Word of the day: equinoctial

The word of the day is equinoctial:

1. pertaining to an equinox or the equinoxes, or to the equality of day and night.
2. pertaining to the celestial equator.
3. occurring at or about the time of an equinox.
4. Botany . (of a flower) opening regularly at a certain hour.

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

"People who have not navigated the great rivers of equinoctial America can scarcely conceive how, at every instant, without intermission, you may be tormented by insects flying in the air."

 - Alexander von Humboldt, as quoted by Elizabeth Kolbert, "Humboldt's gift: He was once the most celebrated naturalist in the world.  What happened to him?", 26 October 2015 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/humboldts-gift)

Word of the day: farrago

The word of the day is farrago:

1. a confused mixture; hodgepodge; medley

1632, from L. farrago "medley, mix of grains for animal feed," from far "corn."

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

"The nub is an investigation, presented by Dan Rather (Robert Redford), into the circumstances surrounding George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard.  By the end of the ensuing farrago, as the producer of the show, Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett), points out, the central question—did Bush get an easy ride, insuring that he would never be sent to Vietnam?—has been all but obscured in a blizzard of extraneous details."

 - Anthony Lane, "Making the case: 'Bridge of Spies' and 'Truth'", 26 October 2015 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/making-the-case)

Word of the day: chaw

The word of today is chaw:

— verb (used with object), verb (usedwithout object), noun Dialect .

1. chew.

1530, unexplained phonetic variant of chew; the noun meaning "that which is chewed" (esp. a quid of tobacco) first recorded 1709.

"All the hair she had gathered at work would be gone by the next morning, and Ogechi had no choice but to strap the child to her back and allow it to chaw on her dwindling nape."

 - Lesley Nneka Arimah, "Who Will Greet You At Home", 26 October 2015 The New Yorker (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chaw)

Word of the day: raffia

The word of the day is raffia:

1. a fiber obtained from the leaves of the raffia palm, used for tying plants and other objects and for making mats, baskets, hats, and the like.

(1729, rofia, from Malagasy rafia. Modern form is attested from 1882; also raphia (1866).)

"Two basket weavers sat in the back row with woven raffia babies in their laps.  One had plain raffia streaked with blues and greens, while the other's baby was entirely red, and every passenger admired them."

 - Lesley Nneka Arimah, "Who Will Greet You At Home", 26 October 2015 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/who-will-greet-you-at-home)

Word of the day: moin moin

The word of the day is moin moin:

Moimoi or Moyi-Moyi is a Nigerian steamed bean pudding made from a mixture of washed and peeled black-eyed peas, onions and fresh ground peppers (usually a combination of bell peppers and chili or scotch bonnet). It is a protein-rich food that is a staple in Nigeria. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moin_moin)

"Women like her had to form their children out of sturdier, more practical material to withstand the dents and scrapes they came with a life like hers.  Her mother had formed her from mud and twigs and wrapped her limbs tightly with leaves, like moin moin: pedestrian items that had produced a pedestrian girl."

 - Lesley Nneka Arimah, "Who Will Greet You At Home", 26 October 2015 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/who-will-greet-you-at-home)

Word of the day: danfo

The word of the day is danfo:

Iconic yellow buses in Lagos (http://www.nairaland.com/2508658/10-type-nigerians-meet-danfo)

"Yarn had been a foolish choice, she knew, the stuff for women of leisure, who could cradle wool in the comfort of their own cars and in secure houses devoid of loose nails.  Not for an assistant hairdresser who took danfo to work if she had money, walked if she didn't, and lived in an 'apartment' that amounted to a room she could clear in three large steps."

 - Lesley Nneka Arimah, "Who Will Greet You At Home", 26 October 2015 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/who-will-greet-you-at-home)

Word and molecule of the day: amitriptyline

The word and molecule of the day is amitriptyline:

Tricyclic antidepressant with anticholinergic and sedative properties. Amitriptyline hydrochloride appears to prevent the re-uptake of norepinephrine and serotonin at nerve terminals, thus potentiating the action of these neurotransmitters. Amitriptyline also appears to antagonize cholinergic and alpha-1 adrenergic responses to bioactive amines. (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/11065#section=Top)

"See those hummingbirds?

