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Post by samSForce on Dec 22, 2007 23:55:00 GMT -5
www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl" The Word of the Day for December 22, 2007 is:prerogative • \prih-RAH-guh-tiv\ • noun 1 a : an exclusive or special right, power, or privilege: as b : one belonging to an office or an official body *c : one belonging to a person, group, or class of individuals d : one possessed by a nation as an attribute of sovereignty 2 : a distinctive excellence Example Sentence: How Amy spends her money is none of our business, and if she wants to use all her savings to buy that sports car, it's her prerogative. Did you know? In ancient Rome, voting at legal assemblies was done by group, with the majority in a group determining its vote. The group chosen to vote first on an issue was called the "praerogativa" (that term traces to a verb meaning "to ask for an opinion before another"). Because the first vote was considered to be of great importance, Latin speakers also used the noun "praerogativa" to mean "preference" and later "privilege." As "praerogativa" passed through Anglo-French and Middle English, its spelling shifted to create the noun we know today. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. " [Agent:1]
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Post by melody on Dec 23, 2007 0:13:38 GMT -5
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Post by samSForce on Dec 23, 2007 7:41:15 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for December 23, 2007 is: rescind • \rih-SIND\ • verb 1 : to take away : remove *2 : take back : cancel 3 : to make void (as an act) by action of the enacting authority or a superior authority : repeal Example Sentence: The union rescinded its call for a strike when management agreed to many of the workers' demands. Did you know? "Rescind" and the lesser-known words "exscind" and "prescind" all come from the Latin verb "scindere," which means "to cut" or "to split." "Rescind" was adapted from its Latin predecessor "rescindere" in the second half of the 16th century, and "prescind" (from "praescindere") and "exscind" (from "exscindere") followed in the mid-17th century. "Exscind" means "to cut off" or "to excise," and "prescind" means "to withdraw one's attention," but neither appears frequently in contemporary English. Of the three borrowings, only "rescind" established itself as a common English term. You might hear of someone rescinding a contract or an offer, or of a legislative body rescinding a law.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
[Agent:1]
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Post by samSForce on Dec 24, 2007 11:53:07 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for December 24, 2007 is: kith • \KITH\ • noun : familiar friends, neighbors, or relatives Example Sentence: Andre makes it a point to have at least one barbecue a year at his house in order to stay in touch with his kith and kin. Did you know? "Kith" has had many meanings over the years. In its earliest uses it referred to knowledge of something, but that meaning died out in the 1400s. Another sense, "one's native land," had come and gone by the early 1500s. The sense "friends, fellow countrymen, or neighbors" developed before the 12th century and was sometimes used as a synonym of "kinsfolk." That last sense got "kith" into hot water after people began using the word in the alliterative phrase "kith and kin." Over the years, usage commentators have complained that "kith" means the same thing as "kin," so "kith and kin" is redundant. Clearly, they have overlooked some other historical definitions, but if you want to avoid redundancy charges, be sure to include friends as well as relatives among your "kith and kin."
[Agent:1]
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Post by samSForce on Dec 25, 2007 7:46:04 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for December 25, 2007 is: grinch • \GRINCH\ • noun : killjoy, spoilsport Example Sentence: Our team had improved significantly over the past week, but the grinches were still pointing out that we were more than ten games out of first place. Did you know? When Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, wrote the children's book How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 1957, he probably had no idea that in 20 years "grinch" would enter the general lexicon of English. Like Charles dongens' Ebenezer Scrooge (whose name has become synonymous with "miser"), the Grinch changes his ways by the story's end, but it's the unreformed character who "hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!" who sticks in our minds. The ill-natured Grinch, with his heart "two sizes too small," provides us with a lively symbol of someone we love to hate, and his name has thus come to refer to any disgruntled grump who ruins the pleasure of others.
