كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

**soubiri** · 06-28-2006, 07:41 PM

كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Exergy (Noun)

Pronunciation: ['ek-sêr-jee]

Definition 1: Potential energy to do work; the useful capacity of an energy source to perform work.
Usage 1: Exergy is almost exclusively used in discussions of thermodynamics. The exergy of a tank of fuel is how much work it is capable of doing, e.g. heating a house to 72° in mid-winter. It we burn that fuel to heat a room, the amount of energy remains the same, but since it has been converted to heat and dispersed throughout the room, its ability to do useful work (exergy) has been radically reduced. The adjective is "exergetic."
Suggested usage: In its broadest meaning, today's new word refers to potential energy to do work as opposed to actual energy. So we could characterize someone as "exergetic" who has potential unused energy or if they waste energy. "Rose Marie has enough exergy to fill two positions like the one she currently occupies." On the other hand, "Raymond is so full of exergy that he starts ten projects at the time, then runs out of energy before he finishes any."
Etymology: A recent neologism by analogy with "energy," from Greek energeia, the noun from energos "active." Today's word would be based on ex- "from" + ergon "work," found in "ergonomics" and "surgery," from Latin "chirurgia" from Greek kheirourgia "hand-work" based on kheir "hand" + erg- "work" + ia, noun suffix. The o-grade, *org-, turns up in Greek organ "tool" and orgia "sacred rite," the origin of "orgy." The same root underlying erg-/org- became "work" in English and "werken" in Dutch.

**soubiri** · 06-29-2006, 07:40 PM

كلمة اليوم Today's Word

Sportive (Adjective)

Pronunciation: ['sport-iv]
Definition 1: Playful, frolicsome, perhaps a little wantonly; related to sport (a pleasant pastime), as a sportive afternoon at tennis and swimming.
Usage 1: Today's word, like restive "fidgety; stubborn," is not 'transparent,' i.e. you can't detect the meaning by adding up the meanings of the stem and the ending unless you use the original meaning of "sport." A baseball game is a sportive event only to the extent it is sport "recreation, diversion, pleasant pastime" as opposed to A sport. Remember: to make sport of someone is to make fun of them. Let's hold on to the original meaning of "sport" if for no other reason than to preserve the key to the meaning of "sportive." "Sportiveness" is the noun and "sportively," the adverb.
Suggested usage: Today's word is related to the verb associated with "sports," namely, play. The meaning is frolicsome, so look out for sportive eyes and smiles in the world around you: "Jolee's sportive laughter sends spirits soaring like homesick angels." But just as making sport of someone can be willful or wanton, so can sportiveness: "Isabel's thoughtlessly sportive remark about Gertrude's zaftig figure struck the only minor chord at the party."
Etymology: Middle English "sporte," aphetic form of "disporte" from Old French desport "pleasure, diversion" from desporter "to divert" based on dis- "away" + portere "to carry," hence that with which one might get carried away. The stem is from Latin portare "carry" whence English "porter." PIE [p] became [f] in Germanic languages, hence Norwegian fjord "ford" and its English counterpart. German fahren "travel by conveyance" and führen "to lead" (whence Führer "the leader) come from the same *por-. The Germanic root is found in English "welfare," "farewell," and "thoroughfare" from the days when "fare" meant to take a journey. Greek poros "journey, passage," whence our own word "pore," shares the same origin.

**soubiri** · 07-01-2006, 11:04 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Paradigm (Noun)

Pronunciation: ['pæ-rê-dIm]

Definition 1: An example that serves as an archetype or model, or the model itself (see definition 2).
Definition 2: The guiding philosophy of a discipline from which theories, experiments, and teaching practices are derived.
Suggested usage: Any ideal may be called a paradigm, especially if it calls for action: "My mother has a paradigm for housework and that requires the active participation of the whole family."
Etymology: From Greek paradeigma "pattern, model" from paradeiknunai "to compare": para- "alongside" + deiknunai "to show, display, exhibit." The underlying root, *deik-/*deig- also evolved into English "teach" and "token" and turns up in Latin as digit "finger" (originally meaning "pointer") and dic- "speak, say" of English "dictate" and "DICtionary!"

