Word of the day

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, March 14, 2010

fulminate \FUL-muh-nayt\, intransitive verb:

1. To issue or utter verbal attacks or censures authoritatively or menacingly.
2. To explode; to detonate.

transitive verb:
1. To utter or send out with denunciations or censures.
2. To cause to explode.

This mass culture--global, immediate, accessible, buoyant, with shared heroes, models, and goals--is immensely intoxicating. Ayatollahs fulminate against it; dictators censor it; mandarins try to slam the door on it.
-- Lawrence M. Friedman, The Horizontal Society

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, March 15, 2010

gravitas \GRAV-uh-tahs\, noun:

High seriousness (as in a person's bearing or in the treatment of a subject).

At first sight the tall, stooped figure with the hawk-like features and bloodless cheeks, the look of extreme gravitas, seems forbidding and austere, the abbot of an ascetic order, scion of an imperial family who has foresworn the world.
-- John Lehmann, "T.S. Eliot Talks About Himself and the Drive to Create", New York Times, November 9, 1953

[2jules7]

Word of the day for Tuesday, March 16, 2010

hirsute\HUR-soot; HIR-soot; hur-SOOT; hir-SOOT\ , adjective;

1.Covered with hair; set with bristles; shaggy; hairy.

The Bear . . . makes the rounds of the clubs "disguised" in trench coat and broad-brimmed hat, hoping (successfully, it seems) to be mistaken for a rather hirsute human.
-- Richard M. Sudhalter, "The Bear Comes Home': Composing the Words That Might Capture Jazz", New York Times, August 29, 1999

[2jules7]

Word of the DayWednesday, March 17, 2010

potable\POH-tuh-buhl\ , adjective;

1.Fit to drink; suitable for drinking; drinkable.noun:

1.A potable liquid; a beverage, especially an alcoholic beverage.

If you drink from the spring, which is shaded by a fig tree, you will supposedly feel younger and more loving. Unfortunately, you may also feel sick: the government warns that the water is not potable.
-- Gene Burns, "The Stuff of Myths", The Atlantic, September 1999

[2jules7]

Word of the DayThursday, March 18, 2010

cozen\KUZ-un\ , transitive verb;

1.To cheat; to defraud; to deceive, usually by petty tricks.2.To obtain by deceit.intransitive verb:
1.To act deceitfully.

You would naturally not think so flat a rogue could cozen you. But have a care! These half idiots have a sort of cunning, as the skunk has its stench.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson, The Master of Ballantrae

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, March 19, 2010

matutinal \muh-TOOT-n-uhl\, adjective:

Relating to or occurring in the morning; early.

Get up early and wash your face in the matutinal May Day dew; it will make your skin beautiful and your heart pure.
-- Ray Murphy, "Hurray, Hurray, the Month of May", Boston Globe, April 28, 1988

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, March 20, 2010

garrulous \GAIR-uh-lus; GAIR-yuh-\, adjective:

1. Talking much, especially about commonplace or trivial things; talkative.
2. Wordy.

Without saying a single word she managed to radiate disapproval . . . the air seemed to grow heavy with it and the most garrulous talker would wilt and fall silent.
-- Mark Amory, Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, March 21, 2010

fatidic \fuh-TID-ik\, adjective:

Of, relating to, or characterized by prophecy; prophetic.

Throughout his very considerable body of work, there is an obsession with time, with dates, with temporal coincidences, with the fatidic power of numbers over our birth and death.
-- James Kirkup, "Obituary: Ernst Junger", Independent, February 18, 1998

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, March 22, 2010

cacophony \kuh-KAH-fuh-nee\, noun:

1. Harsh or discordant sound; dissonance.
2. The use of harsh or discordant sounds in literary composition.

New York was then a cacophony of sounds -- a dozen accents ricocheting off surrounding buildings as immigrant mothers called their children home for supper, noon whistles blowing, vendors hawking their wares on the streets, children shouting, horses whinnying, and people yelling.
-- Herbert G. Goldman, Banjo Eyes

[2jules7]

Word of the DayTuesday, March 23, 2010

exiguous\ig-ZIG-yoo-us\ , adjective;

1.Extremely scanty; meager.

They are entering the market, setting up stalls on snowy streets, moonlighting to supplement exiguous incomes.
-- Michael Ignatieff, "Rebirth of a Nation: An Anatomy of Russia", New Statesman, February 6, 1998

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, March 24, 2010

defenestrate \dee-FEN-uh-strayt\, transitive verb:

To throw out of a window.

