tacit

tacit \TAS-it\, adjective:
1. implied or understood without being openly expressed
2. saying nothing; silent
The word on the Hill is that Mr. Waxman enjoys the tacit support of übergreen Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who dislikes Mr. Dingell's independence.
-- The Wall Street Journal, 11/11/2008
Boeing and Airbus don't want to cannibalize sales of the B737 and A320. So there seems to be a tacit agreement to sweep the issue (of single-aisle replacement aircraft) under the carpet for now.
-- Aude Lagorce, MarketWatch, 6/18/2007
c 1575, from French tacite, from Latin tacitus "that is passed over in silence, done without words, assumed, silent," from tacere "to be silent," from Proto Indo-European base *tak- "to be silent."

sacrilege

sacrilege \SAK-ruh-lij\, noun:
an intentional injury to anything held sacred; disrespectful treatment of something sacred
A big, catchy ad on Page One of the print edition would be considered sacrilege. The editorial staff wouldn't stand for it and anyone who bought it would come in for loud criticism from purist.
-- William Spain, MarketWatch, 3/28/2003
San Francisco's Finest: In this town, it's sacrilege to attempt naming the "top" restaurant.
-- Los Angeles Times
c 1300, from Old French sacrilege, from Latin sacrilegium and sacrilegus "one who steals sacred things," from sacer "sacred" + legere "take, pick up." Transferred sense of "profanation of anything held sacred" is attested from 1390.

ramble

ramble \RAM-buhl\, verb, noun:
1. to wander about
2. a walk for pleasure without predetermined destination
3. to talk or write about one thing and then another without useful connection
As you ramble along them, it is difficult not to feel something of a peeping-tom; this is Surrey at its most intimate, with arches over garden gates framing views of tile-hanging and leaded lights.
-- Clive Aslet, Telegraph.co.uk, 11/17/2008
Pierce and Carmen were on a northward walk markedly better organized than our own: having rambled throughout Europe, they had entrusted a local company to plan their trip.
-- Gregory Dicum, New York Times, 2/3/2008
c 1443, unknown origin, perhaps frequentative of romen "to walk, go" of via romblen "to ramble." The vowel change was probably influenced by Middle Dutch rammelen, a derivative of rammen "used of the night wanderings of the amorous cat."

qualify

qualify \KWOL-uh-fahy\, verb:
1. to make or become fit or competent
2. to give legal power; to make or become legally capable
3. to make less strong; to modify or limit the strength or meaning of
4. to characterize by attributing some quality to
To qualify, the homeowner must provide proof that he has suffered a hardship, such as losing a job, that made it impossible to keep up with payments.
-- Renae Merle, The Arizona Republic, 11/12/2008
If they conclude that they're likely to lose less by allowing delinquent borrowers to go to foreclosure rather than refinance into Hope loans, they would be free to do so, even if their borrowers qualify and want to participate.
-- Kenneth R. Harney, The Washington Post, 7/19/2008
by 1465, from Middle French qualifier "to characterize by attributing a quality," from Latin qualis "of what sort" + facere "to make."

paltry

paltry \PAWL-tree\, adjective:
1. almost worthless; trifling
2. of no worth; contemptible, despicable
The Denver defense is in tatters, ranking among the worst in the league, surrendering 31 points to a Raiders team that had been averaging a paltry 12.8 per game.
-- Mark Kiszla, Denver Post, 11/24/2008
It has long been acknowledged, for instance, that the British Secret Intelligence Service has compensated for its paltry size - it has about one-tenth the manpower of the CIA - by leveraging the reputation of its most famous fictional spy, James Bond.
-- Kelly M. Greenhill, Los Angeles Times, 5/28/2007
Almost everything on the vastly unimaginative happy hour menu contains pico de gallo and sour cream, including small, wizened potato skins containing a few paltry crumbles of bacon.
-- Nikki Buchanan, The Arizona Republic, 11/25/2008
by 1565, probably associated with dialectic palt, pelt "trash," cognate with Middle Low German and East Frisian palte "rag," and Middle Dutch palt "broken or torn fragment." Comparative and superlative forms are paltrier and paltriest.

