Word Of The Day

[Altobelli]

CANNIKIN noun (kan-i-kin)

noun

1. a small can or drinking cup.
2. a small wooden bucket.


Quotes

He drew some cognac from the cask into a tin cannikin.
--*Robert Louis Stevenson,*Treasure Island, 1883

Drink had now been taken, and Slig came down the steps with a cannikin, offering more.
--*Hilary Mantel,*The Giant, O'Brien, 1998



Origin

Cannikin comes from Middle Dutch cannekijn, Dutch kanneken “small can.” The cann-, kann- element comes Middle Dutch kanne, Dutch kan, and is closely related to German Kanne, Old Norse kanna, Old English canne, and English can, all from Germanic kanna meaning “tankard, container, can.” It is possible that this Germanic word is a borrowing from Latin canna “reed, reed pipe, flute, cane,” which itself has a very long history going back through Greek kánna “reed, cane” to Semitic, e.g. Assyrian qanū “reed.” Nouns ending in the diminutive suffix -kin are not common in English, and most of those (e.g., catkin, gherkin, manikin) are of Dutch origin and date from the mid-16th and mid-17th centuries. Dutch -kin is related to German -chen, as in Liebchen “sweetheart” or Häuschen “little house, cottage.” Cannikin entered English in the mid-16th century.

[Altobelli]

AMELIORATE verb (uh-meel-yuh-reyt)

verb

1. to make or become better, more bearable, or more satisfactory; improve: strategies to ameliorate negative effects on the environment.


Quotes

Why did he go into the record business? Because he wanted to ameliorate the condition of the average man through the one thing that can ameliorate--not bigger cars or better TV sets, but through art, through music.
--*Philip K. Dick,*Humpty Dumpty in Oakland, 1986

Philosophy should be an energy; it should have for effort and effect to ameliorate the conditions of man.
--*Victor Hugo (1802–1885),*Les Misérables, translated by Isabel F. Hapgood, 1887



Origin

Ameliorate and meliorate mean the same thing, “to make better.” Both verbs come from the Late Latin meliōrāre “to improve,” a derivative of the adjective melior “better.” Meliorate is the earlier form (mid-16th century); the a- in ameliorate came from French améliorer and ultimately derives from the Latin prefix ad-. Ameliorate entered English in the 18th century.

[Altobelli]

JANUS-FACED adjective (jey-nuh s-feyst)

adjective

1. having two contrasting aspects, as the alternation of mood in a capricious person.
2. having two faces, one looking forward, one looking backward, as the Roman deity Janus.
3. two-faced; deceitful.
4. aware of or concerned with polarities; seeing different and contrasting aspects: a Janus-faced view of history.
5. having or containing contrasting characteristics: a Janus-faced policy.


Quotes

And he has positioned himself as a Janus-faced figure who can present one version of reality to his followers and another version to the outside world.
--*Roger Berkowitz,*"Why Arendt Matters: Revisiting 'The Origins of Totalitarianism'," Los Angeles Review of Books, March 18, 2017

By so fully enacting the Janus-faced tendencies, the extreme looking backwards and forwards of the Walpolean Gothic symbol, moreover, Hugo's Notre Dame allows the contradiction that results to disguise, yet thereby contain, profound cultural contradictions of the author's own moment.
--*Jerrold E. Hogle,*"Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris, Leroux's Le Fantôme de l'Opéra and the Changing Fiction of the Gothic," Le Gothic: Influences and Appropriations in Europe and America, 2008



Origin

Janus was the ancient Roman god of doorways (Latin jānuae; singular jānua) and of free-standing archways or gateways (Latin jānī; singular jānus). There were auspicious and inauspicious ways of passing through a jānus. The jānī were used for auspicious entrances and exits, especially for the departure of the army on an expedition. Because Janus was the god of entrances and exits, of beginnings and endings in general, of wars and conflicts in particular, and of temporal transitions, he is represented as having two faces because he looks to both the future and the past. Janus-faced entered English in the late 17th century.

[Altobelli]

PERAMBULATOR noun (per-am-byuh-ley-ter)

noun

1. baby carriage.
2. an odometer pushed by a person walking.
3. a person who makes a tour of inspection on foot.