"I painted those with a silver-tipped paintbrush and an unopened bottle of mint-cream amitriptyline"

 - Michael Dickman, "Green migraine", 26 October 2015 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/green-migraine)

Word of the day: cupidinous

The word of the day is cupidinous:

1. eager or excessive desire, especially to possess something; greed; avarice.

mid-15c., from Anglo-Fr. cupidite, from M.Fr. cupidité, from L. cupiditas "passionate desire," from cupidus "eager, passionate," from cupere "to desire" (perhaps cognate with Skt. kupyati "bubbles up, becomes agitated," O.Slav. kypeti "to boil," Lith. kupeti "to boil over"). Despite the erotic sense of the Latin word, in English cupidity originally, and still especially, means "desire for wealth." (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cupidinous)

"Van Hove's 'Roman Tragedies' eliminates the first scene of 'Antony and Cleopatra,' which includes a voluptuous embrace and depicts 'the triple pillar of the world / transform'd into a strumpet's fool.'  But this eluded verse is later enacted, during Antony's passionate leave-taking of Cleopatra before battle.  As Antony dresses, the couple laugh and fumble cupidinously; they kiss passionately for a full minute as the music—Bob Dylan singing 'Not Dark Yet'—surrounds them, and Antony's advisers look sternly on."

 - Rebecca Mead, "Theatre laid bare: Ivo van Hove's raw productions bring out the elemental drama of classic works", 26 October 2015 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/theatre-laid-bare)

Word of the day: lath

The word of the day is lath:

1. a thin, narrow strip of wood, used with other strips to form latticework, a backing for plaster or stucco, a support for slates and other roofing materials, etc.
2. a group or quantity of such strips.
3. work consisting of such strips.
4. wire mesh or the like used in place of wooden laths as a backing for plasterwork.
5. a thin, narrow, flat piece of wood used for any purpose.

O.E. *laððe, variant of lætt "lath," apparently from P.Gmc. *laþþo (cf. O.N. latta, M.Du., Ger. latte "lath," M.H.G. lade "plank," which is source of Ger. Laden "counter," hence, "shop").

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

"When Tony Kushner's 'Angels in America: Millennium Approaches' opened on Broadway, in 1993, in a production directed by George C. Wolfe, the play ended with a winged angel crashing into a dying man's bedroom from above, shattering lath and plaster."

 - Rebecca Mead, "Theatre laid bare: Ivo van Hove's raw productions bring out the elemental drama of classic works", 26 October 2015 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/theatre-laid-bare)

Word of the day: veridical

The word of the day is veridical:

1. truthful; veracious.
2. corresponding to facts; not illusory; real; actual; genuine.

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

"Invoking the relevant science, he shows that torture undermines the very neurocognitive mechanisms requisite for recalling veridical information from memory."

 - Richard J. McNally, "Cruel and unuseful punishment: Psycological studies call into question the efficacy of enhanced interrogation techniques", Science 350:284 (16 October 2015) (http://m.sciencemag.org/content/350/6258/284)

Word of the day: abattoir

The word of the day is abattoir:

1. a slaughterhouse.

"slaughterhouse for cows," 1820, from Fr. abattre "to beat down" (see abate).

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

"European farmers have little experience raising insects, but Grant didn't have to start from scratch.  Elm farm has produced bluebottle larvae for decades, as bait for recreational fishers.  They grow on abattoir waste—kidneys, livers, and hearts, glistening in nauseating reds, greens, and browns.  Within a few days they're covered by thousands of maggots, as if they had come back to writhing, pulsing life."

