Word of the Day for Tuesday, November 8, 2011

plebiscite \PLEB-uh-sahyt\, noun:

1. A direct vote of the qualified voters of a state in regard to some important public question.

2. The vote by which the people of a political unit determine autonomy or affiliation with another country.

Following the plebiscite in 2010 the B.O. ignored it; they will speak again in 2012 and he will have no alternative but to listen as he will need to vacate his present residence located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

How many of these were there? Not enough to put the verdict of the plebiscite in doubt, anyway.-- Arthur C. Clark, The Last Theorem

It was he who devised the plebiscite and the governmental machinery for making plebiscites yield the desired results — ninety-eight percent of the votes in favor of tyranny, two percent against.-- Aldous Huxley, Complete Essays

Plebiscite is comprised the Latin roots plebi meaning “common people” and scitum meaning “resolution or decree.”

Word of the Day for Monday, November 7, 2011

canny \KAN-ee\, adjective:

1. Careful; cautious; prudent.

2. Astute; shrewd; knowing; sagacious.

3. Skilled; expert.

4. Frugal; thrifty.

5. Scot. A. Safe to deal with, invest in, or work at (usually used with a negative). B. Gentle; careful; steady. C. Snug; cozy; comfortable. D. Pleasing; attractive. E. Archaic. Having supernatural or occult powers.

adverb:

1. In a canny manner.

2. Scot. Carefully; cautiously.

The B.O. is a canny one, he is, being careful not to say anything of substance; "Hope and Change" couldn't be any less specific or confining or necessary to explain than "I Believe in America"; people hear that and they fill in their own blanks and ascribe their own meanings to the phrases!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

But they're not going to catch us that easily. If they're canny, we can be canny too!-- Hans Fallada, Every Man Dies Alone

Some of the little contrivances, which he thought so canny, left her doubtful.-- D.H. Lawrence, The Rainbow

Canny is derived from the Middle English word ken meaning “knowledge or understanding.” It is related to the verb kennen meaning “to see, know, or make known.”

Word of the Day for Friday, November 4, 2011

prehensible \pri-HEN-suh-buhl\, adjective:

Able to be seized or grasped.

The B.O. finds the Occupy Wall Street movement totally prehensible - because he and his operatives in his regime created it!
--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

Do they not give the obvious signified a kind of difficultly prehensible roundness, cause my reading to slip?-- Roland Barthes, Image, Music, Text

And I, having only the name Divers as a visible, prehensible asperity for grasping the invisible, shall contort it so as to make it enter mine, mingling the letters of both.-- Jean Genet, Miracle of the Rose

Prehensible comes from the Latin word prehension meaning “a taking hold.”

Word of the Day for Thursday, November 3, 2011

obscurantism \uhb-SKYOORr-uhn-tiz-uhm\, noun:

1. Opposition to the increase and spread of knowledge.

2. Deliberate obscurity or evasion of clarity.

Back in the heady days of the B.O.'s run at the White House, the Main Stream Media was suffering from a terminal case of obscurantism and obfuscation when it came to his past and what he actually believes and stands for; nothing seems to have changed since then!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

Of course they're not. That's why there were all those confrontations, all that aggression and obscurantism. Because the forces of darkness are dying, and they are thrown back on such things as a last resort.-- Paulo Coelho, The Witch of Portobello

In these he had shown himself a stalwart champion of Christian doctrine at its most precise and purest, equally remote from the modern laxity and obscurantism of the past.-- Albus Camus, The Plague

Obscurantism originally comes from the Latin root obscur meaning “dark” and the suffix -ant which turned a verb into a noun (as in the word servant), so the word literally meant “one that makes dark.”

Word of the Day for Wednesday, November 2, 2011

metempirical \met-em-PIR-i-kuhl\, adjective:

1. Beyond or outside the field of experience.

2. Of or pertaining to metempirics.

There were, and still are, those that said electing a metempirical President fresh out of the trenches of the community activists, agitators, insurgents, insurrectionists, malcontents, mutineers, nihilists, rebels, revolters, revolutionaries, terrorists, and anarchists didn't really matter; after all, they mused, who really has experience as the President of the United States prior to their taking office; well, the B.O. has shown conclusively why it is so important to have had executive experience, held an actual job, run a company or a state or even a city, and to actually believe in and uphold the Constitution of the United States as it was written!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

...but the quality of her innate wit had deepened, strange “metempirical” (as Van called them) undercurrents seemed to double internally, and thus enrich, the simplest expression of her simplest thoughts.-- Vladimir Nabokov, Ada, or Ardor, a Family Chronicle

Still however, instead of aspiring to becoming rigorous and metempirical, poetry lives by the heart, the sense and singing.-- Kahlil Gibran with Andrew Dib Sherfan, The Third Treasury of Kahlil Gibran

Metempircal derives from the Greek words met- meaning “beyond or before” and empirical meaning “experience.”

Word of the Day for Tuesday, November 1, 2011

aioli \ahy-OH-lee\, noun:

A sauce made of oil and eggs, usually flavored with garlic, from the Provence region of France.

Since he likes the French so much, and by extension the total Euro-trash mentality, I wonder if the B.O. will eat crow with a nice topping of aioli following his defeat in 2012!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

He said he was treating. There was roast artichoke topped with a sort of sly aioli. Mutton stuffed with foie gras, double chocolate rum cake. Seven kinds of cheese.-- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

A beef sirloin is good, too, slightly charred on the outside and reddish pink in the middle, nicely peppered, with mustard aioli.-- Garrison Keillor, Love Me

Aioli comes from the Provençal word for garlic, ai and the Latin word for oil, oli.

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.