Word of the Day for Friday, January 20, 2012

deucedly \DOO-sid-lee\, adverb:

Devilishly; damnably.

In rejecting the Keystone Pipeline, the B.O. has shown what a deucedly bad President and leader that he is!

Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

When I went in I had seen that there was a deucedly pretty girl sitting in that particular seat, so I had taken the next one.-- P. G. Wodehouse, Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories

It's most important. You will put me in a deucedly awkward position if you don't.-- C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew

Deucedly is related to the word deuce which refers to the face of a die with one dot, as in "to roll deuces." It comes from the Latin word for two, duos. In the mid-1600s, it became associated with bad luck, probably because it was the lowest score you could get when playing dice.

Word of the Day for Thursday, January 19, 2012

shiv \shiv\, noun:

A knife, especially a switchblade.

Imagine, a shiv toting, dope smoking, Marxist loving, punk of a kid becoming President of the United States; the B.O. proves that anything is possible, which is why he made a speech from Disney World this week; oh yes, he is definitely our Fantasyland President!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

Then this one cop, the guy, he pulls out a picture, shows me a photograph, see, of my shiv. Now, I gotta tell ya, this shiv of mine's no ordinary blade.-- Ashok Mathur, Once Upon an Elephant

“Why would he wipe the shiv?” Decker said. “Supposedly it was his shiv, not hers. Of course it would have his prints on it. Seems to me he'd just stick it back in its sheath and leave.”-- Faye Kellerman, Milk and Honey

First used in English in the early 1600s, shiv is of unknown origin, but it may be related to the Romany word for knife, chiv.

Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 18, 2012

persnickety \per-SNIK-i-tee\, adjective:

1. Overparticular; fussy.

2. Snobbish or having the aloof attitude of a snob.

3. Requiring painstaking care.

The B.O. is a persnickety boor!

Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

These critics can take some consolation by looking at the recent rehabilitation of Hamilton Grange, the upper Manhattan house built by founding father Alexander Hamilton. It shows just how persnickety a preservation project can be.-- Robbie Whelan, "Historic Home on the Grange," The Wall Street Journal, December 11, 2011

The point here is to make your animal understand that its upstairs neighbour is exceptionally persnickety about territory.-- Yann Martel, Life of Pi

Persnickety dates back to the late 1800s. It is a variant of the Scots word pernickety, which is of uncertain origin. Pernickety is perhaps related to other Scots words with the per- prefix, like perskeet which meant "fastidious."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 17, 2012

alate \EY-leyt\, adjective:

1. Having wings; winged.
2. Having membranous expansions like wings.

noun:

1. The winged form of an insect when both winged and wingless forms occur in the species.

I had a nightmare last night; the B.O.'s head was on a huge alate body which had long claws sticking down from its gangly legs; it was scooping up unsuspecting victims that had a big "E" on their backsides, which I think stood for Entrepreneur; then he was dashing them on top of the rocks at the beach and laughing hysterically as he dropped each one down; then he flew to South Carolina and started scooping up all of the Republican candidates and dashing them into the abyss called the EPA; and finally with all that done, he flew back to his nest in the White House and sat on all of the eggs in his nest, and each egg had letters on them like CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and Newsweek!
--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

Vainly a few diehard physicists pointed out that wings are of no propulsive help in airless void, that alate flight is possible only where there are wind currents to lift and carry.-- Robert Silverberg, Earth is the Strangest Planet

There are no words branded into this gate, only the shape of a large bird with its wings stretched out over the width of the road like an alate protector.-- Jenny Siler, Easy Money

Alate is comprised of the Latin roots āla meaning "wing" and the suffix -ate which was used in Latin to make a word an adjective (like separate) but in English came to be used to create a verb out of a noun (like agitate).

