A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Tue Nov 1 00:01:18 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--woebegone X-Bonus: Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. -Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626) This week's theme: words that aren't what they appear to be. woebegone (WO-bi-gon) adjective Affected with, or exhibiting, woe. [From Middle English woe + begon (beset).] Woe-Be-Gone! Sounds like the perfect name for a drive-thru pain-relief outlet. What a shame, the word means the opposite of what it appears to be. There is a variety of Australian carpet shark called wobbegong (named from an Australian Aboriginal language). If one ever comes in touch with this fish, a woebegone status is certain. -Anu Garg garg AT wordsmith.org "Tara, woebegone and still hiccuping with the force of her crying, was at the door." Hema Nair; Growing Up Tara; Little India (New York); Oct 31, 2002. -------- Date: Wed Nov 2 00:01:22 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--undecimal X-Bonus: When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kind of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt. -Robert M. Pirsig, author and philosopher (1928- ) This week's theme: words that aren't what they appear to be. undecimal (UHN-des-uh-muhl) adjective Based on the number eleven. [From Latin undecim (eleven).] Some people do have undecimal hands: they might have eleven fingers. The bonus digit is called supernumerary. Supernumerary parts don't have to be fingers. For example, instead of a binary arrangement, some people are gifted with an extra nipple. You could call them "supernumammary". -Anu Garg garg AT wordsmith.org "A modern though little realised example of undecimal counting is seen in the ISBN of published books. Any ISBN comprises ten digits. If you multiply the first by ten, the second by nine, the third by eight, and so on, summing the results as you go along, the result will always be divisible by eleven." William Hartston; What Are The Chances Of That?: Fabulous Facts About Figures; Metro Books; 2004. (Try this on the ISBN of my new book: 0471718459. -Anu) -------- Date: Thu Nov 3 00:01:29 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sufferance X-Bonus: Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. -Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (1899-1961) This week's theme: words that aren't what they appear to be. sufferance (SUF-uhr-uhns, SUF-ruhns) noun 1. Passive tolerance: by the absence of objection rather than by express permission. 2. Capacity to endure pain, misery, etc. [Via French from Latin sufferentia, from sufferre (to suffer), from sub- + ferre (to bear). Ultimately from Indo-European root bher- (to carry; to bear children) that gave birth to words such as basket, suffer, fertile, burden, bring, bear, offer, prefer, and birth.] Parents often let children do things on sufferance, by tolerating their antics. It's useful when there is a need to withdraw that tacit permission: "Yes, I let you go to the theme park but I never said you could go bungee jumping." -Anu Garg garg AT wordsmith.org "Government exists at the sufferance of the taxpayer and are paid for with money earned by working men and women." SD, ANC Bond as Old as History; The Swazi Observer (Mbabane, Swaziland); Oct 3, 2005. -------- Date: Fri Nov 4 00:01:15 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--apian X-Bonus: The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it. -J.M. Barrie, novelist and playwright (1860-1937) This week's theme: words that aren't what they appear to be. apian (AY-pee-uhn) adjective Of or relating to bees. [From Latin apis (bee).] No monkey business here. To bee or not to bee, that's the question. This word has nothing to do with apes -- their equivalent word is simian. -Anu Garg garg AT wordsmith.org "There are many kinds of awakenings to be had in Nepal - usually spiritual, often pharmacological - but mine was apian. I stood entranced as my guide, opened up a log hive to reveal some 60,000 bees." Gerard Baker; Honey - I'm Hooked; The Times (London, UK); Jul 17, 2004. -------- Date: Mon Nov 7 00:01:10 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--hors d'oeuvre X-Bonus: Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. -Susan Sontag, author and critic (1933-2004) Guest wordsmith Rudy Chelminski (rudychelminskiATaol.com) writes: When, earlier this year, I wrote "The Perfectionist", the story of Bernard Loiseau, the world-famous French chef who took his own life because of the insane pressures of his trade, I knew that the book would have to contain a lot of French terminology. At the same