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Author Topic: New Word Of The Day Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-28-2006 06:28 AM                        Rated G superfluous \soo-PER-floo-us\, adjective: More than is wanted or is sufficient; rendered unnecessary by superabundance; unnecessary; useless; excessive. -- SUPERFLUOUSLY, adverb -- SUPERFLUOUSNESS, noun And it's hard to realize economies of scale without shedding superfluous jobs. -- "The Health of Valley Hospitals: Merger of Holy Cross, Providence Made Sense but Still Caused Pain," Los Angeles Times, July 27, 1999 Power Grubs make a dead skunk smell like a rose by comparison. The 'Not for human consumption' warning is superfluous. -- "Smelly grub a smash," Toronto Star, May 1, 1999 [E]verything superfluous is more noticeable in him [Hemmingway] than in other writers. -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "Gabriel Garcia Marquez Meets Ernest Hemingway," New York Times, July 26, 1981 An authority which makes all further argument or illustration superfluous. -- E. Everett Superfluous comes ultimately from the Latin superfluus, from superfluo, superfluere, to overflow, from super-, over, above + fluo, fluere, to flow.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-29-2006 07:34 AM                        Rated G invidious \in-VID-ee-uhs\, adjective: 1. Tending to provoke envy, resentment, or ill will. 2. Containing or implying a slight. 3. Envious. But to the human hordes of Amorites -- Semitic nomads wandering the mountains and deserts just beyond the pale of Sumer -- the tiered and clustered cities, strung out along the green banks of the meandering Euphrates like a giant's necklace of polished stone, seemed shining things, each surmounted by a wondrous temple and ziggurat dedicated to the city's god-protector, each city noted for some specialty -- all invidious reminders of what the nomads did not possess. -- Thomas Cahill, The Gifts of the Jews In his experience people were seldom happier for having learned what they were missing, and all Europe had done for his wife was encourage her natural inclination toward bitter and invidious comparison. -- Richard Russo, Empire Falls The lover's obsessiveness may also take the form of invidious comparisons between himself, or herself, and the rival. -- Ethel S. Person, "Love Triangles," The Atlantic, February 1988 For five decades, Indian liberals, and some from Europe and America, have been shaming the Western world with its commercialism, making invidious comparisons with Indian spirituality. -- Leland Hazard, "Strong Medicine for India," The Atlantic, December 1965 Invidious is from Latin invidiosus, "envious, hateful, causing hate or ill-feeling," from invidia, "envy," from invidere, "to look upon with the evil eye, to look maliciously upon, to envy," from in-, "upon" + videre, "to look at, to see."  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-30-2006 07:34 AM                        Rated G benignant \bih-NIG-nuhnt\, adjective: 1. Kind; gracious. 2. Beneficial; favorable. After the captain and ladies had sat down, the autocratic steward rang a second bell, and with a majestic wave of the hand, and a calm, benignant smile, signified his pleasure that we should sit down. -- Sir Henry Stanley, "Grand tours - Mind your manners at the captain's table," Independent, August 18, 2002 At the meeting it was strange to see, amidst the peaceful, benignant faces, this woe-begone old man, with his thick white hair and his deeply furrowed placid cheeks, looking wistfully from one to the other, and listening anxiously, hoping some day to hear the words which should bring peace to his soul. -- Alexander L. Kielland, Skipper Worse Human beings . . . are forever ascribing malignant or benignant motives even to inanimate forces such as the weather, volcanoes, and internal-combustion engines. -- Stephen Budiansky, "The Truth About Dogs," The Atlantic, July 1999 Benignant comes from the present participle of Late Latin benignare, from Latin benignus, "kind, friendly."  