cosset: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Word of the Day for Monday, February 28, 2011 cosset \KOSS-it\, verb: 1. To treat as a pet; to treat with excessive indulgence; to pamper. noun: 1. A pet, especially a pet lamb. Sumner's parents, for instance, were routinely attended by butlers, maids, coachmen and grooms while little Sumner and his sister, Emily, were pampered and cosseted from infancy by nurserymaids and governesses. -- Benjamin Welles, Sumner Welles: FDR's Global Strategist Assunta played a larger role in the lives of her children, whom she cosseted and cared for as best she could. -- Patricia Albers, Shadows, Fire, Snow: The Life of Tina Modotti In these two years, Adolf lived a life of parasitic idleness -- funded, provided for, looked after, and cosseted by a doting mother, with his own room in the comfortable flat in the Humboldtstrasse in Linz, which the family had moved into in June 1905. -- Ian Kershaw, Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris Cosset comes from the noun cosset, "a pet lamb." 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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When is the next leap year, and what is the opposite of a leap year called? February 29th happens every four years and is known as a modern leap day (as opposed to the Medieval leap day: February 24th) or leap year. While the next intercalary year is a solar rotation away (not till 2012), it never hurts to be prepared with origin and precise meaning of the term.� The origin for... Read more ››
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rubicund: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Word of the Day for Sunday, February 27, 2011 rubicund \ROO-bih-kund\, adjective: Inclining to redness; ruddy; red. The men are second cousins, around forty, resembling each other not very much, one taller and leaner, less rubicund than the other, who has just returned from California. -- John Lukacs, A Thread of Years Rubicund from his cocktail, big, broad, lustrous with power, he exuded what Walter Pater called the "charm of an exquisite character, felt in some way to be inseparable from his person." -- Edmund Morris, Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan Rubicund comes from Latin rubicundus, "red, ruddy," from rubere, "to be red." 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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Spanish is a Romance language, but what does that have to do with the type of romance between lovers? Romance can refer to an enchanting quality that makes a heart beat faster, but in linguistics Romance languages are the Indo-European languages descending from Latin, the best-known being French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. Why is one word used for both? Actually, the link arises from a type of story. Romanz is the Old French term for... Read more ››
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halcyon: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Word of the Day for Saturday, February 26, 2011 halcyon \HAL-see-uhn\, noun: 1. A kingfisher. 2. A mythical bird, identified with the kingfisher, that was fabled to nest at sea about the time of the winter solstice and to calm the waves during incubation. adjective: 1. Calm; quiet; peaceful; undisturbed; happy; as, "deep, halcyon repose." 2. Marked by peace and prosperity; as, "halcyon years." It seems to be that my boyhood days in the Edwardian era were halcyon days. -- Mel Gussow, "At Home With John Gielgud: His Own Brideshead, His Fifth 'Lear'", New York Times, October 28, 1993 It is a common lament that children today grow up too fast, that society is conspiring to deprive them of the halcyon childhood they deserve. -- Keith Bradsher, "Fear of Crime Trumps the Fear of Lost Youth", New York Times, November 21, 1999 It was a halcyon life, cocktails and bridge at sunset, white jackets and long gowns at dinner, good gin and Gershwin under the stars. -- Elizabeth M. Norman, We Band of Angels Halcyon derives from Latin (h)alcyon, from Greek halkuon, a mythical bird, kingfisher. This bird was fabled by the Greeks to nest at sea, about the time of the winter solstice, and, during incubation, to calm the waves. 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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Gaddafi, Kadafi, or Qaddafi? Why is the Libyan leader's name spelled so many different ways? Take a look at any news source today and you'll see the name of Libya's de facto leader, Muammar al-Gaddafi. Look a little closer and you'll see a multitude of spellings for the notorious politician's surname such as Gaddafi, Kadafi and Qaddafi. Why does a name that has been making headlines for decades have so... Read more ››
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lexicography: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Word of the Day for Friday, February 25, 2011 lexicography \lek-suh-KAH-gruh-fee\, noun: 1. The writing or compiling of dictionaries; the editing or making of dictionaries. 2. The principles and practices applied to writing dictionaries. Dictionary of American Regional English, Volume I heroically preserves our rapidly disappearing folk expressions, and many of the rich, salty words and phrases found in its 904 pages could encourage a taste for lexicography. -- Shirley Horner, review of "Dictionary of American Regional English", New York Times, December 8, 1985 Jim is a dictionary writer by trade, one of those sedentary wordsmiths who spend their lives in the library and retire with watery eyes and schoolteacher salaries--except he found a way to abandon lexicography and make a windfall fortune in the Internet economy. -- Christopher McDougall, "The Secret of Vuleefore", Outside magazine, September 2000 The final arrangement of "set," achieved under the by then septuagenarian Murray, is perhaps lexicography's Eroica Symphony. -- Hugh Kenner, "Ode on an OED" review of The Oxford English Dictionary, The Oxford English Dictionary,New York Times, April 16, 1989 I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven. -- Samuel Johnson, preface to his Dictionary of the English Language Lexicography is derived from the Greek lexicon (biblion), a word- or phrase-book (from lexis, a phrase, a word) + graphein, to write. A lexicographer (thought to be formed on the pattern of geographer) is a compiler or writer of a dictionary -- as defined by Samuel Johnson in his own Dictionary of the English Language, "a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge." 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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A massive new planet in our solar system named Tyche? Maybe. But what does "Tyche" mean? There may be a new planet joining the solar system. A provocative hypothesis posed by a duo of planetary astronomers from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette includes the existence of the planet Tyche: a ninth planet estimated to be four times the size of Jupiter located somewhere at the outermost reaches of the solar system. It's... Read more ››
