January 2015 WOTDs

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31 January 2015

infelicitous

[in-fuh-lis-i-tuh s]

adjective
1. inapt, inappropriate, or awkward; malapropos:
an infelicitous remark.
2. not felicitous, happy, or fortunate; unhappy.

Origin
1825-1835; in-3+ felicitous

Related forms

infelicitously, adverb
Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for infelicitous

– The question for this debate is at best infelicitous and at worse misleading.
– On such infelicitous systems, sockets and pipes are already opened in binary mode, and there is currently no way to turn that off.

Anagram

elicit fusion
oils unfit ice
cuisine of lit
incite if soul

30 January 2015

perquisite

[pur-kwuh-zit]

noun
1. an incidental payment, benefit, privilege, or advantage over and above regular income, salary, or wages:
Among the president’s perquisites were free use of a company car and paid membership in a country club.
2. a gratuity or tip.
3. something demanded or due as a particular privilege:
homage that was once the perquisite of royalty.

Origin
late Middle English Medieval Latin, Latin
1400-1450; late Middle English < Medieval Latin perquīsītum something acquired, noun use of neuter of Latin perquīsītus (past participle of perquīrere to search everywhere for, inquire diligently). See per-, inquisitive

Can be confused
perquisite, prerequisite.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for perquisite
– Going to a designer’s showroom to shop wholesale is a perquisite of public life.
– But the club has one perquisite enjoyed by few others in the state.
– It has become less of a perquisite or a way to build client relationships and more of a job.

Anagram

tip esquire
quiet spire

29 January 2015

lambast

[lam-beyst, -bast]

verb (used with object), lambasted, lambasting. Informal.
1. to beat or whip severely.
2. to reprimand or berate harshly; censure; excoriate.

Also, lambast.

Origin
1630-1640; apparently lam1+ baste3

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for lambaste
– Health experts regularly lambast them for peddling food that makes people fat.
– He owns television stations and newspapers that trumpet his causes and lambast his rivals.

Anagram

lab mats
lamb sat
bat slam

28 January 2015

serried

[ser-eed]

adjective

1. pressed together or compacted, as soldiers in rows:
serried troops.

Origin
1660-1670; serry + -ed2

Related forms
serriedly, adverb
serriedness, noun
unserried, adjective

serry

[ser-ee]

verb (used without object), verb (used with object), serried, serrying. Archaic.
1. to crowd closely together.

Origin
1575-85; < Middle French serré, past participle of serrer to press tightly together; see sear2

Dictionary.com

Anagram

sir deer
red rise

27 January 2015

asunder

[uh-suhn-der]

adverb, adjective
1. into separate parts; in or into pieces:
Lightning split the old oak tree asunder.
2. apart or widely separated:
as wide asunder as the polar regions.

Origin
Middle English, Old English
1000, before 1000; Middle English; Old English on sundrum apart. See a-1, sundry

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for asunder
– Torn asunder and weakened by civil war and political intrigue, the country was easy prey for outside invaders.
– Fifty years ago, the largest bomb ever used in warfare tore Hiroshima asunder.
– The tides of conflict swept the principals asunder.

Anagram

a nursed
sun dare
us a nerd

26 January 2015

zeal

[zeel]

noun
1. fervor for a person, cause, or object; eager desire or endeavor; enthusiastic diligence; ardor.

Origin
Middle English, Late LatinGreek
1350-1400; Middle English zele < Late Latin zēlus < Greek zêlos

Related forms
zealless, adjective
underzeal, noun

Synonyms
intensity, passion.

Antonyms
apathy.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for zeal
– Lake took to the challenge of exposing fakes with the same zeal he’s shown in hoarding miniature liquor bottles.
– With the zeal of one who reviles an age-old wrong, he raised painting above poetry.
– In his political zeal he was not always scrupulous as to historical accuracy.

Anagram

laze

25 January 2015

laconic

[luh-kon-ik]

adjective
1. using few words; expressing much in few words; concise:
a laconic reply.

Origin
Latin, Greek
1580-1590; < Latin Lacōnicus < Greek Lakōnikós Laconian, equivalent to Lákōn a Laconian + -ikos -ic

Related forms
laconically, adverb
unlaconic, adjective

Synonyms
brief, pithy, terse; succinct.

Antonyms
voluble.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for laconic
– The crew members themselves are laconic about the planned mission.
– When it is so spot on that there can be no reasoned argument against it, the result is inchoate unreasoned laconic anger.
– Her language carves- and the instrument used is tonally blunt, laconic, as incisive as suits the purpose.

