Word of the day: tetchy

The word of the day is tetchy:

In form, a derivative of tetch n., but that word being both less common and apparently of later appearance, may be a back-formation from this. Derivation < tache n.¹ (in Middle English tecche, 16th cent. tetche) has been suggested; but there are difficulties both of form and sense.

1. Easily irritated or made angry; quick to take offence; short-tempered; peevish, irritable; testy. (Cf. touchy adj., which has been associated with this from early in the 17th c.)

a. Of persons.

b. Of qualities, actions, etc.: Characterized by or proceeding from irritability. 

2. fig. Of land: see quots. dial. (OED)

"And so, in due course, the alien craft arrive: tetchy pilotless drones in the shape of pizzas, from which individual slices peel off to launch spicy, deep-crust attacks on defenseless mortals."

 - Anthony Lane, "Out There: 'Battle: Los Angeles' and 'Paul'", 21 March 2011 The New Yorker

Word of the day: recherché

The word of the day is recherché:

< French recherché affected, unnatural (1580 in Middle French), desirable, prized (1601 or earlier), unusual, well-crafted (1690), use as adjective of past participle of rechercherresearch v.¹

   Rare, choice, exotic; far-fetched, obscure. (OED)

"The two share a facial-hair style, and a habit of closing their eyes when explaining something recherché."

 - Dana Goodyear, "Hollywood Shadows: A cure for blocked screenwriters", 21 March 2011 The New Yorker

Word of the day: brant

The word of the day is brant:

Derivation and original application uncertain: in Swedish brandgås (Icelandic brandgás only in the Þulur) is the sheldrake or bergander; in German, brandgans is according to some the sheldrake, but with Grimm = Anser fuscus, the Black or Velvet Duck; in English, brant, brant-goose was long confounded with the barnacle goose. Early naturalists (Gesner, Aldrovandus, etc.) were content to derive the name < βρένθος an unidentified water-bird mentioned by Aristotle; later etymologists have suggested brended or branded adj., brindled, and brand n. fire, burning, perhaps in sense of dusky black, or sooty colour; but in the absence of knowledge where the name arose, and to what bird it was originally applied, nothing can be determined.

The smallest species of wild goose ( Bernicla brenta) breeding in high northern latitudes, and visiting the British coasts in winter. Formerly confounded with the allied Barnacle-goose. (OED)

"A flock of brants on the water croaked their creaky calls, ring-billed gulls on the breeze teetered like skateboarders, two swans groomed themselves at the water's edge."

 - Ian Frazier, "Back to the Harbor: Seals return to New York", 21 March 2011 The New Yorker

Molecule of the day: phenylglyoxal

The molecule of the day is phenylglyoxal:

(PubChem)

It can be used to covalently modify arginine residues, as such:

(source)

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: gimcrack

The word of the day is gimcrack:

The 14th cent. form gibecrake is perhaps connected with Old French giber to shake (see jib v.²); the primary sense may have been ‘a slight or flimsy ornament’. (For the change to the nasalized forms, compare modern French regimber = Old French regibber to kick.) The second element may be connected in some way with crack n. or crack v. Sense A. 3 is perhaps in part due to association of the word with gim adj. and crack n.

A. n.

1. App. applied to some kind of inlaid work in wood. Obs.

2.a. A fanciful notion; also, a ‘dodge’, underhand design (obs.). 

b. A mechanical contrivance; also pl. scientific apparatus. 

c. Now usually applied to a showy, unsubstantial thing; esp. to a useless ornament, a trumpery article, a knick-knack. 

3. An affected showy person, a fop; in later use applied to women. (A term of contempt.) Obs.

B. adj.

Trivial, worthless; showy but unsubstantial; trumpery.  (OED)

"None of these flamboyant goings on are part of Dick’s story, which is called 'Adjustment Team.' Dick’s central character is a contentedly married real-estate agent, who inadvertently witnesses the guardians halting and changing a little piece of life. After being warned by a tired bureaucrat in the heavens to keep his mouth shut, he returns, with relief, to his ordinary life. The story has a wryly sardonic cast: there are no heroes. The writer-director George Nolfi, by literalizing and supercharging what Dick sketched out, and adding gimcrack history and theology, has made a strenuously silly digital-action film, interrupted by a wheezing discourse about freedom and choice and other such profound matters."