 - Kai Kupferdchmidt, "Buzz Food: Feeding insect meal to livestock could help the planet, but will it be good for people?", Science 350:267 (16 October 2015)

Phrase of the day: folie a deux

The phrase of the day is folie à deux:

1. the sharing of delusional ideas by two people who are closely associated.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/folie+a+deux)

"It was a perfect folie à deux—endless funds fueling limitless enthusiasm and vice versa.  The more Spiegelman looked for retroviruses in cancer cells, the more he found, and the more funds were sent his way."

 - Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Word of the day: fungate

The word of the day is fungate:

To grow rapidly like a fungus.

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

"Many of the patients counted as 'alive' had long been discharged to terminal-care facilities with advanced, fungating lesions of breast cancer, presumably to die, with no designated follow-up."

 - Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Word of the day: prodrome

The word of the day is prodrome:

1. a premonitory symptom.

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

"The eradication of H. pylori infection in young men and women reduced the incidence of gastric cancer.  In older patients, in whom chronic gastritis had smoldered for several decades, eradication of the infection had little effect.  In these elderly patients, presumably the chronic inflammation had already progressed to a point that its eradication made no difference.  For cancer prevention to work, Auerbach's march—the prodrome of cancer—had to be halted early."

 - Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Word of the day: semiotics

The word of the day is semiotics:

1. the study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behavior; the analysis of systems of communication, as language, gestures, or clothing.
2. a general theory of signs and symbolism, usually divided into the branches of pragmatics, semantics, and syntactics.

study of signs and symbols with special regard to function and origin, 1880, from Gk. semeiotikos "observant of signs," adj. form of semeiosis "indication," from semeioun "to signal," from sema "sign."

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

"But since the FTC's role was to regulate tobacco advertisements, it could certainly investigate whether 'filtered' cigarettes were truly as safe as advertised.  It was a brave, innovative attempt to bell the cat, but as with so much of tobacco regulation, the actual hearings that ensued were like a semiotic circus.  Clarence Little was asked to testify, and with typically luminous audacity, he argued that the question of testing the efficacy of filters was immaterial because, after all, there was nothing harmful to be filtered anyway."

 - Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Word of the day: anergy

The word of the day is anergy:

1. Pathology. deficiency of energy.
2. Immunology. lack of immunity to an antigen.

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

"In a nation obsessed with cancer, the attribution of a vast preponderance of a major cancer to a single, preventable cause might have been expected to provoke a powerful and immediate response.  But front-page coverage notwithstanding, the reaction in Washington was extraordinarily anergic."

 - Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Word of the day: gray eminence

The word of the day is gray eminence:

1. a person who wields unofficial power, especially through another person and often surreptitiously or privately.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gray+eminence)

"Once again, Bradford Hill, the éminence grise of epidemiology, proposed a solution to this impasse."

 - Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Phrase of the day: bell the cat

The phrase of the day is bell the cat:

19. bell the cat, to attempt something formidable or dangerous.

"By the early 1950s, though, cigarette ads, and cigarette brands, were being 'designed' for segmented groups: urban workers, housewives, women, immigrants, African-Americans—and, to preemptively bell the medical cat—doctors themselves."

 - Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Word of the day: fulminant

The word of the day is fulminant: 

1. occurring suddenly and with great intensity or severity
2. Pathology. developing or progressing suddenly

c.1600, from Fr. fulminant or directly from L. fulminantem, prp. of fulminare (see fulminate). (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fulminant)

"Jenny, Goldstein realized, 'has leukemia and is currently in the hospital because she developed jaundice.  Her eyeballs are still yellow'—presaging fulminant liver failure."

 - Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Word of the day: obversion

The word of the day is obversion:

3. Logic. a form of inference in which a negative proposition is obtained from an affirmative, or vice versa, as “None of us is immortal” is obtained by obversion from “All of us are mortal.”

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

"Baillie's book, written for surgeons and anatomists, was the obverse of Vesalius's project: if Vesalius had mapped out 'normal' anatomy, Baillie mapped the body in its diseased, abnormal state."

 - Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies

Word of the day: venesection

The word of the day is venesection:

—noun Surgery.

1. phlebotomy.

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

 

"In the course of explaining the opinion of the divine Hippocrates and Galen, I happened to delineate the veins on a chart, think that thus I might be able easily to demonstrate what Hippocrates understood by the expression kat' 'i'xiu, for you know how much dissension and controversy on venesection was stirred up, even among the learned."

 - Andreas Vesalius, as quoted by Siddhartha Mukherjee in The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Word of the day: ipecac

The word of the day is ipecac:

1. the dried root of a shrubby South American plant, Cephaelis ipecacuanha, of the madder family.
2. the plant itself.
3. a drug consisting of the dried roots of this plant, used as an emetic, purgative, etc., and as the source of emetine.

1788, borrowing via Port. of a shortened form of Tupi ipecacuana (1682), a medicinal plant of Brazil, the Indian word said to mean "small plant causing vomit."

"The apothecary thus soon filled up with an enormous list of remedies for cancer: tincture of lead, extracts of arsenic, boar's tooth, fox lungs, rasped ivory, hulled castor, ground white-coral, ipecac, senna, and a smattering of purgatives and laxatives."

 - Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Word of the day: abstruse

The word of the day is abstruse:

1. hard to understand; recondite; esoteri
2. Obsolete. secret; hidden.

c.1600, from L. abstrusus, pp. of abstrudere "conceal," lit. "to thrust away," from ab- "away" + trudere "to thrust, push" (see extrusion). (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abstruse) 

"Hippocrates had once abstrusely opined that cancer was 'best left untreated, since patients live longer that way.'"

 - Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: a Biography of Cancer

Word of the day: mandala

The word of the day is mandala:

 

1. Oriental Art. a schematized representation of the cosmos, chiefly characterized by a concentric configuration of geometric shapes, each of which contains an image of a deity or an attribute of a deity.
2. (in Jungian psychology) a symbol representing the effort to reunify the self.

1859, from Skt. mandala "disc, circle."

"In the biology classroom of college instructor Caryn Babaian, students learn about the interconnectedness of diverse life forms by seeing ecosystems in the form of mandalas."

 - September–October 2015 American Scientist (http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2015/5/visualizing-biological-networks-as-mandalas)

Word of the day: truculent

The word of the day is truculent:

1. fierce; cruel; savagely brutal.
2. brutally harsh; vitriolic; scathing.
3. aggressively hostile; belligerent.

c.1540, from L. truculentus "fierce, savage," from trux (gen. trucis) "fierce, wild." (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/truculent)

 

"Few acts these days make a show of shunning commercial success, perhaps because, after a decade of turmoil, the corporate-pop monolith no longer seems so monolithic.  Lady Gaga blazed a trail for truculent pop stars by treating her own celebrity as an evolving art project."

 - Kelefa Sanneh, "Pop for misfits: Can a former noise musician become a star?", 28 September 2015 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/28/pop-for-misfits)

Word of the day: obsolescent

The word of the day is obsolescent:

1. becoming obsolete; passing out of use, as a word: an obsolescent term.
2. becoming outdated or outmoded, as machinery or weapons.
3. Biology. gradually disappearing or imperfectly developed, as vestigial organs.

1755, from L. obsolescentum (nom. obsolescens), prp. of obsolescere "fall into disuse" (see obsolete). (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/obsolescent)

"I often write in my diary the obsolete poem of self

with my obsolescent pen and ink."

 - Stanley Moss, "The poem of self", 28 September 2015 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/28/the-poem-of-self-poetry-stanley-moss)

Word of the day: agita

The word of the day is agita:

1. heartburn; indigestion.
2. agitation; anxiety.

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

"Pacing up and down the block was a tall septuagenarian named Lenny Shiller, from Midwood, Brooklyn.  He was on the set of Steven Spielberg's new movie, 'Bridge of Spies'—about a U.S.-Soviet prisoner swap at the height of the Cold War.  'There's a lot of waiting around on movies,' he said.  'It causes agita.'" 