time, I was fully aware that most people do not read or speak French, and that it is very rude for a writer to bombard his readers with a language they do not understand. There was no way around the dilemma, though, because the French are the great codifiers of high-level western cooking, and throughout the world it is either pure French or French-derived vocabulary that is commonly used in serious professional kitchens that create la grande cuisine. (See? There we go.) Sensing that many of my readers would need some gentle help, I translated much of the French culinary vocabulary into English, but there were certain words that were either untranslatable or would look downright silly in translation. These I left intact, in their language of origin, which is how they remain in English usage today. Here's a little selection, with a (very approximate) pronunciation guide. hors d'oeuvre (ohr DERV) noun An extra little dish outside of and smaller than the main course, usually served first. [From French hors (outside of), oeuvre (job or work).] "Four glasses of classy bubbles ... all served on a tray with a separate hors d'oeuvre to go with each glass." Flight of Whatever Hinch Fancies; Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia); Oct 6, 2005. "Before the main course, however, would be an introductory hors d'oeuvre in the form of 40 laps aboard a stock Yamaha." Alan Cathcart; American Beauty; Motorcyclist Magazine; Oct 7, 2005. -------- Date: Tue Nov 8 00:01:13 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--amuse-bouche X-Bonus: Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough. -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1882-1945) This week's theme: French terms for food. amuse-bouche (uh-MYUZ-boosh) noun Similar to but not to be confused with hors d'oeuvre. This is a tidbit, often tiny, served as a free extra to keep you happy while you are waiting for your first course to come. It gives you an idea of the chef's approach to cooking and the restaurant's attention to your appetite. [From French, literally, "mouth amuser", from amuser (to amuse) + bouche (mouth). Its more informal twin, amuse-gueule, is the same thing, but may be considered vulgar in some circles. Gueule is the French term for an animal's mouth, bouche for a human's.] -Guest wordsmith Rudy Chelminski (rudychelminskiATaol.com) "The service and the food were both excellent, kicking off with an amuse-bouche of truffled field-mushroom soup." Ginny Dougary; The Gingerman at Drakes; The Times (London, UK); Oct 22, 2005. -------- Date: Wed Nov 9 00:01:09 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--macedoine X-Bonus: The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude. -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963) This week's theme: French terms for food. macedoine (mas-i-DWAN) noun A mixed dish, usually of fruit and/or vegetables, in which several different varieties are combined into a colorful tableau. [From French macédoine, from Macédoine (Macedonia). The reference is to the Balkan area of many different territories and ethnic groups that Alexander the Great welded into a single unit.] -Guest wordsmith Rudy Chelminski (rudychelminskiATaol.com) "So in her own home -- where raspberries and tiny fraises des bois grow in the garden -- a frequent dessert is an artless salad or macedoine of cut-up fruit, such as peaches, nectarines, or apricots, with a few berries thrown into the mix." Karola Saekel; Alice Waters's Newest Showcases Fresh Fruit; San Francisco Chronicle; May 8, 2002. "There are similar impulses in Art Nouveau Bing, the English Aesthetic and American Arts and Crafts movements, the Vienna Secession -- and the style moderne of Czarist Russia, which mixed them all together in a macedoine." Margo Miller; The Man Who Made Art Nouveau; Boston Globe; Sep 11, 1987. -------- Date: Thu Nov 10 00:01:10 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--vinaigrette X-Bonus: Nothing so soothes our vanity as a display of greater vanity in others; it makes us vain, in fact, of our modesty. -Louis Kronenberger, writer (1904-1980) This week's theme: French terms for food. vinaigrette (vin-uh-GRET) noun A sour, savory sauce of which there are a hundred variations. Its base ingredients are almost always oil and vinegar. The primary use is for salad dressings, but vinaigrettes can also be served on numerous fish, seafood, and even meat dishes. [A nice double fillip here. The French word vinaigre (vinegar) literally means "sour wine": vin (wine) + aigre (sour). Take this double word and add the diminutive -ette and you get "little vinegar".] -Guest wordsmith Rudy Chelminski (rudychelminskiATaol.com) "Salads