كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

**soubiri** · 07-20-2006, 07:11 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Ramshackle (Adjective) Pronunciation: [ 'ræm-shæk-l]Definition 1: Rickety, run-down, in a state of disrepair; loosely constructed. Usage 1: "Ramshackle" is another lexical orphan: no noun, no adverb, no verb, even though it originated in a verb. It most often refers to a building, such as "a ramshackle cabin in the woods." The reason the [s] of "ransackled" became [sh] in "ramshackle" is probably because the adjective is almost always used in conjunction with "shack." That noun is now incorporated into the adjective. Suggested usage: Because of its close association with "shack," the metaphoric possibilities of "ramshackle" have barely been explored: "Omar's ramshackle plan for escape from the camp stood no chance of success." You must know someone whose ramshackle appearance would overburden the epithet "casual." OK, your turn. Etymology: Today's word has traveled a long way without having anything to do with shacks inhabited by rams. Rather, it is a back-formation of "ramshackled," a dialectal corruption of ranshackled, itself a corruption of ransackled, the past participle of ransackle "to ransack." This last word is the frequentative variant of Middle English ransaken "to pillage," the forefather of our "ransack," borrowed from Old Norse rannsaka "house search" comprising rann "house" + *saka "to search, seek." So it is no etymological accident that a ramshackle house looks as though it had been frequently ransacked and pillaged.

**soubiri** · 07-23-2006, 06:57 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

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

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**soubiri** · 08-21-2006, 07:04 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Apropos (Adjective) Pronunciation: [æ-prê-'po]Definition 1: (Adjective) Very appropriate at a particular moment or in a particular situation, as "You're welcome" is very apropos after someone says, "Thank you." (Preposition) In regard to, speaking of, concerning. Usage 1: Today's word has been so completely assimilated into English that spelling it "à propos" or even "a propos" is no longer necessary. It is now treated as a single word with no diacritics. It may be used as an adjective or preposition but watch out—with different meanings.Suggested usage: The adjective means not simply appropriate but appropriate for a specific occasion: "Well, I don't think pulling the chair from under the Contessa at a Whitehouse dinner was, strictly speaking, apropos." As a preposition, however, it means "concerning, about," "The Contessa had nothing to say to the press apropos the incident at the White House dinner." <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: blue; font-family: verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-fareast-font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa; mso-fareast-language: en-us">Etymology:<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: blue; font-family: verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-fareast-font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa; mso-fareast-language: en-us"> Today's word was originally the French phrase à propos (de) "with regard to" from à "to" from Latin ad "up to" + propos "purpose" from Latin propositum "intended," the neuter past participle of proponere "to intend." This verb is a combination of pro "before, forth" + ponere "to put." The past participle of "ponere" is "positus," which we find in "posit," "positive," "pose," as well as "compose" (put together). It also became pondre "to posit or lay an egg" in Old French, the past participle of which was "pont," a word which came to us as "punt."

**soubiri** · 08-24-2006, 09:37 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Lachrymatory (Noun) <shapetype id="_x0000_t75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f" filled="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" alt="" type="#_x0000_t75" /><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: [læ-'kree-mê-tor-ee]Definition 1: (Noun) A small glass bottle usually with a teardrop body and a tall narrow neck, of a kind found in quantity in Roman tombs. So called from the erroneous supposition that they held the tears of the mourners. They were in fact a common type of unguentarium or cosmetic oil jar. Usage 1: 'Tear bottles' were a Victorian invention arising out of the old legend that has survived to today. Supposedly(!), tear bottles were prevalent in ancient Roman times, when mourners filled small glass vials with tears and placed them in burial tombs as symbols of love and respect. Supporters of the 'tear bottle' legend sometimes quote the Biblical Psalm 56:8 where David prays to God, "Thou tellest my wanderings, put thou my tears in Thy bottle; are they not in Thy Book?" a figurative request referring to the "no'dh" or ancient Hebrew leathern water flask.Definition 2: (Adjective) Causing tears, as onions are likely to do when you slice them or the stock market when it dives.Usage 2: Related adjectives are lachrymal "pertaining to tears" and lachrymose "tearful or mournful." The noun "lachrymal" refers to a tear-causing substance such as highly lachrymatory tear gas.Suggested usage: As an adjective meaning "causing tears," we begin with the obvious, "Fresh onions are spicy, pungent and lachrymatory." But in 'Loss of Breath' Poe wrote "A thousand vague and lachrymatory fancies took possession of my soul." Some wags have used today’s word to refer to handkerchiefs, often seen at weddings, which can be very lachrymatory occasions. Etymology: "Lachrymatory" comes to us from Middle French or Medieval Latin "lacrymal" from Medieval Latin "lacrimalis," the adjective from Latin lacrima "tear." This noun descended from an older Latin "dacrima," related to Greek dakry "tear," a distant cousin to Old High German zahar "tear" which produced modern German Zähre "tear" and Old English tæhher which is today, "tear