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-31-2006 05:50 AM                        Rated G edacious \i-DAY-shus\, adjective: Given to eating; voracious; devouring. Swallowed in the depths of edacious Time. -- Thomas Carlyle [S]omething that... will dismay edacious lips. -- "The late showman", Independent, August 21, 1999 Our... high-toned irritability, edacious appetites, and pampered constitutions. -- Isaac Taylor, Natural History of Enthusiasm Edacious is from Latin edax, edac-, gluttonous, consuming, from edo, edere, to eat.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-01-2006 06:49 AM                        Rated G chicanery \shih-KAY-nuh-ree\, noun: 1. The use of trickery or sophistry to deceive (as in matters of law). 2. A trick; a subterfuge. Wordsworth's paternal grandfather, Richard, had first come to Westmorland from South Yorkshire in 1700, to recoup his fortunes with the then baron Lonsdale, having been done out of his fortune by his own guardian's chicanery. -- Kenneth R. Johnston, The Hidden Wordsworth True, Gramm-Rudman's deficit targets were often met only by chicanery -- by anticipating revenues and moving expenses off-budget. -- David Frum, "Righter Than Newt", The Atlantic, March 1995 What is more, it can be deliberately adulterated by the farmer with sand, tree sap or ash, although a trained opium buyer can spot these tricks and few farmers dare resort to such chicanery. -- Martin Booth, Opium: A History Chicanery comes from French chicaner, "to quibble, to use tricks," perhaps from Middle Low German schicken, "to arrange," with the sense "to arrange to one's own advantage."  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 04-02-2006 12:00 PM                        Rated G defenestrate \dee-FEN-uh-strayt\, transitive verb: To throw out of a window. Some of his apparent chums . . . would still happily defenestrate him if they caught him near a window. -- Andrew Marr, "No option bar the radical one", Independent, July 5, 1994 I defenestrated a clock to see if time flies! -- Lane Smith, quoted in "Who's News", Time for Kids, September 25, 1998 A woman, driven to fury by the manner in which her lover prefers to lavish his attention on a match on the telly rather than her, starts to throw his possessions out of the window. He's finally moved to stop her when she tries to defenestrate his new Puma boots. -- Jim White, "Budgets substantial enough to buy most of the clubs in the Endsleigh", Independent, April 6, 1996 Defenestrate is derived from Latin de-, "out of" + fenestra, "window." The noun form is defenestration. [ 04-04-2006, 11:51 AM: Message edited by: Paul Mayer ]  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 04-03-2006 11:07 AM                        Rated G martinet \mar-t'n-ET\, noun: 1. A strict disciplinarian. 2. One who lays stress on a rigid adherence to the details of forms and methods. He is an unmitigated tyrant, a martinet, the sort of man who disapproves of his son's eating the morning oatmeal with sugar -- instead of salt, which he himself prefers. -- David Quammen, "Punishing Natty", New York Times, April 14, 1985 His insistence on strict discipline began to earn him a reputation among his men as an unfeeling martinet. -- Michiko Kakutani, "Still Pondering the Myth Of Custer's Last Stand", New York Times, May 28, 1996 At first, the recruits hate and fear the sergeant, but gradually they come to realize that he's been turning them into soldiers. It is the example of this unlovable martinet, not the "Good Joe" who replaces him, that will help them survive in combat. -- Anthony Quinn, "Revolutionary Dead Ends", New York Times, April 29, 2001 Players coached by him have cursed the day they ever set sight on such a merciless martinet. -- Gerry Thornley, "Chief architect oversees grand plan", Irish Times, February 19, 2000 A martinet is so called after an officer of that name in the French army under Louis XIV. [ 04-04-2006, 11:49 AM: Message edited by: Paul Mayer ]  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 04-04-2006 11:48 AM                        Rated G brummagem \BRUHM-uh-juhm\, adjective: Cheap and showy, tawdry; also, spurious, counterfeit. But demanding that publishers replace their brummagem wares with books which embody Kunin's "high standards of excellence" would be a promising -- and cost-free -- way to begin. -- Betty McCollister, "A Conspiracy of Good Intentions: America's Textbook Fiasco", Humanist, November-December, 1993 The distortions they bring on damage society and fuel defiant behavior, encouraging everything from immigrations to the Cayman Islands, to active distortions of reality through brummagem corporate filings. -- William F. Buckley, Jr., "Reforming the Rich", National Review, January 20, 2006 Brummagem is an alteration of Birmingham, England, from the counterfeit groats produced there in the 17th century.