A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Wed May 1 00:01:09 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--zaftig X-Bonus: And the day came when the risk to remain closed in a bud became more painful that the risk it took to blossom. -Elizabeth Appell, writer zaftig (ZAF-tik, -tig) adjective Full-figured, pleasingly plump, buxom. [From Yiddish zaftik (juicy), from Middle High German (saftec), from saft (juice), from Old High German saf (sap).] "The generational conflict is set off between the blossoming Ana (America Ferrera), a Mexican-American teenager who has a chance to attend Columbia University on a scholarship, and her mother, Carmen (Lupe Ontiveros), who is determined that Ana follow convention and go to work with her in a Los Angeles sweatshop. Carmen's blithe cruelty comes out of love; she's ashamed of her daughter's zaftig figure and whittles away at Ana before the entire world." Elvis Mitchell, Full Figured and Ready to Fight (film review: Real Women Have Curves), The New York Times, Mar 22, 2002. This week's theme: words borrowed from Yiddish. -------- Date: Thu May 2 00:01:05 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--kvetch X-Bonus: But man, proud man, / Dressed in a little brief authority, ... Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven / As make the angels weep. -William Shakespeare, poet and dramatist (1564-1616) kvetch (kvech) verb intr. To complain habitually, whine; gripe. noun 1. A chronic complainer. 2. A complaint. [From Yiddish kvetshn (squeeze, pinch, complain), from Middle High German quetschen (to squeeze).] "Perhaps one should emphasize here that he (V.S. Naipaul) has gone out of his way, from time to time and far beyond the call of duty, to burnish his reputation as a cantankerous curmudgeon - truly the Evelyn Waugh of our age, right down to his squirearchal residence in the west of England - or even as a bigoted old barroom kvetch. Not long ago Naipaul anathematized Tony Blair as a `pirate' at the head of `a socialist revolution' ..." Geoffrey Wheatcroft, A Terrifying Honesty, The Atlantic Monthly (Boston), Feb 2002. This week's theme: words borrowed from Yiddish. -------- Date: Fri May 3 00:01:06 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--schlep X-Bonus: One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832) schlep (shlep) also schlepp, shlep, shlepp verb tr. To drag or haul something. verb intr. To move clumsily or tediously. noun 1. A tedious journey. 2. Someone who is slow or awkward. [From Yiddish shlepn (to drag, pull) from Middle High German sleppen, from Middle Low German slepen.] "Ten years ago, in a hilarious short story called `The North London Book of the Dead', Will Self wrote about a grieving son who discovers with shock that his dead mother has merely moved to Crouch End, where she continues to bake chocolate-chip cookies, schlep around with bags from Barnes & Noble and telephone him at the office. Indeed, mum tells him, when people die they all move to less fashionable parts of London, where they keep on doing pretty much what they were doing when they were alive." Elaine Showalter, Posthumous Parenting, The Guardian (London), Jun 17, 2000. This week's theme: words borrowed from Yiddish. -------- Date: Mon May 6 00:01:05 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--estoppel X-Bonus: A poem is never finished, only abandoned. -Paul Valery, poet and philosopher (1871-1945) estoppel (e-STOP-el) noun A bar preventing one from asserting a claim inconsistent with what was previously stated, especially when it has been relied upon by others. [From Old French estoupail (bung, cork) from estouper (stopper).] "That makes the case for DeWitt being granted citizenship now even stronger because of the legal principle of estoppel which, Miller explains, says `once you've set out certain positions that other people have relied on over a period of time, you can't reverse those positions to their detriment.'" Nancy Montgomery, Citizen Finds He Isn't One - 59-Year-Old Ex-marine is Victim of 1855 Law That Calls Him an Alien, The Seattle Times, Sep 14, 1991. "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." While there is truth in these words of Plato, the fact is most of us fall somewhere between good and bad. And for people in that spectrum, laws serve as good deterrents. Like any other profession, the world of law has its own lingo. Even though it may appear that these legal terms are designed to keep laypersons in the dark so that the lawyers can charge hefty fees, there is a need for them. In a field where a single word can make a world of difference, a succinct, and more importantly, unambiguous vocabulary is essential. May you never have to see a lawyer (or a barrister, an advocate, or whatever they are called in your land), but it's good to know some of the legal jargon. This week we summons five of these terms to AWAD. -Anu -------- Date: Tue May 7 00:01:09 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--laches X-Bonus: A free society is a place where it's safe to be unpopular. -Adlai Stevenson, statesman (1900-1965) laches (LACH-iz) noun Negligence in the performance of a duty or claiming an opportunity, especially the failure to assert a