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 Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 2:18 am
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Counterfactual
koun-ter-FAK-choo-uhl , noun;
1.
a conditional statement the first clause of which expresses something contrary to fact, as “If I had known.”
Quotes:
The ruse is so obvious, a counterfactual posing as a home truth.
-- Matt Feeney, "Michael Chabon's Oakland," The New Yorker, September 26, 2012
Nevertheless, a counterfactual conditional differs from a piece of fiction only insofar as in the first case the addressee is requested to cooperate more actively in the realization of the text he receives...
-- Umberto Eco, The Role of the Reader
Origin:
This word was born in the late 1940s from a portmanteau of two complete words. Counterfactual imagines a reality that is counter to the factual, or lived, experience.
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Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 8:31 am
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Shanderaa Counterfactual koun-ter-FAK-choo-uhl , noun; 1. a conditional statement the first clause of which expresses something contrary to fact, as “If I had known.” Quotes: The ruse is so obvious, a counterfactual posing as a home truth. -- Matt Feeney, "Michael Chabon's Oakland," The New Yorker, September 26, 2012 Nevertheless, a counterfactual conditional differs from a piece of fiction only insofar as in the first case the addressee is requested to cooperate more actively in the realization of the text he receives... -- Umberto Eco, The Role of the Reader Origin: This word was born in the late 1940s from a portmanteau of two complete words. Counterfactual imagines a reality that is counter to the factual, or lived, experience.
A little tricky, using such sentences as those as examples of how to use a new word.
Also, I wonder if that's really a portmanteau. It seems more like a compound word to me. |
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Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:59 am
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:39 am
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Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 10:15 am
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gastronomy
ga-STRON-uh-mee , noun;
1. the art or science of good eating.
2. a style of cooking or eating.
Quotes:
Well, you know how in the Poirot books he always goes on vacation to get away from it all, the mysteries and whatever else, only to have a murder committed on the very island he's fled to for peace and quiet and some civilized gastronomy?
-- Lev Grossman, The Magician King
"Tell me, dear lady," she would shriek down the table at me with a comradely twinkle, "tell me . . . explain to all of us, how one can dare to call herself a writer on gastronomy in the United States, where, from everything we hear, gastronomy does not yet exist?"
-- M.F.K. Fisher, Two Towns in Provence
Origin:
The name of this delicious discipline entered the lexicon in the early 1800s. Gastronomy combines the prefix gastro- from the Greek gastēr meaning "stomach" and the suffix -nomy indicating a science or field of study.
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Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 4:01 pm
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Is is strange that I keep a list of words? I mean, when I'm reading and I learn a new word, I add it to the list. China Miéville must have added 50 or more, but this thread helps, too. I don't remember the meanings for all of them, not even close, but I like having it. ninja
Anyway, I know we've already had a word today, but here's another:
Solecism
[sol-uh-siz-uhm]
1) an ungrammatical combination of words in a sentence ("irregardless", "unflammable", "they was"); also : a minor blunder in speech
2) something deviating from the proper, normal, or accepted order
3)a breach of etiquette or decorum
I find the origin amusing:
Latin soloecismus, from Greek soloikismos, from soloikos speaking incorrectly, literally, inhabitant of Soloi, from Soloi, city in ancient Cilicia where a substandard form of Attic was spoken
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 1:12 pm
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Taeryyn Is is strange that I keep a list of words? I mean, when I'm reading and I learn a new word, I add it to the list. China Miéville must have added 50 or more, but this thread helps, too. I don't remember the meanings for all of them, not even close, but I like having it. ninja Anyway, I know we've already had a word today, but here's another: Solecism [sol-uh-siz-uhm] 1) an ungrammatical combination of words in a sentence ("irregardless", "unflammable", "they was"); also : a minor blunder in speech 2) something deviating from the proper, normal, or accepted order 3)a breach of etiquette or decorum I find the origin amusing: Latin soloecismus, from Greek soloikismos, from soloikos speaking incorrectly, literally, inhabitant of Soloi, from Soloi, city in ancient Cilicia where a substandard form of Attic was spoken
So there's actually a word for irritatingly wrong grammar? That's unpossible! emotion_awesome
Anyway, simple word today:
hent
hent , verb;
1. to seize.
