Word of the Day

Spanky

Állandó Tag
Állandó Tag
lumpen \LUHM-puhn; LUM-puhn\, adjective:

1. Of or relating to dispossessed and displaced individuals, especially those who have lost social status.
2. Common; vulgar.
 

Spanky

Állandó Tag
Állandó Tag
lumpen \LUHM-puhn; LUM-puhn\, adjective:

1. Of or relating to dispossessed and displaced individuals, especially those who have lost social status.
2. Common; vulgar.
 

Spanky

Állandó Tag
Állandó Tag
pestiferous \pes-TIF-uh-ruhs\, adjective:
1. Bearing or bringing disease.
2. Infected with or contaminated by a pestilential disease.
3. Morally evil or dangerous to society; pernicious.
4. Bothersome; troublesome; annoying.
 

Spanky

Állandó Tag
Állandó Tag
pestiferous \pes-TIF-uh-ruhs\, adjective:
1. Bearing or bringing disease.
2. Infected with or contaminated by a pestilential disease.
3. Morally evil or dangerous to society; pernicious.
4. Bothersome; troublesome; annoying.
 

Gabizita

Állandó Tag
Állandó Tag
latrodectism = intoxication due to venom of spiders.
(pl. black widow spider, whose bite may cause severe symptoms or even death.)
 

Gabizita

Állandó Tag
Állandó Tag
latrodectism = intoxication due to venom of spiders.
(pl. black widow spider, whose bite may cause severe symptoms or even death.)
 

Spanky

Állandó Tag
Állandó Tag
sapid \SAP-id\, adjective:
1. Having taste or flavor, especially having a strong pleasant flavor.
2. Agreeable to the mind; to one's liking.
 

Spanky

Állandó Tag
Állandó Tag
sapid \SAP-id\, adjective:
1. Having taste or flavor, especially having a strong pleasant flavor.
2. Agreeable to the mind; to one's liking.
 
L

lilli

Vendég
Vaccimulgence
-----------------------
The milking of cows.
derived from Latin "vacca", a cow (which
is also the origin of "vaccine", because the first was derived by
Dr Jenner from cowpox to guard against the much more serious
smallpox). The ending is from the Latin verb "emulgere", to milk
out, which ... as well as being the ultimate origin of "emulsion" ....
is the root of another very rare word, "emulgence", the action of
milking out, as for example in extracting money from the unwilling.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Dr Gridlock column in the Washington
Post on Thursday, March 24. Dr. Gridlock advised "changing the oil
every 3,000 to 6,000 miles, whichever comes first."

A sentence in a report in last week's Sunday Times on unruly pupils
troubled Diana Platts: "Teachers report being punched, kicked,
splattered with eggs and spat on in the study by the Association of
Teachers and Lecturers". Not a good example to set the kids.

A headline in the Halifax Daily News, in Canada, dated 27 March:
"Jen and Brad Split Official". Scott Milsom comments, "One wonders
how the official's family are to be consoled."

Mick Loosemore read a headline on CBC's online news site: SUSPECT
FOUND DEAD, DENIES GUILT.
He comments, "Just to confirm that, in
Canada, investigators don't use any esoteric tools, the story
summary continues thus: 'The prime suspect in a high-profile murder
in Winnipeg more than 20 years ago has left a suicide note denying
that he ever killed anyone'."

Harry Westendorp found a sentence in The Age (Melbourne, Australia)
on March 22 that he feels ought to be communicated to Her Majesty
so that she can prepare herself for her imminent demise: "Parker
Bowles is to marry Prince Charles, who will take the throne once
his mother Queen Elizabeth dies, on April 8, and will initially be
titled Duchess of Cornwall, becoming Princess Consort when Charles
is king."

While perusing his local paper, The Record of Sherbrooke, Quebec,
on 18 March, Stephen Black discovered that the list of bestselling
non-fiction books included Eat's, Shoots & Leaves. This suggested,
as he says, "that there is at least one person who really, really
needs to read that book
." ;)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"gorp" = "good old raisins and peanuts" ?