 - David Denby, "Control Yourself: 'The Adjustment Bureau' and 'Unknown'", 7 March 2011 The New Yorker

Word of the day: protean

The word of the day is protean:

< the name of Proteus (see Proteus n.) + -an suffix. Compare French Protéen (1571 and 1580 in isolated attestations in Middle French as protean; subsequently from 1869).

A. adj.

1. Of or relating to Proteus, like that of Proteus. Hence in extended use: adopting or existing in various shapes, variable in form; variously manifested or expressed; changing, unpredictable.

2. Biol. Designating protozoans (esp. amoebas) which can vary their shape. Cf. Proteus n. 2a. Obs.

3. Theatre. Of a performance: having the same actors playing several parts in the same piece; (of a performer) playing several characters in the same piece, ‘quick-change’. Cf. sense B. 1b. 

4. Zool. Of animal behaviour: unpredictable and confusing, thus providing a defence against predators.  (OED)

"Rush's performance is a series of wonderful protean transformations.  During the course of the evening, as his desperation increases, Poprishchin becomes a gobbling turkey, a baboon, a peacock, a dog, and, finally, on 'April 43rd', King Ferdinand of Spain, underscoring his royal signature with a Baroque flourish."

 - John Lahr, "Stir Crazy: Delusions in Adam Rapp, Nikolai Gogol, and the Wooster Group", 7 March 2011 The New Yorker

Word of the day: punctilio

The word of the day is punctilio:

< Italian puntiglio trifling point (1551; now obsolete), minute detail of action or conduct, nicety of behaviour, point of honour (a1556), stubborn insistence upon minutiae of action or conduct (a1556), cavil, quibble, sophistry (a1580) and its etymon Spanish puntillo dot (a1435), minute detail of action or conduct, nicety of behaviour, point of honour
Forms in punct- are after classical Latin punctum.

 A. n.

 1.a. A minute detail of action or conduct; a nicety of behaviour, ceremony, or honour; a small or petty formality. Also: a hair-splitting or fastidious objection; a scruple. †to stand upon punctilios and variants: to have particular regard for niceties of conduct, etc.; to be punctilious (cf. to stand upon points at point n.¹ Phrases 3h) (obs.).

b. A small or trifling point, detail, or particular; a particle, jot. Obs. 

c. A precise point or fact. Obs. rare.

2.a. As a mass noun: strict observance of or insistence upon minutiae of action or conduct; petty formality; punctiliousness.

b. Prob.: a punctilious person. Obs. rare^—1.

3. A sharp point; (also) a point marked on a sundial. Obs. rare.. 

4. The highest point, the apex (lit. and fig.); a high projecting point or tip. Obs. rare.

5. A moment, an instant. Only in punctilio of time. Obs. 

B. adj. (attrib.).  Trifling, petty. Obs.  (OED)

"He takes refuge in the swagger of his splenetic punctilio, which imposes a sense of command on a life that is transparently hapless."

 - John Lahr, "Stir Crazy: Delusions in Adam Rapp, Nikolai Gogol, and the Wooster Group", 7 March 2011 The New Yorker

Word of the day: immanent

The word of the day is immanent:

< late Latin immanēnt-em, present participle of immanēre, < im- (im- prefix¹) + manēre to dwell, remain. Compare French immanent (14th cent.).(Show Less)

1. Indwelling, inherent; actually present or abiding in; remaining within.

immanent principle (with Kant), a principle limited to the realm of experience: opposed to transcendental principle.

