Word Of The Day

[Altobelli]

TARN noun (tahrn)

1. a small mountain lake or pool, especially one in a cirque.


Quotes

There is a little lake not far over the saddle, a tarn really, a mountain pond bordered in marsh marigold and yarrow, with water black and glassy as obsidian.
--*Edward Abbey,*Desert Solitaire, 1968

At the sides of many a tarn and lake you may see the ice grooves and scratches passing beneath the water, so as to leave no doubt whatever that ice has once occupied the rocky hollow.
--*Rev. J. Clifton Ward,*"The Origin of Upland Lakes," The Popular Science Monthly, April 1879



Origin

Tarn comes from Old Norse tjǫrn, “small lake, pool.” It was originally restricted to northern English dialects (where the Danes settled) or in written works about northern England. Tarn became mainstream English in the works of the Lake Poets (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey) in the early 19th century.

[Oldtimeram]

A "Two Hat" = a poor sad soul who devotes his entire life to following Snottingham Florest in a futile endeavour to see them play football again......They won the European Cup twice you know?!?...so they keep telling everybody.

[Altobelli]

POLEMIC noun (puh-tem-ik)

noun

1. a controversial argument, as one against some opinion, doctrine, etc.
2. a person who argues in opposition to another; controversialist.
adjective
1. of or relating to a polemic; controversial. Also, polemical.


Quotes

The second [book] is an angry polemic against the pervasive corruption of representative democracy wrought by economic inequality.
--*Jonathan A Knee,*"The New Gilded Age in Philanthropy," New York Times, May 1, 2017

An Orwellian polemic against mass-market journalism, of which one would expect the left-wing Lucas to approve, reveals a ‘righteous’ hatred.
--*Terry Eagleton,*"Reach-Me-Down Romantic," London Review of Books, Vol. 25, No. 25, June 19, 2003



Origin

Polemic comes from the Greek adjective polemikós, a derivative of the noun pólemos “war, battle” in the strict sense and not as in, say “war of words.” The adjective is also restricted to warfare. The current (and only) senses “controversial, controversialist,” first appear in Middle French in the late 16th century and in English as an adjective and noun in the early 17th century.

[Altobelli]

A "Two Hat" = a poor sad soul who devotes his entire life to following Snottingham Florest in a futile endeavour to see them play football again......They won the European Cup twice you know?!?...so they keep telling everybody.

Is that wayward soul of a poster still giving you grief Rammy ?

[Altobelli]

HIGHFALUTIN adjective (hahy-fuh-loot-n)

adjective

1. Informal. pompous; bombastic; haughty; pretentious.


Quotes

Domenic was at a back table talking to a suited man in the sombre, highfalutin English he put on for people of stature, in this case probably the noodle salesman.
--*Nino Ricci,*The Origin of Species, 2008

We've got a job to do," Mac insisted. "We've got no time to mess around with high-falutin' ideas."
--*John Steinbeck,*In Dubious Battle, 1936



Origin

Highfalutin came to English 1830s. It might find its origins in flutin, a variant of fluting, the present participle of flute.

[Altobelli]

LITOTES noun (lahy-tuh-teez)

noun

1. Rhetoric. understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in “not bad at all.”


Quotes

"For Danny's house was not unlike the Round Table and Danny's friends were not unlike the knights of it." ... With the use of the litotes, Steinbeck suggests we are not to take the parallel of the Round Table too closely.
--*Thomas Fensch,*Introduction to Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck (1902–1968), 1997

Litotes’ ability to draw attention to something by appearing to ignore or diminish it is attractive to politicians because it’s the rhetorical equivalent of having your cake and eating it.
--*Martin Shovel,*"Litotes: the most common rhetorical device you've never heard of," The Guardian, March 26, 2015



Origin

Litotes may be familiar nowadays only to those who read Cicero’s orations in high school. The Greek noun lītótēs has the general meaning “plainness, simplicity,” and as a rhetorical term “assertion by understatement or negation.” A famous example of assertion by negation occurs in the New Testament (Acts 21:39), where St. Paul says that he is “…a citizen of no mean city” (Tarsus in Cilicia), i.e., that Tarsus was an important city. Meiosis in its rhetorical sense is often used as a synonym for litotes, but meiosis is restricted to understatement rather than the double negative. Litotes entered English in the mid-17th century.

[SERVERNOTRESPONDING]

quoz
NOUN

informal, depreciative, historical
An odd or ridiculous person or thing; (treated as plural) people or things of this kind. Also as interjection: expressing incredulity or contempt.
Origin
Late 18th century; earliest use found in Festival of Momus. Origin uncertain; perhaps a variant of quiz, although the reverse could also be the case, or the two words could be parallel developments from a common (unidentified) source.

[Altobelli]

AUTARKY noun (aw-tahr-kee)

noun

1. the condition of self-sufficiency, especially economic, as applied to a nation.
2. a national policy of economic independence.

Quotes

"Why's Buna important?" "Because it'll win us autarky." "That doesn't sound very good." "It's not like anarchy, Tantchen. Autarky. We'll be self-sufficient."
--*Martin Amis,*The Zone of Interest, 2014

Why America, right at the dawning of the most intensely integrating period our model of globalization has ever seen, considers autarky on energy to be an ideal is truly bizarre.
--*Thomas P. M. Barnett,*Great Powers: America and the World After Bush, 2009


Origin

Autarky comes from the Greek noun autárkeia “self-sufficiency, independence,” a compound of the combining form auto- “self” and the verb arkeîn “to suffice.” The word is problematic in English because its spelling is almost identical with that of autarchy “absolute sovereignty,” and the pronunciations of the two words are identical. Autarky entered English in the 17th century.

[Altobelli]

Hopefully we wont be saying AuTarky any time through the coming season.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

I'm going for optimism but OMG we need a bit of it on here!

op¦ti|mism
NOUN
hopefulness and confidence about the future or the success of something:
"the talks had been amicable and there were grounds for optimism"
synonyms: hopefulness · hope · confidence · buoyancy · cheer · good cheer · [More]

the doctrine, especially as set forth by Leibniz, that this world is the best of all possible worlds.