aphorism: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Wednesday, June 29, 2011 aphorism \AF-uh-riz-uhm\, noun: A terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute observation. He who first uttered the boast was a public benefactor, and every man who repeated the aphorism, and believed it, furthered a good work, and helped to build up the structure of his country's greatness. -- Charles Mackay, The gouty philosopher The aphorism wants to deflate our pretensions, to pull us "back to earth," by challenging us to change the way we live. -- Carl Rakosi, The collected prose of Carl Rakosi Aphorism comes from the Greek aphorismós, "definition." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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Is the semicolon just plain silly? How exactly does one use it, and why is it called a "colon?" The semicolon: is it the most maddening and mysterious punctuation mark? Many a writer avoids it altogether. When trying to express thoughts clearly, who needs a "semi" anything? Our task is not to sway your feelings, but to simply provide some definition to your like or dislike. When exactly should one use a semicolon? Fundamentally,... Read more ››
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catawampus: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Tuesday, June 28, 2011 catawampus \kat-uh-WOM-puhs\, adjective: 1. Off-center; askew; awry. 2. Positioned diagonally; cater-cornered. Very circuitous, I must say- most sidelong and backhanded, cockeyed and skew-jawed, catawampus and wonky. -- Candace A. Croft, Annalia's Simply Splendid Flight: From Another Side of Day The only traditional touches are the catawampus walls and whichaway entrances dictated by Feng Shui, the art of placing things so as to ensure luck and not disturb spirits. -- P. J. O'Rourke, Eat the rich Catawampus arose in the United States around 1840, during a particular vogue in elaborate coinages. Cata- stems from cater-, a now-archaic root meaning "diagonal," while the source of -wampus is subject to debate. Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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Do names prejudice how others perceive your status? A study suggests yes Are you a Samuel or a Travis, a Katherine or an Amber? According to a recent study conducted on 89 undergraduate students, a person's socioeconomic and educational standing may be in direct correlation with a person's name. While researchers point out that a person's essence, status, and general fatecannot possibly be defined based on the... Read more ››
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attenuate: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Monday, June 27, 2011 attenuate \uh-TEN-yoo-eyt\, verb: 1. To weaken or reduce in force, intensity, effect, quantity, or value 2. To make thin; make slender or fine. 3. In medicine, to render less virulent, as a strain of pathogenic virus or bacterium. 4. In electronics, to decrease the amplitude of an electronic signal. With no reactor coolant to absorb the heat of the uranium rods, the nuclear reaction actually stopped - there was no water to attenuate the neutron flux. -- Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October But before she could attenuate in any way the crudity of her collapse he gave an impatient jerk which took him to the window. -- Henry James, What Maise Knew Attenuate is based on the Latin attenuāre, "to thin, reduce." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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Do names prejudice how others perceive your status? A study suggests yes Are you a Samuel or a Travis, a Katherine or an Amber? According to a recent study conducted on 89 undergraduate students, a person's socioeconomic and educational standing may be in direct correlation with a person's name. While researchers point out that a person's essence, status, and general fatecannot possibly be defined based on the... Read more ››
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sirocco: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Sunday, June 26, 2011 sirocco \suh-ROK-oh\, noun: 1. Any hot, oppressive wind, especially one in the warm sector of a cyclone. 2. A hot, dry, dustladen wind blowing from northern Africa and affecting parts of southern Europe. 3. A warm, sultry south or southeast wind accompanied by rain. The winter, with its cutting tramontana and sultry sirocco days, we spent in the eternal city, taking rooms of an old woman who had a flat with stone floors and straw chairs in the via Torre Argentina. -- Thomas Mann, Heinrich Mann, Hans Wysling, Letters of Heinrich and Thomas Mann, 1900-1949 The sirocco had burnt into my very soul, and I bowed my head and submitted without groaning, after a while-and now wait for the hour when the grass, if not the laurels, will whisper over me. -- John Esten Cooke, Pretty Mrs. Gaston: and other stories Sirocco enters English from the Italian scirocco, which in turn derives from the Arabic sharq, literally meaning "east." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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Do names prejudice how others perceive your status? A study suggests yes Are you a Samuel or a Travis, a Katherine or an Amber? According to a recent study conducted on 89 undergraduate students, a person's socioeconomic and educational standing may be in direct correlation with a person's name. While researchers point out that a person's essence, status, and general fatecannot possibly be defined based on the... Read more ››
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torrefy: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Saturday, June 25, 2011 torrefy \TAWR-uh-fahy\, verb: 1. To subject to fire or intense heat. 2. In pharmacology, to dry or parch drugs with heat. 3. To roast, as metallic ores. A coffee-roaster answers for this purpose, taking care not to torrefy them too much, as the oil of the nut suffers thereby, and it becomes a dark brown or black, grows bitter, and spoils the colour of the chocolate -- Ernest Spon, American library edition of workshop receipts, Volume 2, 1903 The eloquence of statesmen will not sear War's naked wounds, nor may one torrefy / The solemn lines of a gifted sonneteer. -- Canadian Poetry Magazine, 1945 Torrefy stems from the two Latin roots torrēre "to dry up" and facere "to put, or make so." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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Do names prejudice how others perceive your status? A study suggests yes Are you a Samuel or a Travis, a Katherine or an Amber? According to a recent study conducted on 89 undergraduate students, a person's socioeconomic and educational standing may be in direct correlation with a person's name. While researchers point out that a person's essence, status, and general fatecannot possibly be defined based on the... Read more ››
