Tag: Word of the Day

Word of the day

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ser·pen·tine
[ˈsərpənˌtēn, ˈsərpənˌtīn]

ADJECTIVE
of or like a serpent or snake.
“serpentine coils”
winding and twisting like a snake.
“serpentine country lanes”

 
synonyms
winding · windy · zigzag · zigzagging · twisting · twisty · turning · meandering · curving · sinuous · snaking · snaky · tortuous · anfractuous · flexuous · meandrous · serpentiform
antonyms:
straight
complex, cunning, or treacherous.
“his charm was too subtle and serpentine for me”
synonyms:
complicated · intricate · complex · involved · tortuous · convoluted · tangled · elaborate · knotty · confusing · bewildering · baffling · inextricable · entangled · impenetrable · Byzantine · Daedalian · Gordian · involute · involuted
antonyms:
straightforward · simple
NOUN
a dark green mineral consisting of hydrated magnesium silicate, sometimes mottled or spotted like a snake’s skin.
a riding exercise consisting of a series of half-circles made alternately to right and left.
historical
a kind of cannon, used especially in the 15th and 16th centuries.
VERB
serpentines (third person present) · serpentined (past tense) · serpentined (past participle) · serpentining (present participle)
move or lie in a winding path or line.
“fresh tire tracks serpentined back toward the hopper”

ORIGIN
late Middle English: via Old French from late Latin serpentinus ( see serpent).

Word of the day

quip

noun

Definition
1 a : a clever usually taunting remark : gibe
b : a witty or funny observation or response usually made on the spur of the moment
2 : quibble, equivocation
3 : something strange, droll, curious, or eccentric : oddity

Did You Know?
Quip is an abbreviation of quippy, a noun that is no longer in use. Etymologists believe that quippyderived from the Latin quippe, a word meaning “indeed” or “to be sure” that was often used ironically. The earliest sense of quip, referring to a cutting or sarcastic remark, was common for approximately a century after it first appeared in print in the early 1500s. It then fell out of use until the beginning of the 19th century, when it underwent a revival that continues to the present day.
Examples
To almost every comment I made, Adam responded with a quip and a smile.
“The cancellation of the CW network’s ‘Veronica Mars’ after three precious, ratings-starved seasons was a TV tragedy. Viewers reluctantly moved on, but we did not forget the girl who was quick with a quip, and perhaps even quicker with a taser.” — Karla Peterson, The San Diego Union Tribune, 25 Aug. 2018

Word of the day

Word of the Day : October 9, 2018

ambivalent

adjective am-BIV-uh-lunt
Definition
: having or showing simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings toward something : characterized by ambivalence

Did You Know?
The words ambivalent and ambivalence entered English during the early 20th century in the field of psychology. They came to us through the International Scientific Vocabulary, a set of words common to people of science who speak different languages. The prefix ambi- means “both,” and the -valent and -valence parts ultimately derive from the Latin verb valēre, meaning “to be strong.” Not surprisingly, an ambivalent person is someone who has strong feelings on more than one side of a question or issue.

 

Examples
Bianca was ambivalent about starting her first year away at college—excited for the new opportunities that awaited but sad to leave her friends and family back home.
“A new study from LinkedIn found that many people feel ambivalent in their careers—wondering if they should stay in the same job or take time to invest in learning new skills or even change to a new path altogether.” — Shelcy V. Joseph, Forbes, 3 Sept. 2018

Word of the day

 

philomath

Also found in: Thesaurus, Wikipedia.

philomath

(ˈfɪləˌmæθ)

n

a person who enjoys learning new facts and acquiring new knowledge
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
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Noun 1. philomath – a lover of learning

bookman, scholar, scholarly person, student – a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

Word of the day

Word of the Day : October 5, 2018

peripeteia

noun pair-uh-puh-TEE-uh

Definition
: a sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances or situation especially in a literary work

Did You Know?
Peripeteia comes from Greek, in which the verb peripiptein means “to fall around” or “to change suddenly.” It usually indicates a turning point in a drama after which the plot moves steadily to its denouement. In his Poetics, Aristotle describes peripeteia as the shift of the tragic protagonist’s fortune from good to bad—a shift that is essential to the plot of a tragedy. The term is also occasionally used of a similar change in actual affairs. For example, in a 2006 article in The New York Times, Michael Cooper described William Weld’s second term as Massachusetts’ governor as “political peripeteia”: it “began with a landslide victory and ended with frustrated hopes and his resignation.”

