+ Visit Burnley FC Mad for Latest News, Transfer Gossip, Fixtures and Match Results
Page 69 of 119 FirstFirst ... 1959676869707179 ... LastLast
Results 681 to 690 of 1189

Thread: Word Of The Day

  1. #681
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    34,428
    TURNCOAT noun (turn-koht)

    noun

    1. a person who changes to the opposite party or faction, reverses principles, etc.; renegade.


    Quotes

    A turncoat is the angry name for a convert, but you are no converts; how then can you be turncoats?
--*George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton,*A Letter to the Tories, 1747


    With Roy comes big trouble, and aging sheriff Bill McNue (Scott McNairy) does his best to protect his people. But Frank and his gang are tearing up nearby towns hunting the turncoat, and a showdown looms.
--*Kelly Woo,*"6 things to know about 'Godless,' Netflix's star-packed limited-series western," Yahoo! News, November 21, 2017



    Origin

    There are several possibilities for the origin of turncoat. One is that two English barons in the early 13th century changed fealty to King John (c1167–1216), literally changing their coats of arms from one lord to another. Another is that during the siege of Corfe Castle (1645) during the English Civil Wars (1642–51), Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers turned their coats inside out to match the colors of the Royalist army. A similar expression “to wear the King’s coat,” dating from the mid-19th century, means “serve in the King’s army.” The now obsolete idiom “to be in someone else’s coat,” dating from the mid-16th century, meant the modern “to be in someone else’s shoes.” Turncoat entered English in the 16th century.

  2. #682
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    34,428
    BOUSTROPHEDON noun (boo-struh-feed n)

    noun

    1. an ancient method of writing in which the lines run alternately from right to left and from left to right.


    Quotes

    Many of the old Greek inscriptions were written alternately from right to left and from left to right, turning the direction as one turns a plow in the field, and this style was called "boustrophedon" (turning like oxen).
--*Carl Vogt,*"Writing Physiologically Considered," The Popular Science Monthly, September 1881


    And although the zigzag boustrophedon style of writing had long since been replaced with lines running uniformly left to right, a brief, unrelated Roman experiment of SEPARATING∙WORDS∙WITH∙DOTS had by the end of the second century been abandoned in favor of the Greeks' monotonous, unspaced scriptio continua.
--*Keith Houston,*Shady Characters, 2013



    Origin

    Only students of ancient scripts, especially (but not exclusively) of ancient Greek, will know the meaning and etymology of boustrophedon “like the ox turns (in plowing).” The major components of the Greek adverb boustrophēdón are the nouns boûs (stem, bou-) “bull, cow, ox,” and strophḗ “a turn, twist.” In the earliest Greek writing (mid-8th century b.c.), the first line was written from right to left (“retrograde,” as always in Phoenician and Hebrew); the second line from left to right; the third line retrograde, etc. Boustrophedonic writing was obsolete in Athens and most other parts of Greece by the mid-5th century b.c. Boustrophedon entered English in the 18th century.

  3. #683
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    34,428
    WATERSHED noun (waw-ter-shed)

    noun

    1. an important point of division or transition between two phases, conditions, etc.: The treaty to ban war in space may prove to be one of history's great watersheds.

    2. Chiefly British. the ridge or crest line dividing two drainage areas; water parting; divide.
    3. the region or area drained by a river, stream, etc.; drainage area.
    4. Architecture. wash.

    adjective

    1. constituting a watershed: a watershed area; a watershed case.


    Quotes

    For we stand, although the nation is unaware of the fact, upon a watershed of history; unless due care is taken we shall cross it blindfold and march on to a destination which is hidden from our gaze.
--*Ronald Clark,*Queen Victoria's Bomb, 1967


    Goethe’s time in Italy marked a watershed in his life.
--*Adam Kirsch,*"Design for Living: What's great about Goethe?" The New Yorker, February 1, 2016



    Origin

    Watershed may be an ordinary English compound, the element shed having the rare sense “a part made in one’s hair.” Watershed may also be a loan translation from the German compound Wasserscheide (Scheide in German means "boundary, border, limit, divide"). Watershed entered English in the 18th century.

  4. #684
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    34,428
    HORSEFEATHERS (hawrs-feth-erz)

    interjection

    1. Slang. rubbish; nonsense; bunk (used to express contemptuous rejection).

    noun

    1. Slang. (used with a singular or plural verb) something not worth considering.


    Quotes

    At the risk of seeming disrespectful, I rise to cry: "Horsefeathers!"
--*John R. Tunis,*"Are Fraternities Worthwhile? No!" The Rotarian, September 1937

"Horsefeathers!" Gus snorted. "Why, that's the dumbest--"
--*Arnold Bateman,*"Gus," Boys' Life, April 1949



    Origin

    Horsefeathers is a polite euphemism, originally American, for the impolite horse****. The cartoonist William “Billie” De Beck (1890–1942) claimed credit for coining the word in 1928.

  5. #685
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    34,428
    STARDUST noun (stahr-duhst)

    noun

    1. a naively romantic quality: There was stardust in her eyes.
    2. (not in technical use) a mass of distant stars appearing as tiny particles of dust.


    Quotes

    "I seem to remember you had a different opinion of her once." ... "I guess I must've had some stardust in my eyes. But that was a thousand years ago. ..."
--*Alan Hunter,*Gently with Love, 1975


    It sounds corny, but I got stardust in my eyes the first time I saw the boulevard.
--*Harold Robbins,*Never Enough, 2001



    Origin

    Stardust was first recorded in 1835–45.

