10 April 2014

haughty

[haw-tee]

adjective, haugh·ti·er, haugh·ti·est.

1. disdainfully proud; snobbish; scornfully arrogant; supercilious: haughty aristocrats; a haughty salesclerk.

2. Archaic. lofty or noble; exalted.

Origin: 1520–30; obsolete haught (spelling variant of late Middle English haute < Middle French < Latin altus high, with h- < Germanic; compare Old High German hok high) + -y1 Related forms haugh·ti·ly, adverb haugh·ti·ness, noun o·ver·haugh·ti·ly, adverb o·ver·haugh·ti·ness, noun o·ver·haugh·ty, adjective

Synonyms 1. lordly, disdainful, contemptuous. See proud. Antonyms 1. humble, unpretentious, unassuming.

Anagram

hay thug hath guy

Today’s aphorism

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.

– Abraham Lincoln

On this day

10 April 1815 – Indonesia’s Mount Tambora volcano begins a three month long eruption that lasted until 15 July 1815. It killed 71,000 people and affected the world’s climate for the next two years.

10 April 1912 – the ill-fated Titanic departs the port in Southampton, England bound for New York. On 14 April 1912, she hit an ice-berg and sank, killing more than 1,500 people.

10 April 1919 – death of Emiliano Zapata Salazar, Mexican revolutionary.

10 April 1979 – birth of Rachel Corrie, American peace activist. She was killed on 16 May 2003 when run over by an Israeli bulldozer that she was trying to stop from demolishing a Palestinian house in Gaza. Rachel was committed from an early age to human rights and caring for the poor as shown in this speech she gave in the fifth grade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g__QAJ5gtQk

Panda’s Word of the Day has been nominated in the Best Australian Blogs 2014 competition. It would be greatly appreciated if you would vote for it in The People’s Choice awards. To do so, click on the following link and scroll through until you find ‘Panda’s Word of the Day’, select it, scroll to the end and complete the details. Thank you 🙂

http://www.writerscentre.com.au/community/best-australian-blogs-comp/peoples-choice/

9 April 2014

pejorative

[pi-jawr-uh-tiv, -jor-, pej-uh-rey-, pee-juh-]

adjective

1. having a disparaging, derogatory, or belittling effect or force: the pejorative affix -ling in princeling.
noun
2. a pejorative form or word, as poetaster.

Example:

The pejorative overtones of the lecture made the students feel terrible.

Origin:
1880–85; < Latin pējōrāt ( us ) (see pejoration) + -ive

Related forms
pe·jo·ra·tive·ly, adverb
non·pe·jo·ra·tive, adjective
non·pe·jo·ra·tive·ly, adverb
un·pe·jo·ra·tive, adjective
un·pe·jo·ra·tive·ly, adverb

Synonyms
1. deprecatory.

Anagram

jeer a pivot
pot are jive
jot via peer

Today’s aphorism

The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer

On this day

9 April 1413 – Henry V crowned King of England.

9 April 1682 – Robert Cavelier de la Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River. He names it Louisiana and claims it in the name of France.

9 April 1865 – Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the Civil War.

9 April 1867 – United States Senate ratifies by one vote, a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.

9 April 1937 – the first Japanese-made aircraft to fly to Europe lands at Croydon Airport, London. It’s name is the Kamikaze.

9 April 1945 – execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident. He was executed at Flossenburg Concentration Camp two weeks before the camp was liberated by US soldiers. Born 4 February 1904.

8 April 2014

flibbertigibbet 

[flib-er-tee-jib-it]

noun

1. a chattering or flighty, light-headed person. ‘She’s such a flibbertigibbet’.
2. Archaic. a gossip. ‘The office flibbertigibbets had a field day’.

Origin:
1425–75; late Middle English flepergebet, flipergebet; reduplicative compound of obscure origin

Anagram

Fibber Giblet Bit
Ebb Fibre Big Tilt

Today’s aphorism

I’m the only man in the world with a marriage licence made out to whom it may concern.

– Mickey Rooney

On this day

8 April 1947 – birth of Larry Norman, of Larry Norman, pioneering Christian rock musician.

8 April 1861 – death of Elisha Graves Otis, American industrialist and founder of the Otis Elevator Company. In 1854, he put the finishing touches to his signature invention: a safety device to prevent elevators falling if the cable fails.

Panda’s Word of the Day has been nominated in the Best Australian Blogs 2014 competition. It would be greatly appreciated if you would vote for it in The People’s Choice awards. To do so, click on the following link and scroll through until you find ‘Panda’s Word of the Day’, select it, scroll to the end and complete the details. Thank you 🙂

http://www.writerscentre.com.au/community/best-australian-blogs-comp/peoples-choice/

7 April 2014

coffle

[kaw-fuhl, kof-uhl]

noun

1. a line of animals, prisoners, or slaves chained and driven along together. ‘Most reached their destinations in coffles … ‘, from The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution that Transformed the South by Bruce Levine.
verb (used with object), cof·fled, cof·fling.
2. to chain in a coffle.