**soubiri** · 07-02-2006, 06:27 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Akimbo (Adjective)

Pronunciation: [ê-'kim-bo]

Definition 1: With hands on hips and elbows out.
Usage 1: This adjective is unusual in two respects: it follows its noun, rather than preceding it, and its use is almost entirely restricted to the _expression "with arms akimbo."
Suggested usage: The "arms akimbo" posture usually connotes truculence or defiance. Ken Strongman, TV reviewer for the Christchurch (New Zealand) Press, coined the _expression "with nipples akimbo" when discussing Marlon Brando's performance as Stanley Kowalski in the film version of "A Streetcar Named Desire." In males, sitting with knees wide apart can carry the same connotation, so there is an obvious use for the _expression "with legs akimbo." It is a short step from there to a wider range of contexts, e.g. "With eyes akimbo, Paula confronted her erring husband."
Etymology: 15th century: "in kenebowe" probably from Old Norse i keng boginn "bent in a curve."

**soubiri** · 07-03-2006, 07:55 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Donnybrook (Noun)

Pronunciation: ['dahn-ee-bruk or 'dahn-i-bruk]
Definition 1: A free-for-all or melee; a brawl that is out of control; an uproarious argument.
Usage 1: This word has several synonyms—pandemonium, melee, riot—none as colorful as this word.
Suggested usage: Actually, we hope you never have occasion to use the term but, if you do, use it thus: "Why is it a donnybrook breaks out at every rock concert you two attend?" "She lost her her dignity and the sleeve of her coat in the donnybrook of the after-Christmas sale at the mall." (Another reason to buy on line.)
Etymology: The annual (1204-1867) Donnybrook Fair in Donnybrook, Ireland (SE suburb of Dublin), famous for its brawls. In 1822, a typical fair day's complaints were "for broken heads, black eyes, bloody noses, squeezed hats, singed, cut and torn inexpressibles, jocks and upper benjamins, loodies, frocks, tippets, reels and damaged leghorns, together with sundry assaults, fibbings, cross buttocks, and ground floorings too numerous to mention.

**soubiri** · 07-04-2006, 06:34 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Prosaic (Adjective)
Pronunciation: [pro-'zey-ik]
Definition 1: (1) Pertaining to writing that is not poetry; (2) unadorned, plain, lacking in imagination.
Usage 1: Today's word is the adjective to "prose" which, because it is not poetic, has led to a sense of simplicity and plainness. Unfortunately, in the West plainness and simplicity are disdained, so the term has assumed a pejorative connotation. A plain, unexciting _expression is a "prosaism" and a person who writes prose is a prose-writer—"prosaist" is rarely used any more.
Suggested usage: Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle), in one of his essays on love, expressed the Western contempt for plainness, "There are fewer prosaic minds among the nobility than among the middle class. That is the disadvantage of trade; it makes one prosaic." But we all encounter prosaism all too frequently, "Sally Forth spread a remarkably prosaic luncheon of tuna fish salad on white bread and iced tea for her hapless captive diners."
Etymology: This word was taken from Late Latin prosaicus "prosaic," the adjective of prosa "prose." Latin "prosa" is a shortening of the phrase prosa oratio "straightforward discourse." The adjective "prosa" is the feminine of "prosus," a reduction of "proversus," the past participle of provertere "to turn forward" from pro "forward" + vertere "to turn." We can see the root of "vert-ere" in many Latin borrowings, such as "convert," "invert," "covert." In English the same root that gave Latin vert- became the adverb suffix –ward in "toward," "windward," "inward." Other English descendants of the same root include "worth," "wreath," "wrist," and "wrestle."

**soubiri** · 07-05-2006, 06:05 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Budweis (Noun)
Pronunciation: ['bud-vIs]
Definition 1: The German name of the Czech city of Ceske Budejovice.
Usage 1: The city of Cesky Budejovice is called "Budweis" in German so that Budweiser Beer means "beer from Budweis" in that language. The American brewery Anheuser-Busch began using the name in 1876. The problem is that the Czechs have been brewing beer—which they called the Beer of Kings—in their town since thirsty King Premysl II Otakar (son of good King Wenceslas I) founded the city in 1245. Unfortunately for the Czechs, they only began calling their beer Budweiser Budvar in 1895 and ever since that time the two breweries have been locked in a legal battle for rights to use the name.
Suggested usage: The new problem brewing for the US brewer now is that, according to the laws of the new European Union (EU), of which the Czech Republic became a member this past week, manufacturers may use the name of a location only if their plant is situated in that location. So far, however, after a century of legal squabbles, both sides are still brewing beer under the name "Budweiser."
Etymology: By the way, another Czech town, "Plzen," or "Pilsen" in German, has given its name to a type of beer widely called "Pils." The next beer battle in the EU? (Roberto Carosiello of Turin, Italy wondered if linguistics had anything to say about these disputes. Linguistically, all we have to do is keep these words capitalized and we are both grammatical and legal.)

