Word of the day

[BM <3]

Word of the Day for Monday, July 27, 2009

caveat \KAY-vee-at; KAV-ee-; KAH-vee-aht\, noun:

1. (Law) A notice given by an interested party to some officer not to do a certain act until the opposition has a hearing.
2. A warning or caution; also, a cautionary qualification or explanation to prevent misunderstanding.

Example Quotes:

Two young Harvard M.B.A.'s worked up some highly optimistic projections -- with the caveat that these were speculative and should of course be tested.
-- Roy Blount Jr., "Able Were They Ere They Saw Cable", New York Times, March 9, 1986

[2jules7]

The officer left her with a caveat and told her to get her lisence fixed.

[BM <3]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, July 28, 2009

sapid \SAP-id\, adjective:

1. Having taste or flavor, especially having a strong pleasant flavor.
2. Agreeable to the mind; to one's liking.

Chemistry can concentrate the sapid and odorous elements of the peach and the bitter almond into a transparent fluid
-- David William Cheever, "Tobacco", The Atlantic, August 1860

[2jules7]

The sapidity of Australian oranges is amazing.
(true story )

[BM <3]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, July 29, 2009

apocryphal \uh-POK-ruh-fuhl\, adjective:

1. (Bible) Pertaining to the Apocrypha.
2. Not canonical. Hence: Of doubtful authority or authenticity; equivocal; fictitious; spurious; false.

Apocryphal or not, the anecdote contains at least a grain of truth.
-- Caroline Fraser, God's Perfect Child
In 1959 he told Walter Gutman that he first started writing when he was three years old, but that his sister threw away all his childhood writings one day when she cleaned out the attic. This sounds apocryphal as it is unlikely that he could read or write at that tender age, and if he could he would certainly have told us.
-- Barry Miles, Jack Kerouac King of the Beats

[2jules7]

Im not quite sure how to make a sentence with that word. :/

The little boys story was apocryphal, but the principal let him go anyway.

[BM <3]

Word of the Day for Thursday, July 30, 2009

aplomb \uh-PLOM\, noun:

Assurance of manner or of action; self-possession; confidence; coolness.

Then, unexpectedly, she picked up a microphone and began to sing. She sang several songs, handling herself with the aplomb of a professional entertainer.
-- "Rediscovering Japanese Life at a Bike's Pace", New York Times, April 24, 1988

[BM <3]

Word of the Day for Friday, July 31, 2009

sui generis \soo-eye-JEN-ur-us; soo-ee-\, adjective:

Being the only example of its kind; constituting a class of its own; unique.

This man, in fact, was sui generis, a true original.
-- Ruth Lord, Henry F. du Pont and Winterthur

[BM <3]

Word of the Day for Saturday, August 1, 2009

arcane \ar-KAYN\, adjective:

Understood or known by only a few.

There are other arcane traditions that seem like superstitions to us, or, perhaps, are simply lost in translation. Some cyclists, for instance, believe that riders should shower instead of bathe because in some way water weight from baths is absorbed.
-- Allen Barra, "Tour de Lance", Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2009

[BM <3]

Word of the Day for Sunday, August 2, 2009

lineament \LIN-ee-uh-muhnt\, noun:

1. A distinctive shape, contour, or line, especially of the face.
2. A distinguishing or characteristic feature; -- usually in the plural.

If she saw herself, even in her memory, she did not see the brightness that had been hers as a wife; she saw the lined and ageing woman she had become, as if these lineaments had been waiting to emerge since her features had first been formed.
-- Anita Brookner, Visitors

[BM <3]

Word of the Day for Monday, August 3, 2009

desultory \DES-uhl-tor-ee\, adjective:

1. Jumping or passing from one thing or subject to another without order or rational connection; disconnected; aimless.
2. By the way; as a digression; not connected with the subject.
3. Coming disconnectedly or occurring haphazardly; random.
4. Disappointing in performance or progress.

The shadows on the perfect lawn were straight and angular; they were the shadows of an old man sitting in a deep wicker-chair near the low table on which the tea had been served, and of two younger men strolling to and fro, in desultory talk, in front of him.
-- Henry James Jr., "The Portrait of a Lady", The Atlantic Monthly, November 1880

[2jules7]

The team was greatful to have a coach that was aplomb towards them.
Every person is sui generis in their own way.
There are somethings that will always be arcane to everyday people.
The lineament of the child was all her own.
This sentence is desultory to all the others.

[BM <3]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, August 4, 2009

equipoise \EE-kwuh-poiz; EK-wuh-\, noun:

1. A state of being equally balanced; equilibrium; -- as of moral, political, or social interests or forces.
2. Counterbalance.

Example Quotes:

What matters is the poetry, and the truest readings of it "are those which are sensitive to the strangeness of Marvell's genius: its delicate equipoise, held between the sensual and the abstract, its refusal to treat experience too tidily, the uncanny tremor of implication that makes the poems' lucid surfaces shimmer with a sense of something undefined and undefinable just beneath."
-- James A. Winn, "Tremors of Implication", New York Times, July 9, 2000

[BM <3]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, August 5, 2009

brio \BREE-oh\, noun:

Enthusiastic vigor; vivacity; liveliness; spirit.

Though my judgment was no doubt affected by all the wine we'd consumed, I remember being elated by our performance that night: our inspired spur-of-the-moment dialogue, the actors fleshing out their roles with such brio.
-- Gail Godwin, Evensong

[BM <3]

Word of the Day for Thursday, August 6, 2009

hebetude \HEB-uh-tood-; -tyood\, noun:

Mental dullness or sluggishness.

William Hazlitt considered Wordsworth's success an accident of history. "Had he lived in any other period ... he would never have been heard of. As it is, he has some difficulty to contend with the hebetude of his intellect."
-- Cristina Nehring, "The Gang: Coleridge, The Hutchinsons & The Wordsworths In 1802." (Review), American Scholar, June 22, 2001

[BM <3]

Word of the Day for Friday, August 7, 2009
insouciant \in-SOO-see-uhnt\, adjective:

Marked by lighthearted unconcern or indifference; carefree; nonchalant.

The insouciant gingerbread man skips through the pages with glee, until he meets his . . . demise at the end.
-- Judith Constantinides, "The Gingerbread Man", School Library Journal, April 2002

[2jules7]

Lost and Wipe Out are loved in an equipoise manner.
The brio of the crowd was amazing.
Monday mornings bring a hebetude for people.
Friday nights are for the insouciant people.

[BM <3]

Word of the Day for Saturday, August 8, 2009

travail \truh-VAYL; TRAV-ayl\, noun:

1. Painful or arduous work; severe toil or exertion.
2. Agony; anguish.
3. The labor of childbirth
4. To work very hard; to toil.
5. To suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor.

For all his travails and tragedy, he remains boyishly delighted with all life has to offer.
-- F. Kathleen Foley, "Kron Returns With Spirited, Touching 'Ride' About Family", Los AngelesTimes, January 20, 2000

[Done-With-It!]

Thanks Britt!

[2jules7]

With child birth looking so travail, im not sure I want kids!