Origin: from Arabic qāfilah caravan

Anagram

of clef

Today’s aphorism

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.

– Henry Ford

On this day

7 April 1933 – beer available again in 19 U.S. states since it had been banned on 16 January 1920.

7 April 1947 – death of Henry Ford, American industrialist and car maker.

6 April 2014

Morton’s Fork

(MOR-tuhns fork)

noun

– A situation involving choice between two equally undesirable outcomes.

ETYMOLOGY:

After John Morton (c. 1420-1500), archbishop of Canterbury, who was tax collector for the English King Henry VII. To him is attributed Morton’s fork, a neat argument for collecting taxes from everyone: those living in luxury obviously had money to spare and those living frugally must have accumulated savings to be able to pay.

USAGE:

“[Japan’s political elites] face a Morton’s fork between being ignored or being seen as a problem to which there is little solution.”
Michael Auslin; Japan Dissing; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Apr 22, 2010.

Anagram

No fork storm
of stork mom

Today’s aphorism

Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.

– Allen Ginsberg

On this day

6 April 1895 – The Australian ballad, ‘Waltzing Matilda‘ is performed at the North Gregory Hotel, Winton (central-west Queensland). This is believed to be the first time the song was performed in public.

6 April 1896 – The Olympic Games recommences in Athens 1,501 years after being banned by Emperor Theodosius I in 393AD.

6 April 1909 – Robert E. Peary and Matthew A. Henson become the first men to reach the North Pole. Their claim is in dispute because of navigation techniques and lack of independent verification.

6 April 2006 – the National Geographic Society reveals the discovery of a papyrus codex in a cave near El Minya, Egypt, which it claims is the Gospel of Judas Iscariot. The codex is yet to be verified as written by Judas.

5 April 2014

assiduous

[uh-sij-oo-uhs]

adjective

1. constant; unremitting: assiduous reading.
2. constant in application or effort; working diligently at a task; persevering; industrious; attentive: an assiduous student.

Origin:
1530–40; < Latin assiduus, equivalent to assid ( ēre ) to sit near, beside, dwell close to (see assess) + -uus deverbal adj. suffix; see -ous

Related forms
as·sid·u·ous·ly, adverb
as·sid·u·ous·ness, noun
un·as·sid·u·ous, adjective
un·as·sid·u·ous·ly, adverb
un·as·sid·u·ous·ness, noun

Synonyms
1. continuous, tireless, persistent. 2. studious, diligent, sedulous.

Antonyms
1, 2. inconstant, lazy.

Anagram

As Duos I Us

Today’s aphorism

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.

– Kurt Cobain

On this day

5 April 1994 – death of Kurt Cobain. Lead singer, guitarist and lyricist for Nirvana. He was 27. Born 20 February 1967. The exact date of his death is unknown as his body wasn’t discovered until 8 April 1994.

5 April 1997 – death of Allen Ginsberg, leading American beat-generation writer and poet. Born 3 June 1926.

4 April 2014

saudade

Saudade (singular) or saudades (plural)
(in Galician, in European Portuguese [saw’dad] and [sawˈdadʒi] or [sawˈdadi] in Brazilian Portuguese)

– a feeling of nostalgic longing for something or someone that one was fond of and which is lost.
It often carries a fatalist tone and a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might really never return.

‘He was overcome with saudade’.

(Galician and Portuguese word)

Anagram

A sad due
as a dude

Today’s quote

‘When I explained to someone that what I wanted to write about was the memory of things that I thought were lost for me, I was told that the Portuguese word for this feeling was “saudade”. It’s not nostalgia but something sadder’.

– Nick Cave

On this day

4 April 1968 – assassination of Martin Luther King. American civil rights activist and clergyman. Born 15 January 1929.

3 April 2014

nemesis

[nem-uh-sis]

noun, plural nem·e·ses [nem-uh-seez]

1. something that a person cannot conquer, achieve, etc.: The performance test proved to be my nemesis.
2. an opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.
3. (initial capital letter) Classical Mythology . the goddess of divine retribution.
4. an agent or act of retribution or punishment.

Origin:
< Latin < Greek némesis literally, a dealing out, verbid of némein to dispense (justice); see -sis

Synonyms
1. Waterloo. 4. downfall, undoing, ruin, Waterloo.

Anagram

seems in

Today’s aphorism

The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

– Jean-Paul Sartre

On this day

3 April 1973 – the world’s first mobile phone call is made from a Manhattan street corner, by Motorola’s Martin Cooper to his rival, Joel Engel from Bell.

3 April 1882 – death of Jesse James, U.S. outlaw. (Born 5 September 1847).