oblique

oblique \oh-BLEEK\, adjective, noun:
1. something oblique, such as a line or figure
2. in military use, by turning 45 degrees
3. not straight up and down or across; slanting
4. a muscle attached at an oblique angle to the structure that it controls
5. having unequal sides; situated obliquely instead of transverse or longitudinal
6. not straightforward; indirect
Both novels were direct and oblique, not mentioning 9/11 but addressing the question of how you retain your humanity after the unthinkable has entered your life.
-- Charles Taylor, New York Times, 11/21/2008
Theodor Geisel's response to Hitler was more oblique than Stauffenberg's, but as effective. Yertle, king of the pond, commands all the turtles to stack themselves up so he can be top of the heap. Someone's riding for a fall.
-- Telegraph.co.uk, 1/19/2008
by 1425, from Middle French oblique, from Latin obliquus "slanting, sidelong, indirect," from ob "against" + root of licinus "bent upward," from Proto Indo-European base *lei- "to bend, be movable."

narcissism

narcissism \NAHR-suh-siz-em\, noun:
excessive love or admiration for oneself; in psychoanalysis, gratification manifested in admiration and love of oneself
Dr. Marion Solomon, a Los Angeles psychologist and author of "Narcissism and Intimacy," said that true narcissists are startled when their spouses say they are miserable in the relationship.
-- Jan Hoffman, New York Times, 7/20/2008
They found that the number of "Friends" on a person's Facebook and the number of "wallposts" they have there correlated with their narcissism. That figures, Buffardi suggests, as narcissists tend to have lots of shallow relationships rather than a few solid ones.
-- Jennifer Huget, The Washington Post, 9/26/2008
by 1822, from Greek Narkissos, beautiful youth in mythology (Ovid, "Metamorphosis," iii.370) who fell in love with his own reflection in a spring and was turned to the flower narcissus.

laggard

laggard \LAG-erd\, adjective, noun:
1. a person or thing that moves too slowly or falls behind
2. falling behind; slow
Michael Greve adds an additional consideration: "Experimentation is quite probably preferable to a federal 'reform' that might get it wrong, rob the reform states of their just rewards, and discourage laggard states from experimenting with their own, possibly more effective reforms."
-- National Review Online, 12/20/2004
Microsoft claims hundreds of millions of Web e-mail and instant messenger users, but is still seen as a laggard when it comes to understanding the Internet.
-- Associated Press, The Arizona Republic, 11/12/2008
Early adopters would be on the left, the big bulge in the middle is the majority in the middle or the mainstream and the laggards are all the way on the right.
-- Dr. Grupta, CNN.com, 9/10/2007
by 1702, from lag (v.) + -ard

kibbutz

kibbutz \ki-BOOTS\, noun:
an Israeli communal settlement, especially a farm co-operative
For this farming collective five miles from the Lebanon border, the attack last week, which killed more than two dozen cows, raised new worries about life ahead for the troubled kibbutz, and others like it in northern Israel.
-- Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times, 7/25/2006
The new kibbutz seeks a subtler balance between collective responsibility and individual freedom, with an emphasis on community and values. Its drawing points include a safe environment, usually in the heart of nature, away from the cities scarred by suicide bombings; excellent day care and education; and an improved quality of life at out-of-town prices.
-- Isabel Kirshner, New York Times, 8/27/2007
According to the Israeli military, an "alert" Israeli force detonated a fourth booby-trapped vehicle before it could detonate Sunday near the security fence surrounding Kibbutz Nirim.
-- Talal Abu-Rahmi, CNN.com, 4/20/2008
by 1931, from modern Hebrew qibbus "gathering," from Hebrew "a gathering together," from root of qibbes "he gathered together." Plural is kibbutzim.

