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Today's Word "robustious"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

robustious \roh-BUHS-chuhs\ (adjective) - 1 : Boisterous; vigorous. 2 : Coarse; rough; crude.

"Four girls and four boys he had, robustious little heathens, every one of them, as he said himself." -- Marilynne Robinson, 'Gilead'

Robustious derives from Latin robustus, "oaken, hence strong, powerful, firm," from robur, "oak."

Today's Word "explicate"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

explicate \EK-spluh-kayt\ (transitive verb) - To explain; to clear of difficulties or obscurity.

"Every day I would come home from the office to find him waiting and he would stay until dinnertime. During that time I would read and explicate a German introduction to philosphy to him. In return he would instruct me on the Yuishikiron, the ...Read more

Today's Word "cant"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

cant \KANT\ (noun) - 1 : The idioms and peculiarities of speech in any sect, class, or occupation. 2 : The use of religious phraseology without understanding or sincerity. 3 : Empty, solemn speech, implying what is not felt; insincere talk; hypocrisy. 4 : A whining manner of speaking, especially of beggars.

"In spite of all his gnomic cant he ...Read more

Today's Word "beneficence"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

beneficence \buh-NEFF-i-suhns\ (noun) - 1 : The practice of doing good; active goodness, kindness, or charity. 2 : A charitable gift or act.

"He was one day engaged with Mrs. Allworthy in a discourse on charity: in which the captain, with great learning, proved to Mr. Allworthy, that the word charity in Scripture nowhere means beneficence or ...Read more

Today's Word "inchoate"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

inchoate \in-KOH-it\, (adjective) - 1 : In an initial or early stage; just begun. 2 : Imperfectly formed or formulated.

"He was not articulate, and was unable to put into words the inchoate ambitions inside him." -- Robert Daley, 'The Dangerous Edge'

Inchoate comes from the past participle of Latin inchoare, alteration of incohare, "to begin."

Today's Word "votary"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

votary \VOH-tuh-ree\ (noun) - 1. One who is devoted, given, or addicted to some particular pursuit, subject, study, or way of life. 2 : A devoted admirer. 3 : A devout adherent of a religion or cult. 4 : A dedicated believer or advocate.

"A priestess led a young man out onto the sunken floor, pulling him with a chain fixed to the manacles on ...Read more

Today's Word "sempiternal"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

sempiternal \sem-pih-TUR-nuhl\ (adjective) - Of never ending duration; having beginning but no end; everlasting; endless.

"Repetition had become a comfort in her antiquity; the well-worn phrases, unfinished business, grandstand view, made her feel solid, unchanging, sempiternal, instead of the creature of cracks and absences she knew herself to...Read more

Today's Word "onus"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

onus \OH-nuhs\ (noun) - 1 : A burden; an obligation; a disagreeable necessity. 2 : a: A stigma. b: Blame. 3 : The burden of proof.

"The engineer was not as much fun to be with as he once was, and she thought that it might be the terrible onus of repairing the engines that weighed upon him." -- Michael Flynn, 'The Wreck of the River of Stars

...Read more

Today's Word "bruit"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

bruit \BROOT\ (transitive verb) - To report; to noise abroad.

"You can come to me or refrain from doing so... provided that your distraction ceases hereafter. I ask only that you do not bruit this matter about, either way." -- Piers Anthony, 'Key to Havoc'

Bruit comes from Old French, from the past participle of bruire, "to roar."

Today's Word "virago"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

virago \vuh-RAH-go; vuh-RAY-go\ (noun) - 1 : A woman of extraordinary stature, strength, and courage. 2 : A woman regarded as loud, scolding, ill-tempered, quarrelsome, or overbearing.

"For you are the witch Magrit, the horrid harridan, the repulsive termagant, the fustigant fury, the lamia rampant, the execrable harpy, the verminous virago, ...Read more

Today's Word "mawkish"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

mawkish \MOCK-ish\ (adjective) - 1 : Sickly or excessively sentimental. 2 : Insipid in taste; nauseous; disgusting.

