A new word for the day

[Pah]

Word of the Day for Saturday September 11, 2004, Dictionary.com
indefatigable \in-dih-FAT-ih-guh-bul\, adjective:
Incapable of being fatigued; not yielding to fatigue; not readily exhausted; untiring; unwearying.

For the next thirteen years, with indefatigable zeal he rummages the libraries for charts and details of the spice trade and Pacific voyages.
--Alan Gurney, Below the Convergence

She was always seeking to add to her collection and was an indefatigable first-nighter at Broadway shows.
--Meryle Secrest, Stephen Sondheim: A Life

Ernest Hemingway was, luckily, an indefatigable letter-writer.
--Carlos Baker, "A Search for the Man As He Really Was," New York Times, July 26, 1964


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Indefatigable comes from Latin indefatigabilis, from in-, "not" + defatigare, "to tire out," from de-, intensive prefix + fatigare, "to weary."

Synonyms: active, tireless, unflagging, vigorous.

 

[Pah]

The Webster Word of the Day for September 11 is:

abrogate • \AB-ruh-gayt\ • verb
*1 : to abolish by authoritative action : annul
2 : to treat as nonexistent

Example sentence:
An old law that abrogated the right of liquor store owners to sell alcohol on Sundays was recently struck from the books.

Did you know?
If you can't simply wish something out of existence, the next best thing might be to "propose it away." That's sort of what "abrogate" lets you do, at least etymologically speaking. It comes from the Latin root "rogare," which means "to propose a law," and "ab-," meaning "from" or "away." But we won't propose that you try to get away from the fact that "rogare" is also an ancestor in the family tree of "prerogative" and "interrogate." "Abrogate" first appeared in English as a verb in the 16th century, but was preceded by an adjective sense meaning "annulled" or "cancelled" which is now obsolete.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

 

[Pah]

A.Word.A.Day--shivaree

shivaree (shiv-uh-REE) noun, also chivaree, chivari, charivari

A noisy, mock serenade to a newly married couple, involving the banging of kettles, pots and pans.

[From French charivari (din, hullabaloo).]

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus.

"We refrained from celebrating their marriage with primitive gestures, such as a shivaree, even though pots and pans were readily available for nocturnal banging." Julie Salamon; Ten for the Honeymoon; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Aug 27, 1986.

"Friends tried to subject them to a shivaree, but the joke was on them. The bride and groom were nowhere to be found." Friends For Life; Capital-Journal (Topeka, Kansas); Mar 21, 2004.

This week's theme: miscellaneous words.


X-Bonus
All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies. -John Arbuthnot, writer and physician (1667-1735)

 

[Pah]

The Webster Word of the Day for September 12 is:

demure • \dih-MYOOR\ • adjective
*1 : reserved, modest
2 : affectedly modest, reserved, or serious : coy

Example sentence:
Judith was such a demure girl that she found it hard to talk about her school accomplishments while she was being interviewed at colleges.

Did you know?
"Demure" has essentially remained unchanged in meaning since at least the 14th century. Its first recorded use in our language dates from the Middle English period (1100 to 1500), a time when the native tongue of England was borrowing many new words from the French spoken by the Normans who gained control of the country after the Battle of Hastings. "Demure" might have been part of the French cultural exchange; etymologists think it may have derived from the Anglo-French verb "demurer," meaning "to linger." During Shakespeare's time, "demure" was briefly used in English as a verb meaning "to look demurely," but only the older adjective form has survived to the present day.

 

[Pah]

Word of the Day for Sunday September 12, 2004
disport \dis-PORT\, intransitive verb:
To amuse oneself in light or lively manner; to frolic.

transitive verb:
1. To divert or amuse.
2. To display.

If you confine the kids' drinking to the college area, they will disport there and lessen the problem of the drunken car ride coming back from the out-of-town bar.
--William F. Buckley Jr., "Let's Drink to It," National Review, February 27, 2001

I had to laugh, picturing Stuart and me in a red enamel tub, disporting ourselves among the suds.
--Jacquelyn Mitchard, The Most Wanted

Few of the "carriage ladies and gentlemen" who disport themselves in Newport during the summer months, yachting and dancing through the short season, then flitting away to fresh fields and pastures new, realize that their daintily shod feet have been treading historic ground, or care to cast a thought back to the past.
--Eliot Gregory, Worldly Ways and Byways

. . . those dolphins and narwhals who disport themselves upon the edges of old maps.
--Virginia Woolf, Night and Day


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Disport derives from Old French desporter, "to divert," from des-, "apart" (from Latin dis-) + porter, "to carry" (from Latin portare) -- hence to disport is at root "to carry apart, or away" (from business or seriousness).

