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| lasting a short time, transitory |
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slight wish or inclination
vuhleeity |
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relating to or occurring in the morning
Matuta goddess of morning |
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1 to move about freely or at will : wander
2 to speak or write at length or in detail
The Latin antecedent of expatiate is exspatiari, which combines the prefix ex- ("out of") with spatiari ("to take a walk"), itself from spatium ("space" or "course"). Exspatiari means "to wander from a course" and, in a figurative sense, "to digress." But when English speakers began using expatiate in the mid-16th century, we took "wander" to mean simply "to move about freely." In a similar digression from the original Latin, we began using expatiate in a figurative sense of "to speak at length." That's the sense of the word most often used these days, usually in combination with on or upon. |
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eternal; everlasting.
ee-OH-nee-uh n
Aeonian can be traced to the Greek word aiṓn meaning "space of time, age." |
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loo dic
playful in an aimless way: the ludic behavior of kittens. |
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to strike or sting with or as if with nettles
to arouse to sharp but transitory annoyance or anger
Steve Jobs may not have led Apple to global dominance if he'd had the company's new watch nettling him with notifications |
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to strike or sting with or as if with nettles
to arouse to sharp but transitory annoyance or anger
Steve Jobs may not have led Apple to global dominance if he'd had the company's new watch nettling him with notifications |
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reheated food, rehash, old reworked material
ray sho FAY |
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ap-uh-sahy-uh-PEE-sis
Rhetoric. a sudden breaking off in the midst of a sentence, as if from inability or unwillingness to proceed. |
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1 a :
muscular power or development
b strength, vitality
2 muscle, sinew — usually used in plural
In Rocco's melodramatically murky illustrations, men and women alike display rippling thews and plenty of skin as they battle ravening monsters." — Kirkus Reviews, 22 July 2015
Thew has had a long, difficult past during which it discovered its strengths and weaknesses. In Middle English it carried a number of meanings, referring to a custom, habit, personal quality, or virtue. The word began to tire in the 16th century but was soon revitalized with a new meaning: it began to be used specifically for the quality of physical strength and later for the muscles demonstrating that quality. In time, the word buddied up with sinew in both literal and figurative turns of phrase, as in "the thews and sinews of my body ached" and "their love affair was the thew and sinew of the story." |
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| gossip, idle or foolish talk |
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1. the practice of coming to work despite illness, injury, anxiety, etc., often resulting in reduced productivity.
2. the practice of working long hours at a job without the real need to do so.
prez-uh n-TEE-iz-uh m\ |
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1 :
no longer fertile
2a :having lost character, vitality, or strength
b :marked by weakness or decadence
c :soft or delicate from or as if from a pampered existence
3 :having feminine qualities untypical of a man : not manly in appearance or manner
Effete derives from Latin effetus, meaning "no longer fruitful," and for a brief time in English it was used to describe an animal no longer capable of producing offspring. For most of its existence in English, however, the use of effete has been entirely figurative. The usual figurative sense of the word was for many years "exhausted" or "worn out." But since at least the beginning of the 20th century, effete has also been used to suggest overrefinement, weakness of character, snobbery, and effeminacy. It's these meanings you're most likely to encounter today. |
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1 : to make a pillaging or destructive raid on : assault
2 :to force to move along by harassing
3 :to torment by or as if by constant attack
Was there once a warlike man named Harry who is the source for today's word? One particularly belligerent Harry does come to mind: Shakespeare once described how "famine, sword, and fire" accompanied "the warlike Harry," England's King Henry the Fifth. But neither this king nor any of his namesakes are the source for the verb harry. Rather, harry (or a word resembling it) has been a part of English for as long as there has been anything that could be called English. It took the form hergian in Old English and harien in Middle English, passing through numerous variations before finally settling into its modern spelling. The word's Old English ancestors are related to the Old High German words heriōn ("to lay waste") and heri ("army"). |
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o-TOL-uh-kuhn
adjective: Characterized by thievery or trickery
From Autolycus, the son of Hermes and Chione in Greek mythology, who was skilled in theft and trickery. He was able to make himself (or things he touched) invisible, which greatly helped him in his trade. Shakespeare named a con artist after Autolycus in A Winter’s Tale. Earliest documented use: 1890. |
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eager or excessive desire, especially to possess something; greed; avarice
Cupidity can be traced to the Latin word cupidus meaning "eager, desirous" from the Latin verb cupere "to desire. |
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ZOOG-muh
the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words in such a way that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one (as in "opened the door and her heart to the homeless boy")
"Zeugma, like the pun, is economical: it contracts two sentences into one . . .; it links unrelated terms—mental with moral, abstract with physical, high with low—and thus generates surprise," wrote Walter Redfern in Puns (1984). Zeugma, which has been a part of the English language since the 15th century, comes from Greek, where it literally means "joining." The Greek word has another connection to English as well. In the early 1970s, a chemistry professor named Paul Lauterbur developed a technique for producing images of internal organs. He called it zeugmatography because it involved the joining of magnetic fields. Lauterbur was awarded a Nobel Prize, but the name he chose didn’t stick. The technique is known today as magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. |
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ZOOG-muh
the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words in such a way that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one (as in "opened the door and her heart to the homeless boy")
"Zeugma, like the pun, is economical: it contracts two sentences into one . . .; it links unrelated terms—mental with moral, abstract with physical, high with low—and thus generates surprise," wrote Walter Redfern in Puns (1984). Zeugma, which has been a part of the English language since the 15th century, comes from Greek, where it literally means "joining." The Greek word has another connection to English as well. In the early 1970s, a chemistry professor named Paul Lauterbur developed a technique for producing images of internal organs. He called it zeugmatography because it involved the joining of magnetic fields. Lauterbur was awarded a Nobel Prize, but the name he chose didn’t stick. The technique is known today as magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. |
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1. to publish the name of as condemned to death with the property of the condemned forfeited to the state
2.to condemn or forbid as harmful or unlawful : prohibit |
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\jair-uh-MYE-ud\
a prolonged lamentation or complaint; also : a cautionary or angry harangue |
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| Rude in a mean-spirited and surly way |
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in-SOO-see-uh nt
showing a casual lack of concern; indifferent. |
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ni-MAHY-i-tee
1. excess; overabundance: nimiety of mere niceties in conversation.
