Word of the day

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, April 23, 2010

moil \MOYL\, intransitive verb:

1. To work with painful effort; to labor; to toil; to drudge.
2. To churn or swirl about continuously.

noun:
1. Toil; hard work; drudgery.
2. Confusion; turmoil.

Why should he toil and moil, and be at so much trouble to pick himself up out the mud, when, in a little while hence, the strong arm of his Uncle will raise and support him?
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, April 24, 2010

perforce \pur-FORS\, adverb:

By necessity; by force of circumstance.

It will be an astonishing sight, should it come to pass, and even those of us who have followed every twist and turn of this process will perforce rub our eyes.
-- "Unionists sit tight as the poker game nears its climax", Irish Times, July 10, 1999

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, April 25, 2010

sough \SAU; SUHF\, intransitive verb:

1. To make a soft, low sighing or rustling sound, as the wind.

noun:
1. A soft, low rustling or sighing sound.

At a recent visit to Marsha's grave in Rathdrum, as the wind soughed through the towering pines nearby, Marsha's brother Pat left a silk bluebird by her headstone to honor her love of the outdoors.
-- David Whitman, "Fields of Fire", U.S. News & World Report, September 3, 2001

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, April 26, 2010

quisling \KWIZ-ling\, noun:

Someone who collaborates with an enemy occupying his or her country; a traitor.

I strung around rope and hoped to deter the deer from leaping but they sent in their quisling minions under the cover of darkness.
-- Chapel Hill Treehouse, May 1, 2006

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, April 27, 2010

quash \KWOSH\, transitive verb:

1. (Law) To abate, annul, overthrow, or make void; as, "to quash an indictment."
2. To crush; to subdue; to suppress or extinguish summarily and completely; as, "to quash a rebellion."

The Shelby Globe attributed her death to acute heart failure and yellow jaundice and did its best to quash a curious town rumor that had her being poisoned by eating oyster sandwiches.
-- Tim Page, Dawn Powell: A Biography

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, April 28, 2010

pellucid \puh-LOO-sid\, adjective:

1. Transparent; clear; not opaque.
2. Easily understandable.

The prevailing atmosphere as one cruises Kukulcan Boulevard, the busy strip where most of Cancun's 122 hotels are clustered, remains that of an Orlando or a Las Vegas dropped intact next to pellucid Caribbean waters.
-- Larry Rohter, "What's Doing in Cancun.", New York Times, March 8, 1998

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, April 29, 2010

valetudinarian \val-uh-too-din-AIR-ee-un; -tyoo-\, noun:

1. A weak or sickly person, especially one morbidly concerned with his or her health.

adjective:
1. Sickly; weak; infirm.
2. Morbidly concerned with one's health.

He is the querulous bedridden valetudinarian complaining of his asthma or his hay fever, remarking with characteristic hyperbole that "every speck of dust suffocates me."
-- Oliver Conant, review of Marcel Proust, Selected Letters: Volume Two 1904-1909, edited by Philip Kolb, translated by Terrence Kilmartin, New York Times, December 17, 1989

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, April 30, 2010

doula \DOO-luh\, noun:

A woman who assists during childbirth labor and provides support to the mother, her child and the family after childbirth.

Chris Morley launched Tender Care Doula Service in Valencia, California, seven years ago to provide nonmedical postpartum care workers (or doulas) to frazzled new moms.
-- Roy Huffman, "Healthy returns", Entrepreneur Magazine, February 1, 1996

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, May 1, 2010

omnific \om-NIF-ik\, adjective:

Creating all things; having unlimited powers of creation.

Said then th’ omnific Word, your discord end:/Nor stay’d, but on the wings of Cherubim/Uplifted, in paternal glory rode/Far into Chaos, and the world unborn/For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train/ Follow’d in bright procession to behold/Creation and the wonders of his might.
-- Milton, Book VII, Paradise Lost

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, May 2, 2010

sesquipedalianism \ses-kwi-PEED-l-iz-uhm\, adjective:

1. Given to using long words.
2. (Of a word) containing many syllables.

Quoting those who insist on engaging in sesquipedalianism (using “large words when smaller ones will do,”) Cavett romps and stomps over his subjects in a veritable malign-fest of the linguistically misguided.
-- Susie Berta, Susie's Year of Words - 2008 (Blog), April 14, 2008

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, May 3, 2010

jnana \juh-NAH-nuh\, noun:

Absolute knowledge acquired through meditation and study as a means of reaching (in Hinduism) Brahman; (in Buddhism) a state of awareness independent of conceptual thought.

