Word of the day strikes back

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Richard Frost
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Mon Jul 12 2021 9:21am

MONDAY, JULY 12, 2021 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/

velleity

[ vuh-lee-i-tee ]
noun

a mere wish, unaccompanied by an effort to obtain it.


THE ORIGIN OF VELLEITY?
Just the mere sound of velleity makes one loath to leave one’s hammock. A velleity is a mere wish, unaccompanied by an effort to obtain it, too weak even to be a desire, a perfect word for a July afternoon. Velleity comes from Medieval Latin velleitās (inflectional stem velleitāt-), a noun made up of the Latin verb velle “to be willing, want to” (from the same Proto-Indo-European source as English will) and the abstract noun suffix –itās, which via Old French –ité becomes the naturalized English suffix –ity. The odd thing about velleity is that its earlier occurrences, from the first half of the 17th century through the mid-18th, are in theological controversies, gradually yielding to philosophical arguments during the early 18th. Velleity entered English in the first half of the 17th century.

HOW IS VELLEITY USED?
Kim felt a desire to sail the little boat. It was one of those desires doomed to remain a velleity. MONICA QUILL, AND THEN THERE WAS NUN, 1984

To want to in that way is to have a desire without attaching it to any foreseeable action—desire without hope, I guess it is. I believe the word for that sort of desire is velleity. SAM SAVAGE, GLASS, 2011

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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Sarah » Mon Jul 12 2021 9:43am

Word of the day from Susie Dent yesterday:
Word of the day is ‘bobbersome’ (19th century): eager, impatient, and a little bit excitable.
https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1 ... 49026?s=20
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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Tue Jul 13 2021 9:36am

TUESDAY, JULY 13, 2021 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/

zeitgeist

[ tsahyt-gahyst ]
noun

the spirit of the time; general trend of thought or feeling characteristic of a particular period of time.

THE ORIGIN OF ZEITGEIST?
Zeitgeist, “the spirit of the time; general trend of thought or feeling characteristic of a particular period,” comes straight from German Zeitgeist. In German, the noun dates from the late 18th century; it is a compound of Zeit “time, age, epoch” (related to English tide, which waits for no man) and Geist “spirit, mind, intellect” (related to English ghost). The English translation of Zeitgeist as “Time-Spirit” appears in English in Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus (1834). Time-spirit still occurs in English publications, but nowadays zeitgeist, spelled without a capital z in English, is becoming common (in German all nouns are capitalized, e.g., Zeit, Geist, Butter “butter,” Milch “milk,” and Eier “eggs”). Capitalizing important words (not only nouns) was also formerly the custom in English, as in the preamble to our Declaration of Independence: “When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another….” Zeitgeist entered English toward the middle of the 19th century.

HOW IS ZEITGEIST USED?
Khan represents the zeitgeist at a time when politicians on the left and right say tech giants have too much power and half of Americans say they should be more regulated. ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, JASON KARAIAN, SARAH KESSLER, STEPHEN GANDEL, MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED, LAUREN HIRSCH AND EPHRAT LIVNI, "ROBINHOOD LOOKS BEYOND ITS BIG FINE," NEW YORK TIMES, JULY 1, 2021

Likewise, board games and stuffed animals are a product of the Industrial Age. These objects taught kids to see themselves in ways that aligned with the zeitgeist of a particular time and place. JORDAN SHAPIRO, "SCREEN TIME FOR KIDS MIGHT NOT BE SUCH A BAD THING," SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, DECEMBER 13, 2018

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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Wed Jul 14 2021 9:56am

Word of the Day : July 14, 2021 - https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

shibboleth

noun SHIB-uh-luth

Definition
1 a : a word or saying used by adherents of a party, sect, or belief and usually regarded by others as empty of real meaning

b : a widely held belief

c : truism, platitude

2 a : a use of language regarded as distinctive of a particular group

b : a custom or usage regarded as distinguishing one group from others

Did You Know?
The Bible's Book of Judges (12:4-6) tells the story of the Ephraimites, who, after they were routed by the Gileadite army, tried to retreat by sneaking across a ford of the Jordan River that was held by their enemy. The Gileadites, wary of the ploy, asked every soldier who tried to cross if he was an Ephraimite. When the soldier said "no," he was asked to say shibbōleth (which means "stream" in Hebrew). Gileadites pronounced the word "shibboleth," but Ephramites said "sibboleth." Anyone who didn't pronounce the initial sh was killed on the spot. When English speakers first borrowed shibboleth, they used it to mean "test phrase," but it has acquired additional meanings since that time.

