21 December 2014

spree

[spree]

noun
1. a lively frolic or outing.
2. a bout or spell of drinking to intoxication; binge; carousal.
3. a period, spell, or bout of indulgence, as of a particular wish, craving, or whim:
an eating spree; a spending spree.
4. a period or outburst of extreme activity: the team’s scoring spree;
no motive for his killing spree.

Origin
1795-1805; origin uncertain

Spree
[shprey]
noun
1. a river in E Germany, flowing N through Berlin to the Havel River. 220 miles (354 km) long.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for spree
– They may live frugally and hoard what they have, or dissipate it in a wild spree.
– Here’s how to turn your next stroll through the woods into a shopping spree.
– It is part horror, part thriller, featuring a couple of hitmen on a mercenary killing spree.

Anagram

peers

Today’s aphorism

The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.

– Frank Zappa

On this day

21 December 1913 – American newspaper, New York World, publishes the world’s first crossword puzzle. It was created by English journalist, Arthur Wynne.

21 December 1940 – birth of Frank Zappa, American revolutionary musician. Died 3 December 1993.

21 December 1991 – representatives of all Soviet Republics, except Georgia, signed the Alma-Ata Protocol which confirmed the Belavezha Accords of 8 December 1991 that declared the Soviet Union dissolved.

21 December 2012 – end of the world as predicted by the Ancient Mayans … or is it just the end of an age within their calendar? All was revealed … and it was a non-event …

20 December 2014

palabra

[pah-lah-vrah]

noun, plural palabras [pah-lah-vrahs] Spanish.

1. a word.
2. speech; talk.

Dictionary.com

Examples
To conquer or die is no theatrical palabra, in these circumstances, but a practical truth and necessity. — Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution, 1837

Origin
Palabra came to English from Spanish in the early 1600s.

Anagram

a bar pal

Today’s aphorism

Some people think that the truth can be hidden with a little cover-up and decoration. But as time goes by, what is true is revealed, and what is fake fades away.

– Ismail Haniyeh

On this day

20 December – International Human Solidarity Day – celebrating unity in diversity, as well as reminding people of the importance of solidarity in working towards eradicating poverty.

20 December 1973 – Basque Nationalists kill Spanish Prime Minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco in a car-bombing in Madrid.

20 December 1989 – Operation ‘Just Cause’ in which President George Bush orders 27,684 U.S. troops into Panama in an effort to oust Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. Noriega surrendered on 3 January 1990.

18 December 2014

eidetic

[ahy-det-ik]

adjective
1. of, relating to, or constituting visual imagery vividly experienced and readily reproducible with great accuracy and in great detail.
2. of or relating to eidos.

Origin

Greek

1920-1925; < Greek eidētikós, equivalent to eîd (os) eidos + -ētikos -etic

Related forms
noneidetic, adjective

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for eidetic
– eidetic images differ from other forms of visual imagery in several important ways.
– His tales were produced with a combination of will, eidetic memory and emotional immaturity.
– Sensory information storage is also known as sensory register, sensory store, and eidetic and echoic memory.

Anagram

iced tie

Today’s aphorism

Any time I saw people treated unfairly because of race, creed, whatever – it struck a nerve.

– Robert Redford

On this day

18 December 1942 – U.S. B24 Liberator bomber crashes into Mt Straloch on Hinchinbrook Island, North Queensland. All 29 persons on board were killed. Because of the rugged terrain and monsoonal ‘wet’ season, the bodies were not recovered for some months. The plane had flown from Amberley air base, near Brisbane, to Garbutt air base in Townsville to pick up passengers. The plane crashed during a violent storm, shortly after departure from Garbutt. It was on its way to Iron Range air base, near Lockhardt River, North Queensland.

17 December 2014

salvo (1)

[sal-voh]

noun, plural salvos, salvoes.
1. a simultaneous or successive discharge of artillery, bombs, etc.
2. a round of fire given as a salute.
3. a round of cheers or applause.

Origin
Italian, Latin
1585-1595; earlier salva < Italian ≪ Latin salvē salve3

salvo (2)
[sal-voh]

noun, plural salvos. Archaic.
1. an excuse or quibbling evasion.
2. something to save a person’s reputation or soothe a person’s feelings.

Origin
1635-45; < Latin salvō, ablative of salvus safe, found in legal phrases

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for salvo

– But under salvo or cloudy conditions, you’ve got problems.
– By some measures, the government’s initial salvo was a qualified success.
– Hardly a week goes by without another salvo in the music wars, which have been going on now for years.
– Two new books and a exhibition offer the opening salvo in what will be a continuing barrage.
– Browsing through the pictures shows that this salvo of updates has been a winner.
– The next day, he rushed to get her reaction to the all-star salvo.
– It answers any ill-advised criticism with a salvo of lawsuits.
– It was an early salvo in what would become an endless, thankless, unwinnable war.

Anagram

ovals

Today’s aphorism

I’ve always found the idea of death comforting. The thought that my life could end at any moment frees me to fully appreciate the beauty and art and horror of everything this world has to offer.

– Hannibal, TV series

On this day

16 December 1980 – death of Harlan Sanders who eventually becomes a Colonel and chickens throughout Kentucky, and ultimately the rest of the world, are never the same again as he invents Kentucky Fried Chicken. Born 9 September 1890.

