Foible

WORD OF THE DAY

foible / noun / FOY-bul

Definition

1: the part of a sword or foil blade between the middle and point

2a: a minor flaw or shortcoming in character or behavior 

2b: weakness

Examples

"From family foibles to practical jokes to heritage-based barbs, we embrace it all with laughter and shrugs. Everybody's got skeletons in their closet; we might as well laugh." 

— Paula Brewer, The Bangor (Maine) Daily News, 22 Nov. 2019

"Stand-up comedians, those unvarnished truth tellers and astute observers of human nature, are funniest when they mine their own human foibles for laughs, with bonus points for relatability." 

— The Las Vegas Weekly, 20 Nov. 2019

Did You Know?

In the 1600s, English speakers borrowed the French word foible to refer to the weakest part of the sword or foil, that part being the portion between the middle and the pointed tip. Despite the superficial resemblance, foible does not come from foil. 

The French foible was an adjective meaning "weak." (That French word, which is now obsolete, is derived from the same Old French term, feble, which gave us feeble.) The English foible soon came to be applied not only to weaknesses in blades but also to minor failings in character. 

It appeared in print with that use in the 17th century, and now the "character flaw" sense is considerably more popular than the original sword application.

Redux

WORD OF THE DAY

redux / adjective / ree-DUKS

Definition

: brought back—used postpositively

Examples

Following a spell of unseasonably warm weather in late March, April felt like winter redux as temperatures plunged back below freezing.

With No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama facing off in the 'Game of the Century' redux, ticket prices are surging to levels rarely seen across college football." 

— Jeff Nowak, The New Orleans Advocate, 5 Nov. 2019

Did You Know?

In Latin, redux (from the verb reducere, meaning "to lead back") can mean "brought back" or "bringing back." 

The Romans used redux as an epithet for the goddess Fortuna with its "bringing back" meaning; Fortuna Redux was trusted to bring those far from home back safely. It was the "brought back" meaning that made its way into English. 

Redux belongs to a small class of English adjectives that are always used postpositively—that is, they always follow the words they modify. 

Redux has a history of showing up in titles of English works, such as John Dryden's Astraea Redux (a 17th-century poem on the happy restoration and return of the majestic Charles the Second), Anthony Trollope's 19th-century Phineas Redux, and John Updike's 20th-century Rabbit Redux.

Cosmeticize

WORD OF THE DAY

cosmeticize / verb / kahz-MET-uh-syze

Definition

: to make (something unpleasant or ugly) superficially attractive

Examples

The documentary takes a hard look at life in the camp, never once cosmeticizing the experience of its inhabitants.

"This time around, [Florian Henckel] von Donnersmarck is striving to deliver an epic that's palatable to wider audiences. But in cosmeticizing the painter's life, making this more of a love story crossed with wartime intrigue, he has overshot his target. With a little more truth, Never Look Away could have been really beautiful." 

— Andrea Gronvall, The Chicago Reader, 15 Feb. 2019

Did You Know?

Cosmeticize first appeared in print in the early 19th century as a descendant of the noun cosmetic. Originally, its use was often literal, with the meaning "to apply a cosmetic to," but today it is more frequently used figuratively. 

Cosmeticize does occasionally draw criticism; usage commentators are sometimes irritated by verbs coined using -ize as they can sound like silly nonce words. 

Cosmeticize is fairly well established, however, in contrast with the two other rarer verbs that have been derived from cosmetic: cosmetize and the homograph cosmetic, which often turn up in literal senses ("cosmetize the face"; "a face cosmeticked with bright rouge").