• Today's Word "pelf"
  
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Today's Word "pelf"

pelf \PELF\ (noun) - Money; riches; gain; -- generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten.

"A life-long con man, Jason was always just one big scam away from taking his pelf and retiring for good."

Pelf comes from Old French pelfre, "booty, stolen goods." It is related to pilfer.

• Today's Word "renascent"
  
Today's Word "renascent"

renascent \rih-NAS-uhnt\ (adjective) - Springing or rising again into being; showing renewed vigor.

"After the failings and anger over the current administration, a renascent opposition movement waited to make the most of that discontent."

Renascent comes from Latin renascens, present participle of renasci, "to be born again," from re-, "again" + nasci, "to be born."

Today's Word "diktat"

diktat \dik-TAHT\ (noun) - 1 : A harsh settlement unilaterally imposed on a defeated party. 2 : An authoritative decree or order.

"Management was fond of passing down diktats the actual intent of which was muddled or obscure such as 'no red neckties on the third Tuesday of each month,' or 'no brown, open-toed sandals on women on alternate Thursdays."

Diktat comes from German, from Latin dictatum, neuter past participle of dictare, "to dictate." It is related to dictator.

Today's Word "fortuitous"

fortuitous \for-TOO-uh-tuhs; -TYOO-\ (adjective) - 1 : Happening by chance; coming or occurring by accident, or without any known cause. 2 : Happening by a fortunate or lucky chance. 3 : Fortunate or lucky.

"All agreed that the arrival of the off-duty emergency medical technicians just as Frank fell over from a heart attack was a fortuitous event."

Fortuitous comes from Latin fortuitus, "accidental," from fors, "chance, luck."

These 'Choices' Are Not Choice

Today, some random dispatches from the word front…

-- Poor choices -- The word "choice" has become the word of, well … choice these days. NBC anchorman Brian Williams, for instance, sometimes signs off by humbly acknowledging, "We know you have many choices for your evening newscast, and we thank you for choosing us." Gee, you're welcome, Mr. Heep.

Similarly, a TV commercial for a local optician concedes, "We know there's a lot of choices when it comes to eyeglasses." I'm suddenly envisioning that oculist's billboard in "The Great Gatsby": "When it comes to Woodrow Wilson-style bifocals, Dr. T. J. Eckleburg knows you have many choices."

The overused "choice" has also weaseled its way into the bathetic melodrama of apology. When people do something wrong these days -- park illegally, drive drunk, trigger World War III -- they're likely to confess, "I made a poor choice." "Hmmm… Should I pull out a gun and rob this bank, or maybe just verify my account balance?"

After getting lost on a hike last month, I concocted a new version of Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Chosen … er, Taken": "Two roads diverged in a wood last summer, and I made a poor choice -- bummer!"

-- Oopsie! -- Speaking of poor choices, why does every crook, criminal and crony seem to describe his or her wrongdoing as a "mistake"? This annoys Jan Christensen of Cheshire, Conn., who wrote, "Each and every human malfunction has become a MISTAKE."

She cited the response of a woman who had been caught embezzling: "You know what she said, right? 'Oh, it was just a MISTAKE!' She treated it as if she had used the pepper instead of the salt on her burger."

Another revised Frost poem: "He shakes his harness bells with gravity, to ask if there's been some depravity."

-- Meantime, Back at the Rant -- A reader from Pittsburgh, Pa., wonders why so many TV news anchors are using "meantime" instead of "meanwhile," as in, "Meantime, the accused embezzler denies any wrongdoing."

Usage authorities disagree about the acceptability of the adverbial "meantime." Some accept it as a handy shortening of "in the meantime"; after all, people have been using it that way for centuries. Others say "meantime" is a noun and should never be used as an adverb.

Meanwhile, I'd say the adverbial "meantime" is OK in conversational, anchor-people gibber jabber, but I'd avoid it in formal prose.
 

Today's Word "indelible"

indelible \in-DEL-uh-buhl\ (adjective) - 1 : That cannot be removed, erased, or washed away. 2 : Making marks that cannot easily be removed or erased. 3 : Incapable of being forgotten; memorable.

"Wanting an indelible representation of their eternal love for each other, Jim had a tattoo of Jane's name placed on his arm."

Indelible is from Latin indelebilis, from in-, "not" + delebilis, "that can be obliterated or destroyed," from delere, "to blot out, to efface, to destroy."

Today's Word "perdurable"

perdurable \pur-DUR-uh-bul; pur-DYUR-\ (adjective) - Very durable; lasting; continuing long.

"A mother's perdurable love for her child is often tested during the teen years."

Perdurable ultimately comes from Late Latin perdurabilis, from Latin perdurare, to last a long time, to endure, from per-, throughout + durare, to last.

Today's Word "dubiety"

dubiety \doo-BY-uh-tee; dyoo-\ (noun) - 1 : The condition or quality of being doubtful or skeptical. 2 : A matter of doubt.

"Despite a lack of forensic evidence, dubiety among the police themselves and inaccuracies in Francis' confession, he was ultimately found guilty."

Dubiety is from Late Latin dubietas, from Latin dubius, "doubtful, uncertain."

Today's Word "gravitas"

gravitas \GRAV-uh-tahs\ (noun) - High seriousness (as in a person's bearing or in the treatment of a subject).

"The speaker was so utterly lacking in gravitas that none of his pronouncements were taken at all seriously, in spite of their actual importance to the group's day-to-day existence."

Gravitas is from the Latin gravitas, "heaviness, seriousness," from gravis, "heavy, serious."

Today's Word "farrago"

farrago \fuh-RAH-go; fuh-RAY-go\ (noun) - A confused mixture; an assortment; a medley.

"Appearing on the chat show for the first time, Jenkins was subjected to a farrago of attacks from all sides such that he couldn't determine how to best defend himself."

Farrago comes from the Latin farrago, "a mixed fo_dder for cattle," hence "a medley, a hodgepodge," from far, a sort of grain.

Untangling the Metaphor Stew

"Pfizer Game Plan Unleashing Whirlwind." This ambitious newspaper headline manages to cram three metaphors into just five words, whisking us energetically from sports to runaway dogs to meteorology. Whee!

"This isn't just a mixed metaphor," wrote Henry McNulty of Cheshire, Conn., who mailed it to me. "It's a veritable metaphor stew, if I may add to the mix by borrowing from the language of cookery."

A stew it is, but a tasty one at that. As much as I know I should be condemning mixed metaphors for their illogical juxtapositions, I can't help admiring the headlong exuberance of their creators.

Something about the world of business seems to "spark torrents" of these clashers. People who wear carefully matched suits in the office suddenly pair polka dot shirts with striped pants in their prose. "This proposal," said one corporate executive, "puts orthodontic pressure on the issue. We're still waiting to see the other shoe drop." That's called putting your foot in your mouth.

When a financial writer wanted to stress the importance of examining a company carefully before acquiring it, he hopped from miners to movers to millers: "Research will perhaps never again be seen as the province of those panning for gold, but as today's movers and shakers show, it can still put bread on the table." Come to think of it, prospectors do shake their pans.

By my count there are FIVE competing metaphors in this lead sentence from a newspaper's business section: "The world's largest spice producer, insulated by an armor of takeover safeguards adopted this summer, is sitting comfortably on the sidelines awaiting the fallout from the takeover free-for-all embroiling the nation's food industry." In one sentence we're whirled from medieval knights to football to nuclear weapons to barroom brawls to cooking.

And a business metaphor doesn't have to be mixed to turn sour. Sometimes writers fail to recognize illogical extensions of a single metaphor: "For any young company, capital is like mother's milk, the sustenance needed for growth. A captive audience of attentive financiers offered hope for a long, cool drink." Ugh!

I've saved one non-business metaphor for the end, quite literally. The co-founder of a modern dance troupe was describing the group's early years when she said, "We were truly naive and just shooting from the seat of our pants."

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 www.creators.com.

friable \FRY-uh-buhl\ (adjective) - Easily crumbled, pulverized, or reduced to powder.

"The house was practically falling apart around him, the crackling and friable walls unable to withstand the extreme winds of the storm."

Friable comes from Latin friabilis, from friare, "to rub, break, or crumble into small pieces."

vertiginous \vur-TIJ-uh-nuhs\ (adjective) - 1 : Affected with vertigo; giddy; dizzy. 2 : Causing or tending to cause dizziness. 3 : Turning round; whirling; revolving. 4 : Inclined to change quickly or frequently; inconstant.

"Would she have prevented him from ever scaling his vertiginous Peak? - or would she, otherwise, have been able to accompany him to that eminence..." -- Henry James, "The Golden Bowl"

Vertiginous derives from Latin vertigo, "a turning round, a whirling round; giddiness," from vertere, "to turn." Related words include reverse, "to turn back (re-) or around"; subvert, "to undermine" (from sub-, "under" + vertere -- at root "to turn from under, to overturn"); and versus, "against" (from versus, "turned towards," hence "facing, opposed," from the past participle of vertere).

Today's Word "carom"

carom \KAIR-uhm\ (noun) - 1 : A rebound following a collision; a glancing off. 2 : A shot in billiards in which the cue ball successively strikes two other balls on the table.

(intransitive verb) - 1 : To strike and rebound; to glance. 2 : To make a carom.

(transitive verb) - 1 : To make (an object) bounce off something; to cause to carom.

"Arriving home after a night spent drinking, unable to even work the light switch, Delbert bounced about the room, caroming against seemingly every piece of furniture, before collapsing drunkenly on the unmade bed."

Carom derives from obsolete carambole, from Spanish carambola, "a stroke at billiards."

These Words Are All in the Family

What does your family call a backward somersault . . . or the chunks of mud that kids' boots leave on the kitchen floor . . . or a single sock without a mate?

The Hansens of St. Paul, Minn., call that back flip a "winter pepper." In the Howard Family of Brockton, Mass., those chunks are "mud waffles."

To the Sande clan of Caldwell, Ida., that single sock is a "lurkin," because its mate is "lurking" somewhere, while the Aranows of Deerfield, Ill., call it a "Robinson Crewsock," after DeFoe's marooned hero. Hmmm . . . perhaps its mate will be found on Friday.

Welcome to the pleasures of "Family Words," a delightful new book by Paul Dickson (Marion Street Press, $14.95). Almost every family uses certain words and phrases known only to its members, and Dickson provides scores of the neolo-kins people have shared with him over the years.

To the Enders Family of Langley, British Columbia, for instance, a gift for someone else that you really want for yourself is a "sheriff's badge." That's because an Enders son once gave his dad a cap pistol, whistle and sheriff's badge for Father's Day.

In the Baeb household of Oneida, Wis., "nadia" means "come and eat" because that phrase sounds like the last name of gymnast Nadia Comaneci. And an opportunistic child in the Cukrowski clan of New Haven tried to get his presents early by christening December 23 "Christmas Adam," arguing that "Adam came before Eve."

Some family lingo can come in handy. Rather than embarrassing your son by ordering him a Shirley Temple, order him a non-alcoholic "boyhatten." If you're tired of saying, "Great Aunt" and "Great Uncle," just say "Grant" and "Grunkle" instead.

Other nomen"clanture" allows you to mention the unmentionable: "vegicrud" (decaying organic matter in the refrigerator's crisper drawer); "yulke" (little grains of dried secretion in your eyes when you awaken); "disgusto slot" (the space between kitchen appliances that's too narrow to clean).

You probably know the code letters whispered when there's not enough food for dinner guests -- "F.H.B." (Family Hold Back), but do you know "E.G.E." (Everybody Go Easy), "P.M.K." (Plenty More in the Kitchen" or "G.M.P.O.T.) (Guests Making Pigs of Themselves)?

If you'd like to share any insider terms floating in your family's secret cove, please sail them over to me at one of the addresses below. I'll publish as many as space allows.

 

pulchritude \PUL-kruh-tood; -tyood\ (noun) - That quality of appearance which pleases the eye; beauty; comeliness; grace; loveliness.

"The epitome of feminine pulchritude among the Sara of Chad was the wearing of lip plates, inserted during childhood." -- A. Adu Boahen, "The Horizon History of Africa"

Pulchritude comes from Latin pulchritudo, from pulcher, "beautiful." The adjective form is pulchritudinous.

Today's Word "demur"

demur \dih-MUR\ (intransitive verb) - 1 : To object; to take exception. 2 : To delay.

(noun) - 1 : The act of demurring. 2 : Objection. 3 : Delay.

"Whenever Alice would ask to see something Tom had written, he would demur, saying that anything he had written was terrible."

Demur comes from Old French demorer, "to linger, to stay," from Latin demorari, from de- + morari, "to delay, to loiter," from mora, "a delay."

Today's Word "lubricious"

lubricious \loo-BRISH-us\ (adjective) - 1 : Lustful; lewd. 2 : Stimulating or appealing to sexual desire or imagination. 3 : Having a slippery or smooth quality.

