Word of the Day for Tuesday, February 22, 2011

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bailiwick \BAY-luh-wik\, noun:

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1. A person's specific area of knowledge, authority, interest, skill, or work.

2. The office or district of a bailiff.

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Leadership is not the B.O.'s bailiwick!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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I'll give it a try, but this is not my bailiwick.-- Sue Grafton, 'L' Is for Lawless

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He "professed ignorance, as of something outside my bailiwick."-- Marc Aronson, "Wharton and the House of Scribner: The Novelist as a Pain in the Neck", New York Times, January 2, 1994

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Fund-raising was Cliff's bailiwick, anyway, and he seemed to have it in hand.-- Curt Sampson, The Masters

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Bailiwick comes from Middle English baillifwik, from baillif, "bailiff" (ultimately from Latin bajulus, "porter, carrier") + wik, "town," from Old English wic, from Latin vicus, "village."

Word of the Day for Monday, February 21, 2011

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inkhorn \INK-horn\, adjective:

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1. Affectedly or ostentatiously learned; pedantic.

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noun:

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1. A small bottle of horn or other material formerly used for holding ink.

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Since the (now former?) Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was a tinhorn dictator, I wonder if the B.O. could be called an inkhorn orator?

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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. . .the widespread use of what were called (dismissively, by truly learned folk) "inkhorn terms."-- Simon Winchester, "Word Imperfect", The Atlantic Monthly, May 2001

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In prison he wrote the De Consolatione Philosophiae, his most celebrated work and one of the most translated works in history; it was translated . . . by Elizabeth I into florid, inkhorn language.-- The Oxford Companion to English Literature, s.v. "Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus (c. 475 - 525)."

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Inkhorn derives from the name for the container formerly used (beginning in the 14th century) for holding ink, originally made from a real horn. Hence it came to refer to words that were being used by learned writers and scholars but which were unknown or rare in ordinary speech.

Word of the Day for Friday, February 18, 2011

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libation \ly-BAY-shun\, noun:

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1. The act of pouring a liquid (usually wine) either on the ground or on a victim in sacrifice to some deity; also, the wine or liquid thus poured out.

2. A beverage, especially an alcoholic beverage.

3. An act or instance of drinking.

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I wonder how many "Kool-Aid" laced libations the B.O. has had over the years to get him to where his head is at now!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Hearing that the train had lost one of its engines and that the remainder of the trip would be very slow, I headed for the bar car for a libation and a snack or two to soothe my growing hunger pangs.-- Lawrence Van Gelder, "Tales of Flying Cars and Trees", New York Times, May 28, 2000

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Giving careful packing instructions to his Sherpas who would befreighting the spirits to his Base Camp, Todd more than half-anticipated some nights when the libation might serve to take off the edge.-- Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt, The Climb

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Libation is from Latin libatio, from libare, "to take a little from anything, to taste, to pour out as an offering."

Word of the Day for Thursday, February 17, 2011

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ululate \UL-yuh-layt; YOOL-\, intransitive verb:

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To howl, as a dog or a wolf; to wail; as, ululating jackals.

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Can't you just picture the B.O. as a youngster learning how to ululate in his native Kenyan village?

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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He had often dreamed of his grieving family visiting his grave, ululating as only the relatives of martyrs may.-- Edward Shirley, Know Thine Enemy: A Spy's Journey into Revolutionary Iran

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She wanted to be on the tarmac, to ululate and raise her hands to the heavens.-- Deborah Sontag, "Palestinian Airport Opens to Jubilation", New York Times, November 25, 1998

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She used harrowing, penetrating nasal tones and a rasp that approached Janis Joplin's double-stops; she made notes break and ululate.-- Jon Pareles, "On the Third Day There Was Whooping and There Was Moshing", New York Times, August 18, 1998

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Ululate derives from Latin ululare, to howl, to yell, ultimately of imitative origin. The noun form is ululation; the adjective form is ululant.

Word of the Day for Wednesday, February 16, 2011

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factotum \fak-TOH-tuhm\, noun:

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A person employed to do all kinds of work or business.

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The B.O.'s newest mouthpiece and factotum in charge of the White House propaganda, one Jay Carney, has proved to be as inept at his new job as the B.O. has been at his; birds of a feather flock together, I guess!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Mr. Hersey thus became Mr. Lewis's summertime factotum, copying pages of a play that Lewis was writing about Communism.-- Richard Severo, "John Hersey, Author of 'Hiroshima,' Is Dead at 78", New York Times, March 25, 1993

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She is a blind, paraplegic forensic hypnotist, and he is her brother and general factotum.-- Newgate Callendar, "Spies & Thrillers", New York Times, July 31, 1994

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Factotum is from Medieval Latin, from Latin fac totum, "do everything," from facere, "to do" + totus, "all."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, February 15, 2011

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uxorious \uk-SOR-ee-us; ug-ZOR-\, adjective:

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Excessively fond of or submissive to a wife.

