Word of the day: abrogate

The word of the day is abrogate:

1. to abolish by formal or official means; annul by an authoritative act; repeal
2. to put aside; put an end to.

1520s, from adj. abrogate (mid-15c.), from L. abrogatus, pp. of abrogare "to annul, repeal (a law)," from ab- "away" + rogare "propose a law, request" (see rogation).

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

"The Magna Carta probably means more to people in the United States than in England in many ways. The 1215 document was abrogated and never went into effect."

 - Laura Demanski, "Chartered philanthropy: As the historic document turns 800, David M. Rubenstein, JD '73, reflects on preserving a Magna Carta in the United States", Fall 2015 The University of Chicago Magazine (http://mag.uchicago.edu/law-policy-society/chartered-philanthropy)

Word of the day: iron gall ink

The word of the day is iron gall ink:

At its simplest, iron gall ink is made from four main ingredients:

• gall nuts (source of tannins),
• iron sulfate (source of iron),
• water (solvent),
• gum arabic (binder).

(http://travelingscriptorium.library.yale.edu/2013/03/21/iron-gall-ink/)

"Rubenstein's Magna Carta, written in iron gall ink on sheepskin parchment, is on long-term loan to the National Archives."

 - Laura Demanski, "Chartered philanthropy: As the historic document turns 800, David M. Rubenstein, JD '73, reflects on preserving a Magna Carta in the United States", Fall 2015 The University of Chicago Magazine (http://mag.uchicago.edu/law-policy-society/chartered-philanthropy)

Word of the day: linguascape

The word of the day is linguascape:

As far as I can tell, it means a landscape of languages: how languages vary over geography.

"Refugeeism may weaken the demographic strengths of some languages, while it is also doubtful that new, lasting linguistic diasporas will emerge that are comparable to those of imperial European languages today. The real impact of refugeeism will depend on whether or not the refugees, most of whom relocate to neighboring territories, will assimilate to population structures of their host countries, if they remain there permanently. This factor will determine whether the linguascape of Africa, for example, will change."

 - Salikoko Mufwene, "Future Tense: Languages", Fall 2015 The University of Chicago Magazine (http://mag.uchicago.edu/university-news/future-tense#languages)

Word of the day: satrap

The word of the day is satrap:

1. a governor of a province under the ancient Persian monarchy.
2. a subordinate ruler, often a despotic one.

c.1380, "governor of a province of ancient Persia," from L. satrapes, from Gk. satrapes, from O.Pers. kshathrapavan-, lit. "guardian of the realm," from kshathra- "realm, province" (related to kshayathiya- "king," cognate with Skt. kshatra; cf. shah) + pavan- "guardian," from pa- "to protect."

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

"Overcome by enthusiasm, one Sunni militia had plundered Xinghua for days; the other had occupied Fuzhou, turning it into a private satrapy."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: purdah

The word of the day is purdah:

1. the seclusion of women from the sight of men or strangers, practiced by some Muslims and Hindus.
2. a screen, curtain, or veil used for this purpose.

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

"Visitors to Puebla are told that the style was originated by Catarina de San Juan, the pious, vision-filled Mughal slave whom I described in Chapter 8; the patterned skirt, one is solemnly assured, was inspired by her sari.  But Muslim women like Catarina didn't wear saris; purdah was becoming popular, and they wore concealing garments."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: coffer

The word of the day is coffer:

—noun

1. a box or chest, especially one for valuables.
2. coffers, a treasury; funds
3. any of various boxlike enclosures, as acofferdam.
4. Also called caisson, lacunar.  Architecture. one of a number of sunken panels, usually square or octagonal, in a vault, ceiling, or soffit.

mid-13c., from O.Fr. cofre "a chest," from L. cophinus "basket" (see coffin).

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

"About fifty miles north of Antigua reigned a man named Comagre, who lived with his many wives and children in what the historian Pietro Martire d'Anghiera described as 'a house made of big, interwoven timbers, with a hall 80 paces wide and 150 long and what looked like a coffered ceiling.'"