**soubiri** · 07-06-2006, 06:51 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Epizootic (Adjective) <shapetype id="_x0000_t75" stroked="f" filled="f" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" o

referrelative="t" o:spt="75" coordsize="21600,21600" /><stroke joinstyle="miter" /></stroke /><formulas /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></formulas /><path o:connecttype="rect" gradientshapeok="t" o:extrusionok="f" /></path /><lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit" /></lock /></shapetype /><shape id="_x0000_i1025" style="width: 0.75pt; height: 7.5pt" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" /><imagedata o:href="http://www.yourdictionary.com/images/x.gif" src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\SARLBM~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\cli p_image001.png" /></imagedata /></shape />Pronunciation: [e-pê-zo-'ah-tik]Definition 1: Temporarily and unusually prevalent among animals or animals of a certain species, especially a disease. Usage 1: Today's word is another forgotten lexical soul, now regularly (mis)replaced by epidemic "temporarily and unusually prevalent among people." Just as the antonym of "epidemic" is endemic "regularly found among a people or people of a region," enzootic means "regularly found among a species of animal or animals of a specific region." Today's word is used as a noun, too, as "epidemic" serves both functions. Suggested usage: When discussing animal diseases in future, we suggest the restoration of "epizootic" to its proper position: "The foot-and-mouth epizootic in <country-region w:st="on" /><place w:st="on" />Great Britain</place /></country-region /> caused enormous economic losses." Although its reference is generally limited to diseases, it is no more lacking metaphorical applications than any other word: "The clang of the dog dish on Jack Russell’s back porch occasions an epizootic outbreak of tail-wagging throughout the neighborhood."Etymology: From Greek epi- "(up)on" + zoon "animal" + -otic "related to a specific condition or disease" paralleling "epidemic" from epi + demos "people" + -ic. The Greek root zo- derives from the Proto-Indo-European gwoi-/gwei- "to live" which turns up in the English adjective "quick" which originally meant "alive." "Azoth," an old word for quick-silver, comes from Arabic "az-zauq," borrowed from Old Persian zhiwak "alive" from the same source. (Persian but not Arabic is a related Indo-European language.) The Persian stem is a close relative of Russian zhivoj "alive.

**soubiri** · 07-09-2006, 06:24 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Badly (Adverb) <shapetype id="_x0000_t75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f" o

referrelative="t" o:spt="75" coordsize="21600,21600"><stroke joinstyle="miter"></stroke><formulas><f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></f><f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></f><f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></f><f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></f><f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></f><f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></f><f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></f><f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></f><f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></f><f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></f><f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></f><f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></f></formulas><path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"></path><lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"></lock></shapetype><shape id="_x0000_i1025" style="width: 0.75pt; height: 7.5pt" type="#_x0000_t75" alt=""><imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\SARLBM~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\cli p_image001.png" o:href="http://www.yourdictionary.com/images/x.gif"></imagedata></shape>Pronunciation: ['bæd-li]Definition 1: In a bad fashion or manner; to a great degree; very much.Usage 1: Today's word has long been under assault when used as an overcorrective to what was never a problem in the first place. It's taking the place of its shorter sibling, the adjective "bad," in reference to physical and emotional feeling. The adjective "bad" describes the noun it modifies, the pronoun subject "I" in the sentence "I feel bad." That means that I might have a cold (physical use) or feel a bit blue (emotional). In the sentence "I feel badly," "badly," the adverb form, modifies the verb "to feel." Thus, it more likely connotes that I'm wearing gloves. Suggested usage: With other verbs, the distinction is clearer. We can only say (correctly) "I need the book badly" or "I want the book badly" for here only the verb may be modified, not the subject. All this points up the fact that the adverbial suffix -ly is another endangered grammatical marker in English. In the southern <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">US</place></country-region> life goes "real slow," rather than "really slowly," showing an even deeper erosion. It may be time to think of linguistic ecology and English as an endangered language. A side note: the use of "bad" to mean "good" or "formidable" (as in "one bad dude") has been around since at least 1850. How is that for cool? Etymology: Today's word wasn't always as ubiquitous as it is today. In fact, it appears mysteriously at the beginning of the fourteenth century as "badde." The best guess is that it comes from Old English bæddel "a hermaphrodite" and badling "an effeminate man." From those words—both negative in warlike Anglo-Saxon society—we got "badde" and then "bad," standing for something that's just not right.

**soubiri** · 07-11-2006, 06:43 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Migrate (Verb)<shapetype id="_x0000_t75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f" o

referrelative="t" o:spt="75" coordsize="21600,21600" /><stroke joinstyle="miter" /></stroke /><formulas /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></formulas /><path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" /></path /><lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t" /></lock /></shapetype /><shape id="_x0000_i1025" style="width: 0.75pt; height: 7.5pt" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" /><imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\SARLBM~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\cli p_image001.png" o:href="http://www.yourdictionary.com/images/x.gif" /></imagedata /></shape />Pronunciation: ['mI-greyt]Definition 1: To move from one location or locality to another. Usage 1: The noun is "migration," the adjective, "migratory," and the agent noun, "migrant." The suffix -ant (or -ent) is used to mark the agent (person doing something) of intransitive Latinate verbs. "Migrate" is intransitive and derives from Latin (see Etymology), so migrants are called "migrants" rather than "migrators." "Resident," "descendent," and "dependent" are other examples. Reference of the more specific forms, immigrate ['im-ê-greyt'] "to migrate to a place" and emigrate ['em-ê-greyt] "migrate from a place," is usually limited to people making permanent changes of residence. Suggested usage: The metaphoric side of this verb is only seldom mined for its exquisite expressivity: "The band's style has migrated over the years from a sort of smooth jazz to blatant New Wave." It is perfect lexical choice for any slow transition, "Mindy's primary interest has slowly migrated from shopping for clothes to repairing trucks." Etymology: From Latin migrare "to migrate." From the PIE stem *mei-gw- "move" based on *mei/moi "to change or move." With the suffix -to the same root turns up in Latin mutare "to change" and mutuus "in exchange" on which "mutual" is based. English "mad" shares the same origin via Germanic ga-maid-yan "changed" underlying Old English *gemædan "made foolish or insane." For more on PIE, check our new FAQ sheet, linked to the front page.

**soubiri** · 07-12-2006, 09:25 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

**soubiri** · 07-13-2006, 06:25 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Enthusiasm (Noun) Pronunciation: [en-'thu-zi-æz-êm]Definition 1: Passionate eagerness, great excitement for something or the object itself of the excitement (e.g. "Birding ranks among his greatest enthusiasms"); religious fanaticism (outdated). Usage 1: The adjective from today's word is "enthusiastic" and the adverb, "enthusiastically." Someone taken with enthusiasm is an enthusiast, e.g. as a football enthusiast. Ambrose Bierce, author of the wicked 'Devil's Dictionary,' calls it "[a] distemper of youth, curable by small doses of repentance in connection with outward applications of experience."Suggested usage: Ralph Waldo Emerson bestowed us with two uses of today's word with antonymic connotations. First he wrote, "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." But he also wrote, "Everywhere the history of religion betrays a tendency to enthusiasm," indicating the older sense of the word. Mason Cooley defines amateurism this way: "Amateurs believe their enthusiasm will suffice."Etymology: From Greek enthousiasmos "inspiration, enthusiasm, frenzy" from enthousiazein "to be inspired by a god." This verb is based on entheos "inspired, possessed" made up of en "in" + theos "god." The original root was *dhes with an initial [dh] that became [f] in Latin hence (county, state) "fair" from Latin feriae (earlier fesiae) "holidays." It also underlies "feast," "fest" (including "Oktoberfest"), "festival," "festoon," fete," and "fiesta.

**soubiri** · 07-16-2006, 06:52 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Gound (Noun) <shapetype id="_x0000_t75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f" o

referrelative="t" o:spt="75" coordsize="21600,21600"><stroke joinstyle="miter"></stroke><formulas><f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></f><f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></f><f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></f><f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></f><f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></f><f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></f><f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></f><f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></f><f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></f><f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></f><f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></f><f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></f></formulas><path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"></path><lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"></lock></shapetype><shape id="_x0000_i1025" style="width: 114pt; height: 1.5pt" type="#_x0000_t75" alt=""><imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\SARLBM~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\cli p_image001.png" o:href="http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/el/spc_eee1.gif"></imagedata></shape> <shape id="_x0000_i1026" style="width: 0.75pt; height: 7.5pt" type="#_x0000_t75" alt=""><imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\SARLBM~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\cli p_image001.png" o:href="http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/el/spc_eee1.gif"></imagedata></shape>Pronunciation: ['gawnd]Definition 1: The extraneous matter that collects in the corners of the eyes during sleep (often called "sleep" itself in the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">U.S.</place></country-region>)Usage 1: We cannot imagine how the English-speaking world has survived for three centuries without a word for this common natural substance. The word for it seems to have fallen into the crack between the 17th and 18th centuries. But now yourDictionary has brought it back again. Ta-da! We might as well resurrect the adjective, "goundy," too—and will the verb be far behind? "My eyes gounded up so remarkably over night I can barely see to dress this morning. Maybe I should stay in bed." Suggested usage: If English has a word for everything, why do we use the same word, "sleep," for sleep and the substance left in the eyes by sleep? It would be a shame to lose this useful little workpony forever: "If you can't see that your shirt and pants do not match, you had better get the gound out of your eyes." Once we have reestablished it, we can manumit it to new heights of metaphoric glory: "I think Ermaline has an accumulation of gound on the brain not to see that school librarian is the perfect job for her." Etymology: This word has been around forever, though probably not with this meaning. In Old English and Gothic it was "gund" but apparently is too peripheral to allure the etymologists.