dazzle, whether colourful, flavour-packed combos such as roasted beet and chickpea with balsamic vinaigrette, or coleslaw teased with a sesame oil dressing." Tim Pawsey; Healthy, But Tasty, Cuisine at Cafe; Vancouver Courier (Canada); Oct 24, 2005. -------- Date: Fri Nov 11 00:01:09 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--saute X-Bonus: Several excuses are always less convincing than one. -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963) This week's theme: French terms for food. saute or sauté (so-TAY) verb tr. To cook in a hot pan with little oil, frequently turning or tossing. [From French sauter (to jump) as the cook vigorously jerks the pan to keep the ingredients from burning.] There is something of a grammatical problem with bringing the word into English, though, since it is only the past participle sauté rather than the infinitive that has made the linguistic migration. To quote the Oxford Companion to food: "Thus in English, when the imperative is required, as often happens in recipes, only the past participle is available. The result looks odd ('Sauté the mushrooms...'), but works." -Guest wordsmith Rudy Chelminski (rudychelminskiATaol.com) "Heat a little vegetable oil in a large frying pan. Saute half the onions and the bell pepper until translucent." Try Making Mobster's Enchiladas, and More; Philadelphia Daily News (Pennsylvania); Oct 27, 2005. -------- Date: Mon Nov 14 00:01:19 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--tropism X-Bonus: In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. -Mortimer J. Adler, philosopher, educator and author (1902-2001) "Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone." Using trees as the metaphor, these poignant words of Nobel prizewinner Czeslaw Milosz sum up what it truly means to be human. Perhaps we in the animal kingdom can learn much from those in the plant kingdom. This week we feature words related to plants, and as today's example shows, we don't have to keep these terms only for our leafy friends. One can use many of these words in other contexts, alluding to human behavior. tropism (TRO-piz-uhm) noun The turning or bending (typically by growth instead of movement) of an organism in response to an external stimulus. [From Greek tropos (turning). Ultimately from Indo-European root trep- (to turn) that also gave us troubadour, tropic, entropy, and contrive.] If you've ever noticed a plant bending towards the light, you've seen an example of tropism. The term is usually applied to plants. The response to a stimulus could be positive or negative: towards or away from the stimulus. Some examples of stimuli are light (phototropism), gravity (geotropism), heat (thermotropism), touch (thigmotropism), and water (hydrotropism). Darwin and his son Francis demonstrated that the tip of the plant detected light and if you covered just the tip, the plant would grow straight, not toward the light. The word tropism is related to trope, the term for rhetorical devices such as metaphor and irony. The idea is that the words in those rhetorical devices are turned in a special way. -Anu Garg garg AT wordsmith.org "The traits [Judith Miller] has drive many reporters at The Times crazy: her tropism toward powerful men, her frantic intensity, and her peculiar mixture of hard work and hauteur." Maureen Dowd; Woman of Mass Destruction; The New York Times; Oct 22, 2005. -------- Date: Tue Nov 15 00:01:12 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ecesis X-Bonus: Throw your dream into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, or a new country. -Anais Nin, author (1903-1977) This week's theme: words from the plant kingdom. ecesis (i-SEE-sis) noun The entry or establishment of a plant in a new habitat. [From Greek oikesis (inhabitation), from oikein (to inhabit). Ultimately from Indo-European root weik- (clan) that is also the forebear of vicinity, village, villa, and villain (originally, a villain was a farm servant, one who lived in a villa or a country house).] Decided to pack up and move to a new city? Why call it a mere moving (or shifting) when you can grandly announce your ecesis. -Anu Garg garg AT wordsmith.org "Perhaps there are also ecological barriers to ecesis in new habitats even when seeds arrive." Richard H. Groves; Australian Vegetation; Cambridge University Press; 1994. -------- Date: Wed Nov 16 00:01:11 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--dendrochronology X-Bonus: If you want to work on your art, work on your life. -Anton Chekhov, short-story writer and dramatist (1860-1904) This week's theme: words from the plant kingdom. dendrochronology (den-dro-kruh-NOL-uh-jee) noun