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"

balustrade

balustrade \BAL-uh-strayd; bal-uh-STRAYD\, noun:

a railing at the side of a staircase or balcony to prevent people from falling

The camera is a couple of floors up, pointing out over the balustrade and down toward us on the ground floor.
-- Dan Zak, A Weekend in the Life of an Extra, Washington Post, April 26, 2003

Yet that brutal incursion proved a fatal miscalculation on Brezhnev's part and the final turning point in the cold war.
-- Douglas Brinkley, The Unfinished Presidency

by 1644, "row of balusters," from French balustrade, from Italian balaustrata "provided with balusters," from balaustro "pillar," from balausta "flower of the wild pomegranate," from Greek balaustion (perhaps of Semitic origin, cf. Aramaic balatz "flower of the wild pomegranate"). Staircase uprights had lyre-like double curves, like the calyx tube of the pomegranate flower.

eminent

eminent \EM-uh-nuhnt\, adjective:

1. high in station, rank, or repute; prominent, distinguished
2. conspicuous; noteworthy
3. high; lofty
4. standing out above other things; prominent

Several others of the most eminent artists of our country had urgently requested Mr. Dickens to sit to them for his picture and bust, but, having consented to do so to Alexander and Dexter, he was obliged to refuse all others for want of time.
-- G.W. Putnam, The Atlantic, October 1, 1870

Children who are to become eminent do not like schools or schoolteachers. Many famed men found their own homes more stimulating, preferred to skip school and read books omnivorously. Today's "regimented schools" would not consider them college material.
-- Victor Goertzel, The Gifted Child Quarterly, December 1, 1960

c.1420, from Latin eminentem, prp. of eminere "stand out, project," from ex- "out" + minere, related to mons "hill.". Eminence is first attested 1621; as a title of honor (now only of cardinals) it is attested from 1653.

cadence

cadence \KAYD-'n(t)s\, noun:

1. the measure or beat of music, dancing, or a regularly repeated movement
2. a rising and falling sound; modulation; also, the falling inflection of the voice, as at the end of a sentence
3. a series of chords bringing part of a piece of music to an end

I notice that when Hillary is experiencing turbulence she lapses into a rhetorical style similar to that of John McCain's: a sing-song rhythm in which every sentence is delivered with the exact same cadence and ends on the same predictable beat.
-- Jacques Berlinerblau, The God Vote, Washington Post, May 5, 2004

"Every pitcher has a body cadence and rhythm," says Brock. "Once you've learned to read it, you can tell whether he is about to make a pick-off throw, and you can know exactly when you can start toward second."
-- The Premier Pilferer, Time, July 14, 1970

Harmonic richness and variety entered victoriously where stereotyped cadences, barren and threadbare progressions, had reigned ad nauseam.
-- Carl Engel, Jazz: A Musical Discussion, The Atlantic, August 1, 1992

c.1384, "flow of rhythm in verse or music," from Middle French cadence, Old Italian cadenza "conclusion of a movement in music," literally "a falling," from Vulgar Latin *cadentia, from Latin cadens prp. of cadere "to fall." In the 16th century, sometimes used literally for "an act of falling." The Italian form cadenza was borrowed 1836 as a musical term for "ornamental passage near the close of a song or solo."

emollient

emollient \ih-MOL-yuhnt\, adjective:

1. softening or soothing
2. something that softens or soothes

But his more emollient approach, winning hearts and minds through old-fashioned forms of persuasion, will also be crucial to building a coalition willing to act against Saddam's most dangerous weapons.
-- J.F.O. McAllister, In The Line Of Fire, Time, March 24, 1998

He unties the red rag, sweat-blackened, from around his neck and, dressed only in his wide-brimmed hat, steps into the tub, his feet, so recently liberated, reveling in the emollient power of the steaming water, seasoned with bath salts whose aroma bespeaks a distant land, one where flowers grow, or grew.
-- Robert Coover, Ghost Town

During this anxious time, the little girl 'acted as a useful emollient to jaded nerves,' a kind of harp-playing David to the troubled Monarch's Saul.
-- Ben Pimlott, The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II

by 1643, from French emollient, from Latin emollientem, prp. of emollire "soften," from ex- "out" + mollire "soften," from mollis "soft."

reprobate

reprobate \REP-ruh-bayt\, noun, adjective:

1. a very wicked, unprincipled person; scoundrel
2. very wicked; unprincipled
3. to disapprove; condemn, censure
4. a person predestined to damnation, rejected by God
5. rejected by God; damned
6. to reject from salvation; predestine to eternal punishment

A reprobate and a drunkard in his youth, Tenskwatawa underwent a spiritual rebirth in 1805.
-- Chief of a Vanishing Empire," review of Tecumseh: A Life, by John Sugden,, New York Times, April 18, 1994

Qusay loathed Uday's drunken rampages and reprobate lifestyle.
-- Romesh Ratnesar, And Then There Was One, Time, August 3, 1999