Anagram

conical
can coil
nil coca

24 January 2015

quirk

[kwurk]

noun
1. a peculiarity of action, behavior, or personality; mannerism:
He is full of strange quirks.
2. a shift, subterfuge, or evasion; quibble.
3. a sudden twist or turn:
He lost his money by a quirk of fate.
4. a flourish or showy stroke, as in writing.
5. Architecture.
an acute angle or channel, as one dividing two parts of a molding or one dividing a flush bead from the adjoining surfaces.
an area taken from a larger area, as a room or a plot of ground.
an enclosure for this area.
6. Obsolete. a clever or witty remark; quip.

adjective
7. formed with a quirk or channel, as a molding.

Origin
1540-1550; origin uncertain

Can be confused
quark, quirk.

Synonyms
1. See eccentricity.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for quirk
– Still, the quirk is more the rule than the exception for tennis players under pressure.
– If these urges were confined purely to the founding generation, this would be a historical quirk.
– The early arrival-albeit only by a minute-is due to a complex quirk of the leap-year calendar.

23 January 2015

sylph

[silf]

noun
1. a slender, graceful woman or girl.
2. (in folklore) one of a race of supernatural beings supposed to inhabit the air.

Origin
Latin, Greek
1650-1660; < New Latin sylphēs (plural), coined by Paracelsus; apparently blend of sylva (variant spelling of Latin silva forest) and Greek nýmphē nymph

Related forms

sylphic, adjective
sylphlike, adjective

Synonyms
2. Sylph, salamander, undine (nymph), gnome were imaginary beings inhabiting the four elements once believed to make up the physical world. All except the gnomes were female. Sylphs dwelt in the air and were light, dainty, and airy beings. Salamanders dwelt in fire: “a salamander that … lives in the midst of flames”(Addison). Undines were water spirits: By marrying a man, an undine could acquire a mortal soul.(They were also called nymphs, though nymphs were ordinarily minor divinities of nature who dwelt in woods, hills, and meadows as well as in waters.) Gnomes were little old men or dwarfs, dwelling in the earth: ugly enough to be king of the gnomes.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for sylph
– We always think of fat people as heavy, but he could have danced against a sylph.
– As a rule, the nimble sylph depends entirely upon its pinions for support.

22 January 2015

chimera

[ki-meer-uh, kahy-]

noun, plural chimeras.
1. (often initial capital letter) a mythological, fire-breathing monster, commonly represented with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail.
2. any similarly grotesque monster having disparate parts, especially as depicted in decorative art.
3. a horrible or unreal creature of the imagination; a vain or idle fancy:
He is far different from the chimera your fears have made of him.
4. Genetics. an organism composed of two or more genetically distinct tissues, as an organism that is partly male and partly female, or an artificially produced individual having tissues of several species.

Also, chimaera.

Origin

Middle English, LatinGreek
1350-1400; Middle English chimera < Latin chimaera < Greek chímaira she-goat; akin to Old Norse gymbr, English gimmer ewe-lamb one year (i.e., one winter) old, Latin hiems winter (see hiemal ), Greek cheimṓn winter

Synonyms

3. dream, fantasy, delusion.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for chimera
– The surgery-which makes the recipient a human-animal chimera -is widely accepted.
– I’m still researching what the reason for my eye colour is but some of the information is quite scary ie chimera and mosaic dna.
– The first sight to greet a visitor to the show is a colossal stone chimera, a hybrid of lion and bird, in the museum lobby.

Anagram

race him
ham rice

21 January 2015

copse

[kops]

noun
1. a thicket of small trees or bushes; a small wood.

Also, coppice.

Origin
1570-1580; alteration of coppice

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for copse
– There is a wide lawn and a copse of acacia, oak and eucalyptus trees.
– Next to the tile-roofed house there stands a copse of trees in which a pack of wolves is sleeping.
– It’s hidden in a copse approached by a dirt road marked only by two discreet gateposts.

Anagram

scope
copes

20 January 2015

phrontistery

[fron-tis-tuh-ree]

noun

– a place for thinking or study.
e.g. Away from the maddening crowd, his beach hut became his phrontistery.

Origin: Greek

Greek phrontistērion, from phrontistēs philosopher, deep thinker, person with intellectual pretensions, from phrontizein to reflect, take thought, from phrontid-, phrontis reflection, thought; akin to Greek phren-, phrēn diaphragm, mind

Source: The Free Dictionary

Anagram

sprint theory
thorny stripe
thirsty prone

18 January 2015

ancillary

[an-suh-ler-ee or, esp. British, an-sil-uh-ree]

adjective
1. subordinate; subsidiary.
2. auxiliary; assisting.
noun, plural ancillaries.
3. something that serves in an ancillary capacity:
Slides, records, and other ancillaries can be used with the basic textbook.