**ياسين الشيخ** · 08-25-2006, 01:20 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Milieu *The social environment in which one lives or works: come from a very different cultural/social milieu.*Surroundings, esp. of a social or cultural nature: a snobbish milieu.

**ياسين الشيخ** · 08-26-2006, 07:05 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

 Niceties. 1-A refined, elegant, or choice feature, as of manner or living: working hard to acquire the niceties of life. 2-delicacy of character, as of something requiring care or tact: a matter of considerable nicety. 3- Niceties. : Of protocol/ of life/of judgment.

**soubiri** · 09-03-2006, 04:44 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Quagmire (Noun) Pronunciation: ['quæg-mIr]Definition 1: A quaking or quick bog, a squashy marsh, quicksand; (metaphorically) a complicated situation from which it is difficult if not impossible to extricate oneself. Usage 1: The adjective is "quagmiry" and the noun itself may be verbed: "The steering committee had been quagmired in acrimonious discord for an hour before Harmon arrived and restored civility to the meeting."Suggested usage: In 1961, French President Charles DeGaulle told US President John Kennedy, "I predict you will sink step by step into a bottomless quagmire, however much you spend in men and money," as the latter assumed responsibility of pursuing the war in Vietnam from the French. The Middle East has also become a political and military quagmire with no foreseeable outlet. Etymology: Probably from a confusion of "quickmire" and "quakemire." If so, it resulted from a process the opposite of folk etymology (folk alienation?) in which the first component of the compound has drifted away from a common English word. Since that time, the word has been clipped in many dialects to simply "quag." Other forms have emerged at various times in various dialects, to wit, "quadmire," "quavemire," "qualmire," "quamire," "wagmire," and others.

**soubiri** · 09-04-2006, 04:55 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Dollar (Noun) Pronunciation: ['dah-lê(r) ]Definition 1: The basic monetary unit of Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Brunei, Canada, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Kiribai, Liberia, Nauru, New Zealand, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, the Solomon Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, the United States, and Zimbabwe. A dollar is worth 100 cents. Usage 1: In the US people so eschew venal interests like money, we have created a plethora of slang substitutes for "dollar"—a buck, a clam, a greenback, smacker, a bean, a simoleon, among others. The symbol for today's word is "$," as $15 = 15 dollars. "Dollarization" occurs when the people of a country use dollars extensively because of the instability of the local currency. Dollarization may be unofficial or official, if the government decides to stop printing its own currency. Suggested usage: The dollar and the symbol that represents it have become powerful symbols of good and evil around the world because of its economic impact on the world economy, "Carrie Oakey loved to sing to Bob, but when she got the job in the posh nightclub, she began to see dollar signs in his eyes." "Another day, another dollar," is a quaint bit of out-dated folk wisdom showing how our wealth has inflated in the past century. Etymology: Today's word began as the English name for the German "thaler", a silver coin in Germany from the sixteenth century; especially the 3-mark coin in service from 1857 to 1873. Similar coins were used in the north countries, such as the Danish rigsdaler and the Swedish "riksdaler." The full name of the German coin was the Joachimstaler "from Joachim Valley," after Joachimsthal "Joachim Valley" (now Jachymov in the Czech Republic; see http://www.thomasgraz.net/gl-1099.htm), where they were first coined. The Old Germanic word that gave thal "valley" in German became "dale" in English.

**soubiri** · 09-05-2006, 07:36 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Bedlam (Noun) Pronunciation: ['bed-lêm]Definition 1: A mental hospital; a state of total social chaos, a wild uproar involving people or animals. Usage 1: "Bedlam" is an orphan word, with no other family members (adjectives, verbs, etc.) The word itself may be used as an adjective, as in "a bedlam house," "a bedlam storm," "a bedlam man," but rarely is.Suggested usage: The term works everywhere a term for extreme confusion is needed, at work, "When the blast went off in the executive bathroom, it was bedlam here for the rest of the day," at home, "This bedlam must cease, boys, or you'll have to go to bed," or in platitudes, "Bedlam minds make bedlam lives." Etymology: One of the most renowned of the original institutions for the mentally ill was St. Mary of Bethlehem, better known as Bedlam (from Bedlem), located outside London. Mental patients were first accepted in 1403 and by 1547 it was totally devoted to the care of the insane. Bedlam was so famous, its name became the term referring to any asylum. As in the <country-region w:st="on" /><place w:st="on" />United States</place /></country-region />, British mental patients were placed on public display every Sunday for the curious to view.

**soubiri** · 09-08-2006, 06:05 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Plagiarize (Verb) Pronunciation: ['pley-jê-rIz]Definition 1: To copy and publish someone else’s ideas (text, art, music, software, etc.) as one’s own; to attach one’s own name to something created by someone else. Usage 1: Today’s verb is based on the noun "plagiary," which once referred to the person who plagiarizes. The noun from the verb is "plagiarism" and the rotten person who plagiarizes, today is a plagiarist. Suggested usage: We shouldn’t joke about plagiarism; it is the ultimate theft—the kidnapping of creative ideas (see Etymology). That said, do you know a writer this might fit: "She has plagiarized so much from her contemporaries that her work is sooner a survey of current literature than a contribution to it." How about this: "The best of his latest book is those parts plagiarized from his earlier works." (Can you plagiarize yourself? Share your thoughts in the Agora.) Etymology: From Latin plagiarius "kidnapper" from plagium "kidnapping" derived from plaga "net," apparently the preferred weapon of ancient kidnappers. "Plaga" is probably related to PIE *plak- "flat," the origin of English "flake" and "(liver) fluke." Greek plagos "side" is also a member of the extended family and is behind the French word for beach, "plage." Nasalized, it appears in Latin plancus "flat" which serves to name the flat piece of wood in English, a "plank."

**soubiri** · 09-09-2006, 05:13 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

Hullabaloo (Noun) Pronunciation: [hê-lê-bê-'lu]Definition 1: Ruckus, clamor, fuss, uproar.Usage 1: Today's word contains several spelling traps. First, you must remember that, even though this is a rhyme reduplication (see Etymology), only the first [l] is doubled. Second, keep in mind that this is only one word, not two words hyphenated. Finally, the last syllable is spelled [oo] and not [u] or [ue]. The plural? A simple "hullabaloos." Suggested usage: Use today's word to refer to an uproar involving a noisy crowd in complete disarray: "There was such a hullabaloo in the department store when they announced women's bathing suits half off, three people had to be sent to the infirmary." However, it may be used to refer to a significant disturbance or disruption of the flow of any business, "There was such a hullabaloo over the word 'wabbit' running three days in a row, yourDictionary deleted the word temporarily from its database so it could not run a fourth time." Etymology: Today's word is a reduction of the rhyme reduplication "halloo-baloo," which comes from an alteration of "hallo," an ancestor of "hello" and an alteration of obsolete holla "Stop! Wait!" "Holla" may come from Old French "Hola!" based on ho "Hey!" + la "there," the latter from Latin illac "that way." Its development was probably influenced by earlier hurly-burly "strife, turmoil," an ancient reduction of "hurling and burling.

**soubiri** · 09-11-2006, 11:50 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

**soubiri** · 09-12-2006, 11:57 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

**soubiri** · 09-13-2006, 11:08 AM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

**soubiri** · 09-14-2006, 12:31 PM

_MD_RE: كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

كلمة اليوم Word of the Day

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إحصائيات Arabic Translators International _ الجمعية الدولية لمترجمي العربية