Word of the Day Thread

[ITS ME!]

mitigate \MIT-i-geyt\ , verb;
1.
To lessen in force or intensity, as wrath, grief, harshness, or pain; moderate.

2.
To make less severe: to mitigate a punishment.

3.
To make (a person, one's state of mind, disposition, etc.) milder or more gentle; mollify; appease.

4.
To become milder; lessen in severity.



Quotes:
I owe you a thousand obligations for all the attention you showed me in my late calamitous situation, and ill, very ill, should I repay those obligations, if I did not try as a friend to mitigate these violent transports.
-- Charlotte Turner Smith, Celestina

That does nothing to mitigate your condescending arrogance.
-- William Kittredge, The Willow Field



Origin:
Mitigate is from the Latin roots mit (soft) and agere (to cause).

[ITS ME!]

salvo \SAL-voh\ , noun;
1.

Something to save a person's reputation or soothe a person's feelings.

2.
An excuse or quibbling evasion.

3.
A simultaneous or successive discharge of artillery, bombs, etc.

4.
A round of fire given as a salute.

5.
A round of cheers or applause.



Quotes:
King Edward, however, artfully inserted a salvo, saving the rights of the King of England and of all others which before the date of this treaty belong to him or any of them in the marches or elsewhere.
-- G. A. Henty, In Freedom's Cause

Ignoring sons, he scanned the daughters with salvo upon salvo of loving glances...
-- William T. Vollmann, The Royal Family



Origin:
Salvo originates in the Latin word salvus meaning “safe.”

[ITS ME!]

poltroon \pol-TROON\ , noun;
1.
A wretched coward; craven.

adjective: 1.
Marked by utter cowardice.



Quotes:
By heavens, if, under the circumstances of the provocation which you gave him, and his whole family, he would be as mean and cowardly a poltroon as I find you be...”
-- William Carleton, Valentine M'Cultchy, the Irish Agent

“Poltroon, my dear, poltroon!” Moloch put in. “He has no sense of decency, no respect—for me, or for anything. He's a vulgar, coarse fool.”
-- Henry Miller, Moloch



Origin:
Poltroon originally came from the Latin pullus meaning “young animal.” It came to mean an idler or coward in Old French.

[ITS ME!]

crepitate \KREP-i-teyt\ , verb;
1.
To make a crackling sound; crackle.



Quotes:
The lampwicks crepitate; their flames are about to go out, long mosquitoes flit in rapid circlings about them.
-- Gustave Flaubert, The Temptation of Saint Anthony

This horrible talk, however, evidently possessed a potent magic for my friend; and his imagination, checked for a while by the influence of his kinsman, began to ferment and crepitate.
-- Henry James, Stories Revived



Origin:
Crepitate is from the Latin crepitare which meant “to rustle or chatter.”

[ITS ME!]

appetence \AP-i-tuhns\ , noun;
1.
Intense desire; strong natural craving; appetite.

2.
Instinctive inclination or natural tendency.

3.
Material or chemical attraction or affinity.



Quotes: A sudden step and desire to reach back in time to change the circumstances, to re-write and re-route all those ferocious columns, an appetence to change what had been done and said.

-- Charles D. Ellison, Tantrum

How immense is their thirst for life! A youthful nation in its entirety, a new mankind, inspired with an eager appetence for knowledge and truth.
-- Stefan Zweig and Laurence Mintz, Balzac, Dickens, Dostoevsky: Master Builders of the Spirit



Origin:
Appetence, from the same root as appetite, comes from the Latin appete meaning “to seek for or long for.”

[ITS ME!]

dipsomania \dip-suh-MEY-nee-uh\ , noun;

1.
An irresistible, typically periodic craving for alcoholic drink.



Quotes: During his last years he'd become a regular drinking companion of Roosevelt's younger brother, Elliot, whose life was also ended by dipsomania some years later.
-- Caleb Carr, The Alienist

What exactly has Mr. Waugh in mind, one would like to know, in making the perhaps too charming young man a dipsomania? Is it no more than that, being himself an unsatisfactory Roman Catholic, Sebastian lacked the will to resist drink?
-- Martin Stannard, Evelyn Waugh: The Critical Heritage



Origin:
Dipsomania literally means crazy thirst from the Greek dips (thirst) and mania (crazy).

