كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

**soubiri** · 08-20-2007, 08:48 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Abstemious (adjective) Pronunciation: [æb-'ste-mi-ês] Definition: Temperate in consumption of food and drink; sparse or sparing in general. Usage: This word answers the question, "Can you name an English word that contains all the vowels in their correct order?" What about "y"? The adverb is "abstemiously." There are several others such as "aerious," "facetious," and "parecious". The noun is "abstemiousness." Suggested Usage: First and foremost this word is used in reference to temperance in food and drink, "Kirsten dines abstemiously throughout the week in order to gorge on the weekends." Another near synonym of today's word is "spartan": "Felix's apartment is modern and abstemious in its furnishings." Extending the metaphor, we might get, "Raymond leads a puritanically abstemious life resistant to most earthly pleasures." Etymology: Latin abstemius from ab(s) "away from" + temum, a reduction of temetum "liquor." The prefix ab-s- derives from earlier *apo- which lost its [o] and turned up in English "of" and "off" but also "ebb" and "aft(er)." It may have kept the [o] in Russian, which has a possible descendent in po meaning "according to, about, around." "Temetum" is akin to temere "to profane, desecrate, pollute" that underlies our "temerity." The underlying root means "darkness," found in Sanskrit tamas "darkness," Russian t'ma "darkness," tuman "fog," and ten' "shadow."

**soubiri** · 08-21-2007, 09:19 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Caliginous (adjective) Pronunciation: [kê-'li-jê-nês] Definition: Dim, murky, obscure. Usage: Today's word is another on the brink of extinction. According to the 1913 Webster's dictionary, both "caliginosity" and "caligation" meant "dimness, murkiness." But neither of these fellows are about any more and "caliginous" is rarely used. Google finds today's word about 2290 times on the Web, but most occurrences are in dictionaries and on lists of quaint words. "Caliginously" would be the adverb. Suggested Usage: Although today's word is barely there, uses for it still abound. When you want to express the notions behind "dim" and "murky" but these words are too inconspicuous, unleash today's: "Elena Handbasket slipped into a caliginous gloom when they moved her to an office without a window and now she has given up latte." The word is mellifluous and brings a certain felicity to the phrases it joins, "The new guy seems to have emerged from a rather caliginous background involving 5 brief jobs of indeterminate duties over a period of 3 years." <span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa">Etymology:<span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa"> Latin caliginosus "dark, obscure" from caligo "darkness, obscurity." Apparently, the original word referred to spots of gray that could be interpreted as dark or white, for Sanskrit kalaka means "(skin) mole" and Hindi kalanka "spot," while Kurdish cherme means "white," and all seem to derive from the same source. Greek kelainos, on the other hand, means "black" and kelis "spot," while Latin kolumba is "pigeon" and calidus, "a white spot on forehead." The Russian town of Kaluga seems to stem from the same root with an older meaning "swampy" or "foggy" and kalina still means a "guelder rose." German Helm "helmet" originally referred to the white spot on the head of a horse, according to best estimation

**soubiri** · 08-22-2007, 08:58 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Vindemiate (verb) Pronunciation: [vin-'dem-i-yeyt] Definition: To vintage (gather) grapes or pick other fruit. Usage: Here is another contribution to the "English-Has-a-Word-for-Everything" department. Although rarely used, it remains in the venerable Oxford English Dictionary and the U.S. classic Century Dictionary. A fruit gatherer is a vindemiator and the activity is vindemiation. Suggested Usage: In the fall, young people leave the towns and cities of France and vindemiate throughout the countryside until every grape is picked and trampled (perhaps untrue but not ungrammatical). Which had you rather be, a migrant fruit-picker or a peregrine vindemiator? The power of words can be felt in the two entirely different images conjured up by these two semantically identical phrases.Etymology: From Latin vindemiare "gather grapes" from vinum "grape" + demere "to pick, remove." "Vinum," of course, gave English not only "vine" but also "wine." Akin to Russian vinograd "grape(s)" and Greek oinos "wine." The origin of the Indo-European word for wine is a mystery with speculation running the gamut from Hebrew "yayin" to Ethiopian "wain" and on to Assyrian "inu." There is no hard evidence to support any of these claims, however.

**soubiri** · 08-26-2007, 11:23 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Declivity (noun)Pronunciation: [dê-'kli-vê-tee] Definition: A downward slope. Usage: Several adjectives are related to today's noun; the two most common are "declivous" [dê-'kLI-vês] and "declivitous" [dê-'kli-vê-tês], currently the more popular of the pair. The antonym is acclivity "upward slope," whose adjective is "acclivitous." Suggested Usage: Today's word plays a major role in geological descriptions, "Truman lived and died on the Eastern declivity of <place w:st="on">Mount St. Helens</place>." However, other types of descriptions can often accommodate it, too, "Their relationship has been in a declivitous state since the evening he lifted her cat from the couch by its tail." Etymology: From Latin declivitas "slope, declivity" from declivis "sloping downhill" comprising de- "(away) from" + clivus "slope." Related to "climate" via Greek klima "surface of the earth, region." The zero grade form of the same root, i.e. *kli-, gave us "lid" from Old English hlid "cover" derived from Germanic *hlid- "that which bends over, cover." Suffixed with -n, the same root became English "lean" from Old English hlinian "to lean" and with -ent, it produced Latin cliens, clientis "dependent, follower," the source of English "client." Finally, another suffixed form evolved into "ladder" from Old English hlædder "ladder," whose trail leads to Germanic *hlaidri-.

