كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

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Epigram (Noun)
Pronunciation: ['e-pê-græm]
Definition 1: A short poem or poetic line ending on a witty thought.
Usage 1: Today's word is not to be confused with "epigraph," an inscription on or in an artwork, tomb or edifice. "Epithet" is another similar word to look out for. An epithet is an adjective or other modifier used to characterize someone. "Alexander the Great" is a classic example but any short characterization of anyone may be taken for an epithet. Finally, an "epitaph" is a comment commemorating a death, usually written on a tomb or tombstone.
Suggested usage: We suggest you use epigrams the way the masters used them. Samuel Taylor Coleridge once wrote: "Swans sing before they die —'twere no bad thing/should certain people die before they sing!" Alexander Pope wrote this on a dog collar he sent the king in 1738: "I am his Highness' dog at Kew;/Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?" Dorothy Parker penned this Spooneristic epigram: "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." Finally, one from the master of masters, Oscar Wilde: "Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others."
Etymology: From Old French "epigramme," from Latin "epigramma" based on Greek epigraphein "to write on, inscribe" comprising epi- "on" + graphein "to write." The source of Greek "graph-" is PIE *gerbh- "scratch" which turns up in Old English ceorfan "to cut" which devolved into modern "carve." Kerf "width of a cut" comes from a relative, Old English cyrf "a cutting." Old Germanic krabbiz "crab"—another scratcher—was borrowed by Old French as "crevis" (Modern French "crevisse"). Middle English then borrowed the Middle French term back but by folk etymology soon converted it into "crayfish," since "fish" is a familiar English word and "-vis" is not. That left the initial "cre" unrelated to any English word. Well, folks in Louisiana noticed that this fish distinguishes itself by crawling, so they applied folk etymology again to produce "craw(l)fish"—a long crawl from "epigram," but a lexical relative all the same.

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Eruct (Verb)

Pronunciation: [ê-'rêkt]
Definition 1: To noisily release gases from the stomach via the mouth.
Usage 1: The act of eructing is "eruction" and the pitiful creature committing the act is an "eructator." The words are rarely used for obvious reasons. One could conceivably speak eructively, meaning belching out words; however, dictionaries do not list "eructive" yet.
Suggested usage: Today we have a literary form more dissonant than the common term, "belch." However, since the activity itself is dissonant, "eruct" is a bit more onomatopoetic: "Because he does it so often, I find it difficult to believe that Milo eructs involuntarily." It is difficult to use this word away from its literal meaning, "He was visited by a plague of eruction in punishment for eating so many burritos." It is possible, though, if you aren't averse to a laugh: "Our current problem represents but a small eruction at the feast of life. Tomorrow we will have forgotten it."
Etymology: Latin eruct-are from ex- "out" + ructare "to belch, emit," origin of Italian "eruttare" and Spanish "eructar" and frequentative form of Latin "erugare." Akin to Old English rocettan "to belch" and Greek "ereugesthai." The PIE root *reug-, from which the original Latin rugo derived, also gave English "reek" and German rauchen "smoke."

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Metastasis (Noun)
Pronunciation: [me-'tæ-stê-sis]

Definition 1: A change in nature or location. In medicine it generally indicates migration to another location, especially in reference to cancer. In rhetoric, it refers to a sudden transition from one point to another. Elsewhere it is used in the sense of "metamorphosis," a change in character or nature.
Usage 1: Do not confuse today's word with "metathesis" [mê-'tæ-thê-sis], two linguistic sounds trading places, as in the pronunciation of "ask" as "aks" or "prescription" as "perscription." Metathesis is a common linguistic process mentioned occasionally in our Words of the Day. The adjective for today's word is "metastatic" [me-tê-'stæt-ik] or "metastatical." The adverb is "metastatically" and the verb, "metastasize" [me-'tæ-stê-sIz].
Suggested usage: Let us hope that we will never have any use for today's word in the medical sense. This type of metastasis usually refers to the dispersal of late stage cancer cells to several previously unaffected parts of the body, where they are more difficult to treat. In more common usage it refers to a noticeable if not radical metamorphosis: "Have you noticed the metastasis in Buster's attitude since his wife got the leather outfit and the whip? It's almost a pleasure to talk to him now."
Etymology: From Greek meta "between" + stasis "state, condition." "Meta" is akin to "mid(dle)," "medieval," and "meridian." Russian mezhdu "between, among" comes from the same source along with Greek mesos "middle" and Latin medius "middle," found in the name of the Middle of the Earth Sea, known by its Latin name, the Mediterranean. Sanskrit mAdhya and its descendents, Hindi madya , Bengali mAjh, Persian mijân, Pashto mandz—all meaning "middle"—are related, too. "Stasis" is based on the Indo-European stem for "stand," found in "stand," "stool," "stall," "stop," and many others. Both Latin stabilis "stable" and stabulum "abode, stable" are based on the same root. Russian stol "table," German stehen and Russian stat' "stand" are also members of this extensive extended family.