"His imagination wanders between a wild sensuality,--so lubricious in its suggestions, now and then, as to occasion gossip to the effect that he had become a libertine..." -- Thomas Calvin, The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller

Lubricious derives from Latin lubricus, "slippery, smooth."

Pentagon Got Rumsfeld's Drift

Snowflakes, carrots and rattling sabers. All these diverse items popped up as political metaphors last week.

-- Secretary of Snowfence -- On Thursday we learned that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld loved to blanket the Pentagon with memos. These missives, written at the rate of 20 to 60 a day, were often blunt, demanding and scolding.

His subordinates called them "snowflakes." But why? Did they consider them flaky? Did they think Rumsfeld was giving them a snow job? Did each memo have six points?

Apparently, none of the above. According to blogger John Hendren, a correspondent for ABC News, "The memos were known in the Pentagon as 'snowflakes' because they descended so prolifically from Rumsfeld's third-floor office."

Hendren tells the story of seeing a Pentagon inbox stacked six inches high with Rumsfeld's memos. The box was labeled "snowflakes."

So, on the face of it, Rumsfeld's snowflakes were so called simply because of their abundant, blizzard-like descent. But those sly Pentagon wags must have been well aware of the term's more subversive denotation -- tiny, flaky crystals that melt quickly.

-- 14-Carrot Oratory -- To the credit of the Democratic presidential candidates, their debate last week produced little political jargon. They managed to avoid current cliches such as "the way forward," "low-hanging fruit" and "kicking the can down the road."

OK, so they did trot out a few tired sawhorses. Barack Obama mentioned "earmarks," "pork barrel spending" and "corporate loopholes." Thankfully, sports metaphors were limited to Joseph Biden's vow to "never take my eye off the ball" and Hillary Clinton's call for "a full-court press on the diplomatic front."

When it came to mulish Iran, carrots and sticks abounded. Obama talked of "potential carrots that we can provide," while Clinton declared, "You need both carrots and sticks."

They all rattled their sabers at "saber-rattling": John Edwards ("They have been rattling the saber"); Bill Richardson ("It was saber-rattling"); Dennis Kucinich ("Saber-rattling against Iran is driving up the price of oil"). Americans haven't heard this much saber-rattling since John Wayne's cavalry corps clankily dismounted.

Clinton boldly borrowed Obama's stock phrase "turning the page" and then took the metaphor even further: "We've got to turn the page on George Bush and Dick Cheney. In fact, we have to throw the whole book away."

 

Today's Word "malapropism"

malapropism \mal-uh-PROP-iz-uhm\ (noun) - The usually unintentionally humorous misuse of a word, especially by confusion with one of similar sound; also, an example of such misuse.

"The former statesman was almost as well-known for his malapropism's, such as, 'Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child,' as he was for his time spent serving his country."

A malapropism is so called after Mrs. Malaprop, a character noted for her amusing misuse of words in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy The Rivals.

Today's Word "languid"

languid \LANG-gwid\ (adjective) - 1 : Drooping or flagging from or as if from exhaustion; weak; weary; heavy. 2 : Promoting or indicating weakness or heaviness. 3 : Slow; lacking vigor or force.

"Even the buildings seemed to be sagging in the languid late summer, late afternoon heat."

Languid comes from Latin languere, "to become faint or weak; to droop; to be inactive."

Today's Word "hebetude"

hebetude \HEB-uh-tood-; -tyood\ (noun) - Mental dullness or sluggishness.

"The Hormel's eschewed a television in their house, feeling that encouraged hebetude and physical laxity."

Hebetude derives ultimately from Latin hebes, "blunt, dull, mentally dull, sluggish, stupid." The adjective form is hebetudinous.

Today's Word "coruscate"

coruscate \KOR-uh-skayt\ (intransitive verb) - 1 : To give off or reflect bright beams or flashes of light; to sparkle. 2 : To exhibit brilliant, sparkling technique or style.

"Magda was fascinated by the gem on her ring, spending hours watching as it would coruscate in the light as she moved her hand to and fro."

Coruscate comes from Latin coruscatus, past participle of coruscare, "to move quickly, to tremble, to flutter, to twinkle or flash." The noun form is coruscation. Also from coruscare is the adjective coruscant, "glittering in flashes; flashing."

Today's Word "encumbrance"

encumbrance \en-KUHM-brun(t)s\ (noun) - 1 : A burden, impediment, or hindrance. 2 : A lien, mortgage, or other financial claim against a property.

"Before the company could become truly profitable they had to divest themselves of the encumbrance of their unprofitable sister organization."

Encumbrance is from Old French encombrance, from encombrer, "to block up," from en-, "in" (here used intensively) + combre, "dam, weir, hence hindrance."

You'll Get a Kick Out of This

When I was a kid, the Mantini kids and I would play a tag-like game called "kick the can." One kid would kick a tin can as far as possible along a dirt driveway. Then the kid who was "it" would have to retrieve the can before trying to tag the others.

So kicking the can as far as you could gave the other kids more time to flee. When Pete Mantini was it, he fumed when someone booted the can a huge distance.

The name of this simple children's game is alive and kicking as a political buzzword of the mid-2000s. "Kick the can" is now the metaphor of choice to describe a delaying tactic or attempt to put off a decision.

The first citation I could find for the term came in the November 11, 2002, issue of the National Review: "In each of these areas -- as in North Korea, as in Iraq -- Clinton's accomplishment was, at best, to kick the can down the road."

A few months later, Jamie Rubin, a former assistant U.S. secretary, of CNN said, "Well, diplomatically, what the prime minister did today is what we call kick the can down the road."

But here's the kicker: The game I played with the Mantini kids might NOT be the source of this political phrase.

In the children's game, kicking the can down the road is a good thing, giving you and your chums more time to escape. But, as used in most political contexts, "kick the can down the road" connotes a bad thing -- postponing a decision or avoiding an issue, a tactic that might cause more problems, well, down the road.

My hunch is that this political term derives from a more incidental pastime my friends and I indulged in as kids: repeatedly kicking the same can or stone down a dirt road as we walked, sometimes taking turns. It was a harmless way of alleviating the boredom of a long, dusty trek.

To me, this mundane diversion seems more consistent with the sense of prolongation and procrastination inherent in the political metaphor.

The only use of "kick the can" I could find that seems consistent with the crafty ploy of the game is this comment from Andrew Moravcsik, director of the European Union Program at Harvard University. It appeared in the Dec. 22, 2003, issue of Newsweek International: "Europe kicked the can down the road? Good. That's the smart play."

I just wish Pete Mantini had seen it that way.

Today's Word "nescience"

escience \NESH-uhn(t)s; NESH-ee-uhn(t)s\ (noun) - Lack of knowledge or awareness; ignorance.

"The president's seeming nescience on the subject of global warming was a tremendous cause for concern to everyone at the conference."

Nescience is from Latin nescire, "not to know," from ne-, "not" + scire, "to know." It is related to science. Nescient is the adjective form.

Today's Word "lenity"

lenity \LEN-uh-tee\ (noun) - The state or quality of being lenient; mildness; gentleness of treatment; leniency.

"The crime the defendant was being tried for was so heinous that severity was justice, lenity injustice."

Lenity comes from Latin lenitas, from lenis, "soft, mild."

Today's Word "recrimination"

recrimination \rih-krim-uh-NAY-shuhn\ (noun) - 1 : The act of returning one charge or accusation with another. 2 : An accusation brought by the accused against the accuser; a counter accusation.

"The endless acts of senseless recrimination engaged in by both parties in the House served to do little more than accomplish hopeless gridlock."

Recrimination is from Medieval Latin recriminatio, from the past participle of recriminare, from Latin re-, "back, again" + criminari, "to accuse," from crimen, "accusation, charge, crime." The related verb is recriminate.

Today's Word "prolix"

prolix \pro-LIKS; PRO-liks\ (adjective) - 1 : Extending to a great length; unnecessarily long; wordy. 2 : Tending to speak or write at excessive length.

"A prolix speaker at the best to times, everyone was concerned that Albertson's farewell speech would run well beyond it's allotted time of fifteen minutes."

Prolix is derived from Latin prolixus, "poured forth, overflowing, extended, long," from pro-, "forward" + liquere, "to be fluid."

Today's Word "mellifluous"

mellifluous \muh-LIF-loo-us\ (adjective) - Flowing as with honey; smooth; flowing sweetly or smoothly; as, a mellifluous voice.

"The mellifluous tones of the Debussy sonata were presented all the more pleasantly when they came from the instrument of such an expert pianist."

Mellifluous comes from Latin mellifluus

Today's Word "languor"

discomfit \dis-KUHM-fit; dis-kuhm-FIT\ (transitive verb) - 1 : To make uneasy or perplexed, or to put into a state of embarrassment; to disconcert; to upset. 2 : To thwart; to frustrate the plans of. 3 : (Archaic). To defeat in battle.

"A boy who can dodge over the roofs of Lahore city on a moonlight night, using every little patch and corner of darkness to discomfit his pursuer, is not likely to be checked by a line of well-trained soldiers." -- Rudyard Kipling, "Kim"

Discomfit comes from Old French desconfit, past participle of desconfire, from Latin dis- + conficere, "to make ready, to prepare, to bring about," from com- + fac

Today's Word "slugabed"

slugabed \SLUHG-uh-bed\ (noun) - One who stays in bed until a late hour; a sluggard.

"Perhaps he would lie slugabed till the household had departed for the procession, then get up late. Creep around unobtrusively, lie in the sun with the castle cats." -- Lois McMaster Bujold, 'The Curse of Chalion'

Slugabed is from slug, "sluggard" + abed, "in bed."

Today's Word "forgo"

forgo \for-GO\ (transitive verb) - To abstain from; to do without. Inflected forms: forwent, forgone, forgoing, forgoes.

"Having decided to forgo the healing silence of Zen koans in her solitude, she was reading Ann Landers when Jill came in." -- Beth Gutcheon, "Five Fortunes"

Forgo derives from Old English forgan, "to go without, to forgo," from for-, "without" + gan, "to go."

Today's Word "brackish"

brackish \BRAK-ish\ (adjective) - 1 : Somewhat salty. 2 : Distasteful; unpalatable.

"As my body grew steadily larger, my craving for cheese continued and my desire for stronger and more brackish cheeses increased." -- J. Angelica, "Fermentation"

Brackish derives from Dutch brak, "salty." It is especially used to describe a mixture of seawater and fresh water.

Today's Word "algorithm"

algorithm \AL-guh-RITH-uhm\ (noun) - A step-by-step procedure for solving a problem in a finite number of steps that often involves repetition of an operation.

"Their latest innovation involved some kind of complex algorithm that made the eyes of anyone with an IQ of less than 200 glaze over with incomprehension but was reckoned by the company to be a surefire thing." -- John Connolly, 'The Killing Kind'

Algorithm is an alteration of algorism, possibly influenced by arithmetic. It comes to us from the Arabic name of a ninth century Persian mathematician and textbook author, via Old French and Medieval Latin: Muhammad ibn-Musa al-Khwarizmi was from the Khwarizm region, an area south of the Aral Sea. Al-Khwarizmi wrote a book titled Kitab al jabr wa'l-muqabala ("Rules of restoring and equating") which is the source of the word algebra.

Today's Word "visage"

visage \VIZ-ij\ (noun) - 1 : The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal; -- chiefly applied to the human face. 2 : Look; appearance; aspect.

"The waiter, a faceless and fawning creature whose visage was lost in the clouds of smoke that eddied, now here, now nervously there, suggested the 'speciality' of the 'house'..." -- Gilbert Sorrentino, 'Mulligan Stew'

Visage is from Old French, from vis, "face," from Latin visus, "seeing, sight, hence what is seen, appearance," from the past participle of videre, "to see."

Today's Word "matutinal"

matutinal \muh-TOOT-n-uhl\, adjective) - Relating to or occurring in the morning; early.

"You must make a little excursion one of these fine spring days...Some morning, the earlier the better. But I dare say your habits are not very matutinal, Signora?" -- Thomas Adolphus Trollope, 'A Siren'

Matutinal is from Late Latin matutinalis, from Latin matutinus, "early in the morning; pertaining to the morning."

Today's Word "cadre"

cadre \KAD-ree; -ray; KAH-dray; -druh\ (noun) - 1 : A core or nucleus of trained or otherwise qualified personnel around which an organization is formed. 2 : A tightly knit and trained group of dedicated members active in promoting the interests of a revolutionary party. 3 : A member of such a group. 4 : A framework upon which a larger entity can be built; a scheme.