legal claim in time, that makes it invalid. [From Middle English lachesse, from Anglo French, from Middle French laschesse, from Old French lasche (slack), ultimately from Latin laxare (to loosen).] When you admire the "lush" decor of an apartment, sign a "lease", simply "relax", or use a "laxative", you are employing the same hard-working Latin root "laxare". -Anu "One court has ruled that where the board waited six months in filing suit against an unauthorized fence that this gave the owner of that fence the defense of laches - and thus the board could not enforce the covenants under those circumstances." Benny L. Kass, Drawing a Line Between Condo Design Changes and Tyranny, The Los Angeles Times, Nov 25, 1990. This week's theme: terms from the world of law. -------- Date: Wed May 8 00:01:09 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--solatium X-Bonus: A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience. -Doug Larson solatium (so-LAY-shee-um) noun Compensation for emotional suffering, injured feeling, inconvenience, grief, etc. (as opposed to physical injury, financial loss, for example). [From Latin solatium, variant of solacium (to comfort), from solari (to console).] When a court awards a solatium to a victim, it is literally consoling him, or providing a solace. Both console and solace share the same root as solatium. -Anu "The ungrateful parent had therefore not only to pay the bill for attendance, but 50 francs in addition as a solatium to the wounded professional feelings of the lady doctor." A Lady Doctor's Double Victory, British Medical Journal (London), Nov 11, 2000. "The Tokyo District Court on July 31 ordered Kato to pay $10,000 in solatium to the former president of his supporters' organization for defaming him in Diet testimony." Ako Washio, Nishioka Says He Will Use New Post to Promote Unity, The Japan Times (Tokyo), Aug 19-25, 1996. This week's theme: terms from the world of law. -------- Date: Thu May 9 00:01:09 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sui juris X-Bonus: Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company. -George Gordon Byron, poet (1788-1824) sui juris (SOO-eye joor-is, SOO-ee) adjective Legally competent to manage one's affairs or assume responsibility. [From Latin sui juris, from sui (of one's own) juris (right).] The opposite of sui juris is alieni juris (Latin for "of another's right"), one under control of another, either from being below legal age, or because of mental incapacity, an insane person. -Anu "The people or persons who may be entitled to, or claim some share or interest in, the subject matter of the suit are not finite in number. They include any individual who is sui juris and who might be interested." Fred M'membe, The Supreme Court Has Decided, Post of Zambia (Lusaka), January 23, 1998. This week's theme: terms from the world of law. -------- Date: Fri May 10 01:01:14 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mittimus X-Bonus: 'I am ashamed of my emptiness,'/ said the Word to the Work. / 'I know how poor I am when I see you,' said the Work to the Word. -Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941) mittimus (MIT-uh-muhs) noun An official order to commit someone to prison. [From Latin, literally "we send" from mittere (to send).] Here are some cousins of today's word mittimus: admit, commit, emit, dismiss, missile, mission, missive, promise. Who would have thought these disparate words might have anything in common! They all involve the idea of sending and they share the common parentage: Latin mittere. -Anu "The clerk who wrote this mittimus screwed up. ... The mittimus turned out to be a get-out-of-jail-free card. Instead of being locked up, Callahan was sent for treatment at the Alternative Correction Center in Braintree, then sent home with an electronic bracelet." Beverly Beckham, Justice Delayed And Denied, The Boston Herald, Dec 4, 1998. This week's theme: terms from the world of law. -------- Date: Mon May 13 00:01:10 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--doolally X-Bonus: The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. -Carl Gustav Jung, psychiatrist and psychologist (1875-1961) doolally (DU-lah-lee) adjective Irrational, deranged, or insane. [After Deolali, an Indian town.] "As aid dwindled, Mr Mugabe made no effort to spend within his means. From 1997, public finances went doolally. The main result was graft." Hell, No, I Won't Go, The Economist (London), Feb 21, 2002. Deolali is a small town in western India, about 100 miles from Mumbai (formerly Bombay) with an unusual claim to fame. It's where British soldiers who had completed their tour of duty were sent to await transportation home. It was a long wait - often many months - before they were to be picked up by ships to take them to England. Consequent boredom, and heat, turned many a soldier insane, and the word doolally was coined. At first the term was used in the form "He's got the Doo-lally tap", from Sanskrit tapa (heat) meaning one has caught doolally fever but now it's mostly seen as in "to go doolally". In Australia, it goes as "don't do your lolly". In this week's AWAD we'll visit a few other places that have given toponyms (words derived from