word of the day: brome

The word of the day is brome:

any of numerous grasses of the genus Bromus, having flat blades and open clusters of flower spikelets.

< Neo-Latin Brom (us) genus name (< Greek brómos oats) (dictionary.com)

"Some two hundred cows, clustered densely as plush toys in an acrcade game, stood shoulder-deep in orchard grass, brome, purple flowering alfalfa, and lupine."

 - Dana Goodyear, "Elite meat: a food entrepreneur offers a delicious - but pricey - solution for guilty pleasures", 3 November 2014 The New Yorker 

word of the day: bung

The word of the day is bung:

rectum and large intestine (clovegarden.com)

"In a garden strung with fairy lights, watching the sun set on Mt. Shasta, I ate a sausage, packed in a pig bung, which had cured for three months in a nineteen-forties root cellar."

 - Dana Goodyear, "Elite meat: a food entrepreneur offers a delicious - but pricey - solution for guilty pleasures", 3 November 2014 The New Yorker 

word of the day: tonnato

The word of the day is tonnato:

a sauce made from tuna traditionally served with cold sliced veal (epicurious.com)

"Days with Fernald, a friend of hers told me, start with bacon and end in chicken liver.  Her idea of road food is a ziplock full of leftover tonnato made with raw farm eggs and Belcampo top round: a second-tier cut, because the financial model and the corporate ethos depend on using every last bit, and a cow is not made up of filet mignon."

 - Dana Goodyear, "Elite meat: a food entrepreneur offers a delicious - but pricey - solution for guilty pleasures", 3 November 2014 The New Yorker 

word of the day: ombré

The word of the day is ombré:

shaded or graduated in tone: said of a color
French past participle of ombrer, to shade ; from Classical Latin umbrare ; from umbra, shade (dictionary.com)

"Thirty seconds after I met Anya Fernald, the co-founder and C.E.O. of Belcampo, a sustainable-meat company whose ambition is to seduce Americans away from industrial food, she offered me a plate of lamb tartare.  Fernald is thirty-nine and nearly six feet tall, with growing-out ombré hair and the exuberant energy of a team of wayward ponies; we were sitting at the counter of a butcher shop and restaurant she had recently opened in downtown Los Angeles."

 - Dana Goodyear, "Elite meat: a food entrepreneur offers a delicious - but pricey - solution for guilty pleasures", 3 November 2014 The New Yorker 

word of the day: aphorism

The word of the day is aphorism:

a terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute observation, as “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton).

French aphorisme < Late Latin aphorismus < Greek aphorismós definition, equivalent to aphor (ízein) to define (see aphorize ) + -ismos -ism (dictionary.com)

"When, in 2004, Daniel Boulud went looking for a new pastry chef for his main New York restaurant, someone in Paris suggested Ansel, and though on his arrival here he spoke scarcely a word of English - he now speaks it with crisp, aphoristic clarity - he had a very successful run in the high-end restaurant."

 - Adam Gopnik, "Bakeoff: What is happening to our pastry?", 3 November 2014 The New Yorker 

word of the day: pediment

The word of the day is pediment:

1. (in classical architecture) a low gable, typically triangular with a horizontal cornice and raking cornices, surmounting a colonnade, an end wall, or a major division of a façade.

2. any imitation of this, often fancifully treated, used to crown an opening, a monument, etc., or to form part of a decorative scheme.

3. Geology. a gently sloping rock surface at the foot of a steep slope, as of a mountain, usually thinly covered with alluvium.

earlier pedament, pedement, alteration, by association with Latin pēs (stem ped-) foot, of earlier peremint, perhaps an unlearned alteration of pyramid; (def 3) by construal as pedi- + -ment (dictionary.com)

"Careme created pastry temples in evocative ruin, resting on marzipan rocks; pastry pediments and pyramids and Chinese pavilions."

 - Adam Gopnik, "Bakeoff: What is happening to our pastry?", 3 November 2014 The New Yorker 

word of the day: schnecken

The word of the day is schnecken:

sweet, spiral, snail-shaped rolls made from raised dough with chopped nuts, butter, and cinnamon.

< German: literally, snail, Old High German snecko.  (dictionary.com)

"But it would not be going to far to say that the coexistence of the pretzel croissant and the Cronut is worth thinking of as a form of competition, if only on purely Darwinian terms, in which all coexistence is a competition held briefly in equilibrium, particularly because their coexistence is representative of something new, pervasive, and quite possibly perverse: the hybridized and fetishized schnecken."

