Word of the Day Thread

[ITS ME!]

quean \kween\ , noun;
1.

An overly forward, impudent woman; shrew; hussy.

2.
A prostitute.

3.
British Dialect. A girl or young woman, especially a robust one.






Quotes:
I answer thee, thou art a beggar, a quean, and a bawd.
-- Thomas Middleton, Five Plays

Had I had my own will, I would have had her to Bridewell, to flog the wild blood out of her—a cutty quean, to think of wearing the breeches, and not so much as married yet!
-- Sir Walter Scott, Waverley Novels



Origin:
Quean, predictably, is rooted in the same Old English word that queen comes from, the word cwen which meant woman.

[ITS ME!]

junket \JUHNG-kit\ , noun;
1.
A trip, usually by an official or legislative committee, paid out of public funds and ostensibly to obtain information.

2.
A sweet, custardlike food of flavored milk curdled with rennet.

3.
A pleasure excursion, as a picnic or outing.

verb: 1.
To go on a junket.

2.
To entertain; feast; regale.






Quotes:
Yeah, well, there's a lot more of them on the operation, fellows in the control room, women too. They all decided to go to California together on a junket. Whooping it up, you know?
-- Patricia Highsmith, Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes

Some lobbyists get together and put up money for a few congresspeople to go to a resort for a winter weekend. The catch is the lobbyists get to go along and talk to them. They usually call it a seminar or a symposium, but basically it's a junket.
-- John Lutz, Final Seconds



Origin:
Junket is rooted in the Latin word juncata which meant “rush basket.” It is likely that the basket was associated with the notion of a picnic basket and came to signify a pleasure trip.

[ITS ME!]

canny \KAN-ee\ , adjective;
1.
Careful; cautious; prudent.

2.
Astute; shrewd; knowing; sagacious.

3.
Skilled; expert.

4.
Frugal; thrifty.

5.
Scot. A. Safe to deal with, invest in, or work at (usually used with a negative). B. Gentle; careful; steady. C. Snug; cozy; comfortable. D. Pleasing; attractive. E. Archaic. Having supernatural or occult powers.

adverb: 1.
In a canny manner.

2.
Scot. Carefully; cautiously.






Quotes:
But they're not going to catch us that easily. If they're canny, we can be canny too!
-- Hans Fallada, Every Man Dies Alone

Some of the little contrivances, which he thought so canny, left her doubtful.
-- D.H. Lawrence, The Rainbow



Origin:
Canny is derived from the Middle English word ken meaning “knowledge or understanding.” It is related to the verb kennen meaning “to see, know, or make known.”

[ITS ME!]

plebiscite \PLEB-uh-sahyt\ , noun;
1.
A direct vote of the qualified voters of a state in regard to some important public question.

2.
The vote by which the people of a political unit determine autonomy or affiliation with another country.



Quotes:
How many of these were there? Not enough to put the verdict of the plebiscite in doubt, anyway.
-- Arthur C. Clark, The Last Theorem

It was he who devised the plebiscite and the governmental machinery for making plebiscites yield the desired results — ninety-eight percent of the votes in favor of tyranny, two percent against.
-- Aldous Huxley, Complete Essays



Origin:
Plebiscite is comprised the Latin roots plebi meaning “common people” and scitum meaning “resolution or decree.”

[ITS ME!]

kef \keyf\ , noun;

1.
A state of drowsy contentment

2.
Also, keef. a substance, especially a smoking preparation of hemp leaves, used to produce this state.






Quotes:
I need not add that my kef—my noon rest, did not pass without interruption.
-- Karl Friedrich May, Through the Desert

...I tied on my hat and lit it down and held up my umbrella for shade, and fell into kef, being incapable of sustained thought.
-- William Cory, Extracts from the Letters and Journals of William Cory



Origin:
Kef comes from the Arabic word kaif meaning “well-being or pleasure.”

[tp2503]

Also, keef. a substance, especially a smoking preparation of hemp leaves, used to produce this state.
Drowsy contentment

OH BABY!
lol

[ITS ME!]

pansophy \PAN-suh-fee\ , noun;
1.
Universal wisdom or knowledge.






Quotes:
For just at the moment Baconfield had come to perceive the divine formulae that dictate, in darkness, the world's apparent randomness, just when the thumbmarks on his walls comprised an exhilarating pansophy and he stood poised on the verge of omniscience, an uncircumscribable chaos has swept into his life.
-- Rikki Ducornet, The Jade Cabinet

Wade had somehow managed to fuse the lightning-bolt pansophy of our visionary past with a single-minded perspicacity befitting the finest of the experimental methods...
-- Konrad Ventana, A Desperado's Daily Bread



Origin:
From the Greek, pansophy is comprised of the root words pan meaning “all” and sophy meaning “wisdom.”

[ITS ME!]

Also, keef. a substance, especially a smoking preparation of hemp leaves, used to produce this state.
Drowsy contentment

OH BABY!
lolWe need a thank you button........Thanks tp!

[Hippy]

We need a thank you button........Thanks tp!

yes;).......

[ITS ME!]

zeal \zeel\ , noun;

1.
Fervor for a person, cause, or object; eager desire or endeavor; enthusiastic diligence; ardor.






Quotes:
...serve him with zeal, and love him with fidelity.
-- Fanny Burney, Cecilia: Or, Memoirs of an Heiress

This passionate profession, which Newman uttered with the greater zeal that it was the first time he had felt the relief words at once as hard and as careful as hammer-taps could give his spirit, kindled two small sparks in Mrs. Bread's fixed eyes.
-- Henry James, The American



Origin:
Zeal is derived from the Greek word zelos, the same root as the word zealous.

[ITS ME!]

rankle

\RANG-kuhl\ , verb;
1.
To cause keen irritation or bitter resentment in.

2.
To continue to cause keen irritation or bitter resentment within the mind; fester; be painful.
Quotes:
She holds that scornful expression long enough to make sure I notice. I make believe I don't. I try not to let it rankle me.
-- Joseph Heller, Something Happened

The section of it which chiefly rankled in Charteris's mind, and which had continued to rankle ever since, was that in which the use of the word “buffoon” had occurred.
-- P. G. Wodehouse, Tales of St. Austin's



Origin:
Rankle has a complex history. It derives from the Middle English word rancler meaning “to fester” which is a derivative of draoncle, late Latin for “a sore” which itself comes from the Latin draco meaning “a serpent.”

[ITS ME!]

lyard \LAHY-erd\ , adjective;
1.
Streaked or spotted with gray or white.



Quotes:
Referring again to the color of medieval horses, white or grey, which was called “lyard”—were the favourite colors...
-- Walter Clifford Meller, A Knight's Life in Days of Chivalry

The best color for a stallion, is brown bay dappled, dapple gray, bright bay, or white lyard.
-- Gervase Markham, Cavelarice



Origin:
Lyard is from the Old French liart. However its meaning before that is unknown.

[ITS ME!]

fascicle \FAS-i-kuhl\ , noun;

1.
A section of a book or set of books published in installments as separate pamphlets or volumes.

2.
A small bundle, tight cluster, or the like.

3.
Botany. A close cluster, as of flowers or leaves.

4.
Anatomy. A small bundle of nerve or muscle fibers.



Quotes:
Citations of passages within texts collected in the Buddhist and Daoist cannons are by fascicle and page...
-- Robert Fort Company, Strange Writing

In 1981 R. W. Franklin published The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson, a manuscript edition that arranges the poems in fascicle order.
-- Elaine Showalter, Modern America Women Writers



Origin:
Fascicle originates in the Latin word fascus meaning “a bundle or pack” and the suffix “cle” that implies a smaller version, as in particle.

[tp2503]

fascicle, a woman's testicle, lol

I don't know why that seems funny to me.
Where'd I put that clip...........................

