I started receiving this from www.dictionary.com (http://www.dictionary.com)

This one was interesting, and I was kinda bored, so I thought I'd post this. Enjoy!

Word of the Day for Friday October 18, 2002:
bellwether \BEL-wether\, noun:
1. A wether, or sheep, which leads the flock, with a bell on
his neck.
2. Hence: A leader of a movement or activity.

"Men are for the most part like sheep, who always follow
the bell-wether." --Lewes

"Because Yahoo is first out of the gate and since it is the
largest Internet search service, investors and analysts see
it as a bellwether for the fledgling Internet industry." --
Reuters, July 6, 1999

"This event [[1]sc. the Women's World Cup] was seen by some
as a bellwether of women's sports in America. Could women's
teams fill stadiums, draw advertisers and attract
television viewers in a non-Olympic event?" --
[2]Washington Post, July 11, 1999
__________________________________________________

Bellwether is a compound of bell and wether, a male sheep,
usually castrated. Wether is related to Latin vetus,
[3]veteran.

You really have too much time to be bored in Sir Bel.

I must be pretty sad too since I read it all though.

Word of the day could fo course be more fun:
The word is "legs" Spread the word.

Bel ... I used to get that at my old work e-mail but I haven't signed up for it yet here.

There is actually an old Christian song sung to the Great Shepherd, asking to be the Lord's bellweather. Sometimes we christains go go ALL THE WAY off the deep-end ;) :holy:

My favorite words of the day ... bruhaha and vapid.

Someone just turned me onto it. It's pretty cool. I have no desire to be anyone's bellwhether!!! Castration doesn't sound like much fun!!!

The song left the castration detail out. I guess that is the BIG SURPISE ...

I could imagine the verse though ...

Let me be your bellweather
Remove my manhood Lord
Shelter me in the Shepherds grace
'cause I have balls no more.

Aaaaaaaa-meeeen
:good:

I've subscribed to that thing for a long time.. it's great, would be even better if I actually spent time trying to memorize the word too, instead of just reading once, nodding, and deleting.

Viking, that was the most excellent post I've read on this board in a while.

Other than that, I'm going to have to go with the word "salacious". As in the sentence, "Jennifer Hale is one outstandingly salacious babe."

I seem to like learning little-known short words rather than the long multisyllabic ones.

For example: eft. A newt or small lizard.

(I wonder if BTA will keep this topic open for long, because a word per day means free and easy posts! Just hope we don't exhaust all the words in the dictionary. :heh: )

ord of the Day for Monday October 21, 2002

mordant \MOR-d'nt\, adjective:
Biting; caustic; sarcastic.

Mr. Justice Moorcroft's forte, a part which he had played
for so many years that it had become instinctive, was a
courteous reasonableness occasionally enlivened with shafts
of mordant wit.
--P. D. James, [1]A Certain Justice

I moved from one knot of people to another, surrounded by a
kind of envious respect because of Sophie's interest in me,
although subjected to a certain mordant raillery from some
of this witty company.
--Peter Brooks, [2]World Elsewhere

He had a mordant wit as well..., a bit wicked and
waspish even.
--Janice A. Radway, [3]A Feeling for Books
__________________________________________________

Mordant comes from the present participle of Old French
mordre, "to bite," from Latin mordere. It is related to
morsel, "a little bite"; and remorse, from Latin remordere,
"to bite back or again; to torment."

mordant ... see Shralp

;) :lol: :good:

[ October 21, 2002, 15:19: Message edited by: Mathetais ]

Word of the Day for Tuesday October 22, 2002

woebegone \WOE-bee-gon\, adjective:
1. Beset or overwhelmed with woe; immersed in grief or sorrow;
woeful.
2. Being in a sorry condition; dismal-looking; dilapidated;
run-down.

Socrates, condemned to death by the people of Athens,
prepares to drink a cup of hemlock, surrounded by woebegone
friends.
--Alain De Botton, [1]The Consolations of Philosophy

This woebegone lot includes Henry, a real-estate developer
whose dream project has, like his marriage, slipped into
bankruptcy; Henry's sister, Wiloma, who has hurled herself
headlong into the arms of a New Age church to survive her
own divorce; and Henry and Wiloma's decrepit Uncle Brendan,
a former monk whose faith has eroded along with his health,
stranding him in a nursing home.
--Jennifer Howard, review of [2]The Forms of Water, by
Andrea Barrett, [3]New York Times, June 13, 1993

After 40 years as a producer he thinks of himself as a
battered, scarred but well-armoured animal, "like an old
turtle"; and if such creatures could speak they would
probably sound like [him], a bit woebegone but drolly
unsurprised by life's vicissitudes.
--"Time for another Hugo hit," [4]Times (London), May 22,
2000
__________________________________________________

Woebegone is from Middle English wo begon, from wo (from Old
English wa, used to express grief) + begon, past participle of
begon, "to go about, to beset," from Old English began, bigan,
from bi-, "around, about" + gan, "to go."

So that's where Gerrison Keller came up for the idea of Lake Woebegone ?

I can across a new word today ... "samizdat".

sa·miz·dat Pronunciation Key (sämz-dät, s-myz-dät)
n.

The secret publication and distribution of government-banned literature in the former Soviet Union.
The literature produced by this system.
An underground press.

----
Have you noticed that this is becoming the Bel & Mat thread???? ;)

Mat - It's not surprising...you and I tend to be the spiritual and intellectual bellwethers of the forum; despite our somewhat mordant sense of humor and perspectives. Hopefully, some of our more woebegone posters will take up the banner of knowledge for their own personal edification.

How's that for a triple word score!!!!!
:grin: :spin: :roll: :lol: ;)

LOL...300 points Bel. I hadn't noticed this thread before! You guys are being the main posters because you visit dictionary.com regularly I guess :p

I wonder why woebegone doesn't mean relieved of woe instead, because that's the impression I'm getting from the word. :confused:

I just started getting the word of the day from dictionary.com...I like it! A few of the people in my office get it. We have a daily bet going...The first person to use the word correctly in a sentence during a meeting gets a soda....CHeesy, but fun. We all make terrible attempts to use the word during meetings, and everyone else gives us funny looks!

