A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Sat Aug 1 00:33:39 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--superfluous X-Bonus: Conscience is what hurts when everything else feels good. superfluous (soo-PUR-floo-uhs) adjective Being beyond what is required or sufficient. [Middle English, from Old French superflueux, from Latin superfluus, from superfluere, to overflow : super-, super- + fluere, to flow.] "...Alias Grace is so vivid and pungent that it renders explication superfluous. Like the greatest nineteenth-century novels, it is a realization of a living and utterly credible world. " Auerbach, Nina, The housemaid's tale, Women's Review of Books, 1 Apr 1997. This week's theme: To need or not to need. -------- Date: Sun Aug 2 00:07:39 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--extrinsic X-Bonus: Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: You find the present tense and the past perfect. extrinsic (ik-STRIN-sik, -zik) adjective 1. Not forming an essential or inherent part of a thing; extraneous. 2. Originating from the outside; external. [Latin extrinsecus, from outside : exter, outside + -im, adv. suff. + secus, alongside.] "Martial arts movies to the contrary, hands and feet are not deadly weapons that automatically increase the punishment for assault, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday. The crime of assault with a deadly weapon requires use of `an object extrinsic to the body,' the court said in a unanimous decision." Some Assaults Eliminated as `Strikes', Los Angeles Times, 18 Nov 1997. This week's theme: To need or not to need. -------- Date: Mon Aug 3 00:07:45 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--schadenfreude X-Bonus: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. -Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) schadenfreude (SHAAD-n-froiduh) noun Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. [German : Schaden, damage (from Middle High German schade, from Old High German scado) + Freude, joy, from Middle High German vreude, from Old High German frewida, from fro, happy.] "That accounts for the schadenfreude that many felt when Microsoft, somewhat humbled, gave in and licensed Java from Sun after completely miscalculating the potential of the Internet." Steven Titch, Editorial Director, Why we love Java, Telephony, 25 Mar 1996. It takes all kinds to make the world, and that is reflected in this week's selection of words. There are long words and short, nouns and verbs, words borrowed from many languages, and words straightforward and outrageous. On another note, beginning today the hyperlinks to the audio clips for the words' pronunciation will be included at the end of AWAD postings. If your mailreader permits, you may be able to click on the link and listen to the pronunciation. If not, you can access the pronunciation clips from https://wordsmith.org/words/today.html using your Web browser. The audio clips are available in WAV and RealAudio formats. RealAudio player for most platforms is available for free download from RealNetworks: http://real.com Please contact support folks at your place if you have any difficulty in getting the pronunciation feature to work for you. We are unable to help diagnose individual situations. The pronunciation clips are recorded in the mellifluous voice of Stuti Garg (stutiATwordsmith.org). -Anu -------- Date: Tue Aug 4 00:07:42 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ormolu X-Bonus: There are two possible outcomes: If the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery. -Enrico Fermi, physicist and Nobel laureate (1901-1954) ormolu (OWR-muh-loo) noun 1. Any of several copper and zinc or tin alloys resembling gold in appearance and used to ornament furniture, moldings, architectural details, and jewelry. 2. An imitation of gold. [French or moulu : or, gold (from Old French) + obsolete French molu, past participle of moudre, to grind up, from Old French, from Latin molere.] "For her odds and ends, the coachbuilders had thoughtfully provided bow-fronted cabinets, their fittings in ormolu." David Taylor, Motoring: A la mode, with throne and gems Rear View, The Daily Telegraph, 3 Jan 1998. This week's theme: words of all kinds. -------- Date: Wed Aug 5 00:27:46 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--panspermia X-Bonus: Most people reach the top of the ladder of success only to find it is leaning against the wrong wall. panspermia (pan-SPUR-mee-uh) noun The theory that microorganisms or biochemical compounds from outer space are responsible for originating life on Earth and possibly in other parts of the universe where suitable atmospheric conditions exist. [Greek, mixture of all seeds : pan-, pan- + sperma, seed.] "There is something to the panspermia theory, however. Even scientists who reject it acknowledge that some of life's building blocks probably had extraterrestrial origins. Indeed,they now believe that everything from organic chemicals to aminoacids, the constituents of proteins, was carried in by the comets, asteroids and meteorites." Deleine Nash, Space: Was the Cosmos Seeded With Life?, Time, 19 Aug 1996. This week's theme: words of all kinds. (Last week's word "superfluous" had incorrect emphasis. It should have been soo-PUR-floo-uhs. Thanks to everyone who wrote. -Anu) -------- Date: Thu Aug 6 00:08:27 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--labret X-Bonus: There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line. -Oscar Levant labret (LAY-brit) noun An ornament inserted into a perforation in the lip. [Latin labrum, lip. + -ET.] "Metal Morphosis is a body piercing shop in Soho. Any bit of your body, they'll stick a needle through and attach a surgical stainless steel ring to it. Sitting in the waiting room studying their price list, I feel like a bit of a weedy girlie. There, in ever-so-factual black and white, are all the places people commonly choose for spiking: nostril pounds 35; septum pounds 30; eyebrow pounds 25; labret pounds 35..." Serena Mackesy, In my week., Independent, 12-28-1996, pp 23. This week's theme: words of all kinds. -------- Date: Fri Aug 7 00:08:45 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--muliebrity X-Bonus: There is no course of life so weak and sottish as that which is managed by order, method, and discipline. -Montaigne muliebrity (myoo-lee-EB-ri-tee) noun 1. The state of being a woman. 2. Femininity. [Latin muliebritas, state of womanhood (as against maidenhood), from muliebris, womanly, from mulier, woman.] "Even more than shunning make-up, women felt that (in the U.S. at least) hair on our legs, under our arms, and on our face indisputably affronts the narrow boundaries of patriarchally-constructed muliebrity. Only one of us could recall an instance in which the mainstream media has featured a woman with body hair (Susan Sarandon in White Palace). Not shaving can be a way of `outing' oneself oppositionally to the patriarchy, an unambiguous act of noncompliance with Barbie doll-ism." Exploration of Issues-Women's Bodies, Contemporary Women's Issues Database, 1 Jan 1992. This week's theme: words of all kinds. -------- Date: Sat Aug 8 00:08:29 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--discombobulate X-Bonus: It's all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps. -Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) discombobulate (dis-kuhm-BOB-yuh-layt) tr.verb To throw into a state of confusion. [Perhaps alteration of discompose.] "Winners of the worst-latecomers award are the subscribers to the New York City Ballet at the New York State Theater. This particular theater was designed without aisles interrupting the curve of each row. While this may be aesthetically pleasing, it allows any tardy arrival with a center seat to discombobulate the entire orchestra section." Wasserstein, Wendy, The boor of the grease paint. (behavior of audiences), Town & Country Monthly, 1 Mar 1997. This week's theme: words of all kinds. -------- Date: Sun Aug 9 00:08:34 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--micturate X-Bonus: As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill. -Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968) micturate (MIK-chuh-rayt, MIK-tuh-) intr.verb To urinate. [From Latin micturire, to want to urinate, desiderative of meiere, to urinate.] "Grodjinovsky isn't talking about leisurely strolls behind your dog while it sniffs at every bush and micturates." Jeff Green, Reading from Right to Left, Jerusalem Post, 10 Oct 1996. This week's theme: words of all kinds. -------- Date: Mon Aug 10 00:11:56 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--opuscule X-Bonus: Cleanliness is next to clean-limbed, in the dictionary. opuscule (o-PUS-kyool) noun A small, minor work. [Latin opusculum, diminutive of opus, work.] "The second part of Stillman's dissertation treated the small opuscule of a Mr. Henry Dark who, while living in England before emigrating to Boston, was presumed to have been John Milton's secretary." Brault, Pascale-Anne, Translating the impossible debt: Paul Auster's `City of Glass.' Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 22 Mar 1998. This week's theme (continued from the previous week): words of all kinds. -------- Date: Tue Aug 11 00:08:59 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--phantasmagoria X-Bonus: Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. -Anne Morrow Lindbergh phantasmagoria (fan-tazmuh-GOR-ee-uh) also phantasmagory (fan-TAZ-muh-gor-ee) 1. A fantastic sequence of haphazardly associative imagery, as seen in dreams or fever. A constantly changing scene composed of numerous elements. 2. Fantastic imagery as represented in art. [Alteration of obsolete French phantasmagorie, art of creating supernatural illusions :, perhaps fantasme, illusion (from Old French. phantasm + allegorie, allegory, allegorical visual representation (from Old French, allegory (from Latin allegoria.))).] "Seen from the sea floor, a bed of kelp is a living, ever moving phantasmagoria of filtered light and muted colour." Koppel, Tom, Forests of the sea. (kelp), Canadian Geographic, 13 Mar 1997. This week's theme: words of all kinds. -------- Date: Wed Aug 12 00:08:43 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--coprolite X-Bonus: Journalism is merely history's first draft. -Geoffrey C. Ward coprolite (KOWP-ruh-lyte) noun Fossilized excrement. "In most cases, foraging cultures ate the `perfect' human diet. We know this because of the findings reported by anthropologists who have spent a career examining human coprolites." Vaughn M. Bryant, Jr., Eating Right Is an Ancient Rite, The World & I, 1 Jan 1995. This week's theme: words of all kinds. -------- Date: Thu Aug 13 00:08:42 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--grig X-Bonus: No one is much pleased with a companion who does not increase, in some respect, their fondness for themselves. -Samuel Johnson grig (grig) noun A lively, bright person. [Middle English, dwarf.] "I walked into my local branch of Boots the Chemists as merry as a grig, with a twinkle in my eye and an annoying whistle on my lips." The Weasel: Just as V Sackville-West was renowned for her white, Independent, 8 Jun 1996. This week's theme: words of all kinds. -------- Date: Fri Aug 14 00:08:33 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--fugacious X-Bonus: The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. -Alvin Toffler fugacious (fyoo-GAY-shuhs) adjective 1. Passing away quickly; evanescent. 2. Botany. Withering or dropping off early. [From Latin fugax, fugac-, from fugere, to flee.] "The flowers are fugacious, lasting only one day and succeeded by others." Charles R. Ebel, Tigerflower,, Colliers Encyclopedia CD-ROM, 28 Feb 1996. This week's theme: words of all kinds. -------- Date: Sat Aug 15 00:08:41 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--tyro X-Bonus: There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man's own observation what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of is the best physic to preserve health. -Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626) tyro also tiro (TIE-roe) noun A beginner in learning something. [Medieval Latin tyro, squire, variant of Latin tiro, recruit.] "The tyro did not have to wait long. A fellow reporter, a more-seasoned veteran, arrived at work. The young man out of college asked the reporter whether he had read Tsvyon's column." The Down-Home Voice of the `Proletarishker Maggid': How Abraham Cahan, Forward, 16 May 1997. This week's theme: words of all kinds. -------- Date: Sun Aug 16 00:08:31 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--tocsin X-Bonus: You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down. -Mary Pickford tocsin (TOK-sin) noun 1. An alarm sounded on a bell. A bell used to sound an alarm. 2. A warning; an omen. [French, alteration of toquassen, from Old French touque-sain, from Old Provencal tocasenh : tocar, to strike (from Vulgar Latin *toccare) + senh, bell, from Late Latin signum, from Latin, signal.] George J. Church, Raising the Ante In nearly doubling the number of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, Time, 19 Nov 1990. "Almost up to Election Day, Bush had been talking war and peace in such quick alternation, sometimes in the same speech, that allies and the American public alike were bewildered. One can only guess at the effect on Saddam. Bush announced that he had `had it' with Iraq's treatment of American diplomats in Kuwait, but later added, `I'm not trying to sound the tocsin of war.'" This week's theme: words of all kinds. -------- Date: Mon Aug 17 01:21:49 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--boycott X-Bonus: The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust boycott (BOI-kot) tr.verb 1. To act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion. 2. To abstain from or unite with others in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with. boycott noun The act or an instance of boycotting. [After Charles C. Boycott (1832-1897), English land agent in Ireland.] Shapiro, Bill; Bielski, Vince, To boycott or not? (selected beverage and food boycott update), Mother Jones, 1 Mar 1994. "The boycott began in 1977, when the marketing of Nestle's infant formula was linked to disease and death in Third World babies. In 1984 Nestle agreed not to distribute free samples in hospitals and to attach hazard warnings on formula labels. But in some countries, says UNICEF, Nestle hasn't lived up to the agreement." The boycotting of Captain Boycott was perhaps one of the most successful boycotts of all time. Charles C. Boycott was an estate agent in Ireland whose rigorous enforcement of pay-high-rents-or-get-out policy of his boss earned him the wrath of the tenants. They banded together and soon Boycott found himself completely isolated. Stores declined to sell to him, mailman refused to deliver his letters, and no one wanted to work in his farms. If it could be a consolation for this ostracized man, he soon found his name not only in the English dictionaries but also in the lexicons of many other languages. This week we look at some more people and places that became words. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Aug 18 00:05:15 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--shangri-la X-Bonus: Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling. -Margaret Lee Runbeck Shangri-la (shang-gri-LAH) noun 1. An imaginary, remote paradise on earth; utopia. 2. A distant and secluded hideaway, usually of great beauty and peacefulness. [After Shangri-La, the imaginary land in the novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton.] Howe, Steve; Morris, Michele, A blooming good time. (backpacking trip in the Collegiate Peaks of Colorado to view wildflowers), Backpacker, 1 May 1996. "Far out on the western horizon, the Elk Range of our teen misadventures hovers, tugging with nostalgic yearnings of youth and paradise lost, a sawtoothed Shangri-la of maroon sandstone, gray granite, and gleaming white snowfields." This week's theme: people and places that became words. -------- Date: Wed Aug 19 00:04:36 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bluestocking X-Bonus: Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world. -Hans Margolius bluestocking (BLOO-stok-ing) noun A woman with strong scholarly or literary interests. [After the Blue Stocking Society, a nickname for a predominantly female literary club of 18th-century London.] "Christy enjoys discussing her essay crises since, unusually among her sorority, she is a born-again bluestocking. Three years ago, she gave up catwalk modelling for good ... and signed up for a liberal arts degree at New York University." Lydia Slater, Christy - student and supermodel So why did a millionaire fashion icon give up the catwalk and go back to school? Christy Turlington reveals all to Ly, The Daily Telegraph, 23 Jan 1998. This week's theme: people and places that became words. -------- Date: Thu Aug 20 00:04:30 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ritzy X-Bonus: The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul. -Ralph Waldo Emerson ritzy (RIT-see) adjective Elegant; fancy. [After the Ritz hotels established by Cesar Ritz (1850-1918), Swiss hotelier.] "Besides, bands with strong, ritzy flavors always get extra points from me. Having said that, I have to add that ska has lost a little grace each time it's come back." Milo Miles, Terry Gross, Ska Revival, Fresh Air (NPR), 5 Jan 1998. This week's theme: people and places that became words. -------- Date: Fri Aug 21 00:04:30 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--leotard X-Bonus: To live is so startling, it leave little time for anything else. -Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) leotard (LEE-uh-tahrd) noun 1. A snugly fitting, stretchable one-piece garment with or without sleeves that covers the torso, worn especially by dancers, gymnasts, acrobats, and those engaging in exercise workouts. 2. leotards. Tights. [After Jules Leotard (1830-1870), French aerialist.] "Quite unlike those clubs whose ads feature svelte women in leotards seductively inviting the viewer to join her at the chest press machine, my club is a place where women of all shapes, sizes and abilities can pursue goals of fitness and good health without being impeded or intimidated by the presence of the testosterone factor. Until, that is, one man decided that this gym should be his gym, too. The women-only status of the Massachusetts Healthworks chain came under fire when James Foster, a 51-year-old lawyer from Boston, filed a suit charging the club with illegal gender-based discrimination." Lazarus, Ginger B, The Case for Women-Only Fitness Centers, Contemporary Women's Issues Database, 1 Dec 1997. This week's theme: people and places that became words. -------- Date: Sat Aug 22 00:04:44 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--jodhpurs X-Bonus: What is done well is done quickly enough. -Augustus Caesar jodhpurs (JOd-puhrz) noun Wide-hipped riding pants of heavy cloth, fitting tightly from knee to ankle. [After Jodhpur, a city of western India southwest of Delhi, center of a former principality founded in the 13th century,] "One thing is certain. Once he packs up his souperman cape and jockey jodhpurs, stories about David Johnson will be traded for years to come." Linda Grant, Kimberly Seals McDonald: Stirring it up at Campbell, Fortune, 13 May 1996. This week's theme: people and places that became words. -------- Date: Sun Aug 23 00:04:30 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--limerick X-Bonus: A shy failure is nobler than an immodest success. -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam] lim-er-ick (LIM-uhr-ik) noun A light humorous, nonsensical, or bawdy verse of five anapestic lines usually with the rhyme scheme aabba. [After Limerick, a borough of southwest Ireland on the Shannon River estuary.] "Pru-Bache used lavish incentives, including expenses-paid trips to exotic locations, to woo brokers into selling its LPs. It also used crudities, such as a lewd 1985 `$uperbroker' comic which dangled a free trip to Germany and asked brokers to enter a limerick contest." Serpent on the Rock.(book reviews), The Economist, 28 Oct 1995. This week's theme: people and places that became words. -------- Date: Mon Aug 24 00:06:11 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--rialto X-Bonus: The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. -Linus Pauling rialto (re-AL-to) noun 1. A theatrical district. 2. A marketplace. [After Rialto, an island of Venice where a market was situated.] "It was this..that made it some forty or fifty years ago the rialto of the West Indian islands." Daily Chronicle, 23 Sep 1901. We continue with the previous week's theme, and look at seven more people and places that became words. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Aug 25 00:04:28 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--karst X-Bonus: I have yet to find the man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism. -Charles Schwab karst (karst) noun. An area of irregular limestone in which erosion has produced fissures, sinkholes, underground streams, and caverns. [German after the Karst, a limestone plateau near Trieste.] "Traveling east into the wooded hills and finally to the elevated, rolling plain above the bluffs, the tour group enters the realm of karst, the ultimate geologic destination of this tour and primary scientific focus of the day's adventure." Joseph G. Maty, Magical Geological Tour is a Trip, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 12 May 1997. This week's theme: people and places that became words. (We are looking for a new home for the Wordsmith.Org server. If you can provide Internet access, please contact us at [garg AT wordsmith.org] . -Anu) -------- Date: Wed Aug 26 00:05:07 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--psyche X-Bonus: Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. -Albert Einstein psyche (SY-kee) noun 1. The spirit or soul. 2. Psychiatry. The mind functioning as the center of thought, emotion, and behavior and consciously or unconsciously adjusting or mediating the body's responses to the social and physical environment. [Latin psyche, from Greek psukhe, soul.] Psyche (SY-kee) noun Greek Mythology. A young woman who loved and was loved by Eros and was united with him after Aphrodite's jealousy was overcome. She subsequently became the pe rsonification of the soul. Bob Holmes, Nature soothes body and soul., U.S. News & World Report, 11-30-1992, pp p. 67. "Even in the midst of one of the world's great art collections, nature has a magnetic hold on the human psyche." This week's theme: people and places that became words. -------- Date: Thu Aug 27 00:04:48 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--spa X-Bonus: Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910) spa (spa) noun 1. A resort providing therapeutic baths. 2. A resort area having mineral springs. 3. A fashionable hotel or resort. 4. A health spa. 5. A tub for relaxation or invigoration, usually including a device for raising whirlpools in the water. 