Fictioneer

Word of the Day
fictioneer \ fik-shuh-NEER \ noun

Definition
:someone who writes fiction especially in quantity and without high standards
Examples
Dwight was a fictioneer who specialized in pulp novels, producing over 300 of them in his long career.

"Is it right for such irresponsible fictioneers to be playing around unconscionably with such tragic subject matter?"
— Jeff Simon, Buffalo (New York) News, November 18, 2014
Did You Know?
In Latin, the verb fingere means "to shape, fashion, or feign." Fictioneers surely do shape stories and feign the truth, so you could say that the noun fictioneer is etymologically true to its ancestor. The word fiction had been around for more than 500 years by the time fictioneer appeared in English in 1923, bearing a suffix that harks back to such words as engineer and pamphleteer. The word is used generally to refer to any writer of fiction but often specifically to one who writes with little concern for literary quality. Fictioneer and fiction aren't the only English feigners and shapers born of fingere. The words effigy, feign, figment are among others that trace back to that Latin verb.

Riot Act

Word of the Day

 

riot act \ RYE-ut-AKT \ noun

 

Definition

: a vigorous reprimand or warning — used in the phrase read the riot act

 

Examples

Celia's parents read her the riot act after she stayed out for almost an hour past her curfew.

"[Angela Merkel] read Greece and other affected zone members the riot act: their borrowing and spending was out of control, and they'd have to rein it in, just as Germany had done."

— Paul Hockenos, The Nation, March 12, 2015

 

Did You Know?

Many people were displeased when George I became king of England in 1714, and his opponents were soon leading rebellions and protests against him. The British government, anxious to stop the protests, passed a law called the "Riot Act." It allowed public officials to break up gatherings of 12 or more people by reading aloud a proclamation, warning those who heard it that they must disperse within the hour or be guilty of a felony punishable by death.

By 1819, riot act was also being used more generally for any stern warning or reprimand. Although the law long ago fell into disuse and was finally repealed in 1973, the term that it generated lives on today.

Sacrilegious

Word of the Day

 

sacrilegious \ sak-ruh-LIJ-us \ adjective

 

Definition

1: committing or characterized by a technical and not necessarily intrinsically outrageous violation (such as improper reception of a sacrament) of what is sacred because consecrated to God

 

2: grossly irreverent toward a hallowed person, place, or thing

 

Examples

My great-grandfather was a die-hard New Dealer who considered any criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt to be sacrilegious.

"It had drawn conservative and religious protests over taxpayer financing of art that the work's opponents considered sacrilegious."
— Victoria Burnett, New York Times, February 25, 2015

 

Did You Know?

It may seem that sacrilegious should be spelled as sacreligious, since the word sometimes describes an irreverent treatment of religious objects or places. However, sacrilegious comes to us from sacrilege, which is ultimately derived from a combination of the Latin words sacer ("sacred") and legere ("to gather" or "to steal"). Its antecedent in Latin, sacrilegus, meant "one who steals sacred things." There is no direct relation to religious (which is derived from the Latin word religiosus, itself from religio, meaning "supernatural constraint or religious practice"). The apparent resemblance between sacrilegious and religious is just a coincidence.

Nepotism

Word of the Day

nepotism \ NEP-uh-tiz-um \ noun

 

Definition

: favoritism (as in appointment to a job) based on kinship

 

Examples

It was strongly believed that nepotism played a role in helping Jessica get the sales manager position at her cousin's store.

"The Times investigation found that at least 7% of county firefighters on the payroll since 2012 were the sons of current or former employees of the department.… Statistical experts consulted by The Times said the percentage of sons and other relatives on the job strongly indicated that nepotism was at play."
— Paul Pringle, Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2015

 

Did You Know?

During his papacy from 1471–1484, Sixtus IV granted many special favors to members of his family, in particular his nephews. This practice of papal favoritism was carried on by his successors, and in 1667 it was the subject of Gregorio Leti's book Il Nepotismo di Roma—titled in the English translation, The History of the Popes' Nephews. Shortly after the book's appearance, nepotism began to be used in English for the showing of special favor or unfair preference to any relative by someone in any position of power, be it ecclesiastical or not. (The "nep-" spelling is from nepote, a 17th-century variant of Italian nipote, meaning "nephew.")

Umpteen

Word of the Day

 

umpteen \ UMP-teen \ adjective

 

Definition

1: very many

2: indefinitely numerous

 

Examples

By midmorning, Ellie had already phoned her sister umpteen times.

"It's the home chore that everybody hates most. I see that on the TV how-to shows, read it on umpteen do-it-yourself sites. Nobody likes removing wallpaper."

— Allen Norwood, Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer, January 22, 2015

 

Did You Know?

"I'll go to bed and I'll not get up for umpty-eleven months." You know the feeling. The speaker here is war-weary Bill, a character in Patrick MacGill's early 20th-century novel The Great Push. His umpty originated as military slang around 1905 and stood for an indefinite number, generally largish. (It was probably created by analogy to actual numbers such as twenty.) Soon, there followed umpteen, blending umpty and -teen.

