Word of the Day!

Remove all ads!

Being election week, I've seen many candidates with Inscrutable reputataions parlay for a chance to impact the gubernatorial elections.

 

Finally, a word of the day that I actually know already (parley)! I was beginning to think about how small my vocabulary is.

 

Here you go...Add this one to your repertoire:

clarion \KLAIR-ee-uhn\, noun:
1. A kind of trumpet having a clear and shrill note.
2. The sound of this instrument or a sound similar to it.

adjective:
Sounding like the clarion; loud and clear.

His voice and laugh, which perpetually re-echoed through
the Custom-House, had nothing of the tremulous quaver and
cackle of an old man's utterance; they came strutting out
of his lungs, like the crow of a cock, or the blast of a
clarion.
--Nathaniel Hawthorne, [1]The Scarlet Letter

Their voices were different; my grandfather's was high and
clarion, Freddie's bass was rough, my father's baritone was
mellow and expressive, but they blended so naturally that
together they sounded like one being.
--Deborah Weisgall, [2]A Joyful Noise

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again,"
wrote Thomas Paine in Common Sense (1776), his clarion call
for American independence.
--Robert Famighetti, et al. (Editor(s)), [3]The World
Almanac and Book of Facts 1999

Others will decide that the disaster is a clarion call to
spend more time with their families or finally pursue some
personal goal.
--Susan Chandler, "Shaken consumers come back," [4]Chicago
Tribune, September 16, 2001
__________________________________________________

Clarion comes from Medieval Latin clario, clarion-, from Latin
clarus, "clear."

Gahhhh!!!! I was the last person to post...Oh well, here's your word of the day for Wednesday. Enjoy!

Word of the Day for Wednesday November 6, 2002

circumambient \sur-kuhm-AM-bee-uhnt\, adjective:
Surrounding; being on all sides; encompassing.

The self owes its form and perhaps its very existence to
the circumambient social order.
--Rom Harre, Personal Being: A Theory for Individual
Psychology

Facing reality, then, implies accepting one's essential
powerlessness, yielding or adjusting to circumambient
forces, taking solace in some local pattern or order that
one has created and to which one has become habituated.
--Yi-Fu Tuan, [1]Escapism

It's a voice that does something physical to me, that jumps
out of the circumambient air and seizes hold of me like a
thing that lives off the blood of other things.
--T.C. Boyle, [2]A Friend of the Earth

Romantic love... rarefies lust into an angelic standoff,
a fruitless longing without which our energizing
circumambient dreamland of song, film and fiction would be
bereft of its main topic.
--John Updike, "The Deadly Sins/Lust," [3]New York Times,
June 20, 1993
__________________________________________________

Circumambient is from Latin circum, "around, round about, on
all sides" + ambire, "to go around, to surround," from amb-,
"on both sides, around" + ire, "to go."

Word of the Day for Thursday November 7, 2002

trammel \TRAM-uhl\, noun:
1. A kind of net for catching birds, fish, etc.
2. A kind of shackle used for making a horse amble.
3. Something that impedes activity, progress, or freedom, as a
net or shackle.
4. An iron hook of various forms and sizes, used for handing
kettles and other vessels over the fire.
5. An instrument for drawing ellipses.
6. An instrument for aligning or adjusting parts of a machine.

transitive verb:
1. To entangle, as in a net; to enmesh.
2. To hamper; to hinder the activity, progress, or freedom of.

I feel she dances a symbol of human happiness as it should
be, free from unnatural trammels.
--John Sloan, quoted in [1]New York Modern, by William B.
Scott and Peter M. Rutkoff

Is it a dull or uninstructive picture to see a whole people
shaking suddenly off the trammels of reason, and running
wild after a golden vision, refusing obstinately to believe
that it is not real, till, like a deluded hind running
after an ignis fatuus, they are plunged into a quagmire?
--Charles Mackay, [2]Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular
Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

In fact, corporate governance is based on the belief that
managers (like anyone else) work best not when their
freedom is trammelled but when they are made to account for
what they do with it.
--"The way ahead," [3]The Economist, January 29, 1994

It is quite inconsistent to claim to promote an enterprise
society on the one hand and to trammel it with regulations
on the other.
--Sir Iain Vallance, quoted in "Stop squeezing business,
CBI," by Charlotte Denny and Michael White, [4]Guardian,
May 22, 2002

And it encourages the coercive use of political power to
wipe out choice, forbid experimentation, shortcircuit
feedback, and trammel progress.
--Virginia Postrel, [5]The Future and Its Enemies
__________________________________________________

Trammel is from Old French tramail, from Late Latin
tremaculum, a kind of net for catching fish, from Latin tres,
"three" + macula, "a mesh."