Examples
The novel is populated by a number of secondary characters, each of whom plays a crucial role in the protagonist’s peripeteia.
“Before ever writing Chapter one, he will write synopsis after synopsis, for up to a year, ironing out all the wrinkles, developing not just plot and peripeteia (or twists) but character.” — Andy Martin, The Independent, 25 Nov. 2016

Word of the day

Word of the Day : October 3, 2018

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Weltschmerz

noun VELT-shmairts

Definition
1 often capitalized Weltschmerz : mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state
2 often capitalized Weltschmerz : a mood of sentimental sadness

Did You Know?
The word weltschmerz initially came into being as a by-product of the European Romanticism movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A combining of the German words for “world” (Welt) and “pain” (Schmerz), weltschmerz aptly captures the melancholy and pessimism that often characterized the artistic expressions of the era. The term was used in German by the Romantic author Jean Paul (pseudonym of Johann Paul Friedrich Richter) in his 1827 novel Selina, but it wasn’t adopted into English until the middle of the 19th century.

Examples
Carson found himself plunging into a state of Weltschmerz as he grew older and discovered that the world was much more complicated than he had envisioned as a youth.
“The mad narrator or central figure is in a world that may be experienced as confusing, grotesque or volatile; above all, it is private, closed in on itself, unavailable to outsiders.… The notion of insanity as a kind of extreme loneliness is good for a wallow in adolescent-romantic weltschmerz, if not much else.” — Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed, 29 June 2018

Word of the day

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https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/manifesto-2018-10-01

Word of the Day : October 1, 2018

manifesto 

noun man-uh-FESS-toh

Definition
: a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer

Did You Know?
Manifesto is related to manifest, which occurs in English as a noun, verb, and adjective. Of these, the adjective, which means “readily perceived by the senses,” is oldest, dating to the 14th century. Both manifest and manifesto derive ultimately from the Latin noun manus (“hand”) and -festus, a combining form of uncertain meaning that is also found in the Latin adjective infestus (“hostile”), an ancestor of the English infest. Something that is manifest is easy to perceive or recognize, and a manifesto is a statement in which someone makes his or her intentions or views easy for people to ascertain. Perhaps the most well-known statement of this sort is the Communist Manifesto, written in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to outline the platform of the Communist League.

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Examples
“Mr. Eddie Lampert, the chairman of Sears Holdings and mastermind of the Kmart/Sears merger … famously published a 15-page manifesto in 2009 which covered everything from the economic meltdown to civil liberties, and contained a suggested reading list that included free-market Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek.” — Mary Jane Quirk, Consumerist, 8 Jan. 2013
“American Audacity is the rare example of a collection that coheres into a manifesto. Its essays were published during the last seven years, many in The New Republic and The Daily Beast, on topics as various as the art of hate mail, Herman Melville’s life and the Boston Marathon bombing….” — Nathaniel Rich, The New York Times, 19 Aug. 2018

Quote of the day/Word of the day Share

Quote of the day!

“Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed — else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.”

― Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Word of the day!

prov·e·nance
[ˈprävənəns]

NOUN
the place of origin or earliest known history of something.
“an orange rug of Iranian provenance”
synonyms: origin · source · place of origin · birthplace · spring · wellspring · fount · roots · history · pedigree · derivation · root · etymology · provenience · radix
the beginning of something’s existence; something’s origin.
“they try to understand the whole universe, its provenance and fate”
a record of ownership of a work of art or an antique, used as a guide to authenticity or quality.
“the manuscript has a distinguished provenance”

ORIGIN
late 18th century: from French, from the verb provenir ‘come or stem from’, from Latin provenire, from pro- ‘forth’ + venire ‘come’.