Word of the day

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, April 3, 2010

malversation \mal-vur-SAY-shun\, noun:

Misconduct, corruption, or extortion in public office.

The Inspector General Act was designed to protect patriotic whistle-blowers who seek to reveal malversation in government.
-- Arthur Schlesinger Jr., "How History Will Judge Him", Time, February 22, 1999

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, April 4, 2010

manumit \man-yuh-MIT\, transitive verb:

To free from slavery or servitude.

The prime reason, I suspect, will be that we don't need any liberator to manumit our "corporate slaves" because we've never had any.
-- Victor S. Navasky, "Time is money", The Nation, July 17, 1989

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, April 5, 2010

grok \GRAWK\, verb:

To understand, especially in a profound and intimate way. Slang.

The electeds can say "I feel your pain" when the teleprompter tells them to, but our current existential crisis isn't something they grok.
-- Reverend Billy Talen, Alternet, February 27, 2010

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, April 6, 2010

land of Nod \land-uhv-NOD\, noun:

A mythical land of sleep.

We were fast going off to the land of Nod, when - bang, bang, bang - on the scuttle, and "All hands, reef topsails, ahoy!" started us out of our berths.
-- Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before The Mast

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, April 7, 2010

megrim \MEE-grim\, noun:

1. A migraine.
2. A fancy; a whim.
3. In the plural: lowness of spirits -- often with 'the'.

That might justify her, fairly enough, in being kept away from meeting now and again by headaches, or undefined megrims.
-- Harold Frederic, The Damnation of Theron Ware

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, April 8, 2010

interlard \in-tuhr-LARD\, transitive verb:

To insert between; to mix or mingle; especially, to introduce something foreign or irrelevant into; as, "to interlard a conversation with oaths or allusions."

Every night we lined up books on the floor, interlarding mine with his before putting them on the shelves.
-- Anne Fadiman, Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, April 9, 2010

indefatigable \in-dih-FAT-ih-guh-bul\, adjective:

Incapable of being fatigued; not readily exhausted; untiring; unwearying; not yielding to fatigue.

She was always seeking to add to her collection and was an indefatigable first-nighter at Broadway shows.
-- Meryle Secrest, Stephen Sondheim: A Life

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, April 10, 2010

Pyrrhic victory \PIR-ik\, noun:

A victory achieved at great or excessive cost; a ruinous victory.

Technically it was a victory for the British, who attacked the patriot fortifications -- but a Pyrrhic victory if ever there was: out of 2,200 British soldiers 1,034 were killed or wounded, including one in nine of all the officers the British lost in the whole war.
-- Geoffrey Wheatcroft, "A Revolutionary Itinerary", The Atlantic, April 2001

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, April 11, 2010

dishabille \dis-uh-BEEL\, noun:

1. The state of being carelessly or partially dressed.
2. Casual or lounging attire.
3. An intentionally careless or casual manner.

People meant to be fully clothed lounge around in dishabille.
-- John Simon, "Tangled Up in Blue", New York Magazine, March 26, 2001

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, April 12, 2010

neologism \nee-OLL-uh-jiz-um\, noun:

1. A new word or expression.
2. A new use of a word or expression.
3. The use or creation of new words or expressions.
4. (Psychiatry) An invented, meaningless word used by a person with a psychiatric disorder.
5. (Theology) A new view or interpretation of a scripture.

The word "civilization" was just coming into use in the 18th century, in French and in English, and conservative men of letters preferred to avoid it as a newfangled neologism.
-- Larry Wolff, "If I Were Younger I Would Make Myself Russian': Voltaire's Encounter With the Czars", New York Times, November 13, 1994

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, April 13, 2010

ne plus ultra \nee-plus-UL-truh; nay-\, noun:

1. The highest point, as of excellence or achievement; the acme; the pinnacle; the ultimate.
2. The most profound degree of a quality or condition.

He also penned a number of supposedly moral and improving books which . . . were the very ne plus ultra of tedium.
-- Richard West, "A life fuller than fiction", Irish Times, August 9, 1997

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, April 14, 2010

bloviate \BLOH-vee-ayt\, intransitive verb:

To speak or write at length in a pompous or boastful manner.

Anyone who has ever spent an idle morning watching the Washington talk shows has probably wondered: how did these people become entitled to earn six-figure salaries bloviating about the week's headlines?
-- Robert Worth, "Quick! The Index!", New York Times, June 3, 2001

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, April 15, 2010

pelf \PELF\, noun:

Money; riches; gain; -- generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten.

. . .a master manipulator who will twist and dodge around the clock to keep the privileges of power and pelf.
-- Nick Cohen, "Without prejudice", The Observer, February 20, 2000

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, April 16, 2010

oneiric \oh-NY-rik\, adjective:

Of, pertaining to, or suggestive of dreams; dreamy.

On this score, the novel might easily drift off into an oneiric never-never land, but Mr. Welch doesn't let this happen.
-- Peter Wild, "Visions of Blackfoot", New York Times, November 2, 1986

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, April 17, 2010

transmogrify \trans-MOG-ruh-fy\, transitive verb:

To change into a different shape or to transform, often with bizarre or humorous effect.

A washing machine transmogrified into a guitar.
-- Adrian Searle, "Come, friendly pigeons", The Guardian, March 16, 2000

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, April 18, 2010

disport \dis-PORT\, intransitive verb:

1. To amuse oneself in light or lively manner; to frolic.

transitive verb:
1. To divert or amuse.
2. To display.

If you confine the kids' drinking to the college area, they will disport there and lessen the problem of the drunken car ride coming back from the out-of-town bar.
-- William F. Buckley Jr., "Let's Drink to It", National Review, February 27, 2001

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, April 19, 2010

scapegrace \SKAYP-grayss\, noun:

A reckless, unprincipled person; one who is wild and reckless; a rascal; a scoundrel.

She intended to divide her fortune neither evenly nor proportional to need, but to ensure her own pleasure, bequeathing the bulk of it to her scapegrace nephew Rawdon Crawley, who had few virtues but much vitality; he amused her.
-- Randy Cohen, "The Heir Unapparent", New York Times Magazine, December 12, 1999

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, April 20, 2010

agrestic \uh-GRES-tik\, adjective:

Pertaining to fields or the country; rural; rustic.

The funniest and most agrestic of all his paintings were, undoubtedly, the cows.
-- Robert Hughes, "An Outlaw Who Loved Laws", Time, July 26, 1993

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, April 21, 2010

empyrean \em-py-REE-uhn; -PEER-ee-\, noun:

1. The highest heaven, in ancient belief usually thought to be a realm of pure fire or light.
2. Heaven; paradise.
3. The heavens; the sky.

adjective:
1. Of or pertaining to the empyrean of ancient belief.

She might have been an angel arguing a point in the empyrean if she hadn't been, so completely, a woman.
-- Edith Wharton, "The Long Run", The Atlantic, Feburary 1912

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, April 22, 2010

wastrel \WAY-struhl\, noun:

1. A person who wastes, especially one who squanders money; a spendthrift.
2. An idler; a loafer; a good-for-nothing.

Horace Liveright, the book publisher of the 1920's, is usually recalled in literary memoirs as a charming wastrel, a gambler who always saw a winning bet as a chance to raise his stake in whatever game he was losing at.
-- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "Disastrous Life of a Pioneer in Hype", New York Times, July 27, 1995