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 Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 6:25 am
mignon
min-YON , adjective;
1.
Small and pretty; delicately pretty.
Quotes:
And here Jasmin caressed his own arm, and made as if it were a baby's, smiling and speaking in a mignon voice, wagging his head roguishly.
-- William Chambers and Robert Chambers, Chambers's Edinburgh Journal
As the village princeling and household cosset, the toast of the family, the mignon of the minions, the darling of the staff, my feelings about the proposed adoption would not be hard to divine.
-- Martin Amis, Success
Origin:
Mignon stems from the French word of the same spelling which means "delicate" or "charming". It is also related to the word "minion" through the sense of "small".
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 8:52 pm
fantast
FAN-tast , noun;
1.A visionary or dreamer.
Quotes:
I wouldn't allow the unwashed fantast in my house, but, I have to remind myself, it isn't my house he is being admitted to.
-- Wallace Earle Stegner, All the Little Live Things
The floor of the shop had been sprinkled with water; it had probably been sprinkled by a great fantast and freethinker, because it was all covered with patterns and cabbalistic signs.
-- Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, The Steppe
Origin:
Fantast entered English from German, though it is based on the Greek word phantastḗs which meant "boaster". It is related to the other English word fantastic .
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Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 5:07 am
cunctation
kuhngk-TEY-shuhn , noun;
1. Delay; tardiness.
Quotes:
Lord Eldon however was personally answerable for unnecessary and culpable cunctation , as he called it in protracting the arguments of counsel, and in deferring judgment from day to day, from term to term, and from year to year after the arguments had closed and he had irrevocably decided in his own mind what the judgment should be.
-- Baron John Campbell, Lives of Lord Lyndhurst and Lord Brougham
"What it's about," Goldman said, with tantalizing cunctation , "is a whole lot of things, as a matter of fact."
-- Philip Kerr, The Shot
Origin:
Cunctation stems from the Latin word cunctātiōn- meaning "delay" or "hesitation".
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Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 6:34 pm
Sardanapalian
sahr-dn-uh-PEYL-yuhn , adjective;
1. Excessively luxurious.
Quotes:
Rich papers with gold borders, bronze chandeliers, mahogany engravings in the dining-room, and blue cashmere furniture in the salon, … all details of a chilling and perfectly unmeaning character, but which to the eyes of Ville-aux- Fayes seemed the last efforts of Sardanapalian luxury.
-- Honoré de Balzac, Sons of Soil
Here, in this half-destroyed Tartar town, surrounded by steppes, he indulged himself in a Sardanapalian effulgence that beggared even his jassy Court.
-- Simon Sebag Montefiore, Potemkin
Origin:
First used in English in the 1860s, Sardanapalian is an eponym that comes from the legendary Assyrian king Sardanapal who was famous for his decadence.
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 10:34 am
pensée
pahn-SEY , noun;
1. A reflection or thought.
Quotes:
He rose from his deep chair and at his desk entered on the first page of a new notebook a pensee : The penalty of sloth is longevity.
-- Evelyn Waugh, Unconditional Surrender
In a pensee that could have been cribbed from Mae West's daybook, she also said, “If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married!”
-- Karen Karbo, How to Hepburn
Origin:
Pensée comes directly from the French word of the same spelling which means "a thought".
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 4:52 am
enchiridion
en-kahy-RID-ee-uhn , noun;
1. A handbook; manual.
Quotes:
For you offer us the postulation that we can, in the shadow, or rather the radiance, of your own enchiridion , go and do likewise.
-- Marcel Proust, Swann's Way
Sarah and Isaac were romping noisily about and under the beds; Rachel was at the table, knitting a scarf for Solomon; grandmother pored over a bulky enchiridion for pious women, written in jargon.
-- Israel Zangwill, Children of the Ghetto
Origin:
Enchiridion stems from the Greek root cheir meaning "hand". The prefix en- means "within", so the noun means "in the hand". The suffix -idion denotes a diminutive form of another word.
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 4:37 pm
makebate
MEYK-beyt , noun;
1. A person who causes contention or discord.
Quotes:
The man was a hater of the great Governor and his life-work, the Erie; a makebate , a dawplucker, a malcontent politicaster.
-- Samuel Hopkins Adams, Grandfather Stories
But after all he pays well that pays with gold; and Mike Lambourne was never a makebate , or a spoil-sport, or the like.
-- Sir Walter Scott, Kenilworth
Origin:
Makebate stems from the Middle English word bate which meant "contention".
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Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 6:11 am
glutch
gluhch , verb;
1. to swallow.
noun:
1. a mouthful
Quotes:
And now Robert Creedle will be nailed up in parish boards 'a b'lieve; and nobody will glutch down a sigh for he!"
-- Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders
I was, at the time, standing near Uncle Ral and I distinctly heard him gasp, swallow what must have been an overdue expectoration, glutch , and at last emit a long, slow exhalation.
-- David George Pitt, Tales from the Outer Fringe
Origin:
Glutch is of unknown origin. It was first used in southwestern England in the early 1800s.
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Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 7:52 am
abstergent
ab-STUR-juhnt , adjective;
1. Cleansing.
2. Purgative.
noun:
1. A cleansing agent, as a detergent or soap.
Quotes:
We prize them for their rough-plastic, abstergent force; to get people out of the quadruped state; to get them washed, clothed, and set up on end; to slough their animal husks and habits; compel them to be clean; overawe their spite and meanness, teach them to stifle the base, and choose the generous expression, and make them know how much happier the generous behaviors are.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life
Those of them which are of an abstergent nature, and purge the whole surface of the tongue, if they do it in excess, and so encroach as to consume some part of the flesh itself, like potash and soda, are all termed bitter.
-- Plato, Timaeus
Origin:
Abstergent comes from the Latin word abstergēre which meant "to wipe off".
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Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 4:26 am
syndic
SIN-dik , noun;
1. A person chosen to represent and transact business for a corporation.
2. A civil magistrate having different powers in different countries.
Quotes:
Procuring the keys, which had been left at the office of the Syndic of the town, Mr. Bellingham and Isabel sallied forth to inspect their new abode, leaving Dulcie in charge of the English nurse who had accompanied them.
-- Robert Reginald and Douglas Menville, Ancient Hauntings
For instance, Sillem, the most junior, the "fourth," syndic , the one normally responsible for criminal investigations, had supposedly been "promoted" to the position of third, the one most directly responsible for foreign affairs.
-- Mary Lindemann, Liaisons Dangereuses
Origin:
Known more commonly through its related word syndicate , syndic stems from the Greek word sýndikos which referred to a defense lawyer, from the prefix syn- (meaning "co") and the root dikos (meaning "justice").
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Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 5:46 am
agemate
EYJ-meyt , noun;
1. A person of about the same age as another.
Quotes:
She tolerates the family, especially an agemate named Isabelle, although they kid her about getting letters from a mysterious swain every day.
-- Faye Moskowitz, Her face in the Mirror
She had no agemate in that house, no one she could think of as an ally.
-- Julie Orringer, The Invisible Bridge
Origin:
Agemate entered English in the late 1500s when the word mate meant "guest" in Old English.
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Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 5:29 am
pilikia
pee-lee-KEE-ah , noun;
1. Trouble.
Quotes:
After a while this older man spoke: “Remember, we never asked you to cause pilikia . We only asked that you help set things right.”
-- Rodney Morales, When the Shark Bites
Otherwise, pilikia , particularly in the form of illness, will result for the mover.
-- Karen Lee Ito, Lady Friends
Origin:
Pilikia stems from a Hawaiian word meaning "trouble".
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 8:08 am
mumpsimus
MUHMP-suh-muhs , noun;
1. Adherence to or persistence in an erroneous use of language, memorization, practice, belief, etc., out of habit or obstinacy.
2. A person who persists in a mistaken expression or practice.
Quotes:
"I profess, my good lady," replied I, "that had any one but you made such a declaration, I should have thought it as capricious as that of the clergyman, who, without vindicating his false reading, preferred, from habit's sake, his old Mumpsimus...
-- Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman
Mr. Burgess, who sticks (I fancy) to his old mumpsimus , thought that the other gentleman might have given the canoe a shove to get it clear of the lock…
-- Ronald A. Knox, The Footsteps at the Lock
Origin:
Mumpsimus comes from a story (perhaps first told by Erasmus) about an illiterate priest who mispronounced a word while reciting the liturgy. The priest refused to change the word, even when he was corrected.
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Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 10:57 am
sumpsimus
SUHMP-suh-muhs , noun;
1. Adherence to or persistence in using a strictly correct term, holding to a precise practice, etc., as a rejection of an erroneous but more common form (opposed to mumpsimus).
2. A person who is obstinate or zealous about such strict correctness (opposed to mumpsimus).
Quotes:
And now let all defenders of present institutions, however bad they may be — let all violent supporters of their old mumpsimus against any new sumpsimus whatever, listen to a conversation among some undergraduates.
-- Frederic William Farrar, Julian Home
She is a master of sumpsimus , more a**l in language usage than Doc in his rigid professionalism. She insists on saying It is I, or He gave the book to John and me.
-- Ann Burrus, Astride the Pineapple Couch
Origin:
Like its counterpart mumpsimus , sumpsimus comes from to a story about an illiterate priest. In this case, sumpsimus refers to the opposite practice as mumpsimus .
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Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 11:07 am
Oh! I've never heard this word, but i know many people who it fits!
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Reply
