June 20, 2012
Word of the Day

SLIMSY
audio pronunciation
\SLIM-zee\

DEFINITION

adjective
: flimsy or frail

EXAMPLES

"Cradle sheets of this thin, closely woven, white worsted stuff are not slimsy like thin flannel, yet are softer than flannel." — From Alice Morse Earle's 1898 book Home Life In Colonial Days

"When he asked if she needed a rest, stubbornness caused her to refuse — she didn't want him thinking she was soft and slimsy." — From Dawn Shamp's 2008 novel On Account of Conspicuous Women

DID YOU KNOW?

The reasons why some words flourish and others fall by the lexical wayside are often unclear, but what is clear is that "slimsy" is firmly in the latter category: it has very little current use. This doesn't have to stop you from using it though; "slimsy" is a blend of "slim" and "flimsy," and its meaning should be pretty much apparent to your audience if you're careful with the context. The word was first used in the mid-19th century and was at its peak of popularity in the early 20th, but who knows? Maybe the 21st century will see its revival.

June 21, 2012
Word of the Day

AMATIVE
audio pronunciation
\AM-uh-tiv\

DEFINITION

adjective
1
: strongly moved by love and especially sexual love
2
a : indicative of love b : of or relating to love

EXAMPLES

"At the university he became involved with two pretty students, Belene and Allene Ashby, daughters of a Texas rancher, and, amative as ever, he conducted love affairs with both at once." — From John Pearson's 2011 book Painfully Rich: J. Paul Getty and His Heirs

"She claimed to have been tutored in the amative arts by an angel named Soph, the spirit of a deceased suitor she had once spurned."— From a book review by Mathew N. Schmalz in Commonweal, May 6, 2011

DID YOU KNOW?

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…." Elizabeth Barrett Browning came up with eight ways to express her love in her poem; we offer six ways, or rather six words, to describe those expressions of love. Besides the familiar "amorous" and today's "amative," there's "amatory," "amoristic," "amatorious," and "amatorial." (You have to go to our unabridged dictionary to look up those last two.) What we love about this list is that all the words stem from Latin "amare," meaning "to love." "Amative," which was first introduced in 1636, was modeled on Medieval Latin "amativus," from the past participle of "amare." "Amorous," on the other hand, goes back to Middle English and came from Medieval Latin "amorosus," an adjective based on the noun "amor" ("love").

June 22, 2012
Word of the Day

WETWARE
audio pronunciation
\WET-wair\

DEFINITION

noun
: the human brain or a human being considered especially with respect to human logical and computational capabilities

EXAMPLES

With the right wetware at the helm, the company should be able to turn a sizeable profit.

"Over the weekend, an impressive crossword-solving computer program, called Dr. Fill, which I wrote about earlier, matched its digital wits against the wetware of 600 of the nation's best human solvers at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn." — From an article by Steve Lohr in The New York Times, March 19, 2012

DID YOU KNOW?

When the computer terms "software" and "hardware" sprang to life in the mid-20th century, a surge of visions and inventions using the new technology immediately followed … along with a revival of the combining form "ware." An early coinage was "wetware," which began circuiting techie circles in the 1970s as a name for the software installed by Mother Nature (a.k.a. the brain). Other "ware" names for people and their noggins have made a blip in our language — for example, "meatware" and "liveware" — but none have become firmly established in the general lexicon like "wetware."

Well, based upon this definition, Washington has got to be a DRY city! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

VERY dry!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/doh.gif" alt="" />

June 26, 2012
Word of the Day

DESIDERATUM
audio pronunciation
\dih-sid-uh-RAH-tum\

DEFINITION

noun, plural desiderata
: something desired as essential

EXAMPLES

"For … every unknown actor dying for a break, a speaking part in a Woody Allen movie is the desideratum." — From an article by Tracy Young in Vogue, November 1990

"200 vendors will offer a wide array of garden-related items…. 'Window-shopping' is welcome, but the event invites you to stock up on your garden desiderata." — From an article by Tom Karwin in the Monterey County Herald (California), March 16, 2012

DID YOU KNOW?

