Wheedle

Word of the Day

wheedle \ WEE-dul \ verb

 

1: to influence or entice by soft words or flattery

 

2: to gain or get by coaxing or flattering

 

3: to use soft words or flattery

EXAMPLES

Suzie wheedled the babysitter into letting her stay up an hour past her bedtime.

"I still make fruitcake, using a recipe that is mostly fruit and nuts and not much cake. My dad owned a locker plant and butcher shop, and wheedled the recipe out of a customer in the 1950s."

— Joan Daniels, Kansas City Star, August 12, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

Wheedle has been a part of the English lexicon since the mid-17th century, though no one is quite sure how the word made its way into English. (It has been suggested that the term may have derived from an Old English word that meant "to beg," but this is far from certain.) Once established in the language, however, wheedle became a favorite of some of the language's most illustrious writers. Wheedle and related forms appear in the writings of Wordsworth, Dickens, Kipling, Dryden, Swift, Scott, Tennyson, and Pope, among others.

Rapier

Word of the Day

rapier \ RAY-pee-er \ adjective

: extremely sharp or keen

EXAMPLES

The wit and keen insight found in her blog are a testament to her rapier mind.

"Mr. Brady was a veteran Republican aide and a popular figure among Washington journalists. He was equipped with a rapier wit and a buoyant charm that tended to defuse controversy even before he began working for the White House in January 1981."

— Jon Thurber, The Washington Post, August 5, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

A rapier is a straight, two-edged sword with a narrow pointed blade, designed especially for thrusting. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, "the long rapier was beautifully balanced, excellent in attack, and superb for keeping an opponent at a distance." The word itself, which we borrowed in the 16th century, is from Middle French rapiere.

The first time that rapier was used as an adjective in its figurative "cutting" sense, it described a smile: "Who can bear a rapier smile? A kiss that dooms the soul to death?" ("The Lover's Lament" by Sumner Lincoln Fairfield, 1824). The adjective these days most commonly describes wit—an association that dates to the 1850s.

Götterdämmerung

Word of the Day

Götterdämmerung \ gher-ter-DEM-uh-roong \ noun

1a: a collapse (as of a society or regime) marked by catastrophic violence and disorder; broadly

1b: downfall

EXAMPLES

There were those who worried that the latest civil war and attempted regime change would end in Götterdämmerung for the small country.

"One wishes, of course, for some sort of Götterdämmerung … in which the former victims rise up to give the monsters a taste of their terrible medicine. That's what the movies are for."

— James Taub, Stars and Stripes, August 23, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

Norse mythology specified that the destruction of the world would be preceded by a cataclysmic final battle between the good and evil gods, resulting in the heroic deaths of all the "good guys." The German word for this earth-shattering last battle was Götterdämmerung. Literally, Götterdämmerung means "twilight of the gods." (Götter is the plural of Gott, meaning "god," and Dämmerung means "twilight.") Figuratively, the term is extended to situations of world-altering destruction marked by extreme chaos and violence. In the 19th century, the German composer Richard Wagner brought attention to the word Götterdämmerung when he chose it as the title of the last opera of his cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, and by the early 20th century, the word had entered English.

Palaver

Word of the Day

palaver \ puh-LAV-er \ noun

I remember this word mostly thanks to Stephen King, as it is used quite a bit in "The Dark Tower" books....

1: a long discussion or meeting usually between persons of different cultures or levels of sophistication

2a : idle talk

2b : misleading or beguiling speech

EXAMPLES

"I don't know how you can stand to listen to that palaver," said Rachel, as she switched off the talk show her brother had been listening to on the radio.

"The violinist Geoff Nuttall now directs the series, with a more contemporary sensibility in both programming and in the often corny introductory palaver carried over from the Wadsworth era."

— James R. Oestreich, The New York Times, June 4, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

During the 18th century, Portuguese and English sailors often met during trading trips along the West African coast. This contact prompted the English to borrow the Portuguese palavra, which usually means "speech" or "word" but was used by Portuguese traders with the specific meaning "discussions with natives." The Portuguese word traces back to the Late Latin parabola, a noun meaning "speech" or "parable," which in turn comes from the Greek parabolē, meaning "juxtaposition" or "comparison."