Music-loving Governor 0. K. Allen is said to have pardoned the old reprobate as much for Irene as anything.
-- Good Night, Irene, Time, August 13, 1946

Dave's father is a salty old reprobate who once ran off with the family doctor's wife and returned only to booze away his social security money at the local bars.
-- Life Is a Four-Letter Word, New York Times, January 12, 1954

by 1545, "rejected as worthless," from Late Latin reprobatus, pp. of reprobare "disapprove, reject, condemn," from Latin re- "opposite of, reversal of previous condition" + probare "prove to be worthy.". The noun is recorded from 1545, "one rejected by God." Sense of "abandoned or unprincipled person" is from 1592. Earliest form of the word in English was a verb, meaning "to disapprove" (1432).

guerdon

guerdon \GUR-duhn\, noun:

1. a reward
2. to reward, pay back

How could anyone look at the happiness of the Beverley sisters, dolled up for the palace, and propose to snatch their prize away? Why be so cruel, when they have sung so lustily and for so long, and so well deserved their tinny guerdon?
-- Boris Johnson, Elect the Lords -- and stop our gongs going for a song, Daily Telegraph, March 29, 2002

The appalling realization that he has labored for a whole year, only to have the guerdon thus rudely snatched away, is almost too much for Hutch.
-- J.T.M., Old Hutch, New York Times, December 6, 1932

Thirteen dollars a month, so long as he remains a private, is the guerdon of the soldier, with free food, lodging, and medical attendance.
-- Our Pampered Policemen, New York Times, June 21, 1902

by 1366, "reward, recompense" (now only poetic), from Old French guerdon, from Middle Latin widerdonum, from Old High German widarlon and influenced in Middle Latin by Latin donum "gift"

escutcheon

escutcheon \ih-SKUHCH-uhn\, noun:

1. a shield decorated with a coat of arms
2. the protective metal plate around a keyhole and lock, drawer handle or pull, light switch, etc.
3. the panel on a ship's stern bearing her name

The news comes as a blow to Lafcad's older brother Andrew, the coolest head in the family, who is embarking on a campaign for state auditor and doesn't think another blot on the escutcheon will do much for his chances.
-- Charles Isherwood, Moonlight and Muddle for a Loopy New Orleans Family in 'Ridiculous Fraud, New York Times, May 15, 2002

Being drunk, disorderly and violent merits a crack on the head with a truncheon, a night in chokey and a blot on your escutcheon.
-- Ed West, Don't blame drinkers -- it's the problem drinks, Daily Telegraph, July 22, 2003

by 1480, from Old North French escuchon, variant of Old French escusson, from Latin scutum "shield"

nabob

nabob \NAY-bob\, noun:

1. a native ruler in India in the Mogul empire; by extension, a person from India who made a fortune there
2. a very wealthy and prominent person; mogul

I am not a nabob, but I live well.
-- Malcolm Moore, Sicilian reggae performer wows Jamaica, Daily Telegraph, January 18, 2004

This super nabob spent money as though it was water.
-- Arthur Daley, Lessons in Skulduggery, New York Times, September 16, 1939

Perhaps once worn by some nabob or his wife, it is today, of course, a museum piece, lent to the display by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
-- Italian Artisans Who Created New Fashion From an Ancient Style, New York Times, December 16, 2000

by 1612, "deputy governor in Mogul Empire," Anglo-Indian, from Hindi nabab, from Arabic nuwwab, honorific plural of na'ib "viceroy, deputy." This word was also used of Europeans who came home from India having made a fortune there, hence "very rich man" (1760).

Lucullan

Lucullan \loo-KUHL-uhn\, adjective:

rich; magnificent and luxurious

In many calorie-conscious families, mini-meals have replaced Lucullan feasts.
-- Jane Abrams, Lima News, November 9, 1964

Before the first fight, scholars fancied they could read a sturdy moral in the contrast between the champion's spartan existence and the challenger's Lucullan revels.
-- Oakland Tribune, June 14, 1956

When literary groups meet in Paris, they also tend to eat and during the November rite of book awards, luncheons may reach a Lucullan level.
-- Jeanne Molli, Paris Links Pleasures Of Table and the Mind, New York Times, November 18, 1958

by 1857, from Latin Lucullanus for Licinius Lucullus, a Roman general famous for his wealth and the luxury of his banquets

amatory

amatory \AM-uh-tor-ee; -tohr-\, adjective:

of love; expressing love, especially sexual

She's cranky, self-absorbed and a compulsive flirt with a long series of amatory conquests to her record.
-- Carol Shields, His Kisses Taste Like Bubble Gum," review of The Love Letter, by Cathleen Schine, New York Times, May 27, 1991

Even Piejack, who harbors a delusion that his mangled hand has an amatory upside, is at heart a pedestrian perv, and Boyd, the telemarketer, is more an annoyance than the end of the world.
-- John Leland, Key Party," review of Nature Girl, by Carl Hiaasen, New York Times, December 2, 2002