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Quasquicentennial (Adjective)

Pronunciation: [kwah-skwê-sin-'te-ni-yêl]

Definition 1: Pertaining to 125 or 125th; the celebration of 125 years.
Usage 1: Other members of this family include: semicentennial "50th," centennial "100," sesquicentennial (not sasquatch's birthday but) "150th," bicentennial "200th," tercentennial "300th," quadricentennial "400th," quincentennial "500th."
Suggested usage: Because this word is an oddity among oddities [see Etymology], we would not recommend parents saying anything like, "Arnie, this is the quasquicentennial time I've requested that you clean up your room," even if it is literally true. "Today we sold our quasquicentennial car of the year!" probably would not impress your customers or sales staff unless they subscribe to our Word of the Day.
Etymology: Apparently, introduced for the city of Delavan, Illinois' rather odd 125th anniversary of its founding celebrated around 1962. Today's word is queerly contrived from qua(dran)s "quarter" + que "and" + cent "hundred" + ann- "year" + the suffix -ial. Rather than simply nicking the Latin word in the usual way, which would be "+centenary" from Latin +centenarius "+hundredth," Latin cent-um (100) has been attached to English -ennial, retrieved from "biennial," then prefixed with often questionable prefixes like "quasqui-."

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Polyglot (Noun)
Pronunciation: ['pah-li-glaht]

Definition 1: A person who speaks two or more languages.
Usage 1: Nothing irritates a linguist more than being asked, "And how many languages do you speak?" after admitting that he or she is a linguist. Remember, a linguist is someone who studies language scientifically—possibly speaking only one language; a polyglot is a person who speaks more than one language. Today's word may also be used adjectivally, as a polyglot nation or a polyglot edition of the Bible. The noun referring to the talent is "polyglottism."
Suggested usage: First and foremost this word refers so someone who is multilingual: "Herschel Swartz is a polyglot who can talk his way out of paying his bills in seven different European languages." It can, however, refer to people in a broader, more indirect sense, "The restaurant had such a polyglot kitchen it was a wonder the dishes that came out of it were edible."
Etymology: Today's word is another borrowed from Greek via Latin and French (polyglotte). The original Greek was "polyglottos," made up of poly "many" + glotta "tongue, language" plus a suffix, and hence literally meant "many-tongued" in both senses of the _expression. Greek was another of those languages whose word for language originally meant "tongue," like French "langue," Spanish "lengua," and Russian "jazyk." Even we speak of the mother tongue. Greek also used "glossa" to refer to tongues and languages, so our words "gloss" and "glossary" derive from a variant of the same word.

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Eruct (Verb)
Pronunciation: [ê-'rêkt]

Definition 1: To noisily release gases from the stomach via the mouth.

Usage 1: The act of eructing is "eruction" and the pitiful creature committing the act is an "eructator." The words are rarely used for obvious reasons. One could conceivably speak eructively, meaning belching out words; however, dictionaries do not list "eructive" yet.
Suggested usage: Today we have a literary form more dissonant than the common term, "belch." However, since the activity itself is dissonant, "eruct" is a bit more onomatopoetic: "Because he does it so often, I find it difficult to believe that Milo eructs involuntarily." It is difficult to use this word away from its literal meaning, "He was visited by a plague of eruction in punishment for eating so many burritos." It is possible, though, if you aren't averse to a laugh: "Our current problem represents but a small eruction at the feast of life. Tomorrow we will have forgotten it."