 - Adam Gopnik, "Bakeoff: What is happening to our pastry?", 3 November 2014 The New Yorker 

word of the day: foolscap

The word of the day is foolscap:

a type of inexpensive writing paper, especially legal-size, lined, yellow sheets, bound in tablet form.

so called from the watermark of a fool's cap formerly used on such paper (dictionary.com)

 

 

"What stands out in my memory is not so much the dish itself - I've both cooked and eaten it so often that I know it by heart - as the recipe's length.  It covered two closely written sides of lined foolscap, and began with detailed instructions on how to turn on and light a gas burner."

 

 - John Lancaster, "Shut up and eat: a foodie repents", 3 November 2014 The New Yorker 

word of the day: zeppole

The word of the day is zeppole:

"Delicious fried cookies made with ricotta cheese. These are also known as Italian doughnuts"  (allrecipes.com) 


"Either the President's in town or they're selling zeppoles on Seventh Avenue."

 - Paul Noth, cartoon, 6 October 2014 The New Yorker

word of the day: knaidel

The word of the day is knaidel:

a dumpling, especially a small ball of matzo meal, eggs, and salt, often mixed with another foodstuff, as ground almonds or grated potato, usually served in soup.

< Yiddish kneydl dumpling; compare Middle High German knödel lump, ovary of a flower, German Knödel dumpling (dictionary.com)

"chopped liver first or herring or eggs and onions,
then matzo-ball soup or noodle or knaidel, followed by
roast veal or boiled beef and horseradish..."

 - Gerald Stern, "The world we should have stayed in", 6 October 2014 The New Yorker

word of the day: imprimatur

The word of the day is imprimatur:

1. an official license to print or publish a book, pamphlet, etc., especially a license issued by a censor of the Roman Catholic Church.

2. sanction or approval; support.

Neo-Latin: let it be printed, Latin: let it be made by pressing upon (something) (dictionary.com)

"'We fled the country when we heard what was happening at Bluttenbad, taking only our leotards, tights, toe shoes, and tennis rackets (picking up alarm clocks for symbolic, not time-telling, purposes as we skulked through Amplochacha in the dead of night), and by the grace of God, on fake passports, we journeyed to a distant land with intentions to immigrate once a cousin there could secure through hidden connections our fast-forward imprimatur,' explained Kamila on behalf of Ladislas, Toosla, and Laslo to Rafael Todos los Muertos, who'd tracked them down and was conducting an elusive interview by phone....

"'It's either the apogee of design for this apoplectic decade or a blunder of vast dimensions,' equivocated Jacomino Vervazzo, withholding his weighty imprimatur from Eloria's new opera house - where dislocated divas and truculent tenors alike declared they would never air their arias."

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

word of the day: adumbrate

The word of the day is adumbrate:

1. to produce a faint image or resemblance of; to outline or sketch.

2. to foreshadow; prefigure.

3. to darken or conceal partially; overshadow.

Latin adumbrātus shaded (past participle of adumbrāre) (dictionary.com)

"'The orgy in the grand salon tonight shall consist of five discrete movements, or courses, if you will,' adumbrated Amaranthia to an odd assortment of overnight guests - all cellists, composers, or chefs....

"Dulac's lambent adumbration of the incipient denouement sets the reader up for an expose of the most trifling indiscretions and not the perfidious betrayals that actually unfurl at the end of her roman a clef Tatiana's Bear."

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

word of the day: soubrette

The word of the day is soubrette:

1. a maidservant or lady's maid in a play, opera, or the like, especially one displaying coquetry, pertness, and a tendency to engage in intrigue.

2. an actress playing such a role.

3. any lively or pert young woman.

< French: lady's maid < Provençal soubreto, derivative of soubret affected, ultimately derivative of Old Provençal sobrar < Latin superāre to be above (dictionary.com)

"Katya began slipping up in matters that required discretion, so Jacaranda persuaded the butler to administer a timid spanking without removing his gloves, and the wayward soubrette also received a mild reproof in her own handwriting as dictated by Mustafovic himself in his suite at Hotel Artaud....

"'Throw in your dishtowel, you retrograde roustabout, and take a disinterested shuffle through the Seven Deadly Virtues with my svelte soubrette and me,' said Yolanta to the tarted-up bartender on the outs with his boyfriend, Flip."

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

word of the day: savoir-vivre

The word of the day is savoir-vivre:

knowledge of the world and the ways or usages of polite society.