2. immanent act (action) : an act which is performed entirely within the mind of the subject, and produces no external effect; opposed to a transient or transitive act. Now rare. 

This distinction, formulated in Scholastic philosophy, is the connection in which the word most freq. occurred during the 17th and 18th centuries.In recent philosophy applied to the Deity regarded as permanently pervading and sustaining the universe, as distinguished from the notion of an external transcendent creator or ruler.

"In 'Rose' (directed by Rapp), the first and weakest play of the trio, the retreat from community is a comic immanence, which seems almost incidental to the antics of a mean-spirited superintendent inside the building, the anti-Communist rumblings outside it, and the chaotic, isolated high jinks of a Harpo-like nonverbal poltergeist called Marbles."

 - John Lahr, "Stir Crazy: Delusions in Adam Rapp, Nikolai Gogol, and the Wooster Group", 7 March 2011 The New Yorker

No, I'm still not quite sure what he means.

Word of the day: fillip

The word of the day is fillip:

apparently onomatopoeic; compare flip n.¹, flirt n., used in similar sense. The n. and vb. appear nearly contemporaneously in 16th cent.; it is uncertain which is the source of the other.

1.a. A movement made by bending the last joint of a finger against the thumb and suddenly releasing it (so as to propel some small object, or merely as a gesture); a smart stroke or tap given by this means.

b. Something of small importance; a trifle. Also, a short space of time, a moment.

2. In a wider sense: A smart blow (with the fist, etc.). Now rare. 

3. Something that serves to rouse, excite, or animate; a stimulus.  (OED)

"Fontane charts the course of the Holks’ marital decline in his usual desultory way—there’s a slow accumulation of talk and events, and then that climactic fillip. The couple bicker about which schools to send the children to; Helmut, suddenly called upon to fulfill his duty as courtier, goes away to Copenhagen for some weeks, where he flirts inconclusively with his landlady’s daughter and, more conclusively, with Ebba ('Eve'), a rather spiky lady-in-waiting to the elderly Princess whom they both serve. He doesn’t write often enough to Christine; there’s a fire in the castle where the Princess is holding court (no one gets hurt); in a fit of midlife foolishness, Helmut tells Christine it’s all over and proposes to the lady-in-waiting, who then tells him off ('You’re always sinning against the most elementary rules of the game'); eventually, he comes home to his wife. The moment of narrative 'excitement' takes place five pages from the end of the book. As Holk’s scheming landlady says of her daughter’s wayward life, 'It’s something of a love-story but it’s not a proper love-story.'"

 -  Daniel Mendelsohn, "Heroine Addict: What Theodor Fontane's women want", 7 March 2011 The New Yorker

Word of the day: obliquity

The word of the day is obliquity:

< Middle French obliquité inclination at an oblique angle (second half of the 13th cent. in Old French as obliqueté), angle at which the celestial equator is inclined to the ecliptic (c1370), indirectness, lack of frankness (1541) < classical Latin oblīquitāt-, oblīquitās inclination at an oblique angle, in post-classical Latin also indirectness, ambiguity (early 5th cent.), grammatical inflection (13th cent. in British sources) < oblīquusoblique adj. + -tās (see -ty suffix¹; compare -ity suffix).

 I. Physical senses.

 1.a. The quality of being oblique in direction, position, or form; inclination at an oblique angle to a straight line or plane; the degree or extent of such inclination.

b. Astron.  obliquity of the ecliptic n. the angle at which the plane of the ecliptic is inclined to that of the celestial equator.

c. Bot. Of a leaf: the property of having unequal sides.

