word of the day: louche

The word of the day is louche:

adjective

1. dubious; shady; disreputable.

< French: literally, cross-eyed < Latin luscus blind in one eye (dictionary.com)

"When an impoverished student at Stanford, the first in his family to go to college, opts for a six-figure salary in finance after graduation, a very different but equally compelling kind of 'moral imagination' may be at play.  (Imagine being able to pay off your loans and never again having to worry about keeping a roof over your family's heads.)  William S. Burroughs, a corporate scion of elite genealogy, began reinventing himself at Harvard as a louche explorer of the underworld.  Why shouldn't someone who grew up in a crack-blighted neighborhood be equally free to imagine himself as a suit?"

 - Nathan Heller, "Poison ivy: Are elite colleges bad for the soul?", 1 September 2014 The New Yorker 

word of the day: gnome

The word of the day is gnome:

Etymology:  < Greek γνώμη thought, judgement, opinion; plural γνῶμαι sayings, maxims (Latin sententiae ), < γνω- root of γιγνώσκειν to knows adj.

A short pithy statement of a general truth; a proverb, maxim, aphorism, or apophthegm. Also spec. with reference to Old English verse. (OED)


"Where some scholars are gnomic in style, Nagy piles his sentences high with thin-sliced exposition. ('There are about ten passages—and by passages I simply mean a selected text, and these passages are meant for close reading, and sometimes I’ll be referring to these passages as texts, or focus passages, but you’ll know I mean the same thing—and each one of these requires close reading!')"

 - Nathan Heller, "Laptop U: Has the future of college moved online?", 20 May 2013 The New Yorker

word of the day: bibulous

The word of the day is bibulous:

Etymology:  < Latin bibul-us freely or readily drinking ( < bibĕre to drink) + -ous suffix.

1. Absorbent of moisture. 

2. Addicted to drinking or tippling. 

3. Relating to drink. (OED)

"The twenties, possibly alone among the middle decades of life, are passionately celebrated in fiction and memoirs, and the celebrations tend to share a style that is personal, specific, cliquish, pastiched, breathless, often bibulous, and flagrantly confessional - the voice of early mastery without mature constraint, self-discovery at a moment when each revelation seems unique."

 - Nathan Heller, "Semi-charmed life: the twentysomethings are all right", 14 January 2013 The New Yorker

word of the day: Wanderjahr

The word of the day is Wanderjahr:

Etymology:  < wander v., after German Wanderjahr n., the year, or one of the years, spent in travel for the purpose of perfecting one's skill and knowledge between the completion of apprenticeship and settling down to the practice of a trade.

A year of wandering or travel (usually with more or less direct reference to German usage). (OED)

"Among the alleged crimes of twentysomethings these days is hiding out in school (or in various far-flung places, like Iceland), thus deferring adult life, or being fickle in the job market once they get there.  Yet the Henigs dismiss the idea that insane tuition costs and rival opportunities have made education a bad investment - if nothing else, median salaries rise with every new degree.  And they wonder whether the Wanderjahr truly offers much escapism.  'Doors do eventually close - sometimes because of things you did, somethings because of things you didn't do,' Robin Marantz Henig notes."

 - Nathan Heller, "Semi-charmed life: the twentysomethings are all right", 14 January 2013 The New Yorker

Word of the day: raillery

The word of the day is raillery:

Etymology:  < French raillerie (a1495 in Middle French) < railler (see rail v.⁵) + -erie -ery suffix. 

 

1.a. Good-humoured ridicule or banter, often disguising a serious purpose; teasing, mockery. 

b. An instance of this; a satirical, teasing, or mocking remark. 

2. Abuse, invective; unpleasant or unkind criticism; taunting. (OED)

"In the years following Kael’s rise to influence, her career swiftly acquired the social rhythms of a fall term in the seventh grade: best friends announced themselves; enemies followed; friends soured into enemies; enemies warmed into friends; and several people, friends and enemies alike, tired of the raillery and went off to play on their own. The underside of Kael’s contrarianism was a constant hunger for material to rage against, and many conflicts were (as seventh graders say) her own fault."

 - Nathan Heller, "What she said: The doings and undoings of Pauline Kael", 24 October 2011 The New Yorker

Word of the day: girandole

The word of the day is girandole:

Etymology:  < French girandole , < Italian girandola : see girandola n.

1. A species of firework; = girandola n. 1. 

2. A revolving fountain-jet; = girandola n. 2. 

3. A branched support for candles or other lights, either in the form of a candlestick for placing on a table, etc., or more commonly as a bracket projecting from a wall.

4. An ear-ring or pendant, esp. one which has a large central stone surrounded by smaller ones. (OED)

"The era also turned out its fair share of counterculture-colored girandoles—“Jesus Christ Superstar” (1973), “A Star Is Born” (1976), and “Hair” (1979)—as if to keep the sixties flames burning."

 - Nathan Heller, "What she said: The doings and undoings of Pauline Kael", 24 October 2011 The New Yorker

word of the day: lodestar

The word of the day is lodestar:

Etymology:  < load , lode n. + star n.¹ Compare Old Norse leiðarstjarna .

1. A star that shows the way; esp. the pole star.
2. fig. A ‘guiding star’; that on which one's attention or hopes are fixed.


"As a writer, Kael had such lodestars as Partisan Review, which she read avidly, and Dwight Macdonald, then its editor, with whom she tried to correspond. (In 1943, when she learned of his plans to launch Politics, she wrote to him, 'I am looking forward to a magazine which will stand for the principles and position you represented on Partisan Review.')"

 - Nathan Heller, "What she said: the doings and undoings of Pauline Kael", 24 October 2011 The New Yorker