Quotes

Having the baby with her in a perambulator, Mrs. Finn called out to him to go away, and as he persisted in coming nearer, she hit him courageously with her umbrella over the head ...
--*Joseph Conrad,*"Amy Foster," Illustrated London News, December 1901

He refused them, and ordered her to wheel baby's perambulator away, as they desired to be alone.
--*E. M. Forster,*Howards End, 1910



Origin

Perambulator derives from the Latin verb perambulāre “to ramble, stroll” and, of physicians, “to make one’s rounds, visit patients.” Perambulator in its original sense “a person who strolls, pedestrian” appears in the early 17th century but is now quaint. By the late 17th century perambulator had developed the meaning “surveyor” (i.e. a person who surveys), and a little later, “a wheeled machine, attached to a handle, pushed by a worker to measure distances” (also called an odometer). From the wheeled device attached to a handle and pushed by a person, the most common modern sense of perambulator, “baby carriage,” arose in the mid-19th century; it is chiefly a British word of older usage, and the source of the shortened form pram.

[oldcolner]

SCHMUCK
"Schmuck", or "shmuck", in American English is a pejorative term meaning one who is stupid or foolish, or an obnoxious, contemptible or detestable person. The word came into the English language from Yiddish (שמאָק, shmok), where it has similar pejorative meanings, but where its original and literal meaning is ***** - a male organ

[Altobelli]

GLOCAL adjective (gloh-kuh l)

adjective

1. of or relating to the interconnection of global and local issues, factors, etc.: a glocal conference on community development.
2. of or relating to the tailoring of globally available products and services to local markets: a glocal sales strategy.


Quotes

Ten years ago, we might have seen global and local as the two ends of a dichotomous spectrum, but today we are appreciating that we can be both, we can be glocal.
--*Sylvia Vorhauser-Smith,*"Going 'Glocal': How Smart Brands Adapt To Foreign Markets," Forbes, June 22, 2012

In the strict sense, these oppositions relate not only to the ways in which finance is perceived, but they also concern the more general process of neoliberal globalization, which equally evokes fascination and fear, and whose "glocal" implications remain contested.
--*Miriam Meissner,*Narrating the Global Financial Crisis: Urban Imaginaries and the Politics of Myth, 2017



Origin

Glocal, a blend of global and local, was originally, and still is, mostly a business term. It entered English in the early 1980s.

[Altobelli]

HARRUMPH verb (huh-ruhmf)

verb

1. to clear the throat audibly in a self-important manner: The professor harrumphed good-naturedly.
2. to express oneself gruffly.


Quotes

He harrumphed and wheezed, tugged on a greying whisker, cast his gaze around my tiny cabin for another topic.
--*Ronald Wright,*Henderson's Spear, 2001

He studied me with a cold policeman's eye. I resorted once again to my mumbling tactics. He harrumphed and we both went our ways.
--*Ted Reynolds,*"Furtive Free Ride," Life, February 7, 1964



Origin

Harrumph was first recorded in the 1930s. It is imitative of the sound made by clearing the throat.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

GAZUMPED

As in Burnley gazump Boro for Assombalonga!

[Altobelli]

GAZUMPED

As in Burnley gazump Boro for Assombalonga!

Oh I do hope so without too much being paid over the top BT.

[Altobelli]

FETE noun (feyt, fet)

noun

1. a festive celebration or entertainment: The ball was the greatest fete of the season.
2. a day of celebration; holiday: The Fourth of July is a great American fete.
3. a religious feast or festival: a fete lasting several days in honor of a saint.
verb

1. to entertain at or honor with a fete: to fete a visiting celebrity.


Quotes

" ... I've been so bored. Well, never mind," she brightened suddenly; "the fete will be a little excitement. I am looking forward to that.
--*Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey,*The Lady of the Basement Flat, 1917

The fete was magnificent. They kept it up the whole night long, and I never enjoyed myself better than I did while it lasted.
--*Mark Twain,*The Innocents Abroad, 1869



Origin

English fete comes from French fête, which comes from Old French feste “feast.” The Old French form makes obvious the connection with Spanish fiesta and Italian festa. The Romance forms come from Latin festum (plural festa) “holiday, festival, feast.” Latin festum is related to the Latin noun fēriae (Old Latin fēsiae) “days of rest, holidays,” from which comes the English noun fair (an exposition, as of livestock; an exhibition or sale of items for charity, as at a church). Fete entered English in the mid-18th century.