Tree-ring dating. [From Greek dendro- (tree) + chronology (the science of determining dates of past events).] Dendrochronology is the science of studying tree rings to date past events: climate, the date of construction of a house, etc. This is the idea: some trees add an annual ring. Each ring is unique as it depends on the climatic conditions during the year. By comparative study of these annual growth rings dendrochronologists can go back thousands of years and can often pinpoint the year quite precisely. Time imprints on our faces the traces of life we've lived: laughs, pouts, frowns... all leave their mark. What would facial dendrochronology say about you? -Anu Garg garg AT wordsmith.org "With their reputations at risk, violin dealers closed ranks. They commissioned further dendrochronology that dated the Messiah's wood back to 1682." Toby Faber; Lord of the Strings; The Guardian (London, UK); Aug 27, 2004. -------- Date: Thu Nov 17 00:01:15 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--palmy X-Bonus: If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers. -Irvin S. Cobb, author and journalist (1876-1944) This week's theme: words from the plant kingdom. palmy (PAH-mee) adjective 1. Abounding in palm trees. 2. Flourishing; prosperous. [From Latin palma (palm tree).] The term palmy is usually used to refer to a time in the past. The name of the palm tree derives from the resemblance of the shape of its frond to the palm of a hand. Why the association of palm with prosperity? The fronds of the palm tree were carried as symbols of victory in ancient times. There is a related term, palmary, meaning outstanding or praiseworthy. -Anu Garg garg AT wordsmith.org "Below, the oceanfront mansion in East Hampton, N.Y., bought in his palmy days." (photo caption) Eric Wilson; Decline And Fall of Helmut Lang; The New York Times; May 26, 2005. -------- Date: Fri Nov 18 00:01:13 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--indehiscent X-Bonus: The most certain test by which we can judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities. -Lord Acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton), historian (1834-1902) This week's theme: words from the plant kingdom. indehiscent (in-di-HIS-uhnt) adjective Not bursting open at maturity. [When a peapod is ripe after a long wait and bursts open, it's yawning, etymologically speaking. The term indehiscent comes from Latin dehiscere (to split open), from hiscere (to gape, yawn), from Latin hiare (to yawn). Another term that derives from the same root is hiatus.] -Anu Garg garg AT wordsmith.org "Garrison Keillor: Rhubarb is a vegetable, no matter what the government says: a member of the buckwheat family of herbaceous plants including buckwheat, dock, and smartweed, which are characterized by having swollen joints, simple leaves, small petalless flowers, and small, dry, indehiscent fruit. Indehiscent means 'not dehiscent', not opening at maturity to release the seed. So 'indehiscent' means 'hard, dry, holding onto the seed', which actually describes Norwegians quite well. Most Norwegians consider dehiscence to be indecent. They hold the seed in. But rhubarb pie comes along in the spring, when we're half crazed from five months of winter -- it's the first fresh vegetable we get, and it makes us dehisce." Carol Stocker; Rediscovering Rhubarb; Boston Globe; May 16, 1996. -------- Date: Mon Nov 21 00:01:11 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bight X-Bonus: How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude! -Emily Dickinson, poet (1830-1886) Columbus, Ohio December 2000 It's 23 degrees F (-5 degrees C). The small lake behind our place is frozen solid. The generously sprinkled snow makes a soft cushion to tempt any laggard leaf that has not yet fallen in tune with nature. My daughter Ananya and I are getting ready to go out. The peak of winter has its dress code. "It is too cold out there," I tell her. "Let's wear two pairs of pants." The mind of a three-year-old has its own ways to interpret our Celsiuses and Fahrenheits. "It's two cold today so we need to wear two pairs of pants?" she asks. Clothed for the occasion, we take our make-shift sled -- an empty plastic box tied to a blue nylon rope -- and head out. Her "friends" and "sister" -- Winnie the Pooh, Chief the Dog, and a doll -- accompany us as we go out onto the lake. She tugs at the rope and the sled makes a path in the fresh snow. The friends and sister seem to be enjoying the ride as we cross the frozen lake, walking, running, and skiing in our boots. Now it's her turn to sit in the sled and the friends and sister cheerfully make room and welcome