word of the day: panegyric

The word of the day is panegyric:

noun

1. a lofty oration or writing in praise of a person or thing; eulogy.

2. formal or elaborate praise.

< Latin, noun use of panēgyricus of, belonging to a public assembly
< Greek panēgyrikós, equivalent to panḗgyr (is) solemn assembly (pan- + -ēgyris, combining form of ágyris gathering) (dictionary.com)


"One evening, I went to see Aleksandr Prokhanov, a far-right newspaper editor and novelist, whom I've known since the late eighties.  In the Soviet period, he was known as the Nightingale of the General Staff, a writer commissioned to ride and chronicle the glories of nuclear subs and strategic bombers and to visit the Cold War battlefields of Kampuchea and Angola.  He was a panegyrist of Stalin's military-industrial state and the achievements of Sovietism.  'No one,' he told me, 'could describe a nuclear reactor like I could.'"

 - David Remnick, "Watching the eclipse: Ambassador Michael McFaul was there when the promise of democracy came to Russia - and when it began to fade", 11 & 18 August 2014 The New Yorker

word of the day: ressentiment

The word of the day is ressentiment:

noun

1. any cautious, defeatist, or cynical attitude based on the belief that the individual and human institutions exist in a hostile or indifferent universe or society.

2. an oppressive awareness of the futility of trying to improve one's status in life or in society.

 

1943, a word from Nietzsche, from German ressentiment, from French ressentiment. The French word also was borrowed as obsolete English resentiment (16c.) "feeling or sense (of something); state of being deeply affected by (something); resentment." (dictionary.com) 

 

 

"Nearly a quarter century after the fall of the empire, Putin has unleashed an ideology of ressentiment.  It has been chorussed by those who, in 1991, despaired of the loss not of Communist ideology but of imperial greatness, and who, ever since, have lived with what Russians so often refer to as 'phantom-limb syndrome': the pain of missing Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Baltic states; the pain of diminishment.  They want revenge for their humiliation."

 - David Remnick, "Watching the eclipse: Ambassador Michael McFaul was there when the promise of democracy came to Russia - and when it began to fade", 11 & 18 August 2014 The New Yorker

word of the day: Cheka

The word of the day is Cheka:

early Soviet secret police, 1921, from Russian initials of Chrezvychainaya Komissiya "Extraordinary Commission (for Combating Counter-Revolution);" set up 1917, superseded 1922 by G.P.U. (dictionary.com)

"By the late Soviet period, though, K.G.B. officers like Putin were nearly as dismissive of Communist ideology as the dissidents were.  'The Chekists in his time laughed at official Soviet ideology,' Gleb Pavlovksy, a former adviser to Putin, told me.  'They thought it was a joke.'"

 - David Remnick, "Watching the eclipse: Ambassador Michael McFaul was there when the promise of democracy came to Russia - and when it began to fade", 11 & 18 August 2014 The New Yorker

word of the day: retrench

The word of the day is retrench:

verb (used without object)

to economize; reduce expenses (dictionary.com)

"For Barack Obama, it is essential to end those two wars [Iraq and Afghanistan] and this retrenchment is in the national interest."

 - Michael McFaul, as quoted by David Remnick, "Watching the eclipse: Ambassador Michael McFaul was there when the promise of democracy came to Russia - and when it began to fade", 11 & 18 August 2014 The New Yorker

word of the day: knout

The word of the day is knout:

noun

a stout whip used formerly in Russia as an instrument of punishment

from Russian knut, of Scandinavian origin; compare Old Norse knūtr knot (dictionary.com)

 

 

"He was determined to help establish liberal values and institutions - civil society, free speech, democratic norms - in a land that, for a thousand years, had known only absolutism, empire, and the knout.  'That's me,' he says even now.  'Mr. Anti-Cynicism.  Mr. It Will All Work Out.'"

 

 - David Remnick, "Watching the eclipse: Ambassador Michael McFaul was there when the promise of democracy came to Russia - and when it began to fade", 11 & 18 August 2014 The New Yorker 

word of the day: amatory

The word of the day is amatory:

Etymology:  < Latin amātōri-us of or pertaining to amātor a lover.

A. adj.

Of or pertaining to a lover, to love-making, or to sexual love generally. 

B. n.

A love-potion, a philtre.  [ < Latin amatōrium.] (OED)

"From the beginning, he anticipated attacks similar to those which destroyed Yanin.  He had led a healthy amatory life - he was the object of adoration by many female dancers and countless fans - and it was clear that he had rivals in the company, others who had hoped to lead the Bolshoi."

 - David Remnick, "Danse macabre: A scandal at the Bolshoi Ballet", 18 March 2013 The New Yorker

Word of the day: stentorian

The word of the day is stentorian:

< Stentor n.² + -ian suffix. Compare Greek Στεντόρειος, Latin Stentoreus.

1. Of the voice: Loud, like that of Stentor (see Stentor n.² 1); very loud and far-reaching; hence, of uttered sounds, song, laughter and the like.  

2. That utters stentorian sounds. (OED),

which brings us to Stentor:

< Greek Στέντωρ, Hom. Iliad v. 785.   

The name of a Greek warrior in the Trojan war, ‘whose voice was as powerful as fifty voices of other men’; applied allusively to a man of powerful voice. (OED)

"During the gubernatorial campaign last year, Cuomo was widely thought to possess a measure of self-regard even greater than that of his predecessor Eliot Spitzer. Yet Cuomo soon proved that he had the maturity and the horse sense to learn from Spitzer’s missteps; he began his term in January not with stentorian declarations of war but, rather, by identifying crucial goals and then employing time-honored political means to achieve them—intelligently, methodically, and successfully."

 - David Remnick, "It gets better", July 11 & 18, 2011 The New Yorker

Word of the day: diktat

The word of the day is diktat:

< German Diktat compulsion, imposition, command, order (19th cent., especially in political contexts), dictation (of a text) (18th cent.; 17th cent. as dictata) < classical Latin dictātumdictate n. Compare earlier dictate n.

1. A severe settlement or decision, esp. one imposed by a victorious nation upon a defeated nation. 

Originally spec. with reference to the Treaty of Versailles of 1919. 

2. A decree, ruling, or directive; a categorical assertion or prescription. (OED)

"Ben Gurion had vowed to keep the Sinai for a thousand years, but Benzion was convinced that he would lose it. Why? Ben Gurion asked.
'Because the U.S. will force you to,' the elder Netanyahu said.
'Of course, he was right, unfortunately,' the son said. 'That was the first and last time an Israeli Prime Minister succumbed to an American diktat.'
This ingrained wariness toward Israel’s most stalwart ally and benefactor is just part of Netanyahu’s inheritance."

 - David Remnick, "A Man, A Plan", 21 March 2011 The New Yorker

Word of the day: hegemony

The word of the day is hegemony:

Greek ἡγεμονία, < ἡγεμών leader. Compare French hégémonie.(Show More)

 

Leadership, predominance, preponderance; esp. the leadership or predominant authority of one state of a confederacy or union over the others: originally used in reference to the states of ancient Greece, whence transferred to the German states, and in other modern applications. (OED)

"Barack Obama, who came to office not least because of his opposition to the war in Iraq, went to Cairo in 2009 intent on assuring the Muslim world of a new kind of policy: engagement without hegemony. 'I know there has been controversy about the promotion of democracy in recent years, and much of this controversy is connected to the war in Iraq,' he said. 'So let me be clear: no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other.'"

 - David Remnick, "Judgment Days", February 14 & 21, 2011 The New Yorker