20 November 2015

gabble

[gab-uh l]

verb (used without object), gabbled, gabbling.

1. to speak or converse rapidly and unintelligibly; jabber.
2. (of hens, geese, etc.) to cackle.
verb (used with object), gabbled, gabbling.
3. to utter rapidly and unintelligibly.
noun
4. rapid, unintelligible talk.
5. any quick succession of meaningless sounds.

Origin of gabble

Middle Dutch, English

1570-1580; perhaps < Middle Dutch gabbelen, or expressive formation in English; cf. gab1, gob4, -le

Related forms

gabbler, noun
outgabble, verb (used with object), outgabbled, outgabbling.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for gabble

Historical Examples

One does not gabble the common-places of life when in the presence of the supreme in art.
The Strange Case of Mortimer Fenley
Louis Tracy

And all the time the gabble of the women mocked at the silence of death.
Things as They Are
Amy Wilson-Carmichael

They might gabble in a corner to each other and simper and giggle and pretend, but they were ballet-hoppers.
Carnival
Compton Mackenzie

Anagram

beg lab

Today’s quote

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.

– Leo Tolstoy

On this day

20 November 1900 – birth of Chester Gould, American creator of the cartoon strip, ‘Dick Tracy’. He drew the comic strip from 1931 to 1977. Died 11 May 1985.

20 November 1910 – death of Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer, (‘Anna Karenina‘, ‘War and Peace‘). Born 9 September 1828.

20 November 1947 – Princess Elizabeth, who is crowned Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, marries Phillip Mountbatten in Westminster Abbey.

20 November 1985 – Microsoft launches Windows 1.01, a graphical user interface for personal computers. The program required MS-DOS to operate.

18 November 2015

chagrin

[shuh-grin]

noun

1. a feeling of vexation, marked by disappointment or humiliation.
verb (used with object), chagrined or chagrinned, chagrining or chagrinning.
2. to vex by disappointment or humiliation:
The rejection of his proposal chagrined him deeply.
3. Obsolete. shagreen (def 1).

Origin of chagrin

French

1650-1660; < French < ?

Related forms

unchagrined, adjective

Synonyms

1. See shame.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for chagrin

Contemporary Examples

Ari joins the boys, much to the chagrin of his devoted assistant, Lloyd (Rex Lee) and wife, Mrs. Ari (Perrey Reeves).
The Best ‘Entourage’ Cameos
Marlow Stern
July 23, 2011

For now Dondi spends his days wandering the city and getting high, much to the chagrin of his mother, Karen.
This Week’s Hot Reads: Jan. 7, 2013
Mythili Rao
January 6, 2013

He has burrowed so deeply into his work that he hasn’t even bothered to get a tan—much to New York’s chagrin.
Mad Men’s Dramatic Déjà Vu: ‘Time Zones’ Feels Redundant
Andrew Romano
April 13, 2014

Anagram

arching
car nigh

Today’s quote

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

– Albert Einstein

On this day

18 November 1922 – Benito Mussolini becomes the leader of Italy. Mussolini, was head of the National Fascist Party and one of the founders of fascism. As dictator he named himself ‘Il Duce’ (The Leader). Initially a socialist, Mussolini felt that socialism had failed and he opposed egalitarianism. He was an ardent supporter of Adolf Hitler. Mussolini was forced to stand down in 1943 by his opponents. He went into hiding and in 1945 was captured and executed.

18 November 1928 – Mickey Mouse makes his screen debut, in ‘Steamboat Willy’.

18 November 1978 – Jim Jones, leader of the cult ‘People’s Temple’ located in Jonestown, Guyana, instructs followers to drink a deadly brew of Kool-Aid, cyanide and sedatives. 914 people died in the mass suicide, including Jones. 303 children were among the victims. It is likely that some of the deaths were murder as a result of some people being forced to drink the concoction. Jones claimed that the cult was under surveillance of intelligence organisations who were preparing to raid Jonestown and either kill or capture the members. He claimed that survivors would be forced to convert to fascism.

18 November 2002 – death of James Coburn, actor (‘The Great Escape‘, ‘The Magnificent Seven‘). Born 31 August 1928.

16 November 2015

strepitous or strepitant

[strep-i-tuh s]

adjective

1. boisterous; noisy.

Origin of strepitous

Latin

1675-1685; < Latin strepit (us) noise + -ous

Related forms

unstrepitous, adjective

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for strepitous

Historical Examples

An almost too vivacious rendering of the Venusberg music brought the scheme to a strepitous conclusion.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, October 6, 1920
Various

Anagram

pier stouts
stripes out

Today’s quote

Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.

― David McCullough Jr.

On this day

16 November – International day for tolerance. ‘On this International Day of Tolerance, I call on all people and governments to actively combat fear, hatred and extremism with dialogue, understanding and mutual respect. Let us advance against the forces of division and unite for our shared future‘, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

16 November 1793 – During the French Revolution, 90 Catholic priests who were opposed to the Republic, are executed by drowning at Nantes.

16 November 1938 – Swiss scientist, Dr Albert Hofmann, creates the synthetic drug, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland.

16 November 1945 – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is founded in order ‘to contribute to peace and security in the world by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science, culture and communication in order to further universal respect for justice and the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion’.

16 November 1988 – 35 year old, Benazir Bhutto elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state. She was a member of the democratic-socialist Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

14 November 2015

pillion

[pil-yuh n]

noun

1. a pad or cushion attached behind a saddle, especially as a seat for a woman.
2. a pad, cushion, saddle, or the like, used as a passenger seat on a bicycle, motor scooter, etc.
3. a passenger’s saddle or seat behind the driver’s seat on a motorcycle.

Origin of pillion

Scots Gaelic, Irish, Latin

1495-15051495-1505; < Scots Gaelic pillinn or Irish pillín, diminutive of peall skin, rug blanket, MIr pell < Latin pellis skin

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for pillion

Historical Examples

There I sat sideways on a cloth, like a lady of old time on a pillion.
The Flight of the Shadow
George MacDonald

Amphillis sat on the pillion, and meditated on her information as they journeyed on.
The White Lady of Hazelwood
Emily Sarah Holt

Putting on these disguises, Harry mounted his horse, with Jacob seated behind him on a pillion, while Mike rode by his side.
Friends, though divided
G. A. Henty

Anagram

loin lip
ion pill

Today’s quote

A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.

– Arthur C. Clarke

On this day

14 November 1868 – birth of Steele Rudd, Australian author, (pen-name for Arthur Hoey Davis). Wrote ‘On Our Selection‘, which introduced Australia to ‘Dad and Dave’. Died 11 October 1935.

14 November 1942 – birth of Robert G. Barrett, Australian author of books such as ‘Davo’s Little Something’ and the Les Norton series which included, ‘High Noon in Nimbin’, ‘The Tesla Legacy’, ‘Crime Scene Cessnock’, ‘Rosa-Marie’s Baby’, ‘Guns n Rosé’. Barrett sold over 1,000,000 books in Australia. Died 20 September 2012.

14 November 2012 – Total solar eclipse visible from Cairns, North Queensland, Australia. Other areas saw a partial eclipse. The last total eclipse for Cairns was in 710AD, with the next one not expected for another 225 years.

13 November 2015

Uberous

U´ber`ous

a. 1. Fruitful; copious; abundant; plentiful.

Example:

The uberous presence of private drivers willing to use their own cars as taxis to avoid exorbitant taxi registration fees, was leading to legitimate taxi drivers taking the law into their own hands.

Anagram

euro bus

Today’s quote

Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.

– George Orwell

On this day

13 November 1940 – the prototype of the Jeep was submitted to U.S. Army for approval by car-maker Willys-Overland. Following the U.S. declaration of war 12 months later, production of the Jeep began. By the end of the war in 1945, there had been 600,000 produced.

13 November 1940 – Walt Disney releases his animated movie, Fantasia, which eventually became a cult-classic. At time of release though, the movie was not a commercial success.

13 November 1956 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that laws which segregated buses were illegal.

13 November 1970 – the worst natural disaster of the 20th century occurs when a devastating cyclone strikes Bangladesh, killing over 500,000 people. The cyclone with 160km/h winds, caused tidal waves and storm surges which swept over the densely-populated, low-lying regions of the Ganges Delta and nearby islands.

13 November 1971 – Space voyager Mariner 9, reaches Mars and becomes the first spacecraft to orbit another planet.

13 November 2009 – NASA announces that a significant resource of water has been located on the moon by the Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter.

12 November 2015

barghest or barguest

[bahr-gest]

Noun
1. a legendary doglike goblin believed to portend death or misfortune.

Origin of barghest

Old English

1725-1735; apparently bar(row)2+ ghest, Old English gæst, variant of gāst ghost

Dictionary.com Unabridged

Examples from the Web for barghest Expand

Historical Examples

The barghest has a kinsman in the Rongeur d’Os of Norman folklore.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3
Various

The barghest was essentially a nocturnal spectre, and its appearance was regarded as a portent of death.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

Today’s quote

Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.

– Mitchell Kapor

On this day

12 November 1927 – Josef Stalin takes full control of the Soviet Union after Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party a few weeks earlier.

12 November 1944 – sinking of the German battleship, Tirpitz. The Allies had tried for two years to sink the ship. Finally, 32 British Lancaster bombers attack and sink the ship.

12 November 1990 – Swiss computer scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, publishes a formal proposal for hyper-text transfer, this followed his proposal for Information Management, published in March 1989. On 25 December 1990, he makes the world’s first successful communication between a hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) client and a server; and the world wide web is born. He is director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which oversees the ongoing development of the world-wide web.