Quotes:
Then he hent in hand two stones and went round about the city…
-- Lady Isabel Burton, Justin Huntly McCarthy, Lady Burton's Edition of Her Husband's Arabian Nights
So they hent him by the hand and thrust him out; and I took the lute and sang over again the songs of my own composing which the damsel had sung.
-- Emile Van Vliet, The Thousand Nights and A Night
Origin:
Hent, an ancient word, entered Old English before the year 1000 as a relative of the verbs hentan "to pursue" and huntian "to hunt." |
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Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2013 9:47 am
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 1:49 pm
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 7:54 am
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obnubilate
ob-NOO-buh-leyt , verb;
1. to cloud over; becloud; obscure.
Quotes:
...their trunks were black and knobbly, whilst their branches buckled over as a roof to meet a brick plane and obnubilate a view of the stars.
-- Colin Cornelius, Monkeys Can't Swim
It is the pity of the world, Dr Maturin, to see a man of your parts obnubilate his mind with the juice of the poppy.
-- Patrick O'Brian, The Mauritius Command
Origin:
Obnubilate, a late 16th century word, is a verbal derivative of the Latin nūbilus meaning "cloudy," though its closer ancestor, obnūbilāre means "to darken."
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 5:47 am
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paraph
PAR-uhf , noun;
1. a flourish made after a signature, as in a document, originally as a precaution against forgery.
Quotes:
The manuscript's most tantalizing feature is a scribal paraph with the initials IB at the end of Certain sonnets...
-- H. R. Woudhuysen, Sir Philip Sidney and the Circulation of Manuscripts
His worried expression, however, was not just a mask for the moment. Of late, it had become his most distinctive feature, his peculiar paraph.
-- Ken Anderson, The Statue Of Pan
The paraph is only a schematic and marginal countersignature, a fragment of signature; indeed, who can claim to decipher a whole signature?
-- Jacques Derrida, Mémoires
Origin:
Though early incarnations of paraph appear in Italian, Middle French, and Middle English, its earliest origins are Greek with para- meaning "beside" and the final -ph resulting from graphos, referring to text.
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 5:22 pm
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quittance
KWIT-ns , noun;
1. recompense or requital.
2. discharge from a debt or obligation.
3. a document certifying discharge from debt or obligation, as a receipt.
Quotes:
Very good; here is the money. Now make me out a quittance, signed.
-- Edward Gilliat, John Standish, Or, The Harrowing of London
And now she said to Leta, "Give me your quittance price." "Mother," said Leta, "it is all I have."
-- Doris Lessing, Mara and Dann
Origin:
Quittance is derived from the Old French quit meaning "free, clear." The root did not take on its negative connotation, "to give up," until the 1600s.
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Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 6:22 pm
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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 12:58 am
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Taeryyn Since this came up in conversation earlier... Enucleate A verb meaning to remove without cutting into. ie, to enucleate a tumour...or an eyeball. emotion_puke I can't remember what show it was, but it was some crime procedural, and the killer liked to enucleate his victims with a melon-baller. gonk
Thats... dark. emotion_0A0 ...But better than the actual word of the day!:
recant
ri-KANT , verb;
1. to withdraw or disavow (a statement, opinion, etc.), especially formally; retract.
2. to withdraw or disavow a statement, opinion, etc., especially formally.
Quotes:
In the circumstances, Mr Badby, I feel that I can offer you a pension in return for your decision to recant.
-- Robert Nye, Falstaff
It was the only part of it they really wanted me to recant, as a sign that I was getting well again.
-- Stephen King, Skeleton Crew
Origin:
This Reformation era word entered the lexicon in the 1530s from the Latin cantāre meaning "to sing." Thus recant literally translates as "to sing again" or "to sing back." |
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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 5:14 pm
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Reply
