quondam

quondam \KWAHN-duhm; KWAHN-dam\, adjective:

Having been formerly; former; sometime.

A quondam flower child, she spent seven years at the Royal College of Art, before becoming a lecturer at Edinburgh School of Art.
-- "Interview: Cool, calm collector", Independent, December 13, 1997

For the unregenerate "peasant" . . . had gone there with the successful glass distributor, shrewd investor, versatile talker, and quondam bon vivant whose motto was "The best is good enough for me."
-- Ted Solotaroff, Truth Comes in Blows: A Memoir

There was an exception to this in the form of Mrs Edna Parsons, a formidable Englishwoman who had once been the Prince's nanny and now served as proctor, supervising his behaviour. She was about fifty and true to her quondam profession, she could be quite strict.
-- David Freeman, One of Us

Quondam comes from the Latin quondam, "formerly," from quom, "when."

sesquipedalian

sesquipedalian \ses-kwuh-puh-DAYL-yuhn\, adjective:

1. Given to or characterized by the use of long words.
2. Long and ponderous; having many syllables.
3. A long word.

As a sesquipedalian stylist, he can throw a word like 'eponymous" into a sentence without missing a beat.
-- Campbell Patty, "The sand in the oyster", The Horn Book Magazine, May 15, 1996

Plus he has a weakness for what we can mischievously call sesquipedalian excess: Look out for such terms as "epiphenomenal," "diegetic" and "proprioceptive."
-- Jabari Asim, "Reel Pioneer", Washington Post, November 19, 2000

They walk and speak with disdain for common folk, and never miss a chance to belittle the crowd in sesquipedalian put-downs or to declare that their raucous and uncouth behavior calls for nothing less than a letter to the Times, to inform proper Englishmen of the deplorable state of manners in the Colonies.
-- William C. Martin, "Friday Night in the Coliseum", The Atlantic, March 1972

. . .her eccentric family's addiction to sesquipedalians (that big word for "big words"), and her furtive passion for flossy mail-order-catalog prose.
-- David Browne, "Books/The Week", Entertainment Weekly, October 23, 1998

Sesquipedalian comes from Latin sesquipedalis, "a foot and a half long, hence inordinately long," from sesqui, "one half more, half as much again" + pes, ped-, "a foot."

diadem

diadem \DY-uh-dem\, noun:

1. A crown.
2. An ornamental headband worn (as by Eastern monarchs) as a badge of royalty.
3. Regal power; sovereignty; empire; -- considered as symbolized by the crown.
4. To adorn with a diadem; to crown.

On the far side of the cloister in the long, chapel-like room called the Treasure, she sits on her throne -- a small stiff gold figure robed in gold and covered with jewels and crowned with a golden diadem.
-- Hannah Green, Little Saint

The sky above is blue; the many clouds -- sun-drenched, gilded, lively -- have moved down, settled like a great diadem on the broad ring of the encircling mountains.
-- Milan Kundera, "Love's labour's lost", The Guardian, November 2, 2002

Dead and gone is the British Raj in India, that most glittering jewel in the diadem of Queen Victoria.
-- Jan Morris, "The Power Behind The Empire", Time Asia, August 12, 2002

Diadem derives from Greek diadema, "a band," from diadein, "to bind around," from dia, "through, across" + dein, "to bind."

melange

melange \may-LAHNZH\, noun:

A mixture; a medley.

Interspersed with diverse lectures and classroom activities were periods of financial difficulty, military service, and employment as a private tutor, all of which added to the curious melange of experiences that would ultimately blossom into his unexpected and remarkable life's work.
-- Norman Brosterman, Inventing Kindergarten

The smell in the car . . . was a pungent, sour melange of garlic, unwashed bodies, vodka, musty woolen overcoats, and Bulgarian tobacco.
-- Fen Montaigne, Reeling in Russia

Many books in popular psychology are a melange of the author's comments, a dollop of research, and stupefyingly dull transcriptions from interviews.
-- Carol Tavris, "A Remedy But Not a Cure", New York Times, February 26, 1989

Melange derives from Old French meslance, from mesler, "to mix," ultimately from Latin miscere, "to mix."

sempiternal

sempiternal \sem-pih-TUR-nuhl\, adjective:

Of never ending duration; having beginning but no end; everlasting; endless.

