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Post by Chris on May 15, 2007 8:17:45 GMT -5
Sometimes I wonder whether this Word of the Day thread is worth it. No one reads it anyway, and I can't help but wonder whether any good you get out of it is vitiated by me using these new words incorrectly. Learning the word redound has redounded me to use it countless times, but I have yet to figure out if I've any idea what it really means. Perhaps it would be better if I never bothered.
I think that sometimes. But then I think of termagant (and by extension Jayda) and all is right with the world.
Today's word, courtesy of Dictionary.com: vitiate
vitiate \VISH-ee-ayt\, transitive verb: 1. To make faulty or imperfect; to render defective; to impair; as, "exaggeration vitiates a style of writing." 2. To corrupt morally; to debase. 3. To render ineffective; as, "fraud vitiates a contract."
MacNelly is one of the few contemporary political cartoonists who can use humor to accentuate, not vitiate, his points. -- Richard E. Marschall, "The Century In Political Cartoons", Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 1999
Their religious convictions and conduct were held to be vitiated by hideous error. -- David Vital, A People Apart
Whatever a "real contradiction" might be, "apparent contradictions" are quite sufficient to vitiate a doctrine of biblical authority that is based on the supposedly apparent reading of the text. -- Robert M. Price, "The Psychology of Biblicism", Humanist, May 2001
It seems churlish to say of a book that is beautifully written, richly allusive, learned, elegant, Proustian in tone and mode, that precisely these qualities vitiate its ostensible purpose, distracting attention from the subject and focusing it upon the very gifted author. -- Gertrude Himmelfarb, "A Man's Own Household His Enemies", Commentary, July 1999
It is conceivable that an error could be so serious as to vitiate the entire body of the work. -- Linda Hawes Clever and Lois Ann Colaianni, "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals", Public Health Reports, May/June 1997
Vitiate comes from Latin vitiare, from vitium, fault. It is related to vice (a moral failing or fault), which comes from vitium via French.
Still don't know what vitiate means? Well, leave me alone with Johnathan Taylor Thomas and I'll illustrate what vitiate means. All. Night. Long.
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Post by Chris on May 16, 2007 17:08:04 GMT -5
Damn that Ethan! Who does he think he is, calling me a jerk? He's got a penchant for bringing out the worst in me. He thinks I'm a jerk, huh? Well, I'm gonna jerk him around so bad he'll be screaming! That ... totally came out wrong. Today's word, courtesy of Dictionary.com: penchantpenchant \PEN-chunt\, noun: Inclination; decided taste; a strong liking. Ben was a dreamy little boy, recalls Hiddy, who always thought her brother's penchant for reveries might lead him to become an artist or a great philosopher. -- Thomas Maier, Dr. Spock: An American Life Field, in his personal comportment, maintained a penchant for austerity, a contempt for frivolity, and a "steely cold" disdain for any decision not based on fundamental business principles. -- RolandMarchand, Creating the Corporate Soul Even as an adolescent bookkeeper in a trading house in Cleveland, Rockefeller minutely recorded his charitable donations in ledgers, which confirm that from an early age he had a penchant for giving money no less than for making it. -- Ron Chernow, "Mystery of the Generous Monopolist", New York Times, November 18, 1998 Penchant comes from the present participle of French pencher, "to incline, to bend," from (assumed) Late Latin pendicare, "to lean," from Latin pendere, "to weigh." Me? A Jerk? Seriously? I know I have a penchant for being intransigent, but a jerk? How can he call me a jerk when Jayda's the resident termagant? Why, I oughta ...
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Post by Chris on May 17, 2007 11:08:40 GMT -5
Aw, sweet! Today's word is just perfect to describe that Ethan and his cold-hearted snub of my innocent request. And just when I thought my anger was subsiding. Rage 1, Forgiveness 0! I'm gonna get flagitious on your ass, Ethan!
Today's word, courtesy of Dictionary.com: flagitious
flagitious \fluh-JISH-uhs\, adjective: 1. Disgracefully or shamefully criminal; grossly wicked; scandalous; -- said of acts, crimes, etc. 2. Guilty of enormous crimes; corrupt; profligate; -- said of persons. 3. Characterized by enormous crimes or scandalous vices; as, "flagitious times."
