28 November 2016

Chapman stick

[chap muhn stik]

noun

1. an electronically amplified musical instrument with ten or twelve strings and a fretted neck, which is played by striking the strings against the frets with the fingers Often shortened to Stick

Word Origin

– named after its inventor, Emmett H. Chapman (born 1936), US guitarist
Collins English Dictionary –

Example

The busker was playing a Chapman stick.

Anagram

pitchman cask
catch an skimp
camp tin shack

Today’s quote

Fate is the endless chain of causation, whereby things are; the reason or formula by which the world goes on.

– Citium Zeno

On this day

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

28 November 1990 – UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher formally tenders her resignation following disendorsement by her Cabinet on 22 November 1990.

28 November 1994 – U.S. serial killer and cannibal, Jeffrey Dahmer, bashed to death while cleaning a prison toilet. Dahmer was serving 15 life sentences for the murder of 15 men and boys. He had initially faced 17 murder charges, but this had been reduced.

27 November 2016

Baader-Meinhof

[bahr-duh mahyn-hof]

noun

– otherwise known as frequency illusion, recency illusion or Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, occurs when one hears, sees or becomes aware of something for the first time and then sees that thing everywhere. It occurs because the brain gets stimulated by learning something new and sub-consciously seeks that thing out. As the thing is now noticed more than before, confirmation bias kicks in and one becomes convinced that they are seeing the thing more than before, even if it is only once or twice that they’ve noticed it.

Origin

Named after the West German terrorist group, the Baader-Meinhof gang, active in the 1970s. The St. Paul Minnesota Pioneer Press online commenting board was the unlikely source of the name. In 1994, a commenter dubbed the frequency illusion “the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon” after randomly hearing two references to Baader-Meinhof within 24 hours.

Source: http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/baader-meinhof-phenomenon.htm

Example

I decided my new car would be a Nissan Micra and bada bing, bada boom, I experience Baader-Meinhof and see Micras everywhere.

Anagram

a bonehead firm
fine hem aboard
deem of Bahrain
hide barman foe

Today’s quote

I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for religion – I have shuddered at it. I shudder no more – I could be martyred for my religion – Love is my religion – I could die for that.

– John Keats

On this day

27 November 1940 – birth of Bruce Lee. (born as Lee Jun-fan), martial artist and actor. Died 20 July 1973.

27 November 1942 – birthday of Jimi Hendrix. American guitarist and singer-songwriter. Died 18 September 1970.

27 November 1975 – Ross McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of World Records, is shot dead outside his house in North London. Police suspect the Irish Republican Army (IRA) of the murder, as McWhirter had posted a £50,000 reward for information that lead to the arrest of IRA bombers.

27 November 1999 – Helen Clark is elected as New Zealand’s first female Prime Minister. She represented the centre-left of the Labour Party.

25 November 2016

affinal

[a-fahyn-l, uh-fahyn-l, af-ahyn-l]

adjective

1. related by or concerning marriage.

Origin of affinal

Latin

1600-1610; < Latin affin (is) a relative + -al1. See affinity

Dictionary.com

Example

They also took affinal prohibitions very seriously
Cousin Marriage
Wikipedia

Anagram

Fa final
fan fail

Today’s quote

Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.

– Michel de Montaigne

On this day

25 November 1963 – funeral of assassinated President John F. Kennedy in Washington DC. Over 800,000 people lined the streets. He was interred at Arlington Cemetery.

25 November 1947 – The ‘Hollywood Ten’ are blacklisted for their allegiance with, or sympathy for the American Communist Party. They were cited for Contempt of Congress when they refused to testify to the House Committee on Unamerican Activities. The Hollywood Ten were unable to work in the movie industry again. The ten were Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott and Dalton Trumbo.

23 November 2016

agnate

[ag-neyt]

noun

1. a relative whose connection is traceable exclusively through males.
2. any male relation on the father’s side.
adjective
3. related or akin through males or on the father’s side.
4. allied or akin.

