Word Of The Day

[Altobelli]

PRODIGAL adjective (prod-I-guhl)

adjective
1. wastefully or recklessly extravagant:*prodigal expenditure.
2. giving or yielding profusely; very generous; lavish (usually followed by*of*or*with):*prodigal of smiles; prodigal with praise.
3. lavishly abundant;*profuse:*nature's prodigal resources.

noun
1. a person who is wasteful of his or her money, possessions, etc.;*spendthrift*:*In later years, he was a prodigal of his fortune.


Quotes

... Kubrick a planned and prodigal expenditure of resources.
--*Annette Michelson,*"Bodies in Space: Film as 'Carnal Knowledge'," Artforum, February 1969


She feels she can never truly write well because she lacks Lila’s wild, prodigal spirit. Lila, she thinks, “possessed intelligence and didn’t put it to use but, rather, wasted it, like a great lady for whom all the riches in the world are merely a sign of vulgarity.”
--*Joan Acocella,*"Elena Ferrante's New Book: Art Wins," The New Yorker, September 1, 2015



Origin

Prodigal ultimately derives from the Late Latin adjective prōdigālis “wasteful,” from the Latin adjective prōdigus (with the same meaning), a derivative of the verb prōdigere “to drive forth or away; to waste, squander.” Prōdigere is a compound of the preposition and combining form pro, pro- “forth, forward” and agere “to drive (cattle), ride (a horse).” Aristotle in Book IV of the Nicomachean Ethics defines the virtue of liberality (with respect to wealth) as the mean between the opposite vices of prodigality and stinginess, the prodigal man being one who wastes money on self-indulgent pleasures. The most famous case of prodigality is from Luke's gospel (15:11-32), the “Parable of the Prodigal Son.” Prodigal entered English in the 15th century.

[Altobelli]

HALIDOM noun (hal-i-duhm)

noun
1. a holy place, as a church or sanctuary.


Quotes

Most nations would reckon it a village, but it had its halidom, assembly hall, market, and busy little industries.
--*Poul and Karen Anderson,*"Faith," After the King: Stories in Honor of J. R. R. Tolkien, 1992


There are few more interesting spots in Great Britain than "Dewisland," or the "halidom" of St. David.
--*W. A. B. Coolidge,*"St. David's," The Cathedral Churches of England and Wales, 1884



Origin

Halidom is a rare word meaning “holy place, sanctuary.” Its Old English form, hāligdōm, is a compound formed of the adjective hālig “holy” and the abstract noun suffix -dōm (English -dom). Hāligdōm originally meant “holiness, sanctity” in Old English, but this sense was obsolete by the 17th century. The concrete senses of hāligdōm, "chapel, sanctuary” and “relic,” are as old as the abstract sense. Halidom entered English before 1000.

[Altobelli]

EVENFALL noun (ee-vuhn-fawl)

noun
1. twilight; dusk; the beginning of*evening.


Quotes

And now 'tis evenfall in the brave and beautiful Borderland, and long shadows fall across the smooth lawns and fragrant garden ...
--*George MacDonald Fraser,*The Reavers, 2007


James Turner had his own conception of what happiness was ... Mine is to smoke a pipe at evenfall and watch a badger, a rattlesnake, and an owl go into their common prairie home one by one.
--*O. Henry,*"What You Want," Strictly Business, 1910



Origin

Evenfall, "the beginning of evening, dusk," from its very look is a poetic word. It is reasonable to assume, but impossible to prove, that evenfall was modeled on the earlier nightfall (1700). Evenfall entered English in the 19th century.

[Altobelli]

COZEN verb (kuhz-uhn)

verb
1. to cheat, deceive, or trick.


Quotes

He had come to cozen me into letting him use me in return for a mockery of an honor.
--*David Graham Phillips,*The Plum Tree, 1905


Let us cozen it with a golden shrewdness.
--*Iris Murdoch,*An Accidental Man, 1971



Origin

The verb cozen has a doubtful ancestry. One plausible etymology has cozen associated with the noun cousin (i.e., the relative), modeled on the French usage of the verb cousiner “to call ‘cousin,’” i.e., to claim fraudulent kindred to gain some profit or advantage. A second etymology derives cozen from Italian cozzonare “to engage in horse trading, cheat,” from cozzone, from Latin coctiōn-, the inflectional stem of coctiō “a dealer, broker.” Cozen entered English in the 16th century.

[Altobelli]

DIVERTISSEMENT noun (dih-vur-tis-muhnt)

noun
1. a diversion or entertainment.
2. Music.*divertimento.
3. a short ballet or other performance serving as an interlude in a play, opera, etc.
4. a program consisting of such performances.


Quotes

Featuring an uncomplicated plot and easily relatable personalities, this is a divertissement compared with the thematic heft of “Like Father, Like Son.”
--*Maggie Lee,*"Cannes Film Review: 'After the Storm'," Variety, May 20, 2016


My place in your life is a divertissement, and when it ceases to be that it will be no good to you.
--*May Sarton,*The Single Hound, 1938



Origin

The English noun divertissement comes directly from the French divertissement “amusement, entertainment, diversion.” Divertisse- is the long stem of the verb divertir “to amuse, entertain”; it comes from Latin dīvertere or dēvertere “to turn away, divert, make a detour, digress”; the French suffix -ment, from the similar Latin noun suffix -mentum, denotes action or resulting state. Divertissement entered English in the 18th century.

[Altobelli]

PETRICHOR noun (pe-tri-kawr)

noun
1. a distinctive scent, usually described as earthy, pleasant, or sweet, produced by rainfall on very dry ground.


Quotes

I surfaced from the tunnel in a shack, where the air was close and smelled of petrichor.
--*Samantha Shannon,*The Mime Order, 2015


So whether rainfall reminds you of summer soccer games, puddle-splashing with siblings or a terrifying storm, thank (or blame) the planets [sic], microbes and minerals that give petrichor such a distinctive odor.
--*Marissa Fessenden,*"High-Speed Video Shows When The Smell of Rain Begins," Smithsonian.com, January 20, 2015



Origin

Petrichor is an uncommon word used in mineral chemistry or geochemistry to describe the pleasant scent of rain falling on very dry ground. Petrichor is a compound of the Greek nouns pétrā “rock, stone” (as in petroleum “rock oil”) and īchṓr, the juice or liquid—not blood!—that flows in the veins of the Olympian gods. About 60 percent of ancient Greek words have no satisfactory etymology; īchṓr is one of them. Petrichor was coined by two Australian chemists, Isabel “Joy” Bear and Richard Grenfell Thomas, in 1964.

[Altobelli]

TERGIVERSATE verb (tur-ji-ver-seyt)

verb
1. to change repeatedly one's attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate.


Quotes

The nominees will equivocate and tergiversate. They will never engage.
--*Stephen L. Carter,*"What We Think About Supreme Court Hearings Is Wrong," Bloomberg, July 17, 2018


I can sense a growing concentricity in my manner of thinking, a desire to circle back on my own thoughts, to tergiversate, to animadvert, to extemporise.
--*Will Self,*"Inclusion," Grey Area, 1994



Origin

Tergiversate comes from the Latin verb tergiversārī “to keep turning one’s back on a task, show reluctance.” The Latin noun tergum means “back (of a human or animal),” and the verb versārī “to keep moving about” is a derivative of vertere “to turn.” Tergiversate entered English in the 17th century.

[Altobelli]

ANIMUS noun (an-uh-muhs)

noun
1. strong dislike or enmity; hostile attitude; animosity.


Quotes

This time, it’s not a border wall or a health care proposal driving the animus, but an online ad for a men’s razor, because, of course.
--*Emily Dreyfuss,*"Gillette's Ad Proves the Definition of a Good Man Has Changed," Wired, January 16, 2019


Second, people should not let their animus toward him—and his animus toward the truth—trick them into trafficking in conspiracy theories.
--*David Leonhardt,*"How to Cut Child Poverty," New York Times, October 27, 2017



Origin

In Latin the noun animus has many meanings: “the mind (as opposed to the body), the mind (or soul) that with the body constitutes a person, the mind as the seat of consciousness, the immortal part of a person (the soul)….” Animus comes from the same Proto-Indo-European source (anә- “to breathe”) as Greek ánemos “the wind.” The modern sense “strong dislike, enmity” is a development within English, appearing only at the end of the 18th century.

[Altobelli]

MELIC adjective (mel-ik)

adjective
1. intended to be sung.


Quotes

... anapaests are commonly used either as a sung form, "melic anapaests", or chanted, a form sometimes called "marching anapaests."
--*Simon Goldhill,**Sophocles and the Language of Tragedy, 2012


The earliest discussions call this kind of verse ‘melic’ (the Greek*melos*means ‘song’), and roughly distinguish sung poems from epic and tragedy.
--*Colin Burrow,*"Ohs and Ahs, Zeros and Ones," London Review of Books, Vol. 39 No. 17, September 7, 2017



Origin

Melic comes from the Greek adjective melikós “lyric (poetry, poet),” a derivative of the noun mélos “limb (of a body), member, musical member, musical phrase, music, song.” Melic is not a common word, unlike its cousin melody, from mélos and ōidḗ “song” (the source of English ode). Melic entered English at the end of the 17th century.

[Altobelli]

PETTIFOG verb (pet-ee-fog)

verb
1. to bicker or quibble over trifles or unimportant matters.


Quotes

Marius, my boy, you are a baron, you are rich, don't pettifog—I beg of you.
--*Victor Hugo,*Les Misérables, translated by Charles Edwin Wilbour, 1862


The way for the President to protect his prerogatives of office is not to pettifog about war powers but to go to the nation with his case.
--*William Safire,*"In Harm's Way," New York Times, May 25, 1987



Origin

The verb pettifog is a back formation from the noun pettifogger, originally “ambulance chaser, shyster, fixer.” Pettifogger is a compound of the adjective petty “of minor importance” and fogger “a middleman.” Fogger itself probably derives ultimately from Fugger, the name of a prominent family of German bankers of the 15th and 16th centuries. The family name became a common noun in German and Dutch, meaning “rich man, monopolist, usurer.” Pettifog entered English in the 17th century.