Word of the day strikes back

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Richard Frost
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Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Tue Oct 19 2021 9:11am

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2021

manticore


[ man-ti-kawr, -kohr ]
noun

a legendary monster with a man's head, horns, a lion's body, and the tail of a dragon or, sometimes, a scorpion.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF MANTICORE?
While the legends involving manticores were likely tall tales about lions and tigers and similar beasts, manticore is not a compound of English man and tiger, which is a common misconception. Instead, manticore “a legendary monster with a man’s head, a lion’s body, and the tail of a dragon or scorpion” derives via Middle English from Latin mantichōrās, which was a either a variant or a misreading of Ancient Greek martichṓras. This word, in turn, was borrowed from the Old Persian element martiya- “man” and an additional Iranian source akin to Modern Persian -khōr “eat, devour.” The martiya- element descends from a Proto-Indo-European root, mer- “to harm, die”—compare immortal (via Latin) and ambrosia (via Ancient Greek), both literally meaning “not of death”—while the -khōr element is cognate to English swallow and swill. Manticore was first recorded in English in the early 1300s.

HOW IS MANTICORE USED?
According to 5th Century Greek physician and historian Ctesias, the Mantichora (or manticore) was an Indian creature with the strength and body of a lion and the face and ears of a man. It also had three rows of terrible, terrible teeth. Blood-red in colour and as swift as a stag, its densely quilled tail resembled a scorpion’s, right down to its poisoned tips. BECKY CREW, “CURIOUS (AND TERRIFYING) CREATURES IN ZOOLOGY, PLUS ONE OBSCURE CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEA,” SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, DECEMBER 20, 2013

estiaries featured incredibly vivid, lively illustrations that spelled out the behaviors of the various creatures .… Such symbolism was so important in the Middle Ages, according to [T. H.] White, “that it did not matter whether certain animals existed”—the part man, part lion, part scorpion with probably some identity issues known as the manticore, for instance—but “what did matter was what they meant.” It was an era of intense faith that a higher power had created every creature with a meaning to be decoded by man. MATT SIMON, “FANTASTICALLY WRONG: UNICORNS DIG VIRGIN WOMEN, AND OTHER LESSONS FROM MEDIEVAL BESTIARIES,” WIRED, NOVEMBER 19, 2014

https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/
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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Sarah » Tue Oct 19 2021 12:11pm

Word of the day from Susie Dent today:
Word of the day is ‘suspire’ (15th century): to breathe out with a sigh.
https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1 ... 37856?s=20
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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Wed Oct 20 2021 10:30am

Wednesday October 20, 2021

batten


verb BAT-un

Batten means "to furnish or fasten with or as if with supports."

// Residents battened down their doors and windows before the storm.

Examples
"Everything was battened down and they were all set to leave the round-the-clock eatery—until they discovered there was no key to the front door. It had been that long since they'd locked it." — Bob Yesbek, The Cape Gazette (Lewes, Delaware), 7 May 2021

Did You Know?
Batten comes from the name for an iron bar used to secure the covering of a hatchway on a ship, which was especially useful in preparation of stormy weather. The verb batten is used in variations of the phrase "batten down the hatches," which means "to prepare for a difficult or dangerous situation." It winds back to Latin battuere, meaning "to beat."

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

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Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Thu Oct 21 2021 10:52am

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021

shivaree


[ shiv-uh-ree ]
noun

Today's Word of the Day was chosen by Steven Mackey

a mock serenade with kettles, pans, horns, and other noisemakers given for a newly married couple; charivari.

WHY STEVEN MACKEY CHOSE SHIVAREE
Shivaree: Fantasy for Trumpet and Orchestra is the title of a piece of classical music by Steven Mackey, which receives its world premiere today, October 21, 2021, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel. Shivaree is a composition for solo trumpet and orchestra made up of 12 movements, each of which was written as a musical interpretation of different words discovered through our very own Word of the Day. As Mackey himself explained: "Two little rituals became part of my daily life. I was getting notifications on my phone every morning with the 'Word of the Day' from Dictionary.com and my 10-year-old daughter would wander into my study, sit down at the piano, and say, 'Give me a word.' She would play an improvisation inspired by those words, which led me to decide to take some of the more unusual and evocative 'Words of the Day' as points of departure for my Trumpet Fantasy.” The other Word of the Day-inspired movements in the piece are chthonian, erumpent, tintinnabulation, exonumia, requiescat, deipnosophist, omphaloskepsis, horripilation, deliquesce, and apopemptic. Learn more about Shivaree, Steven Mackey, and the art of the musical interpretation of Dictionary.com’s Words of the Day here.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF SHIVAREE?
Shivaree “a mock serenade with noisemakers” is of obscure origin, though there is a general prevailing theory. Much like recent Word of the Day shivoo, shivaree is likely a corruption of the French term charivari. Charivari is also of obscure origin but may derive, via Late Latin carībaria “headache,” from Ancient Greek karēbaría, equivalent to kárā or kárē “head,” barýs “heavy,” and the abstract noun suffix -ía. The logic is that a noisy, boisterous celebration would cause quite the headache! An alternative theory is that shivaree, again like shivoo, derives instead from the French phrase chez vous “at your home.” Shivaree was first recorded in English in the early 1800s.