Therese at first seems cut from familiar femme-fatale cloth, and Jack seems a direct descendant of a long line of noir chumps who follow their amatory urges down hell's rabbit hole.
-- Eddie Muller, The dangers of rescuing damsels in so-called distress," review of Belonging, by Ron Butlin, San Francisco Chronicle, June 30, 2003

by 1599, from Latin amatorius "of or pertaining to love," from Latin amator "lover"

eminence grise

eminence grise \ay-mee-nahn(t)s-GREEZ\, noun:

a person who wields power or exerts influence behind the scenes

Some might hypothesize that Mr. Kissinger's perpetual re-emergence as eminence grise reflects the tendency of presidents to change their views after taking office and gradually move in Mr. Kissinger's direction.
-- James Mann, The Ghost of the Oval Office, New York Times, October 4, 2002

Considerably less known in the West than his comrades, he prefers the role of eminence grise.
-- They Made a Revolution, Time, November 5, 1968

As his detractors tell it, Bolland is an eminence grise--a postmodern Richelieu or Rasputin, conniving behind the throne.
-- Ginanne Brownell, By What Mysterious Alchemy Do You Turn The 'Harry Pothead' Scandal Into A Public-Relations Master Coup?, Newsweek, January 27, 1998

by 1838, French for "gray eminence"; originally used in French for Pere Joseph, a monk who was Cardinal Richelieu's confidential agent, for the gray habit he wore, in contrast to the Cardinal's red habit

affectation

affectation \af-ek-TAY-shuhn\, noun:

1. an artificial way of talking or behaving put on to impress others; pretense
2. an unnatural action, expression, or trait that indicates artificiality

In a culture of electricity and annual holidays, for example, to
pace one's work to the rhythm of the seasons or daylight would amount
to affectation.
-- Janet Burroway, Heartbreak Hotel," review of Martin Dressler:
The Tale of an American Dreamer, by Steven Millhauser, New York Times,
May 11, 1992

I had heard talk that Tosca, for all the dissolute life she led,
was a pious person who frequented churches with scrupulous regularity,
yet in this conduct I had always suspected a pose, an affectation.
-- Paola Capriolo, Floria Tosca (translated by Liz Heron)

I extended a hand out into the air for no reason, a professorial
affectation.
-- John Burnham Schwartz, Reservation Road

Wait! my father shouted with an affectation of sudden
comprehension. I recognize you!
-- Ev Ehrlich, Grant Speaks

by 1548, "studied display," from Latin affectationem, from affectare
"to strive for"

adulterate

adulterate \uh-DUHL-tuh-rayt\, verb:

1. to add an inferior, impure, or improper substance to; lower the quality or purity of a food or other substance without greatly altering the appearance; corrupt
2. debased by adulteration; adulterated

It would seem as if some men considered it a sin ever to sell a pure article, if it be possible to adulterate it with something cheaper.
-- Adulterated Drugs, Drinks, and Diet, New York Times, October 23, 1949

Industrial plant directors bent upon fulfilling the Plan adulterate their products to increase quantity.
-- Lance Morrow, The Inscrutable Soviets, Time, May 9, 1972

The disciples also promised not to adulterate milk with water, or flour with powdered stone.
-- Atomic Vows, Time, May 14, 1946

by 1505, from Latin adulterationem, from adulteratus, pp. of adulterare "corrupt, debauch," from ad- "to" + Late Latin alterare "to alter"

adduce

adduce \uh-DOOS; -DYOOS\, verb:

to offer as a reason in support of an argument; bring up as an example; give as proof or evidence; cite

Claude Chabrol defines absurdity as the gap between the awesome finality of death and the trivial reasons men adduce for killing or putting themselves in the way of being killed.
-- R.S., Plenty of Nada, Time, December 1, 1970

Nor does he adduce any historic arguments to prove that doctors make great governors of men, perhaps because such arguments are difficult to find.
-- Carrel's Man, Time, September 15, 1931

by 1616, from Latin adducere "lead to, bring to," from ad- "to" + ducere "to lead"

frowzy

frowzy \FROW-zee\, adjective:

1. dirty and untidy; slovenly
2. smelling bad; musty

"Lady," said a frowzy, spiritless panhandler, "c'n ya lemmee have a quarter to buy my little boy some milk?"
-- The Bleatniks, Time, August 10, 1957

Based on an old apartment building in Spokane, Wash., it is complete with frowzy lobby and stains on the wall that you wouldn't want to analyze too closely.
-- Jerry V. Haines, Minneapolis mind expansion, Los Angeles Times, August 13, 2001

The chief of staff's normally impeccable office had become a frowsy litter of coffee cups, cigarette butts, carbines and musette bags.
-- Frank Gibney, Help Seemed Far Away, Time, July 9, 1946

