word of the day: maunder

The word of the day is maunder:

verb (used without object)

1. to talk in a rambling, foolish, or meaningless way.

2. to move, go, or act in an aimless, confused manner (dictionary.com)

"As a portrait of male friendship, the 'Trip' films are a triumph of the lean British comic style over the maunder and the mush of American bromance - Jason Segel and Seth Rogen pinching each other's blubber."

 - David Denby, "Lasting impressions: 'The Trip to Italy'", 1 September 2014 The New Yorker 

word of the day: dyspeptic

The word of the day is dyspeptic:

adjective

1. pertaining to, subject to, or suffering from dyspepsia.

2. gloomy, pessimistic, and irritable.

peptikós pertaining to digestion (dictionary.com)

"In the 'Trip' films, playing a version of himself, he's intelligent and dyspeptic, a man too clever to live by illusions but too ambitious to give them up.  He's dissatisfied with everything - his career, his relationship with his children, his waning sexual attractiveness - and he takes it out on his friend."

 - David Denby, "Lasting impressions: 'The Trip to Italy'", 1 September 2014 The New Yorker 

word of the day: sally

The word of the day is sally:

noun

1. a sortie of troops from a besieged place upon an enemy.

2. a sudden rushing forth or activity.

3. an excursion or trip, usually off the main course.

4. an outburst or flight of passion, fancy, etc.:

5. a clever, witty, or fanciful remark.

6. Carpentry. a projection, as of the end of a rafter beyond the notch by which the rafter is fitted over the wall plate.

< Middle French saillie attack, noun use of feminine past participle of saillir to rush forward < Latin salīre to leap (dictionary.com)

"The pace almost equals that of Robin Williams doing standup, but Coogan and Brydon reprise their best sallies for rhythm and for emphasis, so you won't miss anything that matters."

 - David Denby, "Lasting impressions: 'The Trip to Italy'", 1 September 2014 The New Yorker 

word of the day: sybaritic

The word of the day is sybaritic:

adjective

1. (usually lowercase) pertaining to or characteristic of a sybarite; characterized by or loving luxury or sensuous pleasure: to wallow in sybaritic splendor.

2. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Sybaris or its inhabitants. (dictionary.com)

"Once the rebels break through, Bong and his production designer, Ondrej Nekvasil, provide them with a series of sybaritic astonishments: a sunlit greenhouse garden, a mahogany sleeper car, and party rooms in which toffs, dressed in gowns and rave wear, get stoned, drink, and dance."

 - David Denby, "Endgames: 'Snowpiercer' and 'Begin Again'", 7 & 14 July 2014 The New Yorker


"He was wearing a ten-thousand-dollar ivory-colored tuxedo with blue satin trim by Angelo Galasso, which made him look like a sybaritic sea captain."

 - Rebecca Mead, "Musical Gold: Can three ambitious siblings turn old violins into a new investment strategy?", 28 July 2014 The New Yorker

word of the day: wrong-foot

The word of the day is wrong-foot:

1. trans. In tennis, football, etc.: (by deceptive play) to cause (an opponent) to have his balance on the wrong foot.
2. trans. fig. To disconcert by an unexpected move; to catch unprepared. (OED)


"The writer-director of 'Friends with Money' (2006) and 'Please Give' (2010) has a wonderful ear for blunders, for jokes that wrong-foot the listener, for kindnesses that don't quite reach the person they are intended to reach."

 - David Denby, "Drifting: 'Gravity' and 'Enough Said'", 7 October 2013 The New Yorker

Word of the day: hierophant

The word of the day is hierophant:

< late Latin hierophantēs, -phanta, < Greek ἱεροϕάντης, < ἱερός sacred + ϕαίνειν bring to light, make known, reveal. 

1. Hist. An official expounder of sacred mysteries or religious ceremonies, esp. in ancient Greece; an initiating or presiding priest.
2. gen. An expounder of sacred mysteries; the minister of any ‘revelation’; the interpreter of any esoteric principle. (OED)


"In 'Green Lantern,' directed by Martin Campbell, the Guardians, who use the ethical power of will to protect the universe from the destructive force of fear, direct the Lanterns, who wear green plastic suits and have purple faces with pointy ears, or heads like fish; they talk slowly and solemnly, like the hierophants of some forgotten Egyptian religion gathered in an underground crypt."

 - David Denby, "Anything goes: How summer went digital", 27 June 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

The word of the day is ersatz:

German, = compensation, replacement.(Show More)

  A substitute or imitation (usually, an inferior article instead of the real thing). Also attrib. or adj., and fig. (OED)

"'Black Swan' turns Freud's uncanny into shtick; the sinister elements are overloaded and overdetermined.  After a while, you realize that the film is a case of ersatz formalism disguising chaos."

 - David Denby, "Fancy Footwork: 'Black Swan' and 'Love and Other Drugs'", 6 December 2010 The New Yorker