Word of the Day for Tuesday, September 27, 2011

gadabout \GAD-uh-bout\, noun:

Someone who roams about in search of amusement or social activity.

Being the gadabout that he is, I wonder where the B.O. will be off to next?

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

In his unorthodox and callow way, he frequently upset and annoyed his countrymen, but they continued to vote for him, perhaps taking a vicarious pleasure in being led by such a world-famous gadabout.-- "Milestones of 2000", Times (London), December 29, 2000

She hugged him fiercely. "Oh, I love you, Jake Grafton, you worthless gadabout fly-boy, you fool that sails away and leaves me."-- Jack Anderson, Control

Mr. Hart-Davis, as befits a professional literary man, is something of a gadabout.-- Daphne Merkin, "From Two Most English Men", New York Times, June 23, 1985

Gadabout is formed from the verb gad, "to rove or go about without purpose or restlessly" (from Middle English gadden, "to hurry") + about.

Word of the Day for Monday, September 26, 2011

sapid \SAP-id\, adjective:

1. Having taste or flavor, especially having a strong pleasant flavor.

2. Agreeable to the mind; to one's liking.

So who will be the victor over the B.O., who will have the sapid taste of victory and get this country back on the high speed rail track of success and economic recovery?

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

Chemistry can concentrate the sapid and odorous elements of the peach and the bitter almond into a transparent fluid-- David William Cheever, "Tobacco", The Atlantic, August 1860

I've raved about the elegant and earthy lobster-and-truffle sausage, the sapid sea bass with coarse salt poached in lobster oil, and the indescribably complex and delectable ballottine of lamb stuffed with ground veal, sweet-breads and truffles.-- James Villas, "Why Taillevent thrives", Town & Country, March 1, 1998

Sapid comes from Latin sapidus, "savory," from sapere, "to taste."

Word of the Day for Friday, September 23, 2011

copacetic \koh-puh-SET-ik\, adjective:

Very satisfactory; fine.

So last night the B.O. was at his temporary home on Pennsylvania Avenue, having a big Cuban cigar, sipping on some Russian Vodka, and watching his G.E. television made in China broadcasting the Republican debate showing the Presidential hopefuls bash each other, and thinking everything is certainly copacetic in his world!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

Although all will seem copacetic on the CBS broadcast from Madison Square Garden in New York, there will be a big black cloud hanging over the glitzy proceedings.-- Patrick MacDonald, "Major labels struggling with huge slump out of tune with listeners", Seattle Times, February 20, 2003

Everything seemed copacetic until a favorite store -- the anchor of the street -- closed suddenly.-- Heidi Benson, "Yes, We Want No Banana", San Francisco Chronicle, September 30, 2001

Terry Glenn will return to the Patriots on Monday, but don't think that everything is copacetic as far as the oft-troubled receiver is concerned.-- Michael Felger, "Glenn out to right wrongs; Ready to return to Pats, despite 'bad blood'", Boston Herald, October 3, 2001

The origin of copacetic is unknown.

Word of the Day for Thursday, September 22, 2011

rapine \RAP-in\, noun:

The act of plundering; the seizing and carrying away of another's property by force.

Da B.O. and his peeps be a rapine da evil rich peeps o dis kontry!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

He who has once begun to live by rapine always finds reasons for taking what is not his.-- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (translated by N.H. Thomson)

Extortion and rapine are poor providers.-- Olaudah Equiano, Unchained Voices: an anthology of Black authors in the English-Speaking World of the 18th Century

The war, proclaimed William Lloyd Garrison, was one "of aggression, of invasion, of conquest, and rapine - marked by ruffianism, perfidy, and every other feature of national depravity."-- Robert W. Johannsen, "America's Forgotten War (Mexican War, 1846-1848)", The Wilson Quarterly, Spring 1996

Rapine derives from Latin rapina, from rapere, "to seize and carry off, to snatch or hurry away," which also gives us rapid.

Word of the Day for Wednesday, September 21, 2011

irrefragable \ih-REF-ruh-guh-buhl\, adjective:

Impossible to refute; incontestable; undeniable; as, an irrefragable argument; irrefragable evidence.