**soubiri** · 07-18-2006, 07:38 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Fathom (Noun) <shapetype id="_x0000_t75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o

referrelative="t" /><stroke joinstyle="miter" /></stroke /><formulas /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></f /></formulas /><path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" /></path /><lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t" /></lock /></shapetype /><shape id="_x0000_i1025" style="width: 0.75pt; height: 7.5pt" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" /><imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\SARLBM~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\cli p_image001.png" o:href="http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/el/spc_eee1.gif" /></imagedata /></shape />Pronunciation: ['fæ-dhêm]Definition 1: (Noun) The outstretched arms or the measure of outstretched arms; a nautical measure of <metricconverter w:st="on" ProductID="6 feet" />6 feet</metricconverter />. Usage 1: The original meaning of today's word was "embrace" or "the outstretched arms." From there it became a measure of <metricconverter w:st="on" ProductID="6 feet" />6 feet</metricconverter />, roughly the measure of a man's outstretched arms. Before the manufacture of rulers, tape measures, and the like, we used ourselves to measure the furnishings of our lives. "Foot" remains an official measurement but unofficial ones still abound: a horse 16 hands at the shoulder, a cubit (from the elbow to the wrist), two fingers of scotch, and a race may be won or lost by a nose, a hair, or the skin of one's teeth! Definition 2: (Verb) To measure to the bottom (of a water) with a fathom pole or line; to manage to comprehend. Suggested usage: A fathom remains an embrace; anyone held in your arms is within your fathom. A fathomless waist is one the arms will not reach around but an unfathomable waist is one that cannot be comprehended. (Honest, all I've been eating is salads.) Today's word is both a noun and a verb. One may fathom a waterway for its depth in fathoms or try to fathom (comprehend) one's parents or teenage daughter. Asking, "Can you fathom what Noah is trying to say?" leaves the impression that Noah's message is deep and you can neither plumb its depths nor get a grasp of it. Etymology: Old English fæthm "fathom" from Germanic *fathmaz, a predictable derivation of PIE *pot-mo-s (PIE p > f and t > th in Germanic languages). German Faden "thread, fathom" shares the same origin. Without the suffix the root turns up in Latin patere "be open. With other suffixes it emerges in Greek petalon "leaf" (whence English "petal") and patane "flat dish" from which Latin patina "flat plate" and English "pan" derive.

**soubiri** · 07-19-2006, 12:26 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Cockamamie (Adjective) Pronunciation: ['kok-ê-mey-mee]Definition 1: (Slang) Ridiculous, outlandish, implausible, not worthy of note.Usage 1: "Cockamamie" is a lexical orphan which was in general use between 1930 and 1970, but which has been in decline ever since.Suggested usage: You can still use this word to put a little period detail into your discourse: "Where on earth did you get the cockamamie idea that Humphrey Bogart ever said 'Play it again, Sam.'?" And if you have grandchildren, then they're already used to your impenetrable utterances, so you can use the word with impunity: "We didn't have these cockamamie electronic calculators when I was at school; let me just show you my trusty old cylindrical slide-rule."Etymology: Today's word is a corruption of the latter four syllables of "decalcomania," the process of transferring pictures from specially prepared paper on to glass or other surfaces. As the suffix "-mania" suggests, this activity became a general obsession in Victorian Britain during the years 1862-64. "Decal" is a clipping of "decalcomania" and refers to the transferred image. "Decalcomania" comes straight from the French décalcomanie, which is in turn derived from the French calquer "to trace or copy" plus mania, "madness." "Calquer" comes ultimately from Latin calcare "to tread," derived from calx "heel." The link to "treading" is a reference to the pressure required to make the image transfer. "Calx" is with us still in "recalcitrant," an adjective that describes those who are likely (figuratively, at least) to dig in their heels or kick back with them when pressed to do something displeasing.

كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

تعليق

تعليق

تعليق

تعليق

تعليق

تعليق

تعليق

تعليق

تعليق

تعليق

تعليق

تعليق

تعليق

تعليق

تعليق

إحصائيات Arabic Translators International _ الجمعية الدولية لمترجمي العربية