Word of the Day

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Saturday April 2, 2005CE

biddable

\BID-uh-buhl\, adjective:
1. Easily led or commanded; obedient.
2. Capable of being bid.

But because they are sociable, biddable, obliging, stoic and generous, most are happy to join in.
--Sue Montgomery, "The Nature of Horses," New Statesman, July 18, 1997

The chaotically organised event proved nothing more than that one charismatic individual can impose his will on a lot of biddable ones.
--Thomas Sutcliffe, "Last night's television," Independent, May 2002

Both are calm, biddable, cooperative, sensible companions.
--Bill McClure, "The right start," American Hunter, November 2003


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Biddable is from bid, which partly comes from Middle English bidden, "to ask, to command," from Old English biddan; and partly from Middle English beden, "to offer, to proclaim," from Old English beodan.

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Sunday April 3, 2005

cloy

\KLOY\, transitive verb:
To weary by excess, especially of sweetness, richness, pleasure, etc.

intransitive verb:
To become distasteful through an excess usually of something originally pleasing.

The opulence, the music, the gouty food -- all start to cloy my senses.
--Jeffrey Tayler, "The Moscow Rave, part two: I Have Payments to Make on My Mink," Atlantic, December 31, 1997

I use orange and lemon zest in the recipe and a drizzle of soured cream at the table to take away its tendency to cloy.
--Nigel Slater, "Cream tease," The Observer, December 14, 2003

The soft Orvieto Abboccato has just enough sweetness to please but not to cloy, a friendly character that tempts one to linger over a second glass.
--George Pandi, "Orvieto's pleasures deserve to be savored like its wine," Boston Herald, July 18, 2004


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Cloy is short for obsolete accloy, "to clog," alteration of Middle English acloien, "to lame," from Middle French encloer, "to drive a nail into," from Medieval Latin inclavare, from Latin in, "in" + clavus, "nail."

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Monday April 4, 2005

amanuensis

\uh-man-yoo-EN-sis\, noun; plural amanuenses, \-seez\:
A person employed to take dictation or to copy manuscripts.

The chore of actually writing the words in the end fell to a hand-picked amanuensis.
--Austin Baer, "River of Desire," Atlantic, October 1996

On this blue day, I want to be
nothing more than an amanuensis
to the birds, transcribing all the bits
and snatches of song riding in on the wind.
--Barbara Crooker, "Transcription (Poem)," Midwest Quarterly, March 22, 2003

When it comes to literature, the French count the largest number of Nobel Prizes; their authors include one who wrote a whole book without using the letter `e' and another who, suffering from `locked-in syndrome' after a severe stroke, dictated a memoir by blinking his eye as an amanuensis read through the alphabet.
--Jonathan Fenby, France on the Brink


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Amanuensis comes from Latin, from the phrase (servus) a manu, "slave with handwriting duties," from a, ab, "by" + manu, from manus, "hand."

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Tuesday April 5, 2005

shibboleth

\SHIB-uh-lith; -leth\, noun:
1. A word or pronunciation that distinguishes a particular class or set of persons from another.
2. A word or saying identified with a group or cause; a slogan; a catchword.
3. A saying or belief identified with a particular group and usually regarded by outsiders as meaningless or untrue.
4. A custom, practice, behavior, etc. regarded as distinctive of a particular group.

In the late '60s, however, the loud, open use of the "F" word became a true shibboleth, dividing the student radicals from the Establishment "pigs" they delighted in tweaking.
--Elizabeth Austin, "A small plea to delete a ubiquitous expletive: can't we all get along without the 'f' word?" US News & World Report, April 6, 1998

Newspapers accused the West of trying to foment anti-Russian feelings and revive the cold war, substituting the old "Soviet threat" with the new shibboleth "Russian mafia."
--Michael Satchell, "Kremlin gilt - or is it guilt?" US News & World Report, September 20, 1999

