Word Of The Day

[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.

[Altobelli]

BUMFUZZLE verb (buhm-fuhz-eh l)

verb

1. Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. to confuse or fluster.


Quotes

This holyfied lady's jest tryin' to bumfuzzle us.
--*Joan Hess,*Mischief in Maggody, 1988

"This is an attempt to bumfuzzle," said the President.
--*William Safire,*"On Language: The Way We Live Now," New York Times Magazine, November 14, 1999



Origin

Bumfuzzle comes from bum-, an expressive prefix, perhaps to be identified with the initial syllable of bamboozle, and fuzzle “to confuse,” perhaps expressive alteration of fuddle. It’s been used in English since around 1900.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

One or two proper "Bumfuzzlers" on here, I can tell you!

[Altobelli]

One or two proper "Bumfuzzlers" on here, I can tell you!

I was thinking just the same BT

[The Bedlington Terrier]

My very favourite new word! BUMFUZZLER!

[Altobelli]

BALLON noun (French ba-lawn)

noun

1. Ballet. the lightness and grace of movement that make a dancer appear buoyant.


Quotes

For a ballerina she had pretty much zero ballon at this point. Her feet dragged across the floor like the last two dodoes.
--*Charles D'Ambrosio,*"Screenwriter," The New Yorker, December 8, 2003

Ballon: A quality of movement by which the impression is given that the dancer, by a reversal of the laws of gravity, is continuously thrown off the ground, instead of pushing himself away from it, and should not be confused with elevation, which is more concerned with the height of the dancer's jumps.
--*Leo Kersley and Janet Sinclair,*A Dictionary of Ballet Terms, 1953



Origin

Ballon is a French term used especially in ballet, describing a dancer who appears to be floating in the air while executing a jump or other movement, like “His Airness,” Michael Jordan. Earlier English spellings of the word include balonne, baloune, and balloone as well as balloon. The original sense of the word in the early 17th century was “ball,” specifically a large, sturdy, inflated leather ball hit with the arms protected with wooden boards or kicked like a soccer ball. By the late 17th century ballon and balloon had developed the meaning “a large globular glass vessel” used for chemical distillation; and by the late 18th century, balloon (thus spelled) also meant “a round, flexible, airtight bag that rises into the air when inflated with heated air or gas.” Balloon becomes the standard English spelling in the late 17th century. Ballon, as a ballet term, entered English in the 19th century.

[Altobelli]

MEMBRANOPHONE noun (mem-brey-nuy-fohn)

noun

1. any musical instrument, as a drum, in which the sound is produced by striking, rubbing, or blowing against a membrane stretched over a frame.


Quotes

To the people who like to collect and use big words, [drums] are membranophones.
--*"Drums make both sound and music," Boys' Life, September 1975

Many of the membranophones used in a standard rock/pop drum kit can be tuned by adjusting the tension of the membrane.
--*Derry FitzGerald and Jouni Paulus,*"Unpitched Percussion Transcription," Signal Processing Methods for Music Transcription, 2006



Origin

Membranophone was first recorded in the 1930s. It’s a blend of membrane, a late Middle English term from Middle English membraan “parchment,” which ultimately derives from Latin membrāna, and -phone, a combining form used in words for musical instruments.