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If the B.O. were as attentive to following the actual Constitution as he is at being an uxorious husband, the country would not be currently headed down the road to perdition!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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It is batty to suppose that the most uxorious of husbands will stop his wife's excessive shopping if an excessive shopper she has always been.-- Angela Huth, "All you need is love", Daily Telegraph, April 24, 1998

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Flagler seems to have been an uxorious, domestic man, who liked the comfort and companionship of a wife at his side.-- Michael Browning, "Whitehall at 100", Palm Beach Post, February 22, 2002

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Fuller is as uxorious a poet as they come: hiatuses in the couple's mutual understanding are overcome with such rapidity as to be hardly worth mentioning in the first place ("How easy, this ability / To lose whatever we possess / By ceasing to believe that we / Deserve such brilliant success").-- David Wheatley, "Round and round we go", The Guardian, October 5, 2002

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Uxorious is from Latin uxorius, from uxor, wife.

Word of the Day for Monday, February 14, 2011

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inveigle \in-VAY-guhl; -VEE-\, transitive verb:

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1. To persuade by ingenuity or flattery; to entice.

2. To obtain by ingenuity or flattery.

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Once again, the B.O. and his fellow Dems will attempt to inveigle the GOP into acquiescing on the budget; the GOP will once again give up their soul to show to the voters how bipartisan they are, and then the Dems will sucker punch them - again; you would think the GOP would learn!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Deep Blue had tried to inveigle Kasparov into grabbing several pawn offers, but the champion was not fooled.-- Robert Byrne, "Kasparov and Computer Play to a Draw", New York Times, February 14, 1996

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He used to tell one about Kevin Moran ringing him up pretending to be a French radio journalist and inveigling Cas, new in France, into parlaying his three words of French into an interview.-- Tom Humphries, "Big Cas cameos will be missed", Irish Times, May 4, 2000

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Once a soft touch for these ragged moralists who inveigled her into sparing them her change, Agnes began to cross the road, begging for some change in her circumstances.-- Rachel Cusk, Saving Agnes

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In fact, he spent the entire time in the car park, waiting for eye witnesses from whom to inveigle quotes he could use as his own.-- Matthew Norman, "Diary", The Guardian, January 1, 2003

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Inveigle comes from Anglo-French enveogler, from Old French aveugler, "to blind, to lead astray as if blind," from aveugle, "blind," from Medieval Latin ab oculis, "without eyes."

Word of the Day for Friday, February 11, 2011

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imbroglio \im-BROHL-yoh\, noun:

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1. A complicated and embarrassing state of things.

2. A confused or complicated disagreement or misunderstanding.

3. An intricate, complicated plot, as of a drama or work of fiction.

4. A confused mass; a tangle.

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Yet another motto for the B.O. -- "Imbroglios R Us!"

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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The political imbroglio also appears to endanger the latest International Monetary Fund loan package for Russia, which is considered critical to avoid a default this year on the country's $17 billion in foreign debt.-- David Hoffman, "Citing Economy, Yeltsin Fires Premier", Washington Post, May 13, 1999

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Worse still, hearings and investigations into scandals -- from the imbroglio over Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court nomination in 1991 to the charges of perjury against President Clinton in 1998 -- have overshadowed any consideration of the country's future.-- John B. Judis, The Paradox of American Democracy

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To the extent that Washington had a policy toward the subcontinent, its aim was to be evenhanded and not get drawn into the diplomatic imbroglio over Kashmir.-- George Perkovich, India's Nuclear Bomb

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The imbroglio over the seemingly arcane currency issue threatens to plunge Indonesia -- and possibly its neighbors as well -- into a renewed bout of financial turmoil.-- Paul Blustein, "Currency Dispute Threatens Indonesia's Bailout", Washington Post, February 14, 1998

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Imbroglio derives from Italian, from Old Italian imbrogliare, "to tangle, to confuse," from in-, "in" + brogliare, "to mix, to stir." It is related to embroil, "to entangle in conflict or argument."

Word of the Day for Thursday, February 10, 2011

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daedal \DEE-duhl\, adjective:

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1. Complex or ingenious in form or function; intricate.

2. Skillful; artistic; ingenious.

3. Rich; adorned with many things.

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The B.O. is incapable of understanding the daedal relationships between the middle east countries and the United States!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Most Web-site designers realize that large image maps and daedal layouts are to be avoided, and the leading World Wide Web designers have reacted to users' objections to highly graphical, slow sites by using uncluttered, easy-to-use layouts.-- "Fixing Web-site usability", InfoWorld, December 15, 1997

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He gathered toward the end of his life a very extensive collection of illustrated books and illuminated manuscripts, and took heightened pleasure in their daedal patterns as his own strength declined.-- Florence S. Boos, preface to The Collected Letters of William Morris

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I sang of the dancing stars,

I sang of the daedal earth,

And of heaven, and the giant wars,

And love, and death, and birth.

-- Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Hymn Of Pan"

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Daedal comes from Latin daedalus, "cunningly wrought," from Greek daidalos, "skillful, cunningly created."

