كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Casuistry (Noun)
Pronunciation: ['kæzh(ê)-wi-stree]

Definition 1: The resolution of questions of morality by comparing specific cases against general (religious) principles; specious reasoning; that is, reasoning that sounds logical but is false.
Usage 1: The original casuistry has been called 'quibbling with God,' an interpretation of the original that led to the second, pejorative sense of the word. Historically, the point of casuistic thinking too often has been to provide a rationalization, however specious, for a predetermined conclusion. In 'Letters on the Spirit of Patriotism, Henry Bolingbroke wrote in 1736: "Casuistry…destroys, by distinctions and exceptions, all morality, and effaces the essential difference between right and wrong." The adjective, as you can see, is "casuistic;" "casuistically" is the adverb. A person who resorts to casuistry is a casuist.
Suggested usage: You have, no doubt, at some time tried to debate a point logically with a person arguing a predetermined conclusion from which he will not be moved. He rationalizes semi-logically by drawing on an ever-changing array of ostensible but often false principles which he makes up to fit the issue. That is casuistry: "Leland, to argue that bigamy is good, on the one hand, because it allows more freedom of choice and, on the other, because it allows more women the security of a home with the good men in the world, is not only casuistry but baldly contradictory casuistry."
Etymology: From "casuist," casus + ist from Latin casus "case, event" the past participle ("that which has fallen") of cadere "to fall" (cf. German Fall "case, instance"). Residues of the Latin verb are found in the English borrowings "cadaver," "cadence," "cascade," "casual," "chance," and "decay."

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Avocado (Noun)
Pronunciation: [æ-vê-'kah-do]

Definition 1: Pear-shaped fruit with dark green, leathery skin, a large stony seed, and greenish-yellow edible pulp used in salads and in guacamole. Also the subtropical American tree on which this fruit grows.
Usage 1: The plural is "avocados," no [e]. Otherwise, we have another lexical orphan today with no consanguineous adjectives or verbs. The noun itself may be used adjectivally to refer to its own color, as an avocado green stain on your shirt.
Suggested usage: At first glance, it might seem that today's word does not lend itself easily to any usage other than the literal one. But the unusual color, creamy texture, and mild taste opens many doors for us, "Her freshly spiked hair and avocado lips made Frank wish he were literally a blind date." Remember, avocados have strikingly different textures inside and outside: "The truffle had a rich chocolate flavor and an avocado texture that melted on the tongue," but also, "After 25 years in the sun, her complexion approached that of an avocado with a color that was only a tad lighter."
Etymology: So what do an avocado and a Spanish lawyer have in common? Originally, the Aztecs called this fruit "ahucatl" in their language, Nahuatl, and believed it was an aphrodisiac. To the Spaniards, the Nahuatl word "ahucatl" sounded like their word, avocado "lawyer" (spelled "abogado" today). The first recorded English usage in 1697 was the compound "avogato pear." The Aztecs also made sauces, called "molli" in Nahuatl. That made their avocado sauce, of course, "ahuacamolli," shortened by the Spaniards to "guacamole" [hwah-kê-'mo-le], the popular chip dip today.

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Depose (Verb)

Pronunciation: [dee-'poz]
Definition 1: To remove from office or power.
Definition 2: To state or affirm in a legal affidavit (deposition).
Usage 2: "Depose" originally meant "to lay down" and the noun was deposit "that which is laid down." Even though it retains that meaning today in some sciences, the noun "deposit" has taken over that meaning of "depose" among the general populace. Currently the noun for "depose" is "deposition." Investigators depose witnesses by taking down their testimony in the legal form of a deposition. Such witnesses (or "deponents") depone what they know in a deposition.
Suggested usage: Of course, the current US administration would love to depose Saddam Hussein from his presidency of Iraq but chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix would settle for deposing him for his knowledge of Iraqi arms. Although "depose" and "depone" are used mostly in the legal system, occasions for their use arise around the house: "Biff vigorously deponed that it was his sister's friends who ate all the chicken, not his." Using today's word instead of "swore on a stack of Bibles" saves you five words while raising the level of conversation several notches.
Etymology: From Old French "deposer," an alteration of Latin deponere, "to put down." Hence today's word is also etymologically related to depone "testify (under oath)" with the [n] changed to [s], probably under the influence of French poser "put." (I adamantly depone that Deb Griffiths of Harrisburg.

