WORD OF THE DAY
rabble /noun / RAB-ul
Definition
1 : a disorganized or confused collection of things
2 a : a disorganized or disorderly crowd of people
2b: mob
2c : the lowest class of people
Examples
The university chancellor required extra security to help get him through the rabble of protestors.
"Perhaps most importantly, since prescriptive rules are so psychologically unnatural that only those with access to the right schooling can abide by them, they serve as shibboleths, differentiating the elite from the rabble."
— Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct, 1994
Did You Know?
Rabble has been with the English language since its appearance in Middle English (as rabel) around the turn of the 15th century.
The Middle English rabel (originally used to denote a pack or swarm of animals or insects) may have come from the verb rabel which meant "to babble" (despite the similarity in sound and meaning, however, babble and rabble are linguistically unrelated).
The verb rabel is related to Middle Dutch rabbelen and Low German rabbeln, meaning "to speak rapidly or indistinctly" or "to chatter." So how do we get from babbling to crowds of people?
The connecting link may be the idea of confusion. Rabble, in its earliest uses, could indicate a pack of animals, a swarm of insects, or a confused collection of things, in addition to a confused or meaningless string of words.
Monday, March 5, 2018
Friday, March 2, 2018
Nondescript
WORD OF THE DAY
nondescript / adjective / nahn-dih-SKRIPT
Definition
1a: belonging or appearing to belong to no particular class or kind
1b: not easily described
2a: lacking distinctive or interesting qualities
2b: dull, drab
Examples
The famous spy was a quiet, nondescript man that people had a difficult time describing even a few minutes after meeting him, which was clearly an advantage in his profession.
"Crowds of tech aficionados, news crews and the simply curious turned out for the public opening of Amazon's checkout-free convenience store Monday, giving a generally nondescript sidewalk the air of an Apple store the day a new iPhone comes out."
— Elizabeth Weise and Amity Addrisi, The Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, 23 Jan. 2018
Did You Know?
It is relatively easy to describe the origins of nondescript (and there's a hint in the first part of this sentence). Nondescript was formed by combining the prefix non- (meaning "not") with descriptus, the past participle of the Latin verb describere, meaning "to describe."
It is no surprise, then, that when the word was adopted in the late 17th century by English speakers, it was typically applied to something (such as a genus or species) that had not yet been described. Other descriptive descendants of describere in English include describe, description, and descriptive itself, as well as the rare philosophical term descriptum ("something that is described").
nondescript / adjective / nahn-dih-SKRIPT
Definition
1a: belonging or appearing to belong to no particular class or kind
1b: not easily described
2a: lacking distinctive or interesting qualities
2b: dull, drab
Examples
The famous spy was a quiet, nondescript man that people had a difficult time describing even a few minutes after meeting him, which was clearly an advantage in his profession.
"Crowds of tech aficionados, news crews and the simply curious turned out for the public opening of Amazon's checkout-free convenience store Monday, giving a generally nondescript sidewalk the air of an Apple store the day a new iPhone comes out."
— Elizabeth Weise and Amity Addrisi, The Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, 23 Jan. 2018
Did You Know?
It is relatively easy to describe the origins of nondescript (and there's a hint in the first part of this sentence). Nondescript was formed by combining the prefix non- (meaning "not") with descriptus, the past participle of the Latin verb describere, meaning "to describe."
It is no surprise, then, that when the word was adopted in the late 17th century by English speakers, it was typically applied to something (such as a genus or species) that had not yet been described. Other descriptive descendants of describere in English include describe, description, and descriptive itself, as well as the rare philosophical term descriptum ("something that is described").
Thursday, March 1, 2018
Agon
WORD OF THE DAY
agon / noun / AH-gahn
Definition
1: conflict
2: the dramatic conflict between the chief characters in a literary work
Examples
"The agon of the central character, self-besieged or plagued by circumstance, runs through the history of the director's films, as does the suspicion that man's brutality to man may have a penitential purpose."
— Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2016
"There is always a fierce struggle—an agon—in the soul of the poet between her own poetic universe and that which precedes her, and against which she is to make her voice heard."
— Costica Bradatan, The Los Angeles Review of Books, 24 Sept. 2017
Did You Know?
Agon comes from the Greek word agōn, which is translated with a number of meanings, among them "contest," "competition at games," and "gathering."
In ancient Greece, agons (the word is also pluralized in English as agones) were contests held during public festivals. The contests—among them the ancient Olympics, on which our modern Olympics is modeled—involved everything from athletics to chariot and horse racing to music and literature.
Agon in the realm of literature refers to the dramatic conflict between the main characters in a Greek play or, more broadly, between the chief characters in any literary work. The word is also occasionally used to refer to conflict in general.
agon / noun / AH-gahn
Definition
1: conflict
2: the dramatic conflict between the chief characters in a literary work
Examples
"The agon of the central character, self-besieged or plagued by circumstance, runs through the history of the director's films, as does the suspicion that man's brutality to man may have a penitential purpose."
— Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2016
"There is always a fierce struggle—an agon—in the soul of the poet between her own poetic universe and that which precedes her, and against which she is to make her voice heard."
— Costica Bradatan, The Los Angeles Review of Books, 24 Sept. 2017
Did You Know?
Agon comes from the Greek word agōn, which is translated with a number of meanings, among them "contest," "competition at games," and "gathering."
In ancient Greece, agons (the word is also pluralized in English as agones) were contests held during public festivals. The contests—among them the ancient Olympics, on which our modern Olympics is modeled—involved everything from athletics to chariot and horse racing to music and literature.
Agon in the realm of literature refers to the dramatic conflict between the main characters in a Greek play or, more broadly, between the chief characters in any literary work. The word is also occasionally used to refer to conflict in general.
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