macrobiotic

macrobiotic \mak-roh-bahy-OT-ik\, adjective:
of or having to do with macrobiotics, a dietary system derived from Zen Buddhism and purported to prolong life
Counselors conduct macrobiotic health assessments, discuss the macrobiotic view of the cause of a client's health problems, and personalize dietary, lifestyle and home remedy and food recommendations.
-- Susan W. Miller, M.A., Los Angeles Times, 5/27/2007
A friend of Guy's told Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper: "He would see Rocco being fed this macrobiotic stuff and would take him out after for pie and chips to keep him normal. He doesn't want to feed them solely on pies and chips. He just wants to show them not everything in life is about steamed fish and rice."
-- BANG Showbiz, The Arizona Republic, 10/27/2008
by 1797, from German Makrobiotik, from Greek makrobiotikos "long-lived" from makros "long" + bios "life."

jaded

jaded \JEY-did\, adjective:
worn out; tired, weary
The bad guys were potential Islamic extremists. But anywhere, at this jaded stage in the global war on terror, was literally and metaphorically off the map: a remote African laboratory for the long anti-terror struggles of the future.
-- Paul Salopek, Chicago Tribune, 11/18/2008
The dynamism of this U.S. election will have important ripple effects elsewhere. Voters in much of the developing world have become jaded about elections, especially those heavily promoted by the United States.
-- Trudy Rubin, Miami Herald, 11/9/2008
c 1593, of unknown origin, possibly from Old Norse or Icelandic jalda "mare"

iambic

iambic \ahy-AM-bik\, adjective:
1. of or consisting of iambic measures
2. a foot or measure in poetry consisting of two syllables, an unaccented followed by an accented or a short syllable followed by a long
Besides, as Andrei Bely demonstrated 70 years ago, the melodic quality of Pushkin's meters derives from his variable pattern of withholding the metrical stress from positions where it would be expected in traditional Russian iambic tetrameter and pentameter.
-- Simon Karlinsky, New York Times, 9/26/1982
Los Pastores was old even when Shakespeare was counting out the iambic pentameter as he wrote Romeo's speeches. One historian claims that "Los Pastores" was passed on, word of mouth, from one generation to another, until 100 years ago.
-- Claire Martin, Denver Post, 12/3/2000
by 1575, from Latin iambicus, from Greek iambikos, from iambos "metrical foot of one unaccented followed by one accented syllable," from iaptein "to assail" (in words); the meter of invective and lampoon in classical Greek from the time it was used for such by Archilochos, 7c. B.C.E.

gaffe

gaffe \gaf\, noun:

a blunder; faux pas

Torii Hunter was in full mea culpa mode Friday, taking responsibility for Wednesday night's gaffe, when he forgot there were only two outs, pulled up between second and third base and was tagged out in a rundown against the New York Mets.
-- Mike Digiovanna, Los Angeles Times, 6/21/2008

The Mountain View company acknowledged the financial gaffe in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying the unintended notes revealed a projection that advertising revenue will grow to $9.5 billion in 2006, up 58 percent from the previous year.
-- Verne Kopytoff, San Francisco Chronicle, 3/8/2006

So this is what they mean by the soft bigotry of low expectations. The weeklong drumbeat that led to the vice presidential debate suggested it would be a matchup between an airhead and a gaffe machine.
-- Ellen Goodman, Boston Globe, 10/3/2008

by 1909, from French gaffe "clumsy remark," originally "boat hook," from Old French gaffe, from Old Provencal gaf, probably from Gothic gafa "hook," but this origin is obscure. It may derive from British slang gaff "to cheat, trick" (1893) or gaff "criticism" (1896), from Scottish dialect sense of "loud, rude talk," which ultimately may be from Old English gaf-spr¾c "blasphemous or ribald speech."

fabricate

fabricate \FAB-ri-keyt\, verb:

1. to make, build, or construct
2. to make up, invent
3. to fake or forge a document or signature