2. an instance of this.
from Late Latin nimietās, from Latin nimis too much |
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adjective:
1. Full of pithy expressions.
2. Full of pompous moralizing.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin sententia (opinion), from sentire (to feel or to have an opinion). Some other words derived from the same root are: sense, sentence, sentiment, sentinel, assent, consent, dissent, and resent. Earliest documented use: 1440. |
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titivate
\TIT-uh-veyt\
verb
1. to make smart or spruce: She titivated her old dress with a new belt.
2. to make oneself smart or spruce. |
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MEANING:
adjective:
1. Immeasurably deep.
2. Shallow; superficial. |
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\suh-MOH-lee-uh n\
noun
1. Slang. a dollar.
Origin of simoleon
Simoleon is an Americanism, but its origin is uncertain. It may be formed on the basis of the word Napoleon, which refers to a gold coin issued during Napoleon I's reign. |
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noun:
1. A period of youthful innocence and inexperience.
2. A period of great success: heyday.
ETYMOLOGY:
The earliest documented use of the term is from Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” (1616). Cleopatra, now in love with Antony, explains her previous admiration for Julius Caesar with these words:
“My salad days,
When I was green in judgment, cold in blood,
To say as I said then.”
USAGE:
“The elderly gentleman couldn’t help recollect the good old salad days.” |
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\pri-ZEN-tuh-muh nt\
noun
1. a feeling or impression that something is about to happen, especially something evil; foreboding. |
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noun:
1. An expert.
2. A bungler.
ETYMOLOGY:
From dab (an expert) + -ster (denoting a person engaged in some activity; originally a feminine suffix, also used as a diminutive and derogatory suffix). Earliest documented use: 1708.
Note: The first sense is more popular in the UK, while the second in the US. |
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tr.v. 1. To weaken or destroy the strength or vitality. 2. Lacking physical, mental, or moral vigor. “Prolonged exposure to the sun and dehydration enervated the desert racing team.”
Enervate is a word that some people use without really knowing what it means. They seem to believe that because "enervate" looks a little bit like "energize" and "invigorate" it must share their meaning - but it is actually their antonym. "Enervate" comes from the Latin word enervare, which was formed from the prefix e-, meaning "out of," and "-nervare" (from nervus, meaning "sinew or nerve"). So, etymologically at least, someone who is enervated is "out of nerve." |
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\SPIN-drift\
noun
1. spray swept by a violent wind along the surface of the sea.
Spindrift is a variant of the Scots spoondrift, with the nautical verb spoon or spoom meaning "to run or scud before the wind." It entered English around 1600. |
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| 1. offensively self-assertive: a bumptious young upstart |
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familiar friends, neighbors, or relatives
Kith has had many meanings over the years. In its earliest uses it referred to knowledge of something, but that meaning died out in the 1400s. Another sense, "one's native land," had come and gone by the early 1500s. The sense "friends, fellow countrymen, or neighbors" developed before the 12th century and was sometimes used as a synonym of kinsfolk. That last sense got kith into hot water after people began using the word in the alliterative phrase "kith and kin." Over the years, usage commentators have complained that kith means the same thing as kin, so "kith and kin" is redundant. Clearly, they have overlooked some other historical definitions, but if you want to avoid redundancy charges, be sure to include friends as well as relatives among your "kith and kin." |
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verb tr.: To gain the favor of someone; to appease.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin propitiare (to make favorable, to appease). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pet- (to rush, fly) which also gave us feather, pin, impetus, pinnacle, helicopter, propitious, lepidopterology, peripeteia, petulant, and pteridology. Earliest documented use: 1583. |
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\par-uh-noh-MEY-zhuh, -zhee-uh, -zee-uh\
noun
1. Rhetoric. punning; the use of a word in different senses or the use of words similar in sound to achieve a specific effect, as humor or a dual meaning.
2. Rhetoric. a pun.
Paronomasia is a borrowing from Latin and can be traced to the Greek paronomázein meaning "to make a slight name-change." It entered English in the late 1500s. |
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o instruct and improve especially in moral and religious knowledge : uplift; also : enlighten, inform
The Latin noun aedes, meaning "house" or "temple," is the root of aedificare, a verb meaning "to erect a house." Generations of speakers built on that meaning, and by the Late Latin period, the verb had gained the figurative sense of "to instruct or improve spiritually." The word eventually passed through Anglo-French before Middle English speakers adopted it as edify during the 14th century. Two of its early meanings, "to build" and "to establish," are now considered archaic; the only current sense of edify is essentially the same as that figurative meaning in Late Latin, "to instruct and improve in moral and religious knowledge." |
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| The Latin noun aedes, meaning "house" or "temple," is the root of aedificare, a verb meaning "to erect a house." Generations of speakers built on that meaning, and by the Late Latin period, the verb had gained the figurative sense of "to instruct or improve spiritually." The word eventually passed through Anglo-French before Middle English speakers adopted it as edify during the 14th century. Two of its early meanings, "to build" and "to establish," are now considered archaic; the only current sense of edify is essentially the same as that figurative meaning in Late Latin, "to instruct and improve in moral and religious knowledge." |
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