WORD OF THE DAY
soporific \ sah-puh-RIFF-ik \ adjective
Definition
1a : causing or tending to cause sleep
1b : tending to dull awareness or alertness
2 : of, relating to, or marked by sleepiness or lethargy
Examples
The soporific effects of the stuffy classroom and the lecturer's droning voice left more than one student fighting to stay awake.
"The prose sparkles at every turn, but that's not to say it's without flaws. Some entire chapters … struck me as wholly soporific."
— Andrew Ervin, The Washington Post, 13 Sept. 2016
Did You Know?
"It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is 'soporific.' I have never felt sleepy after eating lettuces; but then I am not a rabbit." In The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies by Beatrix Potter, the children of Benjamin Bunny were very nearly done in by Mr. McGregor because they ate soporific lettuces that put them into a deep sleep. Their near fate can help you recall the history of soporific.
The term traces to the Latin noun sopor, which means "deep sleep." (That root is related to somnus, the Latin word for sleep and the name of the Roman god of sleep.) French speakers used sopor as the basis of soporifique, which was probably the model for the English soporific.
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Cabbage
WORD OF THE DAY
cabbage \ KAB-ij \ verb
Definition
: steal, filch
Examples
"When these ruffians were in a relatively mild mood they were content to chase us off the diamond, but when their glands were flowing freely they also cabbaged our bats, balls and gloves."
— H. L. Mencken, Happy Days, 1940
"More and more people are trying to get their 'news' free from online sources, unreliable as some of these fly-by-night wanna-bes are. In truth, the information is usually cabbaged from the website (or the print edition) of the local paper."
— Kim Poindexter, The Tahlequah (Oklahoma) Daily Press, 24 Aug. 2015
Did You Know?
Does the "filching" meaning of cabbage bring to mind an image of thieves sneaking out of farm fields with armloads of pilfered produce? If so, you're in for a surprise. Today's featured word has nothing to do with the leafy vegetable. It originally referred to the practice among tailors of pocketing part of the cloth given to them to make garments.
The verb was cut from the same cloth as an older British noun cabbage, which meant "pieces of cloth left in cutting out garments and traditionally kept by tailors as perquisites." Both of those ethically questionable cabbages probably derived from cabas, the Middle French word for "cheating or theft." The cabbage found in coleslaw, on the other hand, comes from Middle English caboche, which meant "head."
cabbage \ KAB-ij \ verb
Definition
: steal, filch
Examples
"When these ruffians were in a relatively mild mood they were content to chase us off the diamond, but when their glands were flowing freely they also cabbaged our bats, balls and gloves."
— H. L. Mencken, Happy Days, 1940
"More and more people are trying to get their 'news' free from online sources, unreliable as some of these fly-by-night wanna-bes are. In truth, the information is usually cabbaged from the website (or the print edition) of the local paper."
— Kim Poindexter, The Tahlequah (Oklahoma) Daily Press, 24 Aug. 2015
Did You Know?
Does the "filching" meaning of cabbage bring to mind an image of thieves sneaking out of farm fields with armloads of pilfered produce? If so, you're in for a surprise. Today's featured word has nothing to do with the leafy vegetable. It originally referred to the practice among tailors of pocketing part of the cloth given to them to make garments.
The verb was cut from the same cloth as an older British noun cabbage, which meant "pieces of cloth left in cutting out garments and traditionally kept by tailors as perquisites." Both of those ethically questionable cabbages probably derived from cabas, the Middle French word for "cheating or theft." The cabbage found in coleslaw, on the other hand, comes from Middle English caboche, which meant "head."
Monday, November 28, 2016
Vicissitude
WORD OF THE DAY
vicissitude \ vuh-SISS-uh-tood \ noun
Definition
1 : the quality or state of being changeable : mutability
2a : a favorable or unfavorable event or situation that occurs by chance : a fluctuation of state or condition
2b : a difficulty or hardship usually beyond one's control
Examples
"The vicissitudes of life strike us all. But when life gets difficult for the poor, economically or emotionally, or most often both at once, it can pitch them into complete chaos."
— The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 22 Aug. 2016
"A good coach on tour is at once a friend and a taskmaster, a psychologist and an emotional buffer against the vicissitudes of competing at the highest level of the game."
— Geoff Macdonald, The New York Times, 1 Sept. 2016
Did You Know?
"Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better," wrote British theologian Richard Hooker in the 16th century. That observation may shed some light on vicissitude, a word that can refer simply to the fact of change, or to an instance of it, but that often refers specifically to hardship or difficulty brought about by change.
To survive "the vicissitudes of life" is thus to survive life's ups and downs, with special emphasis on the downs. Vicissitude is a descendant of the Latin noun vicis, meaning "change" or "alternation," and it has been a part of the English language since the 16th century. In contemporary usage, it most often occurs in the plural.
vicissitude \ vuh-SISS-uh-tood \ noun
Definition
1 : the quality or state of being changeable : mutability
2a : a favorable or unfavorable event or situation that occurs by chance : a fluctuation of state or condition
2b : a difficulty or hardship usually beyond one's control
Examples
"The vicissitudes of life strike us all. But when life gets difficult for the poor, economically or emotionally, or most often both at once, it can pitch them into complete chaos."
— The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 22 Aug. 2016
"A good coach on tour is at once a friend and a taskmaster, a psychologist and an emotional buffer against the vicissitudes of competing at the highest level of the game."
— Geoff Macdonald, The New York Times, 1 Sept. 2016
Did You Know?
"Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better," wrote British theologian Richard Hooker in the 16th century. That observation may shed some light on vicissitude, a word that can refer simply to the fact of change, or to an instance of it, but that often refers specifically to hardship or difficulty brought about by change.
To survive "the vicissitudes of life" is thus to survive life's ups and downs, with special emphasis on the downs. Vicissitude is a descendant of the Latin noun vicis, meaning "change" or "alternation," and it has been a part of the English language since the 16th century. In contemporary usage, it most often occurs in the plural.
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