Word of the Day Thread

[ITS ME!]

bespeak \ bih-SPEEK \ , verb;
1.
To show; indicate.

2.
To ask for in advance.

3.
To reserve beforehand; engage in advance; make arrangements for.

4.
Literary. To speak to; address.

5.
Obsolete. To foretell; forebode.



Quotes:
Let the crooked flower bespeak its purpose in straightness — to seek the light.
-- Allen Ginsberg, Journals Mid-Fifties

In the execution of this universal gesture, most people bring down their thumb to signify the hammer's dropping, but Sean actually pulls his trigger finger, which I find much more threatening, since it seems to bespeak a genuine familiarity with the real thing.
-- Jonathan Tropper, The Book of Joe



Origin:
Bespeak is derived from the Old English word besprecan . It developed a wide range of meanings, such as request, discuss, or arrange.

[tp2503]

I'd gladly bespeak a hamburger today that I'll pay for on Tuesday!
Hey Now!

lol

Wait, it is Tuesday. Forget the bespeaking.....

[ITS ME!]

ad rem \ ad REM \ , adverb, adjective;
1.
Without digressing; in a straightforward manner.

adjective: 1.
Relevant; pertinent.



Quotes:
I am sure these things are not ad rem . Some persons think, my lord, it is very hard these men should be forced against their consciences from the church.
-- Richard Baxter, The Practical Works of Richard Baxter

The letter seems free of formulae, which suggests it was composed specifically ad rem.
-- Roger Rees, Layers of Loyalty in Latin Panegyric



Origin:
Ad rem is a useful Latin phrase that literally means "at thing" from the roots ad and rēs .

[ITS ME!]

plenum \ PLEE-nuhm \ , noun;

1.
A full assembly, as a joint legislative assembly.

2.
The state or a space in which a gas, usually air, is contained at a pressure greater than atmospheric pressure.

3.
A space, usually above a ceiling or below a floor, that can serve as a receiving chamber for air that has been heated or cooled to be distributed to inhabited areas.

4.
The whole of space regarded as being filled with matter (opposed to vacuum).



Quotes:
The plenum allegedly demanded that Bukharin cease his hunger strike.
-- Yuri Trifonov, Disappearance

They convened a plenary session of the Central Committee, and the plenum sided with them — the game was over!
-- Feliks Ivanovich Chuev, Molotov Remembers



Origin:
Plenum is literally the opposite of a vacuum . It came to be used in the sense of a full meeting of legislators in 1772 in Sweden.

[ITS ME!]

adamantine \ ad-uh-MAN-teen \ , adjective;

1.
Utterly unyielding or firm in attitude or opinion.

2.
Too hard to cut, break, or pierce.

3.
Like a diamond in luster.



Quotes:
That will shock some people at the Folger, but Shakespeare is adamantine .
-- Tad Friend, "Compleat Works," The New Yorker , Jan. 9, 2012

…and when she saw the state his clothes were in her resolution to turn his Saturday holiday into captivity at hard labor became adamantine in its firmness.
-- Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer



Origin:
Related to adamant , adamantine comes from the Greek word adamántinos , a combination of the word adamant and the suffix -ine which means "of or pertaining to."

[ITS ME!]

bandy \ BAN-dee \ , verb, adjective, noun;

1.
To pass from one to another or back and forth; give and take.

2.
To throw or strike to and fro or from side to side, as a ball in tennis.

3.
To circulate freely.

adjective: 1.
(Of legs) having a bend or crook outward; bowed.

noun: 1.
An early form of tennis.

2.
Chiefly British. (Formerly) hockey or shinny.

3.
Obsolete. A hockey or shinny stick.



Quotes:
"I want all my clients to be like you," Peter says, which is probably not the shrewdest of comments ("client" isn't a word to bandy about)...
-- Michael Cunningham, By Nightfall

He was supposedly a great cook, he would bandy about names of exotic mushrooms, but I never saw him boil an egg when I was visiting you.
-- Rick Moody, "The Mansion on the Hill," The Paris Review Book for Planes, Trains, and Waiting Rooms



Origin:
Though the origin of bandy is uncertain, it came into common usage in French during the rise of tennis in the 1500s, as in to bandy the ball.

[ITS ME!]

hircine \ HUR-sahyn \ , adjective;
1.
of, pertaining to, or resembling a goat.

2.
Having a goatish odor.

3.
Lustful; libidinous.



Quotes:
The hircine stink in the air that he had sucked in while running was replaced by a cool dampness.
-- Jonathan Wilson, A Palestine Affair

Dad was thick-haired, bowlegged, bottom-heavy; he wore a tangly, hircine beard; a cigar depended from his lips at all times, the aromatic stub of a flute; panic was his state of nature.
-- Michael Griffith, Spikes



Origin:
Hircine comes from the Latin word meaning of a goat, hircīnus .