Some of his apparent chums . . . would still happily defenestrate him if they caught him near a window.
-- Andrew Marr, "No option bar the radical one", Independent, July 5, 1994

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, March 25, 2010

lucre \LOO-kuhr\, noun:

Monetary gain; profit; riches; money; -- often in a bad sense.

His stories began to be published in the American Mercury before he moved to L.A., lured by the dream of Hollywood lucre.
-- Jerome Boyd Maunsell, "Truly madly weepy", Times (London), June 10, 2000

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, March 26, 2010

impecunious \im-pih-KYOO-nee-uhs\, adjective:

Not having money; habitually without money; poor.

Her father, Bronson, was a respected but impecunious New England transcendentalist who had 'no gift for money making', according to [Louisa May] Alcott's journal.'
-- "Blood and Thunder in Concord", New York Times, September 10, 1995

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, March 27, 2010

sylvan \SIL-vuhn\, adjective:

1. Of or pertaining to woods or forest regions.
2. Living or located in a wood or forest.
3. Abounding in forests or trees; wooded.

noun:
1. A fabled deity or spirit of the woods.
2. One that lives in or frequents the woods or forest; a rustic.

They probably picture it as a kind of modest conservatory, set in sylvan splendour in some charmingly landscaped garden.
-- Sally Vincent, "Driven by daemons", Guardian, November 10, 2001

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, March 28, 2010

portentous \por-TEN-tus\, adjective:

1. Foreboding; foreshadowing, especially foreshadowing ill; ominous.
2. Marvelous; prodigious; wonderful; as, a beast of portentous size.
3. Pompous.

This victory is without doubt a very special and portentous gift of the gods, she said, "for I believe that there now stands before you the one leader who is the single most qualified to lead us to the peace we long for."
-- Seth Mydans, "Wounded Sri Lankan Sees 'Gift of Gods' in Re-election.", New York Times, December 23, 1999

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, March 29, 2010

neophyte \NEE-uh-fyt\, noun:

1. A new convert or proselyte.
2. A novice; a beginner in anything.

I was a complete neophyte and knew nothing about the choreographic process, but seeing the steps pour out of this man was a revelation.
-- Edward Villella, "Remembering Balanchine as the Boss", New York Times, January 26, 1992

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, March 30, 2010

popinjay \POP-in-jay\, noun:

A vain and talkative person.

One popinjay shrieking from the left and another from the right about last week's headlines is not the whole of Washington's political dramas. Occasionally, American politics is more complicated and more momentous.
-- R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., "Feds Go Drug Crazy", American Spectator, May 26, 2000

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, March 31, 2010

bedizen \bih-DY-zuhn\, transitive verb:

To dress or adorn in gaudy manner.

At 18, he attended a party "frizzled, powdered and curled, in radiant pink satin, with waistcoat bedizened with gems of pink paste and a mosaic of colored foils and a hat blazing with 5,000 metallic beads," according to Michael Battersberry in "Fashion, The Mirror of History."
-- Donna Larcen, "Details Details: Everything Old Is New Again", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 19, 1994

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, April 1, 2010

hugger-mugger \HUH-guhr-muh-guhr\, noun:

1. A disorderly jumble; muddle; confusion.
2. Secrecy; concealment.

adjective:
1. Confused; muddled; disorderly.
2. Secret.

adverb:
1. In a muddle or confusion.
2. Secretly.

transitive verb:
1. To keep secret.

intransitive verb:
1. To act in a secretive manner.

While Ventura is speaking out -- his wisdom seems to be a hugger-mugger of twisted cliches from his reading of airport trash picked up as he traveled from bout to bout -- others who do possess minds too often are failing to speak theirs, and usually they do so only as a consequence of perceived electoral pragmatism.
-- Jamie Dettmer, "Campaigning and the Media Circus", Insight on the News, November 1, 1999

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, April 2, 2010

slake \SLAYK\, transitive verb:

1. To satisfy; to quench; to extinguish; as, to slake thirst.
2. To cause to lessen; to make less active or intense; to moderate; as, slaking his anger.
3. To cause (as lime) to heat and crumble by treatment with water.

intransitive verb:
1. To become slaked; to crumble or disintegrate, as lime.

My companions never drink pure water and the . . . beer serves as much to slake their thirst as to fill their stomachs and lubricate conversation.
-- Philippe Descola, The Spears of Twilight