Examples
"… in Britain, whether a person pronounces hs is still a significant shibboleth." — Henry Hitchings, The Language Wars, 2011

"Even sillier was the old shibboleth that China's embrace of capitalist reforms … would lead to constitutional government. But the ability to buy a new cell phone never ensures the right to vote for a candidate of one's choice." — Victor Davis Hanson, The Chicago Tribune, 3 Oct. 2019

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Thu Jul 15 2021 9:01am

THURSDAY, JULY 15, 2021 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/

insouciant

[ in-soo-see-uhnt; French an-soo-syahn ]
adjective

free from concern, worry, or anxiety; carefree; nonchalant.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF INSOUCIANT?
Insouciant, “free from concern or anxiety; carefree; nonchalant,” comes straight from French insouciant, literally “not caring,” a compound of the French negative prefix in– “not” (from Latin in-, and naturalized in English in– from both Latin and French borrowings), and the present participle souciant “caring,” from the verb soucier “to trouble, care.” Soucier comes from Vulgar Latin sollicītāre “to worry, vex,” from Latin sollicitāre “to disturb, harass.” The French noun souci “care, worry” is part of the phrase sans souci “without worries, carefree,” which, spelled Sanssouci, is the name of the summer palace built by King Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, in Potsdam, between 1745 and 1747. Insouciant entered English in the first half of the 19th century.

HOW IS INSOUCIANT USED?
And while I expected to meet people electrified by political change, I mainly encountered cautious optimism mixed with insouciant shrugs toward the politicians. SEBASTIAN MODAK, "DON'T SLEEP ON TUNIS, A CITY THAT'S MORE AWAKE THAN EVER BEFORE," NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 29, 2019

She preferred to take the more insouciant attitude of an old veteran who has been there, done that, seen it all. “I’ve won so many grand slam titles. And I’m at a position where I don’t need to win another Wimbledon,” she smiled. ALAN BALDWIN, "I DON'T NEED TO WIN ANOTHER WIMBLEDON, SAYS SERENA," REUTERS, JULY 9, 2015

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Fri Jul 16 2021 9:39am

FRIDAY, JULY 16, 2021 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/

flapdoodle

[ flap-dood-l ]
noun

nonsense; bosh.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF FLAPDOODLE?
Flapdoodle, “nonsense; bosh,” is a colloquialism that first appeared in print in 1834 along with a definition: “It’s the stuff they feed fools on.” Flapdoodle has no reliable etymology; the meaning of flap is pure conjecture, but some scholars suggest that doodle has its archaic sense “a fool, silly person.” Mark Twain uses flapdoodle in chapter 25 of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884): “…[the King] works himself up and slobbers out a speech, all full of tears and flapdoodle about its being a sore trial for him and his poor brother….”

HOW IS FLAPDOODLE USED?
But Shlaes suavely dismisses the notion that Coolidge bears responsibility for the Great Depression and suggests his work was “complete, ready as a kind of blessing for another era.”

This is flapdoodle. No, Coolidge was not single-handedly culpable for the economic calamity of the 1930s. But neither can he be safely extracted from the ruin that followed his presidency. JACOB HEILBRUNN, "THE GREAT REFRAINER," NEW YORK TIMES, FEBRUARY 14, 2013

At home, a day later, too jet-lagged to think straight, I watch the “Da Vinci Code” movie for the first time. Now, I remember some silly flapdoodle about vessels and chalices and secret societies, but not much else. Nothing, it seems, rubbed off on me. PHILIP KENNICOTT, "I HAD NEVER SEEN LEONARDO'S 'LAST SUPPER.' A QUICK VISIT LEFT A LASTING IMPRESSION." WASHINGTON POST, MAY 2, 2019

As soon as I saw this another word came to mind, - Boris.

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Sat Jul 17 2021 9:23am

Word of the day 17th July 2021

bombinate

[ˈbämbəˌnāt]
VERB

buzz; hum.

