كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

**soubiri** · 07-11-2007, 08:29 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Litotes (Noun) Pronunciation: ['li-tê-teez, lI-'to-teez]<a href="http://t.pm0.net/s/c?4c.11wi.4.s73.3wf7" target="_blank"></a> Definition: A figure of speech that uses dramatic understatement to express a positive idea by negating its opposite.Usage: An expression that uses litotes is "litotic" and one can speak "litotically." Litotes is a form of meiosis "understatement," the opposite of "hyperbole" or rhetorical exaggeration. When Tom Jones sings "It's not unusual" when he means "it is usual" he is engaging in a perfect example of litotes. While some instances of litotes may seem to be double negatives, this kind of double negative is OK since it serves an honorable literary function (as the next section explains). Suggested Usage: Litotes is a rhetorical trope which can be used for a not unsubtle effect. It can be used to soften the blow of an unwelcome truth as when your friend says that your blind date is "not unattractive." We also find a kind of ironic emphasis in reverse: "While I wasn't looking forward to that dinner party, the evening was not at all unpleasant." Not all litotic phrases involve double negative, as we see in Queen <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Victoria</place></state>'s classic British understatement, "We are not amused." Not too shabby, eh?Etymology: From Greek litotes "simplicity" from litos meaning "plain, simple." The Greek root is based on PIE *(s)lei- "flat, slippery" which also underlies English "slime," "slick, "slice," and "slip." Old Irish sleman "smooth" is also related, as is Latvian slieka "earthworm."

**soubiri** · 07-12-2007, 07:25 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Niveous (Adj.) Pronunciation: ['niv-ee-ês]<a href="http://t.pm0.net/s/c?4c.12pn.4.sso.3wf7" target="_blank"></a> Definition: Resembling snow, snow-like.Usage: The noun is nivosity.Suggested Usage: Although snow is mostly out of season, if you happen to live near cottonwood trees, you can improvise: "With the cottonwood's shedding, it's beginning to look quite niveous outside." And keep it handy for when holidays come back around: "I bought my niece a glass sphere filled with water and a niveous flakes for a Christmas gift" (translation: snow globe).Etymology: From Latin niveus, from nix (nig-s), niv- "snow" which developed into French neige, Spanish nieve, and Italian neve. The underlying PIE from, believe it or not, is *sneigwh-, with several sounds that have worn off over the years. So the same PIE root gave us English "snow" and Slavic (Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian) sneg "snow."

**soubiri** · 07-13-2007, 08:08 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Abulia (Noun) Pronunciation: [ê-'bu-li-yê] Definition: A loss of volition or the ability to make decisions. Usage: The adjective is "abulic," also used to refer to a person suffering from this dysfunction. Suggested Usage: Medically speaking, abulia usually results from damage to the right (occasionally the left) parietal lobe of the brain. However, some smokers seem abulic when it comes to kicking the habit. Chocolate triggers abulia in weaklings like me. In fact, many foods are suspected of triggering this frailty; ice cream is at the top of the list. Sports leave many men abulic; shopping, many women. Currently, no antidote is available. Etymology: From Greek aboulia "indecision" comprising a- "without" + boule "will." "Boule" comes from PIE *gwel-/gwol-/gwl "throw, pierce." It turns up in Greek as ballein "to throw" and ballizein "to dance" whence "ball" (the dance), "ballad," and "ballet." The same original root ended up in "quell" from Old English cwellan "to kill, destroy," not to mention "kill," itself.

