Word Of The Day

[Altobelli]

UPTALK noun (uhp-tawk)

noun

1. a rise in pitch at the end usually of a declarative sentence, especially if habitual: often represented in writing by a question mark as in Hi, I'm here to read the meter?


Quotes

Uptalk, the researchers found, could also serve a strategic purpose through a technique known as "floor-holding," in which the speaker, anticipating an interruption by the listener, tries to stave it off by using a rising tone at the end of a statement.
--*Jan Hoffman,*"Overturning the Myth of Valley Girl Speak," New York Times, December 23, 2013

The young woman met his eye and said, "You've traveled a lot in the Middle East." Her "lot" was glottal, the statement intoned as a question. What linguists called uptalk, so he had recently learned.
--*Ian McEwan,*Solar, 2010



Origin

Uptalk is a linguistic term for an intonation pattern in which a declarative sentence ends in a rising pitch like a question. The phenomenon was first noted especially among ****age girls and young women, though it is used among the general population. Uptalk entered English in the early 1990s.

[outwoodclaret]

SHENANIGANS

A load of mischief! And if this involves making mischief for Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest I am all for it!

[The Bedlington Terrier]

SHENANIGANS

A load of mischief! And if this involves making mischief for Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest I am all for it!

Burnley are now clear favourites to sign Assombalonga, with Darikwa heading off to Nottingham in a part exchange deal and Middlesbrough are relegated to third favourites behind us and Watford.

[Altobelli]

Hopefully the favourites get him.........

[Altobelli]

ALVEOLATE adjective (al-vee-uh-lit)

adjective

1. having alveoli; deeply pitted, as a honeycomb.


Quotes

Receptacle alveolate or honeycombed, edge of the cells membranous, with fine bristle-like teeth, gradually higher as the depth of the cells diminishes towards the centre.
--*The Botanical Register: Consisting of Coloured Figures of Exotic Plants, Cultivated in British Gardens; with Their History and Mode of Treatment, Volume II, 1816

Dorothea's house, bought with a small legacy when she was thirty-one, was made of an alveolate gray stone ...
--*Joyce Carol Oates writing as Rosamond Smith,*Soul/Mate, 1989



Origin

Alveolate is a derivative of the Latin noun alveus “hollow, cavity,” and by extension “hull or hold of a ship, bathtub.” Alveus comes from alwo-, a variant, metathesized form of the Proto-Indo-European root aulo- “cavity,” from which Greek derives the noun aulós “tube, flute.” Alveolate entered English in the late 18th century.

[Altobelli]

EXCULPATORY adjective (ik-skuhl-puh-yawr-ee)

adjective

1. tending to clear from a charge of fault or guilt.


Quotes

Stacy is now morbidly fascinated by the circumstances of the tape and wondering if this could somehow be exculpatory in Lloyd's case.
--*Seth Greenland,*The Bones, 2005

Prosecutors’ offices should adopt a standard “open file” policy, which would involve turning over all exculpatory evidence as a rule, thus reducing the potential for error.
--*The Editorial Board,*"Rampant Prosecutorial Misconduct," New York Times, January 4, 2014



Origin

Exculpatory was first recorded in the 1770s. It derives from Latin exculpātus “freed from blame.”

[Altobelli]

OVINE adjective (oh-vahyn)

adjective

1. pertaining to, of the nature of, or like sheep.


Quotes

In the gaze of its ovine inhabitants, we glimpse their dim recognition that a new sort of shepherd has arisen.
--*"Dronestagram's View," New York Times, June 5, 2015

Alas! for the ovine nature of mankind, if one jumps over the gate, the others call come "tumbling after."
--*Thomas Hood,*"The Maker and Model of Harmonious Verse," Quips and Cranks, 1861



Origin

Ovine comes straightforwardly from the Late Latin adjective ovīnus “pertaining to a sheep.” The Latin noun ovis “sheep” is identical with the Proto-Indo-European noun owis “sheep,” the source of Greek óïs (dialectal ówis), Lithuanian avìs, Sanskrit ávi-, Germanic awiz, which becomes ēowu in Old English and ewe in modern English. Ovine entered English in the 17th century.

[Altobelli]

PHLEGETHON noun (fleg-uh-thon)

noun

1. (often lowercase) a stream of fire or fiery light.
2. Classical Mythology. a river of fire, one of five rivers surrounding Hades. Also called Pyriphlegethon.


Quotes

And now Atal, slipping dizzily up over inconceivable steeps, heard in the dark a loathsome laughing, mixed with such a cry as no man else ever heard save in the Phlegethon of unrelatable nightmares ...
--*H. P. Lovecraft,*"The Other Gods," The Fantasy Fan, November 1933

Looking down from this pinnacle upon the howling Phlegethon below, I could not help smiling at the simplicity with which the honest Jonas Ramus records, a matter difficult of belief, the anecdotes of the whales and the bears ...
--*Edgar Allen Poe,*"A Descent into the Maelström," Graham's Magazine, May 1841



Origin

Phlegethon is the name of the fiery river surrounding Hades. In form it is the present active participle “burning, flaming” of the infinitive phlegéthein, a Greek verb used only in poetry for the “prosaic” phlégein. The Greek root phleg- derives from the complicated Proto-Indo-European root bhel-, “to burn, shine, flash,” which has many variants (e.g., bhlē-) and extended forms (e.g., bhleg-). Phlegethon, spelled Flegeton, entered English in the poetry of John Gower (c.1325–1408).

[Altobelli]

LICKSPITTLE noun (lik-spit-l)


noun
1. a contemptible, fawning person; a servile flatterer or toady.


Quotes

What do we have here, an honest muttonhead or a lickspittle?
--*George R. R. Martin,*A Storm of Swords, 2000

Please, I don't mind your making me out to be a soulless, corporate lickspittle, but at least don't make me sound like an ignorant, soulless, corporate lickspittle.
--*Christopher Buckley,*Thank You for Smoking, 1994



Origin

Lickspittle was first recorded in the 1620s. It is a combination of the terms lick, an action performed by the tongue, and spittle, a blend of Middle English nouns spit and spetil “saliva” (Old English spǣtl, variant of spātl).

[Altobelli]

AL DESKO adjective (a ldes-koh)

adjective, adverb

1. Facetious. (of meals or eating) at one's desk in an office: always snacking al desko; having an al desko lunch.


Quotes

They'll be working through until it's done, so Janice has gone to KFC for a bargain bucket. They're dining al desko.
--*Christopher Fowler,*The Water Room, 2004

Other reasons people dine ''al desko'' vary .... They need to high-tail it out of the office at 5 p.m. sharp to pick up the kids. They want to save money, or they are just too stressed to leave.
--*Abby Ellin,*"When the Food Critics Are Deskside," New York Times, February 18, 2007



Origin

Al desko is patterned after al fresco and was first recorded in the 1980s.