Word of the Day for Monday, January 16, 2012

perspicacious \pur-spi-KEY-shuhs\, adjective:

1. Having keen mental perception and understanding; discerning.

2. Archaic. Having keen vision.

The B.O. is perspicacious when it comes to knowing how best to get more Democrat votes, although I wouldn't really say that getting more people feeding off of the government pig trough is much of a talent, it's just pandering to the basest of instincts of the American public that are so inclined to such, that being sloth, greed, envy, acedia, lust, and gluttony!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

You are perspicacious, know the ways of the world, and are more tactful than most men of your age.-- Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

More perspicacious neighbors, the Paulsens among them, suspected that Joey also enjoyed being the smartest person in the house.-- Jonathan Franzen, Freedom

Perspicacious is derived from the Late Latin word perspicācitās meaning "sharpness of sight."

Word of the Day for Friday, January 13, 2012

viscid \VIS-id\, adjective:

1. Having a glutinous consistency; sticky; adhesive.

2. Botany. Covered by a sticky substance.

As the viscid pool of slime and fungus filled scum started to be stirred from something below, it became evident that there was a creature emerging from the depths of the pool; as it emerged and the goop slid off, it was finally evident what it was - it was the B.O. holding his "original" birth certificate; now the mystery has been solved as to from whence he came!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

This was the moment for the curious, shading their faces from the fiery glow, to plunge their walking-sticks into the viscid mass and dip out portions of the lava.-- T. M. Coan, "An Island of Fire," Scribner's Monthly

But now a snake commenced to coil around my feet, and with a momentary terror I rushed forward, only to strike a rock and fall into a viscid pool.-- Will L. Garver, Brother of the Third Degree

Viscid comes from the Latin word for mistletoe, visc. Mistletoe was used to make a sticky paste to trap birds called birdlime. It is clearly also related to the word "viscous."

Word of the Day for Thursday, January 12, 2012

bonny \BON-ee\, adjective:

1. Pleasing to the eye.

2. British Dialect. A. (Of people) Healthy, sweet, and lively. B. (Of places) Placid; tranquil. C. Pleasing; agreeable; good.

adverb:

1. British Dialect. Pleasingly; agreeably; very well.

noun:

1. Scot. and North England Archaic. A pretty girl or young woman.

There once was a bonny named Debbie

Who actually looked a lot like Freddie

She would spew out her lies

Without blinking her eyes,

And the B.O. would believe them as truth!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

Mayhap 'tis time to speak of more than how fine the weather is or how bonny she looks.-- Hannah Howell, Highland Honor

As he was about to fix the last nail in the last of the shoes, the man in green said, "Would you be knowing what ails the bonny young lady?"-- Ethel Johnston Phelps and Pamela Baldwin-Ford, Tatterhood and Other Tales

Bonny is of uncertain origin. It may be related to the Old French word bon meaning "good." It entered the Scots dialect in the mid-1400s.

Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 11, 2012

expostulate \ik-SPOS-chuh-leyt\, verb:

To reason earnestly with someone against something that person intends to do or has done.

Conservatives have got to realize that they cannot expostulate with the B.O. on any of his policies; that is why we must soundly defeat him in November!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

The tears would run plentifully down my face when I made these reflections; and sometimes I would expostulate with myself, why Providence should thus completely ruin his creatures, and render them so absolutely miserable, so without help abandoned, so entirely depressed, that it could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life.-- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

Peter at last determined one day, all of a sudden, that he would step into this highland reaver's den, and expostulate with him on the baseness and impolicy of his conduct, and try to convince him of these, and persuade him to keep his own laird's bounds.-- James Hogg, Tales of the Wars of Montrose

Expostulate is derived from the Latin word expostulātus which meant "demanded urgently or required."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 10, 2012

paregmenon \puh-REG-muh-non\, noun:

The juxtaposition of words that have a common derivation, as in “sense and sensibility.”

I wonder if the words Community Organizer and Communist, as they apply to the B.O., would be considered a paregmenon!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

Although as artificial as his use of traductio, this use of paregmenon at least reveals Sidney's ingenuity and wit.-- Sherod M. Cooper, The Sonnets of Astrophel and Stella

The recurrence of the same word with a different inflection, as in the polyptoton, or of different words of the same origin, as in the paregmenon, draws attention to the word thus recurring, and adds somewhat to its logical worth.-- Josiah Willard Gibbs, Philological Studies with English Illustrations

Paregmenon comes from the Greek word parēēgménon meaning "to bring side by side or derive."