**soubiri** · 07-14-2007, 07:39 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Ocular (Adjective) Pronunciation: ['ah-kyê-lêr] Definition: (1) Pertaining to or seen by the eye or eyes; (2) visual, related to vision. Usage: Today's word sports a few interesting relatives. If you tire of using "glasses" and "spectacles," you can ask your friends how they like your new ocularies. 'Tis a rare word but legitimate. If your ophthalmologist fails you, you may want to turn to an ocularist, a maker of glass eyeballs. The adverb is very ordinary: "ocularly."Suggested Usage: In his suspicions of Desdemona's faithfulness, Othello tells Iago "Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof," in Shakespeare's play 'Othello.' Anything visible or visual falls under the scope of today's word: "Blanche White was a fuss of ocular excitement in her new designer dress." An interesting side note: the Greeks made the columns on their buildings slightly convex to defeat the ocular illusion that straight columns are slightly concave, a practice called entasis. Etymology: Today's word was borrowed via French from Late Latin ocularis "related to the eye" from Latin oculus "eye, bud." The same root is found in "monocle" and "binoculars" from bi- "two" + "ocularis." The original meaning of "inoculate" was "to graft a scion," to 'in-bud' a plant, using the root ocul- in its second sense. The root was originally *okw-. Old English inherited this root at "eage" which softened even more to "eye." It didn't soften before the suffix –l, so we also find "ogle." In Greek the final [kw] converted to [p] so we get opthalmos "eye" as in "ophthalmology" and "optical," as well as "triceratops" from tri "three" + cerat- "horn" + ops "eye."

**soubiri** · 07-15-2007, 07:30 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Apposite (Adjective) Pronunciation: ['æ-pê-zit]<a href="http://t.pm0.net/s/c?4c.15gj.6.ukk.3wf7"></a> Definition: Strikingly appropriate, applicable, or fitting; well put. Usage: Today's adjective has abandoned its family and gone out into the world on its own. The underlying verb, "appose," now means "to place on, apply" or "place in proximity," as in the case of appositive nouns. A noun in apposition to another is a noun referring to the same object added immediately following the first noun, as in, "His new financial advisor, Boesky, (made him feel a bit uneasy"). So "appose" and "apposition," oddly enough, have nothing semantically to do with today's word. Suggested Usage: "Apposite" is a prejudicial word that takes sides on questions of right and wrong, "I thought it very apposite of our group to bombard the committee with water balloons in protest of their decision to sell water rights to outsiders." It also takes sides on issues of social etiquette, "Yes, but do you think that, 'I just loved your sister to death,' was the apposite phrase to use at her funeral?" Etymology: Old French aposer from Latin apponere, apposui, appositum "place near, add, unite" from ad- "to" + ponere "to put, place" via a confusion of ponere with Late Latin pausare "halt, cease, pause." Appose belongs to a large family including suppose (Latin original "place beneath"), compose (Latin original "put together"), impose (Latin original "put into" cf. English "put out"), expose (Latin original "place outside"), oppose (Latin original "place against").

**soubiri** · 07-17-2007, 07:25 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Edentate (Adjective) Pronunciation: [ee-'den-teyt] Definition: Lacking teeth (the dental correlate of "bald"). The antonym of dentate "having or shaped like teeth." Usage: The verb, also "edentate," means to extract or otherwise remove teeth. "Edentation" is the noun from the verb. "Edentulous" [ee-'den-tyu-lês] or [ee-'den-chê-lês] has the same meaning as "edentate," deriving from Latin "edentulus" with the same meaning. The term is common in biology in referring to animals without teeth (ducks?) Suggested Usage: The concrete uses of this word are rather obvious, "Her biscuits are not for the weak or edentate." But why not abstract extensions like, "Has congress passed another edentate law restricting handguns?" Rather than threatening to knock someone's teeth out, try, "If you don't leave me alone I'll edentate you!" If that doesn't return everyone's sense of humor, nothing will. <h1 dir="ltr" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt" align="left"> </h1>Etymology: From the past participle ("edentatus") Latin edentare "to knock out the teeth." Latin dens, dentis "tooth" is akin to Sanskrit "dantas," Greek "odous," Gothic "tunthus," German "Zahn," and English "tooth," which seems to have lost the "n" somewhere along the way.

**soubiri** · 07-18-2007, 07:44 PM