The irrefragable truth about the B.O. is that he knows nothing about leading a horse to water, let alone leading a country out of a recession!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

I had the most irrefragable evidence of the absolute truth and soundness of the principle upon which my invention was based.-- Sir Henry Bessemer, Autobiography

On June 4, the Citizen featured an interview with the Joneses' lawyer, R. S. Newcombe, who insisted that at the pending manslaughter trial he would bring "positive, absolute, irrefragable proof from . . . the most eminent scientists in the world" to show that both the Bates and Hunt operations were necessary and that no surgeon could have saved their lives.-- Regina Morantz-Sanchez, Conduct Unbecoming a Woman

Irrefragable derives from Late Latin irrefragabilis, from Latin in-, "not" + refragari, "to oppose."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, September 20, 2011

acme \ACK-mee\, noun:

The highest point of something; the highest level or degree attainable.

So the B.O. was recently seen with his new copy of Wile E. Coyote's Acme Guide to Government Spending; in it was seen a picture of a rocket aimed at the moon with a phantasm of all wealthy taxpayers (those evil people daring to make over $200,000) strapped to the rocket!

Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

In 1990 Iraq's Saddam Hussein aimed to corner the world oil market through military aggression against Kuwait (also aimed at Saudi Arabia); control of oil, a product of land, represented the acme of his ambitions.-- Richard Rosecrance, The Rise of the Virtual State

So we drove around looking at daffodils and exploring countryside hamlets instead of lakeside tourist traps. These should not be scorned, however, by a browser interested in the curious categories of British humor, one of which achieves a kind of acme in funny postcards on sale in such places. "The weather's here," went one postcard I saw, "I wish you were lovely."-- Joseph Lelyveld, "The Poet's Landscape", New York Times, August 3, 1986

Acme comes from Greek akme, point, highest point, culmination.

Word of the Day for Monday, September 19, 2011

revenant \REV-uh-nuhnt\, noun:

One who returns after death (as a ghost) or after a long absence.

The B.O.'s liberal left base has been waiting for him to return as a revenant dressed in his socialist-Marxist shrouds; they may not have long to wait, what with his proposed $1.5 trillion in new taxes!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

Lazarus, as a revenant, is often used by the religious romance-writers of the middle ages as a vehicle for their conceptions of the lower world.-- R. C. Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord

He pale, immobile like a revenant himself, looked sometimes out of the window, sometimes closed his eyes.-- D. H. Lawrence, Women in Love

The folklore of the Irish countryside too, with its hauntings, revenants and changelings... was an integral part of everyday awareness, even in the middle-class world of Yeats's childhood.-- Terence Brown, The Life of W. B. Yeats

Revenant is from French revenir, "to return," which is also the source of the word revenue, "that which returns from an investment."

Word of the Day for Friday, September 16, 2011

punctilious \puhnk-TIL-ee-uhs\, adjective:

Strictly attentive to the details of form in action or conduct; precise; exact in the smallest particulars.

The B.O., in his nonstop reelection bid, would have the American voters believe that he is punctilious in the details of his jobs program; instead, he has no program, just a lot of mindless hot air spewing out to his never to be believed mouth!

Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

The convert who is more punctilious in his new faith than the lifelong communicant is a familiar figure in Catholic lore.-- Patrick Allit, Catholic Converts

Nicholas showed us his butterfly collection. He had done a splendid job of spreading them (better than I ever have, let alone at his age). I tried to impress upon him the need for punctilious labeling, a tedious business that raises a butterfly from a mere curio to a specimen of scientific value.-- Robert Michael Pyle, Chasing Monarchs

Cooper had always been very punctilious about observing the rules laiddown in the . . . brochure.-- Josef Skvorecky, Two Murders in My Double Life

Punctilious derives from Late Latin punctillum, "a little point," from Latin punctum, "a point," from pungere, "to prick."

Word of the Day for Friday, September 2, 2011

darkle \DAHR-kuhl\, verb:

1. To grow dark, gloomy, etc.

2. To appear dark; show indistinctly.

Subsequent to the darkle jobs report of zero growth, the B.O. skulked out of town in observance of - are you ready for it - the Labor Day weekend!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

Beyond the open trunk, the desert seemed to darkle, brighten, darkle rhythmically, but in fact the acuity of his vision sharpened briefly with each systolic thrust of his pounding heart.-- Dean Koontz, The Husband

And the fire-flies wink and darkle, Crowded swarms that soar and sparkle, And in wildering escort gather!-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust: a tragedy

Darkle is a back-formation from the obsolete darkling, "to be in the dark."