Origin

Latin

1660-1670; < Latin ancill (a) (see ancilla ) + -ary; compare Latin ancillāris having the status of a female slave, with -āris -ar1

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for ancillary
– The boric acid has another ancillary function.
– Bookstores have called this their fastest growing ancillary market.
– That was an ancillary point: Winning again was all that mattered.

Anagram

ill canary
lilac yarn

18 January 2015

bane

[beyn]

noun
1. a person or thing that ruins or spoils:
Gambling was the bane of his existence.
2. a deadly poison (often used in combination, as in the names of poisonous plants):
wolfsbane; henbane.
3. death; destruction; ruin.
4. Obsolete. that which causes death or destroys life:
entrapped and drowned beneath the watery bane.

Origin
Middle English, Old English
1000, before 1000; Middle English; Old English bana slayer; cognate with Old Norse bani death, murderer, Old Frisian bona murder, Old Saxon bano murderer, Old High German bano slayer, bana death; akin to Old English benn, Gothic banja wound

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for bane
– Blisters are the bane of house painters, both pros and amateurs.
– Spam is the bane of computer users everywhere, accounting for more than 90% of e-mail.
– Endless replays can be the bane of any telecast.

Anagram

bean

17 January 2015

muse

[myooz]

verb (used without object), mused, musing.
1. to think or meditate in silence, as on some subject.
2. Archaic. to gaze meditatively or wonderingly.
verb (used with object), mused, musing.
3. to meditate on.
4. to comment thoughtfully or ruminate upon.

Origin
Middle English, Middle French, Medieval Latin
1300-1350; Middle English musen to mutter, gaze meditatively on, be astonished < Middle French muser, perhaps ultimately derivative of Medieval Latin mūsum muzzle

Related forms
muser, noun

Can be confused
mews, muse.

Synonyms
1. cogitate, ruminate, think; dream. 1, 3. ponder, contemplate, deliberate.

Muse

[myooz]

noun
1. Classical Mythology.
any of a number of sister goddesses, originally given as Aoede (song), Melete (meditation), and Mneme (memory), but latterly and more commonly as the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne who presided over various arts: Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric poetry), Euterpe (music), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (religious music), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy), and Urania (astronomy); identified by the Romans with the Camenae.
any goddess presiding over a particular art.
2. (sometimes lowercase) the goddess or the power regarded as inspiring a poet, artist, thinker, or the like.
3. (lowercase) the genius or powers characteristic of a poet.

Origin
1350-1400; Middle English Muse < Middle French < Latin Mūsa < Greek Moûsa

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for muse

– The muse is always halfdressed in new orleans and other essays, st.
– She was his muse, the secret behind his contemplative poetry.

Anagram

emus
me us

16 January 2015

cerulean

[suh-roo-lee-uh

adjective, noun
1. deep blue; sky blue; azure.
2. Heraldry. a sky-blue tincture, used especially on the Continent.

Origin
Latin
1660-1670; < Latin caerule (us) dark blue, azure (akin to caelum sky) + -an

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for cerulean
– Darkening cerulean blue above, a redness along the tree line.
– Her eyes are cerulean, her bone structure is extraordinary and she’s effortlessly stylish.
– Cerulean warblers molt into an adult plumage prior to the breeding season following their hatching year.

Anagram

lace rune

15 January 2015

donnybrook

[don-ee-broo k]

noun, ( often initial capital letter)
1. an inordinately wild fight or contentious dispute; brawl; free-for-all.

Also called Donnybrook Fair.

Origin
1850-1855; after Donnybrook (Fair)

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for donnybrook
– It would seem to me that you’re all coming here and saying, you know, this was a donnybrook down there

Anagram

no bony dork

14 January 2015

brannigan

[bran-i-guh n]

noun
1. a carouse.
2. a squabble; brawl.

Origin

1925-1930; probably from proper name

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for brannigan

– The futurama episode brannigan begin again a montage scene based on midnight cowboy.

Slang definitions & phrases for brannigan
brannigan
noun
A spree : a prolonged crossword puzzle brannigan
A brawl or fracas; donnybrook: Republicans and Democrats alike are guilty of this brannigan (1940+)
[1903+; fr the Irish surname, for unclear reasons]

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

anagram

grab an inn

13 January 2015

terse

[turs]

adjective, terser, tersest.

1. neatly or effectively concise; brief and pithy, as language.
2. abruptly concise; curt; brusque.