her in. And it's my turn to pull the sled. "I wonder where we get zero cold?" she inquires. "Hmm...," I try to think of an example, one she is familiar with, "In Hawaii." "And one cold?" "In Seattle." She iterates through other possibilities until we reach the extremes. "How about five cold?" "That would be the North Pole." "And six cold?" "There is no such thing as six cold." "So can we go to the North Pole?" Her eyes brighten, "I can play with the polar bears there and meet Santa!" "Sure, we can," I assure her. Even with our heavy coats, gloves, mittens, caps, mufflers, socks, boots, and two pairs of pants, cold is beginning to seep in. Our noses have turned red and it's time to go back in. I hold the friends and sister while she eagerly fills the sled with snow for the snowman we'll make in our living room. New snow begins falling as if trying to make up for all that we've picked up. I treasure the moments as I wonder about her future, keenly aware of our fleeting time together. With unfettered imagination, who is to say where a child can't reach? * * * In this week's words we'll see a few uncommon homophones - words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings or spellings - of common words. bight (byt) noun 1. A bend in a coastline; also the body of water along such a curve. Example: The Bight of Benin in W. Africa. 2. The curved part or the middle of a rope (as contrasted with the ends). [From Old English byht (bend). Ultimately from Indo-European root bheug- (to bend) that is also the source of bow, bagel, bee, bog, akimbo, and buxom (originally one who is obedient or pliant).] -Anu Garg garg AT wordsmith.org "[Hurricane] Wilma's surge proved too much for two houseboats that sank to the bottom of the bight." Brian Haas; Hard-hitting Storm Takes Some Bluster Out of Key West; The Seattle Times; Oct 25, 2005. -------- Date: Tue Nov 22 00:01:10 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--copse X-Bonus: Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual. -Arthur Koestler, novelist and journalist (1905-1983) This week's theme: uncommon homophones of common words. copse (kops) noun A thicket of small trees, bushes, shrubs, etc. especially one grown for periodic cutting. [Alteration of coppice. Via Middle English and French from Latin colpare (to cut).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "We could also distinguish animals rustling in the nearby copses, and since we were in an area known to be a leopard habitat, it was entertaining to think that was what we were hearing." Larry Rohter: America; The Seoul Times (South Korea); Nov 10, 2005. -------- Date: Wed Nov 23 00:01:15 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--succor X-Bonus: Worth begets in base minds, envy; in great souls, emulation. -Henry Fielding, author (1707-1754) This week's theme: uncommon homophones of common words. succor also succour (SUK-uhr) noun 1. Help or relief in time of distress. 2. One who gives help. verb tr. To help someone in a difficult situation. [Via Middle English and French from Latin succurrere (to run to help). Ultimately from Indo-European root kers- (to run) that's also the source of car, career, carpenter, occur, discharge, and caricature.] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Just as Kipling's man-cub found succor with an improbable mother, so too were the seeds of his tale sown in unlikely ground: the rocky hills of rural Vermont." Carolyn Juris; Mowgli, the Man-cub From Wild Vermont; The San Francisco Chronicle; Oct 23, 2005. -------- Date: Thu Nov 24 00:01:10 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--auricle X-Bonus: Insanity - a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world. -RD Laing, psychiatrist and author (1927-1989) This week's theme: uncommon homophones of common words. auricle (OR-i-kuhl) noun 1. The outer projecting part of the ear; also known as pinna. 2. An ear-shaped part of each atrium of the heart. [From Latin auricula (little ear), from auris (ear). Ultimately from Indo-European root aus- (ear) that's also the ancestor of such words as ear, aural, scout (literally, act of listening or spying).