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: brigantine

The word of the day is brigantine:

1. a two-masted sailing vessel, square-rigged on the foremast and having a fore-and-aft mainsail with square upper sails.
2. hermaphrodite brig.

"small two-masted ship," 1520s, from M.Fr. brigandin (15c.), from It. brigantino, perhaps "skirmishing vessel, pirate ship," from brigante "skirmisher, pirate, brigand" from brigare "fight" (see brigade).

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

"The newly moved colony, Santa María la Antigua del Darién (Antigua), was legally under the jurisdiction of another conquistador.  When this conquistador came to Antigua to demand control, Núñez de Balboa put him onto a leaky brigantine and told him to sail away."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: impasto

The word of the day is impasto:

1. the laying on of paint thickly.
2. the paint so laid on.
3. enamel or slip applied to a ceramic object to form a decoration in low relief.

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

"In the darkness and confusion and rain, Indians, Africans, and Europeans on both sides smashed clumsily at each other with sticks and blades...  Covered with a thick impasto of blood and earth, shouting and sobbing, the two forces assailed each other without compunction."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: welter

The word of the day is welter:

5. a confused mass; a jumble or muddle: a welter of anxious faces.
6. a state of commotion, turmoil, or upheaval: the welter that followed the surprise attack.
7. a rolling, tossing, or tumbling about, as or as if by the sea, waves, or wind: They found the shore through the mighty welter.

"to roll or twist," c.1300, from M.Du. or M.L.G. welteren "to roll," from P.Gmc. *waltijanan (cf. O.E. wieltan, O.N. velta, O.H.G. walzan "to turn, revolve," Ger. wälzen "to roll," Goth. waltjan "to roll"), from PIE base *wel- "to turn, revolve" (see vulva). The noun meaning "confused mass" is first recorded 1851.

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

"Tenochtitlan fell on August 13, 1521 in a welter of massacre and chaos."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: byre

The word of the day is byre:

1. a cow shed.

"cow-shed," O.E. byre, perhaps related to bur "cottage, dwelling, house;" see bower.

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

"Elsewhere the terrain is so steep that in some parts cattle are kept in small, shed-like byres for their entire lives for fear they will tumble down the slopes.  (Tourist guides extol Madeira as 'the island of sad cows.')"

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: wag

The word of the day is wag:

— noun

10. the act of wagging: a friendly wag ofthe tail.
11. a person given to droll, roguish, or mischievous humor; wit.

early 13 c., probably from a Scand. source (cf. O.N. vagga "a cradle," Dan. vugge "rock a cradle," O.Swed. wagga "fluctuate"), and in part from O.E. wagian "move backwards and forwards;" all from P. Gmc. *wagojanan (cf. O.H.G. weggen, Goth. wagjan "to wag"), probably from PIE base *wegh- "to move about" (see weigh). Wagtail is attested from c.1500 as a kind of small bird; 18 c. as "a harlot," but seems to be implied much earlier: "If therefore thou make not thy mistress a goldfinch, thou mayst chance to find her a wagtaile." [Lyly, "Midas," 1592] Wag-at-the-wall (1825) was an old name for a hanging clock with pendulum and weights exposed.

"person fond of making jokes," 1553, perhaps a shortening of waghalter "gallows bird," person destined to swing in a noose or halter, applied humorously to mischievous children, from wag (v.) + halter. Or possibly directly from wag (v.).

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

"To house his workers Ford built a replica of a middle-class Michigan town, complete with a hospital, schools, stores, movie theaters, Methodist churches, and wooden bungalows on tree-lined streets...  Wags immediately dubbed the project Fordlândia."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: probity

The word of the day is probity:

1. integrity and uprightness; honesty.

1514, from M.Fr. probité, from L. probitatem (nom. probitas) "uprightness, honesty," from probus "worthy, good" (see prove).