Teleological

Word of the Day

teleological\ tel-ee-uh-LAH-jih-kul \ adjective

1. relating to the study of ultimate causes in nature or of actions in relation to their ends or utility

EXAMPLES

At dinner, Sandra and Miguel debated whether or not the complex structure of the human eye implied a teleological origin.

"There is also something of a teleological aspect to all this urbanization hoopla, one that suggests that man was put on this planet to shop at Whole Foods."
— Lionel Beehner, USA Today, February 25, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?Teleological (which comes to us by way of New Latin from the Greek root tele-, telos, meaning "end or purpose") and its close relative teleology both entered English in the 18th century, followed by teleologist in the 19th century.

Teleology has the basic meaning of "the study of ends or purposes." A teleologist attempts to understand the purpose of something by looking at its results. A teleological philosopher might argue that we should judge whether an act is good or bad by seeing if it produces a good or bad result, and a teleological explanation of evolutionary changes claims that all such changes occur for a definite purpose.

Syllepsis

Word of the Day

syllepsis \ suh-LEP-sis \ noun

 

1: the use of a word to modify or govern syntactically two or more words with only one of which it formally agrees in gender, number, or case

 

2: the use of a word in the same grammatical relation to two adjacent words in the context with one literal and the other metaphorical in sense

EXAMPLES

Jeannie held the door open for her unwelcome guest and, in a clever use of syllepsis, said, "Take a hint and a hike!"

"… it works as two words in one: She shot the rapids and her boyfriend. Syllepsis produces a surprise, almost requiring the reader to go back and reparse the sentence to savor the double meaning of the word."

— Jeanne Fahnestock, Rhetorical Figures in Science, 2002

DID YOU KNOW?

Charles Dickens made good use of syllepsis in The Pickwick Papers when he wrote that his character Miss Bolo "went straight home, in a flood of tears and a sedan chair." Such uses, defined at sense 2 above, are humorously incongruous, but they’re not grammatically incorrect. Syllepsis as defined at sense 1, however, is something to be generally avoided. For example, take this sentence, "She exercises to keep healthy and I to lose weight." The syllepsis occurs with the verb exercises. The problem is that only one subject, "she" (not "I"), agrees with the verb. The word syllepsis derives from the Greek syllēpsis, and ultimately from syllambanein, meaning "to gather together." It has been used in English since at least 1550.

Esurient

Word of the Day

esurient \ ih-SUR-ee-unt \ adjective

: hungry, greedy

EXAMPLES

No one was surprised that the esurient media mogul planned to expand his empire into the social-media marketplace.

"She sat opposite him …, as plump and indifferent to his presence as an old tabby cat whose esurient eye was wholly focused on a particularly toothsome mouse."

— Pamela Aidan, An Assembly Such as This: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman, 2006

DID YOU KNOW?

If you’re hungry for a new way to express your hunger, you might find that esurient suits your palate. Be forewarned, however, that when used literally esurient has a humorous flavor. This somewhat obscure word first appeared in English in the second half of the 17th century, deriving from the present participle of the Latin verb esurire, meaning "to be hungry."

It is also related to edere, the Latin verb for "eat," which has given us such scrumptious fare as edible and its synonyms esculent and comestible. Esurient can be used somewhat playfully to suggest an actual hunger for food, but it is more often applied to such things as wealth or power. In the latter contexts, it takes on the connotation of greedy.

Velar

WORD OF THE DAY

velar \ VEE-ler \ adjective

1: formed with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate

 

2: of, forming, or relating to a velum and especially the soft palate

EXAMPLES

The word "keg" contains two velar consonants, "k" and "g."

"Those throat-clearing sounds you hear in German? That's the voiceless velar fricative, and it adds a wonderful percussiveness to '99 Luftbalons.' English speakers don't have it; it's one reason the Anglicized version of Nena's 1984 hit falls flat."

— William Weir, Slate, November 8, 2012

DID YOU KNOW?

Velar is ultimately derived from Latin velum (meaning "curtain" or "veil"), which was itself adopted into English by way of New Latin as a word for the soft palate (the fold at the back of the hard palate—palate, by the way, refers to the roof of the mouth—that partially separates the mouth from the pharynx).