[ITS ME!]

flexuous \ FLEK-shoo-uhs \ , adjective;

1.
Full of bends or curves; sinuous.



Quotes:
Her flexuous and stealthy figure became an integral part of the scene. At times her whimsical fancy would intensify natural processes around her till they seemed a part of her own story.
-- Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles

What is anomalous about Nietzsche in this context is scarcely the hold this plot has on him, but indeed the flexuous sweetness with which sometimes he uniquely invests it...
-- Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet



Origin:
Flexuous is derived from the Latin word flexuōsus which meant full of turns or crooked. This is an interesting example where the suffix changes the implication of the word. Unlike the more common word flexible, which means "capable of being bent" because of the suffix -ible , flexuous has the suffix, -ous meaning "full of."

[ITS ME!]

pettifog \ PET-ee-fog \ , verb;

1.
To bicker or quibble over trifles or unimportant matters.

2.
To carry on a petty, shifty, or unethical law business.

3.
To practice chicanery of any sort.



Quotes:
Marius, my boy, you are a baron, you are rich, don't pettifog , I beg of you.
-- Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Naturally, the wonderful tubers Brillat-Savarin dug up and dished out lacked the penultimate refinements of washing and cooking, but it would've been gauche to pettifog.
-- Elizabeth Gundy, The Disappearance of Gregory Pluckrose



Origin:
Pettifog comes from the Middle Dutch word voeger meaning one who arranges things and the word petty meaning insignificant.

[ITS ME!]

alembic \ uh-LEM-bik \ , noun;
1.
Anything that transforms, purifies, or refines.

2.
A vessel with a beaked cap or head, formerly used in distilling.



Quotes:
The dream-world of their experiences in the wood near Athens becomes a kind of ' alembic ' which they pass through to a truer perception of reality.
-- Ronald P. Draper, Shakespeare, The Comedies

But the more he read the more he was astonished to find how the facts had passed through the alembic of Carlyle's brain and had come out and fitted themselves, each as a part of one great whole, making a compact result, indestructible and unrivaled...
-- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities



Origin:
Alembic is derived from the Arabic word al-anbiq , which means "a distilling cup." It developed its broader meaning in the 1300s.

[ITS ME!]

cant \ kant \ , verb, noun;
1.
To talk hypocritically.

2.
To speak in the whining or singsong tone of a beggar; beg.

noun: 1.
Insincere, especially conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness, or piety.

2.
The private language of the underworld.

3.
The phraseology peculiar to a particular class, party, profession, etc.

4.
Whining or singsong speech, especially of beggars.



Quotes:
I don't deny but that may sooner teach a Man to Cant and talk Gibberish, or use fair, smooth, formal Phrases, and religious Words.
-- Richard Ward and Sarah Hutton, The Life of Henry More

A philanthropist by nature, he is not one of those dreamers who hate all that will not aid their one pet scheme, and cant about a general brotherhood which exempts them from particular charity.
-- Robert Alfred Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics



Origin:
Cant comes from the same Latin word as chant , the Latin word for song, cantus . The sense of "insincere talk" arose in the early 1700s.

[ITS ME!]

liege \ leej \ , adjective, noun;

1.
Loyal; faithful.

2.
Owing primary allegiance and service to a feudal lord.

3.
Pertaining to the relation between a feudal vassal and lord.

noun: 1.
A feudal lord entitled to allegiance and service.

2.
A feudal vassal or subject.



Quotes:
The materialist, liege to his own system, is incapable of doing anything but put one after another the results of his observations.
-- Agostino Da Montefeltro, Conferences Of; Delivered in Rome During Lent 1889

Subjects were required to give their liege to their lord.
-- Paul L. Williams, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Crusades



Origin:
Liege is of uncertain origin. It either came from the Middle English word leidig meaning "free" or from the Late Latin word for serf, laeticus . Both roots identified the relationship between a vassal, or serf, and his superior.

[ITS ME!]

oracular \ aw-RAK-yuh-ler \ , adjective;

1.
Ambiguous; obscure.

2.
Of the nature of, resembling, or suggesting an oracle.

3.
Giving forth utterances or decisions as if by special inspiration or authority.

4.
Uttered or delivered as if divinely inspired or infallible; sententious.

5.
Portentous; ominous.



Quotes:
"If you want me to understand, you'll have to be less oracular ," Daisy said, patience wearing thin.
-- Carola Dunn, Mistletoe and Murder

His demurrals, disclaimers, and protestations of ignorance were completely ineffective. Whatever guess he was finally strong-armed into hazarding was received as oracular.
-- Deborah Eisenberg, Twilight of the Superheroes



Origin:
Oracular comes from the Latin word oracle , meaning "a message from god." The suffix -ar forms an adjective from a noun, like the word lunar.