"It was quickly done, without words of mawkish sentiment. But it was enough, a silent exchange of souls, the culmination of all that had gone before." -- Matt Braun, 'The Kincaids'

Mawkish originally meant "maggoty" (from Middle ...Read more

Today's Word "lexicon"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

lexicon \LEK-suh-kon\ (noun) plural lexicons or lexica \-kuh\ - 1 : A book containing an alphabetical arrangement of the words in a language with the definition of each; a dictionary. 2 : The vocabulary of a person, group, subject, or language. 3 : [Linguistics] The total morphemes of a language.

"April Fool's Day is one of the cruelest ...Read more

Today's Word "slugabed"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

slugabed \SLUHG-uh-bed\ (noun) - One who stays in bed until a late hour; a sluggard.

"Perhaps he would lie slugabed till the household had departed for the procession, then get up late. Creep around unobtrusively, lie in the sun with the castle cats." -- Lois McMaster Bujold, 'The Curse of Chalion'

Slugabed is from slug, "sluggard" + abed, "in...Read more

Today's Word "felicitous"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

felicitous \fuh-LIS-uh-tuhs\ (adjective) - 1 : Suitably applied or expressed; appropriate; apt. 2 : Happy; delightful; marked by good fortune.

""His wonderful cheerfulness, I suppose," said I, sneering with spleen, "originates not less in a felicitous fortune than in a felicitous temper." -- Herman Melville, 'The Fiddler'

Felicitous is derived...Read more

Today's Word "nostrum"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

nostrum \NOS-truhm\ (noun) - 1. A medicine of secret composition and unproven or dubious effectiveness; a quack medicine. 2 : A usually questionable remedy or scheme; a cure-all.

"'He's carrying on his father's trade, for what he has just dispensed to us is very like a nostrum,' said Stanislas, assuming one of his most provocative poses. 'If I ...Read more

Today's Word "abstemious"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

abstemious \ab-STEE-mee-uhs\ (adjective) - 1 : Sparing in eating and drinking; temperate; abstinent. 2 : Sparingly used or consumed; used with temperance or moderation. 3 : Marked by or spent in abstinence.

"Lucy had suddenly realized she was ravenous and, most unlike her usual abstemious self, had taken two sausages to go with her toast and ...Read more

Today's Word "risible"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

risible \RIZ-uh-buhl\ (adjective) - 1 : Capable of laughing; disposed to laugh. 2 : Exciting or provoking laughter; worthy of laughter; laughable; amusing. 3 : Relating to, connected with, or used in laughter; as, "risible muscles."

"The subject of these remarks was a slumbering figure, so muffled in shawl and cloak, that it would have been ...Read more

Today's Word "discomfit"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

discomfit \dis-KUHM-fit; dis-kuhm-FIT\ (transitive verb) - 1 : To make uneasy or perplexed, or to put into a state of embarrassment; to disconcert; to upset. 2 : To thwart; to frustrate the plans of. 3 : (Archaic). To defeat in battle.

"A boy who can dodge over the roofs of Lahore city on a moonlight night, using every little patch and corner ...Read more

Today's Word "recherche"

Knowledge / Vocabulary /

recherche \ruh-sher-SHAY\ (adjective) - 1 : Uncommon; exotic; rare. 2 : Exquisite; choice. 3 : Excessively refined; affected. 4 : Pretentious; overblown.

"She was mocking the pretensions of the cookery writer who insists on recherche ingredients not because of their qualities but their snob value." -- Angela Carter, "Shaking a Leg"

Recherche ...Read more

Was Barbie a Nervous Nellie at the Oscars?

Knowledge / The Word Guy /

Why is the doll (and movie) called "Barbie"? Why is Nellie nervous, and why is a statuette named Oscar? This column will put you on a first-name basis with terms based on first names.

-- Barbie -- During the 1950s, Ruth and Elliot Handler noticed that their daughter, Barbie, preferred paper dolls resembling adult women to baby dolls. So they ...Read more

 

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