10 November 2015

tendentious

[ten-den-shuh s]

adjective

1. having or showing a definite tendency, bias, or purpose:
a tendentious novel.

Also, tendencious, tendential [ten-den-shuh l] (Show IPA).

Origin of tendentious

Medieval Latin
1895-1900; < Medieval Latin tendenti (a) tendency + -ous

Related forms

tendentiously, adverb
tendentiousness, noun

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for tendentious

Contemporary Examples

Again and again, they delivered bloviating, tendentious monologues and then cut Hagel off when he tried to reply.
Hagel Backs Down
Peter Beinart
January 31, 2013

Oh, at this distance almost any answer is likely to be tendentious.
The Stacks: How The Berlin Wall Inspired John le Carré’s First Masterpiece
John le Carré
November 7, 2014

Bereft of serious arguments, anti-Obama types resort to tendentious claims about symbolic slights.
Of Obama and Bagels
Raphael Magarik
July 24, 2012

Historical examples

The fundamental cause of this divergence of indices lies in the fact that Soviet industry has created a series of new branches unknown to tzarist Russia, but a supplementary cause is to be found in the tendentious manipulation of statistics.
Leon Trotsky
The Revolution Betrayed.
1937

Anagram

detention us
duties tonne
denote units
unite stoned

Today’s quote

Fear, prejudice, malice, and the love of approbation bribe a thousand men where gold bribes one.

– Robert Green Ingersoll

On this day

10 November 1919 – birth of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Soviet Union hero, inventor of the world’s most popular assault weapon, the AK-47, or ‘Kalashnikov’. The AK-47 stood for Kalashnikov Assault, 1947, the year it was designed. He was awarded the ‘Hero of Russia’ medal as well as Lenin and Stalin prizes. Kalashnikov invented the AK-47 to protect the national borders of the Soviet Union. The AK-47 has a simple design, which makes it very reliable and easy to replicate. Kalashnikov hadn’t patented the design internationally. As a result, of the estimated 100 million AK-47s in the world today, it is believed that at least half are copies. Although his weapon has been favoured by armies and guerillas across the globe, Kalashnikov claimed he never lost sleep over the numbers of people killed by it. He always maintained that he invented it to protect the ‘Fatherland’s borders’. He did however, rue the use of it by child soldiers. Kalashnikov was a World War II veteran who was wounded in 1941. While recovering in hospital he conceived the design. Died 23 December 2013.

10 November 1969 – Sesame Street debuts on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), featuring muppets by Jim Henson. It is one of the longest running tv shows in history and has been highly successful at increasing the literacy and numeracy skills of children.

10 November 1982 – Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet President, dies in office from a heart attack.

9 November 2015

traceur

/træˈsɜː/

noun

1. a participant in the sport or activity of parkour

Word Origin

C20: French,literally: one who traces

Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Anagram

art cure
true car

Today’s quote

Possession isn’t nine-tenths of the law. It’s nine-tenths of the problem.

– John Lennon

On this day

9-10 November 1938 – Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) – Nazi paramilitary forces (the Brownshirts) and non-Jewish German citizens attack Jews, smash windows of synagogues, shops and houses. At least 91 Jews were killed in the attack and more than 30,000 incarcerated in concentration camps. Over 1,000 synagogues and 7,000 businesses were destroyed or damaged. The Nazis undertook the attack following the assassination of German diplomat Ernst Vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan in Paris, a German-born Polish Jew. However, it is likely that the attack would have happened anyway, as Kristallnacht is seen as the beginning of Hitler’s Final Solution which was to eliminate Jews from Europe. The Final Solution culminated in the Holocaust, in which more than 6 million Jews were executed, along with many other ‘undesirables’, such as Gypsys, homosexuals and dissidents. At its height, the Nazis had over 40,000 concentration camps in which millions of Jews and others were executed, sometimes by firing squad, but often by gas chamber. The Nazis also conducted medical experiments on the prisoners, in an effort to build a genetically modified ‘master race’. The subjects who survived the experiments were usually executed and dissected.

9 November 1967 – First edition of Rolling Stone magazine is published, and features John Lennon.

9 November 1989 – fall of the Berlin Wall.Construction of the wall commenced in 1961 and was completed in 1962, to separate the Communist controlled East Berlin from the capitalist West Berlin. The Communist government claimed that it was to protect East Germany from Fascist forces in West Germany, although it was mainly to prevent the mass defections from the Eastern bloc. Between the end of World War II and the construction of the Wall, more than 3.5 million people defected to the West. The Wall was more than 140km long, with numerous guard towers and check-points. It symbolised the ‘Iron Curtain’, which was used to describe the attempts of Europe’s Eastern bloc, including the Soviet Union, to severely restrict contact with the West.