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-05-2006 06:51 AM                        Rated G cum \KUM; KUHM\, preposition: With; along with; combined with; -- often used in combination. In 1999 he finished converting an old dairy into a sort of village -- a hip warren of apartments adjoining a restaurant and bar, some art galleries, some studios, and an "e-mat" (a laundromat-cum-cybercafé). -- Bill Donahue, "Byte, Byte, Against the Dying of the Light", The Atlantic, May 2001 Pretty soon, we're digging up the lunch, washing it off at a stand pipe and heading for the shed-cum-kitchen, where the two burners are quickly pressed into working overtime. -- Bob Granleese, "A bumper crop", The Guardian, September 14, 2002 The memorial service cum political rally for Senator Wellstone brought the sacred low. -- William J. Bennett, "A Party of Corruption?", National Review, November 4, 2002 Mark Humphrey, the rising star among interior designers, has created a highly-collectable dual-function, chrome and walnut candlestick-cum-rose vase. -- Nick Pandya, "Making Christmas a one-off", The Guardian, November 2, 2002 Cum is from the Latin cum, "with."  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-06-2006 06:07 AM                        Rated G hobbledehoy \HOB-uhl-dee-hoy\, noun: An awkward, gawky young fellow. For early on, girls become aware -- as much from their fathers' anguished bellows of "You're not going out dressed like that, Miss" as from the buffoonish reactions of the spotty hobbledehoys at the end-of-term disco -- of the power of clothes to seduce. -- Jane Shilling, "Soft-centred punk", Times (London), October 27, 2000 His memories, even only reveries, of incomparable women, made me feel like a hulking hobbledehoy. -- Edith Anderson, Love in Exile Unfortunately, they have to contend with ignorant hobbledehoys who, on seeing these rows of shingle heaps, feel compelled to jump on them. -- Susan Campbell, "He grows seakale on the seashore", Daily Telegraph, March 27, 1999 The origin of hobbledehoy is unknown, though it perhaps derives from hobble, from the awkward movements of a clumsy adolescent.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-07-2006 05:54 AM                        Rated G fustian \FUHS-chuhn\, noun:[/b] 1. A kind of coarse twilled cotton or cotton and linen stuff, including corduroy, velveteen, etc. 2. An inflated style of writing or speech; pompous or pretentious language. adjective: 1. Made of fustian. 2. Pompous; ridiculously inflated; bombastic. Don't squander the court's patience puffing your cheeks up on stately bombast and lofty fustian. Speak plainly! -- Richard Dooling, Brain Storm His stated motive is to meet "the flood of cant, fustian and emotional nonsense which pollutes the intellectual atmosphere." -- Walter H. Waggoner, "Joseph W. Bishop Jr., Law Professor and Author", New York Times, May 21, 1985 It would take a stout heart to read through all the loyal effusions and fustian birthday odes of the 18th-century laureates -- Nahum Tate, Colley Cibber and the rest. -- John Gross, "In Search of a Laureate: Making Book on Britain's Next Official Poet", New York Times, July 15, 1984 Fustian derives from Old French fustaigne, from Medieval Latin fustaneum, but its precise roots beyond that point are uncertain.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-08-2006 10:26 AM                        Rated G bonhomie \bah-nuh-MEE\, noun: Good nature; pleasant and easy manner. That bonhomie which won the hearts of all who knew him. -- Washington Irving, Oliver Goldsmith And what of the salesman's fabled bonhomie, the Willy Lomanesque emphasis on the importance of being liked? -- "How to Manage Salespeople", Fortune, March 14, 1988 I would carefully study the exploits of positiverole models like Peter Gabriel, Jimmy Carter, and Alec Baldwin, andattempt to emulate their radiant bonhomie. -- Joe Queenan, My Goodness: A Cynic's Short-Lived Search for Sainthood. Bonhomie comes from French, from bonhomme, "good-natured man," from bon, "good" (from Latin bonus) + homme, "man" (from Latin homo).  