[ November 07, 2002, 13:53: Message edited by: Sir Belisarius ]

 

We have to keep this thread going!

My brain is growing by the day (and when the word "exponentially" is the Word of the Day I'll be able to say that my brain is growing exponentially!)

 

Sounds like an oxymoron to me. "Circumambient clarion?" Is that like a vague clear call?

 

A thousand pardons, I was looking at the wrong definition... doh.

 

Finally!!! Others have posted...So I can post the Happy Friday Word of the Day! This seems to be my perrenial matutinal job! Have fun with it!

Word of the Day for Friday November 8, 2002

matutinal \muh-TOOT-nn-uhl\, adjective:
Relating to or occurring in the morning; early.

Get up early and wash your face in the matutinal May Day
dew; it will make your skin beautiful and your heart pure.
--Ray Murphy, "Hurray, Hurray the Month of May," [1]Boston
Globe, April 28, 1988

We had to rehearse at an hour at which no actor or actress
has been out of bed within the memory of man; and we
sardonically congratulated one another every morning on our
rosy matutinal looks and the improvement wrought by our
early rising in our health and characters.
--George Bernard Shaw, "The Author's Apology," [2]Mrs.
Warren's Profession

Even your average Chinese peasant will add a soupçon of
pork fat to her matutinal bowl of rice.
--Will Self, "Raw and cooked," [3]The Observer, April 21,
1996

Harry Truman, was - like Winston Churchill - known to take
a matutinal shot of whisky. He did it after his regular
very vigorous early-morning walk.
--R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., "Plainly presidential," [4]The
Washington Times, January 18, 2002
__________________________________________________

Matutinal is from Late Latin matutinalis, from Latin
matutinus, "early in the morning; pertaining to the morning."

 

Reading your word of the day is my matutinal habit now!

Thanks Bel!

 

Maybe I can get a 4+ on my writing if I use these words!!

 

I missed the last few words of the day, so I couldn't post... so sorry Bel! But to reiterate what Mathetais said, your posts are very much appreciated!

 

nugatory \NOO-guh-tor-ee; NYOO-\, adjective:
1. Trifling; insignificant; inconsequential.
2. Having no force; inoperative; ineffectual.

Tygiel's forte as a historian is his eye for what may
appear nugatory or marginal but, when focused upon,
illuminates the temper of a given moment.
--Roberto Gonzlez Echevarria, "From Ruth to Rotisserie,"
[1]New York Times, July 2, 2000

Jacoby's offense was no offense -- or an error so nugatory
as to demand no more than a one-sentence explanation.
--Lance Morrow, "In Boston, a Foolish Consistency of Little
Minds," [2]Time, July 19, 2000

Socialism no longer restrains; trade unions do so much less
than they did; moral inhibitions over the acquisition and
display of wealth are nugatory.
--John Lloyd, "If not socialism, what will persuade the
rich willingly to pay more taxes to help the poor and
preserve a decent society?" [3]New Statesman, August 2,
1996
__________________________________________________

Nugatory comes from Latin nugatorius, from nugari, "to
trifle," from nugae, "jests, trifles."

Here's SAturday.....

beneficence \buh-NEFF-i-suhns\, noun:
The practice of doing good; active goodness, kindness, or
charity; bounty springing from purity and goodness.