Word of the Day for Monday, January 9, 2012

heterotelic \het-er-uh-TEL-ik\, adjective:

Having the purpose of its existence or occurrence apart from itself.

The B.O. treats his presidency in a heteroteleic manner in that, yes, he is the President of the United States, however, his socialist-Marxist agenda is antithetic to everything that this country was built upon!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

You're of heteroteleic value, that means you were invoked for an extraneous purpose alone, the outcome of which won't even be known to me until I'm back with my physical body in the physical world…-- William Cook, Love in the Time of Flowers

Therefore, what has been proposed above as a means of redirecting the development of postmodernity toward more livable, human dimensions is a heterotelic narrative transitivity—an active reimmersion of narrative in the social—which contrasts sharply with the autotelic concern for their own procedures and the hermetic intransitivity of modernist self-consciousness and late modernist self-reflexivity.-- Joseph Francese, Narrating Postmodern Time and Space

Heterotelic is directly derived from the Greek roots héteros meaning "other", tele- meaning "distant", and the suffix -ic which denotes an adjective, as in metallic and athletic.

Word of the Day for Saturday, January 7, 2012

Cimmerian \si-MEER-ee-uhn\, adjective:

1. Very dark; gloomy; deep.

2. Classical Mythology. Of, pertaining to, or suggestive of a western people believed to dwell in perpetual darkness.

The B.O. woke up with a start and sat straight up in bed; he felt as if he had just been in a horrific dream of complete Cimmerian despair, with zombie like people walking around with their arms thrust forward and their palms raised upward, and they were all incessantly chanting "More, More, More"; then he realized his dream was actually one about the current state of our economy!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

I was ripe for death, and along a road full of dangers, weakness led me to the boundaries of the world and the Cimmerian land of darkness and whirlwinds.-- Arthur Rimbaud, A Season in Hell

Once beneath the over-arching trees all was again Cimmerian darkness, nor was the gloom relieved until the sun finally arose beyond the eastern cliffs, when she saw that they were following what appeared to be a broad and well-beaten game trail through a forest of great trees.-- Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan the Untamed

Like gasconade, cimmerian was originally a toponym. It referred to the Cimmerii, an ancient nomadic people who live in Crimea, according to Herodotus.

Word of the Day for Friday, January 6, 2012

sprat \sprat\, noun:

1. A small or inconsequential person or thing.

2. A species of herring, Clupea sprattus, of the eastern North Atlantic.

The B.O. looks upon the electorate as nothing more than a bunch of illiterate sprats!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

How'd you get yourself into this, sprat, Bustard wanted to know.-- Gene Wolfe, Epiphany of the Long Sun

Edgerton was cursing, but Mr. Bullock just shook his head. "No, sir, don't say such things in front of the little sprat…"-- Catherine Coulter, Deception

Sprat is a variation of the Old English word sprot which meant "a sprout or twig." Its most common usage is in the nursery rhyme "Jack Sprat."

Word of the Day for Saturday, December 31, 2011

anamnesis \an-am-NEE-sis\, noun:

1. The recollection or remembrance of the past.

2. Platonism. Recollection of the Ideas, which the soul had known in a previous existence, especially by means of reasoning.

3. The medical history of a patient.

4. Immunology. A prompt immune response to a previously encountered antigen, characterized by more rapid onset and greater effectiveness of antibody and T cell reaction than during the first encounter, as after a booster shot in a previously immunized person.

5. (Often initial capital letter) a prayer in a Eucharistic service, recalling the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ.

Now as the clock struck 3:00 a.m. the B.O. knew that on the last bell another ghost would present himself; and as much as he wanted to be disappointed at a no-show ghost, the ghost of Presidents Future suddenly appeared before him.