[Agent:1]
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Post by samSForce on Dec 26, 2007 9:07:40 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for December 26, 2007 is: conciliate • \kun-SILL-ee-ayt\ • verb 1 : to gain (as goodwill) by pleasing acts 2 : to make compatible : reconcile *3 : appease Example Sentence: City Councilor Nguyen approved the closing of the branch library and later attempted to conciliate his constituents by pushing for free bus service to the main library. Did you know? A council is "an assembly or meeting for consultation, advice, or discussion," and it is often the task of a council to conciliate opposing views. It seems fitting, therefore, that the words "council" and "conciliate" both derive from the Latin word "concilium," which means "assembly" or "council." "Conciliate" comes to us from the Latin "conciliatus," the past participle of the verb "conciliare" (meaning "to assemble, unite, win over"), which in turn is from "concilium." ("Council," on the other hand, derives from the Anglo-French "cunseil" or "cuncile," from "concilium.") Other "concilium" descendants in English include "conciliar" ("of, relating to, or issued by a council") and the rare "conciliabule" ("a clandestine meeting especially of conspirators or rebels").
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
[Agent:1]
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Post by samSForce on Dec 27, 2007 9:53:36 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for December 27, 2007 is: afflatus • \uh-FLAY-tus\ • noun : a divine imparting of knowledge or power : inspiration Example Sentence: Gus insists that his musical compositions are the result of hard work, not afflatus. Did you know? Inspiration might be described as a breath of fresh air, and so it is appropriate that "inspire" derives in part from a word meaning "to breathe" (the Latin "spirare"). "Afflatus" is a lesser-known word for inspiration that followed a parallel route. "Afflatus," which in Latin means "the act of blowing or breathing on," was formed from the prefix "ad-" ("to, toward") and the Latin verb "flare" ("to blow"). That same Latin verb gave us such words as "inflate" and (via French) "soufflé." The orator Cicero used "afflatus" in his Latin writings to compare the appearance of a new idea to a breath of fresh air. Nowadays, one often finds the word preceded by the adjective "divine," but poets and artists can find inspiration in the material world as well.
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Post by samSForce on Dec 29, 2007 7:31:35 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for December 28, 2007 is: opprobrium • \uh-PROH-bree-um\ • noun 1 : something that brings disgrace 2 a : public disgrace or ill fame that follows from conduct considered grossly wrong or vicious *b : contempt, reproach Example Sentence: The athlete's admission of using steroids earned her much opprobrium from former fans. Did you know? "Opprobrium" was borrowed into English from Latin in the 17th century. It came from the Latin verb "opprobrare," which means "to reproach." That verb in turn came from the noun "probrum," meaning "disgraceful act" or "reproach." These gave us "opprobrium" as well as its adjective form "opprobrious," which means "scurrilous" or "infamous." One might commit an "opprobrious crime" or be berated with "opprobrious language." "Probrum" gave English another word too, but you might have a little trouble guessing it. It's "exprobrate," an archaic synonym of "censure" or "upbraid."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by samSForce on Dec 29, 2007 7:32:08 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for December 29, 2007 is: prudent • \PROO-dunt\ • adjective *1 : marked by wisdom or judiciousness 2 : shrewd in the management of practical affairs 3 : cautious, discreet 4 : thrifty, frugal Example Sentence: The lawyer offered several prudent suggestions. Did you know? "Prudent" arrived in Middle English around the 14th century and traces back, by way of Middle French, to the Latin verb "providçre," meaning "to see ahead, foresee, provide (for)." "Providçre" combines "pro-," meaning "before," and "vidçre," meaning "to see," and it may look familiar to you; it is also the source of our "provide," "provident," "provision," and "improvise." "Vidçre" also has many English offspring, including "evident," "supervise," "video," and "vision."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by daboogas94e on Dec 30, 2007 1:43:20 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for December 30, 2007 is: brusque • \BRUSK\ • adjective
1 : markedly short and abrupt
*2 : blunt in manner or speech often to the point of ungracious harshness
Example Sentence: Her brusque manner, often mistaken by others as unfriendliness, is actually caused by extreme shyness. Did you know? We borrowed "brusque" from French in the 1600s. The French, in turn, had borrowed it from Italian, where it was spelled "brusco" and meant "tart." And the Italian term came from "bruscus," the Medieval Latin name for butcher's-broom, a shrub whose bristly leaf-like twigs have long been used for making brooms. English speakers initially used "brusque" to refer to a tartness in wine, but the word soon came to denote a harsh and stiff manner -- which is just what you might expect of a word bristling with associations to stiff, scratchy brooms.
