psaltery came to English in the 14th century from the Greek psalterion meaning "stringed instrument."

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Od

Word of the Day for Monday, August 19, 2013

Od \od, ohd\, noun:

a hypothetical force formerly held to pervade all nature and to manifest itself in magnetism, mesmerism, chemical action, etc.

"I studied mind-cure, or metaphysical healing, which strikes at the root of disease; I went into hypnotism, mesmerism, and phreno-magnetism, and the od force—I don't suppose you know about the od which Reichenbach discovered."
-- Edward Eggleston, The Faith Doctor: a Story of New York, 1891

In these experiments, different substances from which the od was supposed to emanate were arranged on a collodion plate.
-- Edited by Clément Chéroux, The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult, 2005

The term od was coined by chemist and philosopher Karl Ludwig von Reichenbach as a name for his hypothetical force. He proposed the name od because he thought a short word starting with a vowel would be more easily combined in compound words.

 

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Cummerbund

Word of the Day for Friday, August 16, 2013

Cummerbund \KUHM-er-buhnd\, noun:

a wide sash worn at the waist, especially a horizontally pleated one worn with a tuxedo.

Wilson stood gloomily by his bed in the Bedford Hotel and contemplated his cummerbund, which lay ruffled like an angry snake…
-- Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter, 1948

He was now dressed for the evening, in a white tuxedo shirt, black cummerbund, and bowtie.
-- Tom Clancy, Rainbow Six, 1998

Cummerbund came to English in the 17th century from the Urdu and Persian kamarband, meaning "waistband."

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com