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Murrain (Noun)
Pronunciation: [mê-'reyn]
Definition 1: A plague, a pestilence, especially affecting cattle, such as anthrax or foot-and-mouth disease; any horrendous event.
Usage 1: Today's noun is used also as an adjective meaning "enormous, monstrous" or "plague-like." As such it has an adverb "murrainly."
Suggested usage: Of course, everyone saves up for a rainy day but nothing could prepare us for a murrain day like September 11, 2001. If the trends in music between rock and roll and hip-hop dismay you, remember that H. L. Mencken was plagued by "the murrain of jazz." Today's is also a good word for the occasional mindless curse (if duly provoked, of course): "A murrain upon your head!" or, as Trinculo put it in Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' (III, ii, 50), "A murrain on your monster, and the devil take your fingers!"
Etymology: Borrowed from Old French morine, from Medieval Latin morina, a noun from Latin mori "to die," whose irregular past participle "mortus" underlies "mortal," "mortuary," and "mortgage." This verb may be related to mordere "to bite," underlying "morsel." It is certainly akin to morbus "diseased" from which we derive "morbid." The "mare" in "nightmare" originally referred to a female goblin who attacked people asleep at night. It, too, is related.

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Armistice (Noun)
Pronunciation: ['ah(r)-mê-stis]

Definition 1: A limited cease-fire or the document containing the terms of a limited cease-fire; a temporary truce put in place until a permanent agreement can be reached between two hostile parties.
Usage 1: We thought this day, the anniversary of D-Day, would be appropriate for today's word. "D-Day," by the way, is a term used for an undetermined day for a military operation. The invasion of Normandy had been planned for June 5, 1944 but weather delayed it until the 6th. It has nevertheless been adopted as the official name of the day the Allies began the final leg of their drive to free Europe from Nazi occupation.
Suggested usage: Several countries signed armistices with the Axis Powers before D-Day. France was forced to signed armistices with Germany and Italy in June of 1941 and Greece signed one in April of 1942. Armistice Day in the US, celebrating the end of World War I, is November 11, though many now call it Veterans' Day.
Etymology: Today's word comes from Late Latin armistitium "armistice" based on Latin arma "arms" + -stitium "stopping, standing." The original PIE word for arms apparently referred to something fitted together, for Latin arma originally meant "tool, instrument." Moreover, the same root turns up in Greek as harmos "shoulder" from which we get "harmony"—a word oddly at odds with the meaning of "arms" and "army." The original root *sta- went on to become, unsurprisingly, "stand" and "stop" in English. However, see if you can figure out why it also appears in "stallion" and "steed." (Today we owe a bow to Richard McConnell, who thought this word a fitting one on the anniversary of the 60th year since Allied Expeditionary Forces landed on the beaches of Normandy to turn the tide of World War II.)

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Tachycardia (Noun)

Pronunciation: [tæ-kê-'kahr-di-yê]
Definition 1: Rapid heartbeat
Usage 1: The term is medical and seldom used outside discussion of the physical condition of the heart.
Suggested usage: This is a medical term probably not suited for romantic encounters: "Marilyn, your eyes give me profound tachycardia" will probably not melt Mariyn's affections as much as "you make my heart beat faster" (unless Marilyn is a cardiologist). "I suggested they call their new coffee 'Tachycardia' or reduce its caffeine content."
Etymology: Greek tachy- "swift" + kardia "heart." Greek "kardia" is a perfect example of the unity of Indo-European languages. In German it is "Herz," in Russian "serd-ce," Hindi "hridaya," Kurdish "cerg," Khowar "hardi," and in Latin cordis "of the heart." The original PIE [k] sound changed to [h] in many languages and to [s] in Slavic. Metathesis, the switching of the positions of [r] and the vowel seen in Hindi, occurs in several languages. The origin of all these words is obviously the same, some root *krd- in the original or "mother" language, Proto-Indo-European.

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Logistics (Noun)
Pronunciation: [lê-'jis-tiks]

Definition 1: The management of materiel and personnel for any operation, such as a military operation or a convention.
Usage 1: This noun belongs to a class of nouns that are longer than their adjectives ("linguistics : linguistic," "semantics : semantic," "logistics : logistic"). If this makes you uneasy, you may use the longer synonym, "logistical." Most dictionaries now agree that this noun may be considered plural. This suggests to me that we should be able to speak of one logistic—but we can't. That final –s is clearly a singular noun formant just like the one on "linguistics," "semantics," and "physics," and not a plural marker. However, the word refers to a plurality of actions, so plural number does make semantic sense.
Suggested usage: Today's word is about planning and organization at any level, "If the logistics of getting the soccer team to practice was as easy as getting them to the ice cream parlor after a game, there would be more volunteer coaches." The term originally referred to military organization, however, "The logistics of transporting, housing, feeding, and supplying our military forces in Iraq is itself a formidable task."
Etymology: Today's word comes to us via French "logistique" from Medieval Latin logisticus "of calculation," itself borrowed from Greek logistikos "skilled in calculating" from logistes "calculator," the noun of logizesthai "to calculate." The ultimate root here is logos "reckoning, reason, talk," found in the words for many sciences: "biology," "sociology," geology, i.e. "earth reasoning."

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Sedulous (Adjective)

Pronunciation: ['se-jê-lês] (US) or British ['se-dyu-lês]
Definition 1: Diligent, assiduous, zealous; applying oneself unflaggingly to a task.
Usage 1: This is a qualitative adjective, which means it can compare, "more sedulous, most sedulous", form an adverb, "sedulously," and a noun, "sedulity" [sê-'ju-lê-tee] or [sê-'dyu-lê-tee].
Suggested usage: Today's is another general purpose word, "If you do your homework sedulously this week, I'll take you to see the Red Sox play this weekend" is a good way for Bostonians to encourage good study habits. Use it outside the home, too: "If Ferenc were as sedulous in his work as he is in his golf, he would have dodged this last round of lay-offs."
Etymology: Latin sedulus "zealous" from se(d) "without" + dolus "trickery." The PIE root *swe(dh)- also underlies "self" and Russian svoi "one's own" and swain "country boy" from "one's own man, servant." The o-grade, "so-" in Latin is found in sobrius "not drunk" from so + ebrius "drunk" (whence in-ebri-ate "to endrunken," so to speak). The PIE root that gave "dolus" gave English "tell," which originally meant "count," and Dutch taal "speech."

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Practicable (Adjective)
Pronunciation: ['præk-ti-kê-bêl]

Definition 1: Capable of being put into action, feasible; usable, capable of being used in all senses of the word.
Usage 1: Today's word is frequently confused with practical "involving actual practice or experience" as in "practical knowledge" or "practical experience." A "practicable plan" or a "practicable river crossing" is a plan and crossing that can be used. The noun is "practicability" and the adverb, "practicably."
Suggested usage: Today's adjective refers to the extent something may be put to use: "The mountain pass was not practicable for the faint of heart." Here is a sentence with both adjectives at work in it: "Renee's plan to repair the leak in the roof with bubble gum is not practical because bubble gum is not a practicable roof-patch material under our weather conditions."
Etymology: Medieval Latin practicabilis "usable" from practicare "to practice," a verb based on the noun practica "practice." This noun was borrowed from Greek praktike "practical science," the feminine of praktikos "fit for action" from the verb prassein,
prak- "to make, do."

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Skirmish (Noun)

Pronunciation: ['skêr-mish]
Definition 1: A minor combative encounter between small outfits of two larger opposing forces; a small initial fight to test the reactions of larger forces. Any small combative encounter, such as a verbal skirmish between two political candidates.
Usage 1: If greenish means "somewhat green" and longish means "somewhat long," skirmish should mean "somewhat skirm"—but it doesn't. The ending of today's word is of obscure origins and has been changed by folk etymology to a recognizable if inconsistent suffix. The plural is "skirmishes" and today's noun may also be used as an intransitive verb. "Scaramouch(e)," Harlequin's malicious counterpart in the Commedia dell'arte, the wandering medieval players of Western Europe, owes his name to the same source. Scaramouch is always a boastful schemer who mounts facetious skirmishes against those around him.
Suggested usage: Today's contributor (see Etymology) takes delight in the gasoline skirmishes around his neighborhood, "The opening of two new gasoline stations in proximity to two established stations has resulted in lower costs, but prices still around $1.36 per gallon reflect more of a gas skirmish than a gas war." Larry dreams of an all-out war that will bring prices down to $.75 again. Dream on, Larry. Perhaps the most famous skirmish was between David and Goliath; a very short battle that hardly amounted to a fight.
Etymology: Middle English "skirmisshe" from Old French "eskarmouch," from Italian scaramuccia "skirmish." Older Romance languages originally borrowed this word from Germanic, then we borrowed it back. To cut straight to the point, the original root was *sker- "cut," the great-grandfather of English "shear," "share," and "shard." A shirt is also something sheared from a larger piece of clothing so as to make it "short," originally a past participle meaning "cut." English also borrowed the Old Norse variant of this word, "skirt," assigning it the meaning of the part cut off in making a shirt. "Scar" is another Old Norse cut left in English by the Viking invasions of England. Scrimmage "practice session or contest" is a variant derived by the metathesis of the [r] with the vowel preceding it and a reanalysis of the ending to make it look like a French suffix.

