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

[Pah]

Word of the Day for Saturday July 24, 2004

sciolism \SY-uh-liz-uhm\, noun:
Superficial knowledge; a superficial show of learning.

Religion was mostly superstition, science for the most part sciolism, popular education merely a means of forcing the stupid and repressing the bright, so that all the youth of the rising generation might conform to the same dull, dead level of democratic mediocrity.
--Charles Waddell Chesnut, Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line

American classics teachers' choice in the early national period to focus on gammer rather than other aspects of the classical inheritance resulted from their primary pedagogical goals: to mold gentlemen who navigated between sciolism and pedantry, ministers who could intelligently read the Bible, and citizens who were moral and dutiful.
--Caroline Winterer, The Culture of Classicism

[Pah]

Word of the Day for Sunday July 25, 2004
beau ideal \boh-ay-DEEL\, noun;
plural beau ideals:
A perfect or an idealized type or model.

Their commentaries inspired generations of schoolboys to pen compositions in praise of the Spartan lad who flinched not as the fox gnawed his vitals, and shaped the American beau ideal of the "strong silent type."
--Florence King, "Oh, Sparta!" National Review, September 12, 1994

To the populace, of course, Hindenburg remains the national hero and beau ideal; nay, almost the national Messiah.
--H.L. Mencken, "Ludendorff," The Atlantic, June 1917

[Pah]

Word of the Day for Monday July 26, 2004

incarnadine \in-KAR-nuh-dyn\, adjective:
1. Having a fleshy pink color.
2. Red; blood-red.

transitive verb:
To make red or crimson.

Captain Dobo opened the castle's wine cellars and broke open the casks for his men, who greeted the sultan's soldiers without first politely wiping the incarnadine wine from their blood-red lips and bearded chins.
--Kevin Keating, "Kilroy Was Here!" International Travel News, October 1, 2001

The more he scrubbed it, the more it bled.
It made the seas incarnadine, he said.
--Judy Driscoll, "Biddy takes pink gin to the country dance," Hecate, May 1, 1993

In a night of rain, the ruddy reflections of their lights incarnadine the clouds till the entire city appears to be the prey of a monster conflagration.
--Alvan F. Sanborn, "New York After Paris," The Atlantic, October 1906

Will all great NeptuneÕs ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
--Shakespeare, Macbeth


from Italian incarnatino, which came from the Latin incarnato, something incarnate, made flesh, from in + caro, carn-, "flesh." It is related to carnation, etymologically the flesh-colored flower; incarnate, "in the flesh; made flesh"; and carnal, "pertaining to the body or its appetites."

[Pah]

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day


The Word of the Day for July 26 is:

magniloquent • \mag-NIL-uh-kwunt\ • adjective
: speaking in or characterized by a high-flown often bombastic style or manner

Example sentence:
Poet Edward Weismiller told The Baltimore Sun (April 10, 2004) that his former tendency to be magniloquent "was stamped out" of him by his mentor John Berryman.

Did you know?
"Magnus" means "great" in Latin; "loqui" is a Latin verb meaning "to speak." Combine the two and you get "magniloquus," the Latin predecessor of "magniloquent." English speakers started using "magniloquent" for the bombastic in the 1600s—even though we’d had its synonym "grandiloquent" since the 1500s. ("Grandiloquent" comes from Latin "grandiloquus," which combines "loqui" and "grandis," another word for "great" in Latin.) Today, these synonyms continue to exist side by side and to be used interchangeably, though "grandiloquent" is the more common of the two.

[Pah]

Word of the Day for Tuesday July 27, 2004

roborant \ROB-uh-ruhnt\, adjective:
Strengthening; restoring vigor.
adjective:
A strengthening medicine; a tonic; a restorative.

A major field study of the effect of pollen extracts on the common cold and its roborant . . . effects in 775 Swedish military recruits did not give unequivocal results in relation to the prophylactic effect of the preparation used against the common cold.
--James P. Carter, Racketeering in Medicine

That day, I felt the need of a roborant after my ghost-ridden night, and I swigged down two doses.
--William Least Heat Moon, River Horse

[Pah]

The Word of the Day for July 27 is:

causerie • \koh-zuh-REE\ • noun
*1: an informal conversation : chat
2: a short informal essay

Example sentence:
After the table was cleared and coffee was served, the dinner guests rose and continued their causerie in the other room.

Did you know?
"Causerie" first appeared in English in the early 19th century, and it can be traced back to the French "causer" ("to chat") and ultimately to the Latin "causa" ("cause, reason"). The word was originally used to refer to a friendly or informal conversation. Then, in 1849, the author and critic Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve began publishing a weekly column devoted to literary topics in the French newspaper Le Constitutionnel. These critical essays were called "Causeries du lundi" ("Monday chats") and were later collected into a series of books of the same name. After that, the word "causerie" acquired a second sense in English, referring to a brief, informal article or essay.

[Pah]

Word of the Day for Wednesday July 28, 2004

aerie or eyrie \EYE-ree\, noun:
1. The bird's nest built on a lofty place, such as a cliff or mountaintop.
2. A dwelling or stronghold located in a lofty place.

The sun is beating down on the Braes of Balquhidder, at the fringes of the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, as three of us, each trying to ignore a halo of midges, are peering through binoculars, surveying a cleft in a rock face where an untidy rickle of twigs indicates a golden eagle's eyrie.
--Jim Gilchrist, "End of a golden age?" The Scotsman, August 18, 2001

Saunière regaled them with sumptuous banquets and other forms of largess, maintaining the life-style of a medieval potentate presiding over an impregnable mountain domain. In his remote and well-nigh inaccessible aerie he received a number of notable guests.
--Michael Baigent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail

We could not afford a nicer house and all those luxuries besides; he did elaborate sums on the backs of envelopes to regretfully prove it -- and then would climb back happily to the little eyrie he'd made for himself in the attic, where he would lie on his bed listening to obscure continental stations on his radio, smoking his pipe.
--Angela Carter, Shaking a Leg

[Pah]

ord of the Day for Thursday July 29, 2004

ensorcell or ensorcel \en-SOR-suhl\, transitive verb:
To enchant; to bewitch.

Had she tried to ensorcell him with a charm spell?
--Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb, Finder's Bane

That was a very serious accusation to make, and Gruffydd realized he'd gone too far; he had no proof whatsoever that Joanna had ever used the Black Arts to ensorcell his father.
--Here be Dragons Sharon Kay Penman

I have been a journalist too long to be ensorcelled by conspiracy theories.
--Nat Hentoff, Speaking Freely

[Runt]

I really like this thread. Good idea, Pah!

[Pah]

The Word of the Day for July 29 is:

incumbent • \in-KUM-bunt\ • noun
1 : the holder of an office or ecclesiastical benefice
*2 : one that occupies a particular position or place

Example sentence:
The two-term incumbent has already raised almost a million dollars for the upcoming congressional race.

Did you know?
When "incumbent" was first used in English in the 15th century, it referred to someone who occupied a "benefice," or a paid religious position. This was often a lifetime appointment; the person could only be forced to leave the office in the case of certain specific legal conflicts. In the mid-17th century, "incumbent" came to refer to anyone holding any office, including elected positions. These days, in the American political system, "incumbent" generally refers to someone who is the current holder of a position during an election to fill that position. "Incumbent" came to English through Anglo-French, and derives from the Latin "incumbere," meaning "to lie down on."