Inalienable

WORD OF THE DAY
inalienable \ in-AY-lee-uh-nuh-bul \ adjective
 
Definition
: incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred


Examples
The American ethos is built on the belief that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights.


"'Downward Dog' … goes a particularly funny step further by reflecting another truism: People are dogs, too. We also have complicated emotional lives, further complicated by our professional ones. We also seek food. We also seek love. We obsess.… [T]his terrific series works—because it abides by these simple, inalienable truths."
— Verne Gay, Newsday, 13 May 2017


Did You Know?
Alien, alienable, inalienable—it's easy enough to see the Latin word alius, meaning "other," at the root of these three words. Alien joined our language in the 14th century, and one of its earliest meanings was "belonging to another." By the early 1600s that sense of alien had led to alienable, an adjective describing something you can give away or transfer to another owner.
The word unalienable came about as its opposite, but so did inalienable, a word most likely borrowed into English on its own from French. Inalienable is the more common form today, and although we often see both forms used to modify "rights," it was unalienable that was used in the Declaration of Independence to describe life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Sericeous

WORD OF THE DAY

sericeous \ suh-RISH-us \ adjective

Definition

: covered with fine silky hair

Examples

The plant was small and delicate, with narrow sericeous leaves.

The major characters distinguishing this taxon from other members of the genus within its range are the combination of a short habit, sericeous leaves, and relatively large involucres.... 

— Field Guide to Washington's Rare Plants, 1999

Did You Know?

In the writings of the ancient Greeks, there is mention of the Sēres, an eastern Asian people who made what the Greeks called sērikos fabrics. Historians now believe that the Sēres were the Chinese, from whom the ancient Greeks first obtained silk. The ancient Romans wove the Sēres' name into their language, creating sericum, the Latin word for silk. 

The English word silk is also assumed to be spun—with some significant alterations from Old English to Middle English—from the same Greek fiber. Both silk and silken have been in the English language for many, many centuries, but scientists wanted a new term to describe the silky hairs on some leaves and bodies, and so they adapted the Late Latin word sericeus ("silken") to create sericeous, a word that appears almost exclusively in technical contexts.

Construe

WORD OF THE DAY

construe \ kun-STROO \ verb

Definition

1 : to analyze the arrangement and connection of words in (a sentence or sentence part)

2 : to understand or explain the sense or intention of usually in a particular way or with respect to a given set of circumstances

Examples

"A tall, slim girl, 'half-past sixteen,' with serious gray eyes and hair which her friends called auburn, had sat down …, firmly resolved to construe so many lines of Virgil." 

— Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea, 1909

"He liked barge-size American automobiles, and regularly wore a Stetson. Such habits were not to be construed as affectation. Melville was immune to the idle whim." 

— Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 1 May 2017

Did You Know?

In the 14th century, English speakers acquired the closely linked words construe and construction. You may think of construction as a word having to do with building houses or highways, but it has long had other meanings, including "the arrangement of words in a sentence" and "interpretation." Similarly, construe can mean "to analyze the arrangement and connection of words in a sentence" or "to interpret or explain." Both construe and construction come from the Latin verb construere ("to construct or construe"). In the 15th century, English speakers added mis- to construe to create misconstrue, a word meaning "to put a wrong construction (that is, a wrong interpretation) on."