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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
hypocorism
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 11, 2008 is: hypocorism • \hye-PAH-kuh-riz-um\ • noun *1 : a pet name 2 : the use of pet names Example sentence: Darren started calling Sheila by her hypocorism, “Bubbles,” when they were juniors in high school. Did you know? In Late Latin and Greek, the words “hypocorisma” and “hypokorisma” had the same meaning as “hypocorism” does in English today. They in turn evolved from the Greek verb “hypokorizesthai” (“to call by pet names”), which itself comes from “korizesthai” (“to caress”). “Hypocorism” joined the English language in the mid-19th century and was once briefly a buzzword among linguists, who used it rather broadly to mean “adult baby talk,” that is, the altered speech adults use when supposedly imitating babies. Once the baby talk issue faded, “hypocorism” settled back into being just a fancy word for a pet name. Pet names can be diminutives like our “Johnny” for “John,” endearing terms such as “honey-bunch,” or, yes, names from baby talk, like “Nana” for “Grandma.” *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
posse
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 10, 2008 is: posse • \PAH-see\ • noun *1 : a large group often with a common interest 2 : a body of persons summoned by a sheriff to assist in preserving the public peace usually in an emergency 3 : a group of people temporarily organized to make a search (as for a lost child) 4 : one’s attendants or associates Example sentence: "On the Saturday morning we used to watch anxiously for the usual signs of activity and when we saw a large barrel of beer being escorted up the streets by a posse of small boys, we knew that all was well." (Edmund Barber, Country Life, October 12, 1951) Did you know? "Posse" started out as a technical term in law, part of the term "posse comitatus," which in Medieval Latin meant "power or authority of the county." As such, it referred to a group of citizens summoned by a sheriff to preserve the public peace as allowed for by law. "Preserving the public peace" so often meant hunting down a supposed criminal that "posse" eventually came to mean any group organized to make a search or embark on a mission. In even broader use it can refer to any group, period. Sometimes nowadays that group is a gang or a rock band but it can as easily be any group -- of politicians, models, architects, tourists, children, or what have you -- acting in concert. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
indagate
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 09, 2008 is: indagate • \IN-duh-gayt\ • verb : to search into : investigate Example sentence: The defense attorneys requested an adjournment so that they could fully indagate the new evidence. Did you know? A close examination of "indagate" reveals that it's a rather uncommon word. If we delve into the past, we discover that it first appeared in an English dictionary in 1623. Probing further, we see that its synonym "investigate" was already a hundred years old at the time. Despite the fact that our search turns up the derivatives "indagation," "indagator," "indagatory," and "indagative," we see that none of these words was ever used as widely as "investigation," "investigator," "investigatory," and "investigative." If we hunt for the etymology of "indagate," we sniff out the Latin verb "indagare" ("to track"), which often referred, as did Latin "investigare," specifically to tracking done by hunting dogs.
glom
Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 08, 2008 is: glom • \GLAHM\ • verb *1 : take, steal 2 : seize, catch Example sentence: “She signed an affidavit of confession attesting she glommed more than $284,000, the company contends.” (Frank Donnelly, Staten Island Advance, September 15, 2008) Did you know? It's a classic case of glomming: Americans seized on "glaum" (a term from Scots dialect that basically means "grab") and appropriated it as our own, changing it to "glom" in the process. "Glom" first meant "steal" (as in the purse-snatching, robber kind of stealing), but over time that meaning got stretched. Today, "glom" often figuratively extends that original "steal" sense. A busy professional might glom a weekend getaway, for example. "Glom" also appears frequently in the phrase "glom on to," which can mean "to appropriate for one's own use" ("glom on to another's idea"); "to grab hold of" ("glom on to the last cookie"); or "to latch on to" ("glom on to an opinion" or "glom on to an influential friend"). *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
puissant
Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 07, 2008 is: puissant • \PWISS-unt\ • adj : of great force or vigor : strong, powerful Example sentence: Laurie was aware of the restaurant critic's puissant influence in the industry, so she became quite nervous when she spotted him sitting at a table in her café. Did you know? "Puissant" has some powerful ties to some more commonplace English words. Although "puissant" has a considerably fancier feel than "power" and "potent," all three words share the same Latin ancestor: "posse," a verb meaning "to be able." "Power" came to us by way of Anglo-French "poer," which is itself thought to have come from "potēre," a Vulgar Latin alteration of "posse." "Potent" came from "potent-, potens," a present participle of "posse." From "poer" came the adjective "pussant," meaning "able" or "powerful" in Anglo-French, and English speakers borrowed that to form "puissant" in the 15th century.
agrarian
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 06, 2008 is: agrarian • \uh-GRAIR-ee-un\ • adjective 1 : of or relating to fields or lands or their tenure 2 *a : of, relating to, or characteristic of farmers or their way of lifeb : organized or designed to promote agricultural interests Example sentence: Since buying their organic farm three years ago, Ken and Sheila have been gradually adjusting to an agrarian lifestyle. Did you know? Today, an acre is generally considered to be a unit of land measuring 43,560 square feet (4,047 square meters). Before that standard was set, it's believed that an acre represented a rougher measurement -- the amount of land that could be plowed in one day with a yoke of oxen. Both "acre" and today's word, "agrarian," derive from the Latin noun "ager" and the Greek noun "agros," meaning "field." (You can probably guess that "agriculture" is another descendant.) "Agrarian," first used in English in the 17th century, describes things pertaining to the cultivation of fields, as well as the farmers who cultivate them. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
MedTerms Word of the Day
Saccular aneurysm
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Saccular aneurysm: An aneurysm that resembles a small sack. A berry aneurysm is typically saccular. An aneurysm is a localized widening (dilatation) of an artery, vein, or the heart. At the area of an aneurysm, there is typically a bulge and the wall is weakened and may rupture. The word "aneurysm" comes from the Greek "aneurysma" meaning "a widening." MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
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