Lord Jeffrey told Dickens that it [A Christmas Carol] had
"prompted more positive acts of beneficence than can be
traced to all the pulpits and confessionals in Christendom
since Christmas 1842."
--Roger Highfield, [1]The Physics of Christmas: From the
Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey

From my grandfather Verus I learned good morals and the
government of my temper. From the reputation and
remembrance of my father, modesty and a manly character.
From my mother, piety and beneficence and abstinence.
--Marcus Aurelius, [2]Meditations

he had disseminated around her what seemed an
involuntary aura of beneficence and goodwill.
--John Bayley, [3]Elegy for Iris
__________________________________________________

Beneficence is from Latin beneficentia, from beneficus, kind,
generous, obliging, from bene, well (from bonus, good) +
facere, to do. One who, or that which, is characterized by
beneficence is [4]beneficent.

And Sunday.....A good lawyerly word!!!!

Word of the Day for Sunday November 10, 2002

aver \uh-VUR\,transitive verb
[Inflected forms: averred; averring]:
1. To affirm with confidence; to declare in a positive manner,
as in confidence of asserting the truth.
2. (Law) To assert, claim, or declare as a fact.

Between us and the bottom of the sea was less than an inch
of wood. And yet, I aver it, and I aver it again, I was
unafraid.
--Jack London, [1]The Sea-Wolf

Although it was not quite true, as he liked to aver, that
almost forty years passed between his departure for Germany
and his eventual return to Austria, he did not hurry back
to Vienna after emigrating to the United States.
--Patrick McGilligan, [2]Fritz Lang: The Nature of the
Beast

Many companies aver that the most expedient path to bigger
market share or an expanded product portfolio is through a
merger or acquisition.
--Megan Santosus, "Arranged Marriage," [3]CIO Enterprise,
July 15, 1999
__________________________________________________

Aver is from Old French-Medieval French averer, from Medieval
Latin adverare, to confirm as authentic, from Latin ad-,
[4]ad- + Medieval Latin verare, from Latin verus, true. Other
words deriving from verus are very, which sometimes has the
sense of "true"; verify, to prove the truth of; and verdict, a
decision or judgment, literally a "true-saying" (verus +
dictum, saying).

 

Cranium expanding ... can't take much more learning!

Seriously ... I have a story on the whole "vocabulary thing".

This weekend I went to a family birthday party. All the cousins, aunts, and misc family members were there. Over the course of the evening the subject of politics came up. Someone touched on a subject that really got me going, and I just started a minor rant that lasted about a minute until I saw all the glazed looks around me. Finally, my cousin said, "Tim ... hate to tell you this, but I didn't understand about half the words you used."

Seems that the rest of America needs to read these "Words of the Day" ... less the few intelligent folks (like me & Bel ) continue to be unheeded!

 

Aver is a very common crossword puzzle word too, so keep it in mind if you like crossword puzzles. And that reminds me, crosswords are a great way to learn words too!

 

Hey! Hey! It's the word of the day!

Word of the Day for Tuesday November 12, 2002

multifarious \muhl-tuh-FAIR-ee-uhs\, adjective:
Having great diversity or variety; of various kinds;
diversified.

She is good at constructing a long, multifarious narrative,
weaving many minor stories into one, so that you are left
with a sense of the fluidity and ambiguity of historical
interpretation.
--Jason Cowley, "It's bright, clever... but the result is
academic," [1]The Observer, May 27, 2001

Men's opinions, accordingly, on what is laudable or
blamable, are affected by all the multifarious causes which
influence their wishes in regard to the conduct of others,
and which are as numerous as those which determine their
wishes on any other subject.
--John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

But as he reached the verge of the lawn and vaulted the
retaining wall there, crossed the flagstone walkway and
started up the steps of the ad building, the multifarious
marvel of his congested brain surprised him--the apes flew
right out of his head and he was thinking about California.
--T. Coraghessan Boyle, [2]Riven Rock
__________________________________________________

Multifarious derives from Latin multifariam, "on many sides;
in many places."

 

The Word of the Day topic is a good way to learn words!BTW, the Lord will RE-START the world?Bah. I am a stupid Estonian living in the North and still i speak English better than Paddy. I am not a Christian. Heheee. Actually it is a VERY good idea, the topic, I mean.

Ezellohar
(Having a brain shortage:FUEL 12%, so excusez moi)

 

So far, I have known all the words but multifarious. I didn't know my vocabulary was that big.