Origin of agnate

Latin

1525-1535; < Latin agnātus paternal kinsman, variant of ad (g) nātus born to (past participle of adgnāscī), equivalent to ad- ad- + -gnā be born + -tus past participle suffix

Related forms

agnatic [ag-nat-ik], agnatical, adjective
agnatically, adverb
agnation [ag-ney-shuh n] (Show IPA), noun

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for agnate

Historical Examples

If there were no children, then the inheritance passed to the agnatic kindred, and in default of the latter, to the gentiles.
Ancient Society
Lewis Henry Morgan

agnatic inheritance would be apt to assert itself in this condition of things.
Ancient Society
Lewis Henry Morgan

Whether the wife forfeited her agnatic rights by her marriage, as among the Romans, I am unable to state.
Ancient Society
Lewis Henry Morgan

The importance they attached to the agnatic family is largely explained by their ideas of the future life.
The Private Life of the Romans
Harold Whetstone Johnston

This practical limitation of the inheritance to the nearest gentile kin discloses the germ of agnatic inheritance.
Ancient Society
Lewis Henry Morgan

As they understood it, the pater familis had absolute power over his children and other agnatic descendants.
The Private Life of the Romans
Harold Whetstone Johnston

The gens is to be found in Greek and Roman history, where it is known as the agnatic kindred.
The Iowa
William Harvey Miner

Here again it will be convenient to employ the Roman terms, agnatic and Cognatic relationship.
Ancient Law
Sir Henry James Sumner Maine

The former case offends against the principle of agnatic organisation, the latter against the cognatic.
The Heroic Age
H. Munro Chadwick

It shows that property was hereditary in the gens, but restricted to the agnatic kindred in the female line.
Ancient Society
Lewis Henry Morgan

Anagram

age ant
tea nag

Today’s quote

A man’s true wealth is the good he does in the world.

– Kahlil Gibran

On this day

23 November 534BC – Thespis of Icaria becomes the first recorded actor to portray a character on stage.

23 November 1859 – birth of William H. Bonney aka Billy ‘The Kid’. American outlaw. Legend has it that he killed 21 men, although historians believe it may have been between 4 and 9 men. He was shot dead by Sheriff Pat Garrett around 14 July 1881. Some conspiracy theorists believe that Bonney did not get shot that day, but that Garrett staged the shooting so that Billy ‘The Kid’ could escape.

23 November 1889 – the first jukebox commences operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.

23 November 1963 – Dr Who premiers on BBC TV, starring William Hartnell. It has become the longest running science fiction series in the world.

23 November 1981 – US President Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Directive 17 (NSDD-17), authorising the Central Intelligence Agency to recruit, train and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua, in order to wage guerilla warfare against the ruling leftist Sandanista regime. In 1982, the Boland Amendment was passed by Congress which banned US support of the Contras. The Reagan administration illegally continued funding the rebels. Part of the funding was obtained by illegally selling arms to Iran, which was the subject of an international arms boycott. The Reagan administration sold the arms in an effort to free seven US hostages being held by a group linked with Iran. The scandal became known as the Iran-Contra affair and was the subject of a Presidential Commission (the Tower Commission) as well as investigations by a number of Congressional Committees. As a result, a number of high ranking members of Reagan’s administration were indicted, including Caspar Weinberger (Secretary of Defence) – later pardoned by President H.W. Bush in 1991 before standing trial, William Casey (Head of the CIA), Robert C. MacFarlane (Assistant Secretary of State), Oliver North (National Security Council), Admiral John Poindexter, and numerous others. While Reagan knew of the operations, it was not definitively shown that he issued the orders.

22 November 2016

churlish

[chur-lish]

adjective

1. like a churl; boorish; rude:
churlish behavior.
2. of a churl; peasantlike.
3. niggardly; mean.
4. difficult to work or deal with, as soil.

Origin of churlish

Middle English, Old English

1000, before 1000; Middle English cherlish, Old English ceorlisc. See churl, -ish1

Related forms

churlishly, adverb
churlishness, noun
unchurlish, adjective
unchurlishly, adverb
unchurlishness, noun

Synonyms Expan

1. coarse, uncouth, vulgar, loutish; ill-natured, uncivil.

Antonyms

1. courteous.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for churlish

Contemporary Examples

Petraeus, the long-suffering hero of the Surge, now transcends all but the most churlish criticisms.
Confirmation: The Easy Part
Ken Allard
June 28, 2010

His churlish attack created a media storm that the Republican Party got dragged into and which has hurt the image of the party.
The Real Problem with Sandra Fluke (Hint: It has Nothing to Do with her Sex Life)
Noah Kristula-Green
March 5, 2012

This is the thin-skinned Gucci model Franco who hurls tweeted insults with the churlish gusto of Kanye West.
The James Franco Backlash
Chris Lee
March 22, 2011

Historical Examples

His is no churlish spirit to turn away from the good things kind Heaven has provided for man.
Count Ulrich of Lindburg
W.H.G. Kingston

It would have been churlish and inexpedient after this to insist on further conversation.
“Unto Caesar”
Baroness Emmuska Orczy

A finer weapon wherewith to strike at a churlish world was never given into the hands of man.
Lord Ormont and his Aminta, Complete
George Meredith