Most cases, she says, involve the charges of secular humanism -- a "shibboleth invented by far-right organizations and others who object to textbooks, library books and curriculum materials that do not promote their particular brand of religion."
--Thomas S. Elliott, "Fight heats up over censoring schoolbooks," US News & World Report, February 20, 1984

Class size is another shibboleth: First, small class sizes do not increase learning, and, second, class sizes have become quite small anyway.
--Jay Nordlinger, "The Anti-Excusers," National Review, October 27, 2003

This could not be stated, because the doctrines in the name of which the revolution was carried out -- and which, ironically enough, the revolution did so much to expose and discredit -- were too strongly ingrained as official radical shibboleths to which lip-service was still paid.
--Isaiah Berlin, The Sense of Reality

Christmas church attendance will be the last shibboleth of Christian devotion in Europe to fall: it has a wealth of sentiment, mid-winter cheer and good tunes to keep pulling the crowds.
--Madeleine Bunting, "Paralysed by panic," Guardian, December 20, 2004


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Shibboleth is from Hebrew shibboleth, "stream, flood," from the use of this word in the Bible (Judges 12:4-6) as a test to distinguish Gileadites from Ephraimites, who could not say 'sh' but only 's' as in 'sibboleth'.

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Wednesday April 6, 2005

complement

\KOM-pluh-muhnt\, noun:
1. Something that fills up or completes.
2. The quantity or number required to make up a whole or to make something complete.
3. One of two parts that complete a whole or mutually complete each other; a counterpart.

transitive verb:
To supply what is lacking; to serve as a complement to; to supplement.

He was four years older than Lewis, whom he had once commanded in the army; less formally educated, but with more practical experience and a steadier yet more outgoing personality -- a friend, but also a perfect complement in both training and temperament to the man who was inviting Clark to make history with him.
--Dayton Duncan, Lewis & Clark

There was also a tennis court, a riding stable, a five-car garage, and a full complement of servants.
--Carol Felsenthal, Citizen Newhouse

The two points of view are not contradictory; they complement each other.
--Feançoise Gilot, "The Maid Was Ugly, the Meals Were Bad...," New York Times, October 7, 1970

Smart, athletic, blond, with a "bubbly" -- that's the word Ed uses to describe Sue when she's not around -- personality that complements his perpetually calm outlook.
--Martin Dugard, Knockdown

The wine complemented the food perfectly.
--Mary Sheepshanks, Picking Up the Pieces


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Complement is from Latin complementum, from complere, "to fill up," from com- (intensive prefix) + plere, "to fill."

Usage note: Complement and compliment ("an expression of admiration or praise") are sometimes confused because they are pronounced the same. A good way to remember which is which is to make a connection between the spelling of complement and complete.

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Thursday April 7, 2005CE

maudlin

\MAWD-lin\, adjective:
Tearfully or excessively sentimental.

The lonesome tones of Willie Nelson rise on the Texas air and roll off into the darkness, making the odd deer feel unaccountably maudlin and causing lone jackrabbits to be overcome by a sudden desire to sink a whiskey and cry into the empty glass.
--John Connolly, "Irishman's Diary," Irish Times, September 6, 1997

He was a bad drunk and became maudlin and weepy and would often have to be carried home by his friends.
--Barry Miles, Jack Kerouac, King of the Beats

A film about blindness could easily get maudlin or, at the other extreme, cynically heartless.
--Desson Howe, " 'Proof,' " Washington Post, June 5, 1992


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Maudlin is an alteration of (Mary) Magdalene, who in paintings was often represented with eyes red and swollen from weeping.

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for maudlin

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Friday April 8, 2005CE

Panglossian

\pan-GLOSS-ee-uhn\, adjective:
Excessively or naively optimistic.