16 December 2014

pullulate

[puhl-yuh-leyt]

verb (used without object), pullulated, pullulating.
1. to send forth sprouts, buds, etc.; germinate; sprout.
2. to breed, produce, or create rapidly.
3. to increase rapidly; multiply.
4. to exist abundantly; swarm; teem.
5. to be produced as offspring.

Origin

Latin

1610-1620; < Latin pullulātus (past participle of pullulāre to sprout), derivative of pullulus a sprout, young animal, diminutive of pullus; see pullet

Related forms
pullulation, noun

Anagram

pull a lute

Today’s aphorism

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.

– Isaac Asimov

On this day

16 December 1980 – death of Harlan Sanders who eventually becomes a Colonel and chickens throughout Kentucky, and ultimately the rest of the world, are never the same again as he invents Kentucky Fried Chicken. Born 9 September 1890.

15 December 2014

baleful

[beyl-fuh l]

adjective
1. full of menacing or malign influences; pernicious.
2. Obsolete. wretched; miserable.

Origin

Middle English, Old English

1000, before 1000; Middle English; Old English bealofull. See bale2, -ful

Related forms
balefully, adverb
balefulness, noun

Can be confused
baleful, baneful.

Synonyms
1. harmful, malign, injurious, detrimental; evil, wicked; deadly.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for baleful
– Authenticity now dominates our way of viewing ourselves and our relationships, with baleful consequences.
– The polls corroborate the baleful economic portents.
– But this time the scare is about more than bad mortgage loans and their baleful effect on the credit markets.

Anagram

able flu
lab fuel

Today’s quote

Adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo.

– Mary Pickford

On this day

15 December 1970 – Russia’s Venera 7 spacecraft lands on Venus, the first man-made object to land on the planet. It was launched on 15 August 1970.

13 December 2014

appurtenance

[uh-pur-tn-uh ns]
noun
1. something subordinate to another, more important thing; adjunct; accessory.
2. Law. a right, privilege, or improvement belonging to and passing with a principal property.
3. appurtenances, apparatus; instruments.

Origin
Middle English
1350-1400; Middle English < Anglo-French, equivalent to ap- ap-1+ -purtenance a belonging; see purtenance

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for appurtenance

– But he did have one peculiar appurtenance : around his neck hung high-powered binoculars, painted shiny gold.
– The appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony.
– Access is defined as the ability to walk to the piping and/or appurtenance.

Anagram

canape punter
a pecan punter
a entrance pup
reenact nap up

Today’s aphorism

Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.

– Marian Wright Edelman

On this day

13 December 1937 – Nanking, China, is captured by Japanese forces. The Japanese General Matsui orders the destruction of the city, resulting in the massacre of more than 200,000 people, and rape and mutilation of around 20,000 women and girls.

13 December 1939 – Premier of the classic movie, Gone With The Wind, starring Clark Gable and Vivienne Leigh.

13 December 1995 – Thousands of people riot in Brixton, England, ransacking shops and attacking police.

13 December 2003 – US forces capture Saddam Hussein at a compound near Tikrit. He was executed by hanging on 30 December 2006 after being found guilty of the 1982 murder of 148 Iraqi Shi’ites.

13 December 2006 – Belgians react angrily to the news that their country is to be divided in two, with the Dutch speaking component of the country declaring their independence. The news was a joke propagated by Belgian public television station, R.T.B.F.

13 December 2007 – Pakistani President, Pervez Musharaff, moves responsibility for Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal from the Prime Minister to the President amid fears of it falling into the hands of Islamic extremists.

12 December 2014

disingenuous

adjective

1. lacking in frankness, candor, or sincerity; falsely or hypocritically ingenuous; insincere:
Her excuse was rather disingenuous.

Origin
1645-1655; dis-1+ ingenuous

Related forms
disingenuously, adverb
disingenuousness, noun
nondisingenuous, adjective
nondisingenuously, adverb
nondisingenuousness, noun

Dictionary.com

Anagram

disguise noun
undoing issue

Today’s aphorism

We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.

– Galileo Galilei

On this day

12 December 1901 – Italian inventor, Guglielmo Marconi sends the world’s first wireless transmission over 2,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean from Poldhu, Cornwall, England to Newfoundland, Canada. The message he sent was the letter ‘s’ in morse code, represented by three dots …

12 December 1913 – the Mona Lisa is recovered in Florence, two years after being stolen from the Louvre in Paris.

12 December 1925 – the world’s first motel, the Milestone Mo-Tel, opens in San Luis Obispo, California. The motorists-hotel enabled visitors to park their cars outside their rooms.

12 December 1946 – John D. Rockefeller donates six blocks of Manhattan to the United Nations, which is now the site of UN Headquarters.

12 December 2003 – Keiko, the killer whale from the movie, ‘Free Willy’, dies in Norway.

12 December 2007 – International Chess Grand-Master, Garry Kasparov announces that he is withdrawing from running for the presidential election. Kasparov’s party, Other Russia, had faced difficulty in meeting the electoral requirements for supporters to meet in Moscow.