"Naturally they were curious, the businessmen and cadre and assorted visitors, who offered up cigarettes and tea before making their first hedgy attempts at conversation. The cadre wanted to know if they were American, but he, along with the businessmen, insisted on broaching his questions in fragmented, nearly impenetrable English." -- 'John Dalton, 'Heaven Lake: A Novel'

Upon entering the English language around 1830 via Sir Walter Scott's Introduction to The Lay of the Last Minstrel, this word first meant "framework," and by the 1850s was a term for a group of people. It was borrowed from the French cadre, "a picture frame," from Italian quadro, "framework," from Latin quadrum, "square, four-sided thing."

Today's Word "explicate"

explicate \EK-spluh-kayt\ (transitive verb) - To explain; to clear of difficulties or obscurity.

"Every day I would come home from the office to find him waiting and he would stay until dinnertime. During that time I would read and explicate a German introduction to philosphy to him. In return he would instruct me on the Yuishikiron, the Buddhist doctrine that matter is a form of mind." -- Ōgai Mori, 'Youth and Other Stories'

Explicate comes from Latin explicare, "to unfold; to unfold the meaning or sense of; to explain, expound, or interpret," from ex-, "out" + plicare, "to fold."

Today's Word "robustious"

robustious \roh-BUHS-chuhs\ (adjective) - 1 : Boisterous; vigorous. 2 : Coarse; rough; crude.

"Four girls and four boys he had, robustious little heathens, every one of them, as he said himself." -- Marilynne Robinson, 'Gilead'

Robustious derives from Latin robustus, "oaken, hence strong, powerful, firm," from robur, "oak."

Today's Word "tete-a-tete"

tete-a-tete \TAYT-uh-TAYT; TET-uh-TET\ (adjective) - Private; confidential; familiar.

(noun) - 1 : A private conversation between two people. 2 : A short sofa intended to accommodate two persons.

"There was a phone in her office, but she wasn't near brave enough to hang around having a tete-a- tete with a corpse while she waited for the police." -- Lori Foster, 'Bad Boys to Go'

Tete-a-tete comes from the French, literally "head-to-head."

Today's Word "sui generis"

sui generis \soo-eye-JEN-ur-us; soo-ee-\ (adjective) - Being the only example of its kind; constituting a class of its own; unique.

"It was indeed when, after groping your way up the long dark spiral staircase that climbs between the thick walls of the steeple, you at last emerged on one of the two lofty platforms, flooded with light and air, that a breathtaking picture opened before you on every side -- a spectacle sui generis." -- Victor Hugo, 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'

Sui generis is from Latin, literally meaning "of its own kind": sui, "of its own" + generis, genitive form of genus, "kind."

Today's Word "supercilious"

supercilious \soo-puhr-SIL-ee-uhs\ (adjective) - Disdainfully arrogant; haughty.

"I could have gladly booted the bloke there and then, but mother was already heaping her praise and approval on the supercilious pillock, so my opinion was not asked and the trousers were duly purchased." -- Eddy Vee, ' The Teddy Boy on the Trolley Bus'

Supercilious is from Latin superciliosus, from supercilium, "an eyebrow, arrogance," from super, "over" + cilium, "an eyelid."

Today's Word "lexicon"

lexicon \LEK-suh-kon\ (noun) plural lexicons or lexica \-kuh\ - 1 : A book containing an alphabetical arrangement of the words in a language with the definition of each; a dictionary. 2 : The vocabulary of a person, group, subject, or language. 3 : [Linguistics] The total morphemes of a language.

"April Fool's Day is one of the cruelest holidays in our cultural lexicon. When else do we so gleefully dash the hopes of those around us?" -- Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, 'The Dirty Girls Social Club'

Lexicon comes from Greek lexikon, from lexikos, "of or belonging to words," from lexis, "a speaking, speech, a way of speaking, a word or phrase," from legein, "to say, to speak

Today's Word "mawkish"

mawkish \MOCK-ish\ (adjective) - 1 : Sickly or excessively sentimental. 2 : Insipid in taste; nauseous; disgusting.

"It was quickly done, without words of mawkish sentiment. But it was enough, a silent exchange of souls, the culmination of all that had gone before." -- Matt Braun, 'The Kincaids'

Mawkish originally meant "maggoty" (from Middle English mawke, maggot), hence squeamish, nauseating, hence tending to render squeamish or make nauseated, especially because of excessive sentimentality.

Today's Word "virago"

virago \vuh-RAH-go; vuh-RAY-go\ (noun) - 1 : A woman of extraordinary stature, strength, and courage. 2 : A woman regarded as loud, scolding, ill-tempered, quarrelsome, or overbearing.

"For you are the witch Magrit, the horrid harridan, the repulsive termagant, the fustigant fury, the lamia rampant, the execrable harpy, the verminous virago, the loathsome she-wolf. Hence are you known the world over as the unquestioned mistress of lore and practice of foety, this expertise being explained, of course, not simply by its natural attraction to one of your demonic foulness, but, more simply still, by the demands of self-preservation." -- Eric Flint, 'Forward the Mage'

Virago comes from Latin virago, "a man-like woman, a female warrior, a heroine" from vir, "a man."

Today's Word "onus"

onus \OH-nuhs\ (noun) - 1 : A burden; an obligation; a disagreeable necessity. 2 : a: A stigma. b: Blame. 3 : The burden of proof.

"The engineer was not as much fun to be with as he once was, and she thought that it might be the terrible onus of repairing the engines that weighed upon him." -- Michael Flynn, 'The Wreck of the River of Stars

Onus is adopted from Latin onus, "load, burden." The derivative Latin adjective onerosus yields English onerous, "burdensome, oppressive." The derivative Latin verb onerare has the compound form exonerare, "to free from (ex-) an onus or burden," which yields English exonerate, "to relieve, in a moral sense, as of a charge, obligation, or load of blame resting on one."

Today's Word "sempiternal"

sempiternal \sem-pih-TUR-nuhl\ (adjective) - Of never ending duration; having beginning but no end; everlasting; endless.

"Repetition had become a comfort in her antiquity; the well-worn phrases, unfinished business, grandstand view, made her feel solid, unchanging, sempiternal, instead of the creature of cracks and absences she knew herself to be." -- Salman Rushdie, 'The Satanic Verses'

Sempiternal comes from Medieval Latin sempiternalis, from Latin sempiternus, a contraction of semperaeternus, from semper, "always" + aeternus, "eternal."

Today's Word "votary"

votary \VOH-tuh-ree\ (noun) - 1. One who is devoted, given, or addicted to some particular pursuit, subject, study, or way of life. 2 : A devoted admirer. 3 : A devout adherent of a religion or cult. 4 : A dedicated believer or advocate.

"A priestess led a young man out onto the sunken floor, pulling him with a chain fixed to the manacles on his wrists; a second votary walked behind him, a sword at his back." -- Mark E. Rogers, 'Blood + Pearls'

Votary comes from Latin votum, "vow," from the past participle of vovere, "to vow, to devote." Related words include vow and vote, originally a vow, hence a prayer or ardent wish, hence an expression of preference, as for a candidate.

Today's Word "esurient"

esurient \ih-SUR-ee-uhnt; -ZUR-\ (adjective) - Hungry; voracious; greedy.

"Paul, whose stomach suffered no pangs, regarded the fellow with esurient eyes, the eyes of an avid curiosity." -- Carl Van Vechten, 'Firecrackers'

Esurient comes from the present participle of Latin esurire, "to be hungry, to desire eagerly," from edere, "to eat."

Today's Word "wraith"

wraith \RAYTH\ (noun) - 1 : An apparition of a living person seen before death; hence, an apparition; a specter; a ghost. 2 : A shadowy or insubstantial form, appearance, or representation of something.

"I could almost believe that it was the wraith of Hendrika doomed to keep an eternal watch over the bones of the woman her jealous rage had done to death." -- H. Rider Haggard, 'All Adventure: Allan's Wife/Marie'

Wraith is from Scottish warth, probably originally "a guardian angel, hence a person's ghost seen -- as a warning or means of protection -- immediately before death, hence any apparition," from Old Norse vörthr, "watcher, guardian."

Today's Word "cerebration"

cerebration \ser-uh-BRAY-shuhn\ (noun) - The act or product of thinking; the use of the power of reason; mental activity; thought.

"He neglected his family; his existence was taken up more with cerebration and preoccupied with the following, as he called them, philosophical questions." -- by Nikolaĭ Vasil'evich Gogol', 'Dead Souls'

Cerebration is ultimately derived from Latin cerebrum, "brain." The related verb cerebrate means "to use the power of reason; to think."

Today's Word "paragon"

paragon \PAIR-uh-gon; -guhn\ (noun) - A model of excellence or perfection; as, "a paragon of beauty; a paragon of eloquence."

"Old Roland, that paragon of acceptable standards, viewed the world with a thoroughly jaundiced, nearly blind eye." -- Samara Al-Darraji , 'Eclipse'

Paragon comes from Middle French, from Old Italian paragone, literally, "touchstone," from paragonare, "to test on a touchstone," from Greek parakonan, "to rub against, to sharpen," from para-, "beside" + akone, "a whetstone."

Today's Word "turgid"

turgid \TUR-jid\ (adjective) - 1 : Swollen, bloated, puffed up; as, "a turgid limb." 2 : Swelling in style or language; bombastic, pompous; as, "a turgid style of speaking."

"George Lane had left the turgid discussion that had been the Naval Armament committee meeting and was relaxing back in his office in the House." -- Colin Peck, ' Enrico Albyvendie'

Turgid derives from Latin turgidus, from turgere, to swell.

Today's Word "imbue"

imbue \im-BYOO\, transitive verb: 1. To tinge or dye deeply; to cause to absorb thoroughly; as, "clothes thoroughly imbued with black." 2. To instill profoundly; to cause to become impressed or penetrated.

"Thus, therefore, the floor of our familiar room has become a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where the Actual and the Imaginary may neet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the other." -- Nathaniel Hawthorne, 'The Scarlet Letter'

Imbue comes from Latin imbuere, "to wet, to steep, to saturate."

Today's Word "expropriate"

expropriate \ek-SPROH-pree-ayt\ (transitive verb) - 1 : To deprive of possession. 2 : To transfer (the property of another) to oneself.

"You never know when some tinhorn general's going to expropriate your property as national patrimony." -- Douglas Preston, 'The Codex'

Expropriate comes from Medieval Latin expropriatus, past participle of expropriare, "to deprive of property," from Latin ex- + proprius, "one's own." The act of expropriating is expropriation. One who expropriates is an expropriator.

Today's Word "practicable"

practicable \PRAK-tik-uh-buhl\ (adjective) - 1 : Capable of being done, accomplished, or put into practice; feasible; as, "a practicable method; a practicable aim." 2 : Capable of being used; usable.

"We changed, and I had not made up my mind, and still reflected for my comfort that it would be quite practicable to get down and walk back, when we changed again." -- Charles Dickens, 'Great Expectations'

Practicable derives from Late Latin practicare, "to act; to practice," from practicus, from Greek praktikos, "able in; fit for; doing; active," from prassein, "to do; to do habitually."

This Column Is Just Dessert

Pop quiz! See whether you can select the correct word in each context:

1. At the end of the novel, the cruel villain got his just (deserts, desserts).

2. The two armadas engaged in a fierce (naval, navel) battle.

3. The threat of icebergs caused the ship to (shear, sheer) off course.

4. When the mayor announced the curfew, a loud (hew, hue) and cry arose from the crowd.

5. The stern teacher insisted that his students (toe, tow) the line.

6. The prosecutor portrayed the defendant as an (arrant, errant) liar.

7. Your figures don't seem to (gibe, jibe) with mine.

8. Tom's (principle, principal) concern was the enormous cost of the project.

9. Sally's friends considered her to be very (straight-laced, strait-laced).

10. Henry placed the golf trophy on his fireplace (mantel, mantle).

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Answers:

1. deserts -- One meaning of "desert" is something deserved or merited. "Dessert" means sweet food eaten after a meal.

2. naval -- "Naval" means relating to ships or the Navy. "Navel" means the belly button.

3. sheer -- "Shear" means to cut through something as if with a sharp instrument. "Sheer" means to deviate from a course, swerve.

4. hue -- "Hew" means to cut down or shape. Today, "hue" means color, but an old meaning of "hue" -- outcry, uproar -- survives in the phrase "hue and cry."

5. toe (unless the teacher was ordering them to pull a rope) -- "Toe the line" means to adhere conscientiously to the rules. "Tow the line" means to haul a rope.

6. arrant -- "Arrant" means complete, thoroughgoing. "Errant" means roving, straying, wandering.

7. jibe -- "Jibe" means to be consistent with or in accord with. "Gibe" means a derisive remark or taunt.

8. principal -- "Principal" means chief or most important. "Principle" means a rule or standard.

9. strait-laced -- "Straight" means not bent, level, direct. "Strait" means tight, confining.