He is not peddling a Panglossian view of the world, or denying that there are problems that merit action.
--Jon Jewett, "Enviro-skepticism," Policy Review, December 2001/January 2002

But only the most Panglossian among us can doubt that in this fevered political climate more silencings will come.
--Gloria Cooper, "The Censors," Columbia Journalism Review, July/August 2004

What we are witnessing in large part is the debris of the collapsed illusions of the 80s, when the Panglossian president's natural optimism made it impossible for him to admit that America had any problems.
--Mortimer B. Zuckerman, "The politics of trivial pursuit," US News & World Report, April 13, 1992

Despite its excesses, the French critique of the modern world -- of our varieties of bad faith, our idolatrous consumerism, and our Panglossian faith in progress and other Enlightenment values -- has helped make it possible for men and women to live examined lives.
--Jay Tolson, "The Passion of Michel Foucault," National Review, February 15, 1993

I wonder, though, if her argument does not commit her to a deep optimism about human nature which, despite its emotional pull, may strike some readers as slightly Panglossian.
--David McCabe, "Democracy on Trial," Commonweal, February 10, 1995


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Panglossian derives from Pangloss, the optimistic tutor in Voltaire's Candide.

Candide, penetrated with so much goodness, threw himself at his feet, crying, "Now I am convinced that my Master Pangloss told me truth when he said that everything was for the best in this world; for I am infinitely more affected with your extraordinary generosity than with the inhumanity of that gentleman in the black cloak and his wife."
--Voltaire, Candide

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Saturday April 9, 2005CE

supervene

\soo-pur-VEEN\, intransitive verb:
1. To take place or occur as something additional, extraneous, or unexpected (sometimes followed by 'on' or 'upon').
2. To follow immediately after; to ensue.

After all, doctors outside the hospital can pick up the pieces and readmission is always possible, provided death doesn't supervene.
--Theodore Dalrymple, "How to win a million pounds," New Statesman, April 7, 2003

Sympathy will weaken; the anger of American public opinion will be uncontainable; doubt -- and the usual conflict of differing interests -- will supervene.
--"The terrible swift sword," Daily Telegraph, September 13, 2001

We must recognize that it is often unwise to change procedures long in place, lest unintended adverse consequences supervene.
--William Anderson, "It Is Ended," Weekly Standard, March 31, 2005

Perhaps it was inevitable that, after the magical extravaganza of the Eighties, a day-after-the-feast mood should supervene.
--Robert McCrum, "The Booker," The Observer, September 26, 1999


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Supervene comes from Latin supervenire, from super-, "over, above" + venire, "to come."

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Sunday April 10, 2005CE

hagiography

\hag-ee-OG-ruh-fee; hay-jee-\, noun:
1. Biography of saints.
2. Idealizing or idolizing biography.

She fit a type easily recognized in the annals of hagiography, and it was on that basis that claims for sainthood were made.
--Lawrence S. Cunningham, "The Voices of Gemma Galgani," Commonweal, June 6, 2003

Pearce seems to believe he needs to show us that the man was something like a saint. This turns his book into something like hagiography.
--Francis Beckett, "G K and A K," New Statesman, February 28, 1997

It is by no means a hagiography -- he is alert to, and unsparing of, Bellow's many failings as a man, a friend, a husband and a father.
--Robert Winder, "The slave of unknown masters," New Statesman, October 23, 2000


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Hagiography comes from Greek hagios, "holy" + -graphia, from graphein, "to write."

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Monday April 11, 2005CE

malapropos

\mal-ap-ruh-POH\, adjective:
Unseasonable; unsuitable; inappropriate.

adverb:
In an inappropriate or inopportune manner; unseasonably.

Such malapropos wise cracks are driven home with a relentlessly upbeat soundtrack which serenades scenes of human tragedy with bouncy, Disneyesque melodies.
--Steve Rabey, "'Noah's Ark' hits bottom: Miniseries suffers from lack of accuracy," Arlington Morning News, May 2, 1999

As an on-air radio pronouncer, I am quite familiar with the hazard of opening the mouth before the brain is in gear. It is very easy to fire-off a malapropos statement in the heat of trying to make a point and the result is some funny things are said, but perhaps not meant.
--Gerry Forbes, "Foot-in-Mouth Afflictions," Calgary Sun, March 18, 2001


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Malapropos comes from French mal à propos, "badly to the purpose."