In all the works on view, Mariani conjures a sempiternal realm that exists parallel to mundane reality and which is accessible through art, reverie and the imagination.
-- Gerard Mccarthy, "Carlo Maria Mariani at Hackett-Freedman", Art in America, September 1999

This is a sempiternal truth for institutions of high prestige. Someone will pay (almost) anything for Ivy-ish credentials.
-- Dennis O'Brien, "A 'Necessary' of Modern Life?", Commonweal, March 28, 1997

Finally, Syon's orchards are the world as our imagination would like it to be -- not wilderness, since orchards are after all planted and cultivated by farmers, but a sempiternal and ideal region of the mind.
-- Thomas L. Jeffers, "That which sustains us", Commentary, June 2002

Sempiternal comes from Medieval Latin sempiternalis, from Latin sempiternus, a contraction of semperaeternus, from semper, "always" + aeternus, "eternal."

vituperation

vituperation \vy-too-puh-RAY-shuhn, -tyoo-\, noun:

1. The act or an instance of speaking abusively to or about.
2. Sustained and severely abusive language.

It was a bitter attack on those who had sneered at his father, an astonishingly poised performance for a twenty-six-year-old, and an early demonstration of Bron's gift for vituperation.
-- Geoffrey Wheatcroft, "Bron and His 'Affec. Papa'", The Atlantic, May 2001

Everybody was very nice except the Liberal women -- who have a repertoire of vituperation that I cannot believe to be equalled anywhere.
-- Bonnie Kime Scott (Editor), Selected Letters of Rebecca West

Ratifying Wylie's vituperations against the homemaker, feminists have scorned the domestic role and exhorted other women to join them in forsaking it as unworthy of their talents.
-- F. Carolyn Graglia, Domestic Tranquility

Vituperation comes from Latin vituperatio, from the past participle of vituperare, "to blame," from vitium, "a fault" + parare, "to prepare." The verb form is vituperate; the related adjective is vituperative. One who vituperates is a vituperator.

gamine

gamine \gam-EEN; GAM-een\, noun:

1. A girl who wanders about the streets; an urchin.
2. A playfully mischievous girl or young woman.

And the whole world is whacked out with fear of nuclear doom, except for Claire, a French gamine who is "living her own nightmare" and waking up in lots of strange places.
-- Joe Brown, Washington Post, January 17, 1992

. . .the delectable young gamine employed as a waitress in a Montmartre cafe.
-- Peter Bradshaw, "Jolie good show", The Guardian, October 5, 2001

Gamine comes from the French. A boy who wanders about the street is a gamin.

supernumerary

supernumerary \soo-puhr-NOO-muh-rair-ee; -NYOO-\, adjective:

1. Exceeding the stated, standard, or prescribed number.
2. Exceeding what is necessary or desired; superfluous.
3. A supernumerary person or thing.
4. An actor without a speaking part, as a walk-on or an extra in a crowd scene.

The Justice Department contractor, the Biogenics Corporation, of Houston, studied blood samples from thirty-six residents and concluded that eight of the people had a rare aberration it called "supernumerary acentric fragments," or extra pieces of genetic material.
-- Michael H. Brown, "A Toxic Ghost Town", The Atlantic, July 1989

Momart is where private collections are put out to pasture, where works that are too big, too precious, too fragile or simply supernumerary to their owners' homes are discreetly tended by expert staff.
-- Laura Cumming, "What the Sensationalists did next", The Observer, April 23, 2000

And yet, important as its role has been in the history of civilization, the bookshelf seldom even gets mentioned in the program; it is treated as a supernumerary, taken for granted, and ignored.
-- Henry Petroski, The Book on the Bookshelf

Sweetums, the Swiss chef and many others serve principally as supernumeraries in the picture's extravagant production numbers.
-- Rita Kempley, "Seeworthy Muppets", Washington Post, February 16, 1995

Supernumerary is from Latin supernumerarius, from super, "over" + numerus, "number."

insensate

insensate \in-SEN-sayt; -sit\, adjective:

1. Lacking sensation or awareness; inanimate.
2. Lacking human feeling or sensitivity; brutal; cruel.
3. Lacking sense; stupid; foolish.

The religion of primeval humans, he suggested, held that souls inhabited not only human beings but also animals, trees, plants--even rocks, rivers, and other natural features we regard as insensate.
-- Bill Strubbe, "The world as self, the self as world", The World & I, June 1, 1997

The cutting room is a cruel place, where writing that may have cost blood to commit to paper is kneaded and pummelled like so much insensate clay.
-- Jasper Rees, "Blood and ink on the floor", Independent, April 13, 1997

Europe needs security and, having experienced the insensate forces loosed by this war, wonders if security is a mirage.
-- Arthur Irwin, "Looking beyond VE-day", Maclean's, May 1, 1995

But then, without warning, the conflict degenerated, and the insensate killing began.
-- Jay Winik, "Between Honor and Glory", American Spectator, February 1, 2001

You'd have to be insensate not to know that the ad is designed to undermine Wellstone's popularity in this year's Senate race.
-- Greg Gordon, "Loopholes loom large as parties find a way around spending limits", Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 23, 1996

Insensate comes from Late Latin insensatus, from in-, "not" + sensatus, "gifted with sense, intelligent," from Latin sensus, "sense."

malinger

malinger \muh-LING-guhr\, intransitive verb:

To feign or exaggerate illness or inability in order to avoid duty or work.

Because he twice slapped battle-stressed soldiers in Sicily who, he thought, were merely malingering, he was denied a major command in the Normandy landings.
-- Bernard Knox, "Scorched Earth", New York Times, November 14, 1999

It is impossible to determine exactly what inspired Mary's various symptoms, but her own and other family members' letters suggest that her suffering may have been a combination of hypochondria, conscious histrionics and malingering, and unconscious rebellion against her father.
-- Caroline Fraser, God's Perfect Child

My specialty is subjecting the data I obtain to successive mathematical corrective formulas to filter the truly psychotic from those who are malingering.
-- Barbara Kirwin Ph.D, The Mad, the Bad, and the Innocent

Malinger derives from French malingre, "sickly," perhaps from Old French mal, "badly" + heingre, "lean, thin."

tatterdemalion

tatterdemalion \tat-uhr-dih-MAYL-yuhn; -MAY-lee-uhn\, noun:

1. A person dressed in tattered or ragged clothing; a ragamuffin.
2. Tattered; ragged.

Last time peasant blouses surfaced, in the 1960s and '70s, they were part of an epidemic of Indian bedspread dresses, homemade blue-jean skirts, Army surplus jackets, Greek bookbag purses and love beads, the whole eclectic tatterdemalion mix meant to express egalitarian sentiments and countercultural solidarity with underdogs everywhere.
-- Patricia McLaughlin, "The peasant look", Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, April 25, 1999

I was expecting a wild hair, clanking jewelry, a tatterdemalion velvet cape from whose folds wafted the scent of incense, a house full of candles, dream catchers, cats, and bad art.
-- David Rakoff, Fraud

To my ear, though, the prose has the tatterdemalion feel of something hooked together by commas, tacked together by periods.
-- Brad Leithauser, "Capturer of Hearts", New York Times, April 7, 1996

Tatterdemalion derives from tatter + -demalion, of unknown origin, though perhaps from Old French maillon, "long clothes, swadding clothes" or Italian maglia, "undershirt."

palaver

palaver \puh-LAV-uhr; puh-LAH-vur\, noun:

1. Idle talk
2. Talk intended to beguile or deceive.
3. A parley usually between persons of different backgrounds or cultures or levels of sophistication; a talk; hence, a public conference and deliberation.
4. To talk idly.
5. To flatter; to cajole.

The spaceship crew settles down for a long bout of philosophical discourse that sounds suspiciously like teatime palaver in an Oxford University common room: "Time is a construct of thought too. In High Space this is all more nakedly obvious, is it not? Space isn't a thing. As Kant said . . . ."
-- Gerald Jonas, "Science Fiction", New York Times, July 8, 1990

For me, a young writer about to have yet another commencement address inflicted on him, it was a wonderful surprise -- an honest and detailed talk, free of the usual piety and palaver that clutter those speeches.
-- Alan Lelchuk, "The Death of the Jewish Novel", New York Times, November 25, 1984

He is glad to palaver of his many adventures, as a boy will whistle after sundown in a wood.
-- O. Henry, "The Man Higher Up"

Palaver derives from Late Latin parabola, "a proverb, a parable," from Greek parabole, from paraballein, "to compare," from para-, "beside" + ballein, "to throw."

meticulous

meticulous \muh-TIK-yuh-luhs\, adjective:

Extremely or excessively careful about details.

How much work gets done in the fall perennial garden depends somewhat on whether your gardening tendencies lean toward the meticulous or toward the casual.
-- Mary Robson, "Preparing for winter: What's to be done with plants as they go dormant?", The Seattle Times, October 30, 2002

Whatever else he taught me about science, Schotté also helped me understand that meticulous attention to detail and patience are as important to problem solving as a grand vision.
-- David Kessler, A Question of Intent: A Great American Battle With a Deadly Industry

Roosevelt was often persuasive and sometimes eloquent, displaying a power won in large part by his meticulous involvement in the writing process.
-- Carol Gelderman, All the Presidents' Words: The Bully Pulpit and the Creation of the Virtual Presidency

Meticulous ultimately derives from Latin meticulosus "fearful" (from metus, "fear"). The present sense stems from French méticuleux "overscrupulous." In present day English, the word usually carries a more positive connotation and is synonymous with precise and punctilious.

dapple

dapple \DAP-uhl\, noun:

1. A small contrasting spot or blotch.
2. A mottled appearance, especially of the coat of an animal (as a horse).
3. To mark with patches of a color or shade; to spot.
4. To become dappled.
5. Marked with contrasting patches or spots; dappled.

Look at . . . his cows with their comic camouflage dapples . . . .
-- Arthur C. Danto, "Sometimes Red", ArtForum, January 2002

70 diamond- and hexagonal-shaped holes, 35 between the North End ramp and the northbound lanes, and 35 between the northbound and southbound lanes, allow light to filter through and dapple the river below.
-- Raphael Lewis, "A walk into the future", Boston Globe, May 9, 2002

Gentle shafts of sunlight . . . dapple the grass.
-- Gail Sheehy, Hillary's Choice

Dapple derives from Old Norse depill, "a spot."

troglodyte

troglodyte \TROG-luh-dyt\, noun:

1. A member of a primitive people that lived in caves, dens, or holes; a cave dweller.
2. One who is regarded as reclusive, reactionary, out of date, or brutish.

When the survivalists emerged blinking into the sunlight to restock their caves after the terror, my first reaction was to say, "Bless their dotty, troglodyte hearts."
-- Judy Mann, "Survivalists Flee Reality to Live in Fear", Washington Post, October 5, 2001

. . .an admitted electronics-averse troglodyte like myself, who writes with a fountain pen, shaves with a mug and brush, grinds his own coffee and spends summers in a Maine fishing town where the nearest latte is 45 minutes away.
-- Frank Van Riper, "Another Door Opens", Washington Post, May 5, 2000

For the first time, opening a fashion magazine didn't make me feel like a cloddish troglodyte who needed fixing.
-- Janelle Brown, "Keeping it real", Salon, June 4, 2001

Troglodyte comes from Latin Troglodytae, a people said to be cave dwellers, from Greek Troglodytai, from trogle, "a hole" + dyein, "to enter." The adjective form is troglodytic.

gustatory

gustatory \GUS-tuh-tor-ee\, adjective:

Of or pertaining to the sense of taste.

In a land of ice and chains and endemic suffering, caviar provided gustatory salvation from grief and black days, a sensual escape from temporal woes.
-- Jeffrey Tayler, "The Caviar Thugs", The Atlantic, June 2001

Why . . . would something that provides such gustatory pleasure turn out to be supposedly the worst thing you could ever eat?
-- Richard Turner, "The Trendy Diet That Sizzles", Newsweek, September 6, 1999

Instead I seemed to be drawn to countries with the worst food imaginable, places like Turkistan and Africa, where every day you woke up hoping you could avoid gustatory terror but knowing that before you slept again, horrible things would be going inside your mouth. The best strategy was simply to try to eat as little as possible. But I seemed cursed by an ever hopeful palate. "Termites? Termite larva? Could be interesting. I'll try a handful." This was never a good idea.
-- Stuart Stevens, Feeding Frenzy

Gustatory derives from Latin gustatus, "taste," from gustare, "to taste, to take a little of." Other words that have the same root include disgust and gusto ("vigorous and enthusiastic enjoyment").

propound

propound \pruh-POWND\, transitive verb:

To offer for consideration; to put forward; to propose.

When Samuelson first propounded this potentially radical idea, it was greeted with astonishment, bordering on outrage.
-- Jonathan Davis, "Samuelson's argument still holds true", Independent, October 4, 1997

Aristarchus not only challenged God, but he, and then Copernicus, propounded a theory that seemed so stupid on the face of it that even a fool would not believe it.
-- William E. Burrows, This New Ocean

Propound is a variation of earlier propone, from Latin proponere, "to set forth, to propose," from pro, "for, before, in favor of" + ponere, "to put."

contemn

contemn \kuhn-TEM\, transitive verb:

To regard or treat with disdain or contempt; to scorn; to despise.

Nor, despite his seeming Jansenist severity, would Pascal contemn such pleasures. Even he, the least therapeutic writer imaginable, admits that diversions can help to heal the beset soul.
-- Edward T. Oakes, "Pascal: The First Modern Christian", First Things, August 1, 1999

The spectrum of difference exhibited at these shows suggests varying relationships with the West: some artists identify with or at least acknowledge the Western tradition, some contemn it.
-- Thomas McEvilley, "Arrivederci Venice", ArtForum, November 1993

We may well pity those who find themselves in disagreement, for their lot is a hard one; but some of us who now warmly support the war cannot find it in our hearts to contemn all so-called pacifists, or even those who are torn by conflicting allegiances.
-- James Harvey Robinson, "The Threatened Eclipse of Free Speech", The Atlantic, December 1917

Contemn is derived from Latin contemnere, from com-, intensive prefix + temnere, "to despise."

emolument

emolument \ih-MOL-yuh-muhnt\, noun:

The wages or perquisites arising from office, employment, or labor; gain; compensation.

The record indicates that few grandees who pleaded poverty to avoid service were left without substantial maintenance grants and emoluments and that the Crown gladly financed their luxurious military lifestyles.
-- Fernando Gonzales de Leon, "Aristocratic draft-dodgers in 17th-century Spain", History Today, 7/1

Although not very rich, he is easy in his circumstances and would not with a view to emolument alone wish for employment.
-- Henry Dundas, quoted in The Elgin Affair, by Theodore Vrettos

And they are not obliged to follow those occupations, if they prefer leisure to emolument.
-- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

Emolument derives from Latin emolumentum, originally a sum paid to a miller for grinding out one's wheat, from molere, "to grind." It is related to molar, the "grinding" tooth.

puerile

puerile \PYOO-uhr-uhl; PYOOR-uhl\, adjective:

Displaying or suggesting a lack of maturity; juvenile; childish.

And, in one of the most puerile episodes of his adult career, he punishes his old schoolmates for being rich and vulgar by breaking into their houses to soak the labels off their boasted wine collections.
-- Thomas R. Edwards, "Mordecai Richler Then and Now", New York Times, June 22, 1980

Political argument is becoming a puerile cartoon about the moral . . . doing battle with the immoral.
-- George F. Will, "The Costs of Moral Exhibitionism", Washington Post, April 15, 2001

Puerile comes from Latin puerilis, from puer, "child, boy."

anodyne

anodyne \AN-uh-dyn\, adjective:

1. Serving to relieve pain; soothing.
2. Not likely to offend; bland; innocuous.
3. A medicine that relieves pain.
4. Anything that calms, comforts, or soothes disturbed feelings.

But for the most part the British charts were clogged with anodyne ballads.
-- Nigel Williamson, "Here's a little story, to tell it is a must", Times (London), January 11, 2000

He is alternately accused of being too much the warrior and too anodyne.
-- Hanna Rosin, "The Madness of Speaker Newt", New Republic, March 17, 1997

Numbness . . . may have replaced pain as the complaint of our century now that aspirin analgesia, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDS), and other anodynes can take away the pains of the civilized world.
-- Howard M. Spiro, Facing Death

An avid fisherman himself, McGarr shares Nellie's philosophy: "I do not merely fish for fish," she would say, "I fish for doubt's anodyne and care's surcease."
-- Marilyn Stasio, "Crime", New York Times, September 19, 1993

This third novel by a reporter for The New York Times shrewdly examines love as an anodyne for rural isolation.
-- "Notable Books of the Year 1997", New York Times, December 7, 1997

Anodyne comes, via Latin, from Greek anodunos, "free from pain," from a-, an-, "without" + odune, "pain."

mephitic

mephitic \muh-FIT-ik\, adjective:

1. Offensive to the smell; as, mephitic odors.
2. Poisonous; noxious.

The mephitic stench from the bilge became overpowering.
-- Richard Holmes, Coleridge: Darker Reflections, 1804-1834

Over everything presides "a sort of mephitic fog," a pervasive sulfuric stink.
-- Dale Peck, "Way Outback", New York Times, March 22, 1998

. . .unpoisoned by the mephitic vapours which poisoned the atmosphere of his police-office.
-- Henry Fielding, Tom Jones

Mephitic is the adjective form of mephitis, "a foul-smelling or noxious exhalation from the earth; a stench from any source," from the Latin.

antediluvian

antediluvian \an-tih-duh-LOO-vee-uhn\, adjective:

1. Of or relating to the period before the Biblical flood.
2. Antiquated; from or belonging to a much earlier time.
3. One who lived before the Biblical flood.
4. A very old (or old-fashioned) person.

The other thing that almost always goes with these myths is the notion of an antediluvian civilisation -- something which existed before the flood and was destroyed by it.
-- Graham Hancock, "Castles in the sea", The Guardian, February 6, 2002

. . .a dinosaur garden that is full of such antediluvian plants as mosses and ferns.
-- Barbara Hall, "Cultivating Minds", Washington Post, July 25, 1999

Customs like fox hunting or men's clubs are denounced as barbaric, patriarchal, and antediluvian throwbacks, whereas the truly barbaric, patriarchal, and antediluvian traditions of various stagnant indigenous cultures are viewed with reverence, nostalgia, and envy.
-- Jonah Goldberg, "Who Are We to Judge?", National Review, September 21, 2001

Anyone who asks, "Yes, we can -- but should we?" about any technology risks being branded an antediluvian.
-- Julia Keller, "Killing me Microsoftly with PowerPoint", Chicago Tribune, January 5, 2003

Antediluvian comes from Latin ante-, "before" + diluvium, "flood."

cupidity

cupidity \kyoo-PID-uh-tee\, noun:

Eager or excessive desire, especially for wealth; greed; avarice.

Curiosity was a form of lust, a wandering cupidity of the eye and the mind.
-- John Crowley, "Of Marvels And Monsters", Washington Post, October 18, 1998

At the end, all but rubbing his hands with cupidity, Rockefeller declares he will now promote abstract art--it's better for business.
-- Stuart Klawans, "Rock in a Hard Place", The Nation, December 27, 1999

This strain of cupidity sprang from the mean circumstances of his youth in the Finger Lakes district of upstate New York.
-- Jack Beatty, "A Capital Life", New York Times, May 17, 1998

For such is human cupidity that we Thoroughbreds have but one chance to survive it -- to run so fast and to win so much money that we are retired in comfort in our declining days.
-- William Murray, "From the Horse's Mouth", New York Times, August 8, 1993

Myself, I have always believed that BMWs achieve their presence (and their grip on the collective imagination and cupidity of the middle classes) because they combine an athletic, masculine bulk and stance with feminine details and lines.
-- Stephen Bayley, "The evolution of the curve", Independent, October 22, 1998

Cupidity ultimately comes from Latin cupiditas, from cupidus, "desirous," from cupere, "to desire." It is related to Cupid, the Roman god of love.

fiduciary

fiduciary \fih-DOO-shee-air-ee\, adjective:

1. Relating to the holding of something in trust for another.
2. Someone who stands in a special relation of trust, confidence, or responsibility in certain obligations to others; a trustee.

American capitalism relies heavily on the fiduciary duty concept to protect those who entrust their money to large and often distant corporations.
-- Senator Susan Collins, Congressional Record, July 11, 2002

Corporate boards, whose members are elected by shareholders, bear the ultimate legal and fiduciary responsibility for the company's performance.
-- John Maggs, "Out of the Loop", National Journal, March 9, 2002

Congress is faced with a great challenge in protecting workers who need help, while employing our fiduciary responsibility to guard the taxpayer dollar.
-- Representative Jennifer Dunn, The Seattle Times, October 1, 2001

As fiduciaries, investment advisers are expected to be on the client's side of the negotiating table in any deal.
-- Robert Barker, "Will the SEC Bless This Masquerade?", Business Week, March 9, 2002

Fiduciary comes from Latin fiduciarius, from fiducia, "trust," and is related to faith and fidelity.

tutelage

tutelage \TOO-tuhl-ij; TYOO-\, noun:

1. The act of guarding or protecting; guardianship; protection.
2. The state of being under a guardian or tutor.
3. Instruction, especially individual instruction accompanied by close attention and guidance.

But he was not yet free of his father's legal tutelage and had still to decide on a career.
-- Roland Huntford, Nansen: The Explorer as Hero

This was the Puerto Rico that the United States invaded on July 25, 1898--a country that wanted political, economic, and social justice, but not colonial tutelage, however well meant.
-- Jose Trias Monge, Puerto Rico: The Trials of the Oldest Colony in the World

Many years under my grandfather's tutelage had made me the best calligrapher in the entire school.
-- Da Chen, Colors of the Mountain

Under her tutelage he picks up not only Greek but Hebrew, Arabic and Japanese before moving on to the rest of the major spoken languages and a slew of minor ones.
-- Myla Goldberg, "Paternity Suitor", New York Times, October 15, 2000

Tutelage is from Latin tutela, "protection; guardian" (from the past participle of tueri, "to watch, to guard") + the suffix -age.

laconic

laconic \luh-KON-ik\, adjective:

Using or marked by the use of a minimum of words; brief and pithy; brusque.

Readers' reports range from the laconic to the verbose.
-- Bernard Stamler, "A Brooklyncentric View of Life", New York Times, February 28, 1999

In the laconic language of the sheriff department's report,there was "no visible sign of life."
-- David Wise, Cassidy's Run

There was one tiny photograph of him at a YMCA camp plus a few laconic and uninformative entries in a soldier's log from the war year, 1917-18.
-- Edward W. Said, Out of Place: A Memoir

Laconic comes, via Latin, from Greek Lakonikos, "of or relating to a Laconian or Spartan," hence "terse," in the manner of the Laconians.

condign

condign \kuhn-DINE; KON-dine\, adjective:

Suitable to the fault or crime; deserved; adequate.

In a story as old as the Greeks, overweening pride brought condign disaster.
-- David Frum, How We Got Here

He is a violent criminal and, like other criminals, he should be brought to condign punishment.
-- Kwasi Kwarteng, "The boy from Brazil should be behind bars", Daily Telegraph, November 14, 1997

Condign ultimately derives from Latin condignus, "very worthy," from com-, here used intensively + dignus, "worthy."