Word of the Day for Thursday, October 27, 2011

perdition \per-DISH-uhn\, noun:

1. A state of final spiritual ruin; loss of the soul; damnation.

2. The future state of the wicked.

3. Hell.

4. Utter destruction or ruin.

5. Obsolete. Loss.

The B.O.'s road to perdition is paved with socialist-Marxist intentions!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

So my suspicions are confirmed, then, and you have determined to hand over your son to eternal perdition.-- Henry Kingsley, Ravenshoe, Volume 1

I will rescue you from perdition in spite of yourself; Penance and mortification shall expiate your offense, and Severity force you back to the paths of holiness.-- Matthew Lewis, The Monk

Perdition stems from the Latin perditiōn- meaning destruction. It was the equivalent of perdit, the past participle of perdere meaning to do in, ruin or lose.

Word of the Day for Wednesday, October 26, 2011

animadvert \an-uh-mad-VURT\, verb:

1. To comment unfavorably or critically.

2. Obsolete. To take cognizance or notice of.

The so-called Main Stream Media is loath to animadvert on most anything that has to do with the B.O.; what a pathetic group of toadies!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

I have a proposition which I am desirous of making to Mr. Gilmore, as a magistrate acting in this part of the county. Of course, it is not for me to animadvert upon what the magistrates may do at the bench tomrorrow.-- Anthony Trollope, The Vicar of Bullhamptom

It is not our business to animadvert upon these lines; we are not critics, but historians.-- Andrew Lang, The Blue Fairy Book

Animadvert comes from the Latin animadvertere meaning to heed or censure.

Word of the Day for Thursday, October 20, 2011

tawdry \TAW-dree\, adjective:

1. Gaudy, showy and cheap.

2. Low or mean; base: tawdry motives.

noun:

1. Cheap, gaudy apparel.

The B.O.'s tawdry pandering to the Occupy Wall Street mobs and their supporters is pathetic!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

It was all worn off now: cheap as Coney Island, tawdry, tarnished as the last year's trappings of a circus, bedraggled, shabby as a harlot's painted face at noon.-- Thomas Wolfe, Of Time and The River

She knew it was a tawdry, a squalid freedom, tawdry as the pink geraniums and squalid as the awful and inevitable bridge and poker parties.-- D.H. Lawrence, The First Lady Chatterly

Tawdry was originally short for (Sain)t Audrey lace, which was a kind of neck lace bought at St. Audrey's Fair in Ely, England named after St. Audrey, Northumbrian queen and patron saint of Ely, who, according to tradition, died of a throat tumor which she considered just punishment of her youthful liking for neck laces.

Word of the Day for Wednesday, October 19, 2011

harrowing \HAR-oh-ing\, adjective:

Extremely disturbing or distressing; grievous.

It must be a harrowing experience for the B.O. to open up the newspapers, click on the internet, or turn on the television only to find out that his polling numbers continue to fall!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

It was his duty to read the applications from destitutes, reject the undeserving, visit the others to see how deserving or desperate they were, and then, if circumstances warranted it, to write harrowing accountings of their plight, harrowing enough to encourage contributions for the fund.-- V.S. Naipaul, House of Mister Biswas

After a few minutes of harrowing silence, she said in a smothered voice, “Papa returns tomorrow.”-- Benjamin Disraeli, Novels and Tales: Henrietta Temple

Harrowing is from the Middle English harwen meaning to harass or annoy. It was also commonly used in the church to mean “descend into hell.”

Word of the Day for Tuesday, October 18, 2011

moot \moot\, adjective:

1. Open to discussion or debate; doubtful.

2. Of little or no practical value or meaning; purely academic.

3. Chiefly Law Not actual; theoretical; hypothetical.

verb:

1. To present or introduce (any point, subject, project, etc.) for discussion.

2. To reduce or remove the practical significance of; make purely theoretical or academic.

3. Archaic To argue (a case), especially in a mock court.

noun:

1. An assembly of the people in early England exercising political, administrative, and judicial powers.

2. An argument or discussion, especially of a hypothetical legal case.

3. Obsolete A debate, argument, or discussion.

The B.O. seems to consider discussions on the U.S. Constitution moot and irrelevant!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

“What do you mean, 'moot'?” “I mean moot. It's taken care of. The documents are notarized. I'm recouping my lawyer's fees and that's the end of it.”-- Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections

As for Maddy, my only point would be that a suitable age for dating becomes moot if nobody's asking.-- Marion K. Douglas, Dance Hall Road

Moot is derived from the Old English gemot "meeting.” The adj. senses of "debatable" and "not worth considering" arose from moot case, earlier simply moot (n.) "discussion of a hypothetical law case" (1530s), in law student jargon, in reference to students gathering to test their skills in mock cases.