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Smith even wrapped rubber bands around his ears to mimic Shrek's oddly shaped auricles." Emily Aronson; Halloween Haven; Portsmouth Herald News (New Hampshire); Nov 1, 2005. -------- Date: Fri Nov 25 00:01:11 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bourn X-Bonus: Because we don't understand the brain very well we're constantly tempted to use the latest technology as a model for trying to understand it. In my childhood we were always assured that the brain was a telephone switchboard. (What else could it be?) And I was amused to see that Sherrington, the great British neuroscientist, thought that the brain worked like a telegraph system. Freud often compared the brain to hydraulic and electromagnetic systems. Leibniz compared it to a mill, and now, obviously, the metaphor is the digital computer. -John R. Searle, philosophy professor (1932- ) This week's theme: uncommon homophones of common words. bourn (born) noun 1. A destination or goal. 2. A boundary or limit. [From Middle French bourne, from Old French bodne (boundary). Ultimately from Indo-European root bhendh- (to bind) that is also the source of band, bend, bind, bond, bundle, and bandanna.] A small stream [Variant of burn (brook).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "There is still an undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns with credibility intact." Dan Hancox; The Download; New Statesman (London, UK); Oct 20, 2005. -------- Date: Mon Nov 28 00:01:15 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--shenanigan X-Bonus: Nature's laws affirm instead of prohibit. If you violate her laws, you are your own prosecuting attorney, judge, jury, and hangman. -Luther Burbank, horticulturist (1849-1926) Assorted words. Order is good. Mostly. It makes sure that the earth will go around the sun in the same way as it has in the past and bring the summer to ripen the mangoes. Patterns are good too -- most of the time. They help us find our shoes easily among an array of other pairs. But if we stick too much to the same order and pattern, we lose. We lose the opportunity to discover new lands, new paths, new flowers, new ways (and new words!). Sometimes the break in order is by choice and at times it's forced, as when you lose a job. Often it's a blessing in disguise. It's an opportunity to explore and discover what remained hidden from the old path. This week's words have no order, pattern, or theme. They just are. But they're all interesting. shenanigan (shuh-NAN-i-guhn) noun, usually plural A deceitful trick or mischievous act; a prank. [Of unknown origin.] Etymologists aren't sure of the origin of this word, but if you go by how many Irish pubs are named Shenanigans or Shenanigan's, the word is probably of Irish origin. The Oxford English Dictionary shows the very first citation of the word from an 1855 San Francisco publication. The California Gold Rush began in 1849 and there were plenty of Irishmen panning for gold there. But it's still only a hypothesis and until we're sure, we'll have to quote Mark Twain who once said, "I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know." -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Germany's constitution sets a very high bar for dissolving parliament in order to avoid a repeat of Weimar Republic-era shenanigans that helped Adolf Hitler come to power." Germany Paves the Way for Elections; Der Spiegel (Hamburg, Germany); Jul 22, 2005. -------- Date: Tue Nov 29 00:01:21 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--velitation X-Bonus: When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. -Abraham Joshua Heschel, theology professor (1907-1972) This week in AWAD: assorted words. velitation (vel-i-TAY-shuhn) noun A minor dispute or skirmish. [From Latin velitation-, from velitatus, past participle of velitari (to skirmish), from veles (light-armed foot soldier). Ultimately from Indo-European root weg- (to be strong or lively), that's the source for vegetable (Kids, etymology gives you another reason to eat your veggies!), vigor, velocity, watch, vigilante, and vigil.] "And in a tense atmosphere of mistrust, with normal diplomatic channels severed, any small clash or velitation can spur escalation back to full-scale war." Virginia Page Fortna; Peace Time; Princeton University Press; 2004. -------- Date: Wed Nov 30 00:01:13 EST 2005 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--anathema X-Bonus: War would end if the dead could return. -Stanley Baldwin, statesman (1867-1947) This week in AWAD: assorted words. anathema (uh-NATH-uh-muh) noun 1. Something or someone intensely disliked. 2. A ban, curse, or vigorous denunciation. [From Late Latin, from Greek anathema (something devoted to evil).] "Our columnist, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, may well be right that Madonna should be considered anathema to the feminist movement because she has 'spawned a tragic world where, according to Time magazine, 40 percent of American teenage girls now wear thongs and thousands of college girls lift their shirts in exchange for a T-shirt.'" Welcome, Madonna; Jerusalem Post (Israel); Sep 19, 2004.