Word of the day: hieratic

The word of the day is hieratic:

1. Also, hi·er·at·i·cal. of or pertaining to priests or the priesthood; sacerdotal; priestly.
2. noting or pertaining to a form of ancient Egyptian writing consisting of abridged forms of hieroglyphics, used by the priests in their records.
3. noting or pertaining to certain styles in art in which the representations or methods are fixed by or as if by religious tradition.
4. highly restrained or severe in emotional import

1656 (implied in hieratical), from Gk.hieratikos, from hierateia "priesthood,"from hierasthai "be a priest," fromhiereus "priest," from hieros "sacred."

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

"At the same time, its static, hieratic text, derived largely from ancient Egyptian and Akkadian sources, lies far outside the operatic norm, and makes most American librettos of recent decades look bland"

 - Alex Ross, "Pyramids and Wikileaks: Modern opera thrives in Los Angeles", 12 December 2016 The New Yorker (https://www.google.com/amp/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/12/modern-opera-thrives-in-la/amp?client=safari)

Word of the day: gantry

The word of the day is gantry:

1. a framework spanning a railroad track or tracks for displaying signals.
2. any of various spanning frameworks, as a bridgelike portion of certain cranes.
3. Rocketry. a frame consisting of scaffolds on various levels used to erect vertically launched rockets and spacecraft.
4. a framelike stand for supporting a barrel or cask.

1574, originally, "four-footed stand for a barrel," probably from O.N.Fr. gantier, from O.Fr. chantier, from L. cantherius "rafter, frame," from Gk. kanthelios "pack ass," so called from the framework placed on its back, from kanthelion "rafter," of unknown origin.

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

"For example, the weird dream about a lead doughnut on a mile-high gantry, which in the right mind would have been the catalyst for the invention of repressed-gravitational electricity generation (a cheap and inexhaustible and totally non-polluting form of power which the world in question had been seeking for centuries, and for the lack of which it was plunged into a terrible and pointless war) was in fact had by a small and bewildered duck."

 - Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Word of the day: benthos

The word of the day is benthos:

1. the biogeographic region that includes the bottom of a lake, sea, or ocean, and the littoral and supralittoral zones of the shore.

"life forms of the deep ocean and sea floor," 1891, coined by Haeckel from Gk. benthos "depth of the sea," related to bathos "depth," bathys "deep." Adjective benthic is attested from 1902.

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

"Last June I talked to Dr. Paul Montagna, a marine ecologist at Texas A&M University who studies benthic organisms.  He had found significant declines in a range of species that live on the Gulf seafloor."

 - Antonia Juhasz, "Thirty Million Gallons Under the Sea", The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2016

Word of the day: nuncio

The word of the day is nuncio:

1. a diplomatic representative of the pope at a foreign court or capital: equal in status to an ambassador.

papal envoy, 1528, from It. nuncio (now nunzio), from L. nuntius "messenger," from PIE base *neu- "to shout" (cf. Gk. neuo "to nod, beckon," O.Ir. noid "make known").

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

"When an American general arrived to confer with the papal nuncio, the U.S. Army blared music from loudspeakers to prevent journalists from eavesdropping."

 - Alex Ross, "The sound of hate", 4 July 2016 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/04/when-music-is-violence)

Word of the day: solecism

The word of the day is solecism:

1. a nonstandard or ungrammatical usage, as unflammable and they was.
2. a breach of good manners or etiquette.
3. any error, impropriety, or inconsistency.

1577, from M.Fr. solécisme, from L. soloecismus "mistake in speaking or writing," from Gk. soloikismos "to speak (Greek) incorrectly," from soloikos "ungrammatical utterance," prop. "a speaking like the people of Soloi," from Soloi, Athenian colony in Cilicia, whose dialect the Athenians considered barbarous.

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

"The waitresses seemed harassed and incompetent, teen-age girls with untidy hair.  'Enjoy,' one of them said.

“'An expression I deplore for its being a grammatical goofball,' Floyd said.  And to Jonty, 'A solecism, as you might put it.'”

 - Paul Theroux, "Upside-Down Cake", 27 June 2016 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/06/27/upside-down-cake-by-paul-theroux)

Word of the day: styptic

The word of the day is styptic:

1. serving to contract organic tissue; astringent; binding.
2. serving to check hemorrhage or bleeding, as a drug; hemostatic.

c.1400, from O.Fr. stiptique, from L. stypticus "astringent," from Gk. styptikos, from styphein "to constrict, draw together." Spelling influenced by L. and Gk. words.

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

"The main medicinal use of alum was, as it still is today, as an astringent to improve wound healing. The modern styptic used to close up razor nicks occurring after wet shaving is alum-based."