This is a common term in the US for a type of high-energy snack,
especially one containing raisins and nuts, plus
chocolate. American hikers also know it as "trail mix". The first
example in the Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1972.

It's said that it comes from the acronym, but that's
certainly spurious. It's just a well-meaning attempt to explain a
word about whose origins the experts tend to shake their heads
sadly.
Some dictionaries point rather uneasily to some appearances of the
word as a verb from earlier in the twentieth century. In 1904, the
publication Dialect Notes noted that "to gorp" was to eat greedily;
this is backed up by other references recorded in the Dictionary of
American Regional English. A possible link is obvious enough,
though a direct connection isn't recorded and etymologists have to
be cautious.

In turn, that word may one form of an older English verb variously
spelled as "gaup", "gawp", "gorp", "gowp", "gawk", or "gauk". One
basic meaning is to stare in a stupid or rude manner. But an
earlier sense was of staring open-mouthed in witless astonishment.
This seems to have led to "gawp up", meaning to devour (presumably
from the open-mouthed bit of the meaning)...the word appears in the Appleton Post Crescent of Wisconsin
in 1962 in an article that suggests an acronymic origin and a
completely different meaning: "'Gorp' is taken by all campers and
canoers. (Named for the flavors grape, orange, raspberry and
pineapple, 'gorp' becomes a tasty thirst-quencher when mixed with
cool water.)" It sounds as though the writer confused the foodstuff
with a fruit-flavoured powder such as Kool-Aid, and thereby created
another version of the folk etymology, but who knows?
 
L

lilli

Vendég
Vaccimulgence
-----------------------
The milking of cows.
derived from Latin "vacca", a cow (which
is also the origin of "vaccine", because the first was derived by
Dr Jenner from cowpox to guard against the much more serious
smallpox). The ending is from the Latin verb "emulgere", to milk
out, which ... as well as being the ultimate origin of "emulsion" ....
is the root of another very rare word, "emulgence", the action of
milking out, as for example in extracting money from the unwilling.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Dr Gridlock column in the Washington
Post on Thursday, March 24. Dr. Gridlock advised "changing the oil
every 3,000 to 6,000 miles, whichever comes first."

A sentence in a report in last week's Sunday Times on unruly pupils
troubled Diana Platts: "Teachers report being punched, kicked,
splattered with eggs and spat on in the study by the Association of
Teachers and Lecturers". Not a good example to set the kids.

A headline in the Halifax Daily News, in Canada, dated 27 March:
"Jen and Brad Split Official". Scott Milsom comments, "One wonders
how the official's family are to be consoled."

Mick Loosemore read a headline on CBC's online news site: SUSPECT
FOUND DEAD, DENIES GUILT.
He comments, "Just to confirm that, in
Canada, investigators don't use any esoteric tools, the story
summary continues thus: 'The prime suspect in a high-profile murder
in Winnipeg more than 20 years ago has left a suicide note denying
that he ever killed anyone'."

Harry Westendorp found a sentence in The Age (Melbourne, Australia)
on March 22 that he feels ought to be communicated to Her Majesty
so that she can prepare herself for her imminent demise: "Parker
Bowles is to marry Prince Charles, who will take the throne once
his mother Queen Elizabeth dies, on April 8, and will initially be
titled Duchess of Cornwall, becoming Princess Consort when Charles
is king."

While perusing his local paper, The Record of Sherbrooke, Quebec,
on 18 March, Stephen Black discovered that the list of bestselling
non-fiction books included Eat's, Shoots & Leaves. This suggested,
as he says, "that there is at least one person who really, really
needs to read that book
." ;)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"gorp" = "good old raisins and peanuts" ?

This is a common term in the US for a type of high-energy snack,
especially one containing raisins and nuts, plus
chocolate. American hikers also know it as "trail mix". The first
example in the Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1972.

It's said that it comes from the acronym, but that's
certainly spurious. It's just a well-meaning attempt to explain a
word about whose origins the experts tend to shake their heads
sadly.
Some dictionaries point rather uneasily to some appearances of the
word as a verb from earlier in the twentieth century. In 1904, the
publication Dialect Notes noted that "to gorp" was to eat greedily;
this is backed up by other references recorded in the Dictionary of
American Regional English. A possible link is obvious enough,
though a direct connection isn't recorded and etymologists have to
be cautious.