 

[Pah]

The Webster Word of the Day for September 13 is:

cupidity \kyoo-PID-uh-tee\ noun
*1 : inordinate desire for wealth : avarice, greed
2 : strong desire : lust

Example sentence:
"Capitalism is a mechanism for coping with cupidity, not
for enhancing it." (William F. Buckley, Jr., _The National
Review_, June 2003)

Did you know?
From its verb "cupere" ("to desire") Latin derived three
nouns which have passed with minimal modification into
English. "Cupiditas" meant "yearning" and "greed, avarice";
English borrowed this as "cupidity." Originally, it also
meant "yearning" and "greed, avarice," though only the latter
is now used. Latin "cupido" started out as a near synonym
of "cupiditas," but it came to stand for the personification of
specifically carnal desire, the counterpart of Greek "eros":
this is the source of our familiar (and rather domesticated)
Cupid. A strengthened form of "cupere" -- "concupiscere,"
meaning "to desire ardently" -- yielded the
noun "concupiscentia" in the Late Latin of the Christian
church. "Concupiscentia" came specially to denote sexual desire,
a meaning reflected in the English version "concupiscence."

 

[Pah]

A.Word.A.Day--trow

trow (tro) verb tr., intr.

To believe, think, suppose, or trust.

[From Middle English, from Old English, ultimately from Indo-European root deru- (to be firm) that's the source of such other words as truth, trust, betroth, tree, endure, and druid.]

"Caledon's publicity blurb starts with a quote from Robbie Burns that, all things considered, seems positively spooky. 'Here are we met three merry boys; three merry boys I trow are we!'"
Scot August Night; The Age (Melbourne, Australia); Aug 11, 2004.

"And he, poor parasite,
Cooped in a ship he cannot steer, --
Who is the captain he knows not,
Port or pilot trows not..."
Ralph Waldo Emerson; Monadnoc; 1847.

Fashions come and go. Some year it's bell-bottoms that are cool, another time it might be torn jeans. What is hip for one age is passé for another. The same goes for words. Yesterday's street slang today becomes respectable, suitable for office memos and academic theses. And what were everyday words at one time may be labeled archaic a few hundred years later.

As I see it, there's no reason to relegate any word to the attic of time. The more the merrier. Each word on our verbal palette -- whether new or old -- helps us bring out a nuance in conversation and in writing.

The words featured here this week are considered archaic but still look in good shape. They're old but not yet retired from the language. They still report for duty faithfully, as shown by recent examples from newspapers.

-Anu Garg


X-Bonus
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. -William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616)

 

[Pah]

Word of the Day for Monday September 13, 2004, Dictionary.com
appellation \ap-uh-LAY-shun\, noun:
1. The word by which a particular person or thing is called and known; name; title; designation.
2. The act of naming.

For as long as Olympia can remember, her mother has been referred to, within her hearing and without, as an invalid -- an appellation that does not seem to distress her mother and indeed appears to be one she herself cultivates.
--Anita Shreve, Fortune's Rocks

A communist or a revolutionary, for example, would likely readily accept and admit that he is in fact a communist or a revolutionary. Indeed, many would doubtless take particular pride in claiming either of those appellations for themselves.
--Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism

I feel honored by yet undeserving of the appellation "novelist." I am merely a craftsperson, a cabinetmaker of texts and occasionally, I hope, a witness to our times.
--Francine Du Plessix Gray, "I Write for Revenge Against Reality," New York Times, September 12, 1982


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Appellation comes from Latin appellatio, from appellare, "to name."

 

[Pah]

The Word of the Day for September 15 is:

convoke \kun-VOHK\ verb
: to call together to a meeting

Example sentence:
At the beginning of each semester, the college president
convokes the student body and the faculty for a special "state-
of-the-college" meeting.

Did you know?
The Latin verb "vocare" ("to call") and the noun from which
it comes, "vox" (meaning "voice") have given rise to many
English words, including "convoke." English descendants of those
roots are usually spelled with "voc" or "vok" ("voice" is one
exception) and have to do with speaking or calling. Thus
to "provoke" is to call forth a feeling or action, to "evoke" is
to call to mind memories, and to "revoke" is to annul by
recalling. "Equivocate" (to use uncertain language),
"vociferous" (given to insistent outcry or calling

 

[Pah]

The Webster Word of the Day for September 16 is:

shofar \SHOH-far\ noun
: a ram's-horn trumpet blown by the ancient Hebrews in
battle and during religious observances and used in modern
Judaism especially during Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Yom
Kippur

Example sentence:
The first blast of the shofar echoed within the sanctuary,
announcing the beginning of the High Holy Days.