place names) to the English Language. -Anu -------- Date: Tue May 14 00:01:10 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--siberia X-Bonus: The decent moderation of today will be the least of human things tomorrow. At the time of the Spanish Inquisition, the opinion of good sense and of the good medium was certainly that people ought not to burn too large a number of heretics; extreme and unreasonable opinion obviously demanded that they should burn none at all. -Maurice Maeterlinck, poet, dramatist, and Nobel laureate (1862-1949) Siberia (sy-BEER-ee-uh) noun An undesirable or isolated location assigned to those who have fallen out of favor or being disciplined. [After Siberia, a vast region of Russia in Northern Asia, used as a place of exile by Russia under the tsars and by the USSR.] "He (Robert Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.) found himself moving into the paper's op-ed Siberia, appearing less frequently and on varying days of the week. By the end of the year he was rarely appearing at all." Byron York, The Life And Death of The American Spectator, The Atlantic Monthly (Boston), Nov 2001. This week's theme: toponyms or words derived from place names. -------- Date: Wed May 15 00:01:10 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--lido X-Bonus: Kindness makes a fellow feel good whether it's being done to him or by him. -Frank A. Clark lido (LEE-do) noun A fashionable beach resort or a public open-air swimming pool. [From Lido, an island reef in northeastern Italy, between the Lagoon of Venice and the Adriatic Sea, site of a famous beach resort.] "Within seconds, a half-dozen over-eager denizens of Cartagena's lido were on us like flies, offering food and drink, massages, hair-braiding, necklaces." Frank Bajak, Cartagena Struggles to Recover Lost Tourists, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov 22, 1998. This week's theme: toponyms or words derived from place names. -------- Date: Thu May 16 00:01:10 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Rosetta stone X-Bonus: The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out. -Thomas Babington Macaulay, author and statesman (1800-1859) Rosetta stone (ro-ZET-uh stohn) noun A clue or key that helps in understanding of a previously insolvable puzzle. [After Rosetta stone, a granite stone tablet (painted black) found in 1799 near Rosetta in northern Egypt in the Nile river delta. The tablet, now held in the British Museum, has the same message written in two languages (Egyptian and Greek) using three different scripts (hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek). Discovery of this tablet, dating from 196 BCE, made possible the interpretation of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.] You can see a picture of the Rosetta stone at: http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/ixbin/goto?id=OBJ67 "What, I asked, might be an emblematic new policy, something to symbolise their purpose, just as council house sales were Mrs Thatcher's Rosetta stone in 1979?" Polly Toynbee, Tory Heads on the Block, The Guardian (London), Oct 1, 1999. This week's theme: toponyms or words derived from place names. -------- Date: Fri May 17 00:01:14 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--pharos X-Bonus: A man's conscience, like a warning line on the highway, tells him what he shouldn't do - but it does not keep him from doing it. -Frank A. Clark pharos (FAR-os) noun A lighthouse. [After Pharos, a peninsula in Northern Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea, site of an ancient lighthouse built by Ptolemy, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.] "When at length the boat crunched upon the sandy shore he got up unsteadily from the stern and pointed to the pharos that flamed in the heavens." Lee Foster Hartman, The Judgment of Vulcan, 1920. This week's theme: toponyms or words derived from place names. -------- Date: Mon May 20 00:01:11 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--eagre X-Bonus: What you are thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882) eagre (EE-guhr) noun A high tidal wave rushing upstream into an estuary. Also known as a tidal bore. [Of obscure origin.] "A few jet-skiers attempted to jump over the high waves while paddlers in longboats tried to outrace the onrushing eagres." Batang Lupar Challenges Visitors to Tame Its Bores, New Straits Times-Management Times (Malaysia), May 8, 2001. "They wandered with a sense of travel, to see the rushing spring-tide, the awful Eagre, come up like a hungry monster ..." George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, 1860. All I really needed to know about languages, I learned from Scrabble -- a W is worth ten points in French Scrabble. Guess there aren't very many French words with a W in them. Then there's the Polish version, where Z is worth a single point. Wonder why... In German Scrabble, the rules once required players to pick up eight tiles instead of the usual seven. Which language has the longest words on average? Back to English Scrabble. There are many ways to improve one's score, from learning two-letter words such as "aa", to memorizing the number of tiles for each letter of the