**soubiri** · 10-17-2007, 07:20 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Peccable (Adjective)Pronunciation: ['pek-ê-bêl]<a href="http://t.pm0.net/s/c?4c.rw5.4.lnz.3wf7" target="_blank"></a> Definition: Sinful, capable of sin, wrong-doing, or error—imperfect.Usage: Orphan negatives are the negatives of words fallen out of use, such as "hapless," "inane," "insipid," "immaculate," "impromptu," "nonchalant." An unlucky person is hapless but a lucky person is doesn't have much hap. You're very clean if you’re immaculate but not maculate if you’re very dirty and, if you don't care, you’re indifferent, but if you do, it shouldn't make you all that different. However, if you’re not impeccable, "sinless and incapable of sin," you will be peccable for "impeccable" is a false orphan negative. The stem, "peccable," still lurks around the edge of language, still a part of language though not of speech, our use of language. Suggested Usage: Today's word is a specialized term for one sense of "imperfect," "Miss Deeds led a peccable but overall agreeable life." Do allow for the double takes of those listening to you when you use it, though: "Weems may be too peccable to keep the company books."Etymology: Today's word comes from Latin Latin peccabilis "sinful" from peccare "to stumble, sin." "Peccare" comes from a Proto-Indo-European construction *ped-ko, based on the root *ped-, which became Latin pes, pedis "foot," found in English "pedal," "pedestrian," and "impede" from Latin impedire "to hobble." In Russian the root emerged as pod "under," in Sanskrit as padam "footstep" and pat "foot, and in Greek as pous, pod- "foot," which we find in the eight-footed "octopus," the flat-footed "platypus," not to mention the three-footed "tripod." As we would expect, in English the [p] becomes [f] and the [d], [t], giving us "foot" and, with a lock of hair, "fetlock."

**soubiri** · 03-02-2008, 10:16 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; direction: ltr; line-height: 14.4pt; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3" align="left">Gist (noun)Pronunciation: [thwart]Definition 1: The real grounds for a case or argument; the substance of a matter, the essence of a matter.Usage 1: Watch out for the spelling of this one; it is pronounced the same as "just" in many dialects of English. It is another bachelor word with no derivational offspring—no adjective or verb. It does not even have a plural.Definition 2: (Obsolete) A stopping place or lodging along an itinerary (for people or migratory birds); the right to pasture cattle in a certain location.Suggested Usage: The current meaning of "gist" is useful in separating the core of an event from the details, "I don't recall exactly what was said but the gist of the conversation was a promise never to divulge its contents." What is more intriguing, however, is the loss of the obsolete meaning (Definition 2). That sense deserves a prettier word than "stopover": "Our pond is a gist for a flock of Canada geese every spring." How about, "On our way to Hawaii we made a gist of San Francisco."Etymology: Anglo-French, gist "it lies (is prostrate, is located)" from Middle French, from gesir "to lie," especially gésir en "to consist in, depend on" used in the Anglo-French legal phrase (cest action) gist (en) "this action lies (in)." Gésir comes to us from Latin iacere "throw," found in a plethora of English words with -ject and -jac in them: "object, abject, inject, project, trajectory" and "adjacent, subjacent" but also various words on "jet": "jettison, jetsam, jetty." The original root apparently did not make it to the Germanic languages but it was widely used in Latin.

**soubiri** · 03-03-2008, 08:55 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; direction: ltr; line-height: 14.4pt; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3" align="left">Floccinaucinihilipilification (noun)Pronunciation: [flak-si-na(w)-si-ni-hi-li-pi-li-fi-'key-shên]Definition: Holding or judging something to be worthless.Usage: The word's main function is to be exhibited as an example of a long English word, longer by a letter than the word most people think is the longest, "antidisestablishmentarianism," but no match for "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis ." There is also a widely underused verb, "floccinaucinihilipilificate." (A more useful noun with the same meaning is "floccinaucity" ['fla-si-'na(w)-si-tee].)Suggested Usage: The word was first recorded in a letter by William Shenstone written in 1741 and published in 1777: "I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money". Don't forget that the verb is just as useless as the noun: "It is difficult for Flossie to avoid floccinaucinihilipilificating her nearly otiose husband, Otis."Etymology: Back in the eighteenth century, the Eton Latin Grammar contained a rule that mentioned a set of words all of which meant "of little or no value": flocci, nauci, nihili, and pili. Someone, obviously, had to combine them and add the suffixes -ation to the result. Flocci is the plural of floccus "a tuft of wool" and pili, that of pilus "a hair." "Nihili" is from nihil "nothing," while "nauci" just means "worthless."

