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Saturday, December 31, 2005

connive: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 31 is:

connive \kuh-NYVE\ verb
*1 : to pretend ignorance of or fail to take action against something one ought to oppose
2 a : to be indulgent or in secret sympathy : wink b : to cooperate secretly or have a secret understanding
3 : conspire, intrigue

Example sentence:
Did the professor connive at the cheating that was going on during the exam, or was he unaware that it was happening?

Did you know?
"Connive" may not seem like a troublesome term, but it was to Wilson Follett, a usage critic who lamented that the word "was undone during the Second World War, when restless spirits felt the need of a new synonym for plotting, bribing, spying, conspiring, engineering a coup, preparing a secret attack." Follett thought "connive" should only mean "to wink at" or "to pretend ignorance." Those senses are closer to the Latin ancestor of the word ("connive" comes from the Latin "connivere," which means "to close the eyes" and which is descended from "-nivere," a form akin to the Latin verb "nictare," meaning "to wink"). But many English speakers disagreed, and the "conspire" sense is now the word's most widely used meaning.

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Friday, December 30, 2005

dyspepsia: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 30 is:

dyspepsia \dis-PEP-shuh\ noun
1 : indigestion
*2 : ill humor : disgruntlement

Example sentence:
"As his prestige grew," wrote historian Daniel Boorstin about Sir Isaac Newton, "so did his dyspepsia, his unwillingness to give credit to others or share credit for his great discoveries."

Did you know?
When people get indigestion, they are often affected by nausea, heartburn, and gas -- things that can cause the world's greatest gastronome to curse the world's most delectable dishes. So, it is no wonder that "dyspepsia," a word for indigestion, has also come to mean "ill humor" or "disgruntlement." The word itself is ultimately derived from the Greek prefix "dys-" ("faulty" or "impaired") and verb "pessein" ("to cook" or "to digest"). To please the wordmonger's appetite, we would like to end with this tasty morsel: "Dyspepsia" has an opposite, "eupepsia" ? a rarely used word meaning "good digestion" that can be found in _Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged_.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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Thursday, December 29, 2005

bonhomie : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 29 is:

bonhomie \bah-nuh-MEE\ noun
: good-natured easy friendliness

Example sentence:
We look forward every year to champagne and eggs benedict, served up with plenty of bonhomie, at our friend's annual New Year's Day brunch.

Did you know?
English speakers adapted "bonhomie" from the French "bonhomme," which means "good-natured man" and which is itself a composite of two other French words: "bon," meaning "good," and "homme," meaning "man." That French compound traces to two Latin terms, "bonus" (meaning "good") and "homo" (meaning either "man" or "human being"). English speakers have warmly embraced the French term and its meaning, but we have also anglicized the pronunciation in a way that may make native French speakers cringe. (We hope they will be good-natured about it!) At this festive time of year, "bonhomie" is also sometimes used to mean "an atmosphere of good cheer," so you might say a merry family party has a "holiday bonhomie."

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Wednesday, December 28, 2005

evergreen: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 28 is:

evergreen \EV-er-green\ adj
1 : having foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season
*2 : retaining freshness or interest : perennial

Example sentence:
Every Christmas season, we go to see Tchaikovsky's evergreen Christmas ballet, The Nutcracker.

Did you know?
Which adjective do you think has existed longer in English, "evergreen" or "perennial"? If you count the hyphenated form "ever-green" (which of course meant "always green"), then "evergreen" is older; its earliest known use dates from 1555. If you are a purist and insist on the hyphen-free form, 1671 is the earliest known adjectival use of "evergreen" (although the noun "evergreen," meaning "conifer," has been in use since at least 1644). The first English text known to use "perennial" as an adjective meaning "remaining green all year long" was published in 1644. But "perennial" wins in the more general "long lasting" sense; it has been used with that enduring meaning since the early 1700s. "Evergreen" did not appear in English texts in that sense until the 1800s.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2005

snivel : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 27 is:

snivel \SNIV-ul\ verb
1 a : to run at the nose b : snuffle
2 : to cry or whine with snuffling
*3 : to speak or act in a whining, sniffling, tearful, or weakly emotional manner

Example sentence:
Mom told Jenny to stop sniveling about how mistreated she was and just do her chores.

