13 August 2017

nom de guerre

[nom duh gair; French nawn duh ger]

noun, plural noms de guerre [nomz duh gair; French nawn duh ger] (Show IPA)

1. n assumed name, as one under which a person fights, paints, writes, etc.; pseudonym.

Origin of nom de guerre

< French: literally, war name

Examples from the Web for nom de guerre

Contemporary Examples

A former military man, Molina had served under Rios Montt, reportedly under the nom de guerre Major Tito.
Guatemala’s Trial of the Century
Mac Margolis
May 5, 2013

It is headed by another shadowy figure using the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al Golani.
Al Qaeda’s Most Dangerous Stronghold
Bruce Riedel
November 10, 2013

Anagram

mourn degree
rodgered menu
demure goner
ruder genome
Mr dengue roe

Today’s quote

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

– H. G. Wells

On this day

13 August 1784 – British Parliament enacts ‘Pitt’s India Act’, which brought the East India company under the control of the British government.

13 August 1899 – birth of Alfred Hitchcock, English movie director and producer. Died 29 April 1980.

13 August 1926 – birth of Fidel Castro, former Cuban President. Died 25 November 2016.

13 August 1946 – death of Herbert George ‘H.G.’ Wells, British science fiction writer, author of The War of the Worlds, Time Machine, Island of Dr Moreau, The War of the Worlds. Born 21 September 1866.

13 August 1961 – construction of the Berlin Wall commences. Torn down 9 November 1989.

11 August 2017

scut(1)

[skuht]

noun

1. a short tail, especially that of a hare, rabbit, or deer.

Origin of scut(1)

Old Norse

1400-1450; late Middle English: hare < Old Norse skutr stern

scut(2)

[skuht]

noun, Slang.

1. a worthless, contemptible person.

Origin

1870-75; origin uncertain; perhaps continuation of Scots and dial. scout, scoot, Middle English scoute in same sense; perhaps noun use of Scots scout to spurt, squirt out, scoot

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for scut

Historical Examples

Im a free sailor of Queen Bess and fear no scut of a Spaniard as ever twisted a thumb-screw.
In Search of Mademoiselle
George Gibbs

Pinch its scut or bite its ears, and when it exclaims, “Miauw!”
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 102, May 21, 1892
Various

On his head is a little round cap, with a tuft made out of a hare’s or rabbit’s scut.
The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume the first
Count Carlo Gozzi

The white napkin whisked like the scut of a rabbit, and he bounded to my side.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, February 25th, 1920
Various

Anagram

cuts

Today’s quote

Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you.

– Alex Haley

On this day

11 August 3114BC – ok, so there is an argument that the month of August didn’t exist in 3114BC, but humour me … some mathemetician type has calculated the equivalent Mesoamerican date using the Gregorian calendar and determined that it was on this day that the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, (aka the Mayan Calendar) came into being. It was used by a number of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. Oddly enough, the creation of the calendar wasn’t a problem. The problem has arisen with the lack of fore-thought on the end-date. Inconveniently, some inconsiderate Mesoamerican culture (let’s blame the Mayans) decided the calendar would end on 21 December 2012, which has caused a little consternation amongst some of the inhabitants of Earth, who fear the calendar ends on that date because the world ends on that date … considering that the earth has managed to survive beyond 21/12/12, speculation is rife that perhaps the calendar ended on that date because its creator got bored, or was called in for dinner, or went hunting sabre-tooth tigers and never returned …

11 August 480BC – death of Leonidas, King of Sparta, famous for the Battle of Thermopylae in which he led an Army of 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans and managed to hold off Persian Army (estimated to be at least 100,000 strong) led by Xerxes. Leonidas was eventually over-run and killed. He would have been stoked to know a Hollywood movie would be made about him in 1962 and again in 2006. Born c. 540BC.

11 August 1897 – birth of Enid Blyton, British author of numerous series of children’s stories, including ‘Noddy‘, ‘Famous Five‘, and ‘Secret Seven‘. Died 28 November 1968.

11 August 1921 – birth of Alex Haley, U.S. author of ‘Roots‘, ‘Malcolm X‘. Died 10 February 1992.

11 August 1945 – Japan offers surrender, conditional on the retention of their Emperor, Hirohito. The U.S. rejects the offer, demanding that Emperor Hirohito subject himself to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces.

11 August 1946 – birth of Marilyn vos Savant, American columnist and listed by Guinness Book of World Records as having the world’s highest IQ. At the age of 10, she sat the Stanford-Binet Second Revision test, scoring 228 IQ. In the mid-1980s, she sat Hoeflin’s Mega Test, scoring 186 IQ. Doubt has been cast over the extrapolations used in the test, and because of the unreliability of IQ tests, Guinness Book of World Records no longer has the ‘highest recorded IQ’ category.

