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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
facetious
Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 14, 2008 is: facetious • \fuh-SEE-shuss\ • adjective *1 : joking or jesting often inappropriately : waggish 2 : meant to be humorous or funny : not serious Example sentence: Gwen was being facetious when she used the word "classy" to describe Bill's brightly colored necktie. Did you know? "Facetious" came to English from the Middle French word "facetieux," which traces to the Latin word "facetia," meaning "jest." "Facetia" seems to have made only one other lasting contribution to the English language: "facetiae," meaning "witty or humorous writings or sayings." "Facetiae," which comes from the plural of "facetia" and is pronounced fuh-SEE-shee-ee or fuh-SEE-shee-eye, is a far less common word than "facetious," but it does show up occasionally. For example, in a letter to the editor published in the Seattle Times, August 26, 1995, a reader used the following words to describe a column written by the humorist Dave Barry: "Hey, it's a HUMOR column, based entirely upon facetiae." *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
koine
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 13, 2008 is: koine • \koy-NAY\ • noun 1 : the Greek language commonly spoken and written in eastern Mediterranean countries in the Hellenistic and Roman periods *2 : a dialect or language of a region that has become the common or standard language of a larger area Example sentence: Koines inevitably developed in the early British colonies as different dialects converged. Did you know? Koine, which means "common" or "shared" in Greek, was the language spoken in the eastern Mediterranean countries from the 4th century B.C. until the time of the Byzantine emperor Justinian (mid-6th century A.D.). In linguistics, the word "koine" is applied to a language developed from contact between dialects of the same language over a large region. Basically, a koine adopts those grammatical and lexical elements from the dialects of the region that are easily recognized by most area speakers and dispenses with those that are not. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
divulge
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 12, 2008 is: divulge • \duh-VULJ\ • verb : to make known (as a confidence or secret) Example sentence: Sarah promised not to divulge the news of her friend's promotion until it was official. Did you know? It isn't vulgar to make known the roots of "divulge" -- and that sentence contains two hints about the word's origin. "Divulge" was borrowed into Middle English in the 15th century from Latin "divulgare," a word that combines the prefix "dis-," which meant "apart" or "in different directions" in Latin, with "vulgare," meaning "to make known." "Vulgare," in turn, derives from the Latin noun "vulgus," meaning "mob” or “common people." As you have no doubt guessed, English "vulgar" is another word which can be traced back to "vulgus”; it came into use about a century before "divulge.”
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.
MedTerms Word of the Day
Bacillus anthracis
Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Bacillus anthracis: The bacterium that causes anthrax. Anthrax differs from most bacteria in that they exist in an inactive (dormant) state called spores. The spores are found in soil, animal carcasses and feces (including sheep, goats, cattle, bison, horses, and deer), and animal products (e.g., hides and wool). Some animals (cats, dogs, rats, and swine) are very resistant to anthrax. Remarkably, anthrax spores can remain dormant in soil for many years, perhaps decades. Likened somewhat to eggs that have the ability to hatch, spores can transform (germinate) into active bacteria under appropriate conditions. The spores themselves do not cause significant damage to tissue. Once in the body, the spores germinate to form the virulent(disease-causing) bacteria. Thus, the spores can lead to disease by: entering broken skin and germinating there to cause cutaneous anthrax; being inhaled and germinating in the lungs to cause inhalation anthrax; or being eaten and germinating in the gastrointestinal tract to cause gastrointestinal anthrax. Bacillus anthracis was discovered in 1850. Notably, it was actually the first bacterium to be shown to cause a disease. In fact, it was the great German physician, Robert Koch, who discovered this. He grew the anthrax bacteria in culture plates, injected them into animals, and thereby demonstrated that the bacteria produced the disease. Then, the famous French scientist, Louis Pasteur (known for pasteurizing milk), used anthrax bacteria that he damaged to develop a vaccine for anthrax. His idea was that the damaged bacteria would not cause the disease, but would still protect (produce immunity) against anthrax. Indeed, he showed that this vaccine protected animals from getting the disease when they were subsequently injected with healthy, virulent (disease-causing) anthrax bacteria.MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
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