 II. Non-physical senses.

2. Divergence from right conduct or thought; perversity, aberration; an instance of this, a fault, an error.

3. Indirectness in action, conduct, speech, etc.; a way or method that is not direct or straightforward.

4. Deviation from any rule or order. Obs. rare.

5. Grammar. Inflection for case, declension. Obs. rare. (OED)

"At first glance, it’s hard to reconcile the sparseness of Fontane’s plots, the way he prefers to linger over what he calls “the circumstantial,” with the extravagant emotions his work has provoked in so many critics and writers over the years. (Thomas Mann: “No writer of the past or the present awakens in me the sympathy and gratitude, the unconditional and instinctive delight, the immediate amusement and warmth and satisfaction that I feel in every verse, in every line of one of his letters, in every snatch of his dialogue.”) The key lies in his understated narrative style, in his paradoxically powerful “discretion,” as some critics have called it: a gift for obliquity, for knowing what to leave out, and above all for letting the reader “overhear” the speech of his characters, rather than paraphrasing it for us—the last being a particularly effective alternative to the psychologizing observations of an omniscient narrator."

 -  Daniel Mendelsohn, "Heroine Addict: What Theodor Fontane's women want", 7 March 2011 The New Yorker

I'm going with definition 3 here.

Word of the day: contretemps

The word of the day is contretemps:

< French contre-temps, -tems, bad or false time, motion out of time, inopportuneness, unexpected and untoward accident.

1. Fencing. A pass or thrust which is made at a wrong or inopportune moment. Obs.

2. a. An inopportune occurrence; an untoward accident; an unexpected mishap or hitch.

b. A disagreement or argument; a dispute. 

3. Dance. A step danced on the unaccented portion of the beat; spec. in Ballet.  (OED)

"Deniz said the shooting wasn't a big deal.  'That kind of thing often happens with us,' he said.
'It happens that people get shot?'
'Well, they don't often get shot.'
The previous intra-Çarşı shooting took place in 2007, and stemmed from a byzantine contretemps involving a banner expressing hostility toward a former manager of the team."

 - Elif Batuman, "The view from the stands: Life among Istanbul's soccer fanatics", 7 March 2011 The New Yorker

Word of the day: eschatology

The word of the day is eschatology:

< Greek ἔσχατο-ς last + -λογία discourse: see -logy comb. form; compare French eschatologie.

Theol.

a. The department of theological science concerned with ‘the four last things: death, judgement, heaven, and hell’.

 b. In recent theological writing, esp. as ‘realized eschatology’ (see quot. 1957), the sense of this word has been modified to connote the present ‘realization’ and significance of the ‘last things’ in the Christian life. (OED)

"There's agony in its scanning eye, its tiny
filtering teeth set in that gaping mouth, caught perversely
wide, a universal fellatio, opened to make it look more
than a shark enough; and even science will realize
that it's undead, its "ka" and "ba" fixed and lost
in equal measure, the flow of fluid not even providing
an optical illusion, no "weighing of the heart" beyond
the heartlessness of curiosity, eschatology of display."

 - John Kinsella, "Megamouth Shark", 7 March 2011 The New Yorker

Word of the day: ba

The word of the day is ba:

ba, in ancient Egyptian religion, with the ka and the akh, a principal aspect of the soul; the ba appears in bird form, thus expressing the mobility of the soul after death. Originally written with the sign of the jabiru bird and thought to be an attribute of only the god-king, the ba was later represented by a man-headed hawk, often depicted hovering over the mummies of kings and commoners alike.  (Encyclopaedia Britannica)


"There's agony in its scanning eye, its tiny
filtering teeth set in that gaping mouth, caught perversely
wide, a universal fellatio, opened to make it look more
than a shark enough; and even science will realize
that it's undead, its "ka" and "ba" fixed and lost
in equal measure, the flow of fluid not even providing
an optical illusion, no "weighing of the heart" beyond
the heartlessness of curiosity, eschatology of display."

 - John Kinsella, "Megamouth Shark", 7 March 2011 The New Yorker

Word of the day: ka

The word of the day is ka:

The name given by the ancient Egyptians to a spiritual part of a human being or a god which survived after death and could reside in a statue of the dead person. (OED)


"There's agony in its scanning eye, its tiny
filtering teeth set in that gaping mouth, caught perversely
wide, a universal fellatio, opened to make it look more
than a shark enough; and even science will realize
that it's undead, its "ka" and "ba" fixed and lost
in equal measure, the flow of fluid not even providing
an optical illusion, no "weighing of the heart" beyond
the heartlessness of curiosity, eschatology of display."

