Word Of The Day

[The Bedlington Terrier]

For all of the sycophantic Royalists who post on here...

syco|phan¦tic
[ˌsɪkəˈfantɪk]

ADJECTIVE
behaving or done in an obsequious way in order to gain advantage:
"a sycophantic interview"
synonyms: obsequious · servile · subservient · deferential · grovelling · toadying · fawning · flattering · ingratiating · cringing · unctuous · oily · slimy · creeping · crawling · truckling · slavish · bowing and scraping · Uriah Heepish · gushing · bootlicking · smarmy

[Altobelli]

I have an easier and more to the point one BT.

SPONGEING CNUTS

[Altobelli]

NOSTRUM noun (nos-truh m)

noun

1. a scheme, theory, device, etc., especially one to remedy social or political ills; panacea.
2. a medicine sold with false or exaggerated claims and with no demonstrable value; quack medicine.
3. a medicine made by the person who recommends it.
4. a patent medicine.


Quotes

We begin to find that with individuals, as with nations, the only safe revolution is one arising out of the wants which their own progress has generated. It is the quackery of infidelity to suppose that it has a nostrum for all mankind, and to say to all and singular, "Swallow my opinions and you shall be whole."
--*"George Eliot to Sara Hennell, October 19, 1843," George Eliot's Life, as related in her Letters and Journals, 1895


He knew how to handle the importunate seeker after patronage or market tips; the reporter sent out to get an indiscreet statement or to steal an indiscreet snapshot; the politician soliciting party funds; the professor of economics armed with a nostrum guaranteed to cure all financial and commercial ills ...
--*Achmed Abdullah,*A Romantic Young Man, 1932



Origin

In Latin nostrum is a neuter singular possessive pronoun meaning “our.” There is no noun expressed to be qualified, but the noun remedium “cure, medicine, remedy” may be understood. The original sense of nostrum “patent medicine made of secret ingredients” has always had more than a whiff of snake oil about it. The later sense of nostrum, dating from the mid-18th century and meaning “favorite but questionable plan for social or political improvement,” also carries an unfavorable connotation. Nostrum entered English in the early 17th century.

[Altobelli]

COCKCROW noun (kok-kroh)

noun

1. daybreak; dawn; the time at which a cock characteristically crows.


Quotes

He was as a ghost, all whose power of wandering free through these upper regions ceases at cockcrow ...
--*Anthony Trollope,*Barchester Towers, 1857


He would have a delightful Friday evening looking out tackle, and would be off at cockrow on Saturday in his little car, returning late on the Sunday night with a sunburnt face and an added zest for life ...
--*John Buchan,*The Gap in the Curtain, 1932



Origin

Cockcrow entered English between 1350 and 1400.

[Altobelli]

LITERATIM adverb (lit-uh-rey-tim)

adverb

1. letter-for-letter; literally.


Quotes

Now this is fine--it is rich!--and we have half a mind to punish this young scribbler for his egotism by really publishing his effusion verbatim et literatim, as he has written it.
--*Edgar Allan Poe,*"The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq.," Southern Literary Messenger, December 1844


It is impossible for me to examine literatum and verbatim; not even indeed lineatim and paginatim.
--*Hugh Henry Brackenridge,*Modern Chivalry: Containing the Adventures of Captain John Farrago and Teague O'Regan, His Servant, 1792



Origin

Latin has many fossil word forms, usually nouns, used as adverbs, such as partim “partly, in part” (an old accusative singular of pars, stem part- “part, piece”) and articulātim “piece by piece, piecemeal” from (articulātus “jointed"). Līterātim (also litterātim), however, is New Latin, coined or at least used by the great Renaissance scholar Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536). Literatim entered English in the 17th century.

[Altobelli]

GERONTOCRACY noun (jer-uh-n-tok-ruh-see)

noun

1. a state or government in which old people rule.
2. government by a council of elders.
3. a governing body consisting of old people.