Umpteen usually describes an indefinite and large number or amount, while the related umpteenth is used for the latest or last in an indefinitely numerous series. We only occasionally use umpty these days (and even more rarely umptieth), but you're bound to hear or read umpteen and umpteenth any number of times.

Quisling

Word of the Day

 

quisling \ KWIZ-ling \ noun

 

Definition

1a: one who commits treason

1b: traitor, collaborator

 

Examples

"This is a country that can force you to garden, where the parish or your neighbors can twist your arm, make you delve like Adam on behalf of the common neatness…. Best-kept village competitions turn stockbroker dormitory towns into little Stalingrads, where baskets of lobelia and geranium hang from lampposts in symbolic place of deserters and quislings."

— A. A. Gill, The Angry Island, 2008

"Liu's works also serve as commentary on current events. For example, a central character in the trilogy sides with the aliens in their struggle against humanity. She becomes a 'terrestrial quisling' because Maoists persecuted her during the Cultural Revolution."
— Anthony Kuhn, KPBS.org, April 9, 2015

 

Did You Know?

Vidkun Quisling was a Norwegian army officer who in 1933 founded Norway's fascist party. In December 1939, he met with Adolf Hitler and urged him to occupy Norway. Following the German invasion of April 1940, Quisling served as a figurehead in the puppet government set up by the German occupation forces, and his linguistic fate was sealed. Before the end of 1940, quisling was being used generically in English to refer to any traitor. Winston Churchill, George Orwell, and H. G. Wells used it in their wartime writings. Quisling lived to see his name thus immortalized, but not much longer. He was executed for treason soon after the liberation of Norway in 1945.

Prudent

Word of the Day

 

prudent \ PROO-dunt \ adjective

 

Definition

1: marked by wisdom or judiciousness

 

2: shrewd in the management of practical affairs

 

3: cautious, discreet

 

4: thrifty, frugal

 

Examples

The couple's financial advisor helped them devise a prudent investment strategy.

"As a group, they tend not to be water wasters. Wasting water costs them money in the form of pumping groundwater needlessly. Farmers are more prudent than that."
— Dennis L. Taylor, The Californian (Salinas, California), April 5, 2015

 

Did You Know?

Prudent arrived in Middle English around the 14th century and traces back, by way of Middle French, to the Latin verb providēre, meaning "to see ahead, foresee, provide (for)." One who is prudent literally has the foresight to make sound or shrewd decisions. Providēre combines pro-, meaning "before," and vidēre, meaning "to see," and it may look familiar to you; it is also the source of our words provide, provident, provision, and improvise. Vidēre also has many English offspring, including evident, supervise, video, and vision.

Whodunit

Word of the Day

whodunit \ hoo-DUN-it \ noun

Definition: a detective story or mystery story

ExamplesBetsy packed several romance novels and whodunits to read at the beach.
"'Miranda Writes,' a new play that combines the elements of a screwball comedy with a whodunit, will take center stage this month at Naperville's North Central College." 

— Nancy Dunker, Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, Illinois), April 8, 2015

Did You Know?
In 1930, Donald Gordon, a book reviewer for News of Books, needed to come up with something to say about a rather unremarkable mystery novel called Half-Mast Murder. "A satisfactory whodunit," he wrote. The coinage played fast and loose with spelling and grammar, but whodunit caught on anyway. Other writers tried respelling it who-done-it, and one even insisted on using whodidit, but those sanitized versions lacked the punch of the original and have fallen by the wayside. Whodunit became so popular that by 1939 at least one language pundit had declared it "already heavily overworked" and predicted it would "soon be dumped into the taboo bin." History has proven that prophecy false, and whodunit is still going strong.

Louche

Word of the Day

 

louche \ LOOSH \ adjective

 

Definition

: not reputable or decent

 

Examples

The man was nicely dressed but had a hard-boiled, louche look about him that raised suspicion.

"However louche Los Angeles' image may be, it remains a puritanical city in a puritanical state. California caps the number of bar licenses … at one for every 2,000 residents. That number hasn't changed since 1939…."
— Josh Stephens, Los Angeles Times, April 9, 2015

 

Did You Know?

Louche ultimately comes from the Latin word luscus, meaning "blind in one eye" or "having poor sight." This Latin term gave rise to the French louche, meaning "squinting" or "cross-eyed." The French gave their term a figurative sense as well, taking that squinty look to mean "shady" or "devious." English speakers didn't see the need for the sight-impaired uses when they borrowed the term in the 19th century, but they kept the figurative one. The word is still quite visible today and is used to describe both people and things of questionable repute.