Did you know?
There's never been anything pretty about sniveling. "Snivel," which originally meant simply "to have a runny nose," was probably "snyflan" in Old English. It's likely related to "sniffle," not surprisingly, and also to an Old English word for mucus, "snofl." It's even related to the Middle Dutch word for a cold, "snof," and the Old Norse word for "snout," which is "snoppa." There's also a connection to "nan," a Greek verb meaning "flow." Nowadays, we mostly use "snivel," as we have since the 1600s, to refer to self-pitying whining, whether or not such sniveling is accompanied by unchecked nasal flow.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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Monday, December 26, 2005

Kwanzaa : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 26 is:

Kwanzaa \KWAHN-zuh\ noun
: an African-American cultural festival held from December 26 to January 1

Example sentence:
A joyous family spirit pervaded the Allen family's Kwanzaa celebration as three generations came together for a delightful meal and a beautiful candle-lighting ceremony.

Did you know?
In 1966, Maulana Karenga, a Black-studies professor at California State University at Long Beach, created a new holiday patterned after traditional African harvest festivals. He called it "Kwanzaa," a name he took from a Swahili term that means "first fruits." The holiday, which takes place from December 26th to January 1st, was originally intended as a nonreligious celebration of family and social values. Each day of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of seven principles: unity, self-determination, collective responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.

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Sunday, December 25, 2005

welkin: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 25 is:

welkin \WEL-kun\ noun
*1 a : the vault of the sky : firmament b : the celestial abode of God or the gods
: heaven
2 : the upper atmosphere

Example sentence:
The pink sky at sunset brought to mind a quote from Shakespeare's _King John_: "The sun of heaven, methought, was loath to set / But stay'd and made the western welkin blush."

Did you know?
When it comes to "welkin," the sky's the limit. This heavenly word has been used in English to refer to the vault of the sky since at least the 12th century, and it derives from an earlier word from Old English that meant "cloud." In modern English, "welkin" is still flying high, and it is often teamed with the verb "ring" to suggest a loud noise or an exuberant expression of emotion, as in "the welkin rang with the sound of the orchestra" or "her hearty laugh made the welkin ring." These contemporary phrases echo an older use -- the original words of a carol that once began "Hark, how all the welkin ring," which we now know as "Hark! The herald angels sing."

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Saturday, December 24, 2005

luminaria : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 24 is:

luminaria \loo-muh-NAIR-ee-uh\ noun
: a traditional Mexican Christmas lantern originally consisting of a candle set in sand inside a paper bag

Example sentence:
More than one neighborhood in our Texas town is lit by luminarias lining the streets for the annual Christmas Stroll.

Did you know?
"Luminaria" is a fairly recent addition to English; the earliest known use in our language dates from 1949, about the time that the old Mexican Christmas custom was gaining popularity among Anglo-Americans. In some parts of the U.S., particularly New Mexico, these festive lanterns are also called "farolitos," which means "little lanterns" in Spanish. We borrowed "luminaria" from Spanish, but the word has been around with exactly the same spelling since the days of Late Latin. The term ultimately traces to the classical Latin "luminare," meaning "window," and to "lumen," meaning "light." It is related to other light-bearing words such as "luminary," "illuminate," and "phillumenist" (a fancy name for someone who collects matchbooks).

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Friday, December 23, 2005

dewy : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 23 is:

dewy \DOO-ee\ adjective
1 : moist with, affected by, or suggestive of dew
*2 : innocent, unsophisticated

Example sentence:
"She was cute. She had that dewy look. Ryan was unable to remain angry with pretty women...." (Tom Clancy, _Patriot Games_)

Did you know?
"And her faire deawy eies with kisses deare Shee ofte did bathe" (Edmund Spenser, _The Faerie Queene_). "I would these dewy teares were from the ground" (William Shakespeare, _Richard III_). "Till dewie sleep Oppress'd them" (John Milton, _Paradise Lost_). "Strengthen me, enlighten me ... Thou dewy dawn of memory" (Alfred Tennyson, "Ode to Memory"). Such lines exemplify how the greats have poetically extended the characteristics of dewy grass to misty or crying eyes, as well as to things, like sleep, that affect people gently like forming dew, or to things, like memory, that gradually vanish like a morning's dew. Not until the 20th century, however, did people begin to connect newly formed, undisturbed dew with freshness or purity and, in turn, with innocence and naivete.

* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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Thursday, December 22, 2005

solatium : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 22 is:

solatium \so-LAY-shee-um\ noun
: a compensation (as money) given as solace for suffering, loss, or injured feelings

Example sentence:
The judge awarded a substantial solatium to all of the bus passengers who were traumatized as a result of the accident.

Did you know?
In legal circles, a solatium is a payment made to a victim as compensation for injured feelings or emotional pain and suffering (such as the trauma following the wrongful death of a relative), as distinct from payment for physical injury or for damaged property. Like many legal terms, "solatium," which first appeared in English in the early 19th century, is a product of Latin, where the word means "solace." The Latin noun is related to the verb "solari," which means "to console" and from which we get our words "solace" and "console."

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Wednesday, December 21, 2005

hyperborean: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 21 is:

hyperborean \hye-per-BOR-ee-un\ adjective
*1 : of or relating to an extreme northern region : frozen
2 : of or relating to any of the arctic peoples

Example sentence:
Pauline's hyperborean relatives (she still has cousins in Canada) don't know what to make of her preference for the tropics.

Did you know?
In ancient Greek mythology, the "Hyperboreoi" were a people who lived in a northern paradise of perpetual sunshine beyond the reaches of the god of the north wind. Their name combines the prefix "hyper-," meaning "above," and "Boreas," the Greek name for the north wind. When "hyperborean" first appeared in the English language in the 15th century, it was a noun naming those legendary folk. Later, the noun was extended to actual inhabitants of northern climates, and the adjective came into use for anything related to the far north or the people who live there.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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Tuesday, December 20, 2005

sequacious : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 20 is:

sequacious \sih-KWAY-shus\ adjective
: intellectually servile

Example sentence:
Ronald was disappointed that his students presented only sequacious arguments in their term papers and that few offered any original ideas.

Did you know?
"Sequacious" is formed from the Latin "sequac-," or "sequax," (which means "inclined to follow" and comes from "sequi," "to follow") and the English "-ious." The original and now archaic meaning of "sequacious" was "inclined to follow" or "subservient, tractable." Although that meaning might as easily describe someone who willingly dropped into line behind a war leader, or who was unusually compliant or obedient in any sense, the concept gradually narrowed into the image of someone who blindly adopts another's ideas without much thought. Labeling a person "sequacious" is not very complimentary, and implies a slavish willingness to adopt a thought or opinion. It is also possible to accuse someone of "sequacity," but that would be equally unkind.

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Monday, December 19, 2005

circumscribe: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 19 is:

circumscribe \SER-kum-skrybe\ verb
1 a : to constrict the range or activity of definitely and clearly b : to define or mark off carefully
2 a : to draw a line around *b : to surround by or as if by a boundary

Example sentence:
Horses grazed in a paddock circumscribed by a lovely white picket fence.

Did you know?
"Circumscribe" has a lot of relatives in English. Its Latin predecessor "circumscribere" (which roughly translates as "to draw a circle around") derives from "circum-," meaning "circle," and "scribere," meaning "to write or draw." Among the many descendents of "circum-" are "circuit," "circumcise," "circumference," "circumnavigate," "circumspect," "circumstance," and "circumvent." "Scribere" gave us such words as "scribe" and "scribble," as well as "ascribe," "describe," and "transcribe," among others. "Circumscribe" first appeared in print in the 14th century; it was originally spelled "circumscrive," but the "circumscribe" spelling had also appeared by the end of the century.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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Sunday, December 18, 2005

glabrous : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 18 is:

glabrous \GLAY-brus\ adjective
: smooth; especially : having a surface without hairs or projections

Example sentence:
The nectarine is a glabrous variety of peach, and not, as is often thought, a hybrid of peach and plum.