alphabet. Here's a little trick you may want to try some time: play words that appear to be misspellings of popular words. This week's AWAD features words that appear to be everyday words incorrectly spelled. Think you can put them to good use in a game of Scrabble? Here's a parting quiz: what number, when spelled out, has a Scrabble score equal to that number? -Anu -------- Date: Tue May 21 00:01:09 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--imprest X-Bonus: The zoo is a prison for animals who have been sentenced without trial and I feel guilty because I do nothing about it. I wanted to see an oyster-catcher, so I was no better than the people who caged the oyster-catcher for me to see. -Russell Hoban, author (1925- ) imprest (IM-prest) noun An advance of money, especially one made to carry out some business for a government. Also, archaic past tense and past participle of impress. [From obsolete imprest (to lend), from Italian imprestare.] "Golden's office spent far more, writing $75,842 in imprest fund checks." Kevin McCoy, For Beeps, the Gravy Still Flows, Newsday (New York), Aug 5, 1991. "But soon Reflection's power imprest A stiller sadness on my breast; And sickly hope with waning eye Was well content to droop and die: I yielded to the stern decree, Yet heaved a languid Sigh for thee!" The Sigh, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). This week's theme: words that appear misspelling of everyday words. -------- Date: Wed May 22 00:01:09 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--endue X-Bonus: What is art? Nature concentrated. -Honore de Balzac, novelist (1799-1850) endue (en-DOO, -DYOO) verb tr., also indue 1. To invest, bestow, or endow with a gift, quality, trait, or power. 2. To put on (an item of clothing). [From Middle English enduen (to draw on), from Old French enduire (to lead in), from Latin inducere (to put on).] What is one thing you'd do if you induce, douche, produce, subdue, seduce, reduce, or endue? You'll be leading on to something. The common link here is the Latin root ducere (to lead). And what do a noble duke and a lowly duct have in common. The same -- they lead. -Anu "It's impossible to believe the style wasn't meant to serve as a serene respite from a messy world, to endue the owner with the same calmness and clearness of mind that its surfaces reflect." Rachel Brown, House of Denmark Makes a Home in Okemos, Greater Lansing Business Monthly (Michigan), Sep 01, 1995. "If thou art beautiful, and youth And thought endue thee with all truth -- Be strong; -- be worthy of the grace." The White Doe of Rylstone: Canto 2, William Wordsworth (1770-1850) This week's theme: words that appear misspelling of everyday words. -------- Date: Thu May 23 00:01:07 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--biennial X-Bonus: The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things. -Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE) biennial (bi-EN-ee-uhl) adjective 1. Happening every two years. 2. Lasting two years. 3. Taking two years to complete its life cycle. noun 1. An event occurring once in two years. 2. A plant that takes two years to complete its life cycle, such as beet and carrot. [From biennium (a two-year period), from Latin bi- (two) + annus (year).] "Qatar is known nowadays chiefly as home of al-Jazeera, Osama bin Laden's favourite television station. But next weekend the Gulf state will host hundreds of trade ministers and officials at the biennial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)." A Deal at Doha?, The Economist (London), Nov 3, 2001. This week's theme: words that appear misspelling of everyday words. -------- Date: Fri May 24 00:01:06 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--quacksalver X-Bonus: Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it. -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592) quacksalver (KWAK-sal-vuhr) noun A quack. [From obsolete Dutch (now kwakzalver), from quack (boast) + salve (ointment).] Did the quacksalver hawk their concoctions of quicksilver (mercury) as a panacea to earn the name quacksalver? While the connection with quicksilver is enticing, it's their duck-like behavior while peddling the snake oil that gave us this colorful synonym for a charlatan. Imagine someone mounted on a bench, holding vials of solutions in assorted colors while claiming to cure everything from chronic backpain to pyorrhea to migraine, and you'd have a good idea of a quacksalver. In fact, this image is the source of another term for these cure-alls: mountebank. It comes to us from Italian montimbanco, from montare (to climb) and banco (bench). In modern times, these hucksters have adapted to use technology. Today our mailbox might be filled with email messages quacking about the efficacy of nostrums for weight-loss, enlarging certain body-parts, improving memory, and curing anything else that ails humankind. -Anu "So any quacksalver with a computer and a copy machine can turn his vegetable stand into a multibillion-zloty chain train of grocery stores." Malcolm Berko, Don't Waste Your Money in Unregulated Markets, San Diego Business Journal, Jun 19, 1997. This week's theme: words that appear misspelling of everyday words. -------- Date: Mon May 27 01:35:05 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--alembic X-Bonus: We would often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood all the motives which produced them. -Duc de La Rochefoucauld, writer (1613-1680) alembic (uh-LEM-bik) noun 1. An apparatus formerly used in distilling substances. 