Word of the day: quoits

The word of the day is quoits:

a game in which rings of rope or flattened metal are thrown at an upright peg, the object being to encircle it or come as close to it as possible

1388, "curling stone," perhaps from O.Fr. coite "flat stone" (with which the game was originally played), lit. "cushion," variant of coilte (see quilt). Quoits were among the games prohibited by Edward III and Richard II to encourage archery. In ref. to a heavy flat iron ring (and the tossing game played with it) it is recorded from c.1440.

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

"She refuses the swimming pool, the quoits, the badminton, the endless, pointless games."

 - Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

Word of the Day: spate

The word of the day is spate:

1. a sudden, almost overwhelming, outpouring: a spate of angry words.
2. British.
1. a flood or inundation.
2. a river flooding its banks.
3. a sudden or heavy rainstorm.

early 15c., originally Scottish and northern English, "a sudden flood, especially one caused by heavy rains or a snowmelt," of unknown origin. Perhaps from O.Fr. espoit "flood," from Du. spuiten "to flow, spout;" related to spout. Figurative sense of "unusual quantity" is attested from 1610s.

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

"The Louveteau River was in spate; bushes and trees torn up by the roots eddied and snagged."

 - Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

Word of the day: harmonium

The word of the day is harmonium:

1. an organlike keyboard instrument with small metal reeds and a pair of bellows operated by the player's feet.

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

"We found the attic, with boxes of old books and stored quilts and three empty trunks, and a broken harmonium, and Grandmother Adelia's headless dress form, a pallid, musty torso."

 - Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

word of the day: poltroon

The word of the day is poltroon:

Etymology:  < Middle French, French poultron, poltron coward (1509; 1495 as poiltron in sense ‘good-for-nothing’), lazy person (1552), bird with clipped talons (1680) < Italian poltrone worthless or cowardly person (13th cent.), lazy person (a1348), ultimately < a post-classical Latin derivative (compare post-classical Latin poledrus , poletrus , pulletrus foal (7th cent. or earlier)) of classical Latin pullus young animal (see pull n.²; compare classical Latin pullitra young chicken, pullet (Varro); the exact suffixation is uncertain); with the suffixation of the Italian word compare -one -oon suffix.

The derivation (by popular etymology) of poltron from an unattested post-classical Latin phrase pollice truncus ‘maimed or mutilated in the thumb’ (i.e. in order to shirk military service, a practice mentioned by Latin authors from the 4th cent.), was suggested by Salmasius (1640), and was long accepted as the etymology; it probably gave rise to the use in falconry in French and English.

A. n.1. An utter coward; a mean-spirited person; a worthless wretch. Also used as a general term of abuse. Now chiefly arch. or humorous. 

2. Falconry. A falcon whose hind talons have been removed. Obs. rare. 

B. adj. Characteristic of or resembling a poltroon; cowardly; wretched. Now rare. (OED)

"For adult readers, both then and in the future, there were several ways of decoding this story, from misogynist ("That's what women are like, the bloodsuckers") to feminist ("That's what men really think of women, the poltroons") to sadomasochist ("That's what I'd call a fun day out") to arachnologist ("That's an interesting commentary on the progeny-feeding strategems of spiders")."

 - Margaret Atwood, "The spider women", 4 & 11 June 2012 The New Yorker