Etymology: Latin eruct-are from ex- "out" + ructare "to belch, emit," origin of Italian "eruttare" and Spanish "eructar" and frequentative form of Latin "erugare." Akin to Old English rocettan "to belch" and Greek "ereugesthai." The PIE root *reug-, from which the original Latin rugo derived, also gave English "reek" and German rauchen "smoke."

[soubiri]

كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Metastasis (Noun)

Pronunciation: [me-'tæ-stê-sis]

Definition 1: A change in nature or location. In medicine it generally indicates migration to another location, especially in reference to cancer. In rhetoric, it refers to a sudden transition from one point to another. Elsewhere it is used in the sense of "metamorphosis," a change in character or nature.
Usage 1: Do not confuse today's word with "metathesis" [mê-'tæ-thê-sis], two linguistic sounds trading places, as in the pronunciation of "ask" as "aks" or "prescription" as "perscription." Metathesis is a common linguistic process mentioned occasionally in our Words of the Day. The adjective for today's word is "metastatic" [me-tê-'stæt-ik] or "metastatical." The adverb is "metastatically" and the verb, "metastasize" [me-'tæ-stê-sIz].
Suggested usage: Let us hope that we will never have any use for today's word in the medical sense. This type of metastasis usually refers to the dispersal of late stage cancer cells to several previously unaffected parts of the body, where they are more difficult to treat. In more common usage it refers to a noticeable if not radical metamorphosis: "Have you noticed the metastasis in Buster's attitude since his wife got the leather outfit and the whip? It's almost a pleasure to talk to him now."
Etymology: From Greek meta "between" + stasis "state, condition." "Meta" is akin to "mid(dle)," "medieval," and "meridian." Russian mezhdu "between, among" comes from the same source along with Greek mesos "middle" and Latin medius "middle," found in the name of the Middle of the Earth Sea, known by its Latin name, the Mediterranean. Sanskrit mAdhya and its descendents, Hindi madya , Bengali mAjh, Persian mijân, Pashto mandz—all meaning "middle"—are related, too. "Stasis" is based on the Indo-European stem for "stand," found in "stand," "stool," "stall," "stop," and many others. Both Latin stabilis "stable" and stabulum "abode, stable" are based on the same root. Russian stol "table," German stehen and Russian stat' "stand" are also members of this extensive extended family.

[soubiri]

كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Quasquicentennial (Adjective)

Pronunciation: [kwah-skwê-sin-'te-ni-yêl]
Definition 1: Pertaining to 125 or 125th; the celebration of 125 years.
Usage 1: Other members of this family include: semicentennial "50th," centennial "100," sesquicentennial (not sasquatch's birthday but) "150th," bicentennial "200th," tercentennial "300th," quadricentennial "400th," quincentennial "500th."

Suggested usage: Because this word is an oddity among oddities [see Etymology], we would not recommend parents saying anything like, "Arnie, this is the quasquicentennial time I've requested that you clean up your room," even if it is literally true. "Today we sold our quasquicentennial car of the year!" probably would not impress your customers or sales staff unless they subscribe to our Word of the Day.

Etymology: Apparently, introduced for the city of Delavan, Illinois' rather odd 125th anniversary of its founding celebrated around 1962. Today's word is queerly contrived from qua(dran)s "quarter" + que "and" + cent "hundred" + ann- "year" + the suffix -ial. Rather than simply nicking the Latin word in the usual way, which would be "+centenary" from Latin +centenarius "+hundredth," Latin cent-um (100) has been attached to English -ennial, retrieved from "biennial," then prefixed with often questionable prefixes like "quasqui-."

[soubiri]

كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Polyglot (Noun)

Pronunciation: ['pah-li-glaht]

Definition 1: A person who speaks two or more languages.
Usage 1: Nothing irritates a linguist more than being asked, "And how many languages do you speak?" after admitting that he or she is a linguist. Remember, a linguist is someone who studies language scientifically—possibly speaking only one language; a polyglot is a person who speaks more than one language. Today's word may also be used adjectivally, as a polyglot nation or a polyglot edition of the Bible. The noun referring to the talent is "polyglottism."
Suggested usage: First and foremost this word refers so someone who is multilingual: "Herschel Swartz is a polyglot who can talk his way out of paying his bills in seven different European languages." It can, however, refer to people in a broader, more indirect sense, "The restaurant had such a polyglot kitchen it was a wonder the dishes that came out of it were edible."
Etymology: Today's word is another borrowed from Greek via Latin and French (polyglotte). The original Greek was "polyglottos," made up of poly "many" + glotta "tongue, language" plus a suffix, and hence literally meant "many-tongued" in both senses of the _expression. Greek was another of those languages whose word for language originally meant "tongue," like French "langue," Spanish "lengua," and Russian "jazyk." Even we speak of the mother tongue. Greek also used "glossa" to refer to tongues and languages, so our words "gloss" and "glossary" derive from a variant of the same word.

