word of the day: chuffed

The word of the day is chuffed:

Etymology:  compare chuff adj.¹, chuff adj.²

slang (orig. Mil.). 

a. Pleased, satisfied. 

b. Displeased, disgruntled. (OED).

"Mary, Julie and Gerald are all gone, but I feel somehow called,' she wrote, 'as humble messenger from Mary, to salute you.  She would have been so chuffed!"

 - Nancy Gordon, as quoted by Daniel Mendelsohn, "The American boy: a famous author, a young reader, and a life-changing correspondence", 7 January 2013 The New Yorker


This appears to be another one of those words, like "sanction" or "cleave", that is its own adjective.

word of the day: importune

The word of the day is importune:

Etymology:  < French importune-r (1512 in Godefroy Compl.) = Italian importunāre (Florio), Spanish importunar (Percivall), medieval Latin importūnārī , -āre , < importūnus : see importune adj. 

1. trans. To burden; to be troublesome or wearisome to; to trouble, worry, pester, annoy. 

2. To press, urge, impel. Also absol. Obs. 

3. To solicit pressingly and persistently; to ply or beset with requests or petitions. 

4. To ask for (a thing) urgently and persistently; to crave or beg for.

5.a. intr. To make urgent solicitation; to be importunate. 

b. To solicit for purposes of prostitution.

6. To import, portend. (A Spenserian misuse.

 (OED)

"I studied hard and absorbed my grammars and didn't confide any of this to Mary Renault.  She had brought me to the Greeks, and had shown me what I was, and it was somehow shaming to let on that I was having a hard time finding anyone like the characters in her novels.  Somewhere in the 'The Persian Boy', when the young Bagoas is being schooled at Susa in the arts of the courtesan, the kindly master who is preparing him for service to the King reminds of a crucial rule of life at court: 'Never be importunate, never, never.'  I was no longer sixteen, and I was determined never to importune her."

 - Daniel Mendelsohn, "The American boy: a famous author, a young reader, and a life-changing correspondence", 7 January 2013 The New Yorker

phrase of the day: coals to Newcastle

The phrase of the day is coals to Newcastle:

To do something pointless and superfluous. (phrases.org.uk)


"Patrick O'Brian, the author of 'Master and Commander', was an admirer; he dedicated the fourth Aubrey-Maturin book to her, with an inscription 'An owl to Athens' - the ancient Greek version of 'coals to Newcastle'."

 - Daniel Mendelsohn, "The American boy: a famous author, a young reader, and a life-changing correspondence", 7 January 2013 The New Yorker