However flagitious may be the crime of conspiring to subvert by force the government of our country, such conspiracy is not treason. -- Ex parte Bollman & Swartwout, 4 Cranch 126 (1807)
The Grinch, a nefarious, flagitious, sly, nasty, troublesome, bad-tempered, intolerant and foul-smelling character who, for reasons never fully explained, lives in a cave above the town. -- Robin Greer, "Carrey Christmas", News Letter, December 1, 2000
These men were reported to be heretics . . . , seducers of youth, and men of flagitious life. -- Isaac Taylor, History of the World
During the Whiskey Rebellion 200 years ago, a preacher declared: "The present day is unfolding a design the most extensive, flagitious and diabolical, that human art and malice have ever invented . . . If accomplished, the earth can be nothing better than a sink of impurities." -- George Will, "Paranoiac Terrorism Is Part of American History", Newsday, April 25, 1995
Break heart, drop blood, and mingle it with tears, Tears falling from repentant heaviness Of thy most vile and loathsome filthiness, The stench whereof corrupts the inward soul With such flagitious crimes of heinous sins As no commiseration may expel, But mercy, Faustus, of thy Saviour sweet, Whose blood alone must wash away thy guilt. -- Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History Of Doctor Faustus
Flagitious comes from Latin flagitiosus, from flagitium, "a shameful or disgraceful act," originally, "a burning desire, heat of passion," from flagitare, "to demand earnestly or hotly," connected with flagrare, "to blaze, to burn."
I hope you understand that my ego is a very fragile thing, Ethan, and I think you've damaged it irreparably. If failing to be sycophantic to my every whim isn't flagitious, then I don't know the meaning of the word.
Seriously.
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Post by Denithar on May 17, 2007 15:38:16 GMT -5
Fascinating word and a rather interesting rant. Catharsis has been proven by psychologist to have the opposite effect that it was once preached to have, but we will hope that your case is unique and that your anger has been assuaged.
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Post by Chris on May 17, 2007 22:59:49 GMT -5
Well, now that Ethan's trying to help me drum up some activity reviewing-wise, I think my anger has been abated.
And most curiously, it's been replaced by an overwhelming lust.
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Post by Chris on May 18, 2007 9:16:05 GMT -5
Why, it's credulous that the intransigence I exhibit as I moil to increase the vocabularies of my fellow members of this pantheon is indubitably redounding my once sapid, nonpareil writing to become verbose bombast, and I'm becoming a termagant to boot, as exhibited by my constant -ing of Ethan. I must take action before things redound to internecine and lynching. I need to get stupider, and in a hurry. Quick, make me watch FOX! Today's word, courtesy of Dictionary.com: bombastbombast \BOM-bast\, noun: Pompous or pretentious speech or writing. A more serious difficulty, though, is that "love" has inspired a vast deal of high-toned rhetoric, and Ms. Ackerman seems determined to boost the bombast that already engulfs this troublesome word. -- "This Crazy Thing Called Love", New York Times, June 26, 1994 It was partly this gift for nuance that caused Kempton to notice, while reviewing the work of Whittaker Chambers, something undeniably authentic beneath the bombast and self-pity. -- "Age of Ideology: Murray Kempton on the 30's", New York Times, January 31, 1999 He especially loved pro wrestling shows, where he learned the importance of bombast, and how to immobilize a larger opponent. -- John Brady, Bad Boy: The Life and Politics of Lee Atwater Bombast comes from Medieval French bombace, "cotton, hance padding," from Late Latin bombax, "cotton." Me watch Family Guy. Me no write no bombast no more.
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Post by Chris on May 20, 2007 8:14:39 GMT -5
I'm too exhausted to feel witty right now. My furtive observation of my sister as she went to a major party kept me awake half the night.
By furtive observation, I mean I took a break from my porn every 5 minutes to make sure she didn't walk in on me.
Today's Word, courtesy of dictionary.com: furtive
furtive \FUR-tiv\, adjective: 1. Done by stealth; surreptitious; secret; as, a furtive look. 2. Expressive of stealth; sly; shifty; sneaky. 3. Stolen; obtained by stealth. 4. Given to stealing; thievish; pilfering.
