Word of the Day for Monday, January 31, 2011

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thimblerig \THIM-buhl-rig\, verb:

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1. To cheat or swindle, as in the traditional shell game known as thimblerig.

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noun:

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1. A game in which the operator rapidly moves about three inverted thimbles, often with sleight of hand, one of which conceals a token, the other player betting on which thimble the token is under.

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The B.O. has attempted to thimblerig the nation's debts onto the producers of this country through his fast dealing with the bills that "must be passed now to save the country"!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Vending wonder, big diversions with little fibs, my father loved to play the game, cog the die, and thimblerig the ear, offering up the pleasure of an afternoon s deception.-- Lee Siegel, Love and Other Games of Chance

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"I do not permit any man to thimblerig his debts to me into my debts to him." Burbank seemed deeply moved. -- Roger Rosenblatt, Beet: A Novel

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Thimblerig as a verb derives from the con artist's game of the same name. The word is a combination of thimble, the small metal cap used in sewing, and rig, in the archaic sense of "to trick or scheme."

Word of the Day for Friday, January 28, 2011

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rakish \REY-kish\, adjective:

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1. Smart; jaunty; dashing.

2. Of a vessel: having an appearance suggesting speed.

3. Like a rake; dissolute: rakish behavior.

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I'll bet the B.O. thinks that he would look rather rakish wearing a Chairman Mao jacket!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Just as they stepped into the house Beard remembered that it was Patrice's afternoon off, and there she was, at the head of the stairs, in rakish blue eye patch, tight jeans, pale green cashmere sweater, Turkish slippers, coining down to meet them with a pleasant smile and the offer of coffee as her husband had made the introductions.-- Ian McEwan, Solar

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General Bernard Rutkowski, his cap set at a slightly rakish, angle strode along the tunnel.-- Fletcher Knebel, Charles Waldo Bailey, Seven days in May

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Rakish enters the English lexicon in the 1700s, but rake, as in "immoral person," goes back further, possibly descended from the Middle English rakel, "headstrong."

Word of the Day for Thursday, January 27, 2011

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jobbery \JOB-uh-ree\, noun:

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The conduct of public or official business for the sake of improper private gain.

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The B.O. and his liberal cohorts embody the very essence of the most distasteful aspects of the word jobbery!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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To a large portion of the people who frequent Washington or dwell there, the ultra fashion, the shoddy, the jobbery are as utterly distasteful as they would be in a refined New England City.-- Mark Twain, The gilded age and later novels

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Casting about for some way of breaking through this vicious circle, he saw but one expedient - to wit, some great service to be rendered to the government, or some profitable bit of jobbery.-- Honoré de Balzac, The Unconscious Mummers

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Jobbery combines the sense of job and robbery and reflects the historically negative connotation of job, whose definition may derive from gob, as in "a mass or lump."

Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 26, 2011

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gung-ho \GUHNG-HO\, adjective:

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1. Wholeheartedly enthusiastic and loyal; eager; zealous.

2. In a successful manner.

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As was evidenced by the B.O.'s State of the Union discourse, he is an unabashed, gung-ho spendthrift!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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You end up becoming this perky, gung-ho version of yourself that you know is just revolting.-- Douglas Coupland, Microserfs

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It's not because he's such a gung-ho company man, he's too smart for that.-- Jonathan Franzen, Strong motion: a novel

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Gung ho was introduced as a training slogan in 1942 by U.S. Marine officer Evans F. Carlson (1896-1947) from the Chinese chin gōng hé, the abbreviated name of the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society, literally "work together."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 25, 2011

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dharna \DAHR-nuh\, noun:

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In India,the practice of exacting justice or compliance with a just demand by sitting and fasting at the doorstep of an offender until death or until the demand is granted.

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It would certainly be an interesting experience to see how the B.O. would respond to his ultra-left base if they went to the White House and tried to exact their demands by dharna!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Dharna is a Hindi word literally meaning "a placing."