Word of the Day for Monday, October 17, 2011

dorsal \DAWR-suhl\, adjective:

1. Situated on the back

2. In Anatomy situated on or toward the upper side of the body, equivalent to the back, or posterior, in humans.

3. In Botany pertaining to the surface away from the axis, as of a leaf; abaxial.

4. In Phonetics articulated with the dorsum of the tongue.

noun:

1. In Phonetics a dorsal speech sound.

2. In Anatomy a dorsal structure.

Somebody needs to give the B.O. a slap to the dorsal of his head; maybe it'll knock some sense into him!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

The arm was lying, fully extended, with the dorsal side uppermost.-- R. Austin Freeman, The Eye of Osiris

Dorsal fins broke the surface, carving the cobalt water clean and silver.-- Zoë Archer, Scoundrel

Dorsal comes from the Latin dorsum meaning "back."

Word of the Day for Friday, October 14, 2011

cosmogony \koz-MOG-uh-nee\, noun:

A theory or story of the origin and development of the universe.

Discovering the cosmogony of the universe would be easier than discovering the whereabouts of the B.O.'s birth certificate!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

In the shortest (but probably not the earliest) form of the cosmogony, the beginning of all things is found in the watery abyss.-- Charles Dudley Warner, A Library of the World's Best Literature, Vol. 1

He narrowed it down to a matter of cosmogony. The grandfather had some curious views about the constitution of the universe.-- Henry Miller, Moloch: Or, This Gentile World

Cosmogony stems from the Greek kosmogonia meaning "creation of the world," from kosmos "world, universe" and -gonia "a begetting."

Word of the Day for Thursday, October 13, 2011

flaxen \FLAK-suhn\, adjective:

1. Of the pale yellowish color of dressed flax or linen.

2. Resembling flax.

3. Pertaining to flax.

4. Made of flax.

I wonder if the B.O. will be trading out his male flaxen haired V.P. for a female flaxen haired replacement?

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

The man with the flaxen beard rushed across to tell him and then hurried out by the archway.-- H.G. Wells, When the Sleeper Wakes

From it there descended two men - one flaxen haired and tall, and the other dark haired and of slighter build.-- Nikolai Gogol, Dead Souls

Flaxen, related to flax, is probably from Proto-Germanic base fleh-, meaning "to weave, plait."

Word of the Day for Wednesday, October 12, 2011

etiology \ee-tee-OL-uh-jee\, noun:

1. In Pathology the study of the causes of diseases.

2. Any study of causes, causation, or causality, as in philosophy, biology, or physics.

Here is the etiology of today's political mess: Eve ate the apple, evil was established on earth, progressives began their movement, an electorate consisting of simpletons, cretins, and self absorbed journalists votes the B.O. into office; and there you go!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

The etiology of desire is often a muddled search; we insert meaning into the accidental brush of a hand, or in the fleeting sidelong glance of our coveted.-- Micah Nathan, Gods of Aberdeen

For present purposes, this work is significant for one reason alone: it is typical of the interpretative battle that raged throughout the nineteenth century which sought to provide an etiology of evil.-- Joris-Karl Huysmans, The Damned

Etiology is from the Greek aitiología, determining the cause of something, equivalent to aití cause and logia study.

Word of the Day for Tuesday, October 11, 2011

jaundiced \JAWN-dist\, adjective:

1. Affected with or exhibiting prejudice, as from envy or resentment.

2. Affected with or colored by or as if by jaundice; yellowed.

noun:

1. In Pathology yellow discoloration of the skin, whites of the eyes, etc., due to an increase of bile pigments in the blood, often symptomatic of certain diseases, as hepatitis.