In the world there are too many fools passing as devoted to God for want of the strength of jnana, knowledge, and buddhi, reason.
-- Ranganathananda (Swami.), Elva Linnéa Nelson, Human being in depth: a scientific approach to religion

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, May 4, 2010

iatrogenic \ahy-a-truh-JEN-ik\, adjective:

A malady induced inadvertently by a physician or surgeon or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures.

Chronic insomnia thus becomes a self-perpetuating and/or iatrogenic condition as sufferers are prescribed (or acquire) hypnotics for transient sleeplessness, and then develop an ongoing problem getting to sleep without chemical aid.
-- New York Times, reader comment, April 2010

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, May 5, 2010

vamoose \va-MOOS\, verb:

1. To leave hurriedly or quickly; decamp.
2. To leave hurriedly or quickly from; decamp from.

Councilman Caraway is adamant that all of the businesses on Pontiac Street must go away, vamoose, take a powder, even though they are industrial and manufacturing companies and even though they are on land that is zoned for industrial and manufacturing.
-- Jim Schultze, Dallas Observer, April 21, 2010

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, May 6, 2010

perpend \per-PEND\, verb:

1. To ponder; deliberate.
2. To be attentive; reflect.

noun:
1. A large stone passing through the entire thickness of a wall.

"So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits is to read thus: therefore perpend, my princess, and give ear.
-- William Shakespeare, Twelfth night, or, What you will

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, May 7, 2010

eristic \e-RIS-tik\, adjective:

1. Pertaining to controversy or disputation; controversial.
2. Of argument for the sole purpose of winning, regardless of the reason.

noun:
1. Argument for the sole purpose of winning, regardless of the reason.
2. The art of disputation.

This factor is a leading characteristic that separates eristic dialogue from persuasion dialogue. In the quarrel, there is an appearance of paying attention to a logical assessment of the issue by weighing the arguments on both sides (as if the dialogue were, say, a critical discussion.) But this appearance is a sham.
-- Douglas N. Walton, Appeal to Popular Opinion

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, May 8, 2010

chevron \SHEV--ruh-n\, noun:

1. A badge consisting of stripes meeting at an angle, worn on the sleeve by noncommissioned officers, police officers, etc., as an indication of rank, service, or the like.
2. A V-shaped pattern, especially a kind of fret used in architecture.
3. Also called chevron weave, a herringbone pattern in textiles.
4. In skiing, a method of going up a slope in which a skier sets the skis in a form resembling a V, and, placing weight on the inside edges, advances the skis by turns using the poles from behind for push and support.

In thin planar cells of a three-component mixture in which V-shaped switching was first reported, the chevron layer structure was confirmed.
-- Nihon Butsuri, Japanese journal of applied physics: Regular papers & short notes, Volume 40

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, May 9, 2010

muliebrity \myoo-lee-EB-ri-tee\, noun:

The state of being a woman.

She was one of those women who was waiting in —what is the word?—muliebrity; She had courage and initiative and a philosophical way of handling questions, and she could be bored by regular work like a man.
-- H.G. Wells, The New Machiavelli

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, May 10, 2010

mugwump \MUHG-wuhmp\, noun:

1. A person who is unable to make up his or her mind on an issue, esp. in politics; a person who is neutral on a controversial issue.
2. A Republican who refused to support the party nominee, James G. Blaine, in the presidential campaign of 1884.

Twain declared that people arrive at their religion and politics "Second-hand and without examination," and proclaimed himself a Mugwump and anti-Imperialist. Those of all political persuasions quote and misquote him and claim him as a spokesman for their opposing views.
-- Cindy Lovell, Mark Twain's legacy worth preserving, Kansas City Star

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, May 11, 2010

matriculate \muh-TRIK-yuh-leyt\, verb:

1. To enroll in a college or university as a candidate for a degree.
2. To register (a coat of arms), used esp. in Scottish heraldry.

"In Mr. White's current role as dean of students, he has worked closely with students, parents and alumni of Saint John's, as well as administrators and athletic directors from other surrounding schools," school official s said in the announcement. "White's commitment to the concept of the 'student-athlete' will serve our students well as they matriculate to college, while his commitment to character formation will serve our students well as they prepare for life."
-- Joan Goodchild, New athletic director takes reins at St. John's High School, The Community of Advocate of Massachusetts

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, May 12, 2010

malapert \MAL-uh-purt\, adjective:

1. Unbecomingly bold or saucy.

noun:
1. A malapert person.

"There never was a man so plagued as I am with a malapert knave! The fellow is shrewd, and I have found him faithful —I believe he loves me too, and he has given proofs of it—but then he is so uplifted in his own conceit, so self-willed and so self-opinioned, that he seems to become the master and I the man— and whatever blunder he commits, he is sure to make as loud complaints, as if the whole error lay with me, and in no degree with himself."
-- Sir Walter Scott, The fortunes of Nigel, Volume 1