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Hash (Verb)
Pronunciation: [hæsh]

Definition 1: To chop meat or other victuals into small pieces for cooking; to make a mess of things; to talk over thoroughly, as to hash out the details of a project.
Usage 1: Today's verb alone refers to irregularly chopped meat but may be used to refer to other foods so prepared, as "hash(ed) potatoes." The noun, "hash" by itself will be taken to refer to chopped meat. The original spam is a canned hash. Perhaps because the two words are related, the hatch marks on the sleeves of soldiers indicating rank of years of service are commonly referred to as "hash marks” (see Etymology).
Suggested usage: Before dinner you may have to hash out who is going to hash the meat and potatoes. This could be a critical discussion since the wrong person could make hash of the hash. Then you would have to settle his or her hash (make a mess of them).
Etymology: Today's is another word woven back and forth between us Germanics and the French. It comes from Old French hacher "to chop, mince," itself borrowed from Middle German hacken "to hack." After French had smoothed it out a bit, the English reborrowed it as hatch "cutting or inlaying lines," as the hatch marks on a football field or the sleeves of a military uniform. Later it was borrowed again as today's word. Though we now use a meat cleaver to chop hash, the original tool was a hatchet, another word from the French stem. The original root also went on to become "haggis," referring to that wonderful Scottish dish made from hashed sheep by-products (heart, lungs, liver, and suet) cooked in the stomach of often the self same sheep.

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Tenter (Noun)
Pronunciation: ['tent-êr]

Definition 1: No, not someone who lives in a tent, but an open frame with evenly spaced protruding hooks or nails for stretching cloth to dry without shrinking. The edges of the material are fastened to the nails all around the frame after the frame is adjusted to be slightly larger than the piece of cloth.
Usage 1: Non-shrink fabrics made tenters pretty much obsolete years ago but the word persists in the compound "tenterhooks," itself rarely used outside the phrase "to be on tenterhooks" (as opposed to tender hooks, which hold nothing). You may use this noun as a verb: to tenter material is to stretch it out on a frame.

Suggested usage: For those of us who have seen curtains stretched on a tenter, the metaphor could not be more obvious: "If we don't finish this job today, the boss will have us on tenters." To be on tenterhooks, however, implies that you are in a state of heightened anticipation, as to be on tenterhooks to find out a final exam grade. Another way of expressing pretty much the same thing is to say you are on pins and needles. This phrase is probably in the process of replacing "on tenterhooks," as the concept of the tenter fades among ever younger generations.

Etymology: Today's word comes Latin tentorium "shelter made of stretched skins," from tendere "to stretch," also the origin of "tent." The original Proto-Indo-European root was *ten- "to stretch" and it came to English through its proto-Germanic ancestors as "thin," the state animal products reach when stretched. The Latin word, "tendere," also gave us "tender," "extend," and other words originally implying a stretch. "Tetanus" comes from the Greek variant in tetanus "stiff, rigid," another state arrived at by stretching. The same root turns up twice in Sanskrit, both as tasaram "shuttle" and tantram "loom," where shuttles are used. In Persian the [n] was lost to produce tar "string," which underlies Hindi "sitar."

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Senescent (Adjective)
Pronunciation: [sê-'nes-ênt]

Definition 1: A more eloquent and delicate way of saying "old" or "aging."
Usage 1: "Senior citizen" is the sort of term we come up with when we leave it to journalists and correspondents to enrich our vocabulary. Today's word expresses the same sentiment much more elegantly. It is the adjective from the verb "to senesce" which has a noun, "senescence." The adjective may be used to refer to senescent people, too. I had rather be a senescent than a senior citizen—I don't even know what that _expression is supposed to refer to. A synonym of "senescence" is "senectitude."