  6. #686
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    34,428
    SUSPIRATION noun (suhs-puh-rey-shuh n)

    noun

    1. a long, deep sigh.


    Quotes

    ‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother … Nor windy suspiration of forced breath ... That can denote me truly.
--*William Shakespeare,*Hamlet, 1603


    ... the breast dilated and swelled, as when one draws a heavy suspriation; no sound accompanied the motion.
--*"A Soldier's Recollections: A Ghost Story," Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, No. XIII, April 1883



    Origin

    English suspiration comes directly from Latin suspīrātiōn-, the stem of the noun suspīrātiō “a sigh,” a derivative of the verb suspīrāre “to fetch a deep breath, breathe out, exclaim with a sigh.” The combining form su- is a reduced form of the preposition and prefix sub “under, from under.” The Latin verb spīrāre “to breathe” is also the source of English spirit and sprite. Suspiration entered English in the 16th century.

  7. #687
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    34,428
    DENOUEMENT noun (dey-noo-mahn)

    noun

    1. the outcome or resolution of a doubtful series of occurrences.
    2. the final resolution of the intricacies of a plot, as of a drama or novel.
    3. the place in the plot at which this occurs.


    Quotes

    Both the irrational-Nixon and the rational-Nixon theories lead to the same denouement: "My fellow Americans ... farewell."
--*Richard Reeves,*"Nixon in the Twilight Zone," New York, November 5, 1973


    Yet, inexorably, he must be carried on to the final grim denouement. Every step he took seemed to be charted in advance.
--*Arthur J. Burks,*"The White Wasp," All Detective, May 1933



    Origin

    Denouement is from the French word meaning literally “an untying,” equivalent to dénouer “to untie.” It ultimately derives from Latin nōdāre, derivative of nōdus “knot.” It entered English in the mid-1700s.

  8. #688
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    34,428
    JANNOCK adjective (jan-uh k)

    adjective

    1. British, Australian Informal. honest; fair; straightforward.


    Quotes

    ... this beautiful damsel that lived in the kingdom of the great Mogul, had many suitors--sweethearts as we call them in Lancashire--but none of them was jannock but one ...
--*Samuel William Ryley,*The Itinerant; or, Memoirs of an Actor, Volume VI, 1817


    For instance, it was "scarcely jannock" of your reviewer to suggest that I borrowed part of my plot from some other novelist when he cannot in the nature of things know that I did so.
--*William Westall,*"To the Editor of The Speaker," The Speaker, April 26, 1902



    Origin

    Jannock “honest, straightforward” is a British and Australian word of recent origin and uncertain etymology, first recorded only in the 19th century.

  9. #689
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    34,428
    SILVER-TONGUED adjective (sil-ver-tuhngd)

    adjective

    1. persuasive; eloquent: a silver-tongued orator.

    Quotes

    "Always speak to the folks in the back rows, my boy," said the silver-tongued orator, "and the rest will be sure to hear you."
--*Paul O'Neil,*"Grand Old King of the Senate," Life, March 26, 1965


    The American representatives were not fools, and before accepting such a proposal, they investigated it from all angles, but when they talked with silver-tongued Santa Anna, who knew English well enough to smother them with glibness at any difficult juncture, they convinced themselves that here was a noble patriot who wished only to end a disagreeable war on terms favorable to both sides.
--*James A. Michener,*Texas, 1985



    Origin

    Silver-tongued may be named for the pleasing resonance of a silver bell. Even more pleasing and eloquent, therefore, would be chrysostom or chrysostomos “golden-mouthed,” from Greek chrysόstomos, from chrysόs “gold” and stόma “mouth.” As an epithet, chrysostom is reserved for the ancient Greek philosopher and historian Dio (or Dion) Chrysostom (c40–c115 a.d.), but in particular for the Greek patriarch and Church Father John Chrysostom (c347–407). On the first page of Ulysses, the unreliable, malevolent narrator refers to Buck Mulligan, who has gold fillings in his teeth and a very bawdy wit, as chrysostomos. Silver-tongued entered English in the late 16th century.
    Last edited by Altobelli; 13-01-2018 at 01:15 AM.

  10. #690
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    34,428
    PSEUD noun (sood)

    noun

    1. Informal. a person of fatuously earnest intellectual, artistic, or social pretensions.

    adjective
    1. Informal. of, relating to, or characteristic of a pseud.


    Quotes


    But many of his students thought him a pseud for his high diction and his passion for complicated European writers.
--*Tobias Wolff,*Old School, 2003


    He hated the idea of being considered a pseud when it came to food and drink, but there were those who thought him overenthusiastic on both counts.
--*Tim Heald,*Poison at the Pueblo, 2011



    Origin

    Pseud is a derogatory colloquialism derived by shortening from pseudointellectual. It dates from the mid-20th century.

Page 69 of 119 FirstFirst ... 1959676869707179 ... LastLast

Forum Info

Footymad Forums offer you the chance to interact and discuss all things football with fellow fans from around the world, and share your views on footballing issues from the latest, breaking transfer rumours to the state of the game at international level and everything in between.

Whether your team is battling it out for the Premier League title or struggling for League survival, there's a forum for you!

Gooners, Mackems, Tractor Boys - you're all welcome, please just remember to respect the opinions of others.

Click here for a full list of the hundreds of forums available to you

The forums are free to join, although you must play fair and abide by the rules explained here, otherwise your ability to post may be temporarily or permanently revoked.

So what are you waiting for? Register now and join the debate!

(these forums are not actively moderated, so if you wish to report any comment made by another member please report it.)



Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •