10 April 2018

carpetbag

[kahr-pit-bag]

noun

1. a bag for traveling, especially one made of carpeting.
verb (used without object), carpetbagged, carpetbagging.
2. to journey with little luggage.
3. to act as a carpetbagger.

Slang definitions & phrases for carpetbag

carpetbag

verb

To try to make a good impression (1930s+ Students)

The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.
Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.

Origin of carpetbag

1820-1830 First recorded in 1820-30; carpet + bag
Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for carpetbag

Historical Examples

When the boy got through, he cast a speculative glance at the carpetbag.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger

The boy shouldered the carpetbag and started in advance, Robert following.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger

I gave him my carpetbag to carry this morning, and he ran away with it.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger

He’s too honest entirely to stale the value of a pin, let alone a carpetbag.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger

For I read on your carpetbag, when we met in the orchard, ‘P. Bug.
The Tale of Mrs. Ladybug
Arthur Scott Bailey

And as he turned to leave her she looked closely at his carpetbag.
The Tale of Mrs. Ladybug
Arthur Scott Bailey

A traveller got out with his carpetbag in his hand, and was shown into the sanded parlour.
My Novel, Complete
Edward Bulwer-Lytton

In short, the post-chaise was ordered and the carpetbag packed.
The Caxtons, Complete
Edward Bulwer-Lytton

With a whoop of joy, he grabbed up his carpetbag and started for the Vermonter.
Frank Merriwell’s Son
Burt L. Standish

I stood with my shawl and carpetbag in hand, gazing doubtingly on the vehicle.
The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales
Bret Harte

Anagram

bract gape
A bag crept
bag act peg

Today’s quote

We should be inspired by people… who show that human beings can be kind, brave, generous, beautiful, strong-even in the most difficult circumstances.

– Rachel Corrie

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. Born 8 August 1879.

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=pDq32EgMxb8

9 April 2018

orthogonal

[awr-thog-uh-nl]

adjective

1. Mathematics.
Also, orthographic. pertaining to or involving right angles or perpendiculars:
an orthogonal projection.

(of a system of real functions) defined so that the integral of the product of any two different functions is zero.
(of a system of complex functions) defined so that the integral of the product of a function times the complex conjugate of any other function equals zero.

(of two vectors) having an inner product equal to zero.

(of a linear transformation) defined so that the length of a vector under the transformation equals the length of the original vector.

(of a square matrix) defined so that its product with its transpose results in the identity matrix.

2. Crystallography. referable to a rectangular set of axes.

Origin of orthogonal

Late Latin, Greek
1565-1575; obsolete orthogon(ium) right triangle (< Late Latin orthogōnium < Greek orthogṓnion (neuter) right-angled, equivalent to ortho- ortho- + -gōnion -gon ) + -al1

Related forms

orthogonality, noun
orthogonally, adverb

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for orthogonal

Contemporary Examples

Actually, the issue of plural vs. singular is orthogonal to the dilemma she wants to pose.
Responding To Critics Of “On Questioning The Jewish State”
Joseph Levine
March 18, 2013

And that brings up another question about those bacterial targets, the ones that are so orthogonal to human cellular pathways.
Worried About Incurable Tuberculosis? Stand By for Incurable Everything.
Megan McArdle
March 12, 2013

Historical Examples

Velocities in linkages were determined by orthogonal components transferred from link to link.
Kinematics of Mechanisms from the Time of Watt
Eugene S. Ferguson

Anagram

a logo thorn
galoot horn

Today’s quote

If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.

– 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.

9 April 1948 – around 120 fighters from the Zionist paramilitary groups Irgun and Lehi attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, a Palestinian Arab village of roughly 600 people. The assault occurred as Jewish militia sought to retaliate against the blockade of Jerusalem by Palestinian Arab forces during the civil war that preceded the end of British rule in Palestine. The Palestinians tried to resist the attack, but the village fell after fierce house-to-house fighting. 107 Palestinians were murdered during and after the battle for the village, including women and children—some were shot, while others died when hand grenades were thrown into their homes. Several villagers were taken prisoner and may have been killed after being paraded through the streets of West Jerusalem. Four of the attackers were killed, with around 35 injured. The killings were condemned by the leadership of the Haganah—the Jewish community’s main paramilitary force—and by the area’s two chief rabbis. The Jewish Agency for Israel sent Jordan’s King Abdullah a letter of apology, which he rebuffed. Abdullah held the Jewish Agency responsible for the massacre, because they were the head of Jewish affairs in Palestine. He warned about “terrible consequences” if more incidents like that occurred. The deaths became a pivotal event in the Arab–Israeli conflict for their demographic and military consequences. The narrative was embellished and used by various parties to attack each other—by Palestinians against Israeli forces; by the Haganah to hide their complicity in the affair; and by the Israeli left to accuse the Irgun and Lehi of violating the Jewish principle of purity of arms, thus exposing Israel’s behaviour to the world. News of the killings sparked terror among Palestinians, encouraging them to flee from their towns and villages in the face of Jewish troop advances, and it strengthened the resolve of Arab governments to intervene, which they did five weeks later. (Wikipedia.org)

8 April 2018

exigency

[ek-si-juh n-see, ig-zij-uh n-]

noun, plural exigencies.

1. exigent state or character; urgency.
2. Usually, exigencies. the need, demand, or requirement intrinsic to a circumstance, condition, etc.:
the exigencies of city life.
3. a case or situation that demands prompt action or remedy; emergency:
He promised help in any exigency.

Also, exigence.

Origin of exigency

Medieval Latin

1575-1585 From the Medieval Latin word exigentia, dating back to 1575-85. See exigent, -ency
Synonyms

3. crisis, contingency, plight, strait; predicament, fix, pinch.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for exigency

Historical Examples

He could quiet the horses, but not a woman, in so vague an exigency.
Tiverton Tales
Alice Brown

His speaking was unequal, and always rose with the subject and the exigency.
Patrick Henry
Moses Coit Tyler

In this exigency the pirate desisted from his plan against the lady.
Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer
Cyrus Townsend Brady

Today’s quote

If we were to lose the ability to be emotional, if we were to lose the ability to be angry, to be outraged, we would be robots. And I refuse that.

– Arundhati Roy

On this day

8 April 1947 – birth of Larry Norman, pioneering Christian rock musician. Died 24 February 2008.

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.

4 April 2018

assize

[uh-sahyz]

noun

1. Usually, assizes. a trial session, civil or criminal, held periodically in specific locations in England, usually by a judge of a superior court.
2. an edict, ordinance, or enactment made at a session of a legislative assembly.
3. an inquest before members of a jury or assessors; a judicial inquiry.
4. an action, writ, or verdict of an assize.
5. judgment:
the last assize; the great assize.
6. a statute for the regulation and control of weights and measures or prices of general commodities in the market.

Origin of assize

Middle English

1250-1300; Middle English asise < Old French: a sitting, noun use of feminine of asis seated at (past participle of aseeir), equivalent to a- a-5+ -sis < Latin sēssum (sed- stem of sedēre to sit1+ -tus past participle suffix)

Dictionary.com

Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018.

Examples from the Web for assize

Historical Examples

The old saying, ‘Truth will out,’ does not apply in an assize court.
The New Tenant
E. Phillips Oppenheim

The trial came on at the Court of assize about six weeks ago.
Fantmas
Pierre Souvestre

The judges on assize were ordered to press the king’s demand.
History of the English People, Volume V (of 8)
John Richard Green

Today’s quote

There are hundreds of paths up the mountain, all leading to the same place, so it doesn’t matter which path you take. The only person wasting time is the one who runs around the mountain, telling everyone that his or her path is wrong.

– Hindu proverb

On this day

4 April 1928 – birth of Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Ann Johnson), American author, poet and civil rights activist. Maya wrote seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poems. She had numerous occupations, including fry cook, dancer, actor, director and journalist. Her civil rights activism saw her work with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Died 28 May 2014.

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

2 April 2018

verger

[vur-jer]

noun

1. Chiefly British. a church official who serves as sacristan, caretaker, usher, and general attendant.
2. British. an official who carries the verge or other symbol of office before a bishop, dean, or other dignitary.

Origin of verger

late Middle English

1425-1475 late Middle English word dating back to 1425-75; See origin at verge1, -er1

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for verger

Historical Examples

The verger scratched his head, and looked doubtfully at Henry Dunbar.
Henry Dunbar
M. E. Braddon

We light our candles and follow the verger down the stone steps.
The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 25, January 1893
Various

The verger was in the choir, putting the books in order, and making all ready for the service.
Poppy’s Presents
Mrs O. F. Walton

“Yes, sir; his Lordship is here every Sunday when he is at the palace,” said the verger.
Is He Popenjoy?
Anthony Trollope

“But not here,” he added, hearing the clank of the verger ‘s keys.
The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, Part 1 (of 10)
Edith Wharton

But as she did so she paused and said something to the verger, who was in the aisle.
A Modern Tomboy
L. T. Meade

It was the verger, who came to inform me that it was time to close the library.
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
Washington Irving

Well, our friends of the “enclosed gardens” still take him for a verger.
Visions and Revisions
John Cowper Powys

He even swore he had been taken for a verger or a Church warden.
Visions and Revisions
John Cowper Powys

He handed the man a piece of silver and the verger disappeared.
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 13
Elbert Hubbard

Today’s quote

Do not scorn a weak cub; he may become a brutal tiger.

– Mongolian proverb.

On this day

2 April 1926 – birth of Sir John Arthur ‘Jack’ Brabham AO OBE, Australian racing legend, 3 times Formula One world champion (1959, 1960, 1966). Died 19 May 2014.

2 April 1972 – Charlie Chaplin returns to the U.S. after 20 years of self-imposed exiled for ‘un-American’ activities. He had been accused during the McCarthy era of being a communist sympathiser.

2 April 1982 – Argentina invades the Falkland Islands, a British-controlled territory. The conflict escalates with Britain sending troops to expel Argentina. The conflict ends on 14 June 1982 when Britain regains control of the Islands.

2 April 2007 – Argentina restates its claim that the Falkland Islands belong to Argentina. Britain continues to oppose the claim.