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Post by samSForce on Jan 2, 2008 7:05:35 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for January 01, 2008 is: Methuselah • \muh-THOO-zuh-luh\ • noun 1 : an ancestor of Noah held to have lived 969 years *2 : an oversize wine bottle holding about six liters Example Sentence: William's colleagues brought him a Methuselah of champagne to celebrate his retirement, and there was still half a bottle left after all the glasses were poured. Did you know? What do Jeroboam, Methuselah, Salmanazar, Balthazar, and Nebuchadnezzar have in common? Larger-than-life biblical figures all, yes (four kings and a venerable patriarch), but they're all also names of oversized wine bottles. A Jeroboam is the equivalent of about four 750-milliliter bottles (about 3 liters). One Methuselah holds about eight standard bottles' worth, a Salmanazar 12, a Balthazar 16, and a Nebuchadnezzar a whopping 20. No one knows who decided to use those names for bottles, but we do know that by the 1800s "Jeroboam" was being used for large goblets or "enormous bottles of fabulous content." Later, sometime early in the 20th century, "Methuselah" and all the other names were chosen for specific bottle sizes.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by samSForce on Jan 2, 2008 7:06:11 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for January 02, 2008 is: syllabub • \SILL-uh-bub\ • noun : milk or cream that is curdled with an acid beverage (as wine or cider) and often sweetened and served as a drink or topping or thickened with gelatin and served as a dessert Example Sentence: On special occasions, grandma would serve syllabub for dessert. Did you know? Syllabub's a concoction whose name has had almost as many variations as there are versions of how to make it: "solybubbe," "sullabub," "sullibib," "sellibub," "sallibube," "sillie bube," "sillybob" -- even "sillibucke" and "silly-bauk" in some dialects. There are theories about the word's origins, but no one knows for sure where the name came from. (There's no connection to "silly," as far as we know, though imbibing it might make one act that way.) We do know that both the name "syllabub" and the concoction itself go back to at least the 16th century. Today, we're more likely to encounter "syllabub" in a historical novel than on the menu at a local drinking spot, at least in the United States, but those fortunate enough to taste the drink/dessert often give it rave reviews.
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Post by Stan on Jan 3, 2008 12:41:03 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for January 03, 2008 is: facile • \FASS-ul\ • adjective 1 a : easily accomplished, handled, or attained *b : shallow, superficial 2 a : ready, fluent b : poised, assured Example Sentence: The book is well-organized, but the author's conclusions are unduly facile. Did you know? Would you have guessed that "facile" and "difficult" are related? They are! "Facile" comes to us through Middle French, from the Latin word "facilis," meaning "easy," and ultimately from "facere," meaning "to make or do." "Difficult" traces to "facilis" as well, but its history also involves the negative prefix "dis-," meaning "not." "Facile" can mean "easy" or "easily done," as befits its Latin roots, but it now often adds the connotation of undue haste or shallowness, as in "facile answers to complex questions."
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Post by samSForce on Jan 3, 2008 12:46:11 GMT -5
Thanks, Stan! I have so many sections on samSForce that have become an "update daily" type-of-thing.....and, sometimes I forget one or two of them....so, thanks for watching out....if I ever miss something, or if anyone just wants to help samSForce....there are alot of things that could be cut and pasted really easily.....like news/blog articles, etc.....and, of course, the word of the day .....i think this is a cool section....iv'e been...well...learning something new everyday lol
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Post by Stan on Jan 3, 2008 12:47:28 GMT -5
lol, I gotcha back.
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