We'd like to introduce you to some close cousins of "desire." All trace their roots to the Latin "sider-," meaning "heavenly body." "Desiderare," meaning "to long for," was born when Latin "de-" was prefixed to "sider-." "Desiderare" begat Anglo-French "desirer," which in turn brought forth English "desire," "desirous," and "desirable" in the 13th and 14th centuries. But many years later, in the 17th century, English acquired "desideration" ("longing"), "desiderate" ("to wish for"), and finally "desideratum," all of which can lay claim to direct ancestry from "desiderare."

June 27, 2012
Word of the Day

OFTENTIMES
audio pronunciation
\AW-fun-tymez\

DEFINITION

adverb
: often, repeatedly

EXAMPLES

Oftentimes, she is the last employee to leave the office for the day.

"For the past three months, viewers have borne witness to what has become a winning formula in reality TV: loudmouthed, oftentimes obnoxious people bickering with one another." — From a recap of Celebrity Apprentice by Dan Hyman on RollingStone.com, May 21, 2012

DID YOU KNOW?

Despite its archaic, literary ring, "oftentimes" is quite alive today. In fact, it seems to be more popular even now than it was thirty years or so ago, appearing frequently both in written expressions and in quoted speech. "Oftentimes" was first used in the 14th century (the same century that gave us "often"), and its meaning hasn't changed — as meanings oftentimes will — in all that time. It was formed as an extension of its slightly older synonym "ofttimes." Today "ofttimes" is less common, but "oft" (which comes from Old English and also means "often" or "frequently") is popular in combination with past participles, as in "oft-praised."

June 28, 2012
Word of the Day

PLANET
audio pronunciation
\PLAN-ut\

DEFINITION

noun
1
: earth —usually used with the
2
: a celestial body held to influence the fate of human beings
3
: a person or thing of great importance : luminary

EXAMPLES

He dreamed of being a major planet in the literary world, but his books sold poorly and are now out of print.

"Nevin wasn't a bad player. He just never did anything for the Astros, ranking just above every person on the planet who never played in the major leagues, with zero home runs and one RBI as an Astro." — From an article by Jerome Solomon in The Houston Chronicle, June 3, 2012

DID YOU KNOW?

"Planet" goes back to ancient Greek "plan&#275;t-" (literally, "wanderer"), which is derived from "planasthai," a Greek verb which means "to wander." The name "planet" was originally applied to any of seven visible celestial bodies which appeared to move independently of the fixed stars — the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. In the 17th century, "planet" began to be used specifically of the rocky or gaseous bodies that orbit around the sun — a definition which excluded the moon and, obviously, the sun, but included the Earth and, as they were discovered, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union developed a narrower definition of "planet," effectively demoting Pluto to the status of a "dwarf planet," a celestial body that is spherical and orbits the sun but is not large enough to disturb other objects from its orbit.

Boy, talk about a no brainer!

I was hoping that Travesty was going to be the word of the day, but it wasn't so I guess we will have to settle for this one.

June 29, 2012
Word of the Day

QUIDDITY
audio pronunciation
\KWID-uh-tee\

DEFINITION

noun
1
: whatever makes something the type that it is : essence
2
a : a trifling point : quibble b : an unusual personal opinion or habit : eccentricity

EXAMPLES

Rembrandt's genius was his unparalleled ability to render a person's quiddity in a single portrait.

"I would give Mark a perfect 10 if he did not use an old joke that belonged to Mickey Mantle that didn’t even get a laugh. A quiddity to be sure but enough to jolt me out of my reverie." — From a theater review by Harvey Sid Fisher at hollywoodtoday.net, June 8th, 2012

DID YOU KNOW?

When it comes to synonyms of "quiddity," the Q's have it. Consider "quintessence," a synonym of the "essence of a thing" sense of "quiddity" (this oldest sense of "quiddity" dates from the 14th century). "Quibble" is a synonym of the "trifling point" sense; that meaning of "quiddity" arose from the subtler points of 16th-century academic arguments. And "quirk," like "quiddity," can refer to a person's eccentricities. Of course, "quiddity" also derives from a "Q" word, the Latin pronoun "quis," which is one of two Latin words for "who" (the other is "qui"). "Quid," the neuter form of "quis," gave rise to the Medieval Latin "quidditas," which means "essence," a term that was essential to the development of the English "quiddity."