Virtuoso

Word of the Day

 

virtuoso \ ver-choo-OH-soh \ noun

 

Definition

1: someone skilled in or having a taste for the fine arts

 

2a: someone who excels in the technique of an art

2b: a highly skilled musical performer

 

3: a person who has great skill at some endeavor

 

Examples

Peggy, a virtuoso on the piano, performed her first recital when she was only six years old.

"The night's loose theme was the '27 Club,' that small but storied group of well-known musicians who passed away at age 27—among them guitar virtuoso Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana wailer Kurt Cobain, blues legend Robert Johnson, and Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones."

— Maura Johnston, Boston Globe, April 6, 2015

 

Did You Know?

English speakers borrowed the Italian noun virtuoso in the 1600s, but the Italian word had a former life as an adjective meaning both "virtuous" and "skilled." In English, virtuoso can be pluralized as either virtuosos or virtuosi, and it is often used attributively—that is, like an adjective before another noun, as in "a virtuoso performer." The first virtuosos were individuals of substantial knowledge and learning ("great wits," to quote one 17th-century clergyman). The word was then transferred to those skilled in the arts, and by the 18th century it had acquired its specific sense applied to musicians. In the 20th century, English speakers broadened virtuoso again to apply to a person skilled in any pursuit.

Dauntless

Word of the Day

 

dauntless \ DAWNT-lus \ adjective

 

Definition

: resolute especially in the face of danger or difficulty

: fearless, undaunted

 

Examples

The rescuers were dauntless, battling cold, wind, and fatigue to reach the injured mountain climbers.

"In recent years Scandinavian central bankers have shown the same dauntless appetite for exploration that once saw Nordic ships fan out across the globe."

— Financial Times, April 9, 2015

 

Did You Know?

The history of the world is peopled with dauntless men and women who refused to be subdued or "tamed" by fear. The word dauntless can be traced back to Latin domare, meaning "to tame" or "to subdue." When our verb daunt (a domare descendant borrowed by way of Anglo-French) was first used in the 14th century, it shared these meanings.

The now-obsolete "tame" sense referred to the taming or breaking of wild animals, particularly horses: an undaunted horse was an unbroken horse. Not until the late 16th century did we use undaunted with the meaning "undiscouraged and courageously resolute" to describe people. By then, such lionhearted souls could also be described as undauntable, and finally, in Henry VI, Part 3, Shakespeare gave us dauntless.

Epigram

Word of the Day

 

epigram \ EP-ih-gram \ noun

Definition

1: a concise poem dealing pointedly and often satirically with a single thought or event and often ending with an ingenious turn of thought

 

2: a terse, sage, or witty and often paradoxical saying

 

3: expression marked by the use of epigrams

 

Examples

On the wall of his studio, Jonathan kept a framed print of his favorite epigram from Benjamin Franklin: "Little strokes fell great oaks."

"But this is a work that tends to rely on pithy epigrams, rather than build a sturdy narrative arc about a young artist's awakening and an old artist's raging against the dying of the light."

— Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune, February 13, 2015

 

Did You Know?

Ancient Greeks and Romans used the word epigramma (from Greek epigraphein, meaning "to write on") to refer to a concise, witty, and often satirical verse. The Roman poet Martial (who published eleven books of these epigrammata, or epigrams, between the years 86 and 98 C.E.) was a master of the form: "You puff the poets of other days, / the living you deplore. / Spare me the accolade: your praise / Is not worth dying for." English speakers adopted the "verse" sense of the word when we first used epigram for a concise poem dealing pointedly and often satirically with a single thought or event in the 15th century. In the late 18th century, we began using epigram for concise, witty sayings, even if they didn't rhyme.

Cozen

Word of the Day

 

cozen \ KUZ-un \ verb

 

Definition

1: to deceive, win over, or induce to do something by artful coaxing and wheedling or shrewd trickery

 

2: to gain by artful coaxing or tricky deception

 

Examples

The young man used his charm to cozen elderly victims into pouring their savings into his investment scheme.

"The BBC stated in its coverage of the decision that some satirical content had been mistaken for the truth in the past, including one instance in 2013 when the Washington Post was cozened into reporting that Sarah Palin signed onto Al-Jazeera as a correspondent."

— Chandra Johnson, Deseret News, August 20, 2014

 

Did You Know?

"Be not utterly deceived (or to speak in plainer terms, cozened at their hands)." Denouncing the evils of the times, 16th-century Puritan pamphleteer Philip Stubbes thus warned against unscrupulous merchants. Cozen may not seem a "plainer term" to us, but it might have to the horse-dependent folks of the 16th century. Some linguists have theorized that cozen traces to the Italian noun cozzone, which means "horse trader." Horse-trading, as in the actual swapping of horses, usually involved bargaining and compromise—and, in fact, the term "horse-trading" has come to suggest any shrewd negotiation. It seems safe to assume that not all of these negotiations were entirely on the up-and-up. Given its etymological association with horse traders, therefore, it's not too surprising that cozen suggests deception and fraud.