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Tuesday April 12, 2005CE

redoubt

\rih-DOWT\, noun:
1. A small and usually temporary defensive fortification.
2. A defended position or protective barrier.
3. A secure place of refuge or defense; a stronghold.

Evicting the intruders from their mountain redoubts with ground forces alone was beginning to look like a protracted and expensive task.
--"Kashmir's violent spring," The Economist, May 29, 1999

First, Milosevic himself will be absent, apparently fearful of leaving his redoubt in Belgrade.
--"Lessons of Balkans Applied to Kosovo," New York Times, February 1, 1999


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Redoubt derives from French redoute, from Italian ridotto, from Latin reductus, "a refuge, a retreat," from reducere, "to lead or draw back," from re-, "back" + ducere, "to lead."

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Wednesday April 13, 2005CE

detritus

\dih-TRY-tuhs\, noun;
plural detritus:
1. Loose material that is worn away from rocks.
2. Hence, any fragments separated from the body to which they belonged; any product of disintegration; debris.

The water was smooth and brown, with detritus swirling in the eddies from the increasing current.
--Gordon Chaplin, Dark Wind: A Survivor's Tale of Love and Loss

If they [flying cars] were easy to produce, we'd be walking around wearing helmets to protect us from the detritus of flying car crashes.
--Gail Collins, "Grounded for 2000," New York Times, December 7, 1999

The loose detritus of thought, washed down to us through long ages.
--H. Rogers, Essays


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Detritus derives from the past participle of Latin deterere, "to rub away, to wear out," from de-, "from" + terere, "to rub." It is related to detriment, at root "a rubbing away, a wearing away," hence "damage, harm."

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Thursday April 14, 2005CE

obloquy

\OB-luh-kwee\, noun:
1. Strongly condemnatory or abusive language or utterance.
2. The condition of disgrace suffered as a result of public blame, abuse, or condemnation; ill repute.

There he remained, weeping indignantly at her stream of obloquy, bitterly ashamed of his tears, until it was time for supper.
--Jonathan Keates, Stendhal

Once installed in office he earned near-universal obloquy by pushing through the biggest tax increase in the state's history.
--Dan Seligman, "The Taxophiliacs," Forbes, February 5, 2001

For Britain to have made a last imperial stand on the shores of the South China Sea would have risked local calamity and international obloquy.
--Christopher Patten, East and West


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Obloquy derives from Latin obloqui, "to speak against," from ob-, "against" + loqui, "to speak."

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Friday April 15, 2005CE

extant

\EK-stunt; ek-STANT\, adjective:
Still existing; not destroyed, lost, or extinct.

Why, then, did the joint House-Senate committee insert a maximum? The lack of extant records of the committee's deliberations requires us to speculate.
--Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of Rights

The fossil record shows clearly that ancient life was very different from extant life.
--Paul Davies, The Fifth Miracle


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Extant comes from Latin exstare, "to stand out, to project, hence to be prominent, to be visible, to exist," from ex-, "out" + stare, "to stand."

[Lazy Agnostic]

Word of the Day for Saturday April 16, 2005CE

arbitrage

\AR-buh-trahzh\, noun:
The nearly simultaneous purchase of a good or asset in one market where the price is low, and sale of the same good or asset in another market where the price is higher.

If the market exchange rate deviates from par, there is opportunity for arbitrage by exchanging the cheaper currency for gold, shipping the gold to the other country, converting the gold into the other currency, and converting the proceeds into the cheaper currency on the market.
--Milton Friedman, Money Mischief

There are undoubtedly many arbitrage opportunities, where price transparency has failed to bring about price harmonisation.
--Nunzio Quacquarelli, "Euro optimism," Guardian, May 28, 2002


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Arbitrage comes from the French, from Latin arbitrari, "to pass judgment," from arbiter, "witness, arbitrator, judge." One who practices arbitrage is an arbitrageur.