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

"Arana moved with this family to Manaus and established a reputation for quiet probity—he had the biggest library in town.  Meanwhile his minions expanded his realm on the Putumayo, bribing government officials and killing his competitors."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: consign

The word of the day is consign:

1. to hand over or deliver formally or officially; commit (often followed by to).
2. to transfer to another's custody or charge; entrust.
3. to set apart for or devote to (a special purpose or use): to consign two afternoons a week to the club.
4. to banish or set apart in one's mind; relegate: to consign unpleasant thoughts to oblivion.
5. Commerce.
   1. to ship, as by common carrier, especially for sale or custody.
   2. to address for such shipment.
6. Obsolete. to confirm or ratify, as with a seal or other token.

c.1430, from M.Fr. consigner, from L. consignare "to seal, register," originally "to mark with a sign," from com- "together" + signare "to sign, mark," from signum "sign." Originally "to ratify by a sign or seal;" commercial sense is from 1650s. 

"In addition to signing an exclusive mining concession with Elías, Peru had awarded a monopoly on shipping guano internationally to a company in Liverpool.  With demand outstripping supply, Peru and its British consignees were able to charge high prices."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: hummock

The word of the day is hummock:

1. Also, hammock. an elevated tract of land rising above the general level of a marshy region.
2. a knoll or hillock.
3. Also, hommock. a ridge in an ice field.

"knoll, hillock," 1555, originally nautical, "conical small hill on a seacoast," of obscure origin, though second element is dim. suffix -ock. In Florida, where the local form is hammock, it means a clump of hardwood trees on a knoll in a swamp or on a key.

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

"On the flatter, wetter land around Lake Titicaca indigenous societies built almost five hundred square miles of raised fields: rectangular hummocks of earth, each several yards wide and scores or even hundreds of yards long."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: isometric

The word of the day is isometric:

1. of, pertaining to, or having equality of measure.
2. of or pertaining to isometric exercise.
3. Crystallography. noting or pertaining to that system of crystallization that is characterized by three equal axes at right angles to one another. Comparecrystal system.
4. Prosody. of equal measure; made up of regular feet.
5. Drafting. designating a method of projection (isometric projection) in which a three-dimensional object is represented by a drawing (i·somet·ric draw·ing) having the horizontal edges of the object drawn usually at a 30° angle and all verticals projected perpendicularly from a horizontal base, all lines being drawn to scale. Compare orthographic projection.

1840, coined from Gk. isos "equal" + metron "measure" (see meter (2)). Originally a method of using perspective in drawing; the physiological sense relating to muscular action is from 1891, borrowed from Ger. isometrisch (1882). Isomer is an 1866 back-formation; isometrics coined 1962 in Amer.Eng.

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

"The volcanoes are linked by geologic faults, which push against each other isometrically, triggering earthquakes, floods, and landslides."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: scrim

The word of the day is scrim:

1. a cotton or linen fabric of open weave used for bunting, curtains, etc.
2. Theater. a piece of such fabric used as a drop, border, or the like, for creating the illusion of a solid wall or backdrop under certain lighting conditions or creating a semitransparent curtain when lit from behind.

"upholstery lining," 1792, of unknown origin.

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

"As a rule, soil has three layers: a thin scrim of dead leaves, bits of wood, and other organic matter on top; a band of dark topsoil, usually no more than a foot deep, shot through with humus (partly decomposed organic matter); and a stratum of subsoil below, lighter colored but rich with iron, clay, and minerals."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: broadside

The word of the day is broadside:

—noun

1. the whole side of a ship above the water line, from the bow to the quarter.
2. Navy.
   1. all the guns that can be fired from one side of a warship.
   2. a simultaneous discharge of all the guns on one side of a warship.
3. any strong or comprehensive attack, as by criticism.
4. Also called broadsheet.
   1. a sheet of paper printed on one or both sides, as for distribution or posting.
   2. any printed advertising circular.
5. any broad surface or side, as of a house.
6. Also called broadside ballad. a song, chiefly in 16th- and 17th-century England, written on a topical subject, printed on broadsides, and sung in public, as on a street corner, by a professional balladeer.