 - Jonathan Blitzer, "Drive-by", 28 September 2015 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/28/drive-by)

Word of the day: boodle

The word of the day is boodle:

—noun

1. the lot, pack, or crowd
2. a large quantity of something, especially money
3. a bribe or other illicit payment, especially to or from a politician; graft.
4. stolen goods; loot; booty; swag.

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

"All this was the spoils of war, and as González managed it in the next few months, it all disappeared—to reappear in markets in Mexico City.  Along the way González and most of his staff and subordinates came into the money.  For them the Morelos campaign was a great chance for patriotic boodle, the most irresistible kind.  In cashing in their power, they deprived the Zapatista 'bandits' of precious resources."

 - John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution

Word of the day: piker

The word of the day is piker:

1. a person who does anything in a contemptibly small or cheap way.
2. a stingy, tight-fisted person; tightwad.
3. a person who gambles, speculates, etc., in a small, cautious way.

"miserly person," 1872, formerly "poor migrant to California" (1860), earlier pike (1854), perhaps originally "vagrant who wanders the pike (1)" (which is the notion in Sussex dial. piker "vagrant, tramp, gypsy," 1838), but Barnhart and others say the Amer.Eng. word ultimately is a reference to people from Pike County, Missouri. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/piker)

"'Isn't it nice something isn't silver?  Would you like me to look like Don Pedro?  He makes Clarence King look like a piker, doesn't he?" 

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: martingale

The word of the day is martingale:

 

—noun

1. Also called standing martingale. part of the tack or harness of a horse, consisting of a strap that fastens to the girth, passes between the forelegs and through a loop in the neckstrap or hame, and fastens to the noseband: used to steady or hold down the horse's head.
2. Also called running martingale. a similar device that divides at the chest into two branches, each ending in a ring through which the reins pass.
3. Nautical. a stay for a jib boom or spike bowsprit.
4. a system of gambling in which the stakes are doubled or otherwise raised after each loss.

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

"Only the horses remained, in their enormous silver-mounted saddles and their bridles and martingales whose leather was a crust of filigree and rosettes."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: coping

The word of the day is coping:

1. a finishing or protective course or cap to an exterior masonry wall or the like.
2. a piece of woodwork having its end shaped to fit together with a molding.

c.1600 as an architectural term, from cope (n.), the cape-like vestment worn by priests (14c.), a variant of cape. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/coping) 

"Then Ysabel sat down on the coping of the tank and smoked a cigarette with the shadows of bamboo leaves flickering over him, but by the time she thought of her sketch pad he had risen and was leading the horses and mules back through the court and under her, out of sight."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Phrase of the day: pig it

The phrase of the day is pig it:

14. pig it,
1. to live like a pig, especially in dirt.
2. to lead a disorganized, makeshift life; live without plan or pattern.

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

 

"Leadville roared toward civilization like a runaway train.  Amid talk of an opera house, three mine managers, including Oliver's distant cousin W. S. Ward, were planning houses on Ditch Walk, and hoped to have wives in them before another summer.  The principal boarding-house at its Younger Sons Ball drew social lines as rigid in their way as Newport's.  The best saloons were gorgeous with walnut, crystal, and William Morris wallpapers.  All this was just beginning to fall into place, like the bits of colored glass in a kaleidoscope, when Susan settled down to pig it in her cabin on the ditch."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: quirt

The word of the day is quirt:

 

—noun

1. a riding whip consisting of a short, stout stock and a lash of braided leather.

—verb (used with object)

2. to strike with a quirt.

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

"He had been the one delegated to take her riding, and they were down on the Lake Fork of the Arkansas at a place where they must ford.  It was a time of high water, the infant Arkansas was swift and curly.  'Come on, Pricey!' Susan called, and quirted her horse into the water."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Phrase of the day: dog it

The phrase of the day is dog it:

 

22. dog it, Informal.
1. to shirk one's responsibility; loaf on the job.
2. to retreat, flee, renege, etc.: a sponsor who dogged it when needed most.