Tiamat - I was waiting for you to chime in on this thread...You're one of the most brilliantest people I "know."

Did you just say "know" as in the biblical sense?! ;)

"the most brilliantest"

Talk about a super-superlative :) :p

BTA! I am shocked!!! I meant no such thing! That was more of a cyber "know"...As in: I've never actually met anyone here IRL. You are turning into a dirty old man, my friend. Welcome to the Club! ;) :p

Word of the Day for Wednesday October 23, 2002

scintilla \sin-TIL-uh\, noun:
A tiny or scarcely detectable amount; the slightest particle;
a trace; a spark.

In victory, they must hold on to at least a scintilla of
humility, lest they get too cocky -- and ripe for a
takedown.
--Bill Breen, "'We are literally trying to stop time,'"
[1]Fast Company, May 2000

"I bear her not one scintilla of ill will," he said.
--Sarah Lyall, "That Harriman Book," [2]New York Times, May
4, 1994

There was never a scintilla of doubt, or a hint of
equivocation, in Michael about his commitment to the party.
--"Ferris's decency and sense of fun recalled," [3]Irish
Times, March 23, 2000
__________________________________________________

Scintilla is from Latin scintilla, "a spark, a glimmer, a
faint trace." Also from scintilla is the verb scintillate, "to
sparkle."

Amazingly, I don't have a witty anecdote or an illustration for this word. This is the one word I've never run into before. I guess my grasp of the English language is just a scintilla from perfect.

(Is it just me, or does scintilla make you think of chinchilla's!?!)

:p :good:

This is the first one I've gotten I've used before...It's a great lawyer word. "Your honor, there's not one scintilla of evidence linking my client to the crime charged!!! I therefore request that all charges be dismissed."

Yeehaa! I just feel myself getting smarter by the minute!! Although, that may be the caffeine kicking in!

how about this one,

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is fear of long words.

'think i hear alanis m. singing ironic in the background.

LOL Good one nior! :lol:

I'd like to see Bel try to use that one at a business meeting, let alone pronounce it properly (not that anyone would pick up on any of the mistakes).

Actually I used Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia in a sentence during a meeting, and my boss gave me the day off! It was fantastic! :p ;) :lol:
:grin: :shake:

Word of the Day for Thursday October 24, 2002

halcyon \HAL-see-uhn\, noun:
1. A kingfisher.
2. A mythical bird, identified with the kingfisher, that was
fabled to nest at sea about the time of the winter solstice
and to calm the waves during incubation.

adjective:
1. Calm; quiet; peaceful; undisturbed; happy; as, "deep,
halcyon repose."
2. Marked by peace and prosperity; as, "halcyon years."

It seems to be that my boyhood days in the Edwardian era
were halcyon days.
--Mel Gussow, "At Home With John Gielgud: His Own
Brideshead, His Fifth 'Lear,'" [1]New York Times, October
28, 1993

It is a common lament that children today grow up too fast,
that society is conspiring to deprive them of the halcyon
childhood they deserve.
--Keith Bradsher, "Fear of Crime Trumps the Fear of Lost
Youth," [2]New York Times, November 21, 1999

It was a halcyon life, cocktails and bridge at sunset,
white jackets and long gowns at dinner, good gin and
Gershwin under the stars.
--Elizabeth M. Norman, [3]We Band of Angels
__________________________________________________ _______

Halcyon derives from Latin (h)alcyon, from Greek halkuon, "a
mythical bird, kingfisher."

Reminds me of Valin Halcyon, the father of Corran Horn (Star Wars EU, Rogue Squadron)

:tie:

Happy Friday!

Word of the Day for Friday October 25, 2002

tendentious \ten-DEN-shuhs\, adjective:
Marked by a strong tendency in favor of a particular point of
view.

Most writing about Wagner has been like political
pamphleteering--tendentious, one-sided and full of
revisionist zeal.
--Erich Leinsdorf, "The Cruel Face of Genius," [1]New York
Times, May 15, 1988

Since I believe all novels are political, I certainly
believe that it is possible for a novelist to admix
deliberate political purpose and aesthetics, although there
is certainly the danger, in the process, of making art that
is tendentious . . . and therefore not terribly
artistically interesting.
--Rick Moody, quoted in "Politics and the Novel: A
Symposium," [2]Los Angeles Times, August 13, 2000

All types of social disagreements seem to be routed almost
inexorably into the tendentious jargon and intellectually
impoverished categories of legal reasoning, until everyone
from Alan Dershowitz to the guy fixing your radiator
insists on giving you his opinion about fundamental rights,
or presumptions of innocence, or probable cause, or--God
help us--"what the Constitution requires."
--Paul F. Campos, [3]Jurismania: The Madness of American
Law
__________________________________________________

Tendentious comes from Medieval Latin tendentia, from Latin
tendens, tendent-, present participle of tendere, "to stretch,
to direct one's course to, to be inclined." It is related to
tendency.

My favorite has always been concupiscient; I don't know why, but Wallace Stevens tends to use the good ones in his poetry

Word of the Day for Monday October 28, 2002

captious \KAP-shuhs\, adjective:
1. Marked by a disposition to find fault or raise objections.
2. Calculated to entrap or confuse, as in an argument.

The most common among those are captious individuals who
can find nothing wrong with their own actions but
everything wrong with the actions of everybody else.
--"In-Closet Hypocrites," Atlanta Inquirer, August 15, 1998

Mr Bowman had, I think, been keeping Christmas Eve, and was
a little inclined to be captious: at least, he was not on
foot very early, and to judge from what I could hear,
neither men nor maids could do anything to please him.
--M. R. James, The Haunted Dolls' House and Other Stories

Most authors would prefer readers such as Roiphe over
captious academic critics.
--Steven Moore, "Old Flames," [1]Washington Post, November
26, 2000

With the imperturbablest bland clearness, he, for five
hours long, keeps answering the incessant volley of fiery captious questions.
--Thomas Carlyle, [2]The French Revolution
__________________________________________________

Captious is derived from Latin captiosus, "sophistical,
captious, insidious," from captio, "a taking, a fallacy,
sophism," from capere, "to take, to seize."