He had always been more than willing to show me parts of [his notebook], whenever I asked him to; and naturally I had taken many furtive looks at its innermost pages when he wasn't around. -- Michael Chabon, Werewolves in Their Youth
Exchanging furtive glances, they oozed a nervousness, perhaps in fear that some prewritten script would go awry. -- Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg by Bloomberg
Why did he keep looking around at all the other tables like that? It made him seem furtive, as if he didn't belong here, as if he were an intruder in so fine a place as this. -- Mary McGarry Morris, Fiona Range
He had reason to be furtive about the parking-lot caper. -- Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Sang For The Birds
Furtive is from Latin furtivus, from furtum, "theft," from fur, "thief."
I'm being pretty furtive in my plan to destroy Ethan. In fact, at this very moment, he thinks I've forgiven him and has now been lulled into a false sense of security.
Sucker.
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Post by Chris on May 21, 2007 17:32:11 GMT -5
I had to battle practically insuperable odds to get to this word of the day thread out today. My brother has been hogging the computer since morning and I have been thoroughly exhausted by this gosh-darned heat. Thank your lucky stars that I care too much about your education to leave you high and dry. I swear, I don't know what you people would do without me.
Today's Word, courtesy of Dictionary.com: insuperable
insuperable \in-SOO-pur-uh-bul\, adjective: Incapable of being passed over, surmounted, or overcome; insurmountable; as, "insuperable difficulties."
They have overcome almost insuperable odds that the poor facilities and elements have brought about. -- Raimund E. Goerler (Editor), To the Pole: The Diary and Notebook of Richard E. Byrd, 1925-1927
Once the Soviet Union acquired the bomb, in 1949, proposals for nuclear disarmament were rejected on grounds that the character of the Soviet regime posed an insuperable obstacle. -- Jonathan Schell, The Gift of Time
Insuperable comes from Latin insuperabilis, from in-, "not" + superare, "to go above or over, to surmount," from super, "above, over."
My laziness has become almost insuperable of late. I have tons of ideas on new stories to write, but I am fast discovering that my creativity may be best suited to thinking up ideas rather than to actually making them a reality.
It's all Jayda's fault. That dang termagant.
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Post by Chris on May 22, 2007 10:45:08 GMT -5
It is with the utmost delectation that I announce that both Anna! and paranoidandroid have condescended to actually support my Ready, Set, Spotlight! campaign, and just in time to give the wholly underrated Gil Alexander the credit he deserves. I'm so happy I could explode.
But I won't, so don't start rejoicing yet, Ethan.
Today's Word, courtesy of Dictionary.com: delectation delectation \dee-lek-TAY-shun\, noun: Great pleasure; delight, enjoyment.
In the eighteenth century, the Qing emperor, Qianlong, created . . . a park for his own delectation, full of diminutive Chinese landmarks, so that he could canter round his whole kingdom without leaving home. -- Kate Lowe and Eugene McLaughlin, "Dollars and dim sum", History Today, June 1995
At other times she'll get so worked up by some pet poeticism that she forgets she's not writing just for her own delectation. -- David Klinghoffer, "Black madonna", National Review, February 9, 1998
Animals are not puppets, put on earth for our delectation. -- Colin Tudge, "Why this scene is unnatural", New Statesman, February 18, 2002
Delectation derives from Latin delectatio, from the past participle of delectare, "to please."
I'd better go start on those dishes. My family apparently thinks that I find delectation in cleaning up after them. Well, they'll find out just how much delectation I got from doing the dishes after I pepper the rims of the drinking glasses, those termagants.
Speaking of termagants, where's Jayda? I haven't seen her in a few days.
That gag's getting old, isn't it? I'm sad to say I find no delectation in it anymore. I guess it's back to sexually harassing Ethan.
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Post by Chris on May 23, 2007 12:47:50 GMT -5
I believe redolent to be a most apt word to describe Amortentia, the name of the most potent love potion from the Harry Potter saga (thank you for that vocab lesson, Hermione).
Now if I could just get a hold of some, sexually assaulting Ethan would be a snap.
Today's Word, courtesy of Dictionary.com: redolent
redolent \RED-uh-luhnt\, adjective: 1. Having or exuding fragrance; scented; aromatic. 2. Full of fragrance; odorous; smelling (usually used with 'of' or 'with'). 3. Serving to bring to mind; evocative; suggestive; reminiscent (usually used with 'of' or 'with').