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

"She looked at the horse, spraddle-legged, dull-eyed, with pumping ribs and flaring nostrils, and heard the breath rattle in its throat.

"'Is he sick?'

"'I thought for a while he was just dogging it.  They're not pulling any load to speak of, but look at him heave.'"

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: turnstone

The word of the day is turnstone:

1. any shorebird of the genus Arenaria,characterized by the habit of turningover stones in search of food.
2. British, ruddy turnstone.

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

"Over the promontory's furzy top she saw an explosion of turnstones tossed up just above the burst of spray.  They were like sandpipers at the edge of the surf—they lived inches from the water and their feet were never wet."

 

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: furze

The word of the day is furze:

1. gorse.

("evergreen shrub," O.E. fyrs, of unknown origin, with no known connections.)

"Left and right were promontories blackened with mussels and tide plants to high-tide mark, yellow from there to their furzy tops...

"Over the promontory's furzy top she saw an explosion of turnstones tossed up just above the burst of spray."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: charivari

The word of the day is charivari:

1. a mock serenade with kettles, pans, horns, and other noisemakers given for a newly married couple.
2. Informal. an elaborate, noisy celebration.

1843, alteration of charivari (1735), from Fr. charivari, from O.Fr. chalivali "discordant noise made by pots and pans," from L.L. caribaria "a severe headache," from Gk. karebaria "headache," from kare "head" + barys "heavy" (see grave (adj.)). (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/shivaree)

 

"'There was some talk about a charivari,' Oliver said.  'I gave them money for a couple of barrels of beer.  So now I'm going to take Sue home and barricade the doors."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: pannier

The word of the day is pannier:

 

1. a basket, especially a large one, for carrying goods, provisions, etc.
2. a basket for carrying on a person's back, or one of a pair to be slung across the back of a beast of burden.
3. a similar type of bag, usually one of a pair, fastened over a bicycle's rear wheel.
4. (on a dress, skirt, etc.) a puffed arrangement of drapery at the hips.
5. an oval framework formerly used for distending the skirt of a woman's dress at the hips.

late 13c., "large basket for provisions," from O.Fr. panier, from L. panarium "bread basket," from panis "bread" (see food). (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pannier)

"For three more mornings she awoke in her bare room, breathing air strangely scented and listening to the strange sounds that had awakened her: once the bells of the panadero's burro coming up the trail with loaves sticking out of the panniers on both sides, twice the distant beating of kettles and hullaballoo of voices yelling in a strange tongue—the Chinese arising in their camp under the hill."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: olla

The word of the day is olla:

—noun Spanish.

1. a pot, especially an earthen pot for holding water, cooking, etc.
2. a stew.

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

"At the bottom of the box was something heavy which, unwrapped, turned out to be a water jar with something in Spanish written across it...

"There it sits, over on my window sill, ninety-odd years later, without even a nick out of it.  The fan and parasol went quickly, the mat lasted until Leadville and was mourned when it passed, the olla has come through three generations of us, as have the bowie, the spurs, and the six-shooter."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: bombazine

The word of the day is bombazine:

 

1. a twill fabric constructed of a silk or rayon warp and worsted filling, often dyed black for mourning wear.

(also bombasine, bambazine), 1550s, from Fr. bombasin (14c.) "cotton cloth," from M.L. bombacinium "silk texture," from L.L. bombycinium, neut. of bombycinius "silken," from bombyx "silk, silkworm," from Gk. bombyx. The post-classical transfer of the word from "silk" to "cotton" may reflect the perceived "silk-like" nature of the fabric, or a waning of familiarity with genuine silk in the European Dark Ages, but cf. bombast. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bombazine)

"There they sat, burning under their serge and bombazine with emotions hotter than gentility could quite allow."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: serge

The word of the day is serge:

 

serge¹

—noun

1. a twilled worsted or woolen fabric used especially for clothing.
2. cotton, rayon, or silk in a twill weave.

