Word of the day

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, June 21, 2010

heliolatry \hee-lee-OL-uh-tree\, noun:

Worship of the sun.

I am certain that if our preparations for greeting the returning sun were seen by other people, either civilised or savage, we would be thought disciples of heliolatry.
-- Frederick Albert Cook, Through the first Antarctic night

[Chy]

oooooo good one!

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, June 22, 2010

proliferate \pruh-LIF-uh-reyt\, verb:

1. To increase or spread at a rapid rate.
2. Biology. To grow or produce by multiplication of parts, as in budding or cell division, or by procreation.

Look at the smokestacks, how they proliferate, fanning the wastes of original waste over greater and greater masses of city.
-- Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, June 23, 2010

rococo \roh-kuh-KOH\, adjective:

1. Ornate or florid in speech, writing, or general style.
2. Pertaining to a style of painting developed simultaneously with the rococo in architecture and decoration, characterized chiefly by smallness of scale, delicacy of color, freedom of brushwork, and the selection of playful subjects as thematic material.

noun:
1. A style of architecture and decoration, originating in France about 1720, evolved from Baroque types and distinguished by its elegant refinement in using different materials for a delicate overall effect and by its ornament of shellwork, foliage, etc.

adjective:
1. In the manner of, or suggested by rococo architecture, decoration, or music or the general atmosphere and spirit of the rococo.

Whereas the author's early works, like "Dead Babies" and "The Rachel Papers," were animated by a satiric gift for social observation and a deliciously black wit, this novel tackles the same themes - sex and identity and coming of age - with weary determination, and lacquers them all with pompous, inanely rococo meditations about the nature of art and truth.
-- Michiko Kakutani, "The Sexual Revolution Dissected", New York Times, May 2010

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, June 24, 2010

haptic \HAP-tik\, adjective:

1. Relating to the sense of touch; tactile.

noun:
1. The science that deals with the sense of touch.

Why do people want haptic augmented reality? So a mother-to-be can touch her unborn child in the womb.
-- Bruce Sterling, "Beyond the beyond: Augmented Reality: Haptic Augmented Reality", Wired, May 2010

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, June 25, 2010

cakewalk \KEYK-wawk\, noun:

1. Something easily accomplished.
2. A 19th-century African-American tradition in which walkers performing the most accomplished or amusing steps won cakes as prizes.
3. The music that accompanies such a competition.

This will be a cakewalk, I tell myself, even though I'm up against a pair of convicted killers.
-- Kurt Streeter, "Tennis is serious sport in San Quentin Prison", Los Angeles Times, May 2010

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, June 26, 2010

enthrall \en-THRAWL\, verb:

1. To captivate or charm.
2. To put or hold in slavery; subjugate.

"Lost" will both disappoint and enthrall -- and it will remain, long after it's over, a series people talk about.
-- Tim Goodman, "Spoiled: 'Lost, The End'", San Francisco Chronicle, May 2010

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, June 27, 2010

zephyr \ZEF-er\, noun:

1. A gentle, mild breeze.
2. Literary. The west wind.
3. Any of various things of fine, light quality.

And when my hand had had its fill of sport I used to seek The coolness of the shade and of the breeze, / The zephyr breathing from the chilly dales. / I sought the zephyr in the heat, / I waited for the zephyr, for its balm.
-- Ovid, A. D. Melville, E. J. Kenney, Metamorphoses

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, June 28, 2010

yen \YEN\, noun:

1. A desire or craving.
2. An aluminum coin and monetary unit of Japan, equal to 100 sen or 1000 rin.

verb:
1. To have a craving; yearn.

If you have a yen for real-life adventure stories, here are five paperbacks you want to be sure to slip into your vacation bag this summer.
-- Marjorie Kehe, "5 gripping real-life adventure stories", Christian Science Monitor, May 2010.

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, June 29, 2010

yaw \YAW\, verb:

1. To move unsteadily; weave.
2. To deviate temporarily from a straight course, as a ship.
3. (Of a vehicle) to have a motion about the vertical axis.

Test pilot Joseph A. Walker flew the X-15 an estimated 28 miles high Thursday, testing a new way to curb the rocket plane's tendency to yaw as it plunges back from the edge of space.
-- "X-15 Flight Tests Tighter Yaw Control", Milwaukee Journal, 1962

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, June 30, 2010

macabre \muh-KAH-bruh\, adjective:

1. Gruesome and horrifying.
2. Pertaining to or representing death, esp. its grimmer or uglier aspect.

The show brings Poe's macabre and melancholic tales & poems to life as Poe and his wife Virginia guide the audience through historic Mayslake Hall, taking them from the garrets to the dungeons and deep into the madness of Edgar Allan Poe.
-- "First Folio Announces 2010-2011 Season of Suspense", Broadway World

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, July 1, 2010

hunky dory \HUHNG-kee-DOHR-ee\, adjective:

About as well as one could wish or expect; satisfactory; fine; OK.