2. Something that refines, purifies, or transforms. [From Middle English alambic, from Old French, from Medieval Latin alembicus, from Arabic al-anbiq, from al (the) + anbiq (still), from Greek ambix (cup).] "Melville transforms the shaggy minutiae of life and its myriad characters (whether Hawthorne, Malcolm, a besieged wife or a shipmate) into an alembic of wishes, conflicts and disappointments that, taken together, reflect him, a mysterious, roiling, poignant writer alive, painfully alive, in every phrase he wrote." Brenda Wineapple, Melville at Sea, The Nation (New York), May 20, 2002. What do a magazine and an albatross have in common with algebra and lute? They all come to us from Arabic. As in other Semitic languages, Arabic words are based on three-consonant roots. This three-letter structure provides the general concept, and vowels impart specific meaning. For example, the triplet k-t-b refers to writing. With the addition of vowels it can morph into kitab (book), katib (writer, clerk), kutub (books), kataba (he wrote), etc. Along the same lines, there is the consonant cluster s-l-m that shows up in words indicating ideas of submission, peace, etc. Some of the words employing this triplet are Islam (surrender to God's will), Muslim (one who submits), salaam (peace), etc. Whatever God we follow, may we all know that no God would condone hurting others. This week's AWAD looks at more words from Arabic. Salaam! -Anu -------- Date: Tue May 28 00:01:07 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--nadir X-Bonus: Coincidences are spiritual puns. -G.K. Chesterton, essayist and novelist (1874-1936) nadir (NAY-duhr, NAY-deer) noun 1. The point on the celestial sphere directly below the observer, opposite the zenith. 2. The lowest point. [From Middle English, from Middle French, from Arabic nazir (opposite).] "From its nadir in 1988 - two years after the Tax Reform Act removed many incentives for investing and ushered in an era of downsizing, mergers and loss of industrial leadership to Japan, America has shaken off its malaise and come storming back." Nicholas Valery, Innovation in Industry: Something in the Air, The Economist (London) Feb 20, 1999. This week's theme: words having origins in Arabic. -------- Date: Wed May 29 00:01:07 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--jihad X-Bonus: Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence. -Hal Borland, journalist (1900-1978) jihad (ji-HAHD) noun 1. A holy war by Muslims against those believed hostile to Islam. 2. Any campaign for an idea or belief. [From Arabic jihad (struggle).] Another word that shares the same root as today's word is mujahed (guerrilla fighter), mujahedin is the plural form. "Whether this will appease the Euro-sceptics, who see the beef war as the start of a jihad to rescue British sovereignty from Brussels, is doubtful, especially since the likely Florence framework will not include a firm timetable or be legally binding." John Palmer and Michael White, Ultimatum to Major in Beef War, The Guardian (London), Jun 18, 1996. This week's theme: words having origins in Arabic. -------- Date: Thu May 30 00:01:08 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--houri X-Bonus: Liberty is given by nature even to mute animals. -Publius Cornelius Tacitus, historian (55-117) houri (HOOR-ee) noun 1. One of the beautiful virgins provided for faithful Muslims in the Koranic paradise. 2. A voluptuously attractive young woman. [From French, from Persian huri, from Arabic huri, plural of haura (dark-eyed woman).] "Corn and kitsch mesh seamlessly with art and virtuosity. Suspended from a swinging chandelier, a voluptuous houri, trailing clouds of veils, undulates to the music of the Ave Maria -- with a disco tom-tom backbeat." Howard G. Ghua-Eoan, The Moscow Circus Returns, Time (New York), Sep 19, 1988. This week's theme: words having origins in Arabic. -------- Date: Fri May 31 00:01:07 EDT 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--talisman X-Bonus: I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood. -Clarence Darrow, lawyer and author (1857-1938) talisman (TAL-is-man, -iz-) noun 1. An object, such as a stone, believed to have occult powers to keep evil away and bring good fortune to its wearer. 2. Anything that has magical powers and brings miraculous effects. [From French or Spanish, from Arabic tilasm, from Greek telesma (consecration) from telein (to consecrate or complete) from telos, result.] "Drivers clutching this (AAA) card as a talisman against automotive calamity should know that, in doing so, they lend support to an agenda in favor of road building, against pollution control and even auto-safety measures - that helps deepen the automotive calamity afflicting the nation as a whole." Ken Silverstein, Smitten With a Club, Harper's Magazine (New York), May 2002. This week's theme: words having origins in Arabic.