Word of the Day for Friday, January 21, 2011

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totemic \toh-TEM-ik\, adjective:

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1. Pertaining to an object or natural phenomenon with which a family or group considers itself closely related.

2. Relating to a representation of such an object serving as the distinctive mark of the clan or group.

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The B.O.'s totemic relationship to Communist China is profound!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

It's as totemic to me as Don's black hat was to my baby daughter.-- Jonathan Stone, Monkeys on My Back: Three Unpublished(unpublishable?) Novels (Oh, and a Novella)

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A convict's personal possessions - few in number, weighted with significance-took on a totemic quality, and Doug had, over time, winnowed his meaningful totems down to exactly one.-- Chuck Hogan, Prince of Thieves: A Novel

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Totemic derives from the Algonquian (probably Ojibwa) odoodeman, "his sibling kin, his group or family," hence, "his family mark."

Word of the Day for Thursday, January 20, 2011

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grangerize \GRYEN-juh-rahyz\, verb:

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1. To add to the visual content of a book by inserting images not included in the original volume, often by mutilating other books.

2. To mutilate books in order to get illustrative material for such a purpose.

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Maybe if the B.O. had simply grangerized the Obamacare bill with pictures illustrating government waste instead of adding a bunch of pork and possum and other such regulatory nonsense, the House wouldn't have passed a bill to repeal it - it would never have passed to begin with!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Grangerize is named after James Granger (1723-1776), an English clergyman whose "Biographical History of England" (1769) included areas for additional illustrations.

Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 19, 2011

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fain \FEYN\, adverb:

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1. Gladly; willingly.

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adjective:

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1. Content; willing.

2. Archaic: Constrained; obliged.

3. Archaic: Desirous; eager.

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The B.O. is fain to have the communist Chinese dictator (Harry Reid's own description) President Hu Jintao as a world class ally with the United States of America; bad call, B.O., good call Harry!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Fain has ancient roots in the Old English fæg, "happy."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 18, 2011

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concupiscible \kon-KYOO-pi-suh-buhl\, adjective:

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Worthy of being desired.

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The B.O. is ready to bow down to Chinese President Hu in an attempt to appear to be a more concupiscible ally!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Concupiscible has Latin roots in concupiscere, "to be desirous of."

Word of the Day for Monday, January 17, 2011

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offal \AW-fuhl\, noun:

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1. The edible internal parts of an animal, such as the heart, liver, and tongue.

2. Dead or decomposing organic matter.

3. Refuse; rubbish.

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The B.O.'s socialist-Marxist agenda is as repulsive to most Americans as the offal from a pig that has been dead for a week!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Offal is a combination of off and fall, referring to parts fallen or cut off.

Word of the Day for Friday, January 14, 2011

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klatsch \KLAHCH\, noun:

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A casual gathering of people, esp. for refreshments and informal conversation.

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The usual gossip in the usual coffee klatsch has turned more political since the B.O. has ascended to the throne!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Klatsch comes from the German word for "gossip."

Word of the Day for Thursday, January 13, 2011

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creolize \KREE-uh-lahyz\, verb:

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1. To combine local and foreign elements into a new, distinct whole.

2. To render a pidgin into a distinct, spoken language.

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The B.O. is attempting to creolize the United States into his version of socialism and communist China style capitalism!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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To fuse - creolized - these styles (Greco-Roman, Renaissance, American Modernist, and Pre-Columbian), it is implied, is the task of the Caribbean architect.-- Christopher Winks, Symbolic cities in Caribbean literature

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He embodies the reluctance to surrender his Indian heritage and the refusal to creolized his identity.-- Véronique Bragard, Transoceanic Dialogues: Coolitude in Caribbean and Indian Ocean Narratives

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Creolize is a verb alteration of creole, which derives from the Spanish criollo, "a person native to a locality."

Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 12, 2011

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mansuetude \MAN-swi-tood\, noun:

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Mildness; gentleness.