Velar is used by phonologists to refer to the position of the tongue in relation to the soft palate when making certain sounds. Other terms for what phonologists (those who study speech sounds) refer to as "places of articulation" are palatal (tongue against the roof of the mouth), dental (tongue against the upper teeth), and alveolar (tongue against the inner surface of the gums of the upper front teeth

Hegemony

Word of the Day

hegemony \ hih-JEM-uh-nee \ noun

 

1: dominant influence or authority over others

 

2: the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group

EXAMPLES

Consumers welcomed the diversification of the software market as smaller innovators challenged the hegemony of the large companies.

"In the novel, a United States aircraft carrier group is sunk in the Pacific Ocean by a mysterious wing of fighter jets, later revealed to bear the red star of the Soviet forces from the parallel dimension, crossing over into our world to turn back the tide of American hegemony."

— Andrew E. Kramer, The New York Times, August 20, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

Hegemony comes to English from the Greek hēgemonia, a noun formed from the verb hēgeisthai ("to lead"), which also gave us the word exegesis ("exposition" or "explanation"). The word was first used in English in the mid-16th century in reference to the control once wielded by the ancient Greek states, and it was reapplied in later centuries as other nations subsequently rose to power. By the 20th century, it had acquired a second sense referring to the social or cultural influence wielded by a dominant member over others of its kind, such as the domination within an industry by a business conglomerate over smaller businesses.

Olfactory

Word of the Day

olfactory \ ahl-FAK-tuh-ree \ adjective

: of, relating to, or connected with the sense of smell

EXAMPLES

The aroma of cinnamon rolls coming from the kitchen served as an enticing olfactory clue that breakfast was almost ready.

"First things first, it has to be said that the place smells like an aromatic candle. Equal parts cedar, pine, campfire, and patchouli, with a dash of earthiness, Awendaw Green is an olfactory wonderland."

— Kirsten Schofield, Charleston City Paper, August 19, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

Olfactory derives from the past participle of the Latin olfacere, which means "to smell" and which was formed from the verb olēre (also "to smell") and facere ("to do"). Olfactory is a word that often appears in scientific contexts (as in "olfactory nerves," the nerves that pass from the nose to the brain and contain the receptors that make smelling possible), but it has occasionally branched out into less specialized contexts. The pleasant smell of spring flowers, for example, might be considered an "olfactory delight." A related word, olfaction, is a noun referring to the sense of smell or the act or process of smelling.

Pell-mell

Word of the Day

pell-mell \ pel-MEL \ adverb

 

1: in mingled confusion or disorder

2: in confused haste

EXAMPLES

After the final bell of the day rang, the pupils bolted from their desks and ran pell-mell out the door into the schoolyard.

"So Congress has been racing pell-mell this month to fix this crisis that’s been simmering for two decades. And what they’ve come up with is a Rube Goldberg contraption even by their usual convoluted standards."

— Danny Westneat, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin (Washington), July 18, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

The word pell-mell was probably formed through a process called reduplication. The process—which involves the repetition of a word or part of a word, often including a slight change in its pronunciation—also generated such terms as bowwow, helter-skelter, flip-flop, and chitchat. Yet another product of reduplication is shilly-shally, which started out as a single-word compression of the question "Shall I?" For pell-mell, the process is believed to have occurred long ago: our word traces to a Middle French word of the same meaning, pelemele, which was likely a product of reduplication from Old French mesle, a form of mesler, meaning "to mix."

Divarification

Word of the Day

divarication \ dye-vair-uh-KAY-shun \ noun

 

1: the action, process, or fact of spreading apart

2: a divergence of opinion

EXAMPLES

The team of botanists studied the growth patterns of the trees, including the divarication of their branches.

"For journalists, the futurists were at worst nothing more than a further example of the divarication between the world of art and the tastes of the public.…"

— Luca Somigli, Legitimizing the Artist, 2003

DID YOU KNOW?

There's no reason to prevaricate about the origins of divarication—the word derives from the Medieval Latin divaricatio, which in turn descends from the verb divaricare, meaning "to spread apart." Divaricare itself is derived from the Latin varicare, which means "to straddle" and is also an ancestor of prevaricate ("to deviate from the truth"). The oldest sense of divarication, which first appeared in print in English in 1578, refers to a literal branching apart (as in "divarication of the roads"). The word eventually developed a more metaphorical second sense that is used when opinions "stretch apart" from one another.

Lido

Word of the Day

lido \ LEE-doh \ noun

: a fashionable beach resort

EXAMPLES

Sharon bought a new bathing suit in anticipation of her upcoming vacation at a luxurious lido.