"her head had become a bombinating vacuum"

Origin
late 19th century: from medieval Latin bombinare, bombinat- ‘buzz’, from Latin bombus ‘humming’ (see bomb)

Did you know?
Bombinate sounds like it should be the province of bombastic blowhards who bound up and bombard you with droning blather at parties-and it is. The word derives from the Greek word bombos, a term that probably originated as an imitation of a deep, hollow sound (the kind we would likely refer to as "booming" nowadays). Latin speakers rendered the original Greek form as "bombus," and that root gave forth a veritable din of raucous English offspring, including not only "bombinate," but also "bomb," "bombard," and "bound" ("to leap"). However, Latin bombus is not a direct ancestor of "bombastic," which traces to "bombyx," a Greek name for the silkworm.

First Known Use of bombinate
1880, in the meaning defined above

History and Etymology for bombinate
borrowed from Medieval Latin bombinātus, past participle of bombināre, word of uncertain meaning formed from the base of Latin bombīre or bombilāre "to buzz, hum" (in New Latin taken to be synonymous with these words), derivatives of bombus "buzzing, humming," borrowed from Greek bómbos — more at BOMB entry 1

NOTE: Latin bombināre has had a shadowy existence from the time of Martianus Capella (5th century c.e.), who uses the agent derivative bombinātor in his De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii. The 11th century lexicographer Papias glosses bombināre as conuiciari ("to utter abuse against, scold, revile"), or at least Papias is thus recorded in an early printed edition (Venice, 1485), which was picked up in Du Cange's dictionary of post-classical Latin, Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis. An oft-quoted occurrence is in the imaginary book title Quaestio subtilissima, utrum Chimaera in vacuo bombinans possit comedere secundas intentiones ("A subtle question, whether a Chimera buzzing in a vacuum can devour secondary intentions"), part of a mock library in François Rabelais's Pantagruel (the first volume, printed ca. 1532, of the Gargantua and Pantagruel novels); the translation of bombinans is conventional, but Rabelais' meaning is far from certain.

Examples of the use from the WEB
Asa Hornblow in the other room bombinating his chums about the Red Sox.
The New Yorker
He was accused of "bombinating in a vacuum" and, by H. G. Wells, of laboring like a hippopotamus trying to pick up a pea.
The New Yorker
In addition, he is still trying to discover the whereabouts of Hangfire, The Bombinating Beast and Ellington Feint.
The Guardian
At the start of this book, the main protagonist, young Lemony Snicket, is still trying to defeat the dastardly villain Hangfire; trying to save the wrongly accused Dashiell Qwerty; and also trying to get his hands on the statue of the Bombinating Beast before it falls into the villain's hands.
The Guardian

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Word of the day

Post by Richard Frost » Sun Jul 18 2021 9:07am

SUNDAY, JULY 18, 2021 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/

toplofty

[ top-lawf-tee, -lof- ]
adjective

condescending; haughty.

THE ORIGIN OF TOPLOFTY
Toplofty, “condescending; haughty,” is a back formation of earlier toploftical, of similar meaning. Both adjectives are humorous colloquialisms. The underlying phrase is top loft, “the uppermost story, topmost gallery.” Toploftical appears, sort of, in everyone’s favorite bedtime reading, Finnegans Wake (1939): “…celescalating the himals and all, hierarchitectitiptitoploftical, with a burning bush abob off its baubletop…” Toplofty entered English in the first half of the 19th century.

HOW IS TOPLOFTY USED?
Newcomers to the Examiner who feared that the rich senator’s son might be a painful popinjay were charmed by his quaint courtesy and the absence of anything toplofty of condescending about him. W. A. SWANBERG, "BRASH BEGINNING OF A SENSATIONAL CAREER," LIFE, AUGUST 25, 1961

If this should fall through, dear, you must write to your Aunt Vic. You must eat humble pie. You were too toplofty with her as it was. BASIL KING, THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT, 1912
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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by kevinchess1 » Sun Jul 18 2021 1:21pm

Well, My word of the day is SOFAKING :shock:

As in 'It's sofaking hot today :!: ' :?
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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Chadwick » Sun Jul 18 2021 4:42pm

kevinchess1 wrote:
Sun Jul 18 2021 1:21pm
Well, My word of the day is SOFAKING :shock:

As in 'It's sofaking hot today :!: ' :?
There used to be a lounge furniture retailer called Sofa King in Northampton.
Their adverts claimed that "Our prices are Sofa King low!"

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