The 142-foot-long sidewheeled steamer . . . ferried people from place to place, . . . its two decks redolent with the aroma of fresh grapes, peaches, and other fruit headed for the rail spur at the Canandaigua pier, then on to markets in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. -- A. M. Sperber and Eric Lax, Bogart
The simple, semisweet and moist cake was redolent of cinnamon and nutmeg and studded with Mr. McCartney's favorite nuts, pecans. -- Bryan Miller, "Lots of Smidgens, But Hold the Meat", New York Times, September 7, 1994
Backed by soaring sax and energetic percussion, Martin makes the sort of celebratory, Spanish party music redolent of warm weather and cocktails. -- Lisa Verrico, Times (London), November 10, 2000
It's a fine word, "Fellowship", redolent of Oxbridge high tables and intellectual excellence. -- Paul Hoggart, Times (London), February 24, 2001
Redolent derives from Latin redolens, -entis, present participle of redolere, "to emit a scent, to diffuse an odor," from red-, re- + olere, "to exhale an odor."
Were I to inhale the scent of amortentia, I would probably smell the redolent frangrances of hot bread pudding and clothes fresh out of the dryer.
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Post by Chris on May 25, 2007 11:26:51 GMT -5
I so need a new tack to get Ethan to stay. I send him tons of pms (that's private messages, by the way, not post menstrual syndromes, but I should look into that), trying to seduce him, issuing fiats, threats, bribes. I even wrote him a poem.
And all I got in return was a picture of his aft end.
Today's Word, courtesy of Dictionary.com: fiat
fiat \FEE-uht; -at; -aht; FY-uht; -at\, noun: 1. An arbitrary or authoritative command or order. 2. Formal or official authorization or sanction.
He found a provision in the college constitution that said there were to be no executive committees, and arguing that those stodgy impediments to serious change had grown up only by convention and tradition; he abolished them and ruled these faculty meetings by fiat, using each as an occasion to announce what he was going to do next that was sure to stir up even more resentment. -- Philip Roth, The Human Stain
Americans tend to squirm about the messiness of their two best-known trade agreements with Japan: the "voluntary limitations" that have restricted exports of Japanese cars to the United States since 1981, and the semiconductor agreement of 1986, which declared by fiat that foreign manufacturers should get 20 percent of semiconductor sales in Japan. -- James Fallows, "Containing Japan", The Atlantic, May 1989
Fiat derives from Latin fiat, "let it be done," from fieri, "to be done."
I'm afraid that if he is ignoring my fiats, then there's nothing else to do but to find someone else to mentally exhaust.
I wonder if paranoidandroid is free.
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Post by Chris on May 27, 2007 12:32:44 GMT -5
Way too hot to day to be witty/snarky. Here's your damn word.
Today's word, courtesy of Dictionary.com: appellation
appellation \ap-uh-LAY-shun\, noun: 1. The word by which a particular person or thing is called and known; name; title; designation. 2. The act of naming.
For as long as Olympia can remember, her mother has been referred to, within her hearing and without, as an invalid -- an appellation that does not seem to distress her mother and indeed appears to be one she herself cultivates. -- Anita Shreve, Fortune's Rocks
A communist or a revolutionary, for example, would likely readily accept and admit that he is in fact a communist or a revolutionary. Indeed, many would doubtless take particular pride in claiming either of those appellations for themselves. -- Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism
I feel honored by yet undeserving of the appellation "novelist." I am merely a craftsperson, a cabinetmaker of texts and occasionally, I hope, a witness to our times. -- Francine Du Plessix Gray, "I Write for Revenge Against Reality", New York Times, September 12, 1982
Appellation comes from Latin appellatio, from appellare, "to name."
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Post by Chris on May 29, 2007 16:51:16 GMT -5
Way too bored to be fecund today. That Romance Contest has me spent.
Today's Word, courtesy of Dictionary.com: fecund
fecund \FEE-kuhnd; FEK-uhnd\, adjective: 1. Capable of producing offspring or vegetation; fruitful; prolific. 2. Intellectually productive or inventive.