The cold wet shelterless midnight streets of London; the foul and frowsy dens, where vice is closely packed and lacks the room to turn; the haunts of hunger and disease; the shabby rags that scarcely hold together; where are the attractions of these things?
-- Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

by 1681, possibly related to dialect form frowsty "smelly," of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Old English þroh "rancid"

ensconced

ensconced \en-SKONST\, adjective:

1. sheltered comfortably and firmly
2. sheltered safely; hidden

Determined to make the continental crossing in style, Reed ensconced his wife and four children in an enormous, custom-built, two-story wagon, complete with sleeping bunks, upholstered seats and a built-in stove.
-- Bruce Barcott, Meals on Wheels: A novel of the Donner Party," review of Snow Mountain Passage, by James D. Houston, New York Times, April 7, 1997

Hamish is our puppet millionaire: an aged plant-tub tycoon, ensconced in a country house of sprawling vulgarity, he remains the befuddled pawn of his wife Gemma.
-- Martin Amis, Prose Is the Leading Lady," review of Words of Advice, by Fay Weldon, New York Times, October 1, 1973

Only when he was firmly ensconced in the prime minister's office, with the reins of power in his hands, did Atsuko Abe began to discuss his true agenda with his closest allies.
-- Stephen Coonts, Fortunes of War

by 1590, "to cover with a fort," from en- "make, put in" + sconce "small fortification, shelter," probably from Dutch schans "earthwork"

obsequies

obsequies \OB-sih-kweez\, noun:

funeral rites or ceremonies

The controversy that is to mark his obsequies surfaces soon after when two priests object that Pavarotti, a remarried divorcee, should be allowed to lie in state in the cathedral, "the highest symbol of Christianity in Modena".
-- Elizabeth Grice, Pavarotti's last great tragic role, Daily Telegraph, October 25, 2003

Similarly, when Elizabethan audiences watched Laertes protest the brief obsequies given his sister Ophelia, they knew that Catholics were furtively burying their loved ones with the old rites, while publicly holding fake burials with the "maimed rites."
-- Cynthia L. Haven, Papist Plots," review of Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare, by Clare Asquith,, New York Times, August 13, 2001

c 1385 from Middle English obseque from Middle French, from Late Latin obsequiae, an alteration of Latin obsequia "compliance, dutiful service" and influenced by exsequiae "funeral rites"

soiree

soiree \swah-RAY\, noun:

an evening party or social gathering

Rose was reminiscing at a soiree I hosted on a recent sultry evening on Chicago's North Side.
-- Laura Washington, World still watching -- but now it's a love fest, Chicago Sun-Times, August 10, 2004

The couple will be honoured guests at this week's soiree and the evening's success will matter more to them than anyone.
-- Someone is saving your bacon, Daily Telegraph, April 5, 1998

by 1793, from French soirée, from soir "evening," from Old French soir, from Latin sero (adv.) "late, at a late hour," from serum "late hour," neuter of serus "late"

sidereal

sidereal \sy-DEER-ee-uhl\, adjective:

measured or determined by the daily motion of the stars; of or having to do with the stars or constellations

And everything flying away from everything else for fifteen or so billion years, affinities are established, sidereal liaisons, and the stars slowly drift around one another into rotating star groups or galaxies, and in great monumental motions the galaxies even more slowly convene in clusters, which clusters in turn distribute themselves in linear fashion, a great chain or string of superclusters billions of light-years on end.
-- E. L. Doctorow, City of God

Her description of the calendars that prefaced Books of Hours applies equally to her own book: they make up "a cycle of multiple resonances, spiritual and secular, terrestrial and sidereal, liturgical and agricultural, pagan and Christian, breathtaking in its richness and antiquity and in the geographical spread of its references, but also grounded in the here and now, the everyday".
-- Peter Parker, A remarkable English garden," review of The Morville Hours, by Katherine Swift,, Daily Telegraph, May 2, 2004

by 1634, "of or pertaining to the stars," earlier sideral (1594), from French sidereal (16th century), from Latin sidereus "starry, astral," from sidus "star, constellation," probably from Proto Indo-European base *sweid- "to shine"

horripilation

horripilation \haw-rip-uh-LAY-shuhn; ho-\, noun:

the act or process of the hair bristling on the skin, as from cold or fear; goose flesh

There are a few things capable of sending an icy horripilation through even the bravest man.
-- Who Will Provide Social Security?, Washington Times, June 11, 1996

This is not to say that the horripilation Iran's nuclear programme inspires is unjustified; nor is it to claim that no other state would seek to develop or maintain nuclear weapons if the official nuclear powers gave theirs up.
-- George Monbiot, Guardian, January 23, 2002

Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, Celebrity Paranormal Project is fascinating as a demonstration of physiological fear: dilated pupils, nausea, shallow breathing, horripilation, the mind-twisting power of expectation.
-- Vinay Menon, Out of body with Busey, Toronto Star, July 3, 2003

by 1623, from Latin horripilatio, from horripilare "to bristle" + pilus "hair"

intimation

intimation \in-tuh-MAY-shuhn\, noun:

an indirect or slight suggestion; hint

She had always had an intimation of her destiny: all her senses would go on the alert, as if bracing her for a blow-a terrible, crushing, powerful blow-of luck, whether good or bad.
-- Nina Berberova, Cape of Storms (translated by Marian Schwartz)

As it drew nearer he recognized it as a police car and some intimation of drama touched him, the prelude to some story, and he seated himself to watch.
-- William Gay, The Long Home

Jake Hersh, like Mordecai Richler himself a Canadian, is a television and film director living in London and struggling against that awful time in life when possibilities suddenly close and a dire intimation of finality sets in.
-- Jonathan Yardley, review of St. Urbain's Horseman, by Mordecai Richler, New York Times, June 26, 1967

A frightened, inarticulate maid weeping in the hall was their first intimation that something was wrong.
-- Annabel Davis-Goff, The Dower House

by 1442, from Late Latin intimationem "action of intimating," from intimare "to impress (upon), make known"

olfactory

olfactory \ol-FAK-tuh-ree; -tree; ohl-\, adjective:

of smell; having to do with smelling

What stirred this olfactory reminiscence was the confession of a Philadelphia newsman that the situation in his home town was "stinking."
-- Stinking, Time, October 26, 1937

Mr. Lichter's visitor inhaled the rich sour aroma of the establishement and remarked upon its olfactory munificence.
-- Richard F. Shepard, Pickles, Peppers and Other Puckery Palate-Pleasers, New York Times, March 30, 1971

by 1658, from Latin olfactorius, from olfactus, pp. of olfacere "to get the smell of, sniff," from olere "give off a smell of" + Latin facere "make"

mot juste

mot juste \moh-ZHOOST\, noun:

a word or phrase that exacts fits the case

The poet's concern for the mot juste nearly always makes his prose a thing of interest and beauty.
-- Robert Peel, Lyrical Impressions, Christian Science Monitor, September 19, 1930

"My west window," says the ancient Canon D'Ascoyne, showing a visitor around his ancient church, "has all of the..." he searches for the mot juste, "exuberance of Chaucer, without any of the... concomitant crudities."
-- Vincent Canby, Sir Alec: Amid the Laurels, Very Hardy, New York Times, April 25, 1983

With his high forehead, beard and meticulous concentration on the mot juste, Mr. MacNicol could almost pass for the great minor poet that Mark Van Doren deemed Richard to be.
-- Frank Rich, 'Richard II' in the Park, New York Times, July 9, 1983

from French mot "word" and juste "right"

footless

footless \FOOT-lihs\, adjective:

1. without a foot or feet
2. figuratively, without support; not substantial
3. inept, awkward

The argument of each league that it has the best team in the land is more footless than most such controversies, since the strongest teams play on courts of different sizes under rules differently interpreted.
-- Basketball: Midseason, Time, February 18, 1930

Alvarez thinks it fairly certain that the patient is wearing herself out with footless worry.
-- Hints for Busy Doctors, Time, August 15, 1939

There is occurring in international circles here a speculation, which may admittedly be footless, that the European Common Market may fly apart before the issue of British admission ever has to be resolved.
-- Frederic W. Collins, Economic Echoes, Christian Science Monitor, October 19, 1957

by 1398, from "foot" and "-less"

epicure

epicure \EP-ih-kyur\, noun:

1. a person who enjoys eating and drinking and who is very particular in choosing fine foods and beverages; gourmet
2. a person who is fond of luxury and pleasure

The journalists, bloggers, chefs and others who make up the Fat Pack combine an epicure's appreciation for skillful cooking with a glutton's bottomless-pit approach.
-- Kim Severson, The Fat Pack Wonders if the Party's Over, New York Times, March 18, 2004

While taking courses at City College in the late 1930's, he became active in its Young Communist League, where he stood out as the only black person, as a talented organizer and as an epicure who introduced his comrades to good wines, cheeses and pates.
-- Alan Brinkley, One Was a Multitude, New York Times, March 1, 1993

As a confirmed epicure, I have eaten just about every meat acceptable in the Western world.
-- Robert V. Camuto, My Verona, Washington Post, May 3, 2004

c.1380, "follower of Epicurus," from Latin Epicurus, from Greek Epicouros (341-270 B.C.E.), the Athenian philosopher who taught that pleasure is the highest good and identified virtue as the greatest pleasure; the first lesson recalled, the second forgotten, and the name used pejoratively for "one who gives himself up to sensual pleasure" (1641), especially "glutton, sybarite" (1774). Epicurus's school opposed by Stoics, who first gave his name a reproachful sense.

aquiline

aquiline \AK-wuh-lyn; -lin\, adjective:

1. curved like an eagle's beak
2. of or like an eagle

To a page at his court, Gian Maria Angiolello, he appeared 'of medium height, fat and fleshy; he had a wide forehead, large eyes with thick lashes, an aquiline nose, a small mouth with a round copious reddish-tinged beard, a short thick neck, a sallow complexion, rather high shoulders and a loud voice'.
-- Philip Mansel, Constantinople: City of the World's Desire, 1453-1924

At 72, he looks weathered but unbowed, his white hair cropped close like a Roman consul's, with a large, aquiline nose to match.
-- Anthony Quinn, Dirty young man comes of age, Daily Telegraph, June 14, 2001

1646, from Latin aquilinus "of or like an eagle," from aquila "eagle." Originally in English, referring to long, hooked noses.

addle

addle \AD-'l\, verb:

1. to make or become muddled or confused
2. to make or become rotten or putrid

As TV audiences saw, it was enough to addle Fellow Oscar Winner Jon Voight's brain for the rest of the night.
-- Frank Rich, Pros at Play, Time, May 6, 1975

United Nations troops waited to take up their posts as guards to ensure that no liquor, women or bribe money was smuggled in to addle the judgment of the Deputies.
-- Empty Campus, Time, July 13, 1957

You'd think you'd have to be seriously dumb to be fooled in this way but there's undeniably something about residential property, whether an investment or simply a family home, that can addle the brains of otherwise quite sensible people.
-- Liz Dolan, Money surgery: keep property out of pensions, Daily Telegraph, May 17, 2001

by 1712, from addle (n.) "urine, liquid filth," from Old English adela "mud, mire, liquid manure" (cognate with Old Swedish adel "urine," Middle Low German adel, Dutch aal "puddle"). Used in noun phrase addle egg (c.1250) "egg that does not hatch, rotten egg," literally "urine egg," a loan translation of Latin ovum urinum, which is itself an erroneous loan translation of Greek ourion oon "putrid egg," literally "wind egg," from ourios "of the wind" (confused by Roman writers with ourios "of urine," from ouron "urine"). Because of this usage, the noun in English was taken as an adjective from c. 1600, meaning "putrid," and thence given a figurative extension to "empty, vain, idle," also "confused, muddled, unsound" (1706). The verb followed.

abate

abate \uh-BAYT\, verb:

1. to make or become less in force or intensity; decrease or diminish
2. to be at an end; become null and void
3. to deduct from something; reduce

Chicago law requires the landlord to abate lead paint hazards and provides fines up to $500 for each violation.
-- Ed Sacks, Lead and asbestos worry mom, Chicago Sun-Times, July 14, 2004

Still, behind the scenes, he was desperately trying to cajole support from colleagues warily assessing whether the perfect storm that had engulfed him would abate--or sweep him into oblivion.
-- Howard Fineman, Ghosts Of The Past, Newsweek, December 22, 1998

But no one expects the Iraqi insurgency to miraculously vanish, or even significantly abate, in the weeks ahead.
-- Death of a Terrorist, Newsweek, June 18, 2002

c.1270, from Old French abattre "beat down," from Latin ad "to" + battuere "to beat"; secondary sense of "to fell, slaughter" is in abatis and abattoir

gloaming

gloaming \GLOH-ming\, noun:

Twilight; dusk.

The children squealed and waved and smiled, their teeth flashing white in the gloaming.
-- Evan Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life

It was the gloaming, when a man cannot make out if the nebulous figure he glimpses in the shadows is angel or demon, when the face of evening is stained by red clouds and wounded by lights.
-- Homero Aridjis, 1492: The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile (translated by Betty Ferber)

Arrived at the village station on a wintry evening, when the gloaming is punctuated by the cheery household lamps, shining here and there like golden stars, through the leafless trees.
-- Margaret Sangster

Gloaming comes from Old English glomung, from glom, "dusk."

hubris

hubris \HYOO-bruhs\, noun:

Overbearing pride or presumption.

During his long tenure in the financial world, Friedman has watched dozens of his competitors' businesses killed by hubris born of success rather than by unsound business decisions or adverse market conditions.
-- Lisa Endlich, Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success

This is the actor's hubris, to imagine the world possessed of a single, avid eye fixed solely and always on him.
-- John Banville, Eclipse

With dizzying hubris, Shelley elevated the vocation of the poet above that of priest and statesman.
-- Peter Gay, Pleasure Wars

Hubris comes from Greek hybris, "excessive pride, wanton violence."

bivouac

bivouac \BIV-wak, BIV-uh-wak\, noun:

1. An encampment for the night, usually under little or no shelter.
2. To encamp for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

Rob had made his emergency bivouac just below the South Summit.
-- David Breashears, "Death on the mountain", The Observer, March 30, 2003

They were stopped by savage winds and forced to bivouac 153 m below the day's goal.
-- Erik Weihenmayer, "Men of the Mountain", Time Pacific, February 4, 2002

Bivouac comes from French bivouac, from German Beiwache, "a watching or guarding," from bei, "by, near" + wachen, "to watch."

execrable

execrable \EK-sih-kruh-buhl\, adjective:

