Word of the Day for Tuesday, November 30, 2010

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lilliputian \lil-i-PYOO-shuhn\, adjective:

jk
1. Extremely small; tiny; diminutive.

2. Trivial.

h

The B.O. is but a Lilliputian president compared to President Ronald Reagan!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Lilliputian pertaining to Lilliput, the fabulous island whose inhabitants were six inches high, coined by Swift in "Gulliver's Travels" (1726).

Word of the Day for Monday, November 29, 2010

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impetrate \IM-pi-treyt\, verb:

u
To entreat; ask for.

g

It just keeps getting worser and worser for the B.O. as he was unable to impetrate WikiLeaks to back off from their publishing the stolen documents; now he is having to do some major diplomatic damage repair; poor B.O. - sucks to be you!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

y
Impetrate ultimately relates to the Latin petrare, possibly linked to pater, Latin for "father."

Word of the Day for Wednesday, November 24, 2010

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heuristic \hyoo-RIS-tik\, adjective:

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1. Serving to indicate or point out; stimulating interest as a means of furthering investigation.

2. Encouraging a person to learn, discover, understand, or solve problems on his or her own, as by experimenting, evaluating possible answers or solutions, or by trial and error.

3. Of, pertaining to, or based on experimentation, evaluation, or trial-and-error methods.

4. Denoting a rule of thumb for solving a problem without the exhaustive application of an algorithm

f

The B.O.'s heuristic style of his presidency continues to drag down the U.S. economy as well as the honor and prestige of the United States in the eyes of the rest of the world; we are now the laughing stock amongst most all of the major and minor countries in the world; and now China and Russia are dumping the once great U.S. dollar in favor of their own currencies for their bilateral trade!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Heuristic stems from the Greek heur-, "to discover."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, November 23, 2010

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mithridate \MITH-ri-deyt\, noun:

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A confection believed to contain an antidote to every poison.

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I wonder if the B.O. took a spoon full of mithridate before he left on his lavish Asian tour; after all, a reviled political hack can't be too careful!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Mithridate originates from the name of Mithridates VI, a legendary king who had an immunity to poisons.

Word of the Day for Monday, November 22, 2010

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enspirit \en-SPIR-it\, verb:

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To infuse life into; enliven.

f

The B.O. is looking for ways to enspirit his socialist-Marxist agenda, like, um, taking over the world!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f

Enspirit and its sibling, inspirit, are simple English combinations that originate in the 1600s.

Word of the Day for Wednesday, November 17, 2010

f
idioglossia \id-ee-uh-GLOS-ee-uh\, noun:

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1. A private form of speech invented by one child or by children who are in close contact, as twins.

2. A pathological condition in which a person's speech is so severely distorted that it is unintelligible.

f

It would seem that the B.O. and his ultra-left cronies are trying to speak to the American public using some sort of idioglossia; that must be why no one can understand what is in all those monster bills they passed!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Idioglossia combines the Greek roots idio-, "particular to one," and gloss-, "tongue."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, November 16, 2010

f
gest \JEST\, noun:

d
1. A notable deed or exploit.

2. Archaic: A metrical romance or history.

f

While the B.O. would have us believe that his gests are of a noble nature, the reality is that they are all about power and control!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Gest shares the same roots as jest, "to joke," from the Latin gerrere, "to carry on."

Word of the Day for Thursday, November 11, 2010

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whilom \HWAHY-luhm\, adjective:

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1. Former; erstwhile.

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adverb:

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1. At one time.

f

The B.O.'s whilom popularity is the stuff of legends, kind of like the Legend of Count Dracula!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Whilom was a conjugation of while in Old English (the dative case.)

Word of the Day for Wednesday, November 10, 2010

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ullage \UHL-ij\, noun:

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1. The amount by which the contents fall short of filling a container, as a cask or bottle.

2. The quantity of wine, liquor, or the like, remaining in a container that has lost part of its contents by evaporation, leakage, or use.