[tp2503]

Or there's zigzagomania, where you scour the house looking for papers....
lol <zz#~~


:gfhn:

[ITS ME!]

Or there's zigzagomania, where you scour the house looking for papers....
lol <zz#~~


:gfhn:I hate when that happens...Thank God for pinch hitters , bongs and pipes!

[ITS ME!]

procrustean \proh-KRUHS-tee-uhn\ , adjective;
1.
Tending to produce conformity by violent or arbitrary means.

2.
Pertaining to or suggestive of Procrustes.



Quotes:
Soon they were operating a sort of procrustean ferry where the fares were tailored to accommodate the purses of the travelers. Ultimately all pretense was dropped and the immigrants were robbed outright.
-- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian

To force them into the machine would require a Procrustean mutilation of their basic humanity.
-- Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire



Origin:
Procrustean refers to the Greek myth of Procrustes, who was a robber who tortured his victims. According to mythology, he was killed by Theseus.

[ITS ME!]

stertor \STUR-ter\ , noun;
1.
A heavy snoring sound.



Quotes:
He was snoring, a wheeze and stertor that animated the papers scattered round him...
-- T.C. Boyle, Riven Rock

The stertor of Meat's breathing came softly, almost soothingly, through the wall.
-- Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding



Origin:
Stertor comes from the Latin stret which meant “to snore.”

[ITS ME!]

panegyrize \PAN-i-juh-rahyz\ , verb;
1.
To eulogize; to deliver or write a panegyric about.

2.
To indulge in panegyric; bestow praises.



Quotes:
I allowed then as how I had been moved to panegyrize Lieutenant Locke.
-- Louis Bayard, The Pale Blue Eye

Judge Story was a profound admirer of Chief Justice Marshall, and could rarely hear his name mentioned without digressing to panegyrize his learning and intellectual power.
-- William Matthews, Hours with Men and Books



Origin:
From Greek, panegyrize originally meant “belonging to a public assembly” from pan meaning “all” and egyris, “gathering.”

[ITS ME!]

serry \SER-ee\ , verb;
1.
To crowd closely together.



Quotes:
Serry means to crowd and is spelled serry.
-- Mildred Colvin, Missouri Brides

To keep unsettled the questions upon which these united with the Liberation Society, —accustom a powerful contingent to work together with “political Dissenters,”—to serry friends and foes into hostile phalanx, —to accept battle on a week ground where it is only possible to rally half the forces...
-- S. Wellington, The Spectator, Vol. 6



Origin:
Serry is from the Middle Frenceh serré which was the past participle of serrer meaning “to press tightly together.”

[ITS ME!]

churlish \ CHUR-lish \ , adjective;
1.
Boorish or rude.

2.
Of a churl; peasantlike.

3.
Stingy; mean.

4.
Difficult to work or deal with, as soil.



Quotes: And Ethel, though sometimes sharp and malicious and difficult, wasn't churlish or unpunctual or casual at all.
-- Ruth Rendell, One Across, Two Down

I call it churlish that you would complain of a little time spent in schooling me when the rewards I've earned you come in thick and fast.
-- Karen Miller, A Blight of Mages



Origin:
Churlish originates in the Old English ceorlisc meaning “peasant, freeman, man without rank.” It had various meanings in early Middle English, including "man of the common people," "a country man," "husbandman," "free peasant." By 1300, it meant "bondman, villain," also "fellow of low birth or rude manners."

[ITS ME!]

altruistic \ al-troo-IS-tik \ , adjective;
1.
Unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others.