"All right, ghost, let's get this stupid nonsense over with," the B.O. sneered with great disdain.

"B.O., you are a real piece of work. Maybe by seeing what will happen if you continue on the current path you are on you will consider changing your ways," the ghost retorted.

"Give me a break, I am the greatest President there ever has been or will be. I passed all of that legislation in my first two years in office, more than any other President in history."

"Maybe so, but let's look at the future, now that you have had a glimpse at the anamnesis of the past." They instantly were transported to future New York City, where they witnessed closed store after closed store. Soup lines were everywhere, and fires burned in old corporate buildings that used to house many of the great financial institutions. Then they went to city after city and witnessed the same thing - fires, roaming gangs, soup lines, broken down vehicles of all sorts abandoned on the roadsides.

"Take me to Washington D.C., you idiot. I want to see what's going on there," the B.O. snapped. "It couldn't be all that bad."

"That's a bad idea, B.O." the ghost said, but the B.O. was not to be dissuaded.

So they instantly appeared in front of the White House; it was more beautiful than he had remembered it, with the lawns perfectly manicured, trees and bushes trimmed, a fresh coat of paint on the house itself. They went to all of the government centers in D.C. where there was much hustle and bustle, with big new limos dropping off the workers at their places of work. There was no sign of the despair that he witnessed at the other cities, and the B.O. smiled.

"You sneaky ghost, you didn't want me to see how it really is here, did you?" the B.O. gleefully asked the ghost.

"But, B.O., what you saw in the other cities is how it really is. What you have seen here is not reality for the rest of America. This is an abomination of what the government should be. The government here is living in a bubble, not reality. If you don't change the course of this government now, what you have seen tonight in the other cities in America will become reality. Take heed, B.O." And with that the B.O. was back in the White House, still alone. "Gees, I'm glad that character is gone," he said as he dozed off in bed.

"The next morning he woke up, totally refreshed and invigorated. He hadn't felt this good since he had won the Presidency in 2008. The B.O. bounced out of bed and rushed over to the window and threw open the blinds. There were actually people walking around outside again, and things appeared to be back to normal.

"What day is today?" he yelled out the window to the gardener.

"Why, it's New Years Day, Mr. President.

"Splendid!" he yelled back down to the gardener.

The B.O. immediately went to his office and got his Chief of Staff on the phone. "Daley, get that engineer that designed the ObamaStar down in the Oval Office ASAP, I need to get a new one built that can withstand the gravitational pulls imposed on it by the earth, moon, and sun. It's a great day in the neighborhood, and an even better day to be the Emperor of the World!" And with that, the B.O. went away whistling and headed down to the gym to get some basketball time in before breakfast!
--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

When I was writing a novel about a fourteen-year-old girl, I must remember what I was like at fourteen, but this anamnesis is not a looking back, from my present chronological age, at Madeleine, aged fourteen.-- Madeleine L'Engle, The Irrational Season

The narrator of Dostoevsky's Dream of a Ridiculous Man visits in his sleep, in a state of anamnesis perhaps, a humanity living in the Golden Age before the loss of innocence and happiness.-- Czesław Miłosz, To Begin Where I Am: Selected Essays

Anamnesis is derived from the Greek roots ana (meaning “re”) and mimnḗskein (meaning “to call to mind”).

Word of the Day for Friday, December 30, 2011

lave \leyv\, verb:

1. To wash; bathe.

2. (Of a river, sea, etc.) to flow along, against, or past; wash.

3. Obsolete. To ladle; pour or dip with a ladle.

4. Archaic. To bathe.

noun:

1. The remainder; the rest.

adjective:

1. (Of ears) large and drooping.

By 2:00 a.m. the B.O. was quite worked up, not knowing what was going to happen next. He could scarcely believe that all of these bizarre occurrences had actually happened - first the ObamaStar falling out of the sky, then no one was home at the White House, and now ghosts! As the clock struck the second gong at 2:00, sure enough another ghost appeared.

"Hey, you look a lot like President Reagan."