10. mantel -- A "mantel" is a shelf or other structure over or around a fireplace. A "mantle" is a cloak or something that covers, envelops or conceals.

 

When Nouns Become Adverbs

"I don't stay up nights worrying," said John Lennon in 1965. "Summers I used to cover Missouri," wrote Thornton Wilder in 1934. "I went over there afternoons," wrote Ernest Hemingway in 1929.

Why do we sometimes use nouns -- "nights," "summers" and "afternoons" -- as adverbs like this? In fact, this usage is a linguistic fossil, a remnant from the early history of English.

Today we use the genitive case of a noun to indicate possession, as in "night's coolness" or "summer's warmth." But in Old English, the genitive case could also indicate that a noun or adjective was being used as an adverb.

In Old English, the genitive was formed by adding "-es" to a word. (It wasn't until the 1600s that printers started replacing the "e" with an apostrophe.)

So the genitive of the Old English adjective "daeg" (day), for instance, was "daeges," which had not only the possessive meaning "of the day," but also the adverbial meanings "during the day," "on the day" and "what happens in daeges, stays in daeges."

(A "missing link" between the possessive genitive and the adverbial genitive can be found in archaic adverbial phrases, such as "of a day" ("during the day") and "of nights" ("during the nights"). William Shakespeare uses the latter construction when his character Julius Caesar praises "fat, sleek-headed men . . . such as sleep o' nights.")

Adverbial genitives, though lean and hungry, still survive in modern English. That's why we say, "I work days," meaning "I work by day," as well as "I leave early most Saturdays," "Winters I go to Florida," and "Sunday mornings I like to sleep late."

This practice of adding an "s" sound to a noun or adjective to indicate its use as an adverb also lives on in the non-standard folk formations "somewheres," "anywheres" and "nowheres," and in standard adverbs such as "nowadays," "unawares," "sideways," "backwards," "onwards," "upwards," "afterwards" and "towards."

Those last five "-ward" words were formed by tacking on the suffix "-es" to the Old English adjectives "backweard," "onweard," "upweard," "afterweard" and "toweard," and both forms of these words still survive -- "backward/backwards," "upward/upwards," etc.

Other ghosts of the adverbial genitive are "once," "twice" and "thrice." In these words the modern "-ce" spelling reflects the original "-es" spelling.

One last question: If John Lennon didn't stay up nights worrying, why did he sing about "a hard day's night"?
 

These Phrases Make Cents

Today you'll hear my two cents worth about some fascinating verbal coinages.

Let's start with the phrase "two cents worth" itself. Even in the pre-inflation 1800s, when this term first appeared, two cents wasn't worth much. The cheapest cigar you could buy, for instance, cost two cents, and some attribute the phrase "two cents worth" to the popularity of these "two-centers."

Others trace the term to the two-cent coin, first minted in 1864. It was the first coin to contain the words "In God We Trust," though if I can add my two cents worth, it could have been written more simply as "We Trust in God."

The self-deprecating "I'll add my two cents worth," by the way, can furnish anticipatory cover if your ideas prove to be foolish. When applied to others ("Abe chimed in with his two cents worth"), it disparages and diminishes their contributions.

And speaking of diminishment, what of "red cent," as in "not worth a red cent" or "I'm not going to pay another red cent" for this muffler? Does it refer to a devil's coin . . . blood money . . . a penny from a communist country?

Sorry; it's nothing that exotic. Back when pennies were made completely of copper, they bore a distinctly reddish color.

Perhaps even more worthless than a red cent is a plugged nickel -- and, no, I don't mean one of those "Special Issue" coins plugged on TV -- "Buy the Millard Fillmore nickel and then collect the whole obscure presidents' set!"

In centuries past, crooks would remove the center of a coin made of gold or silver and replace it with a plug made of a much less valuable metal. Such a coin was said to be "plugged."

So a nickel, which wasn't worth very much to begin with, was worth even less when reduced to a "plugged nickel."

As for "wooden nickel," sly peddlers in 19th-century America were notorious for tricking unsuspecting rubes into buying a wide variety of articles made of wood -- wooden nutmegs, wooden eggs, wooden handkerchiefs, wooden husbands who rarely smiled.

So it's not surprising that people would be warned not to accept any wooden nickels, which, it just so happens, actually existed.

Carnivals, circuses and sideshows would sometimes entice customers by giving out wooden nickels accepted as payment for their attractions. But, once the shows were over, of course, these wooden nickels were, well, not worth a plugged nickel.

 

Today's Word "inchoate"

inchoate \in-KOH-it\, (adjective) - 1 : In an initial or early stage; just begun. 2 : Imperfectly formed or formulated.

"He was not articulate, and was unable to put into words the inchoate ambitions inside him." -- Robert Daley, 'The Dangerous Edge'

Inchoate comes from the past participle of Latin inchoare, alteration of incohare, "to begin."

Today's Word "ephemeron"

ephemeron \ih-FEM-uh-ron\ (noun) plural ephemera \ih-FEM-uh-ruh\ - 1 : Something short-lived or of no lasting significance. 2 : ephemera: Items, especially printed matter (as posters, broadsides, pamphlets, etc.), intended to be of use or importance for only a short time but preserved by collectors.

"She had seen that the finger of Death was upon her bosom - that, like the ephemeron, she had been made perfect in loveliness only to die..." -- Edgar Allen Poe, 'The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings'

Ephemeron is from Greek, from ephemeros, "daily; lasting or living only a day," from epi, "upon" + hemera, "day."

Today's Word "plenary"

plenary \PLEE-nuh-ree; PLEN-uh-ree\ (adjective) - 1 : Full in all respects; complete; absolute; as, plenary authority. 2 : Fully attended by all qualified members.

"The first plenary session held at the conference was organized to define its theme. Two important papers presented at this plenary helped set its tone." -- Lalithambika Antherjanam, 'Cast Me Out If You Will'

Today's Word "pugnacious"

pugnacious \puhg-NAY-shuhs\ (adjective) - Inclined to fight; combative; quarrelsome.

"After tolerating Patrick's pugnacious daughter, Kane would be ready to swear off women for the rest of his life." -- Carol Finch, 'Moonlight Enchantress'

Pugnacious comes from Latin pugnare, "to fight," from pugnus, "fist."

There's Nothing Petty About These Peeves

Every once in a while, I ask readers to unleash their pet peeves. Let slip the dogs of words!

Bob Paquin of Columbia, Conn., detests the pretentious dropping of "the" in Briticisms such as "in hospital" and "vacationing out of country."

Judy Coleman of Quartzite, Ariz., thinks that asking, "Where are you at?" is definitely not where it's at. She writes, "Is that not asking the question twice?"

Cathie Shively of Sioux City, Iowa, is tired of hearing people say they're "reaching out" to her. She reports that a salesman recently said he was glad she had "reached out" to his company.

Owen Goudelock of Lafayette, La., has had it with "mentee." "And if we have to get rid of 'mentor' to dispose of 'mentee,'" he writes, "that's not the worst thing that could happen either."

Writes Norma Christensen of Hermiston, Ore., "When did it become OK to use the word 'that' when referring to a person? I was taught to use 'who' for people, and 'that' for objects/places."

"I'm so negatively affected by the common misuse of 'effect' and 'affect,'" writes Cynara Stites of Mansfield, Conn., "that I intend to effect a change to proper usage so I can improve my affect. The effect of this change is to make me appear to be an affected grammar snob."

An anonymous reader from New Jersey pleads, "PLEASE get people to stop saying, 'ek-set-ur-uh' for 'et cetera' ('etc.'). It's 'et-set-ur-ruh.' It drives me crazy. No 'k' sound."

What ruffles the feathers of Linda Mitchell of Elizabeth, Pa., is the annoying habit broadcasters have of using the redundant conjunctions "but, nonetheless" and "but, however."

Redundancy is also on the mind of another Pennsylvanian, Oren Spiegler of Upper Saint Clair, who's annoyed by a TV commercial touting a company's "five-year anniversary." He writes, "'Anni' means 'year,' thus the phrase should be 'fifth anniversary.'"

Joan Sanchez of Plantation, Fla., is taken aback when servers in fancy restaurants ask, "What would you guys like to drink?" The "guys," she points out, "are not all guys, but male and female." She adds, "Is this chronic dinosaurism on my part?"

When contemporary usage keeps creating such train wrecks, it's hard not to feel like a T-Rex.

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Today's Word "exegete"

exegete \EK-suh-jeet\ (noun) - A person who explains or interprets difficult parts of written works.

"Haunted by the mystery of my patron saint, I stumbled for a long time over an enigma which no exegete has yet cleared up." -- Michel Tournier, 'Gemini'

Exegete is from Greek exegetes, from the verb exegeisthai, "to interpret," and is related to exegesis.

Today's Word "tutelage"

tutelage \TOO-tuhl-ij; TYOO-\ (noun) - 1 : The act of guarding or protecting; guardianship; protection. 2 : The state of being under a guardian or tutor. 3 : Instruction, especially individual instruction accompanied by close attention and guidance.

"Thomas began his formal instruction by his father at the age of twelve and was released from the tutelage of Gundar." -- Judith Hensley, 'Sir Thomas the Eggslayer'

Tutelage is from Latin tutela, "protection; guardian" (from the past participle of tueri, "to watch, to guard") + the suffix -age.

Today's Word "bedaub"

bedaub \bih-DOB\ (transitive verb) - 1 : To smudge over; to besmear or soil with anything thick and dirty. 2 : To overdecorate; to ornament showily or excessively.

"Am I, your kinsman and benefactor, a fit person to be juggled out of my commendation and eulogy, and brought to bedaub such a whitened sepulchre as the sophist Milton?" -- Sir Walter Scott, 'Woodstock: or The Cavalier'

Bedaub is from be-, "thoroughly" + daub, from Medieval French dauber, "to plaster," perhaps from Old French dauber, "to clothe in white, white-wash, plaster," from Latin dealbare, "to whitewash, to plaster," from de- (intensive prefix) + albus, "white."

Serving English, Family Style

Readers responded to my recent request for insider terms used among family members with a wide array of delightful examples.

When Alice Robinson's little boys forgot to zip their flies, she would say, "xyz" ("examine your zipper"), while Mary Enright coined "wofm" ("watch out for mom"). The Vance family calls the soupy mix in the refrigerator crisper "bacteria soup."

Bryan Kennedy's family dubbed the last, lonely ornament left on a Christmas tree a "forlornament." Lynn Crane's lexi-"kin" includes "gushel" -- to spread the branches of an artificial Christmas tree to cover the empty spaces.

Tricia warned her toddler son not to touch electrical outlets by saying, "That will bite you," and now, at age 25, he still refers to them as "bite-yous." When Michel's children behaved badly, he would ask, "Are you opening a laundry?" because the kids were "pressing" their luck.

In Susan Lawson's family, the crusty particles that form in the eyes during sleep are "sleep seeds," while in Elizabeth Jenison's family they're "sleepies." The Kolb family calls a lint ball between the toes a "wuzzy." Henry McNulty's family saves the heels of bread loaves for the ducks, so they call these crusty ends "duckies."

Maureen Scheuermann refers to nephews and nieces as "gratlings," while Phyllis Emigh calls them "niblings." In Henry Chase's house, a combination of rain and mist is "mizzle," while the Fauls family refers to police radar as "speedar." Walter Schloss's dad called a piece of bread or toast with egg yolk on it "dunkein."

In Terry Cady's family, a cat looking down at your food like a vulture is "vulching." Rani Stoddard's family refers to pets as "varmentia," and her husband, Glenn, is a "jive onion" because "he's a rapscallion." Sara Varney's son Ryan has coined "lapkin" for "napkin."

In Joe and Nancy's clan, potato chips are "beeps," and Sue Tanner's family has named its big green trash barrel "Godzilla." In Carl Schaefer's household the little flash of light that dances around the room when reflected off of a watch crystal is a "jackie." "I think it's named for my father (Jack Schaefer)," he writes.

Kate Gurtowsky's daughter refers derisively to meals made by throwing together leftovers as "replacement meals." And when someone in Sharon Matz's family starts telling embarrassing stories, people yell, "Statdazita" -- "our crazy interpretation," she reports, "of the Italian phrase 'chiudere il becco' (to shut up)."
 

Today's Word "beneficence"

beneficence \buh-NEFF-i-suhns\ (noun) - 1 : The practice of doing good; active goodness, kindness, or charity. 2 : A charitable gift or act.

"He was one day engaged with Mrs. Allworthy in a discourse on charity: in which the captain, with great learning, proved to Mr. Allworthy, that the word charity in Scripture nowhere means beneficence or generosity." -- Henry Fielding, 'Tom Jones'

Beneficence is from Latin beneficentia, from beneficus, kind, generous, obliging, from bene, well (from bonus, good) + facere, to do. One who, or that which, is characterized by beneficence is beneficent.