Did you know?
"Before them an old man / wearing a fringe of long white hair, bareheaded, / his glabrous skull reflecting the sun's / light...." No question about it -- the bald crown of an old man's head (as described here in William Carlos Williams's poem "Sunday in the Park") is "a surface without hairs." William's use isn't typical, though. More often "glabrous" appears in scientific contexts, such as the following description of wheat: "The white glumes are glabrous, with narrow accuminate beaks." And although Latin "glaber," our word's source, can mean simply "bald," when "glabrous" refers to skin with no hair in scientific English, it usually means skin that never had hair (such as our palms).

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Saturday, December 17, 2005

seasonal affective disorder: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 17 is:

seasonal affective disorder \SEE-zun-ul-a-FEK-tiv-dis-OR-der\ noun
: depression that tends to recur as the days grow shorter during the fall and winter

Example sentence:
Call it seasonal affective disorder,
Call it the winter blues --
But what ever you call it,
Don?t let it get the better of you.

Did you know?
"Seasonal affective disorder" hasn't been recognized as a medical condition for very long, and the term has only become part of the general English vocabulary during the past two decades or so (its earliest documented appearance in print dates from 1983). "Seasonal affective disorder" (abbreviated SAD) is also sometimes called "Winter Depression," and some researchers describe it as a "hibernation reaction" in which sensitive individuals react to the decreasing amounts of light and the colder temperatures of fall and winter. The term "seasonal affective disorder" is sometimes used casually of the mild blahs that so many of us experience when the days grow short, but true SAD actually goes beyond the poetic "winter blues" -- it is a diagnosable form of depression that can be quite debilitating.

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Friday, December 16, 2005

ailurophile: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 16 is:

ailurophile \eye-LOOR-uh-fyle\ noun
: a cat fancier : a lover of cats

Example sentence:
Bill, the office ailurophile, could often be heard talking about his cats, Smokey, Twinkle, and Lucy, as if they were his children.

Did you know?
Although the word "ailurophile" has only been documented in English since the 1920s, ailurophiles have been around for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians were perhaps history's greatest cat lovers, pampering and adorning felines, honoring them in art, even treating them as gods. But the English word "ailurophile" does not descend from Egyptian; rather, it comes from a combination of the Greek word "ailouros," which means "cat," and the suffix "-phile," meaning "lover." If Egyptian cat-loving sentiments leave you cold and you're more sympathetic to medieval Europeans, who regarded cats as wicked agents of evil, you might prefer the word "ailurophobe" (from "ailouros" plus "-phobe," meaning "fearing or averse to").

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Thursday, December 15, 2005

forfend : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 15 is:

forfend \for-FEND\ verb
*1 : to ward off : prevent
2 : protect, preserve

Example sentence:
My roommate claims that the best way to forfend a nasty cold is to chew garlic.

Did you know?
"Heaven forfend if you don't treat the restaurant critic well--she'll cost you points if she leaves unhappy," wrote Peter Cohen in an October 2005 issue of _Macworld_, using an old meaning of "forfend" in the process. English speakers have been using "forfend" with the meanings "to forbid" and "to prevent" since the late 14th century (and the meaning "to protect" since the late 16th century). These days, however, the "forbid" sense is considered archaic; we only use it, as Cohen did, in the phrase "heaven forfend," which harks back to the days of yore. "Forfend" comes from "for-" (an old prefix meaning "so as to involve prohibition, exclusion, omission, failure, neglect, or refusal") and Middle English "fenden" (a shorter variant of "defenden," meaning "to defend").

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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Wednesday, December 14, 2005

lagniappe : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 14 is:

lagniappe \LAN-yap\ noun
: a small gift given a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase; broadly : something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure

Example sentence:
The Garcia family's store always has the best holiday-themed lagniappes; this year with a $20 purchase you receive a hand-painted snowman figurine.