1. Deserving to be execrated; detestable; abominable.
2. Extremely bad; of very poor quality; very inferior.

His human-rights record was abysmal. His relations with Washington were adversarial. He rivaled Zimbabwe's execrable Robert Mugabe for the title "Africa's Saddam."
-- James S. Robbins, "The Liberian Opportunity", National Review, July 8, 2003

For while agents and editors often misunderstand their market and sometimes reject good or even great works, they do prevent a vast quantity of truly execrable writing from being published.
-- Laura Miller, "Slush, slush, sweet Stephen", Salon, July 25, 2000

Any theatergoer who has ever felt the urge to murder an actor for an execrable performance should get a kick out of two backstage mysteries that do the deed with a nice theatrical flourish.
-- Marilyn Stasio, review of The Gold Gamble, by Herbert Resnicow and Death Mask, by Jane Dentinger, New York Times, October 30, 1988

The decision to level the ancient cathedral is described candidly by one latter-day authoritative guidebook as having demonstrated "execrable taste."
-- Dick Grogan, "Pillars speak out to save cathedral", Irish Times, June 11, 1997

Execrable derives from Latin exsecrabilis, execrabilis, from exsecrari, execrari, "to execrate, to curse," from ex-, "out of, away from, outside of" + sacer, "sacred."

genuflect

genuflect \JEN-yuh-flekt\, intransitive verb:

1. To bend the knee or touch one knee to the ground, as in worship.
2. To be servilely respectful or obedient; to grovel.

After graduation I talked my way into a job at Ionic Development Corporation, a legendary place in Cambridge on the Charles River, a huge brick building with a lobby the size of a cathedral; every time I walked in, I felt as if I should genuflect.
-- Daniel Lyons, Dog Days

People worship capital, adore its aura, genuflect before Porsches and Tokyo land values.
-- Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance (translated by Alfred Birnbaum)

Chen said recently he was proud to be a Chinese, a signal to Beijing that he is willing to be conciliatory. The communists, however, apparently want him to genuflect more unambiguously.
-- Sin-Ming Shaw, "Give This Guy a Break!", Time Asia, October 30, 2000

Genuflect is from Late Latin genuflectere, from Latin genu, "knee" + flectere, "to bend."

corroborate

corroborate \kuh-ROB-uh-rayt\, transitive verb:

To strengthen or make more certain with other evidence.

Whenever I can, I interview family and friends extensively both to corroborate the history given me by the defendant and to gain insight into his behavior and personality.
-- Barbara R. Kirwin, Ph.D., The Mad, the Bad, and the Innocent: The Criminal Mind on Trial

He said that when the jurors confronted discrepancies in any of the prosecution witnesses' descriptions, they used the testimony of other prosecution witnesses to corroborate the chronology.
-- "Most Jurors Thought Schwarz Aided Attack, Foreman Says", New York Times, August 2, 2002

As we have no public notoriety, no concurrent testimony, no records to support and corroborate what we deliver, it becomes us to keep within the limits not only of possibility, but of probability too.
-- Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones

Corroborate is from Latin corroboratus, past participle of the verb corroborare, "to strengthen," from com-, "with" + roborare, "to strengthen," and is related to robust.

quandary

quandary \KWAHN-duh-ree; -dree\, noun:

A state of difficulty, perplexity, doubt, or uncertainty.

Don . . . told me of the quandary that the authorities were in. Should the ruins be left untouched or should they be reconstructed for a new wave of tourists?
-- Benjamin Hopkins, "How to avoid the tourists in Peru", Times (London), May 6, 2000

The school commissioners . . . were in a quandary over the needful size of an "open-air playground."
-- Jacob A. Riis, The Battle with the Slum

Once or twice as I stood waiting there for things to accomplish themselves, I could not resist an impulse to laugh at my miserable quandary.
-- H.G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau

Quandary is of unknown origin.

limn

limn \LIM\, transitive verb:

1. To depict by drawing or painting.
2. To portray in words; to describe.

Oh, yes, I write, as I limn the familiar perfections of his profile, "you look very well."
-- Kimberly Elkins, "What Is Visible", The Atlantic, March 2003

In telling these people's stories Mr. Butler draws upon the same gifts of empathy and insight, the same ability to limn an entire life in a couple of pages.
-- Michiko Kakutani, "Earthlings May Endanger Your Peaceful Rationality", New York Times, March 10, 2000

But used faithfully and correctly, language can "limn the actual, imagined and possible lives of its speakers, readers, writers."
-- John Darnton, "In Sweden, Proof of The Power Of Words", New York Times, December 8, 1993

Limn is from Middle English limnen, alteration of luminen, from enluminen, from Medieval French enluminer, from Late Latin illuminare, "to illuminate," ultimately from Latin lumen, "light."

plenary

plenary \PLEE-nuh-ree; PLEN-uh-ree\, adjective:

