Word of the Day - Dictionary.com (moral, Messiah, blood)

[Pah]

Word of the Day for Monday September 6, 2004
pied-a-terre \pee-ay-duh-TAIR; pyay-dah-TAIR\, noun;
plural pieds-a-terre \pee-ay-duh-TAIR; pyay-dah-TAIR\:
A temporary or second place of lodging.

And with Frank on the move so much of the time, shuttling between . . . offices and factories in Europe and Asia and South America, it made sense for her to establish some kind of pied-a-terre in New York.
--Amanda Vaill, Everybody Was So Young

. . . gentlemen with estates in the country who wished to have a pied-a-terre in town.
--Michael Ignatieff, Isaiah Berlin: A Life

[Pah]

Word of the Day for Tuesday September 7, 2004
epicene \EP-uh-seen\, adjective:
1. Having the characteristics of both sexes.
2. Effeminate; unmasculine.
3. Sexless; neuter.
4. (Linguistics) Having but one form of the noun for both the male and the female.

noun:
1. A person or thing that is epicene.
2. (Linguistics) An epicene word.


He has a clear-eyed, epicene handsomeness -- cruel, sensuous mouth; cheekbones to cut your heart on -- the sort of excessive beauty that is best appreciated in repose on a 50-foot screen.
--Franz Lidz, "Jude Law: He Didn't Turn Out Obscure at All," New York Times, May 13, 2001

She smothers (almost literally at times) her weak, epicene son Vladimir, and is prepared to commit any crime to see him become Tsar, despite his reluctance.
--Ronald Bergan, Sergei Eisenstein: A Life in Conflict


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Epicene derives from Latin epicoenus, from Greek epikoinos, "common to," from epi-, "upon" + koinos, "common."

Dictionary.com

[Pah]

The Webster Word of the Day for September 7 is:

vacuous • \VAK-yuh-wus\ • adjective
1 : emptied of or lacking content
*2 : marked by lack of ideas or intelligence : stupid, inane
3 : devoid of serious occupation : idle

Example sentence:
Alyssa was told that her blind date was well-read and articulate, so she was disappointed to discover that he was a vacuous bore.

Did you know?
As you might have guessed, "vacuous" shares the same root as "vacuum"—the Latin adjective "vacuus," meaning "empty." This root also gave us the noun "vacuity" (the oldest meaning of which is "an empty space") as well as the verb "evacuate" (originally "to remove the contents of; empty"). Its predecessor, the verb "vacare," is also an ancestor of the words "vacation" and "vacancy" as well as "void." All of these words suggest an emptiness of space, or else a fleeing of people or things from one place to another. "Vacuous" first appeared in English in the middle of the 17th century, literally describing something that was empty, but then acquired its figurative usage, describing one who is lacking any substance of the mind, in the mid-1800s.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

[Pah]

A.Word.A.Day--synesthesia

synesthesia or synaesthesia (sin-uhs-THEE-zhuh, -zhee-uh) noun

1. A sensation felt in one part of the body when stimulus is applied to another part, e.g. visualization of a color on hearing a sound.

2. (In literature) Using an unrelated sense to describe something, e.g. warm sounds or fragrant words.

[From New Latin, from syn- (together) + -esthesia, from Greek aisthesis (sensation or perception). Ultimately from Indo-European root au- (to perceive) from which other words such as audio, audience, audit, obey, oyez, auditorium, anesthesia, and aesthetic are derived.]

[Pah]

The Merriam Webster Word of the Day for February 27 is:

evince • \ih-VINSS\ Audio icon • verb
1 : to constitute outward evidence of
*2 : to display clearly : reveal

Example sentence:
Darby strode confidently to the end of the diving board, evincing not the slightest sign of fear or nervousness.

Did you know?
Charles Dickens advised, "Take nothing on looks; take everything on evidence." An excellent rule, especially when considering the history of a synonym of "demonstrate" and "manifest." "Evince" derives from the Latin "evincere," meaning "to vanquish" or "to win a point." That root in turn traces to "vincere," Latin for "to conquer." In the early 1600s, "evince" was sometimes used in the senses "to subdue" or "to convict of error," meanings evincing the influence of its Latin ancestors. It was also sometimes used as a synonym of its cousin "convince," but that sense is now obsolete. One early meaning, "to constitute evidence of," has hung on, however, and in the 1800s it was joined by another sense, "to reveal."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

[michel]

Originally Posted by pah

The Merriam Webster Word of the Day for February 27 is:

evince • \ih-VINSS\ Audio icon • verb
1 : to constitute outward evidence of
*2 : to display clearly : reveal

Example sentence:
Darby strode confidently to the end of the diving board, evincing not the slightest sign of fear or nervousness.

Did you know?
Charles Dickens advised, "Take nothing on looks; take everything on evidence." An excellent rule, especially when considering the history of a synonym of "demonstrate" and "manifest." "Evince" derives from the Latin "evincere," meaning "to vanquish" or "to win a point." That root in turn traces to "vincere," Latin for "to conquer." In the early 1600s, "evince" was sometimes used in the senses "to subdue" or "to convict of error," meanings evincing the influence of its Latin ancestors. It was also sometimes used as a synonym of its cousin "convince," but that sense is now obsolete. One early meaning, "to constitute evidence of," has hung on, however, and in the 1800s it was joined by another sense, "to reveal."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

No I didn't know this word; neither have I seen this thread before; I shall have to make sure I do so daily, I love words.

[Pah]

The Merriam WebsterWord of the Day for February 28 is:

infinitesimal \in-fin-ih-TESS-uh-mul\ adjective
1 : taking on values arbitrarily close to but greater than
zero
*2 : immeasurably or incalculably small

Example sentence:
The days get longer in seemingly infinitesimal increments,
but by the end of February we've gained two whole hours of
sunlight since the winter solstice.

Did you know?
"Infinite," as you probably know, means "endless"
or "extending indefinitely." It is ultimately from
Latin "infinitus," the opposite of "finitus," meaning "finite."
The notion of smallness in "infinitesimal" derives from the
mathematical concept that a quantity can be divided endlessly;
no matter how small, it can be subdivided into yet smaller
fractions, or "infinitesimals." The concept was still in its
infancy in 1710 when Irish philosopher George Berkeley observed
that some people "assert there are infinitesimals of
infinitesimals of infinitesimals, etc., without ever coming to
an end." He used the adjective in a mathematical sense, too,
referring to "infinitesimal parts of finite lines." Less than a
quarter century later, the adjective had acquired a general
sense applicable to anything too small to be measured.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

[Pah]

The Merriam Webster Word of the Day for March 1 is:

consternation \kahn-ster-NAY-shun\ noun
: amazement or dismay that hinders or throws into confusion

Example sentence:
The Bakers were relieved to find a motel in so remote a
spot, but their relief turned to consternation when they
learned the place didn't have any rooms available for the night.

Did you know?
Wonder what the seemingly dissimilar words "prostrate"
("stretched out with face on the ground"), "stratum" ("layer"),
and "stratus" ("a low cloud form extending over a large area")
have in common with "consternation"? They are all thought to
share the Latin ancestor "sternere," meaning "to spread"
or "strike or throw down." "Consternation," which has been a
part of the English language since at least 1604, comes from
Latin "consternare." Etymologists aren't completely certain
that "consternare" comes from "sternere," but they have a
strong suspicioun that it does.