Origin

Latin
1595-1605; < Latin tersus, past participle of tergēre to rub off, wipe off, clean, polish

Related forms

tersely, adverb
terseness, noun
unterse, adjective
untersely, adverb
unterseness, noun

Synonyms

1. succinct, compact, neat, concentrated. 1, 2. See concise.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for terse

– My comments on the first manuscript were fairly terse and probably about a page long.
– In the past security officers were usually terse ex-military types who wore holsters and brush cuts.
– The film’s style is so economical it seems almost terse.

Anagram

steer
trees
reset

12 January 2015

bicker (1)

[bik-er]

Synonyms

verb (used without object)
1. to engage in petulant or peevish argument; wrangle:
The two were always bickering.
2. to run rapidly; move quickly; rush; hurry:
a stream bickering down the valley.
3. to flicker; glitter:
The sun bickered through the trees.

noun
4. an angry, petty dispute or quarrel; contention.

Origin
Middle English
1250-1300; Middle English bikeren < ?

Related forms
bickerer, noun
unbickered, adjective
unbickering, adjective

Synonyms

1. disagree, squabble, argue, quarrel, haggle, dispute, spar, spat.

bicker (2)
[bik-er]

noun, Scot.
1. any wooden dish or bowl, especially a wooden porridge bowl.
2. Obsolete. a wooden drinking cup.

Origin
1300-50; Middle English biker beaker

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for bicker
– It allows them to bicker about abstracts without actually doing anything.
– He warns that they’ll bicker and possibly even brawl.
– Nor did they bicker or fall silent at moments of disagreement.

Anagram

be rick

11 January 2015

lassitude

[las-i-tood, -tyood]

Word

noun

1. weariness of body or mind from strain, oppressive climate, etc.; lack of energy; listlessness; languor.
2.a condition of indolent indifference:
the pleasant lassitude of the warm summer afternoon.

Origin

Latin

1525-1535; < Latin lassitūdō weariness, equivalent to lass(us) weary + -i- -i- + -tūdō -tude
Dictionary.com

Anagram

details us
lust ideas
tidal uses

10 January 2015

antsy

[ant-see]

adjective, antsier, antsiest. Informal.
1. unable to sit or stand still; fidgety:
The children were bored and antsy.
2. apprehensive, uneasy, or nervous:
I’m a little antsy since hearing those storm warnings.

Origin
1950-1955; ant + -s3+ -y1; cf. -sy

Related forms
antsiness, noun

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for antsy
– As the prayers and hymns flow one after the other, they become antsy.
– No surprise that lawmakers, goaded by civil-liberties groups, began to get antsy.
– After too many hours cramped in that place you start to get antsy.

Anagram

Nasty

9 January 2015

doctrinaire

[dok-truh-nair]

noun
1. a person who tries to apply some doctrine or theory without sufficient regard for practical considerations; an impractical theorist.
adjective
2. dogmatic about others’ acceptance of one’s ideas; fanatical:
a doctrinaire preacher.
3. merely theoretical; impractical.
4. of, relating to, or characteristic of a doctrinaire.

Origin
French
1810-1820; < French; see doctrine, -aire

Related forms
doctrinairism, noun
nondoctrinaire, adjective
overdoctrinaire, adjective
undoctrinaire, adjective

Can be confused
doctrinal, doctrinaire.

Synonyms
2. authoritarian, uncompromising, inflexible, unyielding.

Antonyms
2. reasonable, flexible.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for doctrinaire
– Neither doctrinaire socialism nor unrestricted individualism nor any other ism will bring about the millennium.
– Both of you are acting if the others belief systems are rigid, doctrinaire and utterly hopeless to approach by rational argument.
– Which shows that, when it comes to art and the doctrinaire temperament, the ends meet.

Anagram

coriander it
action rider
rated ironic
rare diction

8 January 2015

adventitious

[ad-vuh n-tish-uh s]

adjective
1. associated with something by chance rather than as an integral part; extrinsic.
2. Botany, Zoology. appearing in an abnormal or unusual position or place, as a root.

Origin

Latin
1595-1605; < Latin adventīcius literally, coming from without, external, equivalent to ad- ad- + ven- (stem of venīre to come) + -t (us) past participle suffix + -īcius -itious

Related forms

adventitiously, adverb
adventitiousness, noun
nonadventitious, adjective
nonadventitiously, adverb
nonadventitiousness, noun

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for adventitious
– These climbing roots are adventitious ; that is, they do not arise from the young root of the germinating seed.
– The poem obtained adventitious fame.
– Stilt roots are adventitious roots that grow out of the main trunk, a yard or so above the ground.

