Word of the day

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, February 3, 2010

aubade \oh-BAHD\, noun:

A song or poem greeting the dawn; also, a composition suggestive of morning.

He was usually still awake when the birds began to warble their aubade.
-- Christopher Buckley, "What was Robert Benchley?", National Review, June 16, 1997
And there he lingered till the crowing cock...

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, February 4, 2010

pecuniary \pih-KYOO-nee-air-ee\, adjective:

1. Relating to money; monetary.
2. Consisting of money.
3. Requiring payment of money.

He lacked the finer element of conscience which looks upon Art as a sacred calling, she remembered, and because of "pecuniary necessities" he "scattered his forces in many different and unworthy directions."
-- James F. O'Gorman, Accomplished in All Departments of Art

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, February 5, 2010

distrait \dis-TRAY\, adjective:

Divided or withdrawn in attention, especially because of anxiety.

Yet when she stopped for a cup of coffee, finding herself too distrait to begin work, the picture was in the course of being removed from the window.
-- Anita Brookner, Falling Slowly

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, February 6, 2010

eschew \es-CHOO\, transitive verb:

To shun; to avoid (as something wrong or distasteful).

In high school and college the Vassar women had enjoyed that lifestyle, but afterward they had eschewed it as shallow.
-- Nina Burleigh, A Very Private Woman

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, February 7, 2010

ignoramus \ig-nuh-RAY-mus\, noun:

An ignorant person; a dunce.

My "perfect" reader is not a scholar but neither is he an ignoramus; he does not read because he has to, nor as a pastime, nor to make a splash in society, but because he is curious about many things, wishes to choose among them and does not wish to delegate this choice to anyone; he knows the limits of his competence and education, and directs his choices accordingly.
-- Primo Levi, "This Above All: Be Clear", New York Times, November 20, 1988

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, February 8, 2010

approbation \ap-ruh-BAY-shuhn\, noun:

1. The act of approving; formal or official approval.
2. Praise; commendation.

The speech struck a responsive chord among many and won him much approbation.
-- George Bush and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, February 9, 2010

vitiate \VISH-ee-ayt\, transitive verb:

1. To make faulty or imperfect; to render defective; to impair; as, "exaggeration vitiates a style of writing."
2. To corrupt morally; to debase.
3. To render ineffective; as, "fraud vitiates a contract."

MacNelly is one of the few contemporary political cartoonists who can use humor to accentuate, not vitiate, his points.
-- Richard E. Marschall, "The Century In Political Cartoons", Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 1999

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, February 10, 2010

tarradiddle \tair-uh-DID-uhl\, noun;
also taradiddle:

1. A petty falsehood; a fib.
2. Pretentious nonsense.

Oh please! Even in the parallel universe, tarradiddles of this magnitude cannot go unchallenged.
-- "Taxation in the parallel universe", Sunday Business, June 11, 2000

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, February 11, 2010

coquetry \KOH-ki-tree; koh-KE-tree\, noun:

Dalliance; flirtation.

'You were probably very bored by it,' he said, catching at once, in mid-air, this ball of coquetry that she had thrown to him.
-- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, February 12, 2010

quietus \kwy-EE-tuhs\, noun:

1. Final discharge or acquittance, as from debt or obligation.
2. Removal from activity; rest; death.
3. Something that serves to suppress or quiet.

I have put a quietus upon that ticking. Depend upon it, the ticking will trouble you no more.
-- Herman Melville, "The Apple-Tree Table"

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, February 13, 2010

cupidity \kyoo-PID-uh-tee\, noun:

Eager or excessive desire, especially for wealth; greed; avarice.

Curiosity was a form of lust, a wandering cupidity of the eye and the mind.
-- John Crowley, "Of Marvels And Monsters", Washington Post, October 18, 1998

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, February 14, 2010

billet-doux \bil-ay-DOO\, noun;
plural billets-doux \bil-ay-DOO(Z)\:

A love letter or note.

Perhaps she just looked first into the bouquet, to see whether there was a billet-doux hidden among the flowers; but there was no letter.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, February 15, 2010

vivify \VIV-uh-fy\, transitive verb:

1. To endue with life; to make alive; to animate.
2. To make more lively or intense.

Can the writer isolate and vivify all in experience that most deeply engages our intellects and our hearts?
-- Annie Dillard, "Write Till You Drop", New York Times, May 28, 1989

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, February 16, 2010

inexorable \in-EK-sur-uh-bul; in-EKS-ruh-bul\, adjective:

Not to be persuaded or moved by entreaty or prayer; firm; determined; unyielding; unchangeable; inflexible; relentless.

But the idea of providence, whether the biblical version or the Enlightenment's or Marx's, is at bottom a tragic notion, for it implies that individual human choices count for nothing against the weight of an inexorable, overwhelming force, whether benign or cruel, whether known as God, History, Destiny, Progress or DNA.
-- James Carrol, "Laughing Our Way to Defeat", New York Times, February 16, 1986

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, February 17, 2010

hypnagogic \hip-nuh-GOJ-ik; -GOH-jik\, adjective:

Of, pertaining to, or occurring in the state of drowsiness preceding sleep.

It is of course precisely in such episodes of mental traveling that writers are known to do good work, sometimes even their best, solving formal problems, getting advice from Beyond, having hypnagogic adventures that with luck can be recovered later on.
-- Thomas Pynchon, "Nearer, My Couch, to Thee", New York Times, June 6, 1993

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, February 18, 2010

duplicity \doo-PLIS-i-tee, dyoo-\, noun:

1. Deliberate deceptiveness in behavior or speech; also, an instance of deliberate deceptiveness; double-dealing.
2. The quality or state of being twofold or double.

Perhaps Phil was a spy, working at Gagosian but secretly in the employ of White Cube. Actually, now that the idea of duplicity had entered Jeff's mind, it occurred to him that his gallery was having a party to which Jeff had been conspicuously uninvited.
-- Geoff Dyer, Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, February 19, 2010

gastronome \GAS-truh-nohm\, noun:

A connoisseur of good food and drink.

If "poultry is for the cook what canvas is for a painter," to quote the 19th-century French gastronome Brillat-Savarin, why paint the same painting over and over again?
-- John Willoughby and Chris Schlesinger, "From Poussin to Capon a Chicken in Every Size", New York Times, September 22, 1999

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, February 20, 2010

egregious \ih-GREE-juhs\, adjective:

Conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible.

The most egregious offender is alleged to be a Heber City, Utah, man, who said he was a certified public accountant and requested $393 million in refunds, including a $210 million refund for one customer.
-- "Nashville woman banned from preparing tax returns", Nashville Business Journal, February 1, 2010

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, February 21, 2010

bombast \BOM-bast\, noun:

Pompous or pretentious speech or writing.

A more serious difficulty, though, is that "love" has inspired a vast deal of high-toned rhetoric, and Ms. Ackerman seems determined to boost the bombast that already engulfs this troublesome word.
-- "This Crazy Thing Called Love", New York Times, June 26, 1994

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, February 22, 2010

fractious \FRAK-shuhs\, adjective:

1. Tending to cause trouble; unruly.
2. Irritable; snappish; cranky.

In Marshall's case, the experience of dealing with a clamorous band of younger siblings, earning their affection and respect while holding them to their tasks, proved remarkably useful in later years when dealing with fractious colleagues jealous of their prerogatives.
-- Jean Edward Smith, John Marshall: Definer of a Nation