2. Grasserie

3. A state of feeling in which views are prejudiced or judgment is distorted, as by envy or resentment.

verb:

1. To distort or prejudice, as by envy or resentment.

The B.O. and his ilk have cast a jaundiced eye upon the Tea Party, and they are desperate to make their cauldron of hate and filth called the Occupy Wall Street their equivalent to the Tea Party!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

I had been chewing a bitter cud of remembrance, so bitter that it engendered the gall which, in the end, jaundiced my vision of things that were past and things as they then existed.-- Mary E. Waller, The Windmill on the Dune

And yet with jaundiced eye I gaze upon all the beauty and wonder about me, and with jaundiced brain consider the pitiful figure I cut in this world that endured so long without me and that will again endure without me.-- Jack London, John Barleycorn

Jaundiced comes from the Old French jaunisse meaning "yellowness" from jaune "yellow."

Word of the Day for Monday, October 10, 2011

titubant \TICH-oo-buhnt\, noun:

A disturbance of body equilibrium in standing or walking, resulting in an uncertain gait and trembling.

After the B.O. is voted out of office next November, the world will no longer be titubant, the financial markets will stabilize, and we will all be happy campers once again; well, as much as we can be considering the damage that the liberals have wrought upon our society; then it will just be damage control for the next 50 years!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

Byron did something of the kind in Don Juan; and the world at large is still quivering and titubant under the shock of his appeal.-- W. E. Henley, "The Secret of Wordsworth," The Pall Mall Magazine, Volume 30, 1903

Sir Oran's mode of progression being very vacillating, indirect, and titubant; enough so, at least, to show that he had not completely danced off the effects of the Madeira.-- Thomas Love Peacock, Melincourt, Volume 1

Titubant derives from the Latin titubātiōn- meaning a staggering, equivalent to titubāt, past participle of titubāre to stagger + -iōn-.

Word of the Day for Thursday, October 6, 2011

druthers \DRUHTH-erz\, noun:

One's own way, choice, or preference.

And if I had my druthers, I'd druther the B.O. repeal ObamaCare, eliminate or massively downsize most government agencies like the EPA, and then immediately resign from office; now that would be a real jobs program!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

"You mean if I had my druthers? Why, if I had my druthers I'd druther eat speckledly gravy," Dove assured him.-- Nelson Algren, A Walk on the Wild Side

"Like I say, I think George would go right on living in the house if he had his druthers," Judy Diment said.-- Stephen King, Everything's Eventual

Druthers comes from a jocular American English formation of the phrase "I'd ruther" meaning "I'd rather."

Word of the Day for Wednesday, October 5, 2011

bandersnatch \BAN-der-snach\, noun:

1. An imaginary wild animal of fierce disposition.

2. A person of uncouth or unconventional habits, attitudes, etc., especially one considered a menace, nuisance, or the like.

Bush is the B.O.'s personal bandersnatch!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

No one ever influenced Tolkien—you might as well try to influence a bandersnatch.-- Lin Carter, Imaginary Worlds

But while he was seeking with thimbles and care, a bandersnatch swiftly drew nigh and grabbed at the Banker, who shrieked in despair, for he knew it was useless to fly.-- Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

Bandersnatch was invented by Lewis Carroll in 1871 in his book Through the Looking Glass.

Word of the Day for Tuesday, October 4, 2011

endemic \en-DEM-ik\, adjective:

1. Belonging exclusively or confined to a particular place.

2. Natural to or characteristic of a specific people or place; native; indigenous.

noun:

1. An endemic disease.

The endemic stink of the B.O. is driving away much of his support!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

To avoid the transmission of the parasitic infection malaria, donors who have travelled to endemic areas are deferred.-- André Picard, The Gift of Death

The interior of this particular police car smells like cigarettes, leather, sweat, and another odor I can't identify that seems endemic to police cars.-- Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife

Endemic is from Greek endemos "native," from en- "in" and demos "people, district."

Word of the Day for Monday, October 3, 2011

billow \BIL-oh\, verb:

1. To rise or roll in or like a great wave; surge.

2. To swell out, puff up, etc., as by the action of wind.

3. To make rise, surge, swell.

noun:

1. A great wave or surge of the sea.

2. Any surging mass.

Oh, the lies that billow out from the B.O.'s mouth; his mendacity as a President leaves one breathless!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

The cottonwool clouds billow out like puffs of smoke, and the raindrops are quite forceful.-- Chi-mun Sŏ, The Rainy Spell and other Korean Stories

When Brien reached the common room and allowed her skirts to billow normally again, she was horrified to find that they filled almost a quarter of the modest room.-- Betina Krahn, Not Quite Married

Billow is from Old Norse bylgja meaning "a wave" or "to swell." It has the same origin as the word belly.