Suggested usage: J. D. Salinger, writing in 1965 in the New Yorker, distinguished senescence from maturation: "Few of these magnificent, healthy, sometimes remarkably handsome boys will mature. The majority, I give you my heartbreaking opinion, will merely senesce." Most of us would prefer to forget about aging, which works out fine, since forgetfulness is an art that comes with senescence.
Etymology: Today's word was borrowed from Latin "sensecens, senescent-," the present participle of senescere "to grow old," the inchoative form of senere "to be old." All these forms go back to senex "old, old man," whose root, "sen-," can be seen in "senior," "senile," and "senate." (I'll bet you had already guessed the last two were related.) Spanish "señor" and Italian "signore" come from the comparative of the same word, senior "older."

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Petrichor (Noun)
Pronunciation: ['pe-trê-ko(r) or -tri-]

Definition 1: A pleasant distinctive smell of rain falling on dry ground. The original reference is to an odor produced in certain regions by yellowish, oily globules, rather like perfume, absorbed into the ground from the air.
Usage 1: Here is a new conceptual opportunity for lexiphiliacs. Although introduced by geologists in 1964 (Nature 993/2) to refer to a specific aroma, we have all experienced the pleasure of the smell of rain on a dry earth. Now, thanks to the sharp ear (or eye) of Word-of-the-Day subscriber Gregory Rutter, we can all express it.
Suggested usage: This word certainly fits anywhere aromas are discussed, "I love this chardonnay for the petrichor underlying its complex bouquet." But once we are comfortable with it, we can unleash our metaphoric creativity, "Her entrance into his life was a refreshing petrichor ending a long, stale season of relationships."
Etymology: Greek petros "stone" or petra "rock" + ichor, the mythical rarified fluid that flowed in the veins of the gods. ("Ichor" now refers literally to any watery, perhaps blood-tinged discharge.) Petros also underlies the name "Peter," so Rock Hudson's first name was simply a translation of the Greek "Peter." Petro- has taken a sharp semantic turn of late, resulting from the clipping of "petroleum" (from petro "rock" + oleum "oil"). Neologisms like "petrodollars" and "petropower" refer to the money and power of oil, not of rocks.

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Evanescent (Adjective)
Pronunciation: [e-vê-'ne-sênt]

Definition 1: Tending to vanish like vapor, transient.
Usage 1: The noun is "evanescence" and the verb is evanesce "to vanish quickly into thin air."

Suggested usage: This is a beautiful word used far too rarely. Evanescent puffs of steam emerge from our mouths on chilly mornings and pleasant days evanesce all too quickly. There are a variety of sterling uses this word will serve: "Money leads such an evanescent existence in my pocket, I shall never be wealthy." Then again, maybe it is beautiful because of its rarity.

Etymology: Latin evanescens, present participle of evanescere "to vanish, disappear" from e(x) "from" + vanescere "vanish" from van-us "empty." Akin to "vanish."

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Incumbent (Adjective)
Pronunciation: [in-'kêm-bênt]

Definition 1: (1) Resting its weight on something else, leaning or resting on something, as a leaning post incumbent on a rock. (2) Dependent, up to, as it is incumbent on me to get Bertram to work in the morning. (3) Responsible for the duties of an office, as the incumbent mayor of the city.
Usage 1: Today's adjective will be used in the US a lot this year, an election year. However, it will be used mostly as a noun in reference to the incumbent politicians (or simply "incumbents") who are currently in office and will be running election campaigns against challengers. The noun for the quality of being incumbent, is "incumbency."
Suggested usage: Today's word can find room in almost every sentence uttered by the responsible parent, "It is incumbent upon you to keep your room neat and tidy and incumbent upon me to decide whether I buy tickets for the Madonna concert." (You couldn't call that blackmail, could you?) In fact, this word can find a use wherever responsibility is at stake, "It is incumbent upon the deacons to make all the major decisions concerning the church and mow the lawn on Saturday."
Etymology: Today's word comes from Latin incumbens, incumbent- "lying down on," the present participle of incumbere "to lean or lie upon" made up of in- "on" + cumbere "to lie," a relative of cubare "to lie, to lie sick." The semantic drift of this word is easy to follow. If something is leaning on an object, it is dependent on that object for its support. Even in English, "It lies on me to get Bertie to work" is another way of saying that I am responsible and responsibilities are often said to rest on someone.