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Logorrhea (Noun)
Pronunciation: [lah-gê-'ree-ê or lo-gê-'ree-ê]

Definition 1: Excessively wordy, incoherent speech.
Usage 1: "Logorrheic," the adjective, has a clinical use in psychiatry: bi-polar patients sometimes have logorrheic episodes. Look out for the double "r."
Suggested usage: This is another of our words about words that allows you to raise the register of your speech. "When David saw his daughter's new nose ring, he went from stammering to logorrhea in 2.6 seconds." "I could make nothing of his logorrheic ramblings."
Etymology: Late 19th century, from Greek logo-s "word, idea" and rhe-in "to flow, run." "Logos" is akin to the "lex-" (leg-s-) in "lexical" as well as the "leg-" in "legal" and "legislation," going back to a time when the law was the Word. Rhe-in derives from PIE sreu-, with the "s" mysteriously disappearing. This root also developed into Germanic "strom" ("maelstrom') and English "stream.

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Querulous (Adjective)

Pronunciation: ['kwe-rê-lês]

Definition 1: Complaining, peevish, irritable, out of sorts.
Usage 1: Remember that this word has 3 [u]s in it, including one after the [r]. Although it looks very much like "quarrel," it does not mean "quarrelsome." From about 1550 to 1650 we had a word "quarrellous" which was synonymous with "quarrelsome," but neither meant "querulous." Today's word simply means "peevish" and refers to a proclivity to complain but not necessarily to argue or quarrel. "Querulously" is the adverb and "querulousness," the noun.
Suggested usage: Today's word offers relief from the tired cliché about getting up on the wrong side of the bed, "Stay away from Henrietta today; she is in a very querulous mood." Remember, this word refers to whiny, peevish types, given to complaining, not quarrelling: "Wiggins is such a querulous soul that he even whines about himself!"
Etymology: Today's word comes from Old French "querelos," a direct descendant from Latin querulus "querulous," the adjective from queri "to complain." The root originated as something like *k'wes- "wheeze, pant" in Proto-Indo-European. The advanced [k'] became [s] in the Eastern PIE languages, so the word turns up in Russian svist "whistle." In the Germanic languages [k] and [k'] became [h] so in English it became "wheeze" via Old Norse hvæsa "to hiss." (The consonants [wh] are pronounced in the reverse order of their spelling in English.)

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Ranivorous (Adjective)

Pronunciation: [ræ-‘ni-vê-rês ]

Definition 1: Frog-eating.
Usage 1: Western Europeans have inherited their ranivorousness from the French, who discovered the delicacy of the flavor of the legs of the bull frog. The adverb would be "ranivorously" and the noun "ranivorousness" rather than "ranivorosity." An animal that eats frogs would be a "ranivore."
Suggested usage: Many biologists are worried about the world-wide disappearance of frogs. Many believe that frogs may be an early warning of a failure of our ecosystem that will mean more mosquitoes and other insects, and fewer ranivorous animals like minks, otters, and snakes (whose skins protect us from the mosquitoes). Our theory? Sasquatch (Bigfoot) is ranivorous and is breeding.
Etymology: From Latin rana "frog" derived from the PIE root *rek- "bellow" also found in rancare "to bellow" and Russian rech' "speech."

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Fungible (Adjective)

Pronunciation: ['fên-jê-bêl]
Definition 1: Interchangeable; in legal terms, something that can be substituted for a like measure or amount of the same thing, as one bushel of apples for another, in order to satisfy an obligation.
Usage 1: An object that is fungible can be called a "fungible," so the noun form is the same as the adjective. In chemical engineering, a fungible petroleum product is one that has similar characteristics to others, so they can be blended—an example of a useful word being taken from one discipline (law—see the etymology) and given a specific definition by another discipline.
Suggested usage: Today's word is most applicable when one is demanding restitution for a wrongdoing: "I don't consider an apology to be fungible for the damage you did to the birdbath and lawnmower—three months' worth of your allowance would be more like it!" "Fungible" can lend itself to debates about who finished what from the refrigerator, as well: "The vanilla and strawberry left unmolested in a carton of Neapolitan ice cream are not fungible for your eating every bit of the chocolate by yourself."
Etymology: Today's word carries the history of British legal code with it. In medieval England (c.1100 to c.1500), the language of law was Latin; indeed, throughout the Western world, Latin was the lingua franca because of the dominance of the Roman Catholic Church. "Fungible" derives from the legal, secular use of Latin during the Middle Ages. It comes from the Medieval (New) Latin "fungibilis," which comes from fungi "vice-, to perform (in place of)."

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كلمة اليوم Today's Word