6. Eastern New England. soda fountain. [After Spa, a resort town of eastern Belgium.] "There's a 60 foot- swimming pool with music piped in underwater, an indoor/outdoor spa, a trampoline room, and a movie theater." Wendy Kaufman, Bob Edwards, Gates' New House, Morning Edition (NPR), 15 Sep 1997. This week's theme: people and places that became words. -------- Date: Fri Aug 28 00:05:56 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bobby X-Bonus: Friendship is like money, easier made than kept. -Samuel Butler bobby (BOB-ee) noun Chiefly British. A police officer. [After Sir Robert Peel, home secretary of England when the Metropolitan Police Force was created in 1829.] "I NEVER thought the day would come when I would cheer at the arrest of a fellow journalist by the police, but I did last week when the fair Miss Dawn Alford, intrepid sleuth of the Mirror had her collar felt by her local bobbies." Kevin Myers, Comment: Damn the Mirror for publishing, The Sunday Telegraph, 4 Jan 1998. This week's theme: people and places that became words. -------- Date: Sat Aug 29 00:04:45 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--pantaloon X-Bonus: The nicest thing about the promise of spring is that sooner or later she'll have to keep it. -Mark Beltaire pantaloon (pan-tuh-LOON) noun 1. Men's wide breeches extending from waist to ankle, worn especially in England in the late 17th century. Often used in the plural. Tight trousers extending from waist to ankle with straps passing under the instep, worn especially in the 19th century. Often used in the plural. 2. Trousers; pants. Often used in the plural. [French pantalon, a kind of trouser, from Pantalon. See Pantaloon.] Pantaloon (PAN-tuh-loon) noun 1. Often Pantalone (pant-lona, panta-lone). A character in the commedia dell'arte, portrayed as a foolish old man in tight trousers and slippers. 2. A stock character in modern pantomime, the butt of a clown's jokes. [French Pantalon, from Italian Pantaloneafter San Pantalone, or Saint Pantaleon (died A.D. 303), Roman physician and martyr.] "When dressed in long gowns or pantaloon outfits of water-soaked dry husks, and given shoe-button eyes and long hair of cornsilk--blond at the base, brunette at the dry ends--they (cobs) make adorable boy or girl dolls just like little the ones pioneer children played with..." Vivian, John, Growing wild: take your home place (almost) all the way back to nature.(Home Landscaping Part 1), Mother Earth News, 10 Dec 1997. This week's theme: people and places that became words. -------- Date: Sun Aug 30 00:04:32 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--jesuit X-Bonus: When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) Jesuit (JEZH-oo-it, JEZ-oo-, -yoo-) noun 1. Roman Catholic Church. A member of the Society of Jesus, an order founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in 1534. 2. Often jesuit. One given to subtle casuistry. [French Jesuite, from Jesus, Jesus, from Late Latin Iesus.] "Rubashov and Gletkin are a sad pair of Jesuits consumed and dulled as human beings by their casuistry." Pritchett, V. S., Horizon, May 1947. This week's theme: people and places that became words. To see a compilation of feedback on this week's words, please see AWADmail Issue 11 at https://wordsmith.org/awad/awadmail.html or get it by email by sending a blank message to wsmith@wordsmith.org with the Subject line as: awadmail 11 -------- Date: Mon Aug 31 06:12:02 EDT 1998 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--osculate X-Bonus: When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves. -William Arthur Ward osculate (OS-kyuh-layt) tr.verb 1. To kiss. 2. Mathematics. To have three or more points coincident with. osculate intr.verb To come together; contact. [Latin osculari, osculat-, from osculum, kiss, diminutive of os, mouth.] "So, the next time you do some osculating, remember a kiss is not just a kiss, it's some kind of psychological compulsion. A sigh, however, is just a sigh." A Kiss is Never Just a Kiss, Morning Edition (NPR), 26 Jan 1993. "... Julia sets, basins of attraction ..., osculating systems. There is such an amazing amount of creation from just some numbers, some lines, some dots. Math and Science for Girls [Part 10 of 25], Contemporary Women's Issues Database, 1 Jan 1993. What do the shape of a sea shell, Mozart's sonatas, arrangement of seeds in a sunflower, and paintings by the masters have in common? It is a little fraction with the value 1.61803, known as the golden mean. Who said math was only for mathematicians, and who claimed math was dry? This week's selection features seven words from the vocabulary of math where numbers can be irrational, transcendental, surreal, imaginary, and every other shade in between. -Anu