So dictionary.com doesn't send word of the day on weekends? Them slackers.. :grin:

Actually, Dictionary.com DOES send them on the weekends...I'm just too much of a slacker to post them! :grin: :spin: :roll: :lol:

Word of the Day for Tuesday October 29, 2002

ersatz \AIR-sahts; UR-sats\, adjective:
Being a substitute or imitation, usually an inferior one.

Meanwhile, a poor copy was erected in the courtyard; many
an unsuspecting traveler paid homage to that ersatz
masterpiece.
--Edith Pearlman, "Girl and Marble Boy," [1]The Atlantic,
December 29, 1999

All we can create in that way is an ersatz culture, the
synthetic product of those factories we call variously
universities, colleges or museums.
--Sir Herbert Read, The Philosophy of Modern Art

Then there was the sheaf of hostile letters larded with
ersatz sympathy, strained sarcasm or pure spite.
--"Time for GAA to become a persuader," [2]Irish Times,
Monday, April 13, 1998
__________________________________________________

Ersatz derives from German Ersatz, "a substitute."

Bel ... in other words, relying on you to supply us with our daily dose of knowledge is an ersatz to the real "Word of the Day" e-mail service?

(If you use a new piece of information (aka a word) within 30 seconds of learning it, you have a much higher chance of retaining it!)

:good:

[Actually ersatz is an adjective, not a noun, so it would be "In other words, your supplying us with our daily dose of knowledge is an ersatz "Word of the Day" e-mail service?" - BTA]

[ October 29, 2002, 17:21: Message edited by: Blackthorne TA ]

Just a little word I'd like to point out quikly:
"Heaven":as many of you might think that heaven is a place or existant world it is NOT!!! Heaven is more of a way of life! After the second coming or "Doomsday","Judgment day" god will re-start the world! All who have been good in their former life will find it easy to live and will be happy and always having fun and passing the endless days of immortality happily! Hell on the other hand like heaven is also a way of life! In the new world the unjust and evil will find it hard and difficult to live in this world and every day will be a great struggle!

Just thought I'd clear that out since some people might not know the true meaning of these two word (Hell and heaven). Thanks for listening to me if you have.

Another sentence that I refered to in my previus explanations:

"The second coming"(Also knowen as "Judgement day" or even "Doomsday"): This does not mena that the world will blow up or the sun will go supernova! It is when the lord will come for the second time to earth and will re-start the world!

Also this one is important:

Jesus Christ, God and the holy spirit: They are not seperate people or gods on their own or even under gods who serve the lord! They are the lord! Jesus is made from Gods supstance and there for is him, The holy spirit is his spirit.

Finally...

"Christianism": This does not mean to go to church and serve the pope or arch bishop. It does not mean that you must be with catholics or orthodox! It means that you are a good pearson of a just nature and of a fair soul and big heart! You go to church, pray often, ask from god but also give and it also means that you are good and humble and are ready to share anything with one who has nothing!

I wanted to clear this up coz it shock me today when I saw how few of my orthodox mates didnt know this(NOTE: Yes I was an atheist but now I've goined the christians!)

Padeen Dragonblade "The scholar and servent of God"!!!

Good Stuff Padeen, you've been studying your eschatology. Gotta love the amillenial point of view! :holy:

Word of the Day for Wednesday October 30, 2002

paroxysm \PAIR-uhk-siz-uhm\, noun:
1. (Medicine) A sudden attack, intensification, or recurrence
of a disease.
2. Any sudden and violent emotion or action; an outburst; a
fit.

But when he's on target -- and more often than not he is --
he can send you into paroxysms of laughter.
--William Triplett, "Drawing Laughter From a Well of Family
Pain," [1]Washington Post, June 13, 2002

Dickens had a paroxysm of rage: 'Bounding up from his
chair, and throwing his knife and fork on his plate (which
he smashed to atoms), he exclaimed: "Dolby! your infernal
caution will be your ruin one of these days!"'
--Edmund Wilson, "Dickens: The Two Scrooges," [2]The
Atlantic, April/May 1940

Mrs. Bumble, seeing at a glance that the decisive moment
had now arrived, and that a blow struck for mastership on
one side or another, must necessarily be final and
conclusive, dropped into a chair, and with a loud scream
that Mr. Bumble was a hard-hearted brute, fell into a
paroxysm of tears.
--Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
__________________________________________________

Paroxysm is from Greek paroxusmos, from paroxunein, "to
irritate, provoke or excite (literally to sharpen
excessively)," from para-, "beyond" + oxunein, "to sharpen, to
provoke."

Thanks Mat!
Anyway I just visited a net dictionary....i typed in the word "Holy" it gives me "Satan and sin"!!! Gotta love the dumb @££ that writes this stuff(In the dictionary of course)!

Padeen.

lol, I have to say I absolutely love this topic :D
keep 'em coming!

a buck on Bel will use that word in a sentence correctly first!

[ October 30, 2002, 21:51: Message edited by: Lokken ]

Here's a good Halloween word...Have a spooky day!
;)

Word of the Day for Thursday October 31, 2002

tenebrous \TEN-uh-bruhs\, adjective:
Dark; gloomy.

He found the Earl, who is eight feet tall and has the
family trait of a Cyclops eye, standing stock still,
dressed from head to foot in deepest black, in one of the
most tenebrous groves in all his haunted domains.
--Peter Simple, "At Mountwarlock," [1]Daily Telegraph,
March 20, 1998

We are so used to the tenebrous atmosphere that can be
created in indoor theatres that it's a shock to realise
that this murkiest of tragedies first saw the literal light
of day at the Globe theatre.
--Paul Taylor, "Cool, calm, disconnected," [2]Independent,
June 7, 2001

And lurking behind our every move is the knowledge of our
own mortality. It gives life its edgy disquiet, its
tenebrous underside.
--Douglas Kennedy, "Sudden death," [3]Independent, July 3,
1999
__________________________________________________

Tenebrous derives from Latin tenebrosus, from tenebrae,
"darkness."