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sabbatical: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Friday, June 24, 2011 sabbatical \suh-BAT-i-kuhl\, noun: 1. Any extended period of leave from one's customary work, especially for rest, to acquire new skills or training, etc. adjective: 1. Of or pertaining to or appropriate to the Sabbath. 2. Bringing a period of rest. The problem was his sabbatical, for which he had been given a large additional foundation grant, would begin in the summer. -- Jim Harrison, Dalva But taking a sabbatical wasn't supposed to include cheating on him. -- Melissa Senate, The Secret of Joy Sabbatical originates in reference to the Judeo-Christian Sabbath, and comes from the Greek sabbatikos. Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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Wednesday is named for a mix of two very different gods? Who are they? The name Wednesday derives from two mighty but distinct�gods. The Old English word for Wednesday indicates that the day was named for the Germanic god Woden. In Romance languages, the name is derived from the Roman god Mercury. (For example, Wednesday is mercredi in French and miercuri in Romanian.) Woden (also known as Odin)�and Mercury... Read more ››
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jujitsu: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Thursday, June 23, 2011 jujitsu \joo-JIT-soo\, noun: 1. The ability to accomplish a task with no apparent effort or resistance. 2. Method developed in Japan of defending oneself without the use of weapons by using the strength and weight of an adversary to disable him. She stared at me as though I were some kind of bizarre math whiz, and she feared I was about to do some jujitsu calculus on her. -- Stephen White, Blinded Edmund has always had a way of turning things around on their head, practicing his own brand of moral jujitsu, Claire's holy zeal for humanity in the abstract! -- Francine du Plessix Gray, World Without End Jujitsu comes from the Japanese martial art of the same name, with the word being a combination of ju, "soft," and jitsu, "technique." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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Wednesday is named for a mix of two very different gods? Who are they? The name Wednesday derives from two mighty but distinct�gods. The Old English word for Wednesday indicates that the day was named for the Germanic god Woden. In Romance languages, the name is derived from the Roman god Mercury. (For example, Wednesday is mercredi in French and miercuri in Romanian.) Woden (also known as Odin)�and Mercury... Read more ››
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xenogenic: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Wednesday, June 22, 2011 xenogenic \zen-uh-JEN-ik\, adjective: 1. To be completely different from either parent, or from the source of an object's creation. 2. In biology, originating outside the organism or from a foreign substance introduced into the organism. Dr. Forssmann also believes that it was wrong to put a pig's liver in a dying woman in Buenos Aires - presumably on the ground that hetero- grafts or xenogenic (i.e., interspecific) transplants are "unnatural." -- Stephen E. Lammers, Allen Verhey, On moral medicine: theological perspectives in medical ethics I can picture it because he is still the furnace, the heat source in any room: booming, proud, imperious, xenogenic. -- Clark Blaise, Bharati Mukherjee, Days and nights in Calcutta Xenogenic combines the Greek roots xeno-, "strange, or other," and -genic, "produced or caused by." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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Wednesday is named for a mix of two very different gods? Who are they? The name Wednesday derives from two mighty but distinct�gods. The Old English word for Wednesday indicates that the day was named for the Germanic god Woden. In Romance languages, the name is derived from the Roman god Mercury. (For example, Wednesday is mercredi in French and miercuri in Romanian.) Woden (also known as Odin)�and Mercury... Read more ››
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pullulate: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Tuesday, June 21, 2011 pullulate \PUHL-yuh-leyt\, verb: 1. To exist abundantly; swarm; teem. 2. To send forth sprouts, buds, etc. 3. To increase rapidly; multiply. Swept along by events, we have not had time to sketch in the comic race of courtiers who pullulate at the court of Parma and passed droll comments on the events we have been recounting. -- Stendhal, John Sturrock, The charterhouse of Parma I do not want to describe it; a chaos of heterogeneous words, the body of a tiger or a bull in which teeth, organs and heads monstrously pullulate in mutual conjunction and hatred can (perhaps) be approximate images. -- Jorge Luis Borges, Donald A. Yates, James East Irby, Labyrinths: selected stories & other writings Pullulate derives from the Latin pullulatus, "to grow or sprout," and relates to the Latin noun pullus, "a young animal." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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Wait a minute, is this solstice "Midsummer's Eve?" Let us explain . . . The Gregorian calendar tells us that the summer solstice marks the longest day of the calendar year and the beginning of the summer season in the northern hemisphere. However, literature refers to a point called Midsummer's Night. So which, and when, is it? This is a celestial quandary that involves the sun, the earth and...William... Read more ››
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