Word of the day: Fata Morgana

The word of the day is Fata Morgana:

1. Meteorology. a mirage consisting of multiple images, as of cliffs and buildings, that are distorted and magnified to resemble elaborate castles, often seen near the Straits of Messina.

1818, lit. "Fairy Morgana," mirage especially common in the Strait of Messina, Italy, from Morgana, the "Morgan le Fay" of Anglo-Fr. poetry, sister of King Arthur, located in Calabria by Norman settlers. Morgan is Welsh, "sea-dweller." There is perhaps, too, here an infl. of Arabic marjan, lit. "pearl," also a fem. proper name, popularly the name of a sorceress.

"It was just a vision in the distance, maybe fifty miles off, a nub of gray standing proud of the hummocks and pressure ridges.  For several days, Captain De Long studied this curiosity, wondering if it might be an illusion—a refraction of light, perhaps, a fata morgana."

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

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: irredentist

The word of the day is irredentist:

  

1. ( usually initial capital letter ) amember of an Italian association thatbecame prominent in 1878,advocating the redemption, or theincorporation into Italy, of certainneighboring regions (Italia irredenta)having a primarily Italian population.
2. a member of a party in any countryadvocating the acquisition of someregion included in another country byreason of cultural, historical, ethnic,racial, or other ties.

1882, member of It. political party which (after 1878) demanded the annexation of neighboring It.-speaking regions (Trieste, S. Tyrol, Nice, Corsica, etc.), from It. Irredentista, from (Italia) irredenta "unredeemed (Italy)." (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/irredentist)

"To 'irredentist Morelenses, to those who perdure in the unhealthy labor of irreducibles,' he made a special call to stop 'their rebel attitude' and cooperate in 'the reconstructive work.'...

"Garbled, obscure, repetitive, and contradictory, Tajonar's manifesto proved a reliable guide to his administration."

 - John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution

word of the day: incarnadine

The word of the day is incarnadine:

1. blood-red; crimson.

2. flesh-colored; pale pink.  

Middle French, feminine of incarnadin flesh-colored < Italian incarnatino, equivalent to incarnat (o) made flesh (dictionary.com)

"General Ludovic had effected many momentous decisions on the battlefield, but none left so deep or incarnadine a mark on his name or history as the carnage at Bluttenbad."

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

word of the day: barouche

The word of the day is barouche:

a four-wheeled carriage with a high front seat outside for the driver, facing seats inside for two couples, and a calash top over the back seat.

dialectal German Barutsche  

Italian baroccio  

Late Latin birot (us) two-wheeled (see bi-¹, rota¹) + -ium -ium (dictionary.com)

"'This spell won't inure right away, so don't get jumpy.  In fact, you must feign indifference to its initiation and outcome, forget it was ever uttered,' explained the footman - an amateur magician - to Dariushka during one of their thaumaturgical trysts that was recorded in Dariushka's diary as: 'Speak to Trask about peacock blue or Vertigo Forest green upholstery for the barouche box."

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

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: 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: 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: 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: finocchio

The word of the day is finocchio:

Florence fennel.  (dictionary.com)

"To complement the fig, pistachio, and finocchio caprice, the chef whipped up an acidulous splash of hazelnut oil, oxalis, and lime juice, with a pinch of powdered pfeffernuss."

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

word of the day: capo

The word of the day is capo:

noun

1. the presumed title of a Mafia leader

Italian: head (dictionary.com)

"Apparently, no one in Washington during that period found anything unusual about a Mafia capo openly discussing 'the needs of the family where government is concerned' and suggesting 'favorable business investments' for the politicians and regulators whom he was lobbying."

 - Malcolm Gladwell, "The crooked ladder: the criminal's guide to upward mobility", 11 & 18 August 2014 The New Yorker

word of the day: mountebank

The word of the day is mountebank:

Etymology:  < Italian montambanco, montimbanco (late 17th cent.), contracted form of monta in banco (1598 in Florio), lit. ‘mount on bench’ ( < monta imperative of montare mount v. + in on + banco bench: see bank n.²), with reference to the raised platform used by itinerant salesmen.

1.a. An itinerant charlatan who sold supposed medicines and remedies, freq. using various entertainments to attract a crowd of potential customers. Later also (more generally): an itinerant entertainer. Now chiefly hist.
b. gen. A charlatan, a person who falsely claims knowledge of or skill in some matter, esp. for personal gain; a person who pretends to be something he or she is not, in order to gain prestige, fame, etc.  Formerly used freq. of corrupt clergy and others assuming false piety or religiosity. (OED)


"As for the British Muslim “leaders,” whom, exactly, did they lead? They were leaders without followers, mountebanks trying to make careers out of her brother’s misfortune. For a generation, the politics of ethnic minorities in Britain had been secular and socialist. This was the mosques’ way of getting religion into the driver’s seat."

 - Salman Rushdie, "The disappeared: How the fatwa changed a writer's life", 17 September 2012 The New Yorker

Word of the day: omertà

The word of the day is omertà:
< Italian omertà (1865 or earlier), further origin uncertain and disputed.

The Italian word is probably not of Sicilian origin, as shown by its phonology (unstressed e and o do not normally occur in Sicilian dialects). Most scholars interpret it as an alteration of Spanish hombredad manliness (13th cent., now rare; < hombre man (see hombre n.) + -edad-ity suffix) after Italian regional (Sicily) omu man (see homo n.¹). The alternative explanation as a regional variant (compare Italian regional (Naples) umertà) of Italian umiltàhumility n. (with allusion to the Mafia code which enjoins submission of the group to the leader as well as silence on all Mafia concerns) is not well supported by the geographical distribution of the word.
 
1. A Mafia code of honour which demands absolute loyalty to the organization and silence about its activities, esp. refusal to give evidence of criminal activity to the police.
2. In extended use: a code of silence, esp. about clandestine or criminal activity; a refusal to talk openly about something. (OED)


"Bryant continued to flout the omertà... He made a largely ignored speech about phonehacking in 2010. In March, he called upon a nearly deserted Commons chamber to investigate the allegations."

 - Lauren Collins, "Early birds", 25 July 2011 The New Yorker