"I've had more people tell me that throughout my career: 'Man, we love to watch you play. Your enthusiasm and stuff like that.' I mean, it's not fabricated. I love to play the game …"
-- Dennis Waszak Jr., The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/19/2008

At the same time, Mr. Heinonen acknowledged that the agency "did not have sufficient information at this stage to conclude whether the allegations are groundless or the data fabricated."
-- Elaine Sciolino, New York Times, 10/9/2008

The complex-shaped crystals of calcite were fabricated using a technique that involves depositing the mineral in a way that creates intricate microscopic patterns.
-- Sandeep Junnarkar, CNET News, 2/21/2003

by 1598, from Latin fabricare, from fabrica "fabric"

ecclesiastical

ecclesiastical \i-klee-zee-AS-ti-kuhl\, adjective:

of or having to do with the church or clergy

More than $100 million worth of gorgeous sparkling royal gems, ecclesiastical items and exquisite costumes made for the Romanov czars, who ruled Russia from 1613 to 1917, have just gone on view under bulletproof glass at the Corcoran Gallery.
-- Jo Ann Lewis, The Washington Post, 1/31/1997

"The architecture profession as a whole has a desire to develop and evolve and that gets reflected in church architecture." This innovative approach to ecclesiastical design marries new architecture with the old style in a cost-effective way, he said.
-- Mike Steere, CNN.com, 11/13/2008

by 1538 from ecclesiastic, which comes from Late Latin ecclesiasticus, from Greek ekklesiastikos "of the (ancient Athenian) assembly," later, "of the church," from ekklesiastes "speaker in an assembly or church, preacher," from ekkalein "to call out"

dastard

dastard \DAS-terd\, noun:

a mean coward

Even that notorious dastard and Spanish Political Grafter Juan March, popularly supposed to get his way in any part of Spain with 1,000 peseta notes, bolted like a rabbit for France until things should quiet down.
-- Time, 3/2/1936

The announcer interrupted the program to say that he had an announcement of a dastardly deed to make. Then he read communiqués of the Central Committee of the party and the Council of People's Commissars of the government. The orchestra played the funeral march from 'Tannhäuser,' and all broadcasting ceased.
-- Amy Knight, Who Killed Kirov?

c 1440, possibly from dast/dased "dull, stupid," past participle of dasen "to daze"

cached

cached \kasht\, adjective:

1. stored; hidden
2. in computing, stored in a part of memory used as a cache

MacMillan wrote to his sponsors at the National Geographic Society, "I am more convinced than ever that far northern Arctic work will never be done by heavier than air machines simply because landing places are uncertain and caches of food and gas cannot be depended upon.
-- Raimund E. Goerler, To the Pole - The Diary and Notebook of Richard E. Byrd, 1925-1927, 1925

I switch on the Garmin to find my first way point, where I've cached a 2-gallon bag of water. The device's little floating arrow guides me to within 3 feet of the rock under which I hid it.
-- Dan Neil, Los Angeles Times, 5/4/2008

The chief had two particularly fine horses, which so excited his cupidity that one night he drove them off and "cached"-that is, hid-them in a safe place. The chief looked for them high and low, but without success.
-- Theodore Roosevelt, Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail

by 1797, from French Canadian trappers' slang, "hiding place for stores" (c.1669), from French cacher "conceal," from Vulgar Latin coacticare "store up, collect, compress," from Latin coactare "constrain," from cogere "to collect"

beatific

beatific \bee-uh-TIF-ik\, adjective:

1. exaltedly happy; blissful
2. blessing or making exceedingly happy

Statues crumble, walls peel, in the vast accumulation of words and still more words even legends lose their way, and Leonardo wishes he'd said to the young anatomist, della Torre, on their last evening what he wishes four days ago he'd had presence of mind to tell Salai but didn't actually get around to telling anyone until yesterday when he told the aristocratic simpleton, Francesco Melzi, who stood there with that dewy-eyed, beatific look of his and, of course, understood not a word: Only a dullard gets to the end of something.
-- R.M. Berry, Leonardo's Horse, 1997

She's had season tickets forever, cheering from just behind the Hoyas bench. She can snap right out of her beatific smile into analysis: "We have struggled all year with zone defense . . . and to this day I don't understand . . . why [center Roy] Hibbert consistently takes himself out of the interior space . . . whether it's a tactic so he doesn't draw more fouls -- or -- it drives me crazy."
-- Susan Kinzie, The Washington Post, 3/31/2007

Behind the New Age grin of beatific self-righteousness with which so many Hollywood celebrities greet the world often lurks a tantrum ready to erupt. When the full, roiling boil is over, the slow simmer can last for weeks, if not months.
-- Catherine Seipp, National Review Online, 8/2/2005

by 1639, from Latin beatificus, from beatus "blessed" + ficus "making"

ablaut

ablaut \ABH-lout\, noun:

the systematic substitution of one root vowel sound for another in different inflectional forms or derivatives of a word, as in ring, rang, rung

Any discussion of the grammar and phonology of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) would be incomplete without reference to Ablaut (German for 'vowel gradation').
-- Douglas Simms, University of Texas at Austin

by 1849, from German Ablaut, literally, "off-sound," from ab "off" + Laut "sound, tone," from Old High German hlut. It was popularized by Jacob Grimm.

homologous

homologous \huh-MOL-uh-guhs; hoh-\, adjective:

1. corresponding in position, proportion, structure, value, or other property
2. in biology, corresponding in type of structure and in origin but not necessarily in appearance or function
3. in chemistry, belonging to a series where successive members differ regularly in formula, especially a series of organic compounds differing by multiples of CH2, such as the alcohols and aldehydes

A human hand, a bird's wing and a whale's flipper are all homologous structures, she explains, in that each represents an evolutionary modification of the same ancestral limb structure.
-- John Noble Wilford, But Will It Fly?" review of Taking Wing: Archaeopteryx and the Evolution of Bird Flight, by Pat Shipman, New York Times, 1/25/1998

Ingeniously, out of a wide scholarship, Author Heard traces the homologous development of caps and cathedrals, mitres and mosques-15,000 years in a book of 150 pages that scholars will find an interesting tour-de-force, men of letters a most scholarly little tract.
-- Clothes," review of Narcissus: An Anatomy of Clothes, by Gerald Heard-Dutton, Time, 1/12/1925

by 1660, from Greek homologos "agreeing, of one mind," from homos "same" + logos "relation, reasoning, computation," related to legein "reckon, select, speak"

elocution

elocution \el-uh-KYOO-shuhn\, noun:

the art of speaking or reading clearly in public, including gestures, pronunciation, and tones

No one knew her well but everyone admired her because of the beautiful way in which she recited the poetry she chose for the elocution lessons she gave in her spare time.
-- Virgilia Peterson, Few Were More Delightful, Lovely or Savage," review of The Girls of Slender Means, by Muriel Spark, New York Times, 9/15/1963

The reading textbooks of the common schools emphasized the importance of proper elocution and public speaking; they encouraged students to read out loud.
-- Diane Ravitch, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms

by 1509, from Late Latin elocutionem "voice production, manner of expression," in classical Latin it meant "oratorical expression," and referred to Roman rhetoricians, from eloqui "to speak out."

sepulcher

sepulcher \SEP-uhl-kuhr\, noun:

1. a burial place; tomb
2. a structure or niche in a church in which sacred relics are deposited on Good Friday and removed on Easter

Deeds of ownership, cash instruments and currency in a large amount were sealed, as directed, in a moistureproof box resistant to decay and interred with him in his sepulcher in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery, and his tombstone bore the inscription: MANY HOPES LIE BURIED HERE.
-- Joseph Heller, Closing Time