That word reminds me of the name of some bad guy in a game I've played. Can't remember if it was an AD&D creature, but I think he was a demon. I guess they chose a rather descriptive word for that tenebrous being.

(Not sure if I used that correctly here, since all three examples given used tenebrous to describe the surroundings.)

Belisarius, Belisarius, where forth art though Belisarius ... deny thy schedule and refuse thy day-planner, if thou hast love, then post the word of the day!

Filling in ....

cadre \KAD-ree; -ray; KAH-dray; -druh\, noun:
1. A core or nucleus of trained or otherwise qualified personnel around which an organization is formed.
2. A tightly knit and trained group of dedicated members active in promoting the interests of a revolutionary party.
3. A member of such a group.
4. A framework upon which a larger entity can be built; a scheme.

Trained cadres flowed across the porous border and down the blossoming supply trail through eastern Laos (the Ho Chi Minh Trail).
--Peter Gay, Pleasure Wars: The Bourgeois Experience

Around 1880, the year Flaubert died, the French avant-garde was made up of a cadre of bitter, highly self-conscious poets, painters, novelists, and critics.
--Daniel Okrent, "Twilight of the Boomers," Time, June 12, 2000

The prison's existence was known only to those who worked or were imprisoned there and to a handful of high-ranking cadres, known as the Party Center, who reviewed the documents emerging from S-21 and selected the individuals and the military and other units to be purged.
--David Chandler, Voices From S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison

The failure of the League of Nations and the shock of Munich had spurred more support, sometimes from names that were widely known, for a federation of free peoples, a union of sovereign states, or whatever similar arrangement might lower the possibility of conflict. Adherents came from the usual cadre of pious dreamers.
--Hugo Young, This Blessed Plot: Britain and Europe from Churchill to Blair

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Upon entering the English language around 1830 via Sir Walter Scott's Introduction to The Lay of the Last Minstrel, this word first meant "framework," and by the 1850s was a term for a group of people. It was borrowed from the French cadre, a picture frame, from Italian quadro, framework, from Latin quadrum, square, four-sided thing.

(Wow, that felt good!)
:good:

The e-mail didn't arrive until just now! Thanks for posting it though Mathetais! You have proven yourself worthy of being a member in the Word of the Day cadre!!! ;) :p

Happy Friday All!!

I couldn't double post, so here's Monday's word of the day:

Word of the Day for Monday November 4, 2002

parley \PAR-lee\, noun:
A conference or discussion, especially with an enemy, as with
regard to a truce or other matters.

intransitive verb:
To speak with another; to confer on some point of mutual
concern; specifically, to have a discussion with an enemy.

The government recognized his knack for parleying with
tribes, and it sent him all over the West.
--Geoffrey O'Gara, [1]What You See in Clear Water

Whether the Indians came out to parley or, seeing that the
fort was about to fall, came out to surrender is unclear.
--Willard Sterne Randall, [2]George Washington: A Life

In case of Servia's non-compliance with the ultimatum the
army will invade the kingdom without further parley.
--"Austria Ready to Invade Servia, Sends Ultimatum," [3]New
York Times, July 24, 1914
__________________________________________________

Parley comes from Old French parlée, from parler, "to speak,"
from Medieval Latin parabolare, from Late Latin parabola, "a
proverb, a parable, a similitude," from Greek parabole, "a
comparison, a placing beside," from paraballein, "to throw
beside, hence to compare," from para-, "beside" + ballein, "to
throw."

Here's Sunday and Saturday as well:

Word of the Day for Sunday November 3, 2002

inscrutable \in-SKROO-tuh-bul\, adjective:
Difficult to fathom or understand; difficult to be explained
or accounted for satisfactorily; obscure; incomprehensible;
impenetrable; as, an inscrutable design or event.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright recalled the
inscrutable comment of a French diplomat about the
interaction of the various European organisations: "It will
work in practice, yes. But will it work in theory?"
--Jonathan Fenby, France on the Brink

[T]here is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the
sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence and as
inscrutable as Destiny.
--Joseph Conrad, [1]The Heart of Darkness

He delighted in keeping people guessing. His thought
processes were eclectic, inscrutable and unpredictable.
--"Martin Mogridge," [2]Times (London), March 17, 2000

A page of John Lennon's enigmatic lyrics for "I Am [the]
Walrus," one of the Beatles' most inscrutable songs, was
sold for £78,500 at auction in London yesterday.
--John Shaw, "Lennon lyric sells for £78,500," [3]Times
(London), October 1, 1999
__________________________________________________

Inscrutable is from Late Latin inscrutabilis, from Latin in-,
not + Late Latin scrutabilis, searchable, from Latin scrutari,
to search through, to examine thoroughly (as if rummaging the
trash or a heap of discarded garments), from scruta, trash,
rags. The noun form is inscrutability. There is a word
[4]scrutable, though it is less often encountered than its
opposite. A related word is scrutiny, careful examination.

Synonyms: indecipherable, mysterious, impenetrable,
unaccountable. [5]Find more at Thesaurus.com.

Saturday:

Word of the Day for Saturday November 2, 2002

gubernatorial \GOO-ber-nuh-TOR-ee-uhl\, adjective:
Of or pertaining to a governor.

In 1780 [1]John Hancock was elected the first governor of
Massachusetts under its new constitution and thereafter was
easily reelected whenever he chose to run. His
gubernatorial career was marked by his inability to prevent
a fiscal and currency crisis in the mid-1780s.
--"John Hancock," [2]The Reader's Companion to American
History

Jesse Ventura did not abandon his rough habits or smooth
his swagger during the gubernatorial campaign, and a
plurality of the audience evidently felt charmed rather
than insulted.
--Paul Gray, "Body Slam," [3]Time, November 16, 1998

Prisoners, the vast majority of them lifers in a state
where a life term means life, blamed their despair on tough
parole laws and a dearth of gubernatorial pardons.
--Jill Smolowe, "Bringing Decency Into Hell," [4]Time,
December 14, 1992

The popular voice, at the next gubernatorial election,
though loud as thunder, will be really but an echo of what
these gentlemen shall speak, under their breath, at your
friend's festive board.
--Nathaniel Hawthorne, [5]The House of the Seven Gables
__________________________________________________

Gubernatorial is from Latin gubernator, "governor," from
gubernare, "to govern," which is also the source of govern.