In turn, that word may one form of an older English verb variously
spelled as "gaup", "gawp", "gorp", "gowp", "gawk", or "gauk". One
basic meaning is to stare in a stupid or rude manner. But an
earlier sense was of staring open-mouthed in witless astonishment.
This seems to have led to "gawp up", meaning to devour (presumably
from the open-mouthed bit of the meaning)...the word appears in the Appleton Post Crescent of Wisconsin
in 1962 in an article that suggests an acronymic origin and a
completely different meaning: "'Gorp' is taken by all campers and
canoers. (Named for the flavors grape, orange, raspberry and
pineapple, 'gorp' becomes a tasty thirst-quencher when mixed with
cool water.)" It sounds as though the writer confused the foodstuff
with a fruit-flavoured powder such as Kool-Aid, and thereby created
another version of the folk etymology, but who knows?
 
L

lilli

Vendég
Vellicate:
to irritate

Next Friday, 15 April, is the 250th anniversary of the publication
of Dr Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language. Scholars today
continue to regard it as a landmark in the study of the language,
an extraordinary achievement by one man. Well into the following
century, to speak of "the dictionary" was to refer to Johnson's
work. It was the first to systematically illustrate words through
citations; as the title page said, terms were "illustrated in their
different significations by examples from the best authors". But
modern critics will also point to its relatively small size, to an
idiosyncratic choice of headwords, and to definitions marred by
prejudice and caprice.

Among these are the famous examples quoted whenever the Good
Doctor's dictionary is mentioned: "EXCISE: a hateful tax levied
upon commodities", "DISTILLER: One who makes and sells pernicious
and inflammatory spirits" and "OATS: a grain which in England is
generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people".
And every modern successor can recite: "LEXICOGRAPHER: A maker of
dictionaries, a harmless drudge."

Some of his definitions must have taxed the vocabularies of even
the most literate of readers. "NETWORK: Any thing reticulated, or
decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the
intersections." To define a network as "reticulated" would cause
indrawn breath among modern lexicographers, since it meant
something "constructed or arranged like a net", so his definition
was circular; "decussate" meant to cross or intersect so as to form
an X shape; nowadays it's mainly a technical term in botany for
leaves arranged in pairs each at right angles to the next pair
above or below.

Another definition of like kind was "COUGH: A convulsion of the
lungs, vellicated by some sharp serosity." Few of us will know
"serosity", an old term for serum or the watery humours in the
body. Even fewer will know the verb "vellicate", though it was
employed in Dr Johnson's time as a medical term for some substance
or medicament that had a sharp or acrid effect, or anything that
nipped or pinched the body (its origin is the Latin "vellere", to
pull, pluck, or twitch
). Edmund Burke used it a couple of years
after the publication of the dictionary in a work entitled A
Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime
and Beautiful: "There can be no doubt that bodies which are rough
and angular, rouse and vellicate the organs of feeling, causing a
sense of pain, which consists in the violent tension or contraction
of the muscular fibres."

-------------------------------------------------------------------
TUFTHUNTER It was surprising to read this word reportedly used by
the critic Robert Hughes this week, in a comment relating to Damien
Hirst's exhibition in New York. It means a toady or sycophant, and
I would have said it disappeared from the active language in about
1900
. A tuft was at one time a slang term for a golden ornamental
tassel. It was worn on academic caps at the universities of Oxford
and Cambridge in place of the usual black one as a mark of status
by titled undergraduates, who were themselves called tufts. Wearing
the tuft went out of fashion in the 1870s.

DABBAWALLAH Among the 800 or so guests at the wedding reception of
Charles and Camilla this Saturday will be two dabbawallahs. These
men operate a sophisticated delivery system in Mumbai, in which
meals cooked at home during the morning are delivered to people's
workplaces in time for lunch. It seems Prince Charles was struck by
the efficiency of the operation during his tour of India in 2003.
The lunchboxes are named dabbas, and wallah (from a Hindi suffix "-
vala"), a doer, is common in India for a person engaged in some
occupation. The meal is often called tiffin, and dabbawallahs are
also known as tiffinwallahs. For more on the word tiffin, see
http://quinion.com?TIFF.

