Word Of The Day

[Altobelli]

CRUCIVERBALIST noun (kroo-suh-vur-buh-list)

noun

1. a designer or aficionado of crossword puzzles.


Quotes

In crossword parlance, you are either a solver or a “constructor” (or, if you're in a four****-letter mood, a “cruciverbalist&rdquo, though many people at the tournament had dabbled in both.
--*Michael Schulman,*"Solvers," The New Yorker, March 15, 2010

Making a crossword puzzle isn't easy: crossword puzzle makers, or cruciverbalists, have to follow strict rules in building their brain teasers.
--*Danny Lewis,*"Plagiarism Scandal Checkers the World of Crossword Puzzles," Smithsonian.com, March 8, 2016



Origin

Cruciverbalist is a Latin translation of English crossword. Cruci- is the combining form of the Latin noun crux “cross,” as in cruciform or crucifix; verbalist means someone who is skilled in using words or who is more interested in words than in ideas or reality. Cruciverbalist entered English in the 20th century.

[Altobelli]

RAPPROCHEMENT noun (rap-rohsh-mahn)

noun

1. an establishment or reestablishment of harmonious relations: a rapprochement reached between warring factions.


Quotes

In May a Franco-German Committee of Socialist deputies, including Jaurès and Hugo Haase, met at Basel to discuss measures for rapprochement between their countries.
--*Barbara W. Tuchman,*The Proud Tower, 1962

He, too, barely spoke to Charles for decades but gradually underwent a rapprochement with his twin, David.
--*Jane Mayer,*Dark Money, 2016



Origin

English rapprochement comes directly from modern French rapprochement “reconciliation, understanding,” dates only from the end of the 18th century, and is still unnaturalized, as one can tell from its more or less French pronunciation. The underlying French word is the verb approcher (Old French aprochier) “to approach,” which English adopted in the 14th century. The English spelling approach has given rise to two nonstandard spellings of rapprochement: rapproachement and rapproachment. Rapprochement entered English in the late 18th century.

[Altobelli]

DEADWOOD noun (ded-woo d)

noun

1. (in writing) unnecessary words, phrases, or exposition; expendable verbiage.
2. the dead branches on a tree; dead branches or trees.
3. useless or burdensome persons or things: He cut the deadwood from his staff.
4. Nautical. a solid construction, serving only as reinforcement, located between the keel of a vessel and the stem or sternpost.
5. Bowling. pins remaining on the alley after having been knocked down by the ball.
6. Cards. a. Rummy. cards in a hand that have not been included in sets and are usually counted as points against the holder. b. Poker. cards that have been discarded.


Quotes

Well-chosen words add to the meaning and power of your essays; deadwood or clutter, as some editors call wasted words, gets in the way.
--*Phillip Eggers,*Process and Practice with Multicultural Readings, 1997

Learn to recognize deadwood. For example, rather than simply writing because, since, or if, some students feel compelled to clutter their sentences with empty phrases. Here are some common [ones] ...: by virtue of the fact that; due to the fact that; for the simple reason that; inasmuch as; in light of the fact that ...
--*Luis A. Nazario, Deborah D. Borchers, William F. Lewis,*Bridges to Better Writing, 2010



Origin

Deadwood was first recorded in the 1720s. It’s a combination of the words dead and

[Altobelli]

SAWBONES noun (saw-bohnz)

noun

1. Slang. a surgeon or physician.


Quotes

"There's a couple o' sawbones downstairs." "A couple of what!" exclaimed Mr. PIckwick, sitting up in bed. "A couple o' sawbones," said Sam. ... "I thought everybody know'd as a sawbones was a surgeon."
--*Charles Dickens,*The Pickwick Papers, 1837

My wife complains of a pain in her hip and a swelling there, so in the end I send for a sawbones, one Daniel Behenna, who has the reputation of being an acceptable member of his useless profession.
--*Winston Graham,*Bella Poldark, 2002



Origin

The etymology of sawbones is appallingly familiar to anyone who has seen photos from the Civil War or Gone with the Wind. The word is relatively modern, first appearing in Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers (1837).

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PRETA noun (prey-tuh)

noun

1. Hindu Mythology. a wandering or disturbed ghost.


Quotes

It hurtled down upon us, wanting to hurt us, as if we were horrid abominations it hungered to kill; as if the cloud truly was a hungry ghost, a preta.
--*James Alan Gardner,*Radiant, 2004

The boy's expression was that of a preta, unburied at death.
--*Kim Stanley Robinson,*The Years of Rice and Salt, 2002



Origin

In Sanskrit e is a long vowel (it is also transliterated as ē). Hindi grammarians correctly analyzed e as a monophthong replacing an earlier diphthong ai; thus the Sanskrit adjective preta “gone before, deceased” is from an earlier form, praita, formed from the adverb and prefix pra- “forth” and -ita “gone.” Pra- is cognate with the Latin prepositions prō and prae (and prefixes pro- and prae-) and the Greek preposition pró (and prefix pro-), all of them meaning “before, in front of.” The Sanskrit participle ita- corresponds exactly in form with Latin itum, past participle of the verb īre “to go” and the Greek verbal adjective itós “passable,” all from the Proto-Indo-European root ei-, i- “to go.” Preta entered English in the early 19th century.