Word of the Day for Wednesday, February 9, 2011

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doppelganger \DOP-uhl-gang-uhr\, noun:

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1. A ghostly double or counterpart of a living person.

2. Alter ego; double.

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I wonder who the B.O.'s political doppelganger is; hmmm, Karl Marx comes to mind!

Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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To readers of science fiction, the idea of a single atom existing simultaneously in two states or places is reminiscent of the supernatural "doppelganger" -- a flesh-and-blood duplicate of one's self encountered while walking along a street.-- "Physicists Put Atom in Two Places at Once", New York Times, May 28, 1996

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But my primary interest here is not the machinations of science itself but the fascinating life and times of its dark doppelganger, the mad scientist, in all his overreaching glory.-- David J. Skal, Screams of Reason

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Doppelganger is from the German doppel, "double" + Gänger, "goer."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, February 8, 2011
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philomath \FIL-uh-math\, noun:
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A lover of learning; a scholar.
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While the B.O. may publicly profess to be a philomath of the U.S. Constitution, he acts more like he is an antagonist as to what the founding fathers meant for it to be, especially when you consider that he said, "We are just 5 days away from fundamentally changing America."!
--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog
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It is precisely for the philomaths that universities ought to cater.-- Aldous Huxley, Proper Studies
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It's nothing to laugh about, he says. "Strange things happen in this country -- things that philosophers and other philomaths had never dreamed of."-- Tomek Tryzna, Miss Nobody
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Philomath is from the Greek philomathes, "loving knowledge," from philos, "loving, fond" + mathein, "to learn, to understand."

Word of the Day for Monday, February 7, 2011

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desideratum \dih-sid-uh-RAY-tum; -RAH-\, noun;

plural desiderata:

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Something desired or considered necessary.

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So what is the B.O.'s current desideratum du jour? -- To have the corporations of America share their profits with the American worker! Umm, still sounds like socialist-Marxist kind of stuff to me!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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No one in Berkeley -- at least, no one I consorted with -- thought art was for sissies, or that a pensionable job was the highest desideratum.-- John Banville, "Just a dream some of us had", Irish Times, August 24, 1998

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Immense wealth, and its lavish expenditure, fill the great house with all that can please the eye, or tempt the taste. Here, appetite, not food, is the great desideratum.-- Frederick Douglass, My Bondage, My Freedom

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A technical dictionary . . . is one of the desiderata in anatomy.-- Alexander Monro, Essay on Comparative Anatomy

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Desideratum is from Latin desideratum, "a thing desired," from desiderare, "to desire."

Word of the Day for Thursday, February 3, 2011

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eclat \ey-KLAH\, noun:

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1. Brilliance of success, reputation, etc.

2. Showy or elaborate display.

3. Acclamation; acclaim.

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The B.O. has been showing off his political eclat with his incredibly deft handling of the current Egyptian crisis - NOT!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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It was a great object with her to escape all enquiry or eclat; but it was her intention to be as decidedly cool to him as might be compatible with their relationship ; and to retrace, as quietly as she could, the few steps of unnecessary intimacy she had been gradually led along.-- Jane Austen, Northanger abbey: A novel

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Aimee's Bistro combines Parisian eclat with contemporary California beach chic in this well- established bistro.-- Los Angeles Magazine, June, 2004

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Eclat comes from the French eclat, "fragment, burst, splinter, flash," which relates to esclater, "to burst, break violently."

Word of the Day for Wednesday, February 2, 2011

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elide \ih-LAHYD\, verb:

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1. To suppress; omit; ignore; pass over.

2. To omit (a vowel, consonant, or syllable) in pronunciation.

3. In law, to annul or quash.

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The B.O. and his liberal cronies seem to think it is okay to elide the U.S. Constitution and just make up their own rules as they go along!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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Later she understood it was a smile born of fear at what she had to say, but in that moment when sleep and consciousness elide, her expression seemed humorous, so when the woman said she had bad news and that their father was dead, Annie thought it was a joke.-- Nicholas Evans, The horse whisperer

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Introductions were made - here I elide all of the tedious formalities and small talk - and the Marquise explained to me that she had been looking for a tutor to educate her daughter.-- Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver

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Elide derives from the Latin elidere, "to wound."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, February 1, 2011

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ambisinister \am-bi-SIN-uh-ster\, adjective:

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Clumsy or unskillful with both hands.

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The B.O.'s ambisinister handling of the whole Egyptian affair is proof positive that he is in way over his head on geopolitics!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

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I feared I had simply become ambisinister until I realized that his sitar had fewer frets than mine did.-- Richard Connerney, The Upside Down Tree: India's Changing Culture

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Professor Fischer says that the reserve physicians "Were surgically ambisinister, medically at the zero point, and lacking in discipline, military skill and temperance."-- The military surgeon: Journal of the Association of Military, Volume 34, 1914

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Ambisinister is a combination of the Latin roots Ambi-, "both," and sinister, "to the left side."