1. Full in all respects; complete; absolute; as, plenary authority.
2. Fully attended by all qualified members.

Judges like to quote a 1936 Supreme Court opinion that spoke of "the very delicate, plenary and exclusive power of the President as the sole organ of the Federal Government in the field of international relations."
-- "Like Interpreting the Dreams of Pharaoh", New York Times, November 6, 1988

Tito called a plenary session of the Central Committee.
-- Milovan Djilas, Fall of the New Class

Plenary comes from Late Latin plenarius, from Latin plenus, "full." It is related to plenty.

synecdoche

synecdoche \si-NEK-duh-kee\, noun:

a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole or whole for a part or general for the special or vice versa

Photographers had to resort to visual synecdoche, hoping that a small part of the scene -- a wailing child, an emaciated mother, a pile of corpses in a freshly dug trench -- would suggest the horrors of the whole.
-- Paul Gray, Looking At Cataclysms, Time, August 1, 1994

We're using the part-for-whole type of synecdoche, for instance, when we describe a smart person as a "brain."
-- We Live by the Brand, Hartford Courant, August 9, 1995

By 1388, from Middle Latin synodoche, from Late Latin synecdoche, from Greek synekdokhe, literally "a receiving together or jointly," from synekdekhesthai "supply a thought or word, take with something else," from syn- "with" + ek "out" + dekhesthai "to receive," related to dokein "seem good".

malfeasance

malfeasance \mal-FEE-zuhn(t)s\, noun:

Wrongdoing, misconduct, or misbehavior, especially by a public official.

But more often than not the same board members who were removed by the chancellor for malfeasance subsequently manage to get reelected in a political process that defies any form of accountability.
-- Diane Ravitch and Joseph Viteritti, New Schools for a New Century

Cagney family conjecture was that Grandpop Nelson, with the temper of a dozen Furies, had likely committed some malfeasance in his native town forcing him to change his name when he left.
-- John McCabe, Cagney

Malfeasance is derived from Old French malfaisant, present participle of malfaire, "to do evil," from Latin malefacere, from male, "badly" + facere, "to do."

bailiwick

bailiwick \BAY-luh-wik\, noun:

1. A person's specific area of knowledge, authority, interest, skill, or work.
2. The office or district of a bailiff.

I'll give it a try, but this is not my bailiwick.
-- Sue Grafton, 'L' Is for Lawless

He "professed ignorance, as of something outside my bailiwick."
-- Marc Aronson, "Wharton and the House of Scribner: The Novelist as a Pain in the Neck", New York Times, January 2, 1994

Fund-raising was Cliff's bailiwick, anyway, and he seemed to have it in hand.
-- Curt Sampson, The Masters

Bailiwick comes from Middle English baillifwik, from baillif, "bailiff" (ultimately from Latin bajulus, "porter, carrier") + wik, "town," from Old English wic, from Latin vicus, "village."

alfresco

alfresco \al-FRES-koh\, adverb:

1. In the open air; outdoors.
2. Taking place or located in the open air; outdoor.

Turner escaped from the entangled politics of London's art world, where the Royal Academy was marooned in petty disputes, to paint alfresco on the riverbanks.
-- Siri Huntoon, "Down by the Riverside", New York Times, November 7, 1993

Outdoor sitting areas all have LAN connections, so that employees can work alfresco.
-- Scott Kirsner, "Digital Competition - Laurie A. Tucker", Fast Company, December 1999

I sailed past alfresco cafes filled with young people reading the paper, past restaurants doing a thriving brunch business, and ended up dropping down a fairly steep hill to the water yet again, on an obscure street that ended near a big factory.
-- Gary Kamiya, "An ode to Sydney", Salon, September 27, 2000

Alfresco is from the Italian al fresco, "in the fresh (air)," from al, "in the" (a, "to, in" + il, "the") + fresco, "fresh."

2008/10/19 Doctor Dictionary <doctor@dictionary.com>

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Word of the Day for Saturday, October 18, 2008 alfresco \al-FRES-koh\, adverb: 1. In the open air; outdoors. 2. Taking place or located in the open air; outdoor. Turner escaped from the entangled politics of London's art world, where the Royal Academy was marooned in petty disputes, to paint alfresco on the riverbanks. -- Siri Huntoon, "Down by the Riverside", New York Times, November 7, 1993 Outdoor sitting areas all have LAN connections, so that employees can work alfresco. -- Scott Kirsner, "Digital Competition - Laurie A. Tucker", Fast Company, December 1999 I sailed past alfresco cafes filled with young people reading the paper, past restaurants doing a thriving brunch business, and ended up dropping down a fairly steep hill to the water yet again, on an obscure street that ended near a big factory. -- Gary Kamiya, "An ode to Sydney", Salon, September 27, 2000 Alfresco is from the Italian al fresco, "in the fresh (air)," from al, "in the" (a, "to, in" + il, "the") + fresco, "fresh." Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for alfresco Yesterday's Word - Previous Words - Help
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