1590s, "side of a ship" (technically, "the side of a ship above the water, between the bow and the quarter"), from broad + side; thus "the artillery on one side of a ship all fired off at once" (1590s, with figurative extensions). Two words until late 18c. Of things other than ships, 1630s. But oldest-recorded sense in English is "sheet of paper printed only on one side" (1570s).

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

"The argument was over whether the human race could transform the world into paradise.  Malthus thought not, and said so at length—55,000 words, published as an unsigned broadside in 1798."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: watchword

The word of the day is watchword:

1. a word or short phrase to be communicated, on challenge, to a sentinel or guard; password or countersign.
2. a word or phrase expressive of a principle or rule of action; slogan
3. a rallying cry of a party, club, team, etc.

c.1400, "password," from watch (n.) in the military sense of "period of standing guard duty" + word. In the sense of "motto, slogan" it dates from 1738.

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

"For almost two thousand years, China's numbers had grown very slowly.  That changed in the decades after the violent Qing takeover.  From the arrival of American crops at the beginning of the new dynasty to the end of the eighteenth century, population soared.  Historians debate the exact size of the increase; many believe the population roughly doubled, to as much as 300 million people.  Whatever the precise figure, the jump in numbers had big consequences.  It was the demographic surge that transformed the nation into a watchword for crowding."

  - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: rump state

The word of the day is rump state:

A rump state is the remnant of a once-larger government.

(http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/rump+state)

"Incoming Manchu forces seized Beijing in 1644, beginning a new dynasty: the Qing.  The last Ming emperor hanged himself, and pretenders emerged to lead a rump state."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: cerebrate

The word of the day is cerebrate:

1. to use the mind; think or think about.

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

"At the same time, the two roles often conflict, and the conflict leads, as in Manila, to a considerable amount of profoundly fractured cerebration...  Considered purely as a trading entrepôt, Manila should house as few Spaniards as possible—they were expensive to send over and kept dying of disease—and let Chinese people do all the work.  To serve best as an imperial outpost, though, the Spaniards needed to ensure that all vital civic functions were in loyal Spanish hands, and to minimize the number and influence of the Chinese.  Every step to satisfy one imperative worked against the other."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: passementerie

The word of the day is passementerie:

1. trimming of braid, cord, bead, etc., in any of various forms.

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

"Into the galleons went stockings, skirts, and sheets; vestments for cardinals and bodices for coquettes; carpets, tapestries, and kimonos; veils, headdresses, and passementeries; silk gauze, silk taffeta, silk crepe, and silk damask."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: imprecate

The word of the day is imprecate:

1. to invoke or call down (evil or curses), as upon a person.

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

"Worried Mexican officials informed the monarchy in 1602 that the galleons that year had exported almost four hundred tons of silver—eight times the declared amount.  Furious imprecations from Madrid changed nothing; smuggling was too lucrative."

 - Charles Mann, 1492: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: multifarious

The word of the day is multifarious:

1. having many different parts, elements, forms, etc.
2. numerous and varied; greatly diverse or manifold: multifarious activities.

1590s, from L. multifarius "manifold," from multifariam "in many places or parts," perhaps originally "that which can be expressed in many ways," from multi- "many" + -fariam "parts," perhaps from fas "utterance, expression, manifestation," related to fari "to speak" (see fame).

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

"After sixty years of frenzied production, Flynn and Giráldez wrote, the world had accumulated so much silver that its value began to fall...  The impact was multifarious and planet-wide."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: pistolero

The word of the day is pistolero:

1. a member of an armed band of roving mounted bandits.
2. a gunman or hired killer.