[Altobelli]

GUISARD noun (gahy-zerd)

noun

1. a person who wears a mask; mummer.


Quotes

"I'm gaun to turn mysel' intil a guisard." He picked up the thing he had been carrying and revealed it as a cloak of deerskins which fitted like a loose jerkin. Over his head he drew a cap of skin with slits for his eyes, a roughly shaped nozzle like a deer's, and on the top the horns of a goat.
--*John Buchan,*Witch Wood, 1927

The guisard performances are not extinct, but they have fallen so far into decay, comparatively, that we look upon them with a sort of fond regret, murmuring, "Pars magna fui," or, "In them we acted great parts."
--*"Yule and Hogmanay," Hogg's Weekly Instructor, Volume VI, September 1847 to February 1848



Origin

Guisard is a Scottish and North English word. The first part of the word, guise, in Scotland and northern England means "to appear or go in disguise." The suffix -ard, occasionally spelled -art, is now used mostly in a pejorative sense for someone who does something habitually or excessively, e.g., drunkard, braggart. Guisard entered English in the 17th century.

[Altobelli]

PSYCHOMANCY noun (sahy-koh-man-see)

noun

1. occult communication between souls or with spirits.


Quotes

" ... There is something, though, that is rather queer, but it belongs to psychomancy rather than psychology, as I understand it." "Ah!" I said. "What is that queer something?" "Being visibly present when absent. It has not happened often, but it has happened that I have seen Marion in my loft when she was really somewhere else and not when I had willed her or wished her to be there."
--*William Dean Howells,*Questionable Shapes, 1903

To one who has an adequate knowledge of the laws of electricity and magnetism, it is more than amusing to see with what pedantic gravity these latter philomaths descant upon electricity and magnetism, contorting and butchering their established laws all the while, to explain some vile juggle, or unravel the psychomancy of rappers and tippers ...
--*Charles G. Page,*Psychomancy: Spirit-Rappings and Table-Tippings Exposed, 1853



Origin

Psychomancy is a less common euphemistic synonym of the far more sinister necromancy. The first element, psycho-, familiar from English psychiatry and psychology, is a combining form from the Greek noun psȳchḗ “breath, soul, spirit, ghost.” Psȳchḗ is also the name of a butterfly, which inspired the English poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) to write a short poem, “Psyche,” about the double meaning “soul” and “butterfly.” The element -mancy ultimately derives from Greek manteía “divination,” a derivative of mántis “diviner, soothsayer, prophet,” and also “praying mantis (the predatory insect).” Psychomancy entered English in the 16th century.

[alfinyalcabo]

GONGOOZLER

A person who idly watches the labours of others while declining to offer assistance or becoming involved. Traditionally a term used by canal bargees when referring to onlookers found clustering around locks and moorings where barges have to stop and the crew engage in sometimes hardphysical activity to make progress.
"Don't stuff up at Five Rise Locks or you'll get a cheer from the gongoozlers"

[Altobelli]

GONGOOZLER

A person who idly watches the labours of others while declining to offer assistance or becoming involved. Traditionally a term used by canal bargees when referring to onlookers found clustering around locks and moorings where barges have to stop and the crew engage in sometimes hardphysical activity to make progress.
"Don't stuff up at Five Rise Locks or you'll get a cheer from the gongoozlers"

Nice one

[Altobelli]

KOBOLD noun (koh-bold)

noun

1. (in German folklore) a spirit or goblin, often mischievous, that haunts houses.
2. (in German folklore) a spirit that haunts mines or other underground places.


Quotes

The telling and retelling of old tales, from parent to child, down the long generations, have made Europe the home of "the Little People"--pixie and kobold and brownie and gnome ...
--*Edwin Markham,*"Mr. Markham Writes of Some American Fairy Tales," New York Times, November 30, 1901

What of the grand tools with which we engineer, like kobolds and enchanters, tunnelling Alps, canalling the American Isthmus, piercing the Arabian desert?
--*Ralph Waldo Emerson,*Society and Solitude, 1870



Origin

In German folklore a Kobold is either of two things: a spirit living in human houses like a brownie or pixie, playing pranks but also doing small chores for the humans; a spirit or goblin haunting mines. Kobold is also the source of the name for the metallic element found in silver mines, usually combined with poisonous arsenic. Medieval German silver miners had no use for cobalt, let alone its potentially poisonous effects, and called this unwanted element Kobold in the belief that Kobolds, goblins, had switched the silver to this undesirable element. The English spelling cobolt occurs in the late 17th century, and the spelling cobalt in the 18th century. Kobold entered English in the 17th century.