Did you know?
"We picked up one excellent word," wrote Mark Twain in _Life on the Mississippi_ (1883), "a word worth traveling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word -- 'lagniappe'.... It is Spanish -- so they said." Twain encapsulates the history of "lagniappe" quite nicely. English speakers learned the word from French-speaking Louisianians, but they in turn had adapted it from the American Spanish word "la napa." Twain went on to describe how New Orleanians completed shop transactions by saying "Give me something for lagniappe," to which the shopkeeper would respond with "a bit of liquorice-root, ... a cheap cigar or a spool of thread." It took a while for "lagniappe" to catch on throughout the country, but by the mid-20th century, New Yorkers and New Orleanians alike were familiar with this "excellent word."

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Tuesday, December 13, 2005

glogg: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 13 is:

glogg \GLUG\ noun
: a hot spiced wine and liquor punch served in Scandinavian countries as a Christmas drink

Example sentence:
"[The] Gallery will host a Christmas Cheer Weekend.... Johnson's latest barn print will be available, framed or unframed, as well as Swedish cookies and glogg." ([Dubuque] _Telegraph Herald_, December 9, 2004)

Did you know?
Glogg is a holiday favorite in many Scandinavian cultures, where it is commonly served on St. Lucia's Day (December 13) and all around Christmas time. Not surprisingly, the word "glogg" itself (sometimes written as glogg) is of Scandinavian origin; it comes from Swedish and derives from the verb "glodga," meaning "to burn" or "to mull." But although "glogg" may look like it should rhyme with that other notable holiday beverage -- "eggnog" -- the two aren't quite a perfect match. The "o" in "glogg" is pronounced like either the "u" in "nut," the "oo" in "foot," or the more foreign-sounding "oe" in "boeuf," the French word for "beef." "Nog," on the other hand, is generally pronounced with the "o" as in "mop" -- and thus it rhymes with "grog."

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Monday, December 12, 2005

chatoyant: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 12 is:

chatoyant \shuh-TOY-unt\ adjective
: having a changeable luster or color with an undulating narrow band of white light

Example sentence:
The chest was opened to reveal a veritable treasure of glittering gold jewelry and chatoyant gems.

Did you know?
The complex structure of a cat's eye not only enables it to see at night but also gives it the appearance of glowing in the dark. Not surprisingly, jewels that sport a healthy luster are often compared with the feline ocular organ, so much that the term "cat's-eye" is used to refer to those gems (such as chalcedony) that give off iridescence from within. If you've brushed up on your French lately, you might notice that the French word for "cat" ("chat") provides the first four letters of "chatoyant," a word used by jewelers to describe such lustrous gems. "Chatoyant" derives from the present participle of "chatoyer," a French verb that literally means "to shine like a cat's eyes."

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Sunday, December 11, 2005

nepotism: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 11 is:

nepotism \NEP-uh-tiz-um\ noun
: favoritism (as in appointment to a job) based on kinship

Example sentence:
Being the son of the CEO, Jamie knew he got his position as marketing director partly through nepotism, but he nevertheless felt confident that he had the know-how and imagination to improve sales.

Did you know?
During his papacy from 1471-1484, Sixtus IV granted many special favors to members of his own family, in particular his nephews. This practice of papal favoritism was carried on by his successors, and in 1667 it was the subject of Gregorio Leti's book _Il Nipotismo di Roma_ -- a history of the popes' nephews. (In Italian, "nepote" means "nephew.") Shortly after the book's appearance, "nepotism" began to be used in English for the showing of special favor or unfair preference to a relative by someone in any position of power, be it ecclesiastical or not.

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Saturday, December 10, 2005

nictitate : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 10 is:

nictitate \NIK-tuh-tayt\ verb
: to wink

Example sentence:
Some flecks of dust had fluttered into Myron's eye, causing him to nictitate uncontrollably.

Did you know?
"Nictitate" didn't just happen in the blink of an eye; it developed over time as an alteration of the older verb "nictate," which also means "to wink." Both verbs trace to the Latin word for winking, "nictare." The addition of the extra syllable was apparently influenced by Latin verbs ending in "-itare," such as "palpitare" and "agitare" (which gave us "palpitate" and "agitate," respectively). Today, "nictitate" has a special use in the animal world. Since the early 18th century, scientists have used "nictitating membrane" to describe the so-called "third eyelid": the thin, usually transparent membrane in the eyes of birds, fishes, and other vertebrates that helps keep the eyeball moist and clean.