In Greensboro we are continuing along as if everything is hunky dory and, according to the proposed budget, Greensboro will be taking on $70 million in new debt in the next two years.
-- John Hammer, "City Budget Designed To Generate Outcry", Greensboro Rhino Times

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, July 2, 2010

evanescence \ev-uh-NES-ens\, noun:

1. A gradual dissappearance.
2. The state of becoming imperceptible.

This is one of the most beautiful circumstances connected with water surface, for by these means a variety of color and a grace and evanescence are introduced in the reflection otherwise impossible.
-- John Ruskin, The Works of John Ruskin: Modern painters, v.1-5

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Saturday, July 3, 2010

vespertine \VES-per-tin\, adjective:

1. Of, pertaining to, or occurring in the evening.
2. Botany. Opening or expanding in the evening, as certain flowers.
3. Zoology. Becoming active in the evening, as bats and owls.

To my own ear, I sound hyperpoetic, and I don't mean to exaggerate these vespertine moods; I think that this restlessness that I am describing was really quite ordinary.
-- Peter Gadol, The Long Rain

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Sunday, July 4, 2010

rataplan \rat-uh-PLAN\, verb:

1. To produce the sound as of the beating of a drum.

noun:
1. A sound of or as of the beating of a drum.
2. A tattoo, as of a drum, the hooves of a galloping horse, or machine-gun fire.

When his breath returned, he called aloud to space: "My drum ain't busted, but I can't reach t'other stick !" and then rat-tatted as best he could, sitting, hot in his own blood, there in what might have seemed the measured centre of the surely coming charge. As his one stick beat, rataplanning as best it might alone, his ghastly face, turned backward, saw the first man, rifle in hand who topped the low ridge, racing forward on two strong legs, furiously cursing the swinging, helpless left arm that dripped as he ran.
-- Clara Morris, The life of a star

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Monday, July 5, 2010

squelch \SKWELCH\, verb:

1. To put down, suppress, or silence, as with a crushing retort or argument.
2. To strike or press with crushing force; crush down.
3. To make a splashing sound.
4. To tread heavily in water, mud, wet shoes, etc., with such a sound.

noun:
1. Electronics. A circuit in a receiver, as a radio receiver, that automatically reduces or eliminates noise when the receiver is tuned to a frequency at which virtually no carrier wave occurs.

But Beijing has few other outlets for investing its vast cash holdings and was quick to squelch any suggestion that it was losing confidence in the euro, which would only undermine the value of its own reserves.
-- Aileen Wang and Simon Rabinovitch, "China Says Europe Key Market", Reuters, June 2010

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Tuesday, July 6, 2010

bijou \BEE-zhoo\, adjective:

1. Something small, delicate, and exquisitely wrought.

noun:
1. A jewel.

Adding to its appeal is the fact that the Streak is a compact and bijou five inches, compared to the iPad's relatively chunky 9.7-inches.
-- Jonathan Leggett, "Dell Streak Free on Mobile Broadband Deals", Top 10 Broadband, June 2010

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Wednesday, July 7, 2010

gizmo \GIZ-moh\, noun:

A mechanical device or part whose name is forgotten or unknown; a gadget.

Perhaps mindful that the machines might not swing, Metheny began with the gizmos turned off, employing an acoustic guitar for dark, Spanish-tinged tunes.
-- Karl Stark, "Metheny's gizmo sidemen a bit flat", Philadephia Inquirer

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Thursday, July 8, 2010

sibylline \SIB-uh-leen\, adjective:

1. Prophetic; oracular.
2. Of, resembling, or characteristic of a sibyl; prophetic; oracular.
3. Mysterious; cryptic.

OPN, an American actually called Daniel Lopatin, has been around since 2006 and already amassed a ton of loop-based otherworldly music pieces released under an array of suitably sibylline monikers.
-- Thomas Corlin, "Interview: Oneohtrix Point Never", Spoonfed.co.uk

[2jules7]

Word of the Day for Friday, July 9, 2010

tantivy \tan-TIV-ee\, adjective:

1. Swift; rapid.

adverb:
1. At full gallop.

noun:
1. A rush, a gallop or stampede.

interjection:
1. (used as a hunting cry when the chase is at full speed.)

The passage of wild pigeons from this wood to that-with their slight tantivy-and carrier haste- Now from under some rotten stump your hoe turns up a spotted salamander- your own contemporary- A small trace of Egypt and the Nile in New England- Where is the priest of Isis.
-- Henry David Thoreau, Journal: 1842-1848