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I wonder if the B.O. will display a bit of mansuetude tonight when he goes to Arizona, or will he continue the attack on free speech, gun control, and conservatism!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

For indeed, it is possible to attain a state of divine mansuetude that nothing dismays and nothing surprises, just as one in love might, after many years, arrive at a sublime tranquillity of the sentiments, sure of their force and durability, through constant experience of their pleasures and pains.-- Honoré de Balzac, Jordan Stump, Adam Gopnik, The Wrong Side of Paris

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You are safe, dear old man, you are safe, temporarily, in the mansuetude of our care, Julie said.-- Donald Barthelme, Donald Antrim, The dead father

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Mansuetude derives from the Latin mansuescere, literally "to tame by the hand."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 11, 2011

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autoschediastical \aw-toh-SKEE-dee-az-tik-uhl\, adjective:

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Something improvised or extemporized.

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It would seem at first look that the B.O. has an autoschediastical approach to his presidency, but his results indicate that he is a committed socialist bent on "fundamentally changing America"!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Autoschediastical enters English from the Greek by way of the German autoschediázein, "to extemporize."

Word of the Day for Monday, January 10, 2011

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lickerish \LIK-er-ish\, adjective:

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1. Fond of and eager for choice food.

2. Greedy; longing.

3. Lustful; lecherous.

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The Dems, and by extension the B.O., through their typical byzantine thought processes, are looking in a lickerish sort of way at the unfortunate murders in Arizona to put a sockdolager into the heart of the conservative movement and shut them up forever!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Likerish shares a common ancestor with the less positive term lecherous. The Old French licherous,"pleasing to the palate," evolved into both English words.

Word of the Day for Friday, January 7, 2011

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katzenjammer \KAT-suhn-jam-er\, noun:

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1. The discomfort and illness experienced as the aftereffects of excessive drinking; hangover.

2. Uneasiness; anguish; distress.

3. Uproar; clamor.

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The B.O. and his fellow Dems are suffering from a bit of katzenjammer from their drunken excessive spending spree of the last two years; the party's over, boys and girls!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Katzenjammer stems from American English, a combination of the German Katze, "cat," and jammer, "distress." The word was popularized by the early comic "The Katzenjammer Kids."

Word of the Day for Thursday, January 6, 2011

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chatoyant \shuh-TOI-uhnt\, adjective:

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1. Having changeable lustre; twinkling.

2. (Of a gem, esp a cabochon) displaying a band of light reflected off inclusions of other minerals.

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That chatoyant, triumphant gleam in the B.O.'s eyes is gone!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Chatoyant's poetic origin lies in the French chatoyer, "to gleam like a cat's eyes," from the French chat, "cat."

Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 5, 2011

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prevaricate \prih-VAIR-uh-kayt\, intransitive verb:

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To depart from or evade the truth; to speak with equivocation.

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The B.O., his administration, Robert Gibbs, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid all exemplify the meaning of prevaricate; at least Gibbs has the decency to quit!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Prevaricate derives from the past participle of Latin praevaricari, "to pass in front of, or over, by straddling; to walk crookedly; to collude," from prae, "before, in front of" + varicare, "to straddle," from varicus, "straddling," from varus, "bent."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 4, 2011

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exculpate \EK-skuhl-payt; ek-SKUHL-payt\, transitive verb:

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To clear from alleged fault or guilt; to prove to be guiltless; to relieve of blame; to acquit.

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Some of the B.O.'s followers are trying to exculpate and distance themselves from his Obamacare diktat!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Exculpate is ultimately derived from Latin ex-, "without" + culpare, "to blame," from culpa, "blame, fault."

Word of the Day for Monday, January 3, 2011

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descry \dih-SKRY\, transitive verb:

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1. To catch sight of, especially something distant or obscure; to discern.

2. To discover by observation; to detect.

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Oh look, B.O., can you descry your once exalted eminence?

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Descry comes from Middle English, from Old French descrier, "to cry out, to proclaim." The Middle English word was originally applied to shouting one's discovery of an enemy, of game, or of land.