[ITS ME!]

fascicle, a woman's testicle, lol

I don't know why that seems funny to me.
Where'd I put that clip...........................LOL tp you best get that clip you need it! :invisible_smiley:

[ITS ME!]

apocrypha \uh-POK-ruh-fuh\ , noun;
1.
Various religious writings of uncertain origin regarded by some as inspired, but rejected by most authorities.

2.
A group of 14 books, not considered canonical, included in the Septuagint and the Vulgate as part of the Old Testament, but usually omitted from Protestant editions of the Bible.

3.
Writings, statements, etc., of doubtful authorship or authenticity.






Quotes:
The apocrypha, some of which the peasants would hear in church, were popular because of their often grotesque humor, and although there was frequently a didactic element, it was not usually overbearing.
-- Jack V. Haney, Russian Wondertales

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries gave birth to numerous chronicles, hagiographies, legends, and apocrypha, in which the proportion of fictional and nonfictional elements varied.
-- Carl Edmund Rollyson, Critical Survey of Long Fiction



Origin:
Apocrypha comes from the Greek apokryphos meaning “hidden, unknown or spurious.”

[ITS ME!]

opuscule \oh-PUHS-kyool\ , noun;
1.
A small or minor work.

2.
A literary or musical work of small size.






Quotes:
Little by little, with patience and luck and the progressive sharpening of my predatory eye, I found one or another opuscule of his in my used book stores in Oxford and London.
-- Javier MarÃ*as, Dark Back of Time

The guide, a mere opuscule of ten pages, is entitled 'The Great Sepulture of the Cappuccini', and is well worth the hundred lire one pays for it.
-- Jocelyn Brooke, The Dog at Clambercrown



Origin:
Opuscule is from the Latin roots opus meaning “word” and cule which is a suffix that implies a diminutive version, as in molecule and fascicle.

[ITS ME!]

bibliophage \BIB-lee-uh-feyj\ , noun;
1.
An ardent reader; a bookworm.






Quotes:
You may recall, if you are something of a bibliophage, that the late Sylvia Plath had a story with a similar name.
-- Corey Mesler, We Are a Billion-Year-Old Carbon

The borrower, heedless, reckless bibliophage cares nothing about all this; into the midst of these learned pleasures he leaps like a fox into a hen-roost; he is smitten all at once with an overmastering hunger for reading...”
-- Elliot Stock, The Bookworm



Origin:
Bibliophage derives from the Latin biblio meaning “books” and phage meaning “a thing that devours.”

[ITS ME!]

omnibus \OM-nuh-buhs\ , noun;

1.
A volume of reprinted works of a single author or of works related in interest or theme.

2.
A bus.

adjective: 1.
Pertaining to, including, or dealing with numerous objects or items at once.






Quotes:
He is working on an omnibus volume that will combine old and new material to explain what he's been doing all these years.
-- Benjamin Ivry, “Joseph Mitchell's Secret” New York Magazine, Feb. 9, 1987

An omnibus containing extracts from past works, linked with Koestler's 1980 comments, it has a far more coherent shape than the author appears to think.
-- Bernard Dixon, “Two Cultures At One” New Scientist, Jan. 8, 1981



Origin:
Omnibus means “for all” in Latin.

[ITS ME!]

knavery \NEY-vuh-ree\ , noun;

1.
Unprincipled, untrustworthy, or dishonest dealing; trickery.

2.
Action or practice characteristic of a knave

3.
A knavish act or practice.



Quotes:
Knavery may serve for a turn, but honesty is best in the long run.
-- Aesop, Aesop's Fables

Yes, I took the brunt of it but not because there was a ballot on it but because I know knavery when I see knavery. Plus underhandedness and mischief.
-- Gordon Lish, Collected Fictions



Origin:
Originally from the German word knabe meaning “boy or lad,” knavery has been used to imply deceitful intentions since the 1200s.