2.
Animal Behavior. Of or pertaining to behavior by an animal that may be to its disadvantage but that benefits others of its kind, often its close relatives.
Quotes:




I thought you were an altruistic banker, nothing more, nothing less. A civic-minded altruistic banker.
-- Inman Majors, The Millionaires: A Novel

An altruistic act is an act performed for the welfare of others. It is unselfish, as opposed to an act performed for self, which is selfish.
-- Jack London, The Sea-Wolf



Origin:
Altruistic was coined in 1830 by philosopher Auguste Comte. It originates in the French word altrui meaning “of or to others” from the Latin word alteri meaning “other.”

[ITS ME!]

bobbery \ BOB-uh-ree \ , noun;
1.
A disturbance or a brawl.



Quotes:
“Allow me, Mr. Ivolgin,” Ippolit suddenly interrupted, irritably, “what's all this bobbery for, if I may ask...”
-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

Kicked up the most delightful bobbery that had ever been witnessed!
-- Anthony Trollope, Is He Popenjoy? A Novel



Origin:
Bobbery , unexpectedly, is from the Hindu phrase bap re meaning “O father!” It was first recorded in print in 1816 in The Grand Master .

[ITS ME!]

operose \ OP-uh-rohs \ , adjective;

1.
Done with or involving much labor.

2.
Industrious, as a person.



Quotes: It seems to me a circuitous and operose way of relieving myself to put upon your community the emancipation which I ought to take on myself.
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

But what an operose method! What a train of means to secure a little conversation!
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays



Origin:
Operose is from the Latin word operosus meaning “taking great pains.” It shares a root with the word opus meaning “work.”

[ITS ME!]

collop \ KOL-uhp \ , noun;
1.
A small slice of meat.

2.
A small slice, portion, or piece of anything.

3.
A fold or roll of flesh on the body.



Quotes: He took up a knife and fork, and collop after collop disappeared.
-- Allan Cunningham, Gowden Gibbie

There was cheesecake and spicecake, along with a most extraordinary dish, exactly like collops of bacon only sweet to the taste...
-- Maria McCann, As Meat Loves Salt



Origin:
Collop is derived from the Middle English word colhoppe meaning “a dish of stewed meat.”

[ITS ME!]

frondescence \ fron-DES-uhns \ , noun;
1.
Leafage; foliage.

2.
The process or period of putting forth leaves, as a tree, plant, or the like.



Quotes: What we found were three hundred pristine, mostly level acres with a forty-five-acre pond, completely undeveloped, covered with exquisite wildflowers and frondescence .
-- Paul Newman, In Pursuit of the Common Good

I now become aware of the sound of rumbling water, emanating from somewhere inside the rain forest next to my tropical rest stop. I approach the wet and abundant frondescence of the forest.
-- Richard Wyatt, Fathers of Myth



Origin:
Frondescence is from the Latin root frondēre meaning “to have leaves.” It is clearly related to frond meaning “leaves.”

[ITS ME!]

weald \ weeld \ , noun;

1.
Wooded or uncultivated country.

2.
A region in SE England, in Kent, Surrey, and Essex counties: once a forest area; now an agricultural region.



Quotes: I am tempted to give one other case, the well-known one of the denudation of the Weald .
-- Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

And your advertisements must refer to the other, which is Great Willingden or Willingden Abbots, and lies seven miles on the other side of Battle. Quite down in the weald .
-- Jane Austen, Sanditon



Origin:
Related to the word wild , weald comes from the Old English word weald meaning “forest.”

[ITS ME!]

boscage \ BOS-kij \ , noun;
1.
A mass of trees or shrubs.



Quotes: In places the park and the site itself were edged right up to its rubble and boscage by the rear of buildings...
-- China Miéville, The City & the City

Plunging along a narrow path thick-set on each side with leafy boscage , Paul caught sight of the two retreating figures a few yards only in front of him.
-- John R. Carling, The Shadow of the Czar



Origin:
Boscage comes from the Middle French word boscage , from the roots bosk meaning “a small wood or thicket” and -age , a suffix that denotes a general noun, like voyage and courage.