word of the day: wanhope

The word of the day is wanhope:

Want of hope; despair; also, faint or delusive hope; delusion. (thefreedictionary.com)


"'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: minatory

The word of the day is minatory:

menacing; threatening.

Latin minātōrius, equivalent to Latin minā (rī) to menace (dictionary.com)

"Jonquil's practical grasp of geography was elevated by a searing sense of majesty that led her onto trails of ill repute and through mountains of minatory majesty."

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

word of the day: desultory

The word of the day is desultory:

1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful

2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random

Latin dēsultōrius pertaining to a dēsultor (a circus rider who jumps from one horse to another), equivalent to dēsul-, variant stem of dēsilīre to jump down ( dē- de- + -silīre, combining form of salīre to leap) (dictionary.com)

"Jacaranda, a fresh-air fiend, installed herself in a desultory compartment of the train, pulled off her stockings (under the latest edition of Der zaftig Tagblut), rotated her head gracefully, propped her feet up on the knees of the passenger snoring opposite her, and broke out the oscillating fan she'd last used during one of Beau Romano's incandescent tantrums."

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

I guess she's using it to mean "random"?

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: caravansary

The word of the day is caravansary:

1. (in the Near East) an inn, usually with a large courtyard, for the overnight accommodation of caravans.

2. any large inn or hotel.

French caravanserai  

Persian kārwānsarāy, equivalent to kārwān caravan + sarāy mansion, inn (dictionary.com)

"'The time bomb will go off momentarily, so let's blow this caravansary,' said one Belladonna to another at the Palaz of Hoon after they'd read each other's tea leaves and faxed the pastry chef several suggestions for cachinnating his Rush of Cochineal cookies and trolloping his tiramisu."

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

word of the day: favela

The word of the day is favela:

a shantytown in or near a city, especially in Brazil; slum area.

Brazilian Portuguese: alleged to be a name given to a hill in the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro, where such towns were built circa 1900; literally, a shrub of the family Euphorbiaceae, derivative of Portuguese fava bean 

Latin faba (dictionary.com)

"'To put it quite brutally, sir, we may not be able to find your friend even if he does have a great sense of rhythm,' said the American consulate in Rio de Janeiro, which had followed Buenos Aires in the dentist's and robot's sentimental tour of the Southern Hemisphere.  'By now, his various limbs nd attachments may be turned into sidings and windowsills in the favelas - the hillside shantytowns.  You may certainly initiate a search yourself if you think you might recognize individual bolts and springs, nuts and screws, mechanical accoutrements, and, of course, the authentic human teeth you fitted him out with yourself as a professional and affectionate favor."

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

word of the day: dirndl

The word of the day is dirndl:

1. a woman's dress with a close-fitting bodice and full skirt, commonly of colorful and strikingly patterned material, fashioned after Tyrolean peasant wear.

2. a full, gathered skirt attached to a waistband or hip yoke.

3. any skirt with gathers at the waistband.

German Dirndl, short for Dirndlkleid, equivalent to Dirndl young woman (orig. Bavarian, Austrian dialect, diminutive of Dirne young woman, Middle High German dierne, Old High German thiorna; akin to thane ) + Kleid dress (see cloth) (dictionary.com)

"'Oh!  What masterly use you are making of your silences and your predicates tonight!' commented Startling Glower during an effervescent lull in the conversation he was taping with Joubert Plume and his bride, the tongue-tied Nada Seria, hard at work on To Die in a Dirndl and intolerant of interruptions."

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

word of the day: moribund

The word of the day is moribund:

1. in a dying state; near death.

2. on the verge of extinction or termination.

3. not progressing or advancing; stagnant:

a moribund political party.

Latin moribundus dying, equivalent to mori- (stem of morī to die) + -bundus adj. suffix (dictionary.com)

"I'm taking a carefree tutorial in thermodynamics and an intensive seminar in Samotrian, a moribund but influential language."

 - 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: thamaturgy

The word of the day is thaumaturgy:

the working of wonders or miracles; magic.

Greek thaumatourgía (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: timorous

The word of the day is timorous:

1. full of fear; fearful:

2. subject to fear; timid.

3. characterized by or indicating fear:

Latin timōr- (stem of timor) fear + -ōsus -ous (dictionary.com)

"The historical museum in Pakriatz is a timorous affair endowed as an afterthought of a bloated brigand on his deathbed who'd sacked the town all by himself after one drunken carousal in his teens."

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

word of the day: roman à clef

The word of the day is roman à clef:

a novel in which real people are depicted under fictitious names

literally: novel with a key (dictionary.com)

"Out of the Loud Hound of Darkness is, among other things, a historical roman à clef about the internecine wars that dragged on for decades among the Utrians, Humbrians, and Dinutrians - all descended from the same ragtag clutch of peasants and fishermen and kings...

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

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

word of the day: frou-frou

The word of the day is frou-frou:

Frilly dress and adornment; frivolous bedizenment (dictionary.com)

"The historic journey undertaken by a febrile and contumacious royal pack rat required a convoy of coaches to draggle her frou-frou, autograph albums, pharmacopoeia, and bric-a-brac through the countryside of her maternal granny's fabled escapades."

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

word of the day: contumacious

The word of the day is contumacious:

stubbornly perverse or rebellious; willfully and obstinately disobedient (dictionary.com)

"The historic journey undertaken by a febrile and contumacious royal pack rat required a convoy of coaches to draggle her frou-frou, autograph albums, pharmacopoeia, and bric-a-brac through the countryside of her maternal granny's fabled escapades."

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

word of the day: gesellschaft

The word of the day is gesellschaft:

 

1. an association of individuals for common goals, as for entertainment, intellectual, or cultural purposes or for business reasons.

2. Sociology. a society or group characterized chiefly by formal organization, impersonal relations, the absence of generally held or binding norms, and a detachment from traditional and sentimental concerns, and often tending to be rationalistic and secular in outlook.

German, equivalent to Geselle companion + -schaft -ship (dictionary.com)

"The rock glanced off the surface with six gazelleschaft leaps before plunging into the fathomless waters of Lake Sandali, the twin sister of Lake Shayesteh."

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


 See, this is a pun.

word of the day: couchette

The word of the day is couchette:

 

1. a sleeping berth in a passenger compartment that can be collapsed to form a benchlike seat for daytime use.

2. a compartment containing such berths.

French; see couch, -ette (dictionary.com)

"'I swear, I caught only a glimpse of her face in a train compartment full of cigar smokers, and she was wearing huge fox fur gloves and an amorphous hooded garment that obscured her swiveling profile,' said the sniveling guttersnipe who'd been stealing passports from the couchettes until he was kidnapped into a private investigation."

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

word of the day: concupiscence

The word of the day is concupiscence:

 

1. sexual desire; lust.

2. ardent, usually sensuous, longing.

Late Latin concupīscentia (dictionary.com)

"I glimpsed a scintilla of concupiscence in his averted face."

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

word of the day: scintilla

The word of the day is scintilla:

a minute particle; spark; trace

Latin: spark (dictionary.com)

"'Where shall we put Pasha Partout once he attains his ultimate pythonic dimensions?' beseeched Sonia at the slightest scintilla of sympathy in the eye of a weekend guest."

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

word of the day: collusive

The word of the day is collusive:

 

involving collusion; fraudulently contrived by agreement (dictionary.com)

"Mind your gesticulations, darling, or you'll call unwanted attention to our collusive sortie with a coup d'etat at its apogee."

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

word of the day: frangible

The word of the day is frangible:

easily broken; breakable:

Old French, derivative of Latin frangere to break (dictionary.com)

 

"'My bestial entourage and I shall go to the ball,' said Cinderella to the sorceress who was tricking her out in see-through frippery, frangible footwear, and transportation by a team of plastered rodents."

 - Karen Elizabeth Gordon, Torn Wings and Faux Pas