A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Wed Nov 1 00:09:10 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--necropolis X-Bonus: The newer people of this modern age are more eager to amass than to realize. -Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941) necropolis (ne-KROP-uh-lis) noun, plural necropolises or necropoleis A cemetery, especially a large and elaborate one belonging to an ancient city. [Greek nekropolis : nekro-, necro- dead + polis, city.] "The necropolis, or cemetery, of Heliopolis is the most extensive of any Roman town." Susan C. Hegger, Turkish Delights, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nov 22, 1998. "The specialist company, Necropolis Co, said it was usual practice for bodies to be lifted out one by one and placed in containers. These containers would then be transported to the new site." Ros Wynne-Jones, Dead bodies delay luxury flats plan, Independent, Apr 12, 1996. This week's theme: words to mark Halloween. -------- Date: Thu Nov 2 00:09:08 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--perdition X-Bonus: The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true. -James Branch Cabell, novelist, essayist, critic (1879-1958) perdition (per-DISH-ehn) noun 1. Loss of the soul; eternal damnation. Hell. 2. Utter ruin. [Middle English perdicion, from Old French perdicion, from Late Latin perditio, perdition-, from Latin perditus, past participle of perdere, to lose : per- + dare, to give.] "`Since the courts have decided that corporations are `persons' and possessed of the legal and constitutional rights of persons, and since this has wreaked all sorts of havoc in the legal system, it would be gratifying to believe that these `persons' also had souls and that the worst of them would be damned to eternal perdition,' he (Denis Hayes) says." Josh Clark, Brave new work: experts agree: stable jobs are giving way to a free-agent system, Mother Jones, Jul 17, 1997. "With hideous ruin and combustion, down To bottomless perdition, there to dwell." John Milton, Paradise Lost: First Book, 1667. This week's theme: words to mark Halloween. -------- Date: Fri Nov 3 00:09:09 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--netherworld X-Bonus: Library: A place where the dead lie. -Elbert Hubbard, author, editor, printer (1856-1915) [The Roycroft Dictionary] netherworld also nether world (NETH-r-wurld) noun 1. The world of the dead; Hades. 2. The underworld; hell. 3. The lower depths of society. [Middle English, from Old English neothera, from neother, down + world.] "Jungle juggernauts they may be, but the elephants heaved and struggled to tow the logs through that deep, narrow gorge, a netherworld of dense teak trees through which only slivers of sunlight could penetrate. Anthony Mecir, Michael Freeman, Big trouble, Smithsonian, Sep 1998. This week's theme: words to mark Halloween. -------- Date: Mon Nov 6 04:09:13 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--faustian X-Bonus: Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956) Faustian (FOU-stee-uhn) adjective 1. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Faust. 2. Sacrificing spiritual values for power, knowledge, or material gain. 3. Characterized by spiritual dissatisfaction or torment. 4. Possessed with a hunger for knowledge or mastery. [After Faust also Faustus, a magician and alchemist in German legend who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for power and knowledge.] "Young artists, new galleries and old museums all seem eager to play their part in this Faustian bargain: loads of publicity, rising prices for contemporary art and good crowds for exhibitions in exchange for what a British art critic, William Feaver, calls 'headline art'." Alan Riding, Spurred by Long Lines and Headlines, London Museums and Galleries Shock Anew, The New York Times, Sep 25, 2000. Eponyms are people who have a word coined after them. Take Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer after whom America was named. The word eponym is also used to refer to words coined in this manner. The elementary particle boson, for example, is named after Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose. This week we travel around the world in our quest for eponyms. Our other stops are Germany, Sweden, Australia, France and England. We pick words coined after good guys, as well as words named after not-so-good ones. We feature words derived from people who were mere figments of someone's imagination and words that have their source in flesh and blood folks. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Nov 7 00:09:10 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--solander X-Bonus: A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it. -Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941) solander (suh-LAN-duhr) noun A case for maps, plates, etc., made to resemble a book and having the front cover and fore edge hinged. [Named after Daniel Charles Solander (1736-1782), Swedish naturalist who invented it.] "Going through solander boxes in the British Museum and consulting catalogues ...." William Feaver, Art Four of a kind, The Guardian, Mar 26, 1995. This week's theme: eponyms, or words coined after people's names. -------- Date: Wed Nov 8 02:09:10 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ocker X-Bonus: Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers. -Charles W. Eliot, educator (1834-1926) ocker (OK-uhr) noun 1. An uncultured Australian male. 2. An uncouth, offensive male chauvinist. adjective 3. Of or pertaining to such a person. 4. Typically Australian. [After Ocker, a character in an Australian television series.] "While Australian sports teams and individuals continue to soak up success everywhere you look, the average ocker is getting lazier and putting on the beef." Daniel Gilhooly, Aussies with gold in laziness, Daily News, Sep 11, 2000. This week's theme: eponyms, or words coined after people's names. -------- Date: Thu Nov 9 00:09:09 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--dauphin X-Bonus: Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds - all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have. -Edward Everett Hale, author (1822-1909) dauphin (DOW-fin) noun 1. The eldest son of the king of France from 1349 to 1830. 2. Used as a title for such a nobleman. [Middle English, from Old French, title of the lords of Dauphine, from Dalphin, Dalfin, a surname, from dalfin, dolphin (from the device on the family's coat of arms).] "But the dauphin should not forget that a successful reign requires a strong successor--and not a mere imitator." The difficulty of being a dauphin, Economist, Sep 4, 1999. This week's theme: eponyms, or words coined after people's names. -------- Date: Fri Nov 10 00:09:09 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--miltonic X-Bonus: Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come. -Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941) Miltonic (mil-TON-ik) adjective, also Miltonian 1. Of or pertaining to the poet Milton or his writings. 2. Resembling Milton's majestic style. [After John Milton (1608-1674).] "Siphoning off the grandeur of his Miltonic inspiration and transfusing it with foggily redundant obscenities, Lord-Wolff denatures evil into sniggering adolescent angst." Sybil Steinberg, Forecasts: Fiction, Publishers Weekly, Dec 20, 1999. This week's theme: eponyms, or words coined after people's names. -------- Date: Mon Nov 13 02:52:10 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--aufklarung X-Bonus: Men are men before they are lawyers, or physicians, or merchants, or manufacturers; and if you make them capable and sensible men, they will make themselves capable and sensible lawyers or physicians. -John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873) aufklarung (OUF-klay-roong) noun The Enlightenment. [German : auf, up (from Middle High German uf, from Old High German.) + Klarung, a making clear, from klaren, to make clear, from Middle High German klaeren, from klar, clear, from Latin clarus.] "The idea that a profanity, especially one that was used as more than a casual expletive, could be used as a - pardon - legitimate verb was to me something of an Aufklarung, an enlightenment." Jon Hahn, A Deposit From Mr. Ed Pays Garden Dividends, Seattle Post - Intelligencer, Oct 26, 1999. If memory serves me right, Caesar described the Germanii as a large, hardy, ferocious people who inhabited the gloomy forests to the east of Gaul, wore hardly any clothes and were perpetually on the move. Well, if he were able to have a look around the seashores of Spain, Portugal or Italy today, he might say exactly the same thing, although this time around the context would be rather more peaceable. The descendents of those redoubtable forest-dwelling savages are probably the world's number-one travelers today, still gripped by an extraordinary wanderlust that sends them to the four corners of the earth in apparent flight from the serious, orderly and slightly boring society they have constructed for themselves in their geopolitical sandwich between the Latins to the west and the Slavs to the east. The Germans have done a lot of fighting and a lot of thinking about that sandwich over the centuries since Caesar reported on them, and the words that have entered the English language from their experience frequently reflect those military and intellectual struggles: they are light on things like play, gastronomy, fashion and frivolity but top heavy in philosophy, political thought and struggle in general: serious, consequential stuff. If these words tend to be a little ponderous and hard to pronounce, they are marvelously apt expressions of what could never be expressed so well if our English tongue just minded its own business and never wandered abroad to steal from others. -Rudolph Chelminski (rudychelminskiATcompuserve.com) (This week's Guest Wordsmith, Rudolph Chelminski, is an American freelance writer living in France.) -------- Date: Tue Nov 14 00:05:10 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--leitmotif X-Bonus: It is not what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable. -Moliere, actor and playwright (1622-1673) leitmotif also leitmotiv (LYT-mo-teef) noun 1. A melodic passage or phrase, especially in Wagnerian opera, associated with a specific character, situation, or element. 