Did you know?
One of the shofar's original uses was to proclaim the
Jubilee year (a year of emancipation of Hebrew slaves and
restoration of alienated lands to their former owners) or the
anointing of a new king. Today, it is mainly used in synagogues
during the High Holy Days. It is blown during the month of Elul
(the 12th month of the civil year or the 6th month of the
ecclesiastical year in the Jewish calendar) until the end of
Rosh Hashanah and again at the end of the last service on Yom
Kippur as reminders to attend to spiritual matters. The custom
is to sound the shofar in broken notes resembling sobbing and
wailing followed by a long unbroken sound.

 

[Pah]

Word of the Day for Thursday September 16, 2004 Dictionary.com

chimera \ky-MIR-uh\, noun:
1. (Capitalized) A fire-breathing she-monster represented as having a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.
2. Any imaginary monster made up of grotesquely incongruous parts.
3. An illusion or mental fabrication; a grotesque product of the imagination.
4. An individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution, produced as a result of organ transplant, grafting, or genetic engineering.

Asa Whitney, with no previous experience and having nothing but his faith and self-assurance to tell him he was not pursuing a chimera, began to outline how he would get a railroad across the vast, uninhabited middle of the American continent to the Pacific shores, where the lure of Asia beckoned, within reach.
--David Haward Bain, Empire Express

She seems to spend most of the book sobbing, throwing up and generally marinating in a stew of self-absorption while searching fruitlessly for that chimera, her true self, inexpertly aided by astrologers and new-age therapists.
--"Cutting through fantasies to crazy life," USA Today, December 2, 1999

These "chimeras" can be created because of our power--derived from the recombinant DNA technology developed in the early 1970s--to move DNA from one species to another.
--Bryan Appleyard, Brave New Worlds

 

[Pah]

The Cambridge word of the day for 16 September 2004 is:
inamorata [Show phonetics]
noun [C usually singular] plural inamoratas LITERARY
a woman someone is in love with:

He's had a tattoo with the name of a former lover removed, to avoid hurting the feelings of his current inamorata.

 

[Pah]

The Webster Word of the Day for September 17 is:

dog and pony show • \DOG-and-POH-nee-SHOH\ • noun
: an often elaborate public relations or sales presentation; also : an elaborate or overblown affair or event

Example sentence:
The press conference turned out to be a dog and pony show, put on just so the company could launch its new product line.

Did you know?
Early in the 20th century, the term "dog and pony show" was used in reference to actual traveling circuses. With time, however, the phrase came to be derisive, implying that the collection of animals carried by an establishment was little more exotic than common dogs or ponies who could perform only a small number of tricks (hence the phrase "one-trick pony"). The proprietors usually took all sorts of measures to make these shows look much more glamorous than they really were, and the resulting package rarely justified the surrounding hype. Following this pattern, the term "dog and pony show" eventually developed an extended sense referring to an event that is made out to be more elaborate than the occasion demands.

 

[Pah]

Word of the Day for Friday September 17, 2004 - Dictionary.com
avoirdupois \av-uhr-duh-POIZ; AV-uhr-duh-poiz\, noun:
1. Avoirdupois weight, a system of weights based on a pound containing 16 ounces or 7,000 grains (453.59 grams).
2. Weight; heaviness; as, a person of much avoirdupois.

Claydon . . . was happy to admit that he has shed some avoirdupois.
--Mel Webb, "Claydon's loss leads to net gain," Times (London), February 18, 2000

Yet until middle age and avoirdupois overtook her, Mary was no slouch.
--John Updike, "How to Milk a Millionaire," New York Times, March 29, 1987

Tired of putting on and taking off the same five pounds? Don't delay, buy this book today -- and watch yourself shed both respectability and surplus avoirdupois!
--David Galef, "'J. Faust's Guide to Power' And Other Self-Help Classics," New York Times, December 18, 1994


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Avoirdupois is from Middle English avoir de pois, "goods sold by weight," from Old French aveir de peis, literally "goods of weight," from aveir, "property, goods" (from aveir, "to have," from Latin habere, "to have, to hold, to possess property") + de, "from" (from the Latin) + peis, "weight," from Latin pensum, "weight."

 

[Pah]

A.Word.A.Day--levin --from Wordsmith

levin (LEV-in) noun

Lightning; a bright light.