I've trudged along highways with exhausted Kurdish refugees reduced to burying their children and grandparents by the roadside for fear of setting off land mines if they ventured farther afield to provide a proper sepulcher.
-- Jonathan C. Randal, After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness?

c.1200, "tomb, burial place," especially in reference to the cave where Jesus was buried outside Jerusalem (Holy Sepulcher or Saint Sepulcher), from Old French sepulcre (11th century), from Latin sepulcrum "grave, tomb," from root of sepelire "to bury," originally "to perform rituals on a corpse."

sequacious

sequacious \sih-KWAY-shuhs\, adjective:

1. proceeding smoothly and regularly
2. disposed to follow, especially slavishly

In a world peopled with limp critics and sequacious art historians the ruthlessness with which he used the battering ram of talent invariably earned my admiration and almost invariably my support.
-- John Pope-Hennessy, Learning to Look

By which she did not mean a sequacious helpmeet to the Man of the House, picking up his dirty underwear and serving him Budweisers during commercials.
-- Bill Kauffman, The Way of Love, Whole Earth, July 2000

Reminds one of the liberal journalist who was shocked Richard Nixon got elected because she didn't know anyone who had voted for him. That's what you get when you surround yourself with sequacious lefties.
-- Thomas Mitchell, Gore's new testament of liberal gobbledygook, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 6/3/2007

by 1640, "given to following leaders," from Latin sequac-, stem of sequax "that follows, a follower," from sequi "to follow"

sentinel

sentinel \SEN-tuhn-uhl\, noun, verb:

1. to stand guard and watch
2. a person stationed to keep watch and guard

Sometimes the puppy barked when a customer came in, taking on the sentinel's role that no one had assigned him.
-- Eliseo Alberto, Caracol Beach

At dawn on June 18, as the bell tolls, the sentinel on the East Tower sees a yellowish cloud in the far distance - the dust kicked up by their horses.
-- Lewis Jones, Previous conquests," review of The Siege by Ismail Kadare (translated by David Bellos), Daily Telegraph, 5/17/2008

by 1579, from Middle French sentinelle, from Italian sentinella, perhaps (from a notion of "perceive, watch"), from sentire "to hear, perceive," from Latin senire "feel"

dissever

dissever \dih-SEV-uhr\, verb:

to separate or part; sever

He had contrived, or rather he had happened, to dissever himself from the world -- to vanish -- to give up his place and privileges with living men.
-- T. J. Lustig, Moments of Punctuation': Metonymy and Ellipsis in Tim O'Brien, Yearbook of English Studies, 1/1/2001

When Plato projected his ideal Republic, he made definite provisions for a class of warriors. Thus one of the most imaginatively creative men who ever lived, and the father of Utopias, could not dissever himself sufficiently from his age even to speculate upon a civilization which transcended war.
-- Robert F. Wagner, The Ideal Industrial Start, New York Times, 5/9/1937

It was thought that he intended to dissever the Union, and set up an independent republic in the West with himself at the head.
-- Benson J. Lossing, LL.D., U.S. History

c.1250, from Anglo-French deseverer, from Old French dessevrer, from Latin disseparare, from dis- + separare

curio

curio \KYOOR-ee-oh\, noun:

a valued, novel object; an object valued as a curiosity, often a collectible

It is tempting to think of [it] not as a novel but as a glittering artifact, something an acquisitive traveler might discover in a musty Venetian curio shop.
-- David Willis McCullough, review of The Palace, by Lisa St. Aubin de Teran, New York Times, 8/1/1999

Her latest addition, a fake yellow canary that she affixed to the front door, simply canÕt be ignored. With any luck, the cat will soon mistake the curio for a real bird and that will be the end of it.
-- Ada Brunstein, The House of No Personal Pronouns, New York Times, 7/22/2007