2. A dominant and recurring theme, as in a novel. [German Leitmotiv : leiten, to lead (from Middle High German, from Old High German leitan.) + Motiv, motif, from French motif.] "The whole spirit of Hallowe'en is, of course, one of `spooky' gayety and light-hearted ghastliness. Witches and ghosts run riot; corpses dance and black cats howl. `More work for the undertaker' should be the leitmotif of the evening's fun." Donald Ogden Stewart, Perfect Behavior, George H. Doran Company, 1922. This week's theme: words from the German language. -------- Date: Wed Nov 15 00:05:10 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--anschluss X-Bonus: Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832) Anschluss (AN-shloos) noun A political union, especially the one unifying Nazi Germany and Austria in 1938. [German, annexation, from anschliessen, to enclose, annex : an, on (from Middle High German ane, from Old High German ana.) + schliessen, to close, from Middle High German sliezen, from Old High German sliozan.] "I am hopeful that we can get beyond the divisiveness of the last year without a return to the factionalism that made Reform such an easy target for Buchanan's Anschluss." Lenora Fulani, Will Reform Party Survive Splits?, Seattle Post - Intelligencer, Aug 8, 2000. This week's theme: words from the German language. -------- Date: Thu Nov 16 00:05:18 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--kitsch X-Bonus: Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts. -Charles Dickens, novelist (1812-1870) kitsch (kich) noun 1. Art or artwork characterized by sentimental, often pretentious bad taste. The aesthetic or mentality in which such art is conceived or appreciated. 2. Culture or civilization in a degraded state of sentimentality and vulgarity. adjective Relating to or characterized by kitsch. [German, probably of dialectal origin.] "Survivors were naturally eager to forget the grimness, and she suggests that they were helped in this by kitsch war poetry and by heroic military films." Hearing silence, Economist, Oct 28, 2000. This week's theme: words from the German language. -------- Date: Fri Nov 17 00:05:14 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gemutlichkeit X-Bonus: The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality. -John Quincy Adams, 6th president of the U.S. (1767-1848) gemutlichkeit (guh-myoo-likh-KYT, -MOOT-) noun Warm friendliness; amicability. [German, from gemutlich, congenial.] "Ernst's round figures have an endearingly toylike gemutlichkeit, however, and youngsters may still find the out-of folktale experience a diverting one." Deborah Stevenson, Goldilocks Returns by Lisa Campbell Ernst (review), Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, May 1, 2000. This week's theme: words from the German language. -------- Date: Mon Nov 20 00:05:09 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--deus ex machina X-Bonus: I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man. -Chuang Tzu, mystic and philosopher (c. 4th century BCE) deus ex machina (DAY-uhs eks ma-kuh-nuh, -nah, MAK-uh-nuh) noun 1. In Greek and Roman drama, a god lowered by stage machinery to resolve a plot or extricate the protagonist from a difficult situation. 2. An unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot. 3. A person or event that provides a sudden and unexpected solution to a difficulty. [New Latin deus ex machina : deus, god + ex, from + machina, machine (translation of Greek theos apo mekhanes).] "In fact the duke acts as the deus ex machina of the piece, working in the background to ensure that everything turns out right and manipulating the characters' actions along the way." Robert Nott, Lust, justice and faith, The Santa Fe New Mexican, Jun 23, 2000. When we face a serious crisis we often look upwards for divine intervention. In such hopeless times we pray to the gods to descend from heaven and deliver us from whatever travail prevails. In ancient Greek and Roman drama, the gods literally came down from above, though not from heaven, to help the heros of the drama and save the plot. As it turns out, the gods themselves needed a little bit of help coming down. A crane was used to lower a god onto the stage and untangle the plot. Thus he was known as deus ex machina, literally, a god from a machine. Soon the figurative use of this device in a drama began to be described by the same name. Greek dramatist Euripides (480-406 BCE) was particularly fond of it. We are all intimately familiar with this device thanks to popular cinema. The hero who had supposedly drowned half-way through the story is miraculously revived to accompany the heroine into the sunset. This week we look at more words from the world of literature. -Anu P.S. I'll be in Oahu, Maui & Hawaii Islands and away from my email during Nov 23 - Dec 2. AWAD will continue, however, there will be no AWADmail issues. -------- Date: Tue Nov 21 00:05:10 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--raisonneur X-Bonus: He who would travel happily must travel light. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author and aviator (1900-1944) raisonneur (rez-uh-NUR) noun A character in a play, novel, or the like who voices the central theme, philosophy, or point of view of the work. [From French: literally, one who reasons or argues, equivalent to raisonn(er) to reason, argue + -eur.] "The Fool in King Lear is the apotheosis of the ironic commentator, the raisonneur who sees through the world's follies and the blunders of its leaders." A Clown is not a Fool, The New Straits Times, Jul 8, 1998. This week's theme: words from the world of literature. -------- Date: Wed Nov 22 00:01:12 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--prosopopoeia X-Bonus: This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls. -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914) prosopopeia also prosopopoeia (pruh-so-puh-PEE-uh) noun 1. A figure of speech in which an absent or imaginary person is represented as speaking. 2. A figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are endowed with human qualities or are represented as possessing human form. Personification. [Latin prosopopoeia, from Greek prosopopoiia : prosopon, face, mask, dramatic character : pros-, pros- + opon, face (from ops, eye) + poiein, to make.] "This is not theft, but kidnapping, summoning, prosopopoeia. In Eliot's earlier poem we still have one foot in another poet's hell. Here, Dante is summoned to the City of London, his lines marauded, his inferno woven within another of Eliot's own making." Joseph Dinunzio, Inventions of the March Hare: Poems 1909-1917, The Review of English Studies, Aug 1998. This week's theme: words from the world of literature. -------- Date: Thu Nov 23 00:01:11 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--tractate X-Bonus: Absolute freedom mocks at justice. Absolute justice denies freedom. -Albert Camus, writer, philosopher, Nobel laureate (1913-1960) tractate (TRAK-tayt) noun A treatise; an essay. [Latin tractatus.] "Oh, I spoke my speech out -- cribbed from Plato's tractate ...." Robert Browning, Pietro of Abano, 19th C. This week's theme: words from the world of literature. -------- Date: Fri Nov 24 00:01:10 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--hysteron proteron X-Bonus: Westheimer's Discovery: A couple of months in the laboratory can save a couple of hours in the library. -Frank H. Westheimer, chemistry professor (1912- ) hysteron proteron (HIS-tuh-ron PROT-uh-ron) noun 1. A figure of speech in which the natural or rational order of its terms is reversed, as in bred and born instead of born and bred. 2. The logical fallacy of assuming as true and using as a premise a proposition that is yet to be proved. [Late Latin, from Greek husteron proteron, latter first : husteron, neuter sing. of husteros, latter, later + proteron, neuter sing. of proteros, former.] "Intriguingly linked with this imprecision is the hysteron proteron of line 6, whose uncertain sequence of bearing arms, and then learning their use opens more space between the two acts than it closes." Bruce Danner, Courteous virtu in Spenser's Book 6 of 'The Faerie Queene.' Studies in English Literature, Winter 1998. This week's theme: words from the world of literature. -------- Date: Mon Nov 27 00:01:09 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--albatross X-Bonus: The value of marriage is not that adults produce children, but that children produce adults. -Peter De Vries, editor, novelist (1910-1993) [The Tunnel of Love, 1954] albatross (AL-buh-tros) noun, plural albatross or albatrosses 1. Any of several large, web-footed birds constituting the family Diomedeidae, chiefly of the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere, and having a hooked beak and long, narrow wings. 