30 September 2012

peccadillo

[pek-uh-dil-oh]
noun
plural peccadilloes, peccadillos.

– a very minor or slight sin or offense; a trifling fault.

29 September 2012

nudiustertian

[noo-dee-yoo-stur-shun]

adjective

– the day before yesterday.

Latin, from nudestarianus, which was descended from the phrase ‘nudius tertius’, literally meaning ‘now the third day’.

For example:

‘She is still raving about how much she enjoyed the nudiustertian lunch’.

28 September 2012

gammon

[gam-uhn]

verb – Australian slang

– to lie, deceive
– to be false

For example:

‘He said the Cowboys played a good game, but he was just gammon.’

Also:

noun

1. the game of backgammon.
2. a victory in which the winner throws off all his or her pieces before the opponent throws off any.
verb (used with object)
3. to win a gammon over.

Origin:
1720–30; perhaps special use of Middle English gamen (game)

27 September 2012

depone

[dih-pohn]

— verb
chiefly law, Scots law to declare (something) under oath; testify; depose

[from Latin dēpōnere to put down, from de- + pōnere to put, place]

26 September 2012

sententious

[sen-TEN-shuhs], adjective:

1. Abounding in pithy aphorisms or maxims: a sententious book.
2. Given to excessive moralizing; self-righteous.
3. Given to or using pithy sayings or maxims: a sententious poet.
4. Of the nature of a maxim; pithy.

Sententious is related to sententia, the Latin root for the word sentence. The Latin word sententiosus meant “full of meaning, pithy.”

Examples:

For he was a poet and drowned untimely, and his verse, mild as it is and formal and sententious, sends forth still a frail fluty sound like that of a piano organ played in some back street resignedly by an old Italian organ-grinder in a corduroy jacket.
— Virginia Woolf, “Street Haunting: A London Adventure,” Collected Essays

It was inconceivable that she was using the boring, sententious, contentious Shepherd for anything but a hollow threat to him, but this semblance of wrongdoing could now be turned to advantage.
— Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano

25 September 2012

stet
[stet]
verb, stetted, stetting.
verb (used without object)
1. let it stand (used imperatively as a direction on a printer’s proof, manuscript, or the like, to retain material previously cancelled, usually accompanied by a row of dots under or beside the material).

For example:

This text is superfluous. STET (the use of stet indicates the phrase is not to be deleted).

24 September 2012

antebellum

[an-tee-bel-uhm]
adjective
before or existing before a war, especially the American Civil War; prewar. For example: the antebellum plantations of Georgia.

23 September 2012

tartuffery

[tahr-TOOF-uh-ree],

noun:

Behavior or character of a Tartuffe, especially hypocritical piety.

When Terry had finished showing his contempt and had left the office in disgust at the head’s Tartuffery, Jan had calmly got up from her seat and looked hard at the shell-shocked, speechless woman before addressing her.
— Derryl Flynn, The Albion
Not the sophistry, the malevolence, the restless apathy of the masses, the arrogance and insensitivity of the ruling class, the vulgarity, the bigotry, the intemperance, the maniacal piety and the ungodly Tartuffery.
— W.E. Gutman, Nocturnes
Tartuffery comes from the comedy by French playwright Molière. The central character of the eponymous play Tartuffe was a hypocritical pretender.

22 September 2012

kakistocracy

[kak-uh-stok-ruh-see]

noun, plural kak·is·toc·ra·cies.

government by the worst persons; a form of government in which the worst persons are in power.

21 September 2012

drupe

[droop]
noun (Botany)
any fruit, as a peach, cherry, plum, etc., consisting of an outer skin, a usually pulpy and succulent middle layer, and a hard and woody inner shell usually enclosing a single seed.

Drupa means ‘over-ripe olive’.

A coconut is a fruit that is classified as a drupe.

kerfuffle 

(also carfuffle or kurfuffle)

[kuh-fuh-fel]

— n
1. informal chiefly ( Brit ) commotion; disorder; agitation

— vb
2. ( Scot ) ( tr ) to put into disorder or disarray; ruffle or disarrange

[from Scottish curfuffle, carfuffle, from Scottish Gaelic car twist, turn + fuffle to disarrange]

For example:

– The Boxing Day Sale caused a great kerfuffle in the shopping centre.

19 September 2012

paraprosdokian

[par-uh-pros-dok-ee-un]

noun

A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax.

For example:

– Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

– A bank is a place that will lend you money, if you can prove that you don’t need it.

– You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.

– When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water.

– Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

– Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

18 September 2012

lamprophony   

[lam-prof-uh-nee]
noun (Phonetics)

– loudness and clarity of voice.

Example

Without the use of a microphone to address the large gathering, the Councillor showed surprising lamprophony so that all could hear his speech.

17 September 2012

esthesia

[es-thee-zhuh, -zhee-uh, -zee-uh]
noun

– capacity for sensation or feeling; sensitivity.

etymology:

Back formation from anesthesia (loss of sensation), from Greek an- (not) + aisthesis (sensation). Earliest documented use: 1829; anesthesia is from 1721.

16 September 2012

simper

[SIM-per]

verb:

1. To smile in a silly, self-conscious way.
2. To say with a simper.

noun:
1. A silly, self-conscious smile.

For example:

It was more a simper than a smile; a pleased, self-satisfied simper.
— John L’Heureux, A Woman Run Mad

The women Sam usually dates simper and flutter and hang on his every word.
— Kristine Rolofson, Pillow Talk

Simper is derived from the Danish word sippe, which referred to a woman who sipped her drink in an affected manner.