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

"One account describes how a single shipment of 7,771 bars left the city in 1549, four years after the lode's discovery.  Each bar was about 99 percent silver and weighed more than eighty pounds...  Each llama could carry only three or four bars...  The shipment required more than two thousand of the beasts.  They were watched by more than a thousand Indian guards who in turn were watched by squads of Spanish pistoleros."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: lagniappe

The word of the day is lagniappe:

1. Chiefly Southern Louisiana and Southeast Texas. a small gift given with a purchase to a customer, by way of compliment or for good measure; bonus.
2. a gratuity or tip.
3. an unexpected or indirect benefit.

"dividend, something extra," 1849, from New Orleans creole, of unknown origin though much speculated. Originally a bit of something given by New Orleans shopkeepers to customers. Said to be from Amer.Sp. la ñapa "the gift." Klein says this is in turn from Quechua yapa "something added, gift.""We picked up one excellent word -- a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get; a nice, limber, expressive, handy word -- 'lagniappe.' They pronounce it lanny-yap. It is Spanish -- so they said." [Mark Twain, "Life on the Mississippi"]

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

"Andean peoples had a tradition of communal work that had been co-opted by the Inka to build a great highway system.  Taking a page from the Inka playbook, Viceroy Toledo forced natives to deliver, as a tribute, weekly quotas of men to the silver and mercury mines—at the start, roughly four thousand a week each for Potosí and Huancavelica.  As lagniappe, mineowners also imported several hundred African slaves each year."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Phrase of the day: take a flyer

The phrase of the day is take a flyer:

chiefly North American 

Take a chance.

(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/take-a-flyer)

"Barbados, full of sugar plantations, was crowded.  Some of its English inhabitants, looking to acquire land, decided to take a flyer on Carolina."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: threnody

The word of the day is threnody:

1. a poem, speech, or song of lamentation, especially for the dead; dirge; funeral song.

"song of lamentation," 1634, from Gk. threnodia, from threnos "dirge, lament," + oide "ode." Gk. threnos probably is from a PIE imitative base meaning "to murmur, hum;" cf. O.E. dran "drone," Goth. drunjus "sound," Gk. tenthrene "a kind of wasp."

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

"The regime was so brutal that it should have generated constant shirking, sabotage, and strife—and, indeed, slaveholder records are endless threnodies of complaint and fear."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: fanfaronade

The word of the day is fanfaronade:

1. bragging; bravado; bluster.

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

"Historians dislike the Pocahontas-rescue story for another, deeper reason.  By pumping up the romance and the fanfaronade, it draws attention from what the English were actually trying to accomplish in Virginia—and what happened to Tsenacomoco when they arrived."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: salvo

The word of the day is salvo:

salvo¹

—noun, plural sal·vos, sal·voes.

1. a simultaneous or successive discharge of artillery, bombs, etc.
2. a round of fire given as a salute.
3. a round of cheers or applause.

salvo²

—noun, plural sal·vos. Archaic.

1. an excuse or quibbling evasion.
2. something to save a person's reputation or soothe a person's feelings.

1719, alteration of salva (1591) "simultaneous discharge of guns," from It. salva "salute, volley" (cf. Fr. salve, from It.), from L. salve "hail!," lit. "be in good health!," the usual Roman greeting, regarded as imperative of salvere "to be in good health," but prop. voc. of salvus "healthy" (see safe (adj.)). The notion is of important visitors greeted with a volley of gunfire into the air.

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

"Rolfe's worms, as one might call them, illustrate another aspect of its course: Jamestown was the opening salvo, for English America, of the Columbian Exchange."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: overweening

The word of the day is overweening:

1. presumptuously conceited, overconfident, or proud
2. exaggerated, excessive, or arrogant

1340, from prp. of overwenen "be conceited, presume," from O.E. ofer-wenian, from ofer + "over" + wenian (see ween).

