Word of the day

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, May 13, 2010

afterclap \AF-ter-klap\, noun:

An unexpected, often unpleasant sequel to a matter that had been considered closed.

The afterclap of the rebellion struck down Abraham Lincoln. The first peal from the clouds of checked dictatorship, that had been flashing less vividly, and rumbling less loudly and at longer intervals for weeks,—like the chain lightning, and the ripping, tearing, striking thunder—laid low James Abram Garfield.
-- James Seymour Hoyt, The death of President Garfield: a sermon preached at Prospect Street Church

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, May 14, 2010

sawyer \SAW-yer\, noun:

1. One that is employed in sawing wood.
2. Also called sawyer beetle. Any of several long-horned beetles, esp. one of the genus Monochamus, the larvae of which bore in the wood of coniferous trees.
3. A tree or a part of a tree that protrudes above the surface in a body of water.

He testified, also, that when he discovered that he could not remove the sliver with the stick he sought to signal the head sawyer to shut down the mill, but was unable to attract his attention; testifying further, and in this he is corroborated by experienced sawyers, that, when a silver gets caught in such a way as to rub the saw and cause it to heat, the saw becomes dangerous, as the heat loosens the shanks which hold the teeth thus letting them fly out, and causes the saw to become limber increasing its tendency to bend and break into pieces.
-- Alvah Littlefield Sawyer, Harkins v. J. A. Veness Lumber Co., Supreme Court of Washington decision

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, May 15, 2010

kibitz \KIB-its\, verb:

1. To chat; converse.
2. To look on and offer unwanted, usually meddlesome advice to others.

The servers, too, hit the right tone for a neighborhood restaurant — not afraid to kibitz a little when they see you're open to it, but respectful of your time and your time with your tablemates.
-- Jonathan Kauffman, "At Frances, sometimes less is less," SF Weekly

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, May 16, 2010

eidetic \ahy-DET-ik\, adjective:

1. Of, pertaining to, or constituting visual imagery vividly experienced and readily reproducible with great accuracy and in great detail.
2. Marked by or involving extraordinarily accurate and exacting recall especially of visual images.

I've been writing about the future of e-books for many years now, and I bought the Amazon Kindle when it first arrived, and I sent it back as the latency when going from page to page was awful for me since I have a pseudo-eidetic memory, which basically means every latent image gets burned into my brain and sticks there and I see it in my mind and that conflicts with visualizing a faraway place in the story I'm reading.
-- Christopher Simmons, "Waking up to the iPad Wi-Fi+3G – Part One", Publishers Newswire.

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, May 17, 2010

majuscule \MAJ-uh-skyool\, adjective:

1. Of letters written either as capitals or uncials.

noun:
1. A large letter, either capital or uncial, used in writing or printing.

The letter c is chiefly remarkable for the fact of there being two distinct majuscule forms, the more archaic of which is almost exclusively used to represent the numeral.
-- Philip Henslowe, Walter Wilson Greg, Henslowe's Diary: Commentary

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, May 18, 2010

tipple \TIP-uhl\, verb:

1. To drink intoxicating liquor, esp. habitually or to some excess.
2. To drink (intoxicating liquor), esp. repeatedly, in small quantities.

noun:
1. Intoxicating liquor.
2. A device that tilts or overturns a freight car to dump its contents.

Although we're pretty sure that soccer fans will find a way to tipple with or without the council's thumbs-up, it's nice to know that the city's bar owners can get in on the action.
-- Karon Liu, "City May Allow Soccer Fans-to Drink at-10 a.m. During-World Cup," Toronto Life

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, May 19, 2010

habitué \huh-BICH-oo-ey\, noun:

One who frequents a particular place, especially a place offering a specific pleasurable activity.

Knicks habitués, for example, were beside themselves when erstwhile James disciples turned on him in light of his subpar numbers; they prayed that the unwarranted knee-jerk reaction would make the King abandon any plans of re-upping with the Cavaliers and instead look Gothamward for his new home.
-- Anthony L. Cuaycong, "Courtside: MVP James," BusinessWorld Online

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, May 20, 2010

plucky \PLUHK-ee\, adjective:

Having or showing pluck or courage; brave.

Little Orphan Annie will soon skip off into the newspaper sunset, Tribune Media Services announced last week in canceling the plucky 86-year-old redhead.
-- Michael Cavna, "Why canceled 'Little Orphan Annie' is really seeing her final 'tomorrow'"

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, May 21, 2010

baksheesh \bak-SHEESH\, noun:

1. A gratuity, present or tip.
2. A gratuity, tip, or bribe paid to expedite service.

verb:
1. To give a tip.

James Stuart and Nicholas Revett painted and measured until 1753, when their mission was cut short by the arrival of plague and the fact that Stuart had punched the baksheesh-demanding British consul.
-- Sonia Van Gilder Cooke, "Defining Moment: An expedition to Athens sparks architecture's Greek revivalism," Financial Times of London

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, May 22, 2010

suspire \suh-SPAHY-uhr\, verb:

To utter with long, sighing breaths.