1382, from O.Fr. serge, from V.L. *sarica, in M.L. "cloth of wool mixed with silk or linen," from L. serica (vestis) "silken (garment)," from serica, from Gk. serike, fem. of serikos "silken" (see silk). The Fr. word is the source of Ger. sarsche, Dan. sarge, etc. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/serge)

"There they sat, burning under their serge and bombazine with emotions hotter than gentility could quite allow."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: gentian

The word of the day is gentian:

1. any of several plants of the genera Gentiana, Gentianella, and Gentianopsis, having usually blue, or sometimes yellow, white, or red, flowers, as the fringed gentian of North America, or Gentiana lutea, of Europe. Compare gentian family.
2. any of various plants resembling the gentian.
3. the root of G. lutea, or a preparation of it, used as a tonic.

O.E., from L. gentiana, said by Pliny to be named for Gentius, king of ancient Illyria who discovered its properties. This is likely a folk-etymology, but the word may be Illyrian, since the suffix -an frequently occurs in Illyrian words. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gentian)

"It was incorrigibly Hudson River school—brown light, ragged elms, romantic water.  There they sat on the grass confronting nature.  When they had eaten, they did what poets and philosophers did outdoors in the early years of the picturesque—strolled, picked early autumn leaves or late gentians."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: ulster

The word of the day is ulster:

1. a former province in Ireland, now comprising Northern Ireland and a part of the Republic of Ireland.
2. a province in N Republic of Ireland. 3123 sq. mi. (8090 sq. km).
3. Informal. Northern Ireland.
4. (lowercase) a long, loose, heavy overcoat, originally of Irish frieze, now also of any of various other woolen cloths.

northernmost of the four provinces of Ireland, 14c., from Anglo-Fr. Ulvestre (early 13c.), Anglo-L. Ulvestera (c.1200), corresponding to O.N. Ulfastir, probably from Ir. Ulaidh "men of Ulster" + suffix also found in Leinster, Munster, and perhaps representing Ir. tir "land." (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ulster)

"The meeting had all the dramatics of one of her more romantic drawings—shine of lantern light on the oilskins of the ferryman, a tall figure that jumped ashore carrying a carpetbag.  And what was he wearing?  Some great hooded cloak or ulster that made him look like a figure out of a conspiratorial opera.  The ferryman's lantern threw his huge shadow down the landing...  Then he was before them throwing back the hood, shaking her hand with his big wet hand, saying some sort of greeting and in the same breath apologizing for the ulster—it was his field coat, his town coat was stolen in San Francisco."

 

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: epicene

The word of the day is epicene:

1. belonging to, or partaking of the characteristics of, both sexes:Fashions in clothing are becoming increasingly epicene.
2. flaccid; feeble; weak: an epicene style of writing.
3. effeminate; unmasculine.
4. (of Greek and Latin nouns) of the same gender class regardless of the sex of the being referred to, as Latin vulpēs “fox or vixen” is always grammatically feminine.
5. Grammar. (of a noun or pronoun) capable of referring to either sex, as attendant, chairperson, Kim, one, or they; having common gender.

mid-15c., originally a grammatical term for nouns that may denote either gender, from L. epicoenus "common," from Gk. epikoinos, from epi- "on" + koinos "common." Extended sense of "characteristic of both sexes" first recorded in English c.1600; that of "effeminate" 1630s. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/epicene)

"In the 1870s he was gentle, thoughtful, amusing, a spirit that glowed through a frail, almost epicene body.  He had come out of the war with wounds that kept him sickly, but he still managed to do the work of three.  His hands were pale and attenuated, his smile was of great sweetness."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: syndicalism

The word of the day is syndicalism:

1. a form or development of trade unionism, originating in France, that aims at the possession of the means of production and distribution, and ultimately at the control of society, by federated bodies of industrial workers, and that seeks to realize its purposes through general strikes, terrorism, sabotage, etc.
2. an economic system in which workers own and manage industry.