He became the laughing-stock of the pueblo, and grew brutal and churlish accordingly.
An Eagle Flight
Jos Rizal

You thought me churlish, Kate, in my answer to your proposal to spend last winter with me?
Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Issue 10, August, 1858
Various

A churlish remark of one who thinks his company is not wanted.
The Proverbs of Scotland
Alexander Hislop

The bard was a freeman born, a skilled weaver of courteous phrases, not a churlish taeog.
A Short History of Wales
Owen M. Edwards

Anagram

rich lush

Today’s quote

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

– Aldous Huxley

On this day

22 November 1819 – birth of Mary Ann Evans. One of England’s greatest novelists, she published under the name ‘George Eliot’ in order to be taken seriously. Some of her novels include ‘Adam Bede’, ‘Mill on the Floss’, ‘Silas Marner’, and ‘Daniel Deronda’. Her novel, ‘Middlemarch’, was described as the greatest novel in the English language. Died 22 December 1880.

22 November 1906 – the use of the morse code signal ‘SOS’ is implemented as a global distress call. The SOS signal is three dots, three dashes and three dots

(· · · — — — · · ·)

22 November 1963 – assassination of John F. Kennedy. 35th president of the United States. Born 29 May 1917.

22 November 1963 – death of Aldous Huxley, English writer. Most famous for his vision of the future, ‘Brave New World’, as well as his work ‘The Doors of Perception’, based on his use of psychedelic drugs. Jim Morrison named his 60’s psychedelic rock band, ‘The Doors’ after Huxley’s book. Born 26 July 1894.

22 November 1963 – death of C.S. Lewis, Irish novelist, author of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ and ‘The Screwtape Letters’. Born 29 November 1898.

22 November 1990 – UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher forced to resign by her own Cabinet who refused to endorse her as leader. She had come to power in 1979 and had become known as the ‘Iron Lady’. She is the longest-serving UK Prime Minister and the only female to hold the post. She fought numerous battles with unions over her economic and deregulation reforms. She introduced a ‘Community Charge’ or ‘Poll Tax’, which replaced rates with a flat-tax rate on every adult. It was extremely unpopular even within her own Cabinet and was a crucial catalyst for her disendorsement and subsequent resignation.

22 November 1993 – death of Anthony Burgess, English writer. Most famous for his dystopian novel, ‘The Clockwork Orange’, which Stanley Kubrick made into a controversial movie. Born 25 February 1917.

21 November 2016

exurb

[ek-serb, eg-zerb]

noun

1. a small, usually prosperous, community situated beyond the suburbs of a city.

Origin of exurb

1950-1955, Americanism; ex-1+ (sub)urb

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for exurb

Contemporary Examples

Economically speaking, the Commonwealth of Virginia is rapidly becoming an exurb of the District of Columbia.
How the Sequester Will Harm Republican States
Daniel Gross
February 25, 2013

Word Origin and History for exurb Expand

n. “the outer, prosperous ring of the suburbs,” 1955, American English, from exurban (adj.), by 1838 (it seems to have arisen in the writings of the reform movement focused on getting cemeteries out of cities), from ex- + urban, on model of suburb. Related: Exurbanite ; exurbia.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Anagram

rub ex

Today’s quote

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

– Voltaire

On this day

21 November 164BC – Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.

21 November 1694 – birth of François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire. French enlightment writer, historian and philosopher. A man of wit who advocated freedom of religion, freedom of expression and separation of church and state. Voltaire wrote more than 20,000 letters, 2,000 books and pamphlets. He criticised intolerance, religious dogma and social institutions. Died 30 May 1778.

21 November 1936 – birth of Victor Chang, a Chinese-Australian cardiac surgeon who pioneered heart transplants. Chang was shot dead on 4 July 1991, in a failed extortion attempt.

21 November 1965 – birth of Bjork (Björk Guðmundsdóttir), Icelandic singer-songwriter, producer and actress.

21 November 1986 – Oliver North, National Security Council staffer, begins shredding documents associated with the Iran-Contra debacle that could have implicated themselves and others within the Reagan administration in the illegal sale of arms to Iran in order to fund the rebel Nicaraguan Contras.

20 November 2016

ignis fatuus

(or ignus fatuus)

noun

1. a pale light sometimes seen at night over marshy ground

2. an illusion that misleads

Synonyms

apparition, chimera, false impression, misconception, fantasy, delusion, paramnesia, will-o’-the-wisp, mirage

Example

They trekked through the desert, following the distant shimmering water, not realising it was a mirage, an ignus fatuus that could prove deadly to their dehydrated bodies.