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Friday, December 09, 2005

shilly-shally : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 9 :

shilly-shally \SHIL-ee-shal-ee\ adverb
: in an irresolute, undecided, or hesitating manner

Example sentence:
"Don't stand shilly-shally like a fool, Ned. Just make up your mind and marry the woman," advised Gretchen.

Did you know?
Shall I? Shall I? When you just don't know what to do, it may feel as if asking that question twice will somehow help you decide. The early 1600s saw the use of the phrase "stand shall I, shall I" to describe vacillation or indecision. By 1700, the phrase had been altered to "shill I, shall I," most likely because people just liked the vowel alteration (that's the same process that gave us "dillydally" and "wishy-washy"). Soon after, the form "shilly-shally" made the jump from slang to literature, and by the late 1700s it was being used not only as an adverb, but also as an adjective, a noun, and a verb.

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Thursday, December 08, 2005

challah : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 8 is:

challah \HAH-luh (the initial "H" is also frequently pronounced as a velar fricative)\ noun
: egg-rich yeast-leavened bread that is usually braided or twisted before baking and is traditionally eaten by Jews on the Sabbath and holidays

Example sentence:
Upon returning home for the winter break, Ari was delighted to smell freshly baked challah.

Did you know?
When English speakers first borrowed "challah" from Yiddish, they couldn't quite settle on a single spelling, so the word showed up in several forms; "challah," "challa,"
"calloth," "challot," "hallah," "halloth," and "hallot" were all common enough to merit inclusion in _Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged_. But only the variants "challah," "challa," and "hallah" continue to show up regularly enough to have found a place in smaller abridged dictionaries.

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Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Shangri-la : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 7 is:

Shangri-la \shang-grih-LAH\ noun
*1 : a remote beautiful imaginary place where life approaches perfection : utopia
2 : a remote usually idyllic hideaway

Example sentence:
From the air, the city rising out of the mist looked like a Shangri-la, but once on the ground we were besieged by the realities of life in the teeming third-world capital.

Did you know?
In James Hilton's 1933 novel _Lost Horizon_, Shangri-La was the name of a fictional land of peace and eternal youth in the mountains of Tibet. Hilton invented both the place and the name, but over the years people generalized the name and applied it to several real or imaginary locations. In 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced that a secret World War II bombing mission had taken off from "Shangri-la" (later revealed to be the aircraft carrier U.S.S. _Hornet_). That same year, FDR also used Shangri-la as the name for the new presidential retreat in rural Maryland -- a spot now better known as Camp David.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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Tuesday, December 06, 2005

homonymous: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 6 is:

homonymous \hoe-MAH-nuh-mus\ adjective
1 : ambiguous
*2 : having the same designation
3 : of, relating to, or being homonyms

Example sentence:
How many states, besides New York, have a homonymous city or town?

Did you know?
The "ambiguous" sense of "homonymous" refers mainly to words that have two or more meanings. In the 1600s, logicians and scientists who wanted to refer to (or complain about!) such equivocal words chose a name for them based on Latin and Greek, from Greek "hom-" ("same") and "onyma" ("name"). In time, English speakers came up with another sense of "homonymous," referring to two things having the same name (Hawaii, the state, and Hawaii, the island, for example). Next came the use of "homonymous" to refer to homonyms, such as "see" and "sea." There's also a zoological sense. Sheep and goats whose right horn spirals to the right and left horn spirals to the left are said to be "homonymous."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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Monday, December 05, 2005

occlusion: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 5 is:

occlusion \uh-KLOO-zhun\ noun
1 a : the complete obstruction of the breath passage in the articulation of a speech sound b : the bringing of the opposing surfaces of the teeth of the two jaws into contact; also : the relation between the surfaces when in contact c : the inclusion or sorption of gas trapped during solidification of a material
*2 : the front formed by a cold front overtaking a warm front and lifting the warm air above the earth's surface

Example sentence:
"Expect plenty of rain," warned the Midland Gliding Club Web site, "[from] a weakening occlusion ... close to northern Scotland."