French: literally, knowing how to live (dictionary.com)

"Jonquil, accustomed to making her way with insolence, impertinence, intemperance, and impulsiveness, was not totally without insight and savoir-vivre.  After a few close calls, she realized that to come out of Trajikistan alive, she would have to be both circumspect and discreet."

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

word of the day: belletristic

The word of the day is belletristic:

Of, pertaining to, or having the characteristics of belles-lettres
Written or appreciated for aesthetic value rather than content (wordnik.com)

"Ever quick to deprecate what he couldn't understand, Bottie, feeling bellicose, called the choreography belletristic, the music narcissistic, the lighting fidgety and arcane, and yet he wooed the entire corps de ballet, having divided and conquered them with one bouquet....

"Shortly before his dishonorable demise, Vast Monthrock established a foundation for writers of belletristic bellicosity and insupportable hypotheses."

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

word of the day: credenza

The word of the day is credenza:

1. Also, credence. a sideboard or buffet, especially one without legs.

2. a closed cabinet for papers, office supplies, etc., often of desk height and matching the other furniture in an executive's office.

3. Ecclesiastical, credence (def 3).

< Italian < Medieval Latin crēdentia (in ecclesiastical usage) a sideboard for holding sacramental vessels (dictionary.com)

"Incognito: a succession of kings including INCOGNITO I, who didn't like his officially suppressed given name; INCOGNITO V, a devotee of Flan O'Brien and thus a bicycle fetishist; and INCOGNITO VIII, noted for such scandals as the Cashmere Crisis and the case of the lapsed credenza....

"'Take these handcuffs off my wrists - and that credenza off my chest!' yawped Flip, thrashing about on the barroom floor in a pool of viscous words....

"'That credenza coulda knocked me senseless!' bawled Flip, crawling anfractuously to the saloon door for a double shot of prairie air and a possible getaway car....

"History may regard the Cashmere Crisis as the nadir of the entire Incognito succession, but the lapsed credenza hardly redounded to the credit of the family, either, even if it did end up at the Pink Antlers Saloon in a different story and century altogether, long after the king and his minions were last seen on the shores of Lake Quisisana."

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

word of the day: sempiternal

The word of the day is sempiternal:

everlasting; eternal.

Late Latin sempiternālis, equivalent to Latin sempitern (us) everlasting semp (er) always + -i- -i- + -ternus suffix of temporal adjectives (dictionary.com)

"What phosphorescent big teeth you have!  What wild eyes!  What a battered yet luxuriant fur coat you are wearing!  What a congenial companion I shall make of you!  And you will shatter my sleep and foreshadow my sempiternal night."

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

word of the day: alpenstock

The word of the day is alpenstock:

a strong staff with an iron point, used by mountain climbers.

< German, equivalent to Alpen Alps + Stock staff (dictionary.com)

"The brigands with fans have been colluding against local officials with a band of slaphappy vandals the Passevitza Clarion has inaccurately dubbed their Doppelgang.  In fact, the true Doppelgang is elsewhere engaged, marauding the countryside of Lavukistan with Belle Epoque fans in their fluttering hands and garters over their alpenstocks."

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

word of the day: rubicund

The word of the day is rubicund:

red or reddish; ruddy

< Latin rubicundus, akin to ruber red (dictionary.com) 

"Climatic changes and extremes are definitely in the cards with the resurgence of the rubicund current in the Samotrian Sea, the eruption of Mount Placido, the erratic posturings of ermines and wolves."

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

word of the day: avouch

The word of the day is avouch:

1. to make frank acknowledgment or affirmation of; declare or assert with positiveness.

2. to assume responsibility for; vouch for; guarantee.

3. to admit; confess.

Middle English avouchen < Middle French avouchier < Latin advocāre. (dictionary.com) 

"'Capriccio may be capricious, but he hasn't a duplicitous bone in his skull,' avouched Ilona's maid-in-waiting while suspicions slithered and surged at court and amplified abroad."

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

word of the day: empyrean

The word of the day is empyrean:

1. the highest heaven, supposed by the ancients to contain the pure element of fire.

2. the visible heavens; the firmament. (dictionary.com) 

"Either we censure this smooth-talking Lavukistani upstart now or he'll soon be wagging his hindquarters through the empyrean and coaxing our susceptible queen into his wolf-drawn sylvan sleigh."

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

word of the day: zaftig

The word of the day is zaftig:

 

 1. (of a woman) having a pleasantly plump figure.

2. full-bodied; well-proportioned.