Anagram

situated vino
vest audition
native studio
devious titan
a divine stout
soviet unit ad
invades it out
avoid site nut

7 January 2015

panivorous

[pa-niv-er-uh s]

adjective
1. subsisting on bread; bread-eating.
– In days gone by, prisoners were forced into a paniverous diet.

Origin

Latin

1820-1830; < Latin pān (is) bread + -i- + -vorous meaning ‘eating, gaining sustenance from’.

Dictionary.com

Anagram

ravine soup
nova uprise
a vine pours
open a virus
a nervous pi

6 January 2015

pinko

[ping-koh]

noun, plural pinkos, pinkoes.
1. a person with left-wing, but not extreme, political opinions.
2. a person who leans toward communist ideology.
– He was proud to be labelled a pinko.

adjective
3. pink1(def 10).

Origin
1935-1940; pink1+ -o
Dictionary.com

Anagram

no kip

5 January 2015

refrain (1)
[ri-freyn]

verb (used without object)
1. to abstain from an impulse to say or do something (often followed by from):
I refrained from telling him what I thought.
verb (used with object)
2. Archaic. to curb.

Origin
Middle English, Old French, Latin
1300-1350; Middle English refreinen < Old French refrener < Latin refrēnāre to bridle, equivalent to re- re- + frēn (um) bridle + -āre infinitive suffix

Related forms
refrainer, noun
refrainment, noun
unrefrained, adjective
unrefraining, adjective

Can be confused
refrain, restrain.

Synonyms
1. forbear, desist.

refrain(2)
[ri-freyn]

noun
1. a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a song or poem, especially at the end of each stanza; chorus.
2. Music.
a musical setting for the refrain of a poem.
any melody.
the principal, recurrent section of a rondo.

Origin
1325-75; Middle English refreyne < Old French refrain, derivative of refraindre to break sequence < Vulgar Latin *refrangere, for Latin refringere to refract

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for refrain
– The oft-repeated refrain that more ice makes the drink cooler is an error.
– Please refrain from calling them anything else, even in small print, at the end of the last paragraph.
– He has heard the refrain that earthquakes are chaotic and unpredictable.

Anagram

fire ran
near fir
rare fin

4 January 2015

acme

[ak-mee]

noun
1. the highest point; summit; peak:
The empire was at the acme of its power.

Origin
Greek
1610-1620; < Greek akmḗ point, highest point, extremity

Related forms
acmic [ak-mik], acmatic [ak-mat-ik], adjective

Can be confused
acme, acne.

Dictionary.com

Anagram

mace
came

3 January 2015

archetype

[ahr-ki-tahyp]

noun
1. the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.
2. (in Jungian psychology) a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches.

Origin
Latin, Greek
1595-1605; < Latin archetypum an original < Greek archétypon a model, pattern (neuter of archétypos of the first mold, equivalent to arche- arche- + týp (os) mold, type + -os adj. suffix)

Related forms
archetypal, archetypical [ahr-ki-tip-i-kuh l], archetypic, adjective
archetypally, archetypically, adverb

Can be confused
archetype, prototype.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for archetype
– It is difficult to establish any archetype for failure from the past two years.
– The emperor himself was an archetype of what the modern world calls a constitutional monarch: he reigned but did not govern.
– Short-term electricity is the very archetype of an extremely inelastic good

Anagram

peach tyre
preach yet
cheat prey
yacht peer

2 January 2015

obloquy

[ob-luh-kwee]

noun, plural obloquies.
1. censure, blame, or abusive language aimed at a person or thing, especially by numerous persons or by the general public.
2. discredit, disgrace, or bad repute resulting from public blame, abuse, or denunciation.

Origin

late Middle English Late Latin
1425-1475; late Middle English < Late Latin obloquium contradiction, equivalent to Latin obloqu (ī) to contradict ( ob- ob- + loquī to speak) + -ium -ium

Related forms

obloquial [o-bloh-kwee-uh l], adjective

Synonyms
1. reproach, calumny; aspersion, revilement.

Antonyms
1. praise. 2. credit.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for obloquy
– Not all writers or artists seek or ably perform a public role, and those who do risk obloquy and derision, even in free societies.
– It must accept in silence obloquy heaped upon it by self-serving politicians.
– But when moved deeply by principle he risked political sabotage and personal obloquy for his convictions.

1 January 2015

larrikin

[lar-i-kin]

noun
1. a street rowdy; hoodlum.
adjective
2. disorderly; rowdy.

noun (Australia & NZ, slang)
1. a mischievous person
(as modifier): a larrikin bloke
2. a hooligan

Origin
1865-1870; from English dialect: a mischievous youth

Related forms
larrikinism, noun

Dictionary.com
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

liar rink

 

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