 - David Rickard, "The Many Faces of Fool's Gold", May-June 2016 American Scientist (http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2016/3/the-many-faces-of-fools-gold/1)

Word of the day: alum

The word of the day is alum:

1. Also called potash alum, potassium alum. a crystalline solid, aluminum potassium sulfate, K ₂ SO ₄ ⋅Al ₂ (SO ₄ )₃ ⋅24H ₂ O, used in medicine as an astringent and styptic, in dyeing and tanning, and in many technical processes.
2. one of a class of double sulfates analogous to the potassium alum, as aluminum ammonium sulfate, having the general formula R ₂ SO ₄ ⋅X ₂ (SO ₄) ₃ ⋅24H ₂ O, where R is a univalent alkali metal or ammonium, and X one of a number of trivalent metals.
3. (not in technical use) aluminum sulfate.

early 14c., "whitish mineral salt used as an astringent, dye, etc.," from O.Fr. alum, from L. alumen "alum," lit. "bitter salt," cognate with Gk. aludoimos "bitter" and Eng. ale.

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

"The production of one mordant, pure alum, from pyrite has been described as the point of origin of the modern chemical industry, because the process required not only the manufacture of a chemical substance but also its purification."

 - David Rickard, "The Many Faces of Fool's Gold", May-June 2016 American Scientist (http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2016/3/the-many-faces-of-fools-gold/1)

Word of the day: tholin

The word of the day is tholin:

an abiotic complex organic solid that formed by chemistry from energy input into simple, cosmically relevant gases or solids. Shorter still, “abiotic complex organic gunk” works for me.

‘tholins’ (Gk ϴὸλος, muddy; but also ϴoλòς, vault or dome), although we were tempted by the phrase ‘star-tar’.

(http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2015/0722-what-in-the-worlds-are-tholins.html)

"Spectral analysis indicated water-ice highlands, coated with red tholins, organics formed by the solar irradiation of molecules such as methane or ethane."

 - "Year One of our New View of Pluto", May-June 2016 The American Scientist (http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2016/3/year-one-of-our-new-view-of-pluto)

Word of the day: samite

The word of the day is samite:

1. a heavy silk fabric, sometimes interwoven with gold, worn in the Middle Ages.

"rich silk cloth," c.1300, from O.Fr. samit, from M.L. samitum, examitum, from Medieval Gk. hexamiton (source of O.C.S. oksamitu, Rus. aksamit "velvet"), prop. neut. of Gk. adj. hexamitos "six-threaded," from hex "six" + mitos "warp thread" (see mitre). The reason it was called this is variously explained. Obsolete c.1600; revived by Tennyson. Ger. Sammet "velvet" is from French.

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

"The bishop's envoy wore a black velvet chasuble over his dazzlingly white vestments, and the monk was resplendent in yards of samite and gilt embroidery."

 - Connie Willis, Doomsday Book

Word of the day: apotheosis

The word of the day is apotheosis:

1. the elevation or exaltation of a person to the rank of a god.
2. the ideal example; epitome; quintessence.

1600s, from L.L. apotheosis "deification," from Gk. apotheosis, from apotheoun "deify, make (someone) a god," from apo- special use of this prefix, meaning, here, "change" + theos "god" (see Thea). Verb apotheosize is attested from 1760.

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

"Relationships of various duration (a year being, according to my own observations, an acceptable amount of time) and of variable number (an average of ten to twenty might be considered a reasonable estimate) were supposed to succeed one another until they ended, like an apotheosis, with the last relationship, this one conjugal and definitive, which would lead, via the be getting of children, to the formation of a family."

 - Michel Houellebecq, as translated by Lorin Stein, Submission

Word of the day: dithyrambic

The word of the day is dithyrambic:

1. a Greek choral song or chant of vehement or wild character and of usually irregular form, originally in honor of Dionysus or Bacchus.
2. any poem or other composition having similar characteristics, as an impassioned or exalted theme or irregular form.
3. any wildly enthusiastic speech or writing.

c.1600, from L. dithyrambus, from Gk. dithyrambos, of unknown origin, perhaps a pre-Hellenic loan-word. A wild choric hymn, originally in honor of Dionysus. Related: Dithyrambic.

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

"I'd written a good dissertation and I expected an honorable mention.  Yet to my surprise I received a special commendation, and I was even more surprised when I saw the committee's report, which was excellent, practically dithyrambic."

 - Michel Houellebecq, as translated by Lorin Stein, Submission

Word of the day: ecdysiast

The word of the day is ecdysiast:

1. stripper (def 3).

H.L. Mencken's invented proper word for "strip-tease artist," 1940, from Gk. ekdysis "a stripping or casting off" (used scientifically with ref. to serpents shedding skin or crustacea molting), from ekdyein "to put off" (contrasted with endyo "to put on"), from ex- + dyo "sink, plunge, enter."

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

"But to my dismay, I discovered his friend was the famous ecdysiast Gypsy Rose Lee."

 - Doris Grumbach, "The Remains of My Days", Spring 2016 The American Scholar (https://theamericanscholar.org/the-remains-of-my-days/#.VzZSJdm9LCQ)

Word of the day: cyclopean

The word of the day is cyclopean:

1. of or characteristic of the Cyclops.
2. (sometimes lowercase) gigantic; vast.
3. (usually lowercase) Architecture, Building Trades. formed with or containing large, undressed stones fitted closely together without the use of mortar: a cyclopean wall.

1640s, from L. cyclopeus, from Gk. kyklopeios, from kyklopes (see cyclops).

"Warmth and water brought the foretaste of freedom...  'We knew that the important moment was coming,' Danenhower said, 'when the Jeannette would be liberated from her cyclopean vise.'"

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

Word of the day: epistemology

The word of the day is epistemology:

1. a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge.

"theory of knowledge," 1856, coined by Scot. philosopher James F. Ferrier (1808-64) from Gk. episteme "knowledge," from Ionic Gk. epistasthai "know how to do, understand," lit. "overstand," from epi- "over, near" + histasthai "to stand." The scientific (as opposed to philosophical) study of the roots and paths of knowledge is epistemics (1969).

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

"One of the central epistemological tenets of anthropology is cultural relativism—understanding other societies from within their own framework."

 - Montgomery McFate, "Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: The Strange Story of their Curious Relationship", March - April 2005 Military Review

Word of the day: apostrophe

The word of the day is apostrophe:

1. a digression in the form of an address to someone not present, or to a personified object or idea, as “O Death, where is thy sting?”

1580s, from M.Fr. apostrophe, from L.L. apostrophus, from Gk. apostrophos (prosoidia) "(the accent of) turning away," thus, a mark showing where a letter has been omitted, from apostrephein "avert, turn away," from apo- "from" (see apo-) + strephein "to turn" (see strophe). In English, the mark usually represents loss of -e- in -es, possessive ending. Greek also used this word for a "turning aside" of an orator in speech to address some individual, a sense first recorded in Eng. 1530s.

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

"In an unusual excursion into the high-flown, the inscriptions on the stairway apostrophized the gore: 'the blood was pooled and the skulls of the Mutal people were piled into mountains.'"

 - Charles Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

Word of the day: pederasty

The word of the day is pederasty:

1. sexual relations between two males, especially when one of them is a minor.

"sodomy with a boy," 1609, from Mod.L. pæderastia, from Gk. paiderastia "love of boys," from paiderastes "pederast," from pais (gen. paidos) "child, boy" (see pedo-) + erastes "lover," from erasthai "to love." Pederast is 1730s, from Fr. pédéraste, from Gk. paiderastes.

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

"Who today would want to live in the Greece of Plato and Socrates, with its slavery, constant warfare, institutionalized pederasty, and relentless culling of surplus population?"

 - Charles Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

Word of the day: caravel

The word of the day is caravel:

1. a small Spanish or Portuguese sailing vessel of the Middle Ages and later, usually lateen-rigged on two or three masts.

1527, from M.Fr. caravelle, from Port. caravela dim. of caravo "small vessel," from L.L. carabus "small wicker boat covered with leather," from Gk. karabos, lit. "beetle, lobster."

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

"To make boats, Andean cultures wove together reeds rather than cutting up trees into planks and nailing them together.  Although smaller than big European ships, these vessels were not puddle-muddlers; Europeans first encountered Tawantinsuyu in the form of an Inka ship sailing near the equator, three hundred miles from its home port, under a load of fine cotton sails.  It had a crew of twenty and was easily the size of a Spanish caravelle."

 - Charles Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

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: 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: semiotics

The word of the day is semiotics:

1. the study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behavior; the analysis of systems of communication, as language, gestures, or clothing.
2. a general theory of signs and symbolism, usually divided into the branches of pragmatics, semantics, and syntactics.

study of signs and symbols with special regard to function and origin, 1880, from Gk. semeiotikos "observant of signs," adj. form of semeiosis "indication," from semeioun "to signal," from sema "sign."

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

"But since the FTC's role was to regulate tobacco advertisements, it could certainly investigate whether 'filtered' cigarettes were truly as safe as advertised.  It was a brave, innovative attempt to bell the cat, but as with so much of tobacco regulation, the actual hearings that ensued were like a semiotic circus.  Clarence Little was asked to testify, and with typically luminous audacity, he argued that the question of testing the efficacy of filters was immaterial because, after all, there was nothing harmful to be filtered anyway."

 - Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer