Sinuous

 WORD OF THE DAY

sinuous / adjective / SIN-yuh-wus

Definition

1a: of a serpentine or wavy form 

1b: winding

1c: marked by strong lithe movements

2: intricate, complex

Examples

The hikers followed a sinuous path that curved around a lake and in between two small hills.

"The image, taken by NASA's Odyssey orbiter, showed a sinuous dried-up river channel leading into one side of the crater." 

— Kenneth Chang, The New York Times, 30 July 2020

Did You Know?

Although it probably makes you think more of snakes than head colds, sinuous is etymologically more like sinus than serpent. Sinuous and sinus both derive from the Latin noun sinus, which means "curve, fold, or hollow." 

Other sinus descendants include insinuate ("to impart or suggest in an artful or indirect way") and two terms you might remember from math class: sine and cosine. 

In English, sinus is the oldest of these words; it entered the language in the 1400s. Insinuate appeared next, in the early 1500s, and was followed by sinuous and sine in the latter half of the 1500s, and cosine in the 1600s. 

Serpent, by the way, entered English in the 13th century and comes from the Latin verb serpere, meaning "to creep."

Gauntlet

 WORD OF THE DAY

gauntlet / noun / GAWNT-lut

Definition
1: a glove worn with medieval armor to protect the hand
2: any of various protective gloves used especially in industry
3: an open challenge (as to combat) — used in phrases like throw down the gauntlet
4: a dress glove extending above the wrist

Examples
"No, Jack answered. He stared up at the advancing knight, and his hand wrapped itself tightly around the guitar-pick in his pocket. The spike-studded gauntlets came up toward the visor of its bird-helmet. They raised it."
— Stephen King and Peter Straub, The Talisman, 1984

"Last week, the California Teachers Association threw down the gauntlet and told Newsom and legislators that schools aren't ready to reopen, citing the short time frame and the recent surge of infections."
— Dan Walters, The Orange County (California) Register, 13 July 2020

Did You Know?
Gauntlet comes from Middle French gantelet, the diminutive of gant, meaning "glove." (The gauntlet that means "severe trial," "ordeal," or "double file of armed men" is a different word that originates from Swedish gata, meaning "lane" or "way.")
To throw down the gauntlet is to issue an open challenge, while to pick up the gauntlet is to accept an open challenge. These figurative phrases come from the conventions of medieval combat.
The gauntlet was the glove of a suit of armor. To challenge someone to combat, a knight would throw his glove at another knight's feet. The second knight would take it up if he intended to accept the challenge, in which case a jousting match might ensue.

Abstain

 WORD OF THE DAY

abstain /verb / ub-STAYN

Definition
1a: to choose not to do or have something
1b: to refrain deliberately and often with an effort of self-denial from an action or practice
2: to choose not to vote

Examples
"For more than a hundred and fifty days a year, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians abstain from animal products, in accordance with religious fasting."
— Hannah Goldfield, The New Yorker, 17 July 2020

"The school board Monday voted 5-1, with one abstaining, to approve guidelines for moving classes online that are less restrictive than those established by the state."
— Sarah Kay LeBlanc, The Des Moines (Iowa) Register, 11 Aug. 2020

Did You Know?
If you abstain, you're consciously, and usually with effort, choosing to hold back from doing something that you would like to do. One may abstain from a vice, for example, or in parliamentary procedure, one might abstain from placing a vote.
So it's no surprise that abstain traces back through Middle English and Anglo-French to the Latin abstinēre, which combines the prefix ab- ("from, away, off") with tenēre, a Latin verb meaning "to hold."
Tenēre has many offspring in English—other descendants include contain, detain, maintain, obtain, pertain, retain, and sustain, as well as some words that don't end in -tain, such as tenacious. Abstain, like many of its cousins, has been used by English speakers since at least the 14th century.