HOW IS SHIVAREE USED?
Encouraging cake mashing, like a host of other awful wedding customs, from shivaree (a noisy mock serenade on the wedding night) to tying a tin can to the newlyweds’ getaway car, is one last chance for the couple’s friends to indulge in the game of “X and Y, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.” CHARLES PERRY, "CAKE SMASHING," LOS ANGELES TIMES, FEBRUARY 26, 1997

Whooping and hollering, boarders, parents, neighbors, and friends filled the room. Cowbells rang, guitars and fiddles sang out, and tin pots were beaten with sticks—a din that announced the beginning of the old custom of shivaree, a traditional way of celebrating a wedding in the mountains. MICHAEL R. BRADLEY, IT HAPPENED IN THE GREAT SMOKIES: STORIES OF EVENTS AND PEOPLE THAT SHAPED A NATIONAL PARK, 2020

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Re: Word of the day strikes back

Post by Sarah » Thu Oct 21 2021 3:46pm

Word fact of the day from Susie Dent today:
Word fact of the day: 'oxymoron', a self-contradicting word or group of words, comes from the Greek 'oxys', meaning 'sharp', and 'mōros', meaning 'foolish'. Which makes oxymoron an oxymoron itself.
https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1 ... 92391?s=20

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Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Fri Oct 22 2021 9:09am

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2021

cryosphere


[ krahy-oh-sfeer ]
noun

the part of the earth’s surface where, at temperatures below 32°F (0°C), the water is frozen solid.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF CRYOSPHERE?
Cryosphere “the part of the earth’s surface where the water is frozen solid” is a compound of the combining form cryo-, which describes cold and ice, and sphere. Cryo- derives from Ancient Greek krýos “icy cold,” which comes from the same Proto-Indo-European root that gives us crystal (from Ancient Greek krýstallos “clear ice”) and both crouton and crustacean (from Latin crusta “crust”). Sphere comes from Ancient Greek sphaîra “ball,” and outside the realm of geometry, the combining form -sphere is often used in English to describe geographic or ecological regions (such as biosphere and noosphere) and air layers (such as atmosphere and stratosphere). Cryosphere was first recorded in English in the late 1930s.

HOW IS CRYOSPHERE USED?
Release of methane into the atmosphere from any source is troubling because methane has far more potent greenhouse powers than carbon dioxide .… Scientists have speculated about such methane releases and modelling has predicted that it would happen as the cryosphere…softens and melts .… “But no one had ever shown that it was occurring or that it was a widespread phenomenon,” [lead author Katey Walter Anthony] said. “This paper really is the first time that we see with field evidence that this type of geologic methane is escaping as the cryosphere retreats.” YERETH ROSEN, “STUDY FINDS PERMAFROST THAW, GLACIER MELT RELEASING METHANE,” REUTERS, MAY 21, 2012

[T]he new satellite, called ICESat-2, will give researchers the sharpest look ever at melting glaciers, ice sheets and sea ice, which make up much of the Earth’s frozen regions that are collectively known as the cryosphere …. Tom Neumann, deputy project scientist for the new satellite, said it would provide “a phenomenal picture” of changes in the planet’s ice sheets and water. “It’s going to enable science discoveries in the cryosphere and polar research for years to come,” he said. JOHN SCHWARTZ, "AS THE ICE MELTS, NASA WILL BE WATCHING," NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/

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Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Sat Oct 23 2021 9:06am

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2021

verst


[ vurst, verst ]
noun

a Russian measure of distance equivalent to 3,500 feet, or 0.6629 mile (1.067 kilometers).

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF VERST?
Verst “a Russian measure of distance equivalent to 3,500 feet” is borrowed by way of either French or German from Russian verstá, from Old Russian vĭrsta “age; measure of length.” Though these two definitions are rather different, their connection is measurement, whether of time or distance. Vĭrsta derives from the Proto-Indo-European root wert- “to turn,” which is also the source of a profusion of words related to turning, twisting, and bending. The English suffix -ward (as in forward, inward, outward, and toward) is one such derivative, as are warp, worm, wrangle, wrap, wreath, wrench, wrestle, wring, wrinkle, wrist, and writhe. This root is also found in words that figuratively indicate turning in a negative direction, such as awry, weird, worry, wrath, and wrong. By way of Latin, English has inherited terms such as diversion, introvert, versatile, versus, vertebra, and vertex (from vertere “to turn”); reverberate (from verber “whip”); and converge and diverge (from vergere “to be inclined”). Several Ancient Greek-origin terms, such as rhapsody (from rháptein “to stitch”) and rhombus (from rhémbein “to revolve”), also derive from the same root. Verst was first recorded in English in the mid-1500s.