1907, from Fr. syndicalisme "movement to transfer ownership of means of production and distribution to industrial workers," from syndical "of a labor union," from syndic "chief representative" (see syndic).  (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/syndicalism)

"And recent recruits had tightened their cohesion with a stringent and militant ideology.  The newcomers were metropolitan intellectuals, refugees from the anarcho-syndicalist House of the World Worker, which Huerta had closed in May 1914."

 - John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution

Word of the day: cicatrix

The word of the day is cicatrix:

1. Physiology. new tissue that forms over a wound and later contracts into a scar.
2. Botany. a scar left by a fallen leaf, seed, etc.

(1641, from L. cicatrix "a scar," of unknown origin.)

"The water is so hot that it makes the cicatriced stump prickle and smart, but it must be that hot if it is to ease the aches away enough to permit sleep."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: antimacassar

The word of the day is antimacassar:

1. a small covering, usually ornamental, placed on the backs and arms of upholstered furniture to prevent wear or soiling; a tidy.

coined 1852, from anti- + macassar oil, imported hair tonic from Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The cloth was laid to protect chair and sofa fabric from people leaning their oily heads back against it. Macassar is from native Mangkasara, name of a district on the island. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/antimacassar)

"But it is interesting that, apparently in an attempt to comprehend my present aberration, Rodman should have taken the trouble to read some of Grandmother's stories and look at some magazines containing her drawings.  Characteristically he saw nothing in them.  All full of pious renunciations, he says, everything covered up with Victorian antimacassars.  He cited me her own remark that she wrote from the protected point of view, the woman's point of view, as evidence that she went through her own life from inexperience to inexperience."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: peremptory

The word of the day is peremptory:

1. leaving no opportunity for denial or refusal; imperative 
2. imperious or dictatorial.
3. positive or assertive in speech, tone, manner, etc.
4. Law.
1. that precludes or does not admit of debate, question, etc.
2. decisive or final.
3. in which a command is absolute and unconditional

"decisive," 1513, legal term, from Anglo-Fr. peremptorie, from M.Fr. peremtoire, from L. peremptorius "destructive, decisive, final," from peremptor "destroyer," from perimpere "destroy, cut off," from per- "away entirely, to destruction" + emere "to take" (see exempt). Of persons or their words, "certain, assured, brooking no debate," 1586. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/peremptory)

"The truth about my son is that despite his good nature, his intelligence, his extensive education, and his bulldozer energy, he is as blunt as a kick in the shins.  He is peremptory even with a doorbell button.  His thumb never inquires whether one is within, and then waits to see.  It pushes, and ten seconds later pushes again, and one second after that goes down on the button and stays there."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Letter to the Baltimore Sun: fact-checking op-ed pieces

The Baltimore Sun posted to their web site a letter I wrote them: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-goldberg-letter-20150909-story.html

There's a pay wall, so I'm posting below the original text (for whatever reason, they revised it).

***

Dear Baltimore Sun,

I read Jonah Goldberg's op-ed piece in the September 6 edition ("Political correctness and the Wonder Woman lunchbox") with interest.  I thought his analysis was reasonable enough, but did the incident even happen?  The column cites the web site The Mary Sue, which found the story from a post on the social media site Imgur.  I found the original picture online without much trouble: it's a picture of a printed letter that could have been typed and printed by, well, anyone.  What is your fact-checking process for op-ed pieces?  Did you try to get a quote from the family involved, or to identify who they are, or to identify the school, or even the state in which the incident supposedly happened?

I understand I can't believe everything I read on the internet, but I had higher expectations for the Baltimore Sun.

Word of the day: malgré

The word of the day is malgré:

:despite

(http://i.word.com/idictionary/malgré)

  

"He sits in with the sitter-inners, he will reform us malgré our teeth, he will make his omelet and be damned to the broken eggs.  Like the Vietnam commander, he will regretfully destroy our village to save it."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose