Word of the day

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, December 30, 2009

presage \PRES-ij; pri-SEYJ\, noun:

1. An indication or warning of a future event; an omen.
2. A feeling or intuition of what the future holds.
3. Prophetic significance.
4. [Archaic] A prediction; a prognostication.

transitive verb:
1. To indicate or warn of beforehand; to foreshadow.
2. To have a presentiment of.
3. To predict; to foretell.

intransitive verb:
1. To make or utter a prediction.

Although the enlightenment and liberation which had been expected to come after the war had not come with victory, a presage of freedom was in the air throughout these post-war years, and it was their only historical meaning.
-- Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, December 31, 2009

vicissitude \vih-SIS-ih-tood; -tyood\, noun:

1. Regular change or succession from one thing to another; alternation; mutual succession; interchange.
2. Irregular change; revolution; mutation.
3. A change in condition or fortune; an instance of mutability in life or nature (especially successive alternation from one condition to another).

This man had, after many vicissitudes of fortune, sunk at last into abject and hopeless poverty.
-- Thomas Macaulay

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, January 1, 2010

panacea \pan-uh-SEE-uh\, noun:

A remedy for all diseases, problems, or evils; a universal medicine; a cure-all.

He considered education "the great panacea" and insisted that access to knowledge was the key to all social progress.
-- Diane Ravitch, Left Back

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, January 2, 2010

constitutional \kon-stih-TOO-shuhn-uhl; -TYOO-\, noun:

A walk taken for one's health.

Kerensky was, I imagine, on his usual early morning constitutional.
-- Richard Elman, Namedropping: Mostly Literary Memoirs

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, January 3, 2010

tortuous \TOR-choo-us\, adjective:

1. Marked by repeated turns and bends; as, "a tortuous road up the mountain."
2. Not straightforward; devious; as, "his tortuous reasoning."
3. Highly involved or intricate; as, "tortuous legal procedures."

. . .the tortuous, narrow streets of Jerusalem's Old City.
-- Lee Hockstader, "Pope's Road to Israel Paved by Past Errors", Washington Post, March 12, 2000

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, January 4, 2010

enjoin \en-JOIN\, transitive verb:

1. To direct or impose with authority; to order.
2. To prohibit; to forbid.

While the Qur'an contains a number of references, some direct and some oblique, to the other four pillars, in only one place does it specifically enjoin fasting during the month of Ramadan: "O you faithful, fasting is ordained for you in the same way that it was ordained for those who came before you, so that you may fear God. . . . It was during the month of Ramadan that the Qur'an was sent down as a guidance for humanity. . . . Whoever among you sees the moon, then he should fast, but the one who is sick or on a journey, [can fast] an equal number of other days" (Sura 2:183-85).
-- Jane I. Smith, Islam in America

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 5, 2010

atelier \at-l-YAY\, noun:

A workshop; a studio.

A garage in Montparnasse served as Leo's atelier, and there he labored on his huge triptychs, mixing his paints in buckets and applying them with a kitchen mop.
-- Mordecai Richler, Barney's Version

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 6, 2010

flibbertigibbet \FLIB-ur-tee-jib-it\, noun:

A silly, flighty, or scatterbrained person, especially a pert young woman with such qualities.

We discover here not the flibbertigibbet Connolly describes but a serious reader (Goethe, Tolstoy, Proust) who found her cultural ideal in 18th-century France.
-- Martin Stannard, "Enter Shrieking", New York Times, November 28, 1993

[Hopefloats]

Originally Posted by 2jules7

Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 6, 2010

flibbertigibbet \FLIB-ur-tee-jib-it\, noun:

A silly, flighty, or scatterbrained person, especially a pert young woman with such qualities.

We discover here not the flibbertigibbet Connolly describes but a serious reader (Goethe, Tolstoy, Proust) who found her cultural ideal in 18th-century France.
-- Martin Stannard, "Enter Shrieking", New York Times, November 28, 1993

I don't know about a "pert young woman" (LOL) but for sure, I was a scatterbrain yesterday. So I was a flibbertigibbet! I am STILL working on pronouncing this word! I guess I have to learn how to spell it first! lol

Thanks again for these... it is fun

[2jules7]

Originally Posted by Hopefloats

I don't know about a "pert young woman" (LOL) but for sure, I was a scatterbrain yesterday. So I was a flibbertigibbet! I am STILL working on pronouncing this word! I guess I have to learn how to spell it first! lol

Thanks again for these... it is fun

Yeah, i'd say beautiful would be a better word, everyone is beautiful. Pretty is just too weak of a word. :]
Lol, I keep leaving the 't' out of it so it sounds like flibbergibbet! xD

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, January 7, 2010

quotidian \kwoh-TID-ee-uhn\, adjective:

1. Occurring or returning daily; as, a quotidian fever.
2. Of an everyday character; ordinary; commonplace.

Erasmus thought More's career as a lawyer was a waste of a fine mind, but it was precisely the human insights More derived from his life in the quotidian world that gave him a moral depth Erasmus lacked.
-- "More man than saint", Irish Times, April 4, 1998

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, January 8, 2010

gesticulate \juh-STIK-yuh-layt\, intransitive verb:

1. To make gestures or motions, especially while speaking or instead of speaking.

transitive verb:
1. To indicate or express by gestures.

In between clearing flooded masks or removing our air supplies, we would gesticulate wildly to point out the giant barracuda hovering nearby, its ugly jaws snapping.
-- Gwyn Topham, "Deep space", The Guardian, November 2, 2002

[annihilate_me]

Originally Posted by 2jules7

Word of the Day for Friday, January 8, 2010

gesticulate \juh-STIK-yuh-layt\, intransitive verb:

1. To make gestures or motions, especially while speaking or instead of speaking.

transitive verb:
1. To indicate or express by gestures.

In between clearing flooded masks or removing our air supplies, we would gesticulate wildly to point out the giant barracuda hovering nearby, its ugly jaws snapping.
-- Gwyn Topham, "Deep space", The Guardian, November 2, 2002

So it's like talking with your hands!

[2jules7]

Originally Posted by annihilate_me

So it's like talking with your hands!

Exactly!

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, January 9, 2010

nebbish \NEB-ish\, noun:

A weak-willed, timid, or ineffectual person.

You used to be a nebbish, a noodle, a fool
And now you're Mr. Big Time with your own private pool.
-- Maira Kalman, Max in Hollywood, Baby

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, January 10, 2010

onus \OH-nuhs\, noun:

1. A burden; an obligation; a disagreeable necessity.
2. a: A stigma. b: Blame.
3. The burden of proof.

And who knew what financial pressures he was under or how desperate was his need to shed the onus of his past?
-- Richard Lingeman, "The Last Party", New York Times, April 27, 1997

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, January 11, 2010

flagitious \fluh-JISH-uhs\, adjective:

1. Disgracefully or shamefully criminal; grossly wicked; scandalous; -- said of acts, crimes, etc.
2. Guilty of enormous crimes; corrupt; profligate; -- said of persons.
3. Characterized by enormous crimes or scandalous vices; as, "flagitious times."

However flagitious may be the crime of conspiring to subvert by force the government of our country, such conspiracy is not treason.
-- Ex parte Bollman & Swartwout, 4 Cranch 126 (1807)

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 12, 2010

torpor \TAWR-per\, noun:

1. Lacking in vitality or interest.
2. A state of mental or physical inactivity or insensibility.
3. Lethargy; apathy.

At 47, I'm starting to wonder which direction I'm headed. And with good reason because, according to my accountant, there is no way I'm going to be able to give in to torpor, fatigue or anything else that might take me out of the work force anytime soon.
-- Michelle Slatalla, "A Play Date With My Imagination ", New York Times, June 2, 2009

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 13, 2010

lapidary \LAP-uh-dair-ee\, adjective:

1. Of or pertaining to the art of cutting stones or engraving on them.
2. Engraved in stone.
3. Of or pertaining to the refined or terse style associated with inscriptions on monumental stone.

noun:
1. One who cuts, polishes, and engraves precious stones.
2. A dealer in precious stones.

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, January 14, 2010

draconian \dray-KOHN-ee-uhn; druh-\, adjective:

1. Pertaining to Draco, a lawgiver of Athens, 621 B.C.
2. Excessively harsh; severe.

It was drizzling outside Friday as the governor was unveiling his budget with its painful program cuts that even he called draconian.
-- George Skelton, "The worst budget mess ever", Los Angeles Times, January 11, 2010