MACHOSEXUAL a number of Web sites picking up the term. As you
may have guessed, "machosexuals" are the opposite of metrosexuals
and are men who are "resistant to fashion and hearken to the call
of adventure with the same passion that metrosexuals adore grooming
products", as Robert Young Pelton put it in the original article.
 
L

lilli

Vendég
Vellicate:
to irritate

Next Friday, 15 April, is the 250th anniversary of the publication
of Dr Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language. Scholars today
continue to regard it as a landmark in the study of the language,
an extraordinary achievement by one man. Well into the following
century, to speak of "the dictionary" was to refer to Johnson's
work. It was the first to systematically illustrate words through
citations; as the title page said, terms were "illustrated in their
different significations by examples from the best authors". But
modern critics will also point to its relatively small size, to an
idiosyncratic choice of headwords, and to definitions marred by
prejudice and caprice.

Among these are the famous examples quoted whenever the Good
Doctor's dictionary is mentioned: "EXCISE: a hateful tax levied
upon commodities", "DISTILLER: One who makes and sells pernicious
and inflammatory spirits" and "OATS: a grain which in England is
generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people".
And every modern successor can recite: "LEXICOGRAPHER: A maker of
dictionaries, a harmless drudge."

Some of his definitions must have taxed the vocabularies of even
the most literate of readers. "NETWORK: Any thing reticulated, or
decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the
intersections." To define a network as "reticulated" would cause
indrawn breath among modern lexicographers, since it meant
something "constructed or arranged like a net", so his definition
was circular; "decussate" meant to cross or intersect so as to form
an X shape; nowadays it's mainly a technical term in botany for
leaves arranged in pairs each at right angles to the next pair
above or below.

Another definition of like kind was "COUGH: A convulsion of the
lungs, vellicated by some sharp serosity." Few of us will know
"serosity", an old term for serum or the watery humours in the
body. Even fewer will know the verb "vellicate", though it was
employed in Dr Johnson's time as a medical term for some substance
or medicament that had a sharp or acrid effect, or anything that
nipped or pinched the body (its origin is the Latin "vellere", to
pull, pluck, or twitch
). Edmund Burke used it a couple of years
after the publication of the dictionary in a work entitled A
Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime
and Beautiful: "There can be no doubt that bodies which are rough
and angular, rouse and vellicate the organs of feeling, causing a
sense of pain, which consists in the violent tension or contraction
of the muscular fibres."

-------------------------------------------------------------------
TUFTHUNTER It was surprising to read this word reportedly used by
the critic Robert Hughes this week, in a comment relating to Damien
Hirst's exhibition in New York. It means a toady or sycophant, and
I would have said it disappeared from the active language in about
1900
. A tuft was at one time a slang term for a golden ornamental
tassel. It was worn on academic caps at the universities of Oxford
and Cambridge in place of the usual black one as a mark of status
by titled undergraduates, who were themselves called tufts. Wearing
the tuft went out of fashion in the 1870s.

DABBAWALLAH Among the 800 or so guests at the wedding reception of
Charles and Camilla this Saturday will be two dabbawallahs. These
men operate a sophisticated delivery system in Mumbai, in which
meals cooked at home during the morning are delivered to people's
workplaces in time for lunch. It seems Prince Charles was struck by
the efficiency of the operation during his tour of India in 2003.
The lunchboxes are named dabbas, and wallah (from a Hindi suffix "-
vala"), a doer, is common in India for a person engaged in some
occupation. The meal is often called tiffin, and dabbawallahs are
also known as tiffinwallahs. For more on the word tiffin, see
http://quinion.com?TIFF.

MACHOSEXUAL a number of Web sites picking up the term. As you
may have guessed, "machosexuals" are the opposite of metrosexuals
and are men who are "resistant to fashion and hearken to the call
of adventure with the same passion that metrosexuals adore grooming
products", as Robert Young Pelton put it in the original article.
 
Oldal tetejére