**soubiri** · 03-04-2008, 12:44 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; direction: ltr; line-height: 14.4pt; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3" align="left">Putative (adjective)Pronunciation: ['pyu-tê-tiv]Definition: Commonly supposed; assumed without conclusive grounds for belief.Usage: The only other derivational relative today's word has is the adverb "putatively." "Putative" is nearly synonymous with "reputed" but carries a strong connotation of untruth much more like "supposed."Suggested Usage: Today's word suggests itself when any sort of reputation is at issue: "His putative expertise in car repair evaporated quickly in the heat of an actual motor under the hood of my car." The reputation does not have to be a human one, "My dog is the putative father of their dog's puppies, but, well, he was broken awhile ago so we had him fixed."Etymology: From Old French "putatif," from Latin putare "to prune, think, reflect." The underlying root is *peu- "to cut, strike, stamp." It rendered other words a bit like "putative" in that they have to do with thinking or believing: "dispute" from Latin disputare "to think contentiously," "impute" from Latin imputare "to charge," and repute from Latin reputare "to examine repeatedly."

**soubiri** · 03-05-2008, 12:45 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

<h3 align="left">Flummox (verb)</h3>Pronunciation: ['flê-mêks]Definition: (Colloquial) To totally confuse, to confuse to the point of frustration.Usage: "Flummox" is hardly a word we proper speakers of English would use. It is a term originating in the musty dialects of Merry Old (England) that has assumed residence in the vocabularies of reporters. Its origin apparently flummoxed Dickens, who wrote in the Pickwick Papers in 1837 (xxxiii), "He'll be what the Italians call reg'larly flummoxed." In 1840 the Cambridge University Magazine printed, "So many of the men I know Were 'flummox'd' at the last great-go [the final examination at Oxford-Dr. Language]."Suggested Usage: Today's contributor (see below), himself a journalist, writes, "A volatile stock that changes without regard to market expectations, for example, leaves investors 'flummoxed', according to my newspaper and others like it. I have yet to hear a real-life investor complain of such a condition." Perhaps they are too flummoxed to comment. More likely this results from the fact that the term seldom strays beyond the pale of journalism.Etymology: According to the OED, it is probably of dialectal origin; cf. flummocks "to maul, mangle," flummock "slovenly person," also "hurry, bewilderment," flummock "to make untidy, to confuse, bewilder" variously used in Hereford, Gloucester, S. Cheshire, and Sheffield.

**soubiri** · 03-06-2008, 08:11 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

<h3 align="left">Touchstone (noun)</h3>Pronunciation: ['têch-ston]Definition: A smooth, black stone (basanite) used to test the quality of gold and silver by the color of the streak produced by rubbing it across the precious metal; any test of genuineness or excellence.Usage: In the first scene of Beaumont & Fletcher's 'Four Plays in One: The Triumph of Honour,' one of the characters declares, 'Calamity is man’s true touchstone.' Many of us would agree.Suggested Usage: A touchstone is a tool for measuring the genuineness of an object or quality: "Creativity is the touchstone of an excellent member of the company team." I think most women think the touchstone of a good husband is remembering their anniversary.Etymology: 'têch-ston Today's compound comes from touch + stone, a calque (loan translation) of Old French "touchepierre," modern day "pierre de touché" (see also Spanish "piedra de toque"). French toucher "touch" (cf. "Touché!" in sportive or verbal fencing) shares an origin with Italian toccare "to touch," whose participle "toccata" refers to a musical piece emphasizing a variety of keyboard touches. Bach's 'Toccata and Fugue in D minor' is a majestic example. "Stone" is Germanic, related to German Stein "stone" and, more distantly, to Russian stena "wall" and Greek stia "pebble".

**soubiri** · 03-07-2008, 06:30 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

rara avis \RAIR-uh-AY-vis\, noun; plural rara avises \RAIR-uh-AY-vuh-suhz\ or rarae aves \RAIR-ee-AY-veez\:A rare or unique person or thing. He was, after all, that rara avis, a Jewish Catholic priest with a wife and children. -- Jeremy Sams, "Lorenzo the magnificent", Independent May 16, 2000"First of all," Arthur said, "Jack is that rara avis among Ivy League radicals, a birthright member of the proletariat." -- Charles McCarry, <cite minmax_bound="true">Lucky Bastard</cite>Rara avis. You'd have to go far and wide to find someone like that, especially in these times. -- Andrew Holleran, <cite minmax_bound="true">In September, the Light Changes</cite>

**soubiri** · 03-08-2008, 08:25 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

**soubiri** · 03-09-2008, 07:07 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

**Yahya_Fathy** · 08-25-2009, 03:37 AM

Smile to the world, it smiles to you.

**lailasaw** · 12-18-2009, 09:09 PM

[align=left]Je ne suis pas d’accord avec ce que vous dites, mais je me battrai pour que vous ayez le droit de le dire.
Voltaire.
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كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

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