 - John Kinsella, "Megamouth Shark", 7 March 2011 The New Yorker

Word of the day: screed

The word of the day is screed:

Variant of shred n., repr. Old English scréade; compare S n.¹

 I.

 1.   a. A fragment cut, torn, or broken from a main piece; in later use, a torn strip of some textile material. Also collect. sing. Obs. exc. dial.

b. A strip of land; a parcel of ground.

c. An edging, a bordering strip; the border or frill of a woman's cap. dial.

 2. fig.

 a. A long roll or list; a lengthy discourse or harangue; a gossiping letter or piece of writing. 

b. A piece, portion (of a literary work). 

3. Plastering.

  a. An accurately levelled strip of plaster formed upon a wall or ceiling, as a guide in running a cornice or in obtaining a perfectly even surface in plastering; a strip of wood used for the same purpose. More generally in Building, a level strip of material formed or placed on any surface (e.g. a floor or a road) as a guide for the accurate finishing of it. Also, a levelled layer of material forming part of a floor or other horizontal surface.  II.

4. Sc.  [ < the verb.] A rent, tear. Also fig. ? Obs.  

5. Sc. A sound as of the tearing of cloth; hence, ‘any loud, shrill sound’ (Jamieson).

"Megamouth, so rare it wasn't recorded
as science until 1976, daytime deep dweller
off the continental shelf to rise at night to a lesser
depth, to graze screeds of plankton we barely
register?"

 - John Kinsella, "Megamouth Shark", 7 March 2011 The New Yorker


I guess the image is that the plankton is like a scrap of cloth?  Or is it more an emphasis on the length, trying to say that there are a lot of plankton?

Cointreau

From Jason Wilson:

Margarita

1 1/2 ounce tequila
1 ounce Cointreau
1 ounce lime juice


Cosmopolitan

1 1/2 ounce vodka
1 ounce Cointreau
3/4 ounce cranberry juice
1/4 ounce lime juice

(Wilson calls for 1/2 ounce each lime juice and cranberry juice, but it was too limey in my opinion.  Also, he calls for a citrus vodka, which I don't have.  This was pretty good with the vodka that Mo brought to the BC students seminar (alas, I did not notice the brand), and not bad with the rotgut vodka we have at home, which is otherwise only good for cooking.)

Word of the day: bursitis

The word of the day is bursitis:

Pathol.

Inflammation of a bursa.  (OED)

which brings us to bursa:

medieval Latin bursa bag, purse, < Greek βύρσα hide, wine-skin.

  1. Physiol. (more fully bursa mucosa): ‘A synovial sac of discoidal form interposed between muscles, tendons, or skin, and bony prominences, for the purpose of lessening friction’. (OED)

"Death, at first, seems no match for her formidable will and aggression.  Flora barks at her broker over the telephone; she hassles Blackie; and she downs cognac and pills to combat her 'bursitis'."

 - Hilton Als, "Ladies of the Night: Tennessee Williams and Anton Chekhov on troubled women", February 14 & 21, 2011, The New Yorker

Word of the day: amanuensis

The word of the day is amanuensis:
Latin (in Suetonius) adj. used subst., < a manu a secretary, short for servus a manu + -ensis belonging to.

One who copies or writes from the dictation of another. (OED)


"As the curtains billow in the wind and waves crash on the rocks below, time is marked by the tides, and this carnal-minded, avaricious grande dame composes her memoirs.  Her not so inventive Boswell is her companion and amanuensis, Frances Black (Maggie Lacey), whom Flora calls Blackie."

 - Hilton Als, "Ladies of the Night: Tennessee Williams and Anton Chekhov on troubled women", February 14 & 21, 2011, The New Yorker