Aducce

Word of the Day

adduce \ uh-DOOSS \ verb

: to offer as example, reason, or proof in discussion or analysis

EXAMPLES

"The arguments she had adduced rang true."

— Agatha Christie, The Secret Adversary, 1922

"Morris asserts that productive war makes governments, which in turn ensure peace and prosperity. He adduces the Roman Empire as his prime example."

— Alan Cate, Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), April 27, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

We won't lead you astray over the history of adduce; it is one of a plethora of familiar words that trace to the Latin root ducere, which means "to lead." Perhaps we can induce you to deduce a few other ducere offspring if we offer a few hints about them. One is a synonym of kidnap, one's a title for a British royal, and one's another word for decrease. Give up? They are abduct, duke, and reduce, respectively. There are also many others, including induce, which means "to persuade" or "to bring about."

Collywobbles

Word of the Day

collywobbles \ KAH-lee-wah-bulz \ noun

: pain in the abdomen and especially in the stomach
: bellyache

EXAMPLES

"It's no wonder you've got the collywobbles," said Ruth to her niece, "given the amount of Halloween candy you ate last night!"

"But even the hint of closing this cherished window into Detroit's past gives loyal museumgoers the collywobbles."

— Joy Hakanson Colby, The Detroit News, December 30, 2005

DID YOU KNOW?

We don't know who first clutched his or her tummy and called the affliction "collywobbles," but we do know the word's earliest print appearance dates from around 1823. We also know that the word probably came about through a process called "folk etymology." In that process, unusual words are transformed to make them look or sound like other, more familiar words.

Collywobbles is believed to be a friendlier-sounding transformation of cholera morbus (the New Latin term for the disease cholera) that was influenced by the words colic and wobble.

Quixotic

Word of the Day

quixotic \ kwik-SAH-tik \ adjective

1: foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals

 

2: capricious, unpredictable

EXAMPLES

Pauline characterized her Halloween decorating plans as ambitious, but she secretly feared that "quixotic" was a more apt descriptor.

"David Smith has chased for at least 15 years what seemed a quixotic challenge—finding a way to harness the energy remaining in discarded batteries which could represent at least 50 percent of their power capacity."

— Richard Craver, Winston-Salem Journal (North Carolina), September 28, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

If you guessed that quixotic has something to do with Don Quixote, you're absolutely right. The hero of the 17th-century Spanish novel El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (by Miguel de Cervantes) didn't change the world by tilting at windmills, but he did leave a linguistic legacy in English. The adjective quixotic is based on his name and has been used to describe unrealistic idealists since at least the early 18th century. The novel has given English other words as well. Dulcinea, the name of Quixote's beloved, has come to mean "mistress" or "sweetheart," and rosinante, which is sometimes used to refer to an old, broken-down horse, comes from the name of the hero's less-than-gallant steed, Rocinante