For 21 years after the birth of the Prince of Wales, the fecund royal couple produced children at the rate of two every three years -- eight boys and six girls in all. -- Saul David, Prince of Pleasure
In her first novel she portrays a lush, fecund landscape palpable in its sultriness and excess. -- Barbara Crossette, "Seeking Nirvana", New York Times, April 29, 2001
Miss Ozick can convert any skeptic to the cult of her shrewd and fecund imagination. -- Edmund White, "Images of a Mind Thinking", New York Times, September 11, 1983
Wainscott's book is . . . focused squarely and surely on probably the most astonishingly fecund period in American theater history, 1914-1929. -- James Coakley, Comparative Drama
Fecund comes from Latin fecundus, "fruitful, prolific." The noun form is fecundity.
My belly button is pretty fecund; I always have to pull these blasted weeds out of it. I'll have to find a fecund way to get rid of them now, because not even the poisons are doing them in.
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Post by Chris on May 31, 2007 14:30:29 GMT -5
Man, I've been so off track with my Word of the day and my Improving Our Art threads lately. It makes me disconsolate to realize that I haven't been giving them the attention they so truly deserve.
Well, that ends today. I am the epitome of focus. I'm gonna focus till my eyes dry out!
*glares intently*
Today's word, courtesy of Dictionary.com: disconsolate
disconsolate \dis-KON-suh-lut\, adjective: 1. Being beyond consolation; deeply dejected and dispirited; hopelessly sad; filled with grief; as, "a bereaved and disconsolate parent." 2. Inspiring dejection; saddening; cheerless; as, "the disconsolate darkness of the winter nights."
Midway through the course he came to the table with the disconsolate expression of a basketball coach whose team had just been trounced. -- Bryan Miller, "Odd Couples Can Make Magic", New York Times, March 2, 1994
An eighteenth-century Fairfax, Thomas, lost the last of the land in the South Sea Bubble and the Fairfaxes were all but forgotten -- except for Lady Mary who was occasionally sighted, dressed all in green, disconsolate and gloomy, and occasionally with her head under her arm for good effect. -- Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet
. . .King Midas, whose lips turn all they touch to cold, unnourishing riches, and who perishes alone and disconsolate, cut off by his wealth from the simplest necessities of life -- for bread, water, as well as his wife, his child and his little dog, all turn as he stretches towards them into the gold he thought he desired more than anything else. -- Jane Shilling, "A golden ambivalence", Times (London), June 2, 2000
Disconsolate comes from Medieval Latin disconsolatus, from Latin dis- + consolatus, past participle of consolari, "to console," from com-, intensive prefix + solari, "to comfort, to soothe, to relieve."
I was pretty disconsolate when Ethan left recently. Mostly because I didn't get to make his life a living hell as I'd promised. I've decided to send dirty emails to him instead.
All this glaring has made my eyeballs become lumpy from dust flecking into them. Does anyone have visine?
Anyone except Jayda that is, 'cause she's a termagant.
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Post by Chris on Jun 1, 2007 11:53:15 GMT -5
Ugh. I am so over being on here by myself. I feel like people just log off when I'm online because they find it cumbersome that I am omnipresent. I could have sworn that when I logged on this morning there were like 5 people on, and in the few sparse minutes it took me to make a post, I discovered that I was alone.
Perhaps ... I need a stronger deoderant?
Today's Word, courtesy of Dictionary.com: omnipresent
omnipresent \om-nuh-PREZ-uhnt\, adjective: Present in all places at the same time; ubiquitous.
It was rather that myth was omnipresent; the whole people thought in this way and were long confirmed in their belief. -- Jacob Burckhardt, The Greeks and Greek Civilization
But the music of Bortnyansky was exultant, and the canticleswere borne aloft to God the omnipotent, the omniscient, the omnipresent. -- Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, How it All Began (translated by George Shriver)
The novella moves at a pace as sluggish as that of the omnipresent moon making its way across the limpid summer sky. -- Tobin Harshaw, "Pay the Piper", New York Times, November 14, 1999
Civilization is the preserve of the rich, with their polished cars, their locked houses and their omnipresent police force. -- Peter Conrad, Modern Times, Modern Places
Omnipresent is from Medieval Latin omnipresens, from Latin omni-, "all" + praesens, present participle of praeesse, "to be before, to be present," from prae-, "before" + esse, "to be."
I guess being omnipresent makes people uncomfortable. It reminds them of God, maybe?
Cool! I remind people of God! You hear that, Angie? I'm higher up the food chain than you are!
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