11 August 1994 – death of Peter Cushing OBE,English actor who mostly appeared in Hammer Horror films, including The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula (in which he played vampire hunter, Van Helsing). Born 26 May 1913.

9 August 2017

fabulist

[fab-yuh-list]

noun

1. a person who invents or relates fables.
2. a liar.

Origin of fabulist

Middle French

1585-1595; Middle French fabuliste, equivalent to; fābul(a) fable + -iste -ist

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for fabulist

Contemporary Examples

The fabulist seems to want only to rant in his new monologue.
Mike Daisey’s Monologue ‘Journalism’: This Is Not an Apology Tour
Winston Ross
May 21, 2013

From there stemmed the idea of a fabulist, a man who lives in this alternate reality.
Rebecca Miller on Broadway’s ‘Death of a Salesman’ Revival
Rebecca Miller
May 31, 2012

It is subtitled a “family fable” because there is a moral attached, and because Mac was a fabulist.
The Best of Brit Lit
Peter Stothard
March 17, 2010

To some I will always be a fabulist, a scoundrel, and a liar.
Mike Daisey Remembers Steve Jobs a Year After His Death
Mike Daisey
October 4, 2012

Historical Examples

The fabulist had not in him sufficient hypocrisy of which to manufacture the commonplace politeness of society.
The Fables of La Fontaine
Jean de la Fontaine

Gay the fabulist is only interesting in a certain sense and to a small extent.
Views and Reviews
William Ernest Henley

The born poet still talks that way, he is naturally a fabulist and cannot help himself.
Homer’s Odyssey
Denton J. Snider

The fabulist is to create a laugh, but yet, under a merry guise, to convey instruction.
Aesop’s Fables
Aesop

In 1664 La Fontaine published his first collection of fables, and it gave him immediately the very highest rank as a fabulist.
Paris: With Pen and Pencil
David W. Bartlett

That is the fabulist ‘s opinion—Harriet Shelley’s is not reported.
In Defense of Harriet Shelley
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

Anagram

flab suit
flu baits

Today’s quote

Tradition is the illusion of permanence.

– Woody Allen

On this day

9 August – World Indigenous Day – to promote and protect the rights of the world’s indigenous populations. It also recognises the achievements and contributions that indigenous people make to improve world issues.

9 August 1936 – Jesse Owens, an African-American athlete, wins his 4th gold medal at the Berlin Olympics – much to Adolf Hitler’s chagrin. Hitler had hoped the games would show-case white Aryan ideals, and was disgusted that a black athlete had achieved more than the white athletes.

9 August 1945 – USA drops an atomic bomb, called ‘Fat Boy’ on Nagasaki, Japan. It is estimated that between 60,000 to 80,000 people died within four months of the bombing, with half that number dying on the day of the bombing.

8 August 2017

ambergris

[am-ber-grees, -gris]

noun

1. an opaque, ash-colored secretion of the sperm whale intestine, usually found floating on the ocean or cast ashore: used in perfumery.

Origin of ambergris

late Middle English Middle French

1375-1425; < Middle French ambre gris gray amber (see amber ); replacing late Middle English imbergres

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for ambergris

Historical Examples

These Portuguese exchanged a lump of ambergris, or what was supposed to be ambergris, for old clothes.
History of the Buccaneers of America
James Burney

The hatches were off her hold and our sealskins and our ambergris gone from below.
Sonnie-Boy’s People
James B. Connolly

A drop or two (not more) of essence of ambergris or vanilla improves it.
Cooley’s Practical Receipts, Volume II
Arnold Cooley

Anagram

barge rims
Ambers rig
miser brag

Today’s quote

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.

– Mother Teresa

On this day

8 August 1864 – Formation of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland.

8 August 1879 – birth of Emiliano Zapata Salazar, Mexican revolutionary. Died 10 April 1919.

8 August 1945 – The Soviet Union declares war on the Empire of Japan and invades the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. In late, July 1945 Japan, naively, had been petitioning the neutral Soviets to broker a peace deal favourable to the Japanese. While the invasion violated the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, it was in accordance with the secret Yalta Agreements that the Soviet Union made with the United States and the United Kingdom at the Crimea Conference held between 4-11 February 1945, in which Stalin agreed to attack Japan within 3 months of Germany’s surrender.

8 August 1953 – conclusion of negotiations for the 1953 London Debt Agreement which had begun on 27 February 1953, when West Germany was given debt relief by creditor nations, which included Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Greece, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Pakistan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, the United States, Yugoslavia and others. The debt of 32 billion marks (16 billion owed to the United States and 16 billion to other nations) had accumulated since the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The London Agreement halved the debt to 15 billion marks to be paid out over 30 years. The repayments were capped at 3% of export earnings and were only required while West Germany had a trade surplus. This significantly boosted West Germany’s export market and directly resulted in Germany becoming an economic powerhouse.

8 August 1959 – death of Albert Namatjira, Australian Aboriginal artist. Born 28 July 1902.

8 August 1974 – USA President Richard Nixon resigns because of his impending impeachment for ‘obstruction of justice’, ‘abuse of power’, and ‘contempt of congress’, in relation to the Watergate Scandal.

8 August 1981 – birth of Roger Federer in Switzerland, champion tennis player.

8 August 1988 – The ‘8888’ Uprising in Burma, from which Aung Sun Suu Kyi gains popularity and becomes a national hero.

7 August 2017

peruke

[puh-rook]

noun

1. a man’s wig of the 17th and 18th centuries, usually powdered and gathered at the back of the neck with a ribbon; periwig.

Origin of peruke

Middle French

1540-1550 First recorded in 1540-50, peruke is from the Middle French word perruque head of hair, wig, of disputed orig.

Related forms

peruked, adjective
perukeless, adjective
unperuked, adjective

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for peruke

Historical Examples

Daniel’s head is covered with a peruke of considerable magnitude.
Notes and Queries, Number 80, May 10, 1851
Various

The peruke, and, as it were, all that the peruke symbolized.
History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Volume IV. (of XXI.)
Thomas Carlyle

He found his peruke a model of perfection; tight, yet easy; not an inch more on one side than on the other.
Imaginary Conversations and Poems
Walter Savage Landor

Anagram

reek up

Today’s quote

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

– Bertrand Russell

On this day

7 August 1876 – birth of Mata Hari, (born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle), Dutch dancer, courtesan and spy. She was charged with espionage and executed by firing squad in France, after being accused of spying for Germany during World War I. Died 15 October 1917.

7 August 1964 – birth of John Birmingham, Australian author.

7 August 1987 – US long distance swimmer, Lynne Cox, swims the freezing Bering Strait from Alaska to the Soviet Union in an effort to warm the relationship between the USA and the USSR. Unlike the reception that Matthius Rust received in May 1987 for illegally entering the Soviet Union, Lynne Cox was welcomed by the Eskimos of the Diomede Islands and Soviet soldiers stationed there. Her effort was praised by the both US President Ronald Reagan and USSR General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.

6 August 2017

wiseacre

[wahyz-ey-ker]

noun

1. a person who possesses or affects to possess great wisdom.
2. wise guy.

Origin of wiseacre

Middle Dutch, Middle High German late Old High German
1585-1595; < Middle Dutch wijssager prophet, translation of Middle High German wīssage, late Old High German wīssago, by popular etymology equivalent to wīs wise + sago sayer, from earlier wīzzago wise person; cognate with Old English wītega, akin to wit2

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for wiseacre

Contemporary Examples

Yes, as some wiseacre will point out in the comments, this is the hometown of the Chiefs.
Dan Snyder’s Indian Chief Is Neither
Michael Tomasky
June 27, 2013

Historical Examples
The learned ignorance of the wiseacre always compels him to laugh at the man with an idea that is new.
The Common Sense of Socialism
John Spargo

A barrel may sound hollow, but not a bird–this wiseacre acquaints us.
De Libris: Prose and Verse
Austin Dobson

Anagram

wiser ace
I we cares

Today’s quote

Ah, kindness. What a simple way to tell another struggling soul that there is love to be found in the world.

– A. A. Malee

On this day

6 August 1661 – Holland sells Brazil to Portugal for 8 million guilders.

6 August 1806 – The Holy Roman Empire comes to an inglorious end at the hands of Napoleon.

6 August 1928 – birth of Andy Warhol. (Born Andrew Warhola). American artist who was a pioneer of pop art. American writer, Gore Vidal, once said, ‘Andy Warhol is the only genius I’ve ever known with an IQ of 60‘. Died 22 February 1987.

6 August 1945 – USA drops an atomic bomb, called ‘Little Boy’ on Hiroshima, Japan. It is estimated that between 70,000 to 140,000 people died within the four months of the bombing, with half that number dying on the day of the bombing.

6 August 1965 – President Lydon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act which removed discriminatory voting practices against African Americans. Essentially it meant African Americans could vote freely, without having to meet qualifications that white Americans didn’t need to meet, such as literacy tests.

5 August 2017

lachrymose

[lak-ruh-mohs]

adjective

1. suggestive of or tending to cause tears; mournful.
2. given to shedding tears readily; tearful.

Origin of lachrymose

Latin

1655-1665; Latin lacrimōsus, equivalent to lacrim(a) tear (see lachrymal ) + -ōsus -ose1

Related forms

lachrymosely, adverb
lachrymosity [lak-ruh-mos-i-tee], noun

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for lachrymose

Historical Examples

The gills are notched, rather distant, pallid, then cinnamon; lachrymose.
The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise
M. E. Hard

Then it had cried out once, and so remained ever lachrymose and in agony.
The Fifth Queen Crowned
Ford Madox Ford

I am as limp, lachrymose, and lamentable, a young woman as you would find between the three seas.
Nancy
Rhoda Broughton

The too lachrymose Madonna in terra-cotta, 256, already ushers in the decadence.
The Story of Paris
Thomas Okey

He is the only one who has attempted the lachrymose, the sentimental novel.
The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century
Leo Wiener

But women must beware of sham emotion and lachrymose sentimentality.
The Truth About Woman
C. Gasquoine Hartley

Nor did any lachrymose letter in the Times predict a speedy downfall of the Empire140 for this apathy of its local guardians.
My Reminiscences
Rabindranath Tagore

For Servius, who is timid and lachrymose, everything has gone astray.
The Life of Cicero
Anthony Trollope

And now Luisa also was vexed, and went to fetch Maria, whom she presently brought back in a lachrymose but mute state.
The Patriot
Antonio Fogazzaro

Besides, the expression of her face was lachrymose in the extreme.
The Girls of Central High in Camp
Gertrude W. Morrison

Anagram

horsy camel
holy creams
cola rhymes

Today’s quote

Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.

– John Lennon

On this day

5 August 910 – Battle of Tettenhall, in which King Edward and Earl Aethelred defeat the last of the Viking armies to raid England.

5 August 1305 – Scottish revolutionary, William Wallace, captured by English forces near Glasgow. He was transported to London for trial and execution.

5 August 1861 – the United States Army abolishes flogging and increases enlistment terms from 3 months to 2 years.

5 August 1884 – construction of the Statue of Liberty commences in New York City with the laying of the cornerstone.

5 August 1930 – birth of Neil Armstrong, astronaut, first man on the moon. Died 25 August 2012.

5 August 1944 – The Cowra Breakout – The largest prisoner-of-war escape in World War 2, when 1104 Japanese prisoners attempted to breakout of the Australian internment camp at Cowra, New South Wales. Four Australian soldiers and 231 Japanese prisoners were killed during the manhunt. The remaining prisoners were captured and returned to prison.

5 August 1957 – the ‘Andy Capp’ comic strip makes its debut.

5 August 1962 – Marilyn Monroe found dead. She was 36 years old. It is believed she deliberately over-dosed on drugs, but questions remain around whether she administered it voluntarily or someone murdered her. Born 1 July 1926.

5 August 1966 – Datebook magazine quotes John Lennon controversially declaring that the Beatles are more popular than Jesus. Lennon had made the comment on 4 March 1966 in England, where no-one paid attention to it. When Datebook published it in August in the United States it caused an uproar. The full quote was ‘Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me‘.

4 August 2017

ramble

[ram-buh l]

verb (used without object), rambled, rambling.

1. to wander around in a leisurely, aimless manner:
They rambled through the shops until closing time.
2. to take a course with many turns or windings, as a stream or path.
3. to grow in a random, unsystematic fashion:
The vine rambled over the walls and tree trunks.
4. to talk or write in a discursive, aimless way (usually followed by on):
The speaker rambled on with anecdote after anecdote.
verb (used with object), rambled, rambling.
5. to walk aimlessly or idly over or through:
They spent the spring afternoon rambling woodland paths.
noun
6. a walk without a definite route, taken merely for pleasure.

Origin of ramble

1610-1620 First recorded in 1610-20; origin uncertain

Synonyms

1. stroll, saunter, amble, stray, straggle. See roam.