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

"His life was dominated by overweening personal ambition and, arguably more important, profound religious faith."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: petulant

The word of the day is petulant:

moved to or showing sudden, impatient irritation, especially over some trifling annoyance

1599, "immodest, wanton, saucy," from M.Fr. petulant (1350), from L. petulantem (nom. petulans) "wanton, froward, insolent," from the root of petere "rush at, seek" (see petition). Meaning "peevish, irritable" first recorded 1775, probably by influence of pet (2).

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

"Later, like a petulant artist, he insisted that his signature be an incomprehensible glyph".

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: fusillade

The word of the day is fusillade:

1. a simultaneous or continuous discharge of firearms.
2. a general discharge or outpouring of anything

"simultaneous discharge of firearms," 1801, from Fr. fusillade, from fusiller "to shoot," from fusil "musket" (see fusilier).

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

"The structure is called a lighthouse because 146 four-kilowatt lights are mounted on its summit.  They point straight up, assaulting the heavens with a fusillade of light intense enough to cause blackouts in surrounding neighborhoods."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the World Columbus Created

Word of the day: entrepôt

The word of the day is entrepôt:

1. a warehouse.
2. a commercial center where goods are received for distribution, transshipment, or repackaging.

"warehouse," 1828, from Fr., from L. interpositum "that which is placed between," neut. pp. of interponere.

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

"Colón himself was ambivalent.  On the one hand, he was supposed to be governing a colony that was establishing a commercial entrepôt in the Americas.  On the other hand, he was supposed to be at sea, continuing his search for China.  The two roles conflicted, and Colón was never able to resolve the conflict."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: moil

The word of the day is moil:

—verb (used without object)

1. to work hard; drudge.
2. to whirl or churn ceaselessly; twist; eddy.

—verb (used with object)

3. Archaic. to wet or smear.

—noun

4. hard work or drudgery.
5. confusion, turmoil, or trouble.
6. Glassmaking. a superfluous piece of glass formed during blowing and removed in the finishing operation.
7. Mining. a short hand tool with a polygonal point, used for breaking or prying out rock.

"to labour in the mire" [Johnson], c.1400,possibly from O.Fr. mouiller "to wet,moisten," from V.L. *molliare, from L.molis "soft." 

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

"Sometimes the moil of slogans and counter-slogans, facts and factoids, seems impenetrable, but as I learned more I came to suspect that both sides may be correct."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: whipsaw

The word of the day is whipsaw:

—noun

1. a saw for two persons, as a pitsaw, used to divide timbers lengthwise.

—verb (used with object), whip·sawed,whip·sawed or whip·sawn, whip·saw·ing.

2. to cut with a whipsaw.
3. to win two bets from (a person) at one turn or play, as at faro.
4. to subject to two opposing forces at the same time: The real-estate market has been whipsawed by high interest rates and unemployment.

—verb (used without object),whip·sawed, whip·sawed or whip·sawn,whip·saw·ing.

5. (of a trailer, railroad car, etc.) to swing suddenly to the right or left, as in rounding a sharp curve at high speed.

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

"Whipsawed between these two opposing views, the global network has become the subject of a furious intellectual battle, complete with mutually contradictory charts, graphs, and statistics—and tear gas and flying bricks in the streets where political leaders meet behind walls of riot police to wrangle through international-trade agreements."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: equinoctial

The word of the day is equinoctial:

1. pertaining to an equinox or the equinoxes, or to the equality of day and night.
2. pertaining to the celestial equator.
3. occurring at or about the time of an equinox.
4. Botany . (of a flower) opening regularly at a certain hour.

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

"People who have not navigated the great rivers of equinoctial America can scarcely conceive how, at every instant, without intermission, you may be tormented by insects flying in the air."

 - Alexander von Humboldt, as quoted by Elizabeth Kolbert, "Humboldt's gift: He was once the most celebrated naturalist in the world.  What happened to him?", 26 October 2015 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/humboldts-gift)