< Yiddish zaftik literally, juicy, succulent (dictionary.com) 

"Careening through Schwarzwald was a zaftig Fraulein named Hilda with a hamstrung faun panting in her wake and attempting to woo her in her native tongue, a Wagnerian orchestra hard at work in his imagination overwhelming each mispronunciation."

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

word of the day: blotto

The word of the day is blotto:

very drunk; so drunk as to be unconscious or not know what one is doing.

c.1905, from some signification of blot (v.) in its "soak up liquid" meaning.  (dictionary.com) 

"'After you've bronzed and bouffanted those blotto sopranos,' said Boris Marcelovsky to his assistants, a blond bombshell and a buxom blonde, 'would you enamel the toes of those two Belladonni before they dismantle the magazine rack and otherwise trash my salon.'"

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

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

word of the day: macaronic

The word of the day is macaronic:

1. composed of or characterized by Latin words mixed with vernacular words or non-Latin words given Latin endings.

2. composed of a mixture of languages.

3. mixed; jumbled.

< Medieval Latin macarōnicus < dialectal Italian maccarone macaroni + Latin -icus -ic (dictionary.com) 

"In The Espresso Murders, Alfonsi Lombardini, accused of snuffing out eighteen intellectual drifters mid-cappuccino, confronts a formidable antagonist, Tanagra Canasta, whom he wins over to belief in his innocence once he's distracted her affection from one of the victims, a mustachioed poet of little promise and even less talent who'd lived in her mother's closet one bleak New England winter and emerged in the spring with a parody of Paradise Lost in macaronic language and a scarlet slipper clutched to his hypochondriacal chest."

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

word of the day: quidnunc

The word of the day is quidnunc:

a person who is eager to know the latest news and gossip; a gossip or busybody.

< Latin quid nunc what now? (dictionary.com) 

"'Out of my way, you irrelevant quidnunc.  I'm the protagonist of this crime and romance thriller,' said Drasko Mustafovic in a rare flash of arrogance that bordered on hubris to a supernumerary with whom he shared an elevator ascending the Hotel Artaud....

"The night of Drasko Mustafovic's alleged, supposed, so-called abduction from Hotel Artaud (depending on which quidnunc's hypothesis you entertained), spirits were summoned from ethereal realms to his ancestral home....

"'The predominant mood at Count Ghastly's house these days is a triple-layered wanhope frosted with a fitful gloom,' explained the village pastry chef to a tea shop of quidnuncs and gossips whose schadenfreude was snapping up crumbs of rueful news."

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

word of the day: purl

The word of the day is purl:

1. to flow with curling or rippling motion, as a shallow stream does over stones.

2. to flow with a murmuring sound.

3. to pass in a manner or with a sound likened to this. (dictionary.com) 

"An anodyne is a cure, a palliative, a source of soothing comfort; as an adjective, it means capable of bestowing comfort, eliminating pain; relaxing: anodyne brochures from the Azuriko tourist bureau promising melodious brooks and purling streams, beneficent mists from waterfalls, spas with radioactive waters that put flight to the most searing gout, plaguing doubt."

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

word of the day: bandoneon

The word of the day is bandoneon:

a small, square concertina or accordion with buttons instead of a keyboard, used especially in Latin America for tango music. 

from Spanish, from German Bandonion, from Heinrich Band, its inventor (dictionary.com) 

"When the dentist declared himself not averse to a month in Buenos Aires,* he was amenable to the notion of such a trip - that is, tractable, open to suggestion, advice.

* A pronouncement he would live to regret: later in Brazil, during Carnival, the robot ran off with a Deux Chevaux mechanic and a bandeonist from Bahia, and the dentist wandered Rio from one bateria to another in search of his partner, whose costume-swapping metamorphoses further confounded the dentist's quest."

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

word of the day: evanescent

The word of the day is evanescent:

1. vanishing; fading away; fleeting.

2. tending to become imperceptible; scarcely perceptible.

< Latin ēvānēscent- (stem of ēvānēscēns) vanishing, disappearing (dictionary.com) 

"Over an intimate dinner for three, four, or five (anticipating rejection, he usually invited several of his heartthrobs at once and thus wound up with a voracious harem on the tab), he would crush the crystal in his firm though terrified grip, fracture his anecdotes into evanescent glints, swallow his bow tie, and come back from the powder room to a fur coat in the cloakroom - and here his valor always returned when it came to defending the torpid wrap against its usual occupant attempting to reclaim it....

"We barely glimpsed the flashing teeth and rush of darkness that announced the creature's evanescence."

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