[ November 04, 2002, 13:58: Message edited by: Sir Belisarius ]

Being election week, I've seen many candidates with Inscrutable reputataions parlay for a chance to impact the gubernatorial elections.

:good:

Finally, a word of the day that I actually know already (parley)! I was beginning to think about how small my vocabulary is. :o

Here you go...Add this one to your repertoire:

clarion \KLAIR-ee-uhn\, noun:
1. A kind of trumpet having a clear and shrill note.
2. The sound of this instrument or a sound similar to it.

adjective:
Sounding like the clarion; loud and clear.

His voice and laugh, which perpetually re-echoed through
the Custom-House, had nothing of the tremulous quaver and
cackle of an old man's utterance; they came strutting out
of his lungs, like the crow of a cock, or the blast of a
clarion.
--Nathaniel Hawthorne, [1]The Scarlet Letter

Their voices were different; my grandfather's was high and
clarion, Freddie's bass was rough, my father's baritone was
mellow and expressive, but they blended so naturally that
together they sounded like one being.
--Deborah Weisgall, [2]A Joyful Noise

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again,"
wrote Thomas Paine in Common Sense (1776), his clarion call
for American independence.
--Robert Famighetti, et al. (Editor(s)), [3]The World
Almanac and Book of Facts 1999

Others will decide that the disaster is a clarion call to
spend more time with their families or finally pursue some
personal goal.
--Susan Chandler, "Shaken consumers come back," [4]Chicago
Tribune, September 16, 2001
__________________________________________________

Clarion comes from Medieval Latin clario, clarion-, from Latin
clarus, "clear."

Gahhhh!!!! I was the last person to post...Oh well, here's your word of the day for Wednesday. Enjoy!

Word of the Day for Wednesday November 6, 2002

circumambient \sur-kuhm-AM-bee-uhnt\, adjective:
Surrounding; being on all sides; encompassing.

The self owes its form and perhaps its very existence to
the circumambient social order.
--Rom Harre, Personal Being: A Theory for Individual
Psychology

Facing reality, then, implies accepting one's essential
powerlessness, yielding or adjusting to circumambient
forces, taking solace in some local pattern or order that
one has created and to which one has become habituated.
--Yi-Fu Tuan, [1]Escapism

It's a voice that does something physical to me, that jumps
out of the circumambient air and seizes hold of me like a
thing that lives off the blood of other things.
--T.C. Boyle, [2]A Friend of the Earth

Romantic love... rarefies lust into an angelic standoff,
a fruitless longing without which our energizing
circumambient dreamland of song, film and fiction would be
bereft of its main topic.
--John Updike, "The Deadly Sins/Lust," [3]New York Times,
June 20, 1993
__________________________________________________

Circumambient is from Latin circum, "around, round about, on
all sides" + ambire, "to go around, to surround," from amb-,
"on both sides, around" + ire, "to go."

Word of the Day for Thursday November 7, 2002

trammel \TRAM-uhl\, noun:
1. A kind of net for catching birds, fish, etc.
2. A kind of shackle used for making a horse amble.
3. Something that impedes activity, progress, or freedom, as a
net or shackle.
4. An iron hook of various forms and sizes, used for handing
kettles and other vessels over the fire.
5. An instrument for drawing ellipses.
6. An instrument for aligning or adjusting parts of a machine.

transitive verb:
1. To entangle, as in a net; to enmesh.
2. To hamper; to hinder the activity, progress, or freedom of.

I feel she dances a symbol of human happiness as it should
be, free from unnatural trammels.
--John Sloan, quoted in [1]New York Modern, by William B.
Scott and Peter M. Rutkoff

Is it a dull or uninstructive picture to see a whole people
shaking suddenly off the trammels of reason, and running
wild after a golden vision, refusing obstinately to believe
that it is not real, till, like a deluded hind running
after an ignis fatuus, they are plunged into a quagmire?
--Charles Mackay, [2]Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular
Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

In fact, corporate governance is based on the belief that
managers (like anyone else) work best not when their
freedom is trammelled but when they are made to account for
what they do with it.
--"The way ahead," [3]The Economist, January 29, 1994

It is quite inconsistent to claim to promote an enterprise
society on the one hand and to trammel it with regulations
on the other.
--Sir Iain Vallance, quoted in "Stop squeezing business,
CBI," by Charlotte Denny and Michael White, [4]Guardian,
May 22, 2002

And it encourages the coercive use of political power to
wipe out choice, forbid experimentation, shortcircuit
feedback, and trammel progress.
--Virginia Postrel, [5]The Future and Its Enemies
__________________________________________________

Trammel is from Old French tramail, from Late Latin
tremaculum, a kind of net for catching fish, from Latin tres,
"three" + macula, "a mesh."

[ November 07, 2002, 13:53: Message edited by: Sir Belisarius ]

We have to keep this thread going!

My brain is growing by the day (and when the word "exponentially" is the Word of the Day I'll be able to say that my brain is growing exponentially!)

"My forward progress was trammelled by the circumambient clarion call that knifed into my brain."

How's that?

Sounds like an oxymoron to me. "Circumambient clarion?" Is that like a vague clear call?

More like loud and clear and all around you...

A thousand pardons, I was looking at the wrong definition... doh.

Finally!!! Others have posted...So I can post the Happy Friday Word of the Day! This seems to be my perrenial matutinal job! ;) Have fun with it!

Word of the Day for Friday November 8, 2002

matutinal \muh-TOOT-nn-uhl\, adjective:
Relating to or occurring in the morning; early.