The beleaguered alligator will rise on his stubby legs, distend his body, open wide his cavernous jaws, suspire what is supposed to be a dreadful hiss but sounds more like a tired sigh, and then ferociously clash his jaws together.
-- Archibald Rutledge, Monsters of the Swamp

[2jules7]

Word of the DaySunday, May 23, 2010

phlegmatic\fleg-MAT-ik\ , adjective;

1.Not easily excited to action or display of emotion; apathetic; sluggish.2.Self-possessed, calm, or composed.3.Of the nature of or abounding in the humor phlegm.

"They have no business no money blablablabla," he typed to me one afternoon, feigning phlegmatic unconcern with the financial woes of an advertiser he'd been negotiating with-his only one. Like much of his generation, Ternovskiy has an online persona far more developed than his real one.
-- Julie Ioffe, "Roulette Russian" New Yorker

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, May 24, 2010

adumbrate \a-DUHM-breyt\, verb:

1. To foreshadow; prefigure.
2. To produce a faint image or resemblance of; to outline or sketch.
3. To darken or conceal partially; overshadow.

The four composers represented here were all born in the 16th century, and, with the exception of Viadana, whose works adumbrate the lush Italian baroque which was to follow, are pure and classical Renaissance.
-- Classical reviews, Billboard, 1931.

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, May 25, 2010

shivaree \SHIV-uh-ree\, noun:

1. A mock serenade with kettles, pans, horns, and other noisemakers given for a newly married couple.
2. An elaborate, noisy celebration.

verb:
1. To serenade with a shivaree.

I used to attend shivarees and I can remember the preparation and planning involved.
-- "Of pigs, jokes, and marriage." Lawrence World-Journal.

[2jules7]

I dont know where Wednesdays is.
If I get it, Ill post it.

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, May 27, 2010

waxing \WAK-sing\, verb:

1. To increase in extent, quantity, intensity or power.
2. (Of the moon) to increase in the extent of its illuminated portion before the full moon.
3. To grow or become.

We move into the waxing moontime of our lives with an enthusiastic impatience for life beyond the family.
-- Nancy VanArsdall, Coming Full Circle: Honoring the Rhythms of Relationships

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, May 28, 2010

ethereal \ih-THEER-ee-uhl\, adjective:

1. Light, airy, or tenuous.
2. Extremely delicate or refined.
3. Heavenly or celestial.
4. Pertaining to the upper regions of space.
5. Chemistry. Pertaining to, containing, or resembling ethyl ether.

The 1997 reissue of Beach Boys' Pet Sounds included a disc of 11 songs with all instrumentation stripped out, leaving only those terminally sunny, ethereal vocal lines behind.
-- Erin Thompson, "Reverb blog", Seattle Weekly, May 2010
Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! / Dost thou despise the earth where cares

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, May 29, 2010

epoch \EP-uhk\, noun:

1. The beginning of a distinctive period in the history of anything.
2. A particular period of time marked by distinctive features or events.
3. A memorable date.
4. Geology. Any of several divisions of a geologic period during which a geologic series is formed. Compare age.
5. Astronomy. An arbitrarily fixed instant of time or date, usually the beginning of a century or half century, used as a reference in giving the elements of a planetary orbit or the like. b.The mean longitude of a planet as seen from the sun at such an instant or date.
6. Physics. The displacement from zero at zero time of a body undergoing simple harmonic motion.

As a result, lawmakers can now submit draft constitutional amendments to the Diet, a practice that had been frozen for three years since the national voting bill was enacted. This is an epoch-making event in the postwar history of our nation's constitutional politics.
-- "Lawmakers must face constitutional change", editorial, The Daily Yomiuri, May, 2010

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, May 30, 2010

scuttle \SKUHT-l\, verb:

1. To run with quick, hasty steps; scurry.

noun:
1. A deep bucket for carrying coal.
2. A small hatch or port in the deck, side, or bottom of a vessel.
3. A small hatchlike opening in a roof or ceiling.

verb:
1. To sink (a vessel) deliberately by opening seacocks or making openings in the bottom.
2. To abandon, withdraw from, or cause to be abandoned or destroyed.

noun:
1. A short, hurried run.

The 49-unit apartment building in Bronx River has a tally of woes almost impressive in magnitude. It has 663 open violations. Its walls shed lead paint, rain seeps through collapsing ceilings, and cockroaches and rats scuttle across its buckled floors.
-- Cara Buckley, "Judge Loses Patience With a Bronx Landlord", New York Times, May 2010

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, May 31, 2010

threnody \THREN-uh-dee\, noun:

A poem, speech, or song of lamentation, esp. for the dead; dirge; funeral song.

It was hugely difficult to sing, but it is painfully direct emotionally, and seemed a sort of threnody for Stephen and for Hugh and for Aziz and for a whole generation who had died needlessly young.
-- Simon Callow, "Stephen Oliver - In memory of a brief but brilliant career", The Independent, May 2010

[Hopefloats]

I still love that I can come here in search of a new word that may fit a situation
Thanks again for keeping this thread going!!