Today's Word "cant"

cant \KANT\ (noun) - 1 : The idioms and peculiarities of speech in any sect, class, or occupation. 2 : The use of religious phraseology without understanding or sincerity. 3 : Empty, solemn speech, implying what is not felt; insincere talk; hypocrisy. 4 : A whining manner of speaking, especially of beggars.

"In spite of all his gnomic cant he was like so many other Europeans, quite unable to understand the emotional depths and subtleties of the English attitude to life." -- John Fowles, 'The Magus'

Cant ultimately derives from Latin cantus, singing, chanting.

Today's Word "risible"

risible \RIZ-uh-buhl\ (adjective) - 1 : Capable of laughing; disposed to laugh. 2 : Exciting or provoking laughter; worthy of laughter; laughable; amusing. 3 : Relating to, connected with, or used in laughter; as, "risible muscles."

"The subject of these remarks was a slumbering figure, so muffled in shawl and cloak, that it would have been matter of impossibility to guess at its sex but for a brown beaver bonnet and green veil which ornamented the head, and which, having been crushed and flattened, for two hundred and fifty miles, in that particular angle of the vehicle from which the lady's snores now proceeded, presented an appearance sufficiently ludicrous to have moved less risible muscles than those of John Browdie's ruddy face." -- Charles Dickens, 'The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby'

Late Latin rīsibilis, from Latin rīsus, past participle of rīdēre, to laugh.

Today's Word "abstemious"

abstemious \ab-STEE-mee-uhs\ (adjective) - 1 : Sparing in eating and drinking; temperate; abstinent. 2 : Sparingly used or consumed; used with temperance or moderation. 3 : Marked by or spent in abstinence.

"Lucy had suddenly realized she was ravenous and, most unlike her usual abstemious self, had taken two sausages to go with her toast and coffee." -- Carola Dunn, 'A Mourning Wedding'

Abstemious comes from Latin abstemius, from ab-, abs-, "away from" + the root of temetum, "intoxicating drink."

Avarice for Aphorisms

"God is either cruel or incompetent."

"Common sense is not so common."

"The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

These pithy quips from Woody Allen, Voltaire and Steven Wright, respectively, are classic examples of aphorisms. Briefly defined, an aphorism is a tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion. British writer James Geary loves aphorisms, and he's collected over 300 of them in a new book, "Geary's Guide to the World's Greatest Aphorists" (Bloomsbury, $25.95).

Geary includes a brief profile of each contributor. "The aphorism is our most intimate, idiosyncratic literary genre," he writes in the book's introduction, "so I've tried to give a glimpse of the lives and personalities behind the sayings through quick character sketches."

These snapshots reveal the idiosyncrasies of icons. Alexander Pope, for instance, author of "To err is human, to forgive divine," stood just four feet, six inches tall. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote, "When it is darkest, men see the stars," was deeply influenced by his mother, who slept in a bed shaped like a coffin and wore a burial shroud when traveling.

Gertrude Stein, who wrote, "We are always the same age inside," drove supplies to French hospitals during World War I. (The only shortfall of Geary's wonderful collection, by the way, is that it doesn't include more female contributors.)

Just for fun, see whether you can match these aphorisms from Geary's book with their creators.

1. The difference between medicine and poison is the dose.

2. The more I see of men the more I like dogs.

3. No man is great if he thinks he is.

4. The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.

5. It's not bragging if you can back it up.

6. If you're going through hell, keep going.

7. Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes.

8. Tell all the Truth but tell it slant.

9. For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.

10. Always go to other people's funerals; otherwise they won't go to yours.

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Their creators:

a. Muhammad Ali b. Hannah Arendt c. H. L. Mencken d. Yogi Berra e. Emily Dickinson f. Mark Twain g. Madame de Stael h. David Byrne i. Winston Churchill j. Will Rogers

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Answers:

1-h 2-g 3-j 4-f 5-a 6-i 7-b 8-e 9-c 10-d

 

Today's Word "nostrum"

nostrum \NOS-truhm\ (noun) - 1. A medicine of secret composition and unproven or dubious effectiveness; a quack medicine. 2 : A usually questionable remedy or scheme; a cure-all.

"'He's carrying on his father's trade, for what he has just dispensed to us is very like a nostrum,' said Stanislas, assuming one of his most provocative poses. 'If I needed a nostrum, I could choose a better one.'" -- Honoré de Balzac, 'Lost Illusions'

Nostrum comes from Latin nostrum (remedium), "our (remedy)," from nos, "we."

Today's Word "ephemeron"

ephemeron \ih-FEM-uh-ron\ (noun) plural ephemera \ih-FEM-uh-ruh\ - 1 : Something short-lived or of no lasting significance. 2 : ephemera: Items, especially printed matter (as posters, broadsides, pamphlets, etc.), intended to be of use or importance for only a short time but preserved by collectors.

"She had seen that the finger of Death was upon her bosom - that, like the ephemeron, she had been made perfect in loveliness only to die..." -- Edgar Allen Poe, 'The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings'

Ephemeron is from Greek, from ephemeros, "daily; lasting or living only a day," from epi, "upon" + hemera, "day."

Today's Word "desultory"

desultory \DES-uhl-tor-ee\ (adjective) - 1 : Jumping or passing from one thing or subject to another without order or rational connection; disconnected; aimless. 2 : By the way; as a digression; not connected with the subject. 3 : Coming disconnectedly or occurring haphazardly; random. 4 : Disappointing in performance or progress.

"He felt as he had felt when a raw lieutenant in India during his first hill-campaign, when the etiquette of the service had compelled him to rise and walk up and down in front of his men under a desultory shower of jezail-bullets." -- P.G. Wodehouse, 'The Little Warrior'

Desultory comes from Latin desultorius, from desultor, "a leaper," from the past participle of desilire, "to leap down," from de-, "down from" + salire, "to leap."

Looking for Words in All the Wrong Places

Scientists studying the mating habits of bunnies recently reported an amazing discovery: "We observed the courting rabbits using binoculars."

Did bachelor bunnies use these devices to scope out the does? "Hey, Flopsy, check out the fluffy tail behind that tree!"

Ah, the joys of the misplaced modifier -- descriptive words and phrases that end up where they don't belong. Like kids playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey, hapless newspaper writers pin these danglers all over the place:

1. "After more than 100 years in existence, President Bush dissolved the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service." Wow, he's in pretty good shape for a centenarian! (Spotted by Art Wright, Storrs, Conn.)

2. "We feature freshly roasted lean meats with no added fats, which are hand-carved." Don't you just hate machine-carved fat? (Diane Nagel of Cranberry Lake, N.Y.)

3. "Fondly named Rose Garden Auto Care, devoted customers can still receive the friendly neighborhood service they were used to." Isn't it cute when businesses create nicknames for their customers? (Jo Ann Lawlor, San Jose, Calif.)

4. "A woman will stand trial on charges that she fatally shot her sleeping husband after waiving her right to a preliminary hearing." (Kathy Bandi, Shelocta, Pa.) Now that's what I call premeditation!

5. "He walked over to a heavy mahogany drum table with ugly claw feet." I hope he didn't scratch it. (Betty Lundy, West Point, Miss.)

6. (About a new exhibit at George Washington's estate, Mr. Vernon): "One theater offers the experience of fighting the British with artificial fog and snow." Were the patriots really that desperate for ammunition? (Linda Duncan, East Hartford, Conn.)

7. "They set up two deck chairs and a plastic owl on a stake that Nick named Lucifer." A devilish mis-stake. (Norman Stevens, Storrs, Conn.)

8. "Brown is accused of firing gunshots July 4 after the fireworks show on the Mississippi River levee that wounded two people." Dam criminal! (Doug Johnson, Watson, La.)

9. Headline: "Bipartisan bill restoring rights for detainees killed by GOP" Isn't it a little late? (Charles Duncan, via e-mail)

10. "Rich Misterka ... will be driving a 1955 LT Mack [truck] containing 13 trees that will be given to the Department of the Interior with his wife Debbie." Squeeze in, honey, there's plenty of room back there. (Scott Barton, Bennington, Vt.)
 

Today's Word "inhere"

inhere \in-HIR\ (intransitive verb) - To be inherent; to belong, as attributes or qualities.

"The foundations of the palace, like those of the prison, inhere in the fine quality of the stone, in marble stairways, in real gold, in carvings, the rarest in the realm, the absolute power of their hosts." -- Jean Genet, 'The Thief's Journal'

Inhere is from Latin inhaerere, from in-, "in" + haerere, "to stick, to hang."

Today's Word "peripatetic"

peripatetic \pair-uh-puh-TET-ik\ (adjective) - 1. Of or pertaining to walking about or traveling from place to place; itinerant. 2 : Of or pertaining to the philosophy taught by Aristotle (who gave his instructions while walking in the Lyceum at Athens), or to his followers.

(noun) - 1 : One who walks about; a pedestrian; an itinerant. 2 : follower of Aristotle; an Aristotelian.

"Mary, the eldest, a fine girl with a haughty clear brow, was a peripatetic governess, who gave lessons to the tradesmen's daughters." -- David Herbert Lawrence, 'The Prussian Officer and Other Stories'

Peripatetic derives from the Greek peripatetikos, from peripatein, meaning "to walk about," from peri-, "around, about" + patein, "to walk."

Today's Word "congeries"

congeries \KON-juh-reez\ (noun) - A collection; an aggregation.

"But if the congeries of past events, if congeries it was, could be separated from its usual partnership with sentiment, it cannot have been too much to cheer Lolita on in her wholehearted attempt." -- Gilbert Sorrentino, 'Pack of Lies'

Congeries is from Latin congeries, meaning "a heap, a mass," or from congerere, meaning "to carry together, to bring together, to collect," from com-, "with, together" + gerere, "to carry." It's related to the word congest, meaning "to overfill or overcrowd," which derives from the past participle of congerere.

Only Things Certain Are Death and Syntaxes

The Republican pollster, consultant and wordsmith Frank Luntz sure knows how to tweak a phrase.

In 1994 he helped coin the term "Contract with America" for Congressional Republicans, and since then he's cleverly crafted conservative catchphrases for maximum appeal. It was Luntz, for instance, who advised Republicans that their efforts to abolish the inheritance tax would gain more support if they called it the "death tax."

In his recent book, "Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear" (Hyperion, $24.95), Luntz shows how political phrases are shrewdly honed to make policies more persuasive. No matter where you stand politically, Luntz's insights into the subtle connotations of words are fascinating.

Republicans have hit linguistic homeruns, Luntz says, by referring to wiretapping as "electronic intercepts" (sounds like they just happened to overhear something), dubbing tax cuts "tax relief" (implying that taxpayers are besieged), and calling trial lawyers "personal injury lawyers" (conjuring images of sleazy ambulance-chasers).

For decades, U.S. oil companies have described their efforts as "drilling for oil," a term that conjured images of rickety derricks and gushing glop. So now they boast of "exploring for energy." Meanwhile, advocates for non-petroleum energy sources have found "renewable energy" more persuasive than "alternative energy," a phrase that suggests Left Coast touchy-feelyism.

The words "globalization" and "global economy" have gone global these days, but Luntz says we should think twice about using them. "'Globalization,'" he writes, "represents something big, something distant and something foreign." His polling shows that the Americans find the euphemisms "free market economy" and "free trade" much more appealing.

Advocates of "school choice" and "vouchers," Luntz says, would be better off calling for "parental choice" and "opportunity scholarships." "'School choice," he notes, sounds as if the schools are in control, while "vouchers" remind people that money is being drained from public schools.

And Republicans might have found more success in reforming Social Security, Luntz says, had they advocated "personalizing" Social Security rather than "privatizing" it. "Private," he says, bears all sorts of negative connotations (e.g. private clubs, private schools), while "personalize" suggests individual choice, ownership and control.

Luntz reminds us that, while a word to the wise is sufficient, we also need to be wise to the word.

 

Today's Word "raillery"

raillery \RAY-luh-ree\ (noun) - 1 : Good-humored teasing or banter. 2 : An instance of such good-humored teasing; a jest.

"But as matter for ridicule is always ready to hand, and as most men are only too fond of fun and raillery, even buffoons are called witty and pass for clever fellows; though it is clear from what has been said that wit is different, and widely different, from buffoonery." -- Aristotle, 'The Nicomachean Ethics'

Raillery is taken from the French raillerie, or from the Old French railler, meaning "to tease, to mock."

Today's Word "arcane"

arcane \ar-KAYN\ (adjective) - Understood or known by only a few.

"Gustav had no skills in the arcane art himself, a fact he had bitterly regretted as a child, having mistakenly imagined that magic could solve all his problems, ease all his griefs, make everything right." -- Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, 'Guardians of the Lost'

Arcane is derived from Latin arcanus, meaning "shut, closed, secret," from arca, "chest, box."

Today's Word "tutelary"

tutelary \TOO-tuh-lair-ee; TYOO-\ (adjective) - Having the guardianship or charge of protecting a person or a thing; guardian; protecting; as, "tutelary goddesses."

"But there is a tutelary deity for misers, and by a chain of unforeseen circumstances that tutelary deity was so ordering matters that the purchase-money of his extortionate bargain was to be tumbled after all into the old toper's pouch." -- Honore de Balzac, 'Lost Illusions'
 

Today's Word "pablum"

pablum \PAB-luhm\ (noun) - Something (as writing or speech) that is trite, insipid, or simplistic.

"'It's not all pablum for the masses, you know!' I let out my breath. He was probably just embarrassed to be caught enjoying the pablum of the masses." -- Jacqueline Girdner, 'Murder Most Mellow'

Pablum is derived from Pablum, a trademarked brand of bland, soft cereal for infants.

Today's Word "superannuated"

superannuated \soo-pur-AN-yoo-ay-tid\ (adjective) - 1 : Discharged or disqualified on account of old age; retired from service, especially with a pension. 2 : Old; no longer in use; no longer valid; outmoded.

"The worthy man was hale and hearty, not exceeding three score and seven, and had never dreamt of being superannuated." -- John Galt, 'The Provost'

Superannuated derives from Medieval Latin superannuatus, "too old," from Latin super, "above, over" + annus, "year."

Getting Something for 'Nothing'

"Nothing is better than Aleve." That advertising slogan for the popular pain reliever drew this response from one of my waggish readers: "Nothing is better than Aleve, so I take nothing."

We use and encounter ambiguous phrases and sentences like this every day, often without pausing to consider their dubious logic. Like the slogan for Aleve, many of them involve the expression of a negative sense, indicated by words such as "nothing," "aren't" and "don't."

Bruce Powell of Canton, Conn., for instance, wonders about this common holiday valediction: "If I don't see you, have a Merry Christmas." He writes, "Does that greeting apply only if I don't see you? What about if I do actually see you?" Of course, no one would ever say, "If I DO see you, DON'T have a Merry Christmas," but that's what seems to be implied.

Similarly, many people say, "I really miss not seeing you," which, when you think about it, really means the exact opposite of the intended meaning.

Another reader, K.L. Baldwin of Titusville, Pa., reports hearing characters on TV shows use sentences such as "It usually always does this" and "That often never happens." The adverbs seem to cancel each other out, of course. But the scary thing is, these sentences make an odd kind of sense.

They're similar to some of the baffling pronouncements attributed to Yogi Berra: "If the people don't want to come out to the park, nobody's going to stop them"; "It gets late early out there"; and "I really didn't say everything I said." Though technically these statements are illogical, we get the idea.

Such expressions fall into the category of idioms -- constructions that appear to violate some grammatical rule or cannot be understood based solely on the meanings of their individual words.

Children can sometimes expose the illogical nature of idioms by asking about their meanings. When my daughter, Allison, was about 5, for instance, I told her that one of her friends would be coming over "any minute." I thought she would be happy, but she was disappointed. She took "any minute" literally to mean at any random time -- a minute from now, or an hour from now.

A couple of years later, asking Allison about a recent conversation with a friend, I said, "What did Anna have to say?" Allison replied, "Anna didn't HAVE to say anything. She just said what she wanted to say."

But now that Allison is older, that often never happens.
 

Today's Word "plangent"

plangent \PLAN-juhnt\ (adjective) - 1 : Beating with a loud or deep sound, as, "the plangent wave." 2 : Expressing sadness; plaintive.

"He let the plangent memory of the music fill his head and flow down his arms and fill his fingers." -- Terry Pratchet, 'Soul Music'

Plangent derives from the present participle of Latin plangere, to beat, to strike (noisily), especially to strike the breast, head, etc. as a sign of grief.

Today's Word "malcontent"

malcontent \mal-kuhn-TENT; MAL-kuhn-tent\ (noun) - 1 : One who is discontented or dissatisfied. 2 : A discontented subject of a government; one who opposes an established order.

(adjective) - Discontented; uneasy; dissatisfied.

"I was excited, but something, the malcontent perhaps, was keeping me from displaying my enthusiasm." -- Chuck Bohatka, Jr., 'Enough Shorts for a Wardrobe'

Malcontent is from the Old French term combining mal, "bad, ill" (from Latin malus) and content, "contained," from Latin contentus, past participle of continere, "to hold together, to contain," from con-, "with, together" + tenere, "to hold."

Today's Word "benefaction"

benefaction \BEN-uh-fak-shuhn; ben-uh-FAK-shuhn\ (noun) - 1 : The act of conferring a benefit. 2 : A benefit conferred; especially, a charitable donation.

"On my side, I could have cursed the kindness that conferred upon me this benefaction, but I kept my vexation under the surface for policy's sake, and did with I could to let on to be glad." -- Jules Verne, 'Around the World in 80 Days'

enefaction is from Late Latin benefactio, from Latin benefacere, "to do well, to do good to," from bene, "well" + facere, "to do."

Today's Word "spoony"

spoony \SPOO-nee\ (adjective) - 1 : Foolish; silly; excessively sentimental. 2 : Foolishly or sentimentally in love.

"There is no doubt whatever that I was a lackadaisical young spoony; but there was a purity of heart in all this, that prevents my having quite a contemptuous recollection of it, let me laugh as I may." -- Charles Dickens, 'David Copperfield'

Spoony is from the slang term spoon, meaning "a simpleton or a silly person."

Today's Word "ephemeron"

consanguineous \kon-san(g)-GWIN-ee-us\ (adjective) - Of the same blood; related by birth; descended from the same parent or ancestor.

"...Descent in the royal house to which she belongs had always been confused by substitutions and adoptions; the effects of consanguineous marriage having been fortunately mitigated by impotence on the part of the Kings and gallantry on the part of the Queens, and by the fact that the beauty of Egyptian women far surpassed that of the descendents of the Macedonian mountain brigands." -- Thornton Wilder, 'The Ides of March'

Consanguineous is from Latin consanguineus, from com-, con-, "with, together" + sanguineus, from sanguis, sanguin-, "blood." The noun form is consanguinity, "relationship by blood, or close relation or connection."

Turn of the Screw

You're sitting on the floor with the instructions and pieces for the "easy-to-assemble" bookcase in front of you. You open the little bag of screws, only to discover that they're Phillips screws, the kind with those crisscross slots.

As you head downstairs to rummage through drawers for the only Phillips screwdriver in the house, you're likely to curse "Phillips," whoever the heck he is.

Meet Mr. Phillips.

During the early 1930s, workers on U.S. auto assembly lines were discovering that their new power screwdrivers had so much torque that they kept slipping out of the slots of regular screws.

When Henry F. Phillips of Portland, Ore., heard about this, he devised a new screw with an X-shaped slot that would enable power screwdrivers to center easily and drive the screw home more quickly and securely.

After several companies rejected Phillips' device, he finally sold it to General Motors, which began using the new kind of screw to make Cadillacs.

Soon the Phillips head screw and Phillips screwdriver caught on with American manufacturers, though Phillips never really cashed in on his invention because he had failed to patent it.

Another "P" phrase based on the name of an inventor is "Ponzi scheme," which, come to think of it, leaves its victims feeling as if they've been on the receiving end of one of Phillips' devices.

In 1919, Charles Ponzi, an inveterate con man, devised a new form of fraud. He sold promissory notes to investors, guaranteeing them a 40 percent return over a short time period.

As Ponzi recruited new participants, he used their money to pay dividends to the first investors. This made his gimmick seem legitimate, luring even more people who were eager to get in on the action.

All along, of course, Ponzi was pocketing oodles of money for himself, and soon he was sporting expensive suits and gold-handled canes. But, as the number of participants multiplied, he could no longer pay off all the investors.

Within a short time, the whole scheme crashed, thousands of investors lost their money and Ponzi was sentenced to federal prison.

To this day, we still refer to any fraud that pays quick returns to early investors with money sucked from latecomers as a "Ponzi scheme." And if you'll just forward this column to five of your friends, in three days you'll receive hundreds of Phillips screwdrivers.

========
 

Today's Word "flippant"

flippant \FLIP-uhnt\ (adjective) - Lacking proper seriousness or respect; showing inappropriate levity; pert.

"Betty made some flippant rejoinder, but as she watched him, she was not gay." -- Humphry Ward, 'Sir George Tressady'

Flippant probably comes from flip. The noun form is flippancy.

Today's Word "ineffable"

ineffable \in-EF-uh-buhl\ (adjective) - 1 : Incapable of being expressed in words; unspeakable; unutterable; indescribable. 2 : Not to be uttered; taboo.

"In the light of the pyre, I saw in her face an ineffable sadness, even a longing, as she gazed down at the burial party tending to the dead mothers..." -- Michael Curtis Ford, 'The Ten Thousand: A Novel of Ancient Greece'

Ineffable is from Latin ineffabilis, from in-, "not" + effabilis, "utterable," from effari, "to utter," from ex-, "out" + fari, "to speak."

Today's Word "epigone"

epigone \EP-uh-gohn\ (noun) - An inferior imitator, especially of some distinguished writer, artist, musician, or philosopher.

"He was a conscious epigone, even in the l9th century preferring the powdered wig and ruffles of an earlier age." -- Andre Norton, 'Leopard in Exile'

Epigone derives from Greek epigonos, from epigignesthai, to be born after, from epi-, "upon, after" + gignesthai, "to be born." The adjective form is epigonic.

Today's Word "sesquipedalian"

sesquipedalian \ses-kwuh-puh-DAYL-yuhn\ (adjective) - 1 : Given to or characterized by the use of long words. 2 : Long and ponderous; having many syllables.

(noun) - A long word.

"Because my father was a professor, I early picked up a sesquipedalian way of speaking." -- Damon Knight, 'A Science Fiction Argosy'

Sesquipedalian comes from Latin sesquipedalis, "a foot and a half long, hence inordinately long," from sesqui, "one half more, half as much again" + pes, ped-, "a foot."

I Now Pronounce You "Man" and "Wyfe"

You say, "tuh-MAY-toh," and your husband says, "tuh-MAH-toh." Don't call the whole thing off! Even respected authorities disagree over the pronunciation of many words.

Can you select the pronunciations preferred by most (but not all) pronunciation experts?:

1. demur (to object, take exception to) -- a. di-MYOOR; b. di-MUR

2. forte (a person's strength) -- a. FOR-tay; b. FORT

3. grievous (causing grief, dire) -- a. GREE-vus; b. GREE-vee-us

4. Realtor (a member of the National Association of Realtors) -- a. REEL-tur; b. REE-luh-tur

5. niche (a cranny; a suitable area of talent or comfort, or a segment of a market) -- a. NITCH; b. NEESH

6. conch (a marine gastropod mollusk or its shell) -- a. KAHNCH; b. CONK

7. pastoral (of or relating to rural life, or being a church pastor) -- a. pa-STOR-ul; b. PAS-tur-ul

8. sorbet (frozen dessert) -- a. SOR-bit; b. sor-BAY

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Answers and explanations:

1. b. di-MUR. Here "mur" is pronounced as in "murky," not as in "mural." The adjective "demure" (shy, reserved) is pronounced "di-MYOOR."

2. b. FORT. The musical direction "forte," an Italian word meaning "loudly," is pronounced "FOR-tay," but "forte," meaning "strength," is derived from the French word "fort," meaning "strong."

3. a. GREE-vus. "Grievous" has two syllables, not three.

4. a. REEL-tur. I mispronounced this word for many years.

5. a. NITCH. While both pronunciations are common and acceptable, most authorities prefer "NITCH." Because "niche" entered English from French during the 1600s, they say, its pronunciation has been fully Anglicized.

6. b. CONK. Purists want to conk people over the head for saying "KAHNCH."

7. b. PAS-tur-ul. "Do pastures have stores in them?" the purists angrily ask. "Then don't put a 'store' in 'pastoral'"?

8. a. SOR-bit. The fact that "sorbet" shares the same Turkish root as "sherbet" provides a clue to its historically accurate pronunciation. But because "sorbet" entered English through French, it acquired the fancified "ay" pronunciation that has been adopted by just about everyone. Just as sorbet cleanses the palate, pronunciation experts have tried for decades to cleanse "sor-BAY" from English-speaking palates. Nice try.

 

Today's Word "quondam"

quondam \KWAHN-duhm; KWAHN-dam\ (adjective) - Having been formerly; former; sometime.

"It is time for me to speak of Patrick Quilly, my quondam catamite, cook and general housekeeper." -- John Banville, 'The Untouchable'

Quondam comes from the Latin quondam, "formerly," from quom, "when."