Anagram

a fusing suit
I gift USA sun

Today’s aphorism

Don’t say ‘maybe’ if you want to say ‘no’.

– Paulo Coelho

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.

19 November 2016

paramnesia

[par-am-nee-zhuh]

noun

1. Psychiatry. a distortion of memory in which fact and fantasy are confused.
2. the inability to recall the correct meaning of a word.

Origin of paramnesia

1885-1890; < New Latin; see par-, amnesia

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for paramnesia

Historical Examples

Wigand and Maudsley think they see in paramnesia a simultaneous functioning of both relations.
Criminal Psychology
Hans Gross

Indeed, Krpelin asserts that paramnesia occurs only under normal circumstances.
Criminal Psychology
Hans Gross

It will perhaps be proper not to reduce all the phenomena of paramnesia to the same conditions.
Criminal Psychology
Hans Gross

Anagram

spare mania
Panama sire
Armenia asp
Asia arm pen
Iran mesa pa

Today’s quote

Here are the values that I stand for: honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values.

– Ellen DeGeneres

On this day

19 November 1863 – President Lincoln delivers the ‘Gettysburg Address’ during the American Civil War, while dedicating the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The speech commenced with the now-famous words, ‘Four score and seven years ago …’, which was referring to the Declaration of Independence in 1777. The speech addressed equality, freedom and democracy being representative of all people.

19 November 2007 – share markets across the globe crashed, as the world entered the Global Financial Crisis.

18 November 2016

supposititious

[suh-poz-i-tish-uh s]

adjective

1. fraudulently substituted or pretended; spurious; not genuine.
2. hypothetical.

Origin of supposititious

Latin

1605-1615; < Latin suppositīcius, equivalent to supposit (us) (past participle of suppōnere; see supposition ) + -īcius -itious

Related forms

supposititiously, adverb
supposititiousness, noun

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for supposititious

Historical Examples

The reputed date of 1600, which the supposititious justice of the peace had given it in the Theatrical Review, was now suppressed.
Shakespeare and the Modern Stage
Sir Sidney Lee

Chambers’s Encyclopedia rejects the work also as supposititious.
Catholic World, Vol. XIII, April to September, 1871
Various

He examined Mademoiselle Chichette and the supposititious outraged husband, who acted as if he wished to crawl under the table.
The Bashful Lover (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XIX)
Charles Paul de Kock

Anagram

posit pious suit

Today’s quote

I have come to regard November as the older, harder man’s October. I appreciate the early darkness and cooler temperatures. It puts my mind in a different place than October. It is a month for a quieter, slightly more subdued celebration of summer’s death as winter tightens its grip.

– Henry Rollins

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.

17 November 2016

extrude

[ik-strood]

verb (used with object), extruded, extruding.

1. to thrust out; force or press out; expel:
to extrude molten rock.
2. to form (metal, plastic, etc.) with a desired cross section by forcing it through a die.
verb (used without object), extruded, extruding.
3. to protrude.
4. to be extruded:

This metal extrudes easily.

Origin of extrude

Latin
1560-1570; < Latin extrūdere to thrust out, drive out, equivalent to ex- ex-1+ trūdere to thrust, push

Related forms

extruder, noun
extrusible [ik-stroo-suh-buh l, -zuh-], extrudable, adjective
unextruded, adjective

Historical Examples

But he was not so absorbed in his self and his purpose as to extrude all thoughts of those who were dear to him.
Cleo The Magnificent
Louis Zangwill

He notes the familiar fact that the vine-stump absorbed water before it began to extrude it.
Makers of British Botany; a collection of biographies by living botanists
Various

Ye have power, it is true, to extrude me from this new world, but my presence will be a bane to you in the old.
The Knight of the Golden Melice
John Turvill Adams

Anagram

deer tux

Today’s quote

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

– Marcus Aurelius

On this day

17 November 1950 – 15 year-old, Tenzin Gyatso becomes the 14th Dalai Lama in Tibet, a position he holds to this day.

17 November 1973 – U.S. President Richard Nixon televises a speech in which he states, ‘I am not a crook’. This was in relation to allegations of his involvement in the Watergate Scandal, in which documents were stolen from the offices of the Democratic National Convention at the Watergate Hotel in Washington on 17 June 1972. Nixon was implicated in the break-in when recordings of conversations held in the Oval Office showed his involvement. Impeachment proceedings were commenced, however, Nixon resigned on 8 August 1974 and avoided being impeached, although he faced possible criminal proceedings. Vice-President Gerald Ford became President immediately following Nixon’s resignations, and on 8 September 1974, Ford pardoned Nixon of any wrong-doing.