Word of the Day for Thursday, December 15, 2011
veriest \VER-ee-ist\, adjective:
1. Utmost; most complete.
2. Superlative of very.
The B.O.'s channeling of Saul Alinsky had made him the veriest of happy. He had now received confirmation from one of his greatest heroes, ranking right up there with Mao, Lenin, Stalin, and Marx, that his actions were the right actions. He now knew that he had, indeed, ceased being Barry Soetoro The Hapless and now become The B.O. His next steps must be plotted carefully. "I must face my destiny and my future head on. I cannot let the Rebellion win. I am superior in intellect, cunning, and strategy," he cogitated. "I know, I will build a new command post and have it circle the earth, and I shall call it the ObamaStar." So he set forth a decree, as was now his custom to do, that the ObamaStar shall be built with great dispatch and alacrity. It shall be big enough to be seen by his minions on earth, and it shall be as intimidating as possible. Oh yes, he was, indeed, the veriest of happy!
--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog
Abagail had held her tongue when Molly said that—Molly and Jim and the others were young and didn't understand anything but the veriest good and the veriest bad.-- Stephen King, The Stand
Though in the course of his continual voyagings Ahab must often before have noticed a similar sight, yet, to any monomaniac man, the veriest trifles capriciously carry meanings.-- Herman Melville, Moby-Dick: Or the Whale
Veriest is obviously related to the word very, which derives from the Old French word verai meaning “true, real or genuine.” The suffix -est makes a word a superlative, like fastest.
No comments:
Post a Comment