[ITS ME!]

profluent \ PROF-loo-uhnt \ , adjective;

1.
Flowing smoothly or abundantly forth.



Quotes:
Half the congregation — Gwen's family and friends — reached the door ahead of me, their nonchalance more powerful, more profluent than my most intense desire. I could only crawl toward the chapel doors.
-- Stephanie Grant, The Passion of Alice

In southern Arizona, it rains in summer, and I'm impatient for the monsoon torrents of August, for an indulgence of water, a baptism that will roister over rocks and swell profluent down the mountainside, roll through the rubble of the canyon floor...
-- Caitlin L. Gannon, Southwestern Women: New Voices



Origin:
Profluent is derived from the Latin word prōfluere , which meant "to flow forth."

[ITS ME!]

appertain \ ap-er-TEYN \ , verb;
1.
To belong as a part, right, possession or attribute.



Quotes:
Natural rights are those which appertain to man in right of his existence. Of this kind are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness…
-- Thomas Paine, Common Sense and Other Writings

In all matters of discovery and invention, even of those that appertain to the imagination, we are continually reminded of the story of Columbus and his egg.
-- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

…and since Phillotson's success in obtaining at least her promise had become known to Jude, he had frankly recognized that he did not wish to see or hear of his senior any more, learn anything of his pursuits, or even imagine again what excellencies might appertain to his character.
-- Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure



Origin:
Appertain stems from the Old French word apertenir which meant "to belong." The prefix ap- is a variation of the prefix ad- which means "toward."

[ITS ME!]

rutilant \ ROOT-l-uhnt \ , adjective;
1.
Glowing or glittering with ruddy or golden light.



Quotes:
He had a round head as bare as a knee, a corpse's button nose, and very white, very limp, very damp hands adorned with rutilant gems.
-- Vladimir Nabokov, Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle

It was like the show-piece that is reserved for the conclusion of a fete, the huge bouquet of gold and crimson, as if Paris were burning like a forest of old oaks and soaring heavenward in a rutilant cloud of sparks and flame.
-- Émile Zola, The Downfall

Why flashed through space a sudden and extraordinary splendor, intenser than the rutilant fulgurations of the aurora borealis, lighting up the whole heavens instantaneously, and for a moment eclipsing every star of every magnitude?
-- Jules Verne, To The Sun?



Origin:
Rutilant is from the Latin word rutilāns , meaning "having a reddish color or glow."

[ITS ME!]

pococurante \ poh-koh-koo-RAN-tee \ , noun, adjective;
1.
Caring little; indifferent; nonchalant.

adjective: 1.
A careless or indifferent person.




Quotes:
“She is a charming lady who happened to be born in Vitebsk, and no more than that,” he kept thinking, trying to convince himself that he would be a pococurante person when it came to Nina.
-- Johnny Wright, The Lost Chagall

Already he could see Alfred's blonde head making its way toward him, and he was smiling to himself at the thought of the contemptuous objurgations his friend would address to him at his absurd pococurante affectation, for so Alfred always called Guston's indifference, when his eyes fell upon a woman's profile seated within a few feet of him.
-- Ernest Roland, "Lèse-Amour," The Galaxy



Origin:
Pococurante came directly from Italian into English in the 1750s. It literally meant "caring little."

[ITS ME!]

furcate \ FUR-keyt \ , verb, adjective;

1.
To form a fork; branch.

adjective: 1.
Forked; branching.



Quotes:
The root systems of an ancient tree seemed to furcate and furrow the surface of his thighs, and where his skin was not covered in dark hair, it was strangely rippled with wild webs of some kind of tissue just beneath the skin.
-- Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: A Novel

Just focus your attention on the eyes and let your mind furcate as it will.
-- Patrick Moran, Tsunami Sundog




Origin:

Furcate is from the Medieval Latin word furcātus which meant "cloven."

[ITS ME!]

esculent \ ES-kyuh-luhnt \ , noun, adjective;
1.
Something edible, especially a vegetable.

adjective: 1.
Suitable for use as food; edible.



Quotes:
The remainder of the garden presented a well-selected assortment of esculent vegetables, in a praiseworthy state of advancement.
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables

There are many varieties of mushrooms, some of which are very poisonous; therefore you should be careful in selecting them, that you do not mistake the poisonous for the esculent ones.
-- Lettice Bryan, The Kentucky Housewife



Origin:
Related to the word eat , esculent comes from the Latin word for food, esca .

[ITS ME!]

antipode \ AN-ti-pohd \ , noun;
1.
A direct or exact opposite.



Quotes:
It seemed that this enthusiast was just as cautious, just as much alive to judgments in other minds as if he had been that antipode of all enthusiasm called "a man of the world."
-- George Eliot, Daniel Deronda

I look for the furthest spot on earth away from Lancaster — Lancaster's antipode — the middle of the Indian Ocean.
-- Douglas Coupland, Shampoo Planet

Here we are, thrust to the opposite and absurd antipode of what we think is good. And tomorrow we'll be out of bed at three o'clock in the pitch-black morning.
-- Tim O'Brien, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home



Origin:
Antipode is actually a clipping, or back-formation, of the word Greek word antipodes . It lost its s in the mid-1500s. The original word literally meant "opposite feet," as in "the place on the exact opposite point on the globe."