"The lido on the Promenade at Grange-over-Sands has been abandoned since it closed in 1993, although there is now a campaign for it to be reopened."

— Griff Witte, BBC.com, August 13, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

The original Lido is a beach resort near Venice, Italy. The town’s name comes from the Italian word lido, which means "shore" or "bank." (The Italian root derives from litus, the Latin word for "shore.") By the mid-19th century, Lido’s reputation as a chic vacation destination for the well-to-do made it the envy of seaside resorts everywhere. English speaking social climbers generalized the town’s name and started using it for any fashionably Lido-esque beach.

Exacerbate

Word of the Day

exacerbate \ ig-ZASS-er-bayt \ verb

: to make more violent, bitter, or severe

EXAMPLES

It seemed as though instead of helping to alleviate the issue, his comments and sarcasm served only to exacerbate the problem.

"The rise of commercial data profiling is exacerbating existing inequities in society and could turn de facto discrimination into a high-tech enterprise."

— Seeta Peña Gangadharan, The New York Times, August 7, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

Make it a point to know that the Latin adjective acer, meaning "sharp," forms the basis of a number of words that have come into English. The words acerbic ("having a bitter temper or sour mood"), acrid ("having a sharp taste or odor"), and acrimony ("a harsh manner or disposition") are just the tip of the iceberg. First appearing in English in the 17th century, exacerbate derives from the Latin prefix ex-, which means "out of" or "outside," and acerbus, which means "harsh" or "bitter" and comes from acer. Just as pouring salt in a wound worsens pain, things that exacerbate can cause a situation to go from bad to worse. A pointed insult, for example, might exacerbate tensions between two rivals.

Rathskeller

Word of the Day

rathskeller \ RAHT-skel-er \ noun

: usually a basement tavern or restaurant

EXAMPLES

Beneath the service club's new meeting hall is a rathskeller that is open for lunch and dinner.

"Troy's Germania Hall remains open. The club serves dinner every Friday night in its rathskeller." — Jeff Wilkin, The Gazette (Schenectady, New York), August 10, 2014

DID YOU KNOW? 

Rathskeller is a product of Germany, deriving from two German nouns: Rat (also spelled Rath in early Modern German), which means "council," and Keller, which means "cellar." (Nouns in German are always capitalized.) The etymology reflects the fact that many early rathskellers were located in the basements of "council houses," which were equivalent to town halls. (The oldest rathskeller found in Germany today is said to date from the first half of the 13th century.) The earliest known use of rathskeller in English dates from 1766, but the word wasn't commonly used until the 1900s. Although the German word is now spelled Ratskeller, English writers have always preferred the spelling with the "h"—most likely to avoid any association with the word rat.

Stereotactic

Word of the Day

stereotactic \ stair-ee-uh-TAK-tik \ adjective

: involving or used in a surgical technique for precisely directing the tip of a delicate instrument or beam of radiation in three planes using coordinates provided by medical imaging in order to reach a specific locus (place, location) in the body

EXAMPLES

"Once in the OR, Mario was given a local anesthetic. His head had been shaved, his brain targeted to millimeter precision by MRIs. Attached to his head was a stereotactic frame to provide surgeons with precise coordinates and mapping imagery."

— Lauren Slater, Mother Jones, November 2005

"The center is equipped with a $5 million machine, known as a stereotactic body radiotherapy system, that zaps tumors with high doses of radiation without damaging nearby tissue and organs."

— James T. Mulder, The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), July 18, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

At the beginning of the 20th century, neurosurgeons were experimenting with a technique used to direct the tip of a needle or an electrode in three spatial planes (length, width, and depth) to reach a particular place in the brain. At that time, the word for this technique was "stereotaxic," based on the prefix "stereo-" ("dealing with three dimensions of space") and "taxis" (referring to the manual restoration of a displaced body part). In 1950, "stereotactic" (based on "tactic," meaning "of or relating to touch") joined the medical vocabulary as a synonym of "stereotaxic." Around the same time, a noninvasive neurosurgery technique was developed using beams of radiation. It is this procedure that is now often described as "stereotactic" and (less frequently) "stereotaxic."

Culprit

Word of the Day

culprit \ KUL-prit \ noun

1: one accused of or charged with a crime

 

2: one guilty of a crime or a fault

 

3: the source or cause of a problem

EXAMPLES

After the empty warehouse burned down, an investigation determined faulty wiring to be the culprit.

"Police searched a parking structure in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles Saturday for one of two armed suspects who robbed a pedestrian but were unable to locate the culprit."

— Los Angeles Daily News, August 2, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

We would be culpable if we didn't clearly explain the origins behind culprit. Yes, it is related to culpable, which itself derives from Latin culpare, meaning "to blame," via Middle English and Anglo-French. But the etymology of culprit is not so straightforward. In Anglo-French, culpable meant "guilty," and this was abbreviated "cul." in legal briefs and texts. Culprit was formed by combining this abbreviation with prest, prit, meaning "ready"—that is, ready to prove an accusation. Literally, then, a culprit was one who was ready to be proven guilty. English then borrowed the word for one accused of a wrongdoing.

Synonyms for culprit

criminal               felon             fugitive          miscreant

offender             wrongdoer      con                convict

delinquent           evildoer        jailbird           malefactor

rascal                  sinner           transgressor     yardbird

ex-con                guilty party   

Antonyms for culpritpolice               

detective               law enforcement        badge          bluecoat

bobby (Br.)            bull                            constable     constabulary
cop                       copper                       fed              fuzz 
gendarme (Fr.)      gumshoe                     heat             officers

Oleaginous

Word of the Day

oleaginous \ oh-lee-AJ-uh-nus \ adjective

 

1: resembling or having the properties of oil : oily; also : containing or producing oil

 

2: marked by an offensively ingratiating manner or quality

EXAMPLES

Jim seems to mistake his own oleaginous demeanor for charm.

"From swimsuits, evening gowns, and talent to spokesmodel abilities and handling a 'beauty crisis,' the girls go through their paces, egged on by the oleaginous emcee."
— Christopher Byrne, Gay City News (New York), July 24, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

Oleaginous slipped (hahaha.....oily! slipped!) into English through Middle French, coming from the Latin oleagineus, meaning "of an olive tree." Oleagineus itself is from the Latin olea, meaning "olive tree," and ultimately from the Greek elaia, meaning "olive." Oleaginous was at first used in a literal sense, as it still can be. An oleaginous substance is simply oily, and an oleaginous plant produces oil. The word took on its extended "ingratiating" sense in the 19th century.

Bivouac

Word of the Day

• bivouac
• \ BIV-uh-wak \ 
verb

1

: to make a temporary encampment under little or no shelter

2

: to take shelter often temporarily

3

: to provide temporary quarters for

• EXAMPLES

The search party bivouacked under a nearby ledge until the storm passed.

"Until Saturday, the virus had never entered the United States. But opposition to its importation via the ailing patients has been minimal, limited mainly to right-wing pundits and individuals griping on social media or eyeing the media hordebivouacked outside Emory." 

— Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times, August 3, 2014

• DID YOU KNOW?

In his 1841 dictionary, Noah Webster observed bivouac to be a French borrowing having military origins. He defined the noun bivouac as "the guard or watch of a whole army, as in cases of great danger of surprise or attack" and the verb as "to watch or be on guard, as a whole army." The French word is derived from the Low German word biwacht, which translates to "by guard." Germans used the word specifically for a patrol of citizens who assisted the town watch at night. Today, bivouac has less to do with guarding and patrolling than it does with taking shelter.

Repugn

Word of the Day

repugn \ rih-PYOON \ verb

: to contend against

: oppose

EXAMPLES

Over 450 students signed the petition repugning the school board's decision to fire the popular teacher.

"Still to come, bad blood between Bloom and Bieber. Will we ever know what happened when the movie star repugns the pop star?"

— Lester Holt, NBC News Transcripts, August 2, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

Repugn is a word that was relatively common in English in the 16th and 17th centuries. These days, however, English speakers are more likely to be familiar with one of its close relatives, namely, the adjective repugnant, which formerly meant "hostile" but today most commonly means "exciting distaste or aversion."

The Latin root for both of these words is pugnare, meaning "to fight." Other English derivatives from this root are pugnacious, meaning "belligerent," and impugn, meaning "to assail with words or arguments." Even pungent is a relative of pugnare. Therefore, don’t try to repugn, or impugn for that matter, the influence of pugnare on our language—lest you appear pugnacious!