Get up early and wash your face in the matutinal May Day
dew; it will make your skin beautiful and your heart pure.
--Ray Murphy, "Hurray, Hurray the Month of May," [1]Boston
Globe, April 28, 1988

We had to rehearse at an hour at which no actor or actress
has been out of bed within the memory of man; and we
sardonically congratulated one another every morning on our
rosy matutinal looks and the improvement wrought by our
early rising in our health and characters.
--George Bernard Shaw, "The Author's Apology," [2]Mrs.
Warren's Profession

Even your average Chinese peasant will add a soupçon of
pork fat to her matutinal bowl of rice.
--Will Self, "Raw and cooked," [3]The Observer, April 21,
1996

Harry Truman, was - like Winston Churchill - known to take
a matutinal shot of whisky. He did it after his regular
very vigorous early-morning walk.
--R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., "Plainly presidential," [4]The
Washington Times, January 18, 2002
__________________________________________________

Matutinal is from Late Latin matutinalis, from Latin
matutinus, "early in the morning; pertaining to the morning."

Reading your word of the day is my matutinal habit now!

Thanks Bel!

Maybe I can get a 4+ on my writing if I use these words!! :shake:

I missed the last few words of the day, so I couldn't post... so sorry Bel! But to reiterate what Mathetais said, your posts are very much appreciated!

nugatory \NOO-guh-tor-ee; NYOO-\, adjective:
1. Trifling; insignificant; inconsequential.
2. Having no force; inoperative; ineffectual.

Tygiel's forte as a historian is his eye for what may
appear nugatory or marginal but, when focused upon,
illuminates the temper of a given moment.
--Roberto Gonzlez Echevarria, "From Ruth to Rotisserie,"
[1]New York Times, July 2, 2000

Jacoby's offense was no offense -- or an error so nugatory
as to demand no more than a one-sentence explanation.
--Lance Morrow, "In Boston, a Foolish Consistency of Little
Minds," [2]Time, July 19, 2000

Socialism no longer restrains; trade unions do so much less
than they did; moral inhibitions over the acquisition and
display of wealth are nugatory.
--John Lloyd, "If not socialism, what will persuade the
rich willingly to pay more taxes to help the poor and
preserve a decent society?" [3]New Statesman, August 2,
1996
__________________________________________________

Nugatory comes from Latin nugatorius, from nugari, "to
trifle," from nugae, "jests, trifles."

Here's SAturday.....

beneficence \buh-NEFF-i-suhns\, noun:
The practice of doing good; active goodness, kindness, or
charity; bounty springing from purity and goodness.

Lord Jeffrey told Dickens that it [A Christmas Carol] had
"prompted more positive acts of beneficence than can be
traced to all the pulpits and confessionals in Christendom
since Christmas 1842."
--Roger Highfield, [1]The Physics of Christmas: From the
Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey

From my grandfather Verus I learned good morals and the
government of my temper. From the reputation and
remembrance of my father, modesty and a manly character.
From my mother, piety and beneficence and abstinence.
--Marcus Aurelius, [2]Meditations

[S]he had disseminated around her what seemed an
involuntary aura of beneficence and goodwill.
--John Bayley, [3]Elegy for Iris
__________________________________________________

Beneficence is from Latin beneficentia, from beneficus, kind,
generous, obliging, from bene, well (from bonus, good) +
facere, to do. One who, or that which, is characterized by
beneficence is [4]beneficent.

And Sunday.....A good lawyerly word!!!!

Word of the Day for Sunday November 10, 2002

aver \uh-VUR\,transitive verb
[Inflected forms: averred; averring]:
1. To affirm with confidence; to declare in a positive manner,
as in confidence of asserting the truth.
2. (Law) To assert, claim, or declare as a fact.

Between us and the bottom of the sea was less than an inch
of wood. And yet, I aver it, and I aver it again, I was
unafraid.
--Jack London, [1]The Sea-Wolf

Although it was not quite true, as he liked to aver, that
almost forty years passed between his departure for Germany
and his eventual return to Austria, he did not hurry back
to Vienna after emigrating to the United States.
--Patrick McGilligan, [2]Fritz Lang: The Nature of the
Beast

Many companies aver that the most expedient path to bigger
market share or an expanded product portfolio is through a
merger or acquisition.
--Megan Santosus, "Arranged Marriage," [3]CIO Enterprise,
July 15, 1999
__________________________________________________

Aver is from Old French-Medieval French averer, from Medieval
Latin adverare, to confirm as authentic, from Latin ad-,
[4]ad- + Medieval Latin verare, from Latin verus, true. Other
words deriving from verus are very, which sometimes has the
sense of "true"; verify, to prove the truth of; and verdict, a
decision or judgment, literally a "true-saying" (verus +
dictum, saying).

Cranium expanding ... can't take much more learning! ;)

Seriously ... I have a story on the whole "vocabulary thing".

This weekend I went to a family birthday party. All the cousins, aunts, and misc family members were there. Over the course of the evening the subject of politics came up. Someone touched on a subject that really got me going, and I just started a minor rant that lasted about a minute until I saw all the glazed looks around me. Finally, my cousin said, "Tim ... hate to tell you this, but I didn't understand about half the words you used."

Seems that the rest of America needs to read these "Words of the Day" ... less the few intelligent folks (like me & Bel ;) ) continue to be unheeded!

I don't think the nougat in that Snickers bar is nugatory at all!

Aver is a very common crossword puzzle word too, so keep it in mind if you like crossword puzzles. And that reminds me, crosswords are a great way to learn words too!

Hey! Hey! It's the word of the day!

Word of the Day for Tuesday November 12, 2002

multifarious \muhl-tuh-FAIR-ee-uhs\, adjective:
Having great diversity or variety; of various kinds;
diversified.

She is good at constructing a long, multifarious narrative,
weaving many minor stories into one, so that you are left
with a sense of the fluidity and ambiguity of historical
interpretation.
--Jason Cowley, "It's bright, clever... but the result is
academic," [1]The Observer, May 27, 2001

Men's opinions, accordingly, on what is laudable or
blamable, are affected by all the multifarious causes which
influence their wishes in regard to the conduct of others,
and which are as numerous as those which determine their
wishes on any other subject.
--John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

But as he reached the verge of the lawn and vaulted the
retaining wall there, crossed the flagstone walkway and
started up the steps of the ad building, the multifarious
marvel of his congested brain surprised him--the apes flew
right out of his head and he was thinking about California.
--T. Coraghessan Boyle, [2]Riven Rock
__________________________________________________

Multifarious derives from Latin multifariam, "on many sides;
in many places."