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-09-2006 08:57 AM                        Rated G rusticate \RUHS-tih-kayt\, intransitive verb: 1. To go into or reside in the country; to pursue a rustic life. transitive verb: 1. To require or compel to reside in the country; to banish or send away temporarily. 2. (Chiefly British). To suspend from school or college. 3. To build with usually rough-surfaced masonry blocks having beveled or rebated edges producing pronounced joints. 4. To lend a rustic character to; to cause to become rustic. Ezra holds out in London, and refuses to rusticate. -- T. S. Eliot to Conrad Aiken, "21 August 1916", The Letters of T. S. Eliot: Volume I, 1898-1922 edited by Valerie Eliot For the longest time, we're stuck in a cabin hewn out of the ground in a parcel of woods as the boys hide and mend; for another, we rusticate on a farm bounded by fields that must be tilled by the hard labor of man and beast. -- Stephen Hunter, "When Johnny Doesn't Come Marching Home", Washington Post, December 17, 1999 Czechoslovak Communists would imprison or rusticate those who had been active in the Prague Spring. -- Charles S. Maier, Dissolution Rusticate comes from the past participle of Latin rusticari, "to live in the country," from rusticus, "rural, rustic[/b[," from [b]rus, "the country."  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-10-2006 05:47 AM                        Rated G stripling \STRIP-ling\, noun: A youth in the state of adolescence, or just passing from boyhood to manhood; a lad. But at that time he was too young to drive a car, and I wasn't, so I took it upon myself to tell the stripling a thing or two. -- Geoffrey Wolff, "Advice My Brother Never Took", New York Times, August 20, 1989 It is even possible that some . . . who might be thought to have a chance of election as Pope because of their youthful vigour -- by Vatican standards, a man of 60 is a stripling -- will see their chances come and go in turn. -- Andrew Medichini, "Cardinal secrets", Times (London), January 23, 2001 There are precious few constants in the story of the yen. For a start, it is a stripling among the monies of the world, being not much more than a century old. -- Pico Iyer, "Tacos in Kyoto, Kimonos in Peru", New York Times, April 28, 1991 Stripling is a diminutive of strip, as if a small strip from the main stock or stem.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-11-2006 06:10 AM                        Rated G panoply \PAN-uh-plee\, noun: 1. A splendid or impressive array. 2. Ceremonial attire. 3. A full suit of armor; a complete defense or covering. Every step taken to that end which appeases the obsolete hatreds and vanished oppressions, which makes easier the traffic and reciprocal services of Europe, which encourages nations to lay aside their precautionary panoply, is good in itself. -- Winston Churchill, quoted in This Blessed Plot, by Hugo Young The beige plastic bedpan that had come home from the hospital with him after his deviated-septum operation . . . now held ail his razors and combs and the panoply of gleaming instruments he employed to trim the hair that grew from the various features of his face. -- Michael Chabon, Werewolves in Their Youth To the east, out over the Ocean, the winter sky is a brilliant panoply of stars and comets, beckoning to adventurers, wise and foolish alike, who seek to divine its mysteries. -- Ben Green, Before His Time Labor was hard pressed to hold the line against erosion of its hard-won social wage: the panoply of government-paid benefits such as unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, Medicare, and Social Security. -- Stanley Aronowitz, From the Ashes of the Old Panoply is from Greek panoplia, "a full suit of armor," from pan, "all" + hoplia, "arms, armor," plural of hoplon, "implement, weapon."  |  IP: Logged

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