June 30, 2012
Word of the Day

GRANDIOSE
audio pronunciation
\grand-dee-OSS\

DEFINITION

adjective
1
: characterized by affectation of grandeur or splendor or by absurd exaggeration
2
: impressive because of uncommon largeness, scope, effect, or grandeur

EXAMPLES

Jason often tried to impress people with his complicated, grandiose plans for success, but he never seemed to make much progress towards putting them into action.

"Yanni has achieved much of his fame over the past two decades-plus with grandiose outdoor concerts at places such as the Acropolis, the Taj Mahal and, most recently, El Morro, Puerto Rico." — From a review by David Burke in the Quad-City Times (Davenport, Iowa), May 3, 2012

DID YOU KNOW?

"Grandiose," "magnificent," "imposing," "stately," "majestic," and "grand" all can mean very large and impressive. "Grand" adds to greatness of size the implications of handsomeness and dignity, as in "a grand staircase." "Magnificent" implies an impressive largeness proportionate to scale without sacrifice of dignity or good taste ("magnificent paintings"). "Imposing" implies great size and dignity but especially stresses impressiveness ("an imposing edifice"). "Stately" may suggest poised dignity, erectness of bearing, handsomeness of proportions, and ceremonious deliberation of movement ("the stately procession"). "Majestic" combines the implications "imposing" and "stately" and usually adds a suggestion of solemn grandeur ("a majestic waterfall"). "Grandiose" implies a size or scope exceeding ordinary experience ("grandiose hydroelectric projects").

July 01, 2012
Word of the Day

CONVOKE
audio pronunciation
\kun-VOHK\

DEFINITION

verb
: to call together to a meeting

EXAMPLES

In 1907 Theodore Roosevelt convoked a conference at The Hague to discuss arms limitation.

"As announced at the end of the week, an extraordinary general shareholder meeting will be convoked on the initiative of the Company's Board on 24 May 2012…." — From an article by Ukio Bankas in Emerging Markets Brokers Reports, May 8, 2012

DID YOU KNOW?

The Latin noun "vox" ("voice") and verb "vocare" ("to call") have given rise to many English words including "convoke." Other English descendants of those roots are usually spelled with "voc" or "vok" and have to do with speaking or calling. Thus a "vocation" is a special calling to a type of work; an "evocative" sight or smell calls forth memories and feelings; and a "vocal" ensemble is a singing group. "Provoke," "irrevocable," "equivocate," and "vociferous" are a few of the other descendants of "vox" and "vocare."

We should convoke a sip n talk on Tuesday. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

ly 05, 2012
Word of the Day

solstitial
audio pronunciation
\sahl-STISH-ul\

DEFINITION

adjective
1
: of, relating to, or characteristic of a solstice and especially the summer solstice
2
: happening or appearing at or associated with a solstice

EXAMPLES

Hundreds of people gathered recently for the town's annual solsitial celebration.

"There are eight man-made monuments in the Stonehenge area with solstitial alignments, a number unmatched anywhere else." — Professor Mike Parker Pearson, as quoted on June 22, 2012, in a blog post by Martin Wainwright at www.guardian.co.uk

DID YOU KNOW?

"Solstitial" arrived in English in the 14th century by way of Anglo-French. Both "solstitial" and "solstice" can be traced back to the Latin word "solstitium," meaning "solstice," and ultimately to "sol," meaning "sun," and "-stit-" or "-stes," meaning "standing." Some unsurprising relatives include "solar," "solariam" (a room used for sunbathing or therapeutic exposure to light), and "parasol" (a lightweight umbrella used as a sunshade). A less obvious relative is "armistice," which was coined partially by analogy with the way "solstice" had been formed from the "-stitium" ending.