15 September 2012

mesonoxian

[mez-oh-nox-ee-un]

adjective

– pertaining to the hour of midnight.

For example:

‘My dear, you are not a mesonoxian vampire. Smile, and embrace the day‘ (by Whendt at DeviantArt.com).

14 September 2012

bailiwick

[bey-luh-wik]

13 September 2012

tergiversate

[tur-ji-ver-seyt]

verb (used without object), tergiversated, tergiversating.
1. to change repeatedly one’s attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate.
2. to turn renegade.

For example:

John was his own debate team, both for and against

He was always willing to express and justify an opinion, however, his tergiversating on common arguments often had him arguing against himself from one day to the next.

12 September 2012

mythomania

[mith-uh-mey-nee-uh]

noun (Psychiatry)

– lying or exaggerating to an abnormal degree.

For example:

‘I feel the salesman was not blessed with the gift of oration, but afflicted with mythomania‘.

11 September 2012

enervate   

[en-er-veyt; adj. ih-nur-vit]

verb, en·er·vat·ed, en·er·vat·ing, adjective
verb (used with object)

1. to deprive of force or strength; destroy the vigor of; weaken.

For example:

‘The tropical heat, oppressive humidity and thick rainforest, enervated the troop of soldiers as they conducted jungle warfare exercises near Tully. In the area was a team of RAAF airmen undertaking combat survival training. It was clear the airmen were fitter and more adept at handling the gruelling conditions. The fatigued soldiers were glaring at the energetic airman who had barely raised a sweat, so the RAAF Squadron Leader barked at them ‘suck it up, princesses! You pongos are all pong and no go!’.

10 September 2012

pistolpetaphobia

[pis-tl-pet-uh-foh-bee-uh]

– fear of cowboys.

For example:

‘In Saturday night’s elimination final, the skills of the Brisbane Broncos were vitiated by their pistolpetaphobia as the ruthless North Queensland Cowboys out-gunned them 33-16’.

9 September 2012

scotophobia

PRONUNCIATION:
For 1: (sko-tuh-FOH-bee-uh)
For 2: (ska-tuh-FOH-bee-uh)

MEANING:
noun:
1. Fear of the dark or night (also known as nyctophobia – pronounced [nik-tuh-foh-bee-uh])
2. Fear or hatred of Scottish people or culture.

ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: From Greek scoto- (darkness) + -phobia (hatred, fear). The opposite is photophobia and a synonym is nyctophobia. Earliest documented use: 1844.
For 2: From Scoto- (Scottish) + -phobia (hatred, fear). Earliest documented use: 1828.

USAGE:
“In the grip of scotophobia — those palpitations, that slurry speech, the way she shook when it grew dark.”
Matthew Emmens; Zenobia: The Curious Book of Business; Berrett-Koehler; 2008

8 September 2012

Fey

Pronounciation: [fay]

adjective:
1. Strange; unconventional; otherworldly.
2. Doomed.
3. Able to see the future.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English faege (fated to die). Earliest documented use: before the twelfth century.

USAGE:
“At times, the book The Patron Saint of Eels seems a little fey; perhaps the made-up miracle makes its moral point a little too easily.”
Lisa Gorton; The Patron Saint of Eels; The Age (Melbourne, Australia); Apr 16, 2005.

7 September 2012

vitiate
[vish-ee-eyt]
verb (used with object), vitiated, vitiating.
1. to impair the quality of; make faulty; spoil.
2. to impair or weaken the effectiveness of.
3. to debase; corrupt; pervert.
4. to make legally defective or invalid; invalidate. for example: to vitiate a claim.

6 September 2012

inchoate   

[in-koh-it, -eyt or, especially Brit., in-koh-eyt]
adjective
1. not yet completed or fully developed; rudimentary.
2. just begun; incipient.
3. not organized; lacking order. For example: an inchoate mass of ideas on the subject.

4 September 2012

corrigendum

[kawr-i-jen-duhm, kor-]

noun, plural corrigenda  [-duh]
1. an error to be corrected, especially an error in print.
2. corrigenda, a list of corrections of errors in a book or other publication.

Also called: ‘erratum’- a slip of paper inserted into a book after printing, listing errors and corrections

[C19: from Latin: that which is to be corrected, from corrigere to correct ]

Note to be confused with ‘Addendum’, which means ‘in addition to’.

3 September 2012

addendum   

[uh-den-duhm]

noun, plural addenda  [-duh] for 1, 2; addendums for 3.
1. a thing to be added; an addition

(not to be confused with ‘corrigendum’, which is ‘to issue a correction’).

2. an appendix to a book.
3. Machinery .
a. the radial distance between the tip of a gear tooth and the pitch circle of a gear or the pitch line of a rack. Compare dedendum.
b. Also called addendum circle. an imaginary circle touching the tips of the teeth on a gear.

2 September 2012

Xanthippe   

[zan-tip-ee]

noun
1. flourished late 5th century b.c., wife of Socrates.
2. a scolding or ill-tempered wife; a shrewish woman.

Origin:
Xanthippe, 1596, spouse of Socrates (5c. B.C.E.), the prototype of the quarrelsome, nagging wife. The name is related to the masculine proper name Xanthippos, a compound of xanthos “yellow” + hippos “horse.”