Inchoation

Word of the Day for Saturday 4^th January 2014

Inchoation \in-koh-EY-shuhn\, noun:

a beginning; origin.

Three things cannot but exist towards all animated beings from the nature of divine justice; co-sufferance in the circle of inchoation, because without that none could attain the perfect knowledge of any thing…
-- John Williams, The Ecclesiastical Antiquities of the Cymry, 1844

Three things are necessary in the Circle of Inchoation; the least of all animation, and thence the beginning…
-- Robert Southey, Notes to Madoc in Wales, 1805

Inchoation came to English in the 1500’s from the Late Latin inchoātiōn-.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Oeillade

Word of the Day for Friday 3rd January 2014

Oeillade \œ-YAD\, noun:

an amorous glance; ogle.

"Please?" Significant pause and oeillade. Eugene thought of his hopes with Rapunzel, of badly wanting to start a clean slate, baleful of all the miseries Laura had caused whenever they had resumed even a friendship...

-- Alexander Theroux, Laura Warholic, or, The Sexual Intellectual, 2007

Another coarse laugh, and another oeillade to the Princesses, showed me clearly enough how the Queen construed my relationship to Anne of England.
-- Louis Auchincloss, Exit Lady Masham, 1983

Oeillade entered English in the late 1500’s from the French oeillide, and ultimately comes from the Latin ocuclus meaning "eye."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Yarborough

Word of the Day for Thursday 2^nd January 2014

Yarborough \YAHR-bur-oh, -buhr-oh or, esp. British, -ber-uh\, noun:

Whist, Bridge. a hand in which no card is higher than a nine.

"Who kills over a bridge hand? Anyway, I had a total Yarborough—look at my hand and look at her hand!"
-- Matthew Granovetter, I Shot My Bridge Partner, 1999

"When the time comes, I shall take a white handerchief out of my coat pocket. That will mean that you are about to be dealt a Yarborough…"
-- Ian Fleming, Moonraker, 1955

Yarborough came to English in the late 1800s after the 2nd Earl of Yarborough, who was said to have bet 1000 to 1 against the occurrence of a card hand in which no card is higher than a nine.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Sozzled

Word of the Day for Wednesday 1^st January 2013

Sozzled \SOZ-uhld\, adjective:

Slang. drunk; inebriated.

Sometimes Shona drove into town, got some beer and wine, and we lay under the pohutukawa and got sozzled.
-- Albert Wendt, Ola, 1991

What kind of glove could I have told his mother about when we were both sozzled on Sweet Rob Roys in Manila 24 years ago?

-- Kurt Vonnegut, Hocus Pocus, 1990

Sozzled is a dialectal word which entered English in the late 1800's meaning "confused state" or "sloppy person."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Quadrille

Word of the Day for Tuesday 31^st December 2013

Quadrille \kwo-DRIL, kwuh-, kuh-\, noun:

1. a square dance for four couples, consisting of five parts or movements, each complete in itself.
2. the music for such a dance.

…I found that every one of the other couples had retired, and that we four were left to dance the quadrille by ourselves!
-- William Makepeace Thackeray, The Fitz-Boodle Papers, 1842

"What a delightful quadrille we are having!" she said enthusiastically as she passed him. "Delightful!" he acquiesced, with a sudden leap at his heart, and forthwith he resolved to engage her for the next dance as soon as ever he should be at liberty.
-- Ross Neil, The Heir Expectant, 1870

Quadrille entered English in the 1700’s from the Latin quadra meaning "square."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Hibernaculum

Word of the Day for Monday 30^th December 2013

Hibernaculum \hahy-ber-NAK-yuh-luhm\, noun:

1. a protective case or covering, especially for winter, as of an animal or a plant bud.
2. winter quarters, as of a hibernating animal.

Already it has become something much greater than a house or a home: a hibernaculum, for each of them, of some kind of ecstatic regeneration.
-- Kate Moses, Wintering: a Novel of Sylvia Plath, 2003

This winter home or hibernaculum of the peach-tree borer is a thin affair, with a smooth interior, and is made of bits of frass or particles of bark fastened together with silken threads, which simply covers the borer as it rests curled up on the bark.
-- Mark Vernon Slingerland, The Peach-tree Borer, 1899

Hibernaculum comes from the Latin hībernāculum meaning "winter residence." It entered English in the late 1600’s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Schmaltz

Word of the Day for Sunday 29^th December 2013

Schmaltz \shmahlts, shmawlts\, noun:

1. Informal. exaggerated sentimentalism, as in music or soap operas.
2. fat or grease, especially of a chicken.

The declining use of schmaltz, once a favoured ingredient for spreading, frying, and flavouring, is a case in point. Formerly common delicacies, well loved among the immigrant and second generations, are relegated to the status of fond memory.
-- Anne Kaplan, Marjorie Hoover, Willard Moore, The Minnesota Ethnic Food Book, 1986

"...And I'm not going to argue with you because you can argue the schmaltz out of a matzoh and I haven't got the strength for that today."
-- Rhoda Lerman, God's Ear: A Novel, 1989

Schmaltz comes from the Yiddish shmalts and the German Schmaltz meaning "fat." It entered English in the 1930’s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com