Rapporteur

WORD OF THE DAY

rapporteur / noun / ra-por-TER

Definition
: a person who gives reports (as at a meeting of a learned society)

Examples
"The rapporteur was particularly scathing about bungled efforts to streamline the way welfare payments are made to individual recipients after delays in a shift to a new system … led thousands of people to fall into poverty."
— Patrick Kingsley, The New York Times, 16 Nov. 2018

"It's appropriate that the U.N. special rapporteur devoted to adequate housing has visited encampments in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Mumbai—and San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley."
— Rich Lowry, The National Review, 6 Nov. 2018

Did You Know?
Rapporteur was adopted into English in the 16th century and is a descendant of the Middle French verb rapporter, meaning "to bring back, report, or refer."
Other descendants of rapporter in English include rapportage (a rare synonym of reportage, in the sense of "writing intended to give an account of observed or documented events") and rapport ("a harmonious relationship," as in "The young teacher had a good rapport with the students").
The words report, reporter, reportage, etc., are also distant relatives of rapporteur; all can ultimately be traced back to the Latin prefix re-, meaning "back, again, or against," and the Latin word portare, meaning "to carry."

Campestral

WORD OF THE DAY

campestral / adjective /  kam-PESS-trul

Definition

1: of or relating to fields or open country 

2: rural

Examples

"Just about any amateur naturalist who pays attention to the birds … in campestral Maine will find an eye-opener or two here." 

— Dana Wilde, The Bangor (Maine) Daily News, 26 Oct. 2009

"When in Southeast England, depriving yourself of a chance to see Dover's famous white cliffs would be a big mistake. And so the towering chalk cliffs … were on my agenda when I embarked on a brief driving tour of the coast. I was able to thoroughly enjoy the region's rolling, campestral beauty in a three-town tour." 

— Lucas Peterson, The New York Times, 26 Jul. 2017

Did You Know?

Scamper across an open field, and then, while catching your breath, ponder this: scamper and campestral both ultimately derive from the Latin noun campus, meaning "field" or "plain." 

Latin campester is the adjective that means "pertaining to a campus." In ancient Rome, a campus was a place for games, athletic practice, and military drills. Scamper probably started with a military association as well (it is assumed to have evolved from an unattested Vulgar Latin verb, excampare, meaning "to decamp"). 

In English, campestral took on an exclusively rural aspect upon its introduction in the late 17th century, while campus, you might say, became mainly academic.

Obdurate

WORD OF THE DAY

obdurate / adjective / AHB-duh-rut

Definition

1a: stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing

1b: hardened in feelings

2: resistant to persuasion or softening influences

Examples

Obdurate lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have made it difficult for the state legislature to get anything done this term.

"The emigrants were strong-willed and obdurate. Their dreams were based as much on imagination as on the writings and maps of land speculators and entrepreneurs." 

— Edward Cuddihy, The Buffalo (New York) News, 1 Oct. 2017

Did You Know?

When you are confronted with someone obdurate, you may end up feeling dour. During the encounter, you may find that you need to be durable to keep your sanity intact. 

Maybe you will find such situations less stressful in the future if you can face them knowing that the words obdurate, dour, and durable are etymological kissing cousins. All of those words trace back to the Latin adjective durus, which means "hard." 

This adjective can still be found in dura mater, the name for the tough fibrous material that surrounds the brain and spinal cord, which comes from a Medieval Latin phrase meaning, literally, "hard mother."