2. A constant, worrisome burden. An obstacle to success. [Probably alteration (influenced by Latin albus, white), of alcatras, pelican, from Portuguese, or Spanish alcatraz, from Arabic al-gattas : al, the + gattas, white-tailed sea eagle. Sense 2, after the albatross in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which the mariner killed and had to wear around his neck as a penance.] "Getting the albatross that is Temelin off its neck would make the utility more attractive to future investors." Tony Wesolowsky, Fueling up fast, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Sep/Oct 2000. Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink. Ever wondered where these well-known lines came from? They are from a work that is the origin of the figurative use of today's word: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a poem by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798. In this vivid poem, a mariner and his crew are traveling in a ship near the South Pole. For no reason, the mariner kills an albatross flying above his vessel. 'God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends, that plague thee thus!-- Why look'st thou so?'--'With my cross-bow I shot the Albatross.' His shooting down of the innocent bird brings a curse to the ship, and his shipmates throw the carcass of the dead bird around his neck, thus giving a powerful idiom to the English language. Ah! well a-day! what evil looks Had I from old and young! Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung. Much happens in the rest of the poem and the whole crew, except the mariner, dies. As a penance, the wizened mariner wanders, recounting his tale and wisdom. He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all. Read the complete text of this evocative poem with accompanying images at: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Rime_Ancient_Mariner.html During the rest of this week, we will see more animal words that are used figuratively. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Nov 28 00:01:11 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--buffalo X-Bonus: Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) buffalo (BUF-uh-lo) noun, plural buffalo or buffaloes or buffalos 1. Any of several oxlike Old World mammals of the family Bovidae, such as the water buffalo and Cape buffalo. The North American bison, Bison bison. 2. The buffalo fish. verb tr. 1. To intimidate, as by a display of confidence or authority. 2. To deceive; hoodwink. 3. To confuse; bewilder. [Italian bufalo, or Portuguese, or Spanish bufalo, from Late Latin bufalus, from Latin bubalus, from Greek boubalos.] "Moe Howard (Paul Ben-Victor), the supposed brains of the act, is easily buffaloed by studio bosses." Terry Kelleher, Picks & Pans: Tube, People, Apr 24, 2000. This week's theme: animal words that are used figuratively. -------- Date: Wed Nov 29 00:01:12 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--canary X-Bonus: In the midst of great joy, do not promise anyone anything. In the midst of great anger, do not answer anyone's letter. -Chinese proverb canary (kuh-NAR-ee) noun 1. A small finch (Serinus canaria) native to the Canary Islands that is greenish to yellow and has long been bred as a cage bird. 2. A woman singer. An informer; a stool pigeon. 3. A sweet white wine from the Canary Islands, similar to Madeira. 4. A lively 16th-century court dance. 5. A light to moderate or vivid yellow color. [French canari, from Spanish canario, of the Canary Islands, from (Islas) Canarias, Canary (Islands), from Late Latin Canariae (Insulae), (islands) of dogs, from Latin canarius, pertaining to dogs, canine, from canis, dog.] "Other Hollywood illuminati have denounced Mr. Kazan for his supposed treachery; a newspaper columnist describes him as `the most famous canary of the Cold War'." Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The Waterfront All Over Again, The Wall Street Journal, Mar 19, 1999. This week's theme: animal words that are used figuratively. -------- Date: Thu Nov 30 00:01:13 EST 2000 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--octopus X-Bonus: The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else. -John Updike, writer (1932- ) octopus (OK-tuh-pus) noun, plural octopuses or octopi 1. Any of numerous carnivorous marine mollusks of the genus Octopus or related genera, found worldwide. The octopus has a rounded soft body, eight tentacles with each bearing two rows of suckers, a large distinct head, and a strong beaklike mouth. Also called devilfish. 2. Something, such as a multinational corporation, that has many powerful, centrally controlled branches. [New Latin Octopus, genus name, from Greek oktopous, eight-footed : okto, eight, okto(u) + pous, foot.] "Wipro may be a diversified octopus but the strongest arm of the cephalopod is software." Sumit Mitra, et al, Software: Cyber Zars, India Today, Mar 15, 1999. This week's theme: animal words that are used figuratively.