Tensions in his parents' home in New York and summer visits to his Boston grandfather left impressions that became, over time, fragmentary memories tinged with sadness-as when he recalls, in Redburn, the melancholy longing provoked by the miniature glass ship displayed in his grandfather's curio case.
-- Andrew Delbanco, Melville: His Life and Work

by 1851, literally, "piece of bric-a-brac or art object from the far East," a shortened form of curiosity

caitiff

caitiff \KAY-tif\, noun, adjective:

1. cowardly and mean
2. a mean, cowardly person

But there was no need: the towering threat and the flaming eye and the swift rush buffeted the caitiff away: he recoiled three steps, and nearly fell down.
-- Charles Reade, The Atlantic, -14396

Captain Thomas J. C. Martyn . . . was asked to give his opinion on recent despatches from Berlin which stated that Count Manfred von Richthofen, celebrated German flyer, was not shot in the air but killed by caitiff riflemen after he had made a safe landing behind the British lines.
-- Friendly Enemies, Time, 8018

c.1300, from Old North French caitive "captive, miserable," from Latin captivum; originally the word meant a "captive, prisoner"

incursion

incursion \in-KUR-zhuhn; -shuhn\, noun:

1. a sudden attack; invasion, raid
2. a running or flowing in

Jerina's bulwarks failed to protect Bosnia from the last great incursion against Europe from the East, the invasions of Ottoman Turk armies into the southeastern corner of the continent beginning in the fourteenth century.
-- Chuck Sudetic, Blood and Vengeance

This evening there wasn't even a truck in the yard, so there was no one to notice the individual leaning on the molded balustrade of the balcony, except perhaps for a pair of seagulls out on patrol, two white specks drifting across the sky.
-- Victor Pelevin, The Life Of Insects (Translated by Andrew Browmfield)

by 1432 "hostile attack," from Latin incursionem "a running against," from incurrere

bulwark

bulwark \BUL-wurk; -wawrk\, noun, verb:

1. to defend or protect, serve as a bulwark; shelter
2. a person, thing, or concept that is a defense or protection
3. an embankment of earth or other material used as a defense against a threat; rampart
4. the sides of a ship extending like a fence above the deck level

The French eventually prevailed, and Asher and his ally Alex were kicked up north to the town of Siem Reap, where they helped reconstruct the earthquake-damaged Elephant Wall, an infuriatingly complicated Khmer bulwark that had fallen into several hundred pieces some centuries ago.
-- Robert Bingham, Lightning on the Sun

Originally a set of largely structural guarantees applying only against the federal government, the Bill has become a bulwark of rights against all government conduct.
-- Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction

The country has overwhelming importance to America as a strategic ally in a highly volatile Islamic region; indeed, Washington is counting on it to be a bulwark against the spread of Islamic fundamentalism into Europe.
-- Jeffrey E. Garten, The Big Ten: The Big Emerging Markets and How They Will Change Our Lives

For Laura's mother the church, in addition to what spiritual significance it possessed, stood out as a bulwark of civilization in the midst of a still forming, rough frontier culture.
-- John E. Miller, Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman Behind the Legend

Today we bulwark an older, liberal-Christian Europe against newer atheistic totalitarian forces.
-- Daniel J. Boorstin, We, the People, in Quest of Ourselves, New York Times, 20207

c.1418, from Middle Dutch bulwerke or Middle High German bolwerc, from bole "plank, tree trunk" + werc "work." The figurative sense dates from 1577.

valediction

valediction \val-uh-DIK-shuhn\, noun:

the action of bidding farewell; a farewell

The playing of taps was a special moment in the ceremony, a final, haunting valediction for the men who had made the supreme sacrifice.
-- John Glenn, John Glenn: A Memoir

Few careers have such self-appointed endings, and his speech was a fine valediction.
-- Howard's dignified end, Daily Telegraph, 37170

At the end, they sobbed farewell to an old friend who gives a beautiful valediction.
-- Richard Corliss, Martial Masterpiece, Time Asia, 35255

by 1614, from Latin valedicere "bid farewell," from vale, imperative form of valere "be well" + dicere "to say"