The devil's nefariousness is multifarious!

The Word of the Day topic is a good way to learn words!BTW, the Lord will RE-START the world?Bah. I am a stupid Estonian living in the North and still i speak English better than Paddy. I am not a Christian. Heheee. Actually it is a VERY good idea, the topic, I mean.

Ezellohar
(Having a brain shortage:FUEL 12%, so excusez moi)

So far, I have known all the words but multifarious. I didn't know my vocabulary was that big.

Wow! You've known ALL of the words so far?!?! That's pretty impressive! "Check out the big brain on Brad!" ;) That just needed a "Pulp Fiction" quote!

Word of the Day for Wednesday November 13, 2002

impassive \im-PASS-iv\, adjective:
1. Devoid of or unsusceptible to emotion.
2. Showing no sign of emotion or feeling; expressionless.

As before, he seemed neither happy nor unhappy. Just
utterly impassive.
--Lesley Hazleton, [1]Driving To Detroit

Yet highway troopers, too, wore smoked glasses to mask
their emotions and thus look formidably impassive as they
delivered news as highly charged as jazz.
--Edward Hoagland, [2]Compass Points

He was a slight, kindly man, his impassive face sculpted
with deep furrows, who held himself very erect and had a
demeanor which suggested a degree of resigned boredom from
having taught the same unchanging discipline year after
year to each new class of medical students.
--Frances K. Conley, M.D., [3]Walking Out on the Boys

Still, he remained impassive and unexcited, even when
informed of the death of Helen Jewett.
--Patricia Cline Cohen, [4]The Murder of Helen Jewett
__________________________________________________

Impassive is derived from Latin in-, "not" + passivus,
"subject to emotion," from passus, past participle of pati,
"to suffer."

more examples of impassive - see some of the posts in the Real Life? (http://www.sorcerers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=002506) thread. Now there's some uninspired and dull comments about life.

Todays word is:

Panties.

Someone send a cleric to cast "Raise Lawyer" on Bel. He must have been defeted by the mighty dragon Litigation.

Today's Word of the Day is a good fantasy word ...

fealty \FEE-uhl-tee\, noun:
1. Fidelity to one's lord; the feudal obligation by which the tenant or vassal was bound to be faithful to his lord.
2. The oath by which this obligation was assumed.
3. Fidelity; allegiance; faithfulness.

He was re-elected Governor in 1855, and his administration of the State affairs, both in that and the preceding term of office, was marked by a regard for the public interest rather than party fealty.
--"Andrew Johnson Dead," New York Times, August 1, 1875

Barbour believed Christian conservatives represented a critical constituency, and he looked for opportunities to display his fealty to them.
--Dan Balz and Ronald Brownstein, Storming the Gates

The aristocratic O'Sullivans were enriched in return for their promise of fealty to the mighty Democratic party and its rising new leader.
--Edward L. Widmer, Young America

Whether exploited by traditional religions or political religions, psychological totalism -- the unquestioning fealty to one God, one truth, and one right, embodied in one faith, one cause, one party -- has everywhere provided the tinder of persecution.
--Jack Beatty, "The Tyranny of Belief," The Atlantic, September 13, 2000

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fealty comes from Old French fealté, from Latin fidelitas, "fidelity," from fidelis, "faithful," from fides, "faith," from fidere, "to trust."

Oh no! Bel has abandoned his fealty to Word of the Day!

I first encountered the word fealty in Final Fantasy IX. Such an odd word--I guess we just don't go around pledging our fealty to anyone these days. "Feel what?" :D Also sounds like "filthy" if you were said it with Joe Pesci's accent from My Uncle Vinny.

I also thought that woebegone would have to do with woe being gone.

Merriam Webster has a Word of the Day as well... (http://www.m-w.com) and a good online dictionary and thesaurus. Which reminds me that my crazy 7th grade teacher used to pronounce it the-ar-sus. Anyhow! The M-W word of the day for November 14th is

-----------------------------------------
regurgitate • \ree-GUR-juh-tayt\ • (verb)
: to throw or be thrown back, up, or out

Example sentence:
The biology teacher described how some birds feed their chicks by regurgitating incompletely digested food.

Did you know?
Something regurgitated has typically been taken in, at least partially digested, and then spit back out . . . either literally or figuratively. The word often appears in biological contexts, as in our example sentence, or in references to ideas or information that have been acquired and restated. A student, for example, might be expected to learn information from a textbook or a teacher, and then regurgitate it for a test. "Regurgitate" is of Latin origin, and it entered the English vocabulary in the mid-17th century.
--------------------------------------

Hmmm. Sorry to gross anybody out! Just thought people might want to know there's another site out there proffering up words-of-the-day. (Ah! Proffer's a good one itself!). I suppose the most interesting part is to note it's Latinate origin and slough off the common prefix (re-) and suffix (-ate) and note the very odd root, involving "gurg". Now listen. I've never gurged anything, and no one's ever caught me gurging... BUT, I have certainly gargled and listened to a gurgling stream. *sigh*

Anyone who'd like to proffer up a rejection of regurgitate as an acceptable alternate obviously likes to sit at home and masticate (which means to chew, for those of you who did not or even for those who might've knew.)

(Yes, I know that known is what should've shown, but that would not have turned into another verse in a post that is now as epic as it is terse. Besides, it did not rhyme with chew...!)

Word of the Day for Friday November 15, 2002

segue \SEG-way; SAYG-way\, verb:
To proceed without interruption; to make a smooth transition.