Quotes

The French Restoration was a gerontocracy--the two kings of the era, Louis XVIII and Charles X, were both brothers of Louis XVI, guillotined in 1793, and old men by the time they ascended to the throne--out of touch with the youth of the country.
--*Peter Brooks,*"Introduction," The Human Comedy: Selected Stories by Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), translated by Linda Asher, Carol Cosman, and Jordan M. Stump, 2014


Because poorer countries would be less likely to be dominated by a gerontocracy, tomorrow's divide between old and young would mirror the contemporary division between rich northern nations and their poorer southern neighbors.
--*Charles C. Mann,*"The Coming Death Shortage," The Atlantic, May 2005



Origin

The English noun gerontocracy is composed of two relatively common Greek elements: geront- (“old age”) and the combining form -cracy (from the Greek combining form -kratia “rule, government”). Geront- is the stem of the noun gérōn “old, old man, elder” and derives from the Proto-Indo-European root gerǝ- “to become old.” In Germanic the root appears in the noun karlaz “man,” which further develops into Old Norse karl “man, old man, married man,” Old English ceorl “man, freeman of the lowest class” (whence Modern English “churl”), and German Kerl “man, fellow, guy.” The Greek combining form -kratia is a derivative of krátos “strength, might,” from the Proto-Indo-European root ker-, kar- “hard,” source of Germanic (English) “hard.” Gerontocracy entered English in the 19th century.

[Altobelli]

XANADU noun (zan-uh-doo)


noun

1. a place of great beauty, luxury, and contentment.


Quotes

So now there is this Xanadu, a ghost town from birth. On paper it is the second richest place in China, per capita income just behind Shanghai.
--*Ken Liu,*"The Long Haul: From the Annals of Transportation, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009," Clarkesworld, November 2014


Levy's Lodge--that was what the sign at the coast road said--was a Xanadu of the senses; within its insulated walls there was something that could gratify anything.
--*John Kennedy Toole,*A Confederacy of Dunces, 1980



Origin

Xanadu is associated with the English poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) in his poem “Kubla Khan,” written in a “reverie” (possibly inspired by opium) in 1797. The first two lines run: “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure dome decree:” Kubla (Kublai) Khan (1215–94) was the grandson of the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan (1162-1227) and was the first emperor of the Chinese Yuan dynasty. Xanadu is from Chinese (Mandarin) Shàngdū (“Upper Capital”), now in Inner Mongolia about 220 miles north of Beijing. Xanadu first entered English in the 17th century.

[Altobelli]

LOGOMACHY noun (loh-gom-uh-kee)

noun

1. a dispute about or concerning words.
2. an argument or debate marked by the reckless or incorrect use of words; meaningless battle of words.
3. a game played with cards, each bearing one letter, with which words are formed.


Quotes

And suppose he tackled me again with this logomachy, which might vainly have been set before ancient Oedipus.
--*Jules Verne,*Journey to the Center of the Earth, translated by Frederick Amadeus Malleson, 1877


Sir Richard Freeman coughed disapprovingly as Fen became launched on his logomachy; he had heard it all before. But Fen was oblivious to such mild innuendoes, and proceeded with irrepressible verve to enlarge on his ideas.
--*Edmund Crispin,*The Case of the Gilded Fly, 1944



Origin

English logomachy comes straight from the Greek noun logomachía “battle of words.” The Greek noun is very rare and also very late, first used in the First Epistle to Timothy, traditionally attributed to St. Paul (c5-67 a.d.). Logomachy entered English at the end of the 16th century.

[Altobelli]

PALMY adjective (pah-mee)

adjective

1. glorious, prosperous, or flourishing: the palmy days of yesteryear.
2. abounding in or shaded with palms: palmy islands.
3. palmlike.


Quotes

Back in those palmy days, I would never have predicted what has recently occurred: I've become a turncoat, a mugwump, a snake-in-the-grass. I have become a part-time New Yorker.
--*Luc Sante,*"Paradise, Part-time," New York, December 22–29, 1997


Those were the palmy days of commercial supremacy and the seas were dotted with vessels from the old town.
--*Frederick Starr,*"Anthropological Work in America," The Popular Science Monthly, July 1892



Origin

Palmy in its literal sense “made or covered with palm leaves” first appears in English in the mid-15th century. Its current, most common sense, “prosperous, flourishing,” first appears in Hamlet (1603).

[Altobelli]

GLEEK verb (gleek)

verb

1. Archaic. to make a joke; jest.


Quotes

Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.
--*William Shakespeare,*A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1623


He ever loves to gleek and gird at Will, and say that he doth lack learning.
--*Francis H. Mackintosh,*"The New Play--II: An Evening with Shakspere, A. D. 1611," The Bellman, Volume X, April 8, 1911



Origin

Gleek was first recorded between 1540 and 1550. It is of uncertain origin.