3. In rocketry, the volume of a loaded tank of liquid propellant in excess of the volume of the propellant; the space provided for thermal expansion of the propellant and the accumulation of gases evolved from it.

f

The excess amount of ullage in the B.O.'s head is apparently a result of his uncontrolled hot air leaking into his now plentiful brain cavity!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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The ultimate source of ullage is the French ouil, "eye or hole," which comes from combination of the Latin oculus, "eye" and the suffix -age, designating an abstract condition.

Word of the Day for Tuesday, November 9, 2010

f
moue \MOO\, noun:

f
A pouting grimace.

f

Oh, poor B.O., he has a moue since he's found out people don't really, really like him!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Moue is a loan word from the French for "mouth and lips."

Word of the Day for Monday, November 8, 2010

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demotic \dih-MOT-ik\, adjective:

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1. Of or pertaining to the common people; popular.

2. Of or pertaining to the ordinary, everyday, current form of a language; vernacular.

3. Of, pertaining to, or noting the simplified form of hieratic writing used in ancient Egypt between 700 b.c. and a.d. 500.

f

The B.O. may think that he is a demotic sort of person, but his flying circus to India indicates otherwise!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Demotic stems from the same Greek root as democracy, demotikos, "of or for the common people." Originally, the term described the simpler of two forms of ancient Egyptian writing.

Word of the Day for Friday, November 5, 2010

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saccade \sa-KAHD\, noun:

f
1. The movement of the eye when it makes a sudden change, as in reading.

2. The act of checking a horse quickly with a single strong pull of the reins.

f

Now, B.O., look into my eyes, you are feeling very sleepy, let them close slowly, feel the hypnotic saccade of your eyes as they move back and forth; you are now in a deep sleep; now when you wake up you will act like a big green frog, hopping about and croaking, you will do this until they take you away; you will then resign from office as per the 25th Amendment since it will be readily and discernibly obvious that you are certifiably crazy; then Biden will take over, but since he is already certifiably crazy, the new Speaker of the House will now be President; you will do this for the good of the United States of America and for the entire rest of the world!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Saccade originally refers to horsemanship and begins as the Middle French saquer, "to pull violently."

Word of the Day for Thursday, November 4, 2010

f
brumal \BROO-muhl\, adjective:

f
Of winter.

f

"This will be the brumal discontent of the B.O." doesn't sound as poetic as "This will be the winter of the B.O.'s discontent", but hey, I'm just happy that he's in the middle of a pile of muck that he created!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Brumal originates as the Latin brumalis, "pertaining to winter." When the French Republic renamed the months of the year, the second month was called Brumaire, "the foggy month."

Word of the Day for Wednesday, November 3, 2010

f
hyperbolic \hahy-per-BOL-ik\, adjective:

f
1. Using hyperbole; exaggerating.

2. Of or pertaining to a hyperbola.

f

It turns out that the pre-election statements by the Conservatives regarding their chances of winning the control of the House of Representatives were not hyperbolic hooey after all, and the B.O. is not a happy camper today because of it, except, of course, for the TWO BILLION DOLLAR trip that he is soon going to take, so maybe that will help assuage his bruised ego!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Hyperbolic is an alteration of the Greek hyperbole, hyper- meaning "beyond" and -bole "a throwing" (related to -bolt.)

Word of the Day for Tuesday, November 2, 2010

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thwart \THWAWRT\, verb:

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1. To oppose successfully; prevent from accomplishing a purpose.

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adjective:

f

1. Passing or lying crosswise or across; transverse.

f

It appears that the B.O. will be unable to thwart the Republican surge in Congress; and he said that the surge wouldn't work!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Thwart relates to the Old English theorgh, "cross," though the verb form didn't come into usage until the 1500s.

Word of the Day for Monday, November 1, 2010

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enceinte \en-SEYNT\, adjective:

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1. Pregnant; with child

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noun:

f

1. A wall or enclosure, as of a fortified place.

f

Many moons have passed since that day in the small Kenyan village that the enceinte mother of the soon to be B.O. peacefully passed her time, waiting for the Anointed One to arrive, listening to the far off caterwauling of monkeys, an occasional roar of the lion or grunt of the pig, all the while plotting and scheming her chicanery on just how she was going to convince the doctors in Hawaii that the B.O. was, in fact, born on American soil!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

f
Enceinte derives from the Latin cingere, "to belt, gird, or surround."