Dictionary.com Unabridged

Examples from the Web for ramble

Contemporary Examples

The result is a long narrative that can ramble, as conversations do, but is an essential contribution all the same.
The Unguarded Bill Clinton
Ted Widmer
October 4, 2009

Now, the judges, while passionate as always, seem to have more time than ever to ramble.
The Reality Makeover That Failed
Andy Dehnart
August 9, 2010

So he started alone for a ramble among the Channel Islands, and I went back to Paris.
Read ‘The King in Yellow,’ the ‘True Detective’ Reference That’s the Key to the Show
Robert W. Chambers
February 19, 2014

Historical Examples

A Devonshire botanist told me he had identified nearly three hundred different mosses in a two days’ ramble in that county.
Gairloch In North-West Ross-Shire
John H. Dixon, F.S.A. Scot

They ramble up and down, and Eugene allows himself to sup of delight.
Floyd Grandon’s Honor
Amanda Minnie Douglas

I had now time to ramble round, and examine various things of interest.
Q.6.a and Other places
Francis Buckley

From its top it was five miles to ramble Valley by the main road.
Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1904
Lucy Maud Montgomery

And so anybody can write a decent dialogue if you allow326 him to ramble as we all do in actual talk.
Hours in a Library
Leslie Stephen

There is a point on that road where we could get down and have an hour’s ramble on the hillside.
A Room With A View
E. M. Forster

Something in the stolid way he did so caused Flambeau’s fierce black eyes to ramble over his companion afresh.
The Wisdom of Father Brown
G. K. Chesterton

Anagram

elm bar
Mr Able

Today’s quote

Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.

– Percy Bysshe Shelley

On this day

4 August 1181 – Supernova (not the rock band), SN1181, observed by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was visible for 185 days. A supernova is the explosive death of a star, resulting in a nebula of illuminated gas.

4 August 1792 – birth of Percy Bysshe Shelley, English romantic poet, considered to be one the finest lyric poets of all time. Died 8 July 1822.

4 August 1914 – World War I officially starts as Great Britain declares war on Germany in response to the German invasion of Belgium the day before.

4 August 1914 – United States declares its neutrality in World War I.

4 August 1929 – birth of Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader. Died 11 November 2004.

4 August 1944 – German police and Gestapo officers arrest Jewish diarist, Anne Frank and her family, in Amsterdam. The family was eventually transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. In March 1945 a typhus epidemic spread through the camp, claiming the Anne’s life. The camp was liberated only weeks later, in April 1945, by British troops. Anne Frank kept a diary which later was published and became a best seller.

4 August 1964 – the second Gulf of Tonkin Incident in which it was believed North Vietnamese troops fired on two US destroyers, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy. It is now believed the second incident may have involved false radar images and not the North Vietnamese.

2 August 2017

Nissen hut

[nis-uh n]

noun

1. a prefabricated, tunnel-shaped shelter made of corrugated metal and having a concrete floor; Quonset hut: first used by the British army in World War I.

Origin of Nissen hut

1915-1920; after Lieutenant Colonel Peter N. Nissen (1871-1930), Canadian military engineer who invented it

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for Nissen hut

Historical Examples

Our first discovery was a Nissen hut in a dank field on the eastern outskirts.
Pushed and the Return Push
George Herbert Fosdike Nichols, (AKA Quex)

In fact, the room was very much of the shape and size of a Nissen hut.
The Escaping Club
A. J. Evans

Camblain l’Abb was not a large place, so we were cramped for room, and a Nissen hut had to be built for “C” mess.
The Great War As I Saw It
Frederick George Scott

Anagram

nuns heist
tune shins
ninth uses

Today’s quote

The world wasn’t a more tolerant place when I was a young man. Rather, they simply sidestepped all the issues.

– William S. Burroughs

On this day

2 August 216BC – 2nd Punic War, Battle of Cannae, in which Hannibal defeats the much larger Roman army.

2 August 1776 – the United States Declaration of Independence officially signed by 56 Congressional delegates who were not present on 4 July 1776, when 34 Congressional delegates signed and ratified it.

2 August 1934 – the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 is passed in the United States, levying $1 on commercial dealers of cannabis. It did not outlaw cannabis, but included hefty penalties if the Act was violated, namely five years imprisonment and a $2,000 fine. The Act was repealed in 1970.

2 August 1964 – the first Gulf of Tonkin Incident in which North Vietnamese troops fired on a US destroyer, the USS Maddox (the second incident allegedly occurred on 4 August 1964). The incident gave rise to the US Congress passing the ‘Gulf of Tonkin Resolution’ – officially the ‘Southeast Asia Resolution – which eventually led to the Vietnam War.

2 August 1997 – death of William Seward Burroughs, otherwise known as William S. Burroughs or William Lee, Beat Generation author, painter, spoken word performer. The beat generation rose to prominence in the 1950s and experimented with innovation in art, style, rules and drugs. Burroughs work includes Junkie, Queer, and Naked Lunch. Born on 5 February 1914 .