Word of the day: hap

The word of the day is hap:

1. one's luck or lot.
2. an occurrence, happening, or accident.

c.1200, "chance, luck," from O.N. happ "chance, good luck," from P.Gmc. *khapan (source of O.E. gehæp "convenient, fit"). Meaning "good fortune" is from early 13c.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hap)

"Of course the moose did not choose his yes any more than Respighi chose his.  It is his hap to be born—to come out of the mama onto the Earth—his hap to be rejected by the mama novel a littler moose comes out, his hap to bear a staggering affirmation on his brow."

 - Amy Leach, "The Modern Moose", The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2016

Word of the day: thwart

The word of the day is thwart:

—noun

4. a seat across a boat, especially one used by a rower.
5. a transverse member spreading the gunwales of a canoe or the like.

c.1200, from O.N. þvert "across," originally neut. of thverr (adj.) "transverse, across," cognate with O.E. þweorh "transverse, perverse, angry, cross," from P.Gmc. *thwerkhaz (cf. M.Du. dwers, Du. dwars "cross-grained, contrary," O.H.G. twerh, Ger. quer, Goth. þwairhs "angry"), altered (by influence of *thwer- "to turn") from *therkh-, from PIE *twork-/*twerk- "twist" (cf. L. torquere "to twist," Skt. tarkuh "spindle," O.C.S. traku "band, girdle," O.H.G. drahsil "turner," Ger. drechseln "to turn on a lathe"). The verb meaning "oppose, hinder" is mid-13c., from the adv. and prep.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thwart)

"Melville's whaleboat came closest to disaster.  At one point, wrote Danenhower, 'a heavy green sea swept over the whole port side and filled her to the thwarts; she staggered and commenced to settle, but every man with a baler in hand quickly relieved her, and she floated again.'"

 - Hampton Sides, In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette

word of the day: rive

The word of the day is rive:

verb (used with object), rived, rived or riven, riving.

1. to tear or rend apart.

2. to separate by striking; split; cleave.

3. to rend, harrow, or distress (the feelings, heart, etc.).

4. to split (wood) radially from a log.

verb (used without object), rived, rived or riven, riving.

5. to become rent or split apart.

< Old Norse rīfa to tear, split.  (dictionary.com) 

"They hastened to apprise the debutante of her rights while she banged the mud off her dance floor heels and shook the sand and smudges out of her riven ballgown."

 - Karen Elizabeth Gordon, Out of the Loud Hound of Darkness: A Dictionarrative