The ghost ignored his comment, and then said "Oh stinky B.O., you need to lave yourself as you are truly living up to your initials! But enough of that, I need to show you a few things from the Presidents Present." And with that they were suddenly in the midst of a Chinese Central Committee meeting. The committee was presently discussing China's relationship with the United States.

"We need not fear them any longer, comrades. The B.O. has weakened them militarily so much that we can now fill the power vacuum left in the world. They have turned into a paper tiger. We must now build our own fleet of aircraft carriers that will soon rule the seven seas, just like the Americans used to do," scoffed Hu Jintao.

"Hey, they can't talk about us like that," the B.O. exclaimed.

"You need to see more, B.O." the ghost rejoined, and they now found themselves at a meeting between Putin and Medvedev.

"It looks like the game is back on, Dmitri. Those idiot Americans and their sniveling teleprompter president couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag. Their leadership in the world is non-existent, and I see our fortunes and leadership of the world rising. What a joke that B.O. is! Ha ha ha," he laughed with great contempt.

"Alright, ghost boy, I've had enough of this nonsense. I'm better and smarter than any of those jokers. Get me back to the White House - now," the B.O. demanded.

"Oh stinky B.O., you still haven't learned your lesson. You are in deeper dog doo than I thought!" exclaimed the ghost. And again the B.O. suddenly found himself back in his bedroom - alone!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

One must have a freshness of mind, a cleanliness of body. One must lave oneself in sparkling springs—-- Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy

And sit on the hearthstone so I may lave your alabaster skin with my own hands.-- Güneli Gün, On The Road to Baghdad

Lave may come from an Old English word gelafian meaning “to wash by pouring” or from the Latin word lavare meaning “to wash.”

Word of the Day for Thursday, December 29, 2011

interpolation \in-tur-puh-LEY-shuhn\, noun:

1. The act or process of introducing something additional or extraneous between other parts.

2. Something interpolated, as a passage introduced into a text.

3. Mathematics. A. The process of determining the value of a function between two points at which it has prescribed values. B. A similar process using more than two points at which the function has prescribed values. C. The process of approximating a given function by using its values at a discrete set of points.

"That was totally weird," the B.O. contemplated as he went into the White House. "As if I'M going to have 'A Christmas Carol' moment! I mean really!! But where is everybody, anyway? No one is here, all the lights are off, and the doors are all locked. I may be the Emperor of the World, but I am still the President of the United States, too."

The B.O. tried the phones and nothing was working. As it was now quite late, he decided to get some rest and sort it all out in the morning. He went upstairs to his bedroom and as he plopped himself down on his bed, an apparition appeared before him just as the clock was striking 1:00 a.m.

"Stinky B.O., I am the ghost of Presidents Past, and I am going to show you some things that you need to consider. You have ignored your country's history, and that has affected everyone's future. Come, let us go now."

The B.O. sat straight up and was in shock as he listened to the ghost of Presidents Past. "Who are you, really?" the B.O. demanded.

"Come, let us go now," the ghost said again, and all of a sudden they were standing before all of the Founding Fathers as they were all gathered around discussing the formation of the United States and getting ready to sign the Constitution. There they were, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and of course the great George Washington.

As they listened to and observed the proceedings, the ghost commented that there was little interpolation and nothing extraneous that was being added to the Constitution. Their concept of the Constitution was that it would be kept as simple as possible, thus keeping the federal government in check and not letting it get too big and powerful.

The B.O. scoffed at the very notion of keeping any government in check, and he commented as such to the ghost. "Oh, B.O., you still don't get it, do you? Perhaps the ghost of Presidents Present will help you to understand where you have gone wrong." And with that, the B.O. suddenly found himself back in his bedroom - alone!

--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog

When men interpolate, it is because they believe their interpolation seriously needed.-- Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

"I am inclined to think," he added after a moment, once he had their attention again, "that if some pages were interpolated it was either done around the time of the original edition, or now, in our time.-- Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Dumas Club

Interpolation is derived from the Latin word interpolātus, meaning “to refurbish or touch up.”