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hypnagogic: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Word of the Day for Thursday, February 24, 2011 hypnagogic \hip-nuh-GOJ-ik; -GOH-jik\, adjective: Of, pertaining to, or occurring in the state of drowsiness preceding sleep. It is of course precisely in such episodes of mental traveling that writers are known to do good work, sometimes even their best, solving formal problems, getting advice from Beyond, having hypnagogic adventures that with luck can be recovered later on. -- Thomas Pynchon, "Nearer, My Couch, to Thee", New York Times, June 6, 1993 . . .the phenomenon of hypnagogic hallucinations, or what Mr. Alvarez describes as "the flickering images and voices that well up just before sleep takes over." -- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "The Faces of Night, Many of Them Scary", New York Times, January 9, 1995 His uncensored and uncensoring subconscious allows him to absorb the world around him and in him, and to spit it out almost undigested, as if he were walking around in a constant hypnagogic state. -- Susan Bolotin, "Don't Turn Your Back on This Book", New York Times, June 9, 1985 Hypnagogic (sometimes spelled hypnogogic) ultimately derives from Greek hupnos, "sleep" + agogos, "leading," from agein, "to lead." 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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What is the lesser-known language millions of people speak in Spain? Catalan is a Romance language spoken primarily in the Eastern and Northeastern regions of Spain, mainly Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Isles. It is the official language of Andorra, a landlocked country located in the Eastern Pyrenees (mountains bordered by Spain and France), and the second official language of Spain. The Catalan language was nearly... Read more ››
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nimbus: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Word of the Day for Wednesday, February 23, 2011 nimbus \NIM-buhs\, noun: 1. (Fine Arts) A circle, or disk, or any indication of radiant light around the heads of divinities, saints, and sovereigns, upon medals, pictures, etc.; a halo. 2. A cloud or atmosphere (as of romance or glamour) that surrounds a person or thing. 3. (Meteorology) A rain cloud. Sometimes when she stood in front of a lamp, the highlights on her hair made a nimbus. -- James Morgan, The Distance to the Moon The two lights over the front steps were haloed with a hazy nimbus of mist, and strange insects fluttered up against the screen, fragile, wing-thin and blinded, dazed, numbed by the brilliance. -- Karen V. Kukil (Editor), The Journals of Sylvia Plath, 1950-1962 Mara felt she could practically see a nimbus of light around her, like the biblical Esther before she becomes queen. -- Anna Shapiro, The Scourge Decorated in royal green and gold with crystal chandeliers and plush furniture, the office featured a lighted full-length portrait of Johnson leaning against a bookcase and two overhead lamps projecting "an impressive nimbus of golden light" as Lyndon sat at his desk. -- Robert Dallek, Flawed Giant Nimbus is from the Latin nimbus, "a rain cloud, a rain storm." 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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What is the hardest word to translate from Spanish? In lists compiled by linguists and translators, it seems "duende" is a word that many experts regard as the hardest word in Spanish to convey in other languages.� In the dictionary, the word is listed as "elf" or "magic." However, in actual�practice, when the word shows up in text, it is rarely in the context of... Read more ››
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bailiwick: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Word of the Day for Tuesday, February 22, 2011 bailiwick \BAY-luh-wik\, noun: 1. A person's specific area of knowledge, authority, interest, skill, or work. 2. The office or district of a bailiff. I'll give it a try, but this is not my bailiwick. -- Sue Grafton, 'L' Is for Lawless He "professed ignorance, as of something outside my bailiwick." -- Marc Aronson, "Wharton and the House of Scribner: The Novelist as a Pain in the Neck", New York Times, January 2, 1994 Fund-raising was Cliff's bailiwick, anyway, and he seemed to have it in hand. -- Curt Sampson, The Masters Bailiwick comes from Middle English baillifwik, from baillif, "bailiff" (ultimately from Latin bajulus, "porter, carrier") + wik, "town," from Old English wic, from Latin vicus, "village." 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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Michigander or Michiganian? Learn what these local names are known as Just like the old "tu'mey-tow" vs. "tu'maa-tow" debate, Michiganders, or Michiganians�(depending on which side you're on), have long found themselves in a state of disconnect. It seems that the great divide facing residents of the Great Lake State these days centers around the demonym - the name of a resident of a specific locality -... Read more ››
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inkhorn: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Monday, February 21, 2011 inkhorn \INK-horn\, adjective: 1. Affectedly or ostentatiously learned; pedantic. noun: 1. A small bottle of horn or other material formerly used for holding ink. . . .the widespread use of what were called (dismissively, by truly learned folk) "inkhorn terms." -- Simon Winchester, "Word Imperfect", The Atlantic Monthly, May 2001 In prison he wrote the De Consolatione Philosophiae, his most celebrated work and one of the most translated works in history; it was translated . . . by Elizabeth I into florid, inkhorn language. -- The Oxford Companion to English Literature, s.v. "Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus (c. 475 - 525)." Inkhorn derives from the name for the container formerly used (beginning in the 14th century) for holding ink, originally made from a real horn. Hence it came to refer to words that were being used by learned writers and scholars but which were unknown or rare in ordinary speech. Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
Words of the Day? How about words of timeless wisdom? Introducing our Quotes channel! "Life itself is a quotation." - Jorge Luis Borges Check out the Quote of the Day ››
Michigander or Michiganian? Learn what these local names are known as Just like the old "tu'mey-tow" vs. "tu'maa-tow" debate, Michiganders, or Michiganians�(depending on which side you're on), have long found themselves in a state of disconnect. It seems that the great divide facing residents of the Great Lake State these days centers around the demonym - the name of a resident of a specific locality -... Read more ››
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