HOW IS VERST USED?
After passing the fifteenth verst-stone, Chichikov suddenly recollected that, according to Manilov, fifteen versts was the exact distance between his country house and the town; but the sixteenth verst stone flew by, and the said country house was still nowhere to be seen. In fact, but for the circumstance that the travellers happened to encounter a couple of peasants, they would have come on their errand in vain. NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL (1809–1852), DEAD SOULS, TRANSLATED BY D. J. HOGARTH, 1915

Now that McDonald’s hamburgers and Pepsi-Cola are a hit with Moscow residents, American-style suburban town houses are on their way there too. Construction of the first 132 of 528 units planned for Krasnagorsk, a suburb about 23 versts—15 miles—northwest of Red Square, will begin in August. RICHARD D. LYONS, "POSTINGS: 528 TOWN HOUSE UNITS; 23 VERSTS TO RED SQ.," NEW YORK TIMES, MAY 6, 1990

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Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Sun Oct 24 2021 9:24am

Sunday 24th October 2021

anachronism


[əˈnakrəˌnɪz(ə)m]
NOUN

Did you know?
An anachronism is something that is out of place in terms of time or chronology. The word derives from chronos, the Greek word for "time," and ana-, a Greek prefix meaning "up," "back," or "again." When it was first used in English in the 17th century, anachronism referred to an error in the dating of something (as, for example, in etymology, when a word or use is mistakenly assumed to have arisen earlier than it did). Anachronisms were sometimes distinguished from parachronisms, chronological errors in which dates are set later than is correct. But parachronism did not stand the test of time. It is now a very rare word.

Examples of anachronism in a Sentence
In our modern world of pre-made, rush-rush, tightly scheduled lives, Amanda Blake Soule is an anachronism. At their home in coastal Maine, her family of six makes most of what they use—everything from bread and crafts to clothes and toys.— Jean Van't Hul, Mothering, March/April 2009

The spy thriller is a genre that arguably should have died fifteen years ago, and its continued popularity seems an anachronism at first glance.— Rand Richards Cooper, Commonweal, 14 Sept. 2007

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Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Mon Oct 25 2021 9:34am

MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2021
Faustian


[ fou-stee-uhn ]
adjective

sacrificing spiritual values for power, knowledge, or material gain.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF FAUSTIAN?
Faustian “sacrificing spiritual values for power, knowledge, or material gain” is derived from the name of the part-historical, part-legendary figure Johann Georg Faust, whose surname often appears instead as the more Latin-sounding Faustus. The surname Faust is of uncertain origin but may derive either from the Latin adjective faustus “fortunate, lucky,” a cognate of favorable and favorite, or from the German noun Faust “fist.” Faust’s first notable appearance in the English-speaking world was as the main character of Christopher Marlowe’s play The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, in which Faust makes a deal with the Devil that leads to an unfortunate end. Though originally written in German, another famous play featuring this character was Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which was published almost 200 years after Marlowe’s earlier work. Faustian was first recorded in English in the late 1870s.

HOW IS FAUSTIAN USED?
The Ogallala Aquifer, the vast underground reservoir that gives life to these fields, is disappearing …. This is the breadbasket of America—the region that supplies at least one fifth of the total annual U.S. agricultural harvest .… With a liquid treasure below their feet and a global market eager for their products, farmers here and across the region have made a Faustian bargain—giving up long-term conservation for short-term gain. To capitalize on economic opportunities, landowners are knowingly “mining” a finite resource. JANE BRAXTON LITTLE, “THE OGALLALA AQUIFER: SAVING A VITAL U.S. WATER SOURCE,” SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, MARCH 1, 2009

I always wanted to do a show about a couple that’s on a honeymoon—a thing about money, and someone marrying into money, and realizing what she may have lost. The Faustian bargain that happens when you want a life style, but you also want to retain your independence and power. And so I thought that was a good place to start. MIKE WHITE, AS QUOTED IN "MIKE WHITE ON MONEY, STATUS, AND APPEARING ON 'SURVIVOR,'" THE NEW YORKER, JULY 18, 2021

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Word of the day strikes back

Post by Richard Frost » Tue Oct 26 2021 8:56am

Word of the Day : October 26, 2021

facile

adjective FASS-ul

What It Means
Facile means "too easily accomplished or attained."

// The facts of the unsolved mystery were intriguing, but the author's conclusion was facile.

Examples
"It feels as though the songs just came to be. They reveal a facile elegance that does not let on the laborious writing and technical work that went into their creation." — Julien A. Luebbers, The Spokesman Review (Spokane, Washington), 20 Aug. 2021

Did You Know?
Facile comes from the Latin facilis, meaning "easy," and facere, "to make or do." The adjective can mean "easy" or "easily done," as befits its Latin roots, but it now often adds the meaning of undue haste or shallowness, as in "facile answers to complex questions."

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