[From Middle English levene. Ultimately from Indo-European root leuk- (light) that's resulted in other words such as lunar, lunatic, light, lightning, lucid, illuminate, illustrate, translucent, lux, and lynx,]

"Broad and frequent through the night
Flash'd the sheets of levin-light;"
Walter Scott; The Dance of Death; 1815.

"See! from its summit the lurid levin
Flashes downward without warning,
As Lucifer, son of the morning,
Fell from the battlements of heaven!"
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; At Sea; 1851

 

[Pah]

The Webster Word of the Day for September 18 is:

probity \PROH-buh-tee\ noun
: adherence to the highest principles and ideals :
uprightness

Example sentence:
The tale of young George Washington's refusal to tell a lie
after cutting down his father's cherry tree is often told to
grade schoolers to illustrate his probity.

Did you know?
"Probity" and its synonyms "honesty," "honor,"
and "integrity" all mean uprightness of character or action,
with some slight differences in emphasis. "Honesty" implies a
refusal to lie, steal, or deceive in any way. "Honor" suggests
an active or anxious regard for the standards of one's
profession, calling, or position. "Integrity" implies
trustworthiness and incorruptibility to a degree that one is
incapable of being false to a trust, responsibility, or
pledge. "Probity," which descends from Latin "probus,"
meaning "honest," implies tried and proven honesty or integrity.

 

[Pah]

Word of the Day for Sunday September 19, 2004 - Dictionary.com
calumny \KAL-uhm-nee\, noun:
1. False accusation of a crime or offense, intended to injure another's reputation.
2. Malicious misrepresentation; slander.

They would see to it that every suspicious whisper and outright calumny would be repeated in print, breathing fire into the growing spirit of faction.
--William Safire, Scandalmonger

They protest to him against the universal order, and then reward his kind words by calumny and accusations of . . . inhumanity and cruelty.
--Paola Capriolo, Floria Tosca

Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.
--Shakespeare, Hamlet


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Calumny comes, via Middle French, from Latin calumnia, from calvi, "to form intrigues, to deceive." The adjective form is calumnious.

 

[Pah]

The Webster Word of the Day for September 19 is:

morganatic • \mor-guh-NAT-ik\ • adjective
: of, relating to, or being a marriage between a member of a royal or noble family and a person of inferior rank, in which the rank of the inferior partner remains unchanged and the children of the marriage do not succeed to the titles, fiefs, or entailed property of the partner of higher rank

Example sentence:
England’s Prime Minister rejected King Edward’s offer of a morganatic marriage to Mrs. Simpson, so the king abdicated.

Did you know?
The deprivations imposed on the lower-ranking spouse by a morganatic marriage may seem like a royal pain in the neck, and yet the word "morganatic" comes from a word for a marriage benefit. New Latin "morganatica," a term based on Middle High German’s "morgen" ("morning"), means "morning gift." It refers to a gift that a new husband traditionally gave to his bride on the morning after the consummation of their marriage. So why was the New Latin phrase "matrimonium ad morganaticam," which means literally "marriage with morning gift," the term for a morganatic marriage? Because it was just that—the wife got the morning gift, but that’s all she was entitled to of her husband’s possessions.

 

[Pah]

The Webster Word of the Day for September 20 is:

edify \ED-uh-fye\ verb
: to instruct and improve especially in moral and religious
knowledge; also : enlighten, inform

Example sentence:
Jesse told the congregation, "The inspiring sermons of our
new minister will edify you and propel you to greater
spirituality."

Did you know?
The Latin noun "aedes," meaning "house" or "temple," is the
root of "aedificare," a verb meaning "to erect a house."
Generations of speakers built on that meaning, and by the Late
Latin period, the verb had gained the figurative sense of "to
instruct or improve spiritually." The word eventually passed
through Anglo-French before Middle English speakers adopted it
as "edify" during the 14th century. Two of its early
meanings, "to build" and "to establish," are now considered
archaic; the only current sense of "edify" is essentially the
same as that figurative meaning in Late Latin, "to instruct and
improve in moral and religious matters."

 

[Pah]

Word of the Day for Monday September 20, 2004, Dictionary.com

fatidic \fuh-TID-ik\, adjective:
Of, relating to, or characterized by prophecy; prophetic.

Throughout his very considerable body of work, there is an obsession with time, with dates, with temporal coincidences, with the fatidic power of numbers over our birth and death.
--James Kirkup, "Obituary: Ernst Junger," Independent, February 18, 1998

With a fatidic clarity that comes only occasionally and only to the young, she understood that . . . this too was a sign, an omen.
--Kathleen Cambor, In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden