Word Of The Day

[Altobelli]

COZE noun (kohz)

noun
1. a friendly talk; a chat.
verb
1. to converse in a friendly way; chat.

Quotes

Miss Crawford appeared gratified by the application, and after a moment's thought, urged Fanny's returning with her in a much more cordial manner than before, and proposed their going up into her room, where they might have a comfortable coze ...
--*Jane Austen,*Mansfield Park, 1814

... he hopes, perhaps, for a walk with Miss Charlotte, or a coze in Madame Smolensk's little private room.
--*William Makepeace Thackeray,*The Adventures of Philip on His Way Through the World Shewing Who Robbed Him, Who Helped Him, and Who Passed Him By, 1861–62


Origin

Coze came to English in the 1820s from French causer “to chat,” from Old French “to reason, expound.” Ultimately coze derives from Latin causārī “to plead a cause, plead as an excuse.”

[Altobelli]

VULPINE adjective (vuhl-pahyn)

adjective
1. of or resembling a fox.
2. cunning or crafty.

Quotes

[Roald] Dahl’s vulpine hero is a beast of operatic dimensions—in his battle to save his family from such pernicious adversaries as Farmer Bunce he loses his enviable tail—and Scarfe has made him even more dashing.
--*Emily Nunn,*"Slyboots," The New Yorker, November 16, 1998

Her immense gray eyes looked vulpine and northerly, as if I should see snowdrifts reflected in them.
--*Sabina Murray,*A Carnivore's Inquiry, 2004


Origin

Vulpine comes from Latin vulpīnus, an adjective derived from vulpēs “fox.” The Latin noun also has the sense “cunning, crafty person.” Vulpēs is related to Greek alṓpēx and alōpós “fox” and less clearly to other Indo-European languages (taboo forms for wolf and fox are common in ancient Indo-European languages). Vulpine entered English in the 17th century.

[Altobelli]

NESCIENCE noun (nesh-uh-ns)

noun
1. lack of knowledge; ignorance.
2. agnosticism.

Quotes

"It seems to me," cried the other, "that I must repeatedly raise my voice in opposition to a proposal that is redolent of most unprofessional malice or else nescience ..."
--*Anthony Burgess,*Napoleon Symphony, 1974

... quiz shows merely expose our appalling national nescience.
--*David L. Delman,*"To the Radio Editor," New York Times, July 18, 1948


Origin

Nescience comes from Late Latin nescientia “ignorance, unawareness,” which is probably a neologism coined by the Christian monk, philosopher, and theologian Claudianus Mamertus, who died about 432. Nescientia derives from nescient-, the stem of nesciēns, present participle of nescīre “to be ignorant, not to know.” The “positive” verb scīre “to know” is the source of English “science.” Nescience entered English in the 17th century.

[Altobelli]

WELTSCHMERZ noun (velt-shmerts)

noun

1. German. sorrow that one feels and accepts as one's necessary portion in life; sentimental pessimism.

Quotes

Weltschmerz, the philosophy of the "world-woe," was at its height. Gloomy theology and pessimistic philosophy reigned.
--*"The Sorrows of Werther," New York Times, September 21, 1910

Cohen confused his mood with his chronic weltschmerz. He spoke at great length on the vicissitudes of a sensitive spirit, his dissatisfaction, the inadequacy of this sphere as far as he was concerned.
--*Daniel Fuchs,*Summer in Williamsburg, 1934


Origin

Weltschmerz comes from German Welt “world” and Schmerz “pain” (related to English smart “pain”). Weltschmerz is associated with 19th century Romanticism and was coined by the German Romantic writer Jean Paul, the pen name of Jean Paul Friedrich Richter (1763-1825), in his novel Selina (1827). English uses the standard German spelling and the pronunciation of w as v, but English has had the alternative spelling Weltschmertz for about as long a time. Weltschmerz entered English in the 19th century.

[Altobelli]

PLISKY noun (plis-kee)

noun
1. Scot. and North England. a mischievous trick; practical joke; prank.
adjective
1. Scot. and North England. mischievous; playful.

Quotes

"... Faith! yon was an ill plisky ye played me to brak into my chop an' steal the bonnie leddy."
--*George MacDonald,*Robert Falconer, 1868

"... I would play him sic a plisky as he shouldna forget till his dying day. By the souls o' the Jerdans, I would!"
--*James Hogg,*The Shepherd's Calendar, 1829


Origin

Plisky is a dialect word found chiefly in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and northern England; its origin is uncertain. It entered English in the 18th century.

[Altobelli]

PLATITUDE noun (plat-I-tood)

noun
1. a flat, dull, or trite remark, especially one uttered as if it were fresh or profound.
2. the quality or state of being flat, dull, or trite: the platitude of most political oratory.

Quotes

One of the most common platitudes we heard was that “words failed.” But words were not failing Teri and me at all.... [We] had plenty of language with which to talk to each other about the horror of what was happening, and talk we did.
--*Aleksandar Hemon,*"The Aquarium," The New Yorker, June 13 & 20, 2011

... he took refuge in the comforting platitude that the first six months were always the most difficult in marriage. "After that I suppose we shall have pretty nearly finished rubbing off each other's angles," he reflected.
--*Edith Wharton,*The Age of Innocence, 1920


Origin

Platitude came to English from the French term literally meaning “flatness.” It entered English in the early 1800s.

[SERVERNOTRESPONDING]

Me thinks our team are suffering from a bout of kakorrhaphiophobia.

Kakorrhaphiophobia is an abnormal, persistent, irrational fear of failure. In clinical cases, it's debilitating: the fear of even the most subtle failure or defeat is so intense that it restricts a person from doing anything at all

[Altobelli]

I'd class Brady as suffering at least Server.

[Altobelli]

AGINNER noun (uh-gin-er)

noun
1. Informal. a person who opposes a plan, proposed legislation, or any drastic change: He won the election by appealing to the aginners.

Quotes

In that prickly family atmosphere, McCormick grew up to be a reflexive ''aginner,'' a man of epic antagonisms, prodigious crotchets and--here his mother was wrong--fixed, taproot convictions impermeable to evidence or reason.
--*David M. Kennedy,*"Whatever It Is, I'm Against It," New York Times, July 13, 1997

It seems as if this country has become an "aginner." Such a policy will end in failure. We have to be for something, but first we must know just what we are for and put it in simple language ...
--*C. W. Brown,*"Re: Package of Freedom," The Rotarian, June 1951


Origin

The humorous phrase “to be agin the government” dates to the late 19th century. Agin is one of the many, many developments of the Middle English preposition again, agains, against, “opposite, toward” (against became the standard form of the preposition in Modern English). The earliest recorded spellings of agin appeared in the 18th century.

[Altobelli]

CHATOYANT adjective (shue-toi-uh nt)

adjective
1. changing in luster or color: chatoyant silk.
2. Jewelry. reflecting a single streak of light when cut in a cabochon.
noun
1. Jewelry. a cabochon-cut gemstone having this reflected streak, as a chrysoberyl cat's-eye.

Quotes

... at the approach of Easter holidays, when my parents had promised to let me spend them, for once, in the north of Italy, in place of those dreams of tempests ... was substituted in me the contrary dream of the most chatoyant of springs ...
--*Marcel Proust,*In Search of Lost Time, Volume 1: Swann's Way, translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff, 1922

My mother's astonishing, chatoyant gray eyes could see through solid walls and beyond to the horizon. I had no doubt of that.
--*Anne Rivers Siddons,*Off Season, 2008


Origin

Chatoyant came to English from a special use of the present participle of the French verb chantoyer “to change luster like a cat’s eye.” It entered English in the late 1700s.