Today's Word "effulgence"

effulgence \i-FUL-juhn(t)s\ (noun) - The state of being bright and radiant; splendor; brilliance.

"The moment Sri Caitanya appeared, His beauty and effulgence transfixed everyone." -- N. S. Narasimha, 'The Way of the Vaisnava sages'

From Latin ex, "out of, from" + fulgere, "to shine." The adjective form of the word is effulgent.

Today's Word "puerile"

puerile \PYOO-uhr-uhl; PYOOR-uhl\ (adjective) - Displaying or suggesting a lack of maturity; juvenile; childish.

"Hal cleared his throat to out-spit Leroy, then swallowed hard, laughing at his puerile urge." - Evelyn Cole, 'For The Sake Of All Others'

Puerile comes from Latin puerilis, from puer, "child, boy."

Today's Word "provender"

provender \PROV-uhn-duhr\ (noun) - 1 : Dry food for domestic animals, such as hay, straw, corn, oats, or a mixture of ground grain; feed. 2 : Food or provisions.

"It may be long ere we find any other provender now that we are leaving the auspices of the Tree Dwellers." -- Cecelia Dart-Thornton, 'The Battle of Evernight'

Provender comes from Old French, from Late Latin praebenda (prae and pro being confused), "a daily allowance of provisions," from praebere, contraction of praehibere, "to hold forth, to offer, to afford," from prae-, "before" + habere, "to have, to hold."

Today's Word "aberrant"

aberrant \a-BERR-unt; AB-ur-unt\ (adjective) - Markedly different from an accepted norm; Deviating from the ordinary or natural type; abnormal.

"Another factor the court had to consider was whether the crime was part of a single period of aberrant behavior." -- Nancy Taylor Rosenberg, 'Sullivan's Evidence'

That which is aberrant is literally that which "wanders away from" what is accepted, ordinary, normal, natural, etc., aberrant being from Latin aberro, aberrare, to wander off, to lose one's way, from ab, away from + erro, errare, to wander.

Today's Word "edacious"

edacious \i-DAY-shus\ (adjective) - Given to eating; voracious; devouring.

"Occasionally the road must be set back, and once the lighthouse was moved back from the cliffs, eaten away by the edacious tooth of the sea." -- Henry White Warren, 'Among The Forces'

Edacious is from Latin edax, edac-, gluttonous, consuming, from edo, edere, to eat.

Today's Word "perspicacity"

perspicacity \pur-spuh-KAS-uh-tee\ (noun) - Clearness of understanding or insight; penetration, discernment.

"Such a horse gives its rider discernment and perspicacity, if not clairvoyance. It will save you from being surprised by your enemies." -- Sudhin N. Ghose, 'Folk Tales and Fairy Stories from India'

Perspicacity comes from Latin perspicax, perspicac-, "sharp-sighted," from perspicere, "to look through," from per, "through" + specere, "to look."

Today's Word "sardonic"

sardonic \sar-DON-ik\ (adjective) - Scornful, mocking; disdainfully humorous.

"The young man stood looking down at her with sardonic contempt, a cowed self-conscious look on his thick, pale face." -- D.H. Lawrence, 'Women in Love'

Sardonic comes from French sardonique, from Latin sardonius, from Greek sardonios, sardanios, "derisive."

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Avatar

The word "avatar" seems to be, well, the avatar of trendy writers these days. Most commonly, it refers to a god-like hero. Writes political columnist David Ignatius, for instance, "To understand why Obama needs tougher scrutiny now, we need only recall his political avatar, President John F. Kennedy."

The popularity of "avatar" has undoubtedly been boosted in recent years by cyber-speak, where it denotes the onscreen image you create of yourself for an interactive game. A TV science fiction series titled "Avatar" premiered in 2005, and a movie with the same name is set for release next year.

"Avatar" derives from the Sanskrit "avatarah," meaning "descent of a god from heaven." In Hindu philosophy, it refers to the incarnation of a divine being, especially Vishnu, in human or animal form.

That's the sense Robert Frost used in the poem "One More Brevity," which describes a stray Dalmatian as an earthly incarnation of Sirius, the dog star. He was, wrote Frost, "not a meteorite, but an avatar."

"Avatar" entered English during the early 1700s, and soon its meaning expanded to include the embodiment of a concept or quality ("Lindbergh's flight was the very avatar of courage"), a temporary manifestation of an ongoing phenomenon ("McCarthyism was an avatar of Cold War paranoia") or a revered role model, as used by Ignatius to describe JFK.

Another trendy term these days is "turnkey." A current TV commercial for a home re-modeler, for instance, touts his "turnkey service." "Turnkey" refers to any business product or service that provides an entire package ready for immediate use, such as in a computer sold with built-in software.

The term may have originated in real estate where a "turnkey home" is a house that's ready to move into as soon as you turn the key. Others suggest it began as a reference to starting a car; just turn the key and vrrrooooom!

And let's not forget the Dickensian term "turnkey" for a prison guard. It's one of those delightful verb-object words mischievously coined for unsavory people: "sawbones" (doctor), "pickpocket," "killjoy," "scofflaw."

In fact, "turnkey" is alive and well in today's prison slang, where it means a guard who just does his job without taking any noticeable interest in prison life -- in other words, the very avatar of indifference.
 

Today's Word "bombast"

bombast \BOM-bast\ (noun) - Pompous or pretentious speech or writing.

"Sain Flint decided not to run Amelia Lowell's bombast on the front page. Instead, he put it on page three." -- Richard S. Wheeler, 'Flint's Truth'

Bombast comes from Medieval French bombace, "cotton, hance padding," from Late Latin bombax, "cotton."

Today's Word "sojourn"

sojourn \SOH-juhrn; so-JURN\ (intransitive verb) - To stay as a temporary resident; to dwell for a time.

(noun) - A temporary stay.

"At times during this interminable sojourn, I might disappear for hours on end; Sita would wake from her fitful slumber and find herself alone..." -- Ashok Mathur, 'The Short, Happy Life of Harry Kumar'

Sojourn comes from Old French sojorner, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin subdiurnare, from Latin sub-, "under, a little over" + Late Latin diurnus, "lasting for a day," from Latin dies, "day."

Today's Word "palimpsest"

palimpsest \PAL-imp-sest\ (noun) - 1 : A manuscript, usually of papyrus or parchment, on which more than one text has been written with the earlier writing incompletely erased and still visible. 2 : An object or place whose older layers or aspects are apparent beneath its surface.

"A palimpsest obscures what lies beneath. To build Pakistan it was necessary to cover up Indian history, to deny that Indian centuries lay just beneath..." -- Salman Rushdie, 'Shame, a novel'

Palimpsest is from Latin palimpsestus, from Greek palimpsestos, "scraped or rubbed again," from palin, "again" + psen, "to rub (away)."

Today's Word "ennui"

ennui \on-WEE\ (noun) - A feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction arising from lack of interest; boredom.

"The day at Swampscott passed in ennui, the lack of activity causing the three attorneys to make constant calls to their offices in the hopes that someone wanted their services..." -- Robert Ludlum, 'The Road to Omaha'

Ennui is from the French, from Old French enui, "annoyance," from enuier, "to annoy, to bore," from the Latin phrase in odium, "in hatred or dislike."

Today's Word "supererogatory"

supererogatory \soo-puhr-ih-ROG-uh-tor-ee\ (adjective) - 1 : Going beyond what is required or expected. 2 : Superfluous; unnecessary.

"I shall attempt no such supererogatory task as a description of Paris." -- James Weldon Johnson, 'The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man'

Supererogatory comes from Latin supererogare, "to spend over and above," from super, "over, above" + erogare, "to ask for," from e-, "out" + rogare, "to ask, to request."

Death, Be Not Ungrammatical

As most of you know, I cherish verbal bloopers -- the sillier the better. But whenever someone sends me a mistake that appeared in an obituary, I don't use it in my column.

The notion of ridiculing a verbal error in such a context seems heartless, especially when such tributes are often composed in haste by grieving people. And, besides, I believe in ghosts.

But, because many of us will be called upon to write an obituary or tribute for a relative or friend at some point, it's worth noting the banana peels lying in the obituary writer's path. It's better to consider these linguistic issues in dispassionate objectivity now than when your sobbing cousin hands you a pad and pencil and asks, "Will you write Dad's tribute?"

Interred/interned -- You'd be amazed how many obits read, "he will be interned" or "internment will take place" at this or that cemetery (sometimes misspelled "cemetary"). "Inter" means to bury or entomb a body. "Intern" means to work as a student in a professional field to gain supervised practical experience.

Formerly -- Often an obit will read, "He was formerly a trustee" at a college, for example, or "he was the former husband" of someone. But, if the person was still active as a trustee or still married to the person at the time of death, "formerly" and "former" aren't needed. And it's "formerly," not "formally." It's common to see phrases such as "John Smith, formally of Hartford."

Widow/late -- Sometimes tributes redundantly describe someone as the "widow of the late John Jones." It's either "wife of the late John Jones" or "widow of John Jones."

Beside/besides -- Many obituaries mistakenly read, "Beside her husband, she leaves . . ." She may have stood beside (next to) her husband till the end, but it's "besides" (in addition to).

Misspellings and usage errors -- Here's a sampling of other common mistakes found in obituaries: "golf was his favorite pass time" (pastime); "he was borne and raised in Connecticut" (born); "his recently diseased wife" (deceased); "she is survived by her two son in laws" (sons in law); "she graduated Smith College" (from Smith College); "he received many metals" (medals); "he died of a congenial heart condition (congenital); "he past away last Saturday" (passed away); "for the repose of his sole" (soul).
-Rob Kyff,

Today's Word "blandishment"

blandishment \BLAN-dish-muhnt\ (noun) - Speech or action that flatters and tends to coax, entice, or persuade; allurement -- often used in the plural.

"The woman was temptation personified, and every blandishment she offered contained a challenge, I thought, to my ultimate moral strength." -- Jack Whyte, 'The Singing Sword'

Blandishment ultimately comes from Latin blandiri, "to flatter, caress, coax," from blandus, "flattering, mild."

Today's Word "vituperate"

vituperate \vy-TOO-puh-rate, -TYOO-, vi-\ (verb) - To find fault with; to scold; to overwhelm with wordy abuse; to censure severely or abusively; to rate.

"The incensed priests...continued to raise their voices, vituperating each other in bad Latin." -- Sir Walter Scott, 'Ivanhoe'

Vituperate comes from Latin vitupero, vituperare, to scold, blame, censure.

Today's Word "doppelganger"

doppelganger \DOP-uhl-gang-uhr\ (noun) - 1 : A ghostly double or counterpart of a living person. 2 : Alter ego; double.

"The doppelganger dropped Ray to the linoleum and whispered to the mirror." -- Steven Deighan, 'A Dead Calmness'

Doppelganger is from the German doppel, "double" + Gänger, "goer."

Jekyll Words Play 'Hyde' and Seek

A mom going out shopping leaves a note for her teenage son: "Please make sure the door is fast, then dust the tables and trim the Christmas tree." She returns to find the door hinges glistening with oil, the tables covered with thicker dust and the tree pruned to half its original size.

Ah, the paradoxes of English! Even the simplest words can have two opposite meanings. "Fast" can mean "not moving" (stand fast) or "moving rapidly"; "dust" can mean "remove dust" or "place dust on" (dust crops); "trim" can mean "decorate" or "reduce in size."

Linguist Richard Lederer calls such words "contranyms." Investment guru John Train calls them "antilogies." I call them fun.

See how many contradictory words and phrases you can find in this ambiguous "recommendation":

When considering top managers, I always throw out the name Jekyll N. Hyde. In fact, I can't be too lavish with my praise for him. A qualified expert and a wicked boss, he bags the best executives and continuously overlooks the details of his office. An apparent go-getter, he tables the best ideas at meetings and finishes every project. When an employee asks for something, he lets him have it. His career with our company is just winding up.

Now look for two-faced words in this senator's "tribute" to another nation:

Esteemed colleagues, we should sanction the nation of Ambigua for these actions. When it comes to supporting our policies, Ambigua is critical. Ambiguans have fought with us in several wars, and this experience has tempered their resolve to help us. They have backed us consistently, if not valiantly. Ambiguans have cleaved our allies and buckled our alliances. Their loyalty is a moot issue, and their ethics are untouchable.

----

Contranyms and Antilogies:

First paragraph: throw out (propose/discard); can't be too lavish (is/is not praising him lavishly); qualified (competent/dubious); wicked (great/evil); bags (hires/fires); overlooks (watches over/fails to watch over); apparent (obvious/seeming); tables (proposes/rejects); finishes (completes/destroys): lets him have it (gives it to him/yells at him); winding up (getting started/ending).

Second paragraph: sanction (approve/condemn); critical (vital/disapproving); fought with us (alongside us/against us); tempered (strengthened/reduced); if not valiantly (they backed us valiantly/not valiantly); cleaved (brought together/split); buckled (secured/crumpled); moot (not debatable/debatable); untouchable (above reproach/abhorrent).

 

Today's Word "contumely"

contumely \kon-TYOO-muh-lee; -TOO-; KON-tyoo-mee-lee; -too-; KON-tum-lee\ (noun) - 1 : Rudeness or rough treatment arising from haughtiness and contempt; scornful insolence. 2 : An instance of contemptuousness in act or speech.

"But surely it would be desperate unkindness to add contumely to our self-protection, unless, indeed, we believe that contumely is one of our best means of self-protection." -- Samuel Butler, 'Erewhon'

Contumely comes ultimately from Latin contumelia, outrage, insult.

Today's Word "skulk"

skulk \SKUHLK\ (intransitive verb) - 1 : To hide, or get out of the way, in a sneaking manner; to lurk. 2 : To move about in a stealthy way. 3 : To avoid responsibilities and duties.

(noun) - 1 : One who skulks. 2 : A group of foxes.

"You're too large to skulk about. They'd see you in an instant." -- Kinley MacGregor, Claiming the Highlander

Skulk is from Middle English skulken, ultimately of Scandinavian origin.

Today's Word "hauteur"

hauteur \haw-TUR; (h)oh-\ (noun) - Haughty manner, spirit, or bearing; haughtiness; arrogance.

"She was unremarkable in every way save for the hauteur with which she regarded him." -- Karen Robards, 'Scandalous'

Hauteur is from the French, from haut, "high," from Latin altus, "high." It is thus related to altitude.

Today's Word "ineluctable"

ineluctable \in-ih-LUCK-tuh-buhl\ (adjective) - Impossible to avoid or evade; inevitable.

"All of this, she thought, more probable than battle orders wrapping up cigars in enemy territory, a sad and ineluctable fact of history." -- Padgett Powell, 'Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men'

Ineluctable is from Latin ineluctabilis, from in-, "not" + eluctari, "to struggle out of, to get free from," from ex-, e-, "out of" + luctari, "to struggle."

Today's Word "exalt"

exalt \ig-ZOLT\ (verb) - 1 : To praise, glorify, or honor. 2 : To heighten or intensify. 3 : To raise in rank, character, or status; as, "exalted the humble shoemaker to the rank of King's adviser."

"A warrior should never exalt in his victory, Wharton, before the enemy is completely disarmed." -- Christina Dodd, 'A Knight to Remember'

Exalt comes from Latin exalto, exaltare, to raise high, from ex-, out of (but here simply used intensively; that is, to give emphasis) + altus, high.

Sending in the 'Shock Tropes'

Some random dispatches from the word front . . .

Casting A Pall On Shock -- When did it become mandatory for angry people to describe themselves as "shocked and appalled"?

Citizens are "shocked and appalled" by potholes, pooches and parking tickets. Public officials are "shocked and appalled" by crooks, cronies and crackpots. Newspaper readers are "shocked and appalled" by the overuse of alliteration.

OK, so there are a few times when this melodramatic phrase is appropriate. When an MIT student walked into Boston's Logan Airport last year with a circuit board and wiring on her chest, state police Major Scott Pare described himself, appropriately enough, as "shocked and appalled."

But for lesser transgressions, let's dial down the language. "Surprised and annoyed" would be nice.

"Oversighted" Sighting -- When John McCain said recently that a Congressional committee would "oversight" an issue, he unwittingly demonstrated how a word's part of speech can travel full circle.

In a Rube Goldberg-like sequence, 1. the VERB "oversee" led to the NOUN "oversight" ("Congressional oversight"); 2. this in turn led to the ADJECTIVE "oversight" ("oversight committee"); and 3. this was then converted back to a VERB ("oversight an issue").

McCain, of course, could have used the original verb "oversee," but the new verb "oversight" is a better choice because it alludes to "Congressional oversight."

Adjusted for "Conflation" -- What's the latest buzzword of political pundits? Say hello to "conflate." An old and perfectly respectable verb meaning "to bring together or meld," "conflate" has picked up a negative sense of "confusing two different things."

New Yorker writer Hendrik Hertzberg, for instance, recently called John McCain's erroneous suggestion that Iran's Shiite mullahs and Iraq's Sunni terrorists were allies "rhetorical conflation."

Turn, Turn, Turn -- If you have any doubt that times are a' changin', consider this: People are starting to use "turn of the century" in a new way. I realized this when I read these words in a recent article by Ian Buruma: "The first time I visited this august assemblage, around the turn of the century . . ."

Images of starched collars and brown derbies immediately came to mind. "Wow," I thought, "this guy is old!" Then it hit me; Buruma meant eight years ago, not 108 years ago.

Call me "shocked," though not "appalled."
 

Today's Word "autodidact"

autodidact \aw-toh-DY-dakt\ (noun) - One who is self-taught.

"I'm an autodidact and a good one, because I'll kick my own (butt) if I don't learn, which is a sight to see with this leg brace." -- Dean Koontz, 'One Door Away from Heaven'

Autodidact is from Greek autodidaktos, "self-taught," from auto-, "self" + didaktos, "taught," from didaskein, "to teach."

Today's Word "inveigh"

inveigh \in-VAY\ (intransitive verb) - To rail (against some person or thing); to protest strongly or attack with harsh and bitter language -- usually with "against."

"I could inveigh against someone who denied his Jewishness, who played at being a goy." -- Michael Brodsky, 'Detour'

Inveigh is from Latin invehi, "to attack with words," passive form of invehere, "to carry or bring into or against," from in-, "in, into" + vehere, "to carry."

Today's Word "crapulous"

crapulous \KRAP-yuh-lus\ (adjective) - 1 : Suffering the effects of, or derived from, or suggestive of gross intemperance, especially in drinking; as, a crapulous stomach. 2 : Marked by gross intemperance, especially in drinking; as, a crapulous old reprobate.

"His place in the parlour at the George, his absence from church, his old, crapulous, disreputable vices, were all things of course in Debenham." -- Robert Louis Stevenson, 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'

Crapulous is from Late Latin crapulosus, from Latin crapula, from Greek kraipale, drunkenness and its consequences, nausea, sickness, and headache.

Today's Word "defenestrate"

defenestrate \dee-FEN-uh-strayt\ (transitive verb) - To throw out of a window.

"You can't defenestrate every man who proposes to Nefret. It would take too much of your time." -- Elizabeth Peters, 'The Falcon at the Portal'

Defenestrate is derived from Latin de-, "out of" + fenestra, "window." The noun form is defenestration.

Betwixt and Be-teen

Recently I've noticed that students making assembly announcements at the high school where I teach invariably preface their proclamations with "so," followed by a brief pause and then their statement. "So . . . We're having a bake sale."; "So . . . There's a yearbook meeting scheduled for today."; "So . . . the volleyball tournament is this weekend."

Here "so" functions as a handy, all-purpose transitional word that breaks the ice, establishes a casual, non-authoritarian tone and, not incidentally, gives the speaker a chance to summon breath and courage. It seems to have become a mandatory mantra of adolescent self-consciousness.

Two more glimpses into teen talk:

Liking the Participle -- Henry McNulty of Cheshire, Conn., has noticed that teenagers often replace the present tense of verbs with the present participle, especially when expressing a preference or desire, e.g. "I'm liking the color," "I'm wanting to go swimming."

Not to be too analytical about it, but this phrasing puts a distance between the speaker and his or her feelings. It's more tentative and noncommittal than the straightforward "I like the color" or "I want to go swimming."

I've heard adults use the preferential participle, usually when they're trying to talk themselves into something or persuading someone else that they're overcoming their initial doubts.

Think of a skeptical wife walking through a house that her husband thinks they should buy. To hint that she might be won over, without fully committing herself, she might say, "I'm liking the cabinets."

Very, Sort of Trendy -- Speaking of tentative, Michael Ray emailed me to report that young women are adding a new twist to Valley Girl talk. They're sprinkling their sentences with "very, sort of," as in, "He's just very, sort of, strange when it comes to money." When you think about it, "very" and "sort of" are nearly opposites, so describing something as "very, sort of" is very, sort of hedging your bet.

Speaking of "very," more and more teenagers seem to be using "very" with participles, as in, "He's very paying attention to this," or "She's very making things worse."

Teenagers have been using "so" this way for years ("He's so paying attention to this," "She's so making things worse"), but this is a new "very"-ation.
 

Today's Word "acrid"

acrid \AK-rid\ (adjective) - 1 : Sharp and harsh, or bitter to the taste or smell; pungent. 2 : Caustic in language or tone; bitter.

"It sizzled and sparked, and sent its acrid odor up everyone's nostrils; Jennifer thought of hellfire." -- Richard Janssen, 'The Evil I Do'

Acrid comes from Latin acer, "sharp."

Today's Word "constitutional"

constitutional \kon-stih-TOO-shuhn-uhl; -TYOO-\ (noun) - A walk taken for one's health.

"A wise physician does not simply give a tonic for a diseased limb, or a high fever; the patient might be dead before the constitutional remedy could become effective." -- Charles Waddell Chesnutt, 'The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories'

A constitutional is so called because it is taken for the benefit of one's constitution.

Today's Word "autodidact"

autodidact \aw-toh-DY-dakt\ (noun) - One who is self-taught.

"I'm an autodidact and a good one, because I'll kick my own (butt) if I don't learn, which is a sight to see with this leg brace." -- Dean Koontz, 'One Door Away from Heaven'

Autodidact is from Greek autodidaktos, "self-taught," from auto-, "self" + didaktos, "taught," from didaskein, "to teach."

Today's Word "specious"

specious \SPEE-shuhs\ (adjective) - 1 : Apparently right; superficially fair, just, or correct, but not so in reality; as, "specious reasoning; a specious argument." 2 : Deceptively pleasing or attractive.

"Our breach of hospitality went to my conscience a little; but I quickly silenced that monitor by two or three specious reasons, which served to satisfy and reconcile me to myself." -- Oliver Goldsmith, 'The Vicar of Wakefield'

Specious is from Latin speciosus, from species, "appearance," from specere, "to look at."

Today's Word "juju"

juju \JOO-joo\ (noun) - 1 : An object superstitiously believed to embody magical powers. 2 : The power associated with a juju.

"They have powerful juju. They can make juju to kill all of us." -- T. M. Aluko, 'One Man, One Matchet'

Juju is of West African origin, akin to Hausa djudju, fetish, evil spirit.

Today's Word "genial"

genial \JEEN-yuhl; JEE-nee-uhl\ (adjective) - 1 : Friendly, warm; kindly; sympathetically cheerful and cheering. 2 : Mild, pleasant; comfortable; favorable to life or growth.

"She, like he, like all beings in this happy valley with its genial clime, goes always naked, stark staring, as someone's said, wearing nothing daylong but the shells and beads braided into her black hair." -- Robert Coover, 'Ghost Town'

Genial comes from Latin genialis, "relating to enjoyment; joyful," from genius, "guardian spirit; spirit of enjoyment."

Today's Word "Zeitgeist"

Zeitgeist \TSYT-guyst; ZYT-guyst\ (noun) - [Often capitalized] The spirit of the time; the general intellectual and moral state or temper characteristic of any period of time.

"Yet being a man, as I say, with his hair a little stirred by a Zeitgeist that made for change, Gates did at times display a disposition towards developments." -- Herbert George Wells, 'The New Machiavelli'

Zeitgeist is from the German: Zeit, "time" + Geist, "spirit."

Today's Word "tittle-tattle"

tittle-tattle \TIT-uhl TAT-uhl\ (noun) - 1 : Idle, trifling talk; empty prattle. 2 : An idle, trifling talker; a gossip.

(verb) - 1 : to talk idly; to prate.

"Both were in their seventies, and like two old parrots they told, in identical words, the tale they had heard so often from their mother...The tittle-tattle of a half-starved countryside that throughout its long winters had nothing but tittle-tattle for amusement." -- Eric Linklater, 'The Dark of Summer'

Tittle-tattle is a varied reduplication of tattle, which derives from Medieval Dutch tatelen, to babble.

Today's Word "grok"

grok \GRAWK\ (transitive verb slang) - To understand, especially in a profound and intimate way. Slang.

'"Even if you explain it in short words I'm not going to grok it, okay?" Benjamin frowned the uncomprehending frown of someone whose learning of the English language had missed the word "grok" entirely."' - Eric Flint, Andrew Dennis, '1634: The Galileo Affair"

The slang word grok was coined by Robert A. Heinlein in the science fiction novel "Stranger in a Strange Land", where it is a Martian word meaning literally "to drink" and metaphorically "to be one with". It was adopted into the vocabulary of 1960's youth and hackish jargon, whence it has become a part of net culture.