Daylight segued into dusk.
--Susan Dworski

Our honeymoon seemed to segue into a month of dinner
parties.
--Robert McCrum, [1]My Year Off: Rediscovering Life After a
Stroke

The gratifying thing about McCourt is that he can drop his
professional character act and segue into a smart,
emotionally direct conversation faster than you can say
"Top o' the morning."
--"Malachy Mccourt: How a Rogue Becomes a Saint," [2]New
York Times, July 29, 1998

A melody will start innocuously enough, then segue into the
inevitable buildup, with swelling strings and bursting
brass.
--"Woe to Shows That Put On Operatic Airs," [3]New York
Times, July 20, 1997
_________________________________________________

Segue is Italian, meaning "it follows," from seguire, to
follow, from Latin sequi. It is also used as a noun,
signifying the act or any instance of segueing.

At this point I feel the need to be 'seguing' into weekend mode. Like it.

Hopefully when Bel is asleep at the switch, I can make a smooth segue and post the Word of the Day for him.

I first heard "segue" on a Seinfeld episode I think.

Hmmm... You know, I know the word 'segue', and usually, I'm much better than my peers at grammar and spelling and the like. (It's always confounded me how often people mix up your and you're.) I know that english words tend to have strange spellings for their pronunciations, and I still thing segue looks wrong. And another thing!

The award for Just Plain Amazed goes to me, for discovering that not only is there a word called nougatory, but that someone knew of it without the word of the day. "Nougatory." It's fun to say, ha-yuck! <Big hillbilly grin>.

Here's the stumper to end all stumpers:

Antidisastablishmentarianism.

I swear to the PTBs that I found it once in a dictionary, but the definition was so confusing, even I gave up.

Antidisestablishmentarianism? Well...
In the UK the Church of England is the established church. That means that the Queen is the head of the church; bishops from the Church sit in the House of Lords; the Prime Minister selects who is to be Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is directly linked to the functioning of the state. I would presume that in other countries the same is true of other churches. Disestablishmentarianism is the movement of those who think that this link should be broken, so that the Church can be free to follow its own conscience without being concerned about its official role. And Antidisestablishmentarianism is the opposite viewpoint, which believes the Church should keep its current position.

yeah, segue looks awfully strange. I'm not even sure that Italian origin helps explain the pronounciation. It's one of those words that you wouldn't like to see on a spelling bee!

As far as I know, in Holland the church has absolutely no power in the cabinet and the other way around.

It could be;

Supercallifragilistigetsyallidociouss ;)

or, I say, sighing...

...Iddlywiddlypiddlypoop :rolleyes:

*(sigh)* sorry Tal and BTA, just trying to do it before 8people or Frosty did.

Sorry sorry ;)

I'm worried about Bel!

Today's Word of the Day is the first WOD that makes me think of a Star Wars Planet. So today's Word is Dedicated with love to Big B!

------
coruscate \KOR-uh-skayt\, intransitive verb:
1. To give off or reflect bright beams or flashes of light; to sparkle.
2. To exhibit brilliant, sparkling technique or style.

They pulled up at the farthest end of a loop path that looked out over the great basin of the Rio Grande under brilliant, coruscating stars.
--Bill Roorbach, "Big Bend," The Atlantic, March 2001

Beneath you lie two miles of ocean -- a bottomlessness, for all practical purposes, an infinity of blue. . . . A thousand coruscating shafts of sunlight probe it, illuminating nothing.
--Kenneth Brower, "The Destruction of Dolphins," The Atlantic, July 1989

What coruscating flights of language in his prose, what waterfalls of self-displaying energy!
--Joyce Carol Oates, review of A Theft, by Saul Bellow, New York Times, March 5, 1989

Whether we know or like it or not, those of us who turn our hands to this task are scribbling in a line of succession which, however uncertainly and intermittently, reaches back to the young Macaulay, who first made his public reputation as a coruscating writer in the 1820s.
--David Cannadine, "On Reviewing and Being Reviewed," History Today, March 1, 1999

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coruscate comes from Latin coruscatus, past participle of coruscare, "to move quickly, to tremble, to flutter, to twinkle or flash." The noun form is coruscation. Also from coruscare is the adjective coruscant, "glittering in flashes; flashing."

*******
Weds 11/20:

foment \foh-MENT; FOH-ment\, transitive verb:
To nurse to life or activity; to incite; to abet; to instigate; -- often in a bad sense.

\FOH-ment\, noun:
1. Fomentation; the act of fomenting.
2. State of excitation.
Cynical politicians may even foment conflicts among groups to advance their own power.
--Martha Minow, Not Only for Myself

Here, over many cups of coffee and other brews, John Adams, James Otis, and Paul Revere met to foment rebellion, prompting Daniel Webster to call it "the headquarters of the Revolution."
--Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds

Having burned to taste the foment of the sixties, I romanticized Diego's experience of it.
--Katherine Russell Rich, The Red Devil

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Foment is from Latin fomentum, "fomentation," from fovere, "to warm, to foster, to encourage."

[ November 20, 2002, 19:16: Message edited by: Mathetais ]

I had to post this one!!! I like this word!!! I think it even beats out knucklehead!

Word of the Day for Thursday December 5, 2002

booboisie \boob-wah-ZEE\, noun:
A class of people regarded as stupid or foolish.

Until then, he'd dismissed Hollywood as a purveyor of
machine-made fodder for the booboisie, but he found, much
to his surprise, that the movies weren't nearly as bad as
he'd claimed.
--Terry Teachout, quoted in "Writing Mencken," by Kathryn
Jean Lopez, [1]National Review Online, November 15, 2002

He was primarily a radical freethinker who noisily waged
war against the booboisie.
--Richard Lingeman, "Disturber of the Peace," [2]Washington
Post, November 3, 2002
_________________________________________________

Booboisie is a blend of boob and bourgeoisie. It was coined by
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), American editor and critic.

LOL!!! ROTFLMAO

That's a good one ... can't believe its really in the dictionary.

Where have you been Sir Bel? I was so worried!!!

[ December 05, 2002, 18:40: Message edited by: Mathetais ]

We played a game at Thanksgiving where we open the dictionary to a random page, pick a word, and have everyone suggest definitions. The most accurate and/or funniest wins the round.

The word of the evening this year? Cockshy.

Any guesses?!