Did you know?
"Occlusion" is a descendant of the Latin verb "occludere," meaning "to close up." "Occludere" in turn comes from the prefix "ob-," here meaning "in the way," and the verb "claudere," meaning "to close, shut." "Occlusion" is one of many English terms derived from "claudere." Some others are "recluse," "seclusion," and "exclude." An occlusion occurs when something has been closed up or blocked off. Almost all heart attacks are the result of the occlusion of a coronary (heart) artery by a blood clot. When a person's upper and lower teeth form a "malocclusion," they close incorrectly or badly. An occlusion, or "occluded" front, happens when a fast-moving cold front overtakes a slow-moving warm front and slides underneath it, lifting the warm air and blocking its movement.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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Sunday, December 04, 2005

belle epoque: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 4 is:

belle epoque \BEL-ay-POK\ noun
: a period of high artistic or cultural development; especially : such a period in France around the end of the 19th century

Example sentence:
Nob Hill remains a symbol of San Francisco's belle epoque, those golden days of the late 1890s when the city was awash in money, mansions, and elegance.

Did you know?
In the years before World War I, France experienced a period of economic growth that produced a wealth of artistic and cultural developments. That era has been described as excessive, glittering, gaudy, and extravagant, but the tumultuous days of war that followed it inspired the French to call that productive period "la belle epoque" -- literally, "the beautiful age." By the mid-1950s, the term "belle epoque" had found its way into English, where it came to be used to refer not only to the glory days of late 19th-century France, but to any similarly luxurious period. It is now used to more elegantly convey the sentiments of another nostalgic expression, "the good old days."

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Saturday, December 03, 2005

malversation: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 3 is:

malversation \mal-ver-SAY-shun\ noun
*1 : misbehavior and especially corruption in an office, trust, or commission
2 : corrupt administration

Example sentence:
The governor was finally convicted of malversation, after years of rumors about kickbacks and illegal contracts.

Did you know?
The form "mal-" is often a bad sign in a word, and "malversation" is no exception. In Middle French, "mal-" (meaning "bad," from the Latin word for "bad," "malus") teamed up with "verser" ("to turn, handle," from the Latin verb "vertere," "to turn ") to create "malverser," a verb meaning "to be corrupt." This in turn led to "malversation," which was adopted by English speakers in the mid-16th century. Some other "mal-" descendants are "maladroit" ("inept"), "malcontent" ("discontented"), and "maltreat" ("to treat badly").

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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Friday, December 02, 2005

bogus : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 2 is:

bogus \BOH-gus\ adjective
: not genuine : counterfeit, sham

Example sentence:
Kelly knew that the letter informing her that she was a grand prize winner was bogus, so she threw it in the trash right away.

Did you know?
Despite its recent slang connotations, "bogus" has actually been a part of the English language since the early 1800s. Not only was the word coined then, it was actually doing some coining of its own, so to speak. Back then, a "bogus" was a machine used to make counterfeit coins. No one knows for sure how this coin-copying contraption got its name, but before long "bogus" had also become a popular noun for funny money itself or for a fraudulent imitation of any kind. The more general "phony" adjective followed shortly thereafter. Perhaps due to the word's appearance in a number of quotable motion pictures, "bogus" earned momentary popularity among younger speakers as a term for expressing disapproval.

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Thursday, December 01, 2005

scumble: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 1 is:

scumble \SKUM-bul\ verb
1 a : to make (as color or a painting) less brilliant by covering with a thin coat of opaque or semiopaque color b : to apply (a color) in this manner
*2 : to soften the lines or colors of (a drawing) by rubbing lightly

Example sentence:
The painting's dreamy look was created by first drawing sharply defined figures and then scumbling them.

Did you know?
The history of "scumble" is blurry, but the word is thought to be related to the verb "scum," an obsolete form of "skim" (meaning "to pass lightly over"). Scumbling, as first perfected by artists such as Titian, involves passing dry, opaque coats of oil paint over a tinted background to create subtle tones and shadows. But although the painting technique dates to the 16th century, use of the word "scumble" is only known to have begun in the late 18th century. The more generalized "smudge" or "smear" sense appeared even later, in the mid-1800s.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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