Word Of The Day

[Altobelli]

VARIEGATED adjective (vair-ee-i-gey-tid)


adjective

1. varied in appearance or color; marked with patches or spots of different colors.
2. varied; diversified; diverse.


Quotes

"If you put this in potting soil and keep it watered, you'll have your own spider plant." Her eyes widened. "Does it grow spiders?" "No, just nice variegated leaves," I assured her. "Green with white stripes."
--*James Patterson,*"Tell Me Your Best Story," Two from the Heart, 2017

One single bulb of this glorious variegated tulip would have cost more than Buckingham Palace!
--*Naomi A. Alderman,*Doctor Who: Borrowed Time, 2011



Origin

The first element of the Latin verb variegāre “to diversify, make different colors” is the adjective varius “mottled, spotted, speckled; different, changing.” The second element of the Latin verb, -egāre, is a combining form of the verb agere, originally “to drive, lead” but with as many developed senses in Latin as do, make, or run in English. Variegated entered English in the mid-17th century.

[Altobelli]

ERGATE noun (ur-geyt)


noun

1. a worker ant.


Quotes

The worker (ergates) is characterized by the complete absence of wings and a very small ... thorax, much simplified in the structure of its sclerites ...
--*William Morton Wheeler,*Ants: Their Structure, Development and Behavior, 1910

I knew her favourite theory that all the types of transitional between the three chief castes, the male, female, and the ergate or worker, were pathological ...
--*Frederick Philip Grove,*Consider Her Ways, 1947



Origin

Ergate comes from Greek ergátēs “worker,” a derivative of the noun érgon (also wérgon in some dialects) “work,” a straightforward development from the Proto-Indo-European root werg- “to work,” the same source as English work. Ergate entered English in the early 20th century.

[Altobelli]

Two short one's today, for the benefit of a poster.

DISDAIN

(verb)

1.to look upon or treat with contempt; despise, scorn.
2.to think unworthy or notice, response, etc. consider beneath oneself: to disdain replying to an insult

Origin: 1300-50; (v) Middle English disdainen <


DISTAIN


(verb)



1.to discolour; stain; sully


Origin: 1350-1400; Middle English desteignen<

[oldcolner]

A different take on one word.

MACEDONIA
this is both an established region in Greece and a name for a new country formerly part of Yugoslavia.



This man has spent 23 years trying to find a name that both Greece and the new country accept.
Until a way forward is found the new country cannot join NATO or the EU.

The name New Macedonia is not acceptable to the New Country.
The Greeks worry that use of Macedonia implies the new country may have territorial rights over Greek territory


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-40781213

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Are Prim and Alto involved in the negotiations?

[Altobelli]

A different take on one word.

MACEDONIA
this is both an established region in Greece and a name for a new country formerly part of Yugoslavia.



This man has spent 23 years trying to find a name that both Greece and the new country accept.
Until a way forward is found the new country cannot join NATO or the EU.

The name New Macedonia is not acceptable to the New Country.
The Greeks worry that use of Macedonia implies the new country may have territorial rights over Greek territory


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-40781213

Interesting information Colner, thanks

[Acido]

My word of the day and of the whole season Alto is RELEGATION.... I think we're going to be worried about it a lot this season.
(fingers crossed of course, but its going to be a struggle)

[Altobelli]

ANOESIS noun (an-oh-ee-sis)

noun
1. a state of mind consisting of pure sensation or emotion without cognitive content.


Quotes

Normally, on my long-distance walks, anoesis descends within a few miles: the mental tape loop of infuriating resentments, or inane pop lyrics, or nonce phrases gives way to the greeny-beige noise of the outdoors.
--*Will Self,*Psychogeography, 2007

The text is pure anoesis, sensation without understanding, devoid of ethical or mythic comfort.
--*Barcley Owens,*Cormac McCarthy's Western Novels, 2000



Origin

Anoesis is an uncommon noun, used mostly in psychology for a state of consciousness in which there is only sensation but no thought. The word is purely and obviously Greek: the first letter, a-, is called “alpha privative” (i.e., it expresses negation or deprivation) and is familiar in such words as atheist or agnostic. The alpha privative is related to Latin in-, as in insensible or indefensible, and to Germanic un-, as in English unhealthy or unusual. The main element is the Greek noun nóēsis “thought, intelligence” (and the opposite of aÃ*sthēsis “sense perception, sensation,” from which we have the word aesthetic). Nóēsis ultimately derives from the Greek noun nóos (noûs) “mind, wit.” Nous, rhyming with house, is a colloquialism in British English meaning “good sense, common sense, gumption.” Anoesis entered English in the early 20th century.

[Altobelli]

DORP noun (dawrp)

noun

1. a village; hamlet.


Quotes

Hanover is bare and at times very cold in the winter; but, in the summer, when the willow trees along the water furrows that line the streets, and the fruit trees in the gardens about the white houses, are green, the little dorp is, of all small towns I have seen, by far the most beautiful.
--*S. C. Cronwright Schreiner,*"Some Arachnids at Hanover, Cape Colony," The Popular Science Monthly, December 1902

After miles and miles of sienna-red ploughed earth ... we reached the dorp where the cousin lived in a small white house with sides that were dust-stained in a wavering wash ...
--*Nadine Gordimer,*"A South African Childhood: Allusions in a Landscape," Telling Times: Writing and Living 1950–2008, 2010



Origin

Dorp means “village” in Dutch and is closely related to Old Norse, Old English, and English thorp “farmstead, hamlet, village,” and German Dorf (which may bring a smile of amusement to or elicit a snort of contempt from former GIs). Dorp occurs in the name New Dorp, a neighborhood on Staten Island (one of the boroughs of New York City), a derivation of Dutch Nieuw Dorp “New Village.” Dorp entered English in the 16th century.

[Altobelli]

PALADIN noun (pal-uh-din)


noun
1. any determined advocate or defender of a noble cause.
2. any one of the 12 legendary peers or knightly champions in attendance on Charlemagne.
3. any knightly or heroic champion.


Quotes

Sweden’s center-left government is keen to underscore its role as a paladin of the welfare state and to make the most of the current boom as it prepares to fight for a new mandate in elections next year.
--*Love Liman and Nicholas Rigillo,*"Sweden Squirrels Away Cash Ahead of Demographic Time Bomb," Bloomberg, June 28, 2017

Because he is bamboozled by Dodson and Fogg, he will enter the prison house like a paladin, and rescue the man and the woman who have wronged him most.
--*G. K. Chesterton,*Charles Dickens: A Critical Study, 1906



Origin

Paladin nowadays usually means “defender or advocate of a noble cause,” but it still retains its original meaning “any of the twelve peers of Charlemagne’s court or of his vassals.” One of the earliest applications of the word, if not the earliest, is to Roland of Brittany, who died in 778 a.d. at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass (or Roncesvalles) in the Pyrenees in the Basque region of Spain, and was immortalized in the “Chanson de Roland” (“Song of Roland”), which was composed c1100. Paladin ultimately derives from the Latin proper noun Palātium, the name of the chief hill of the seven hills of Rome and the site of the earliest Roman settlements. The Latin adjective and noun Palātīnus derives from the noun Palātium and means “pertaining to the Palatine hill, pertaining to the imperial palace; an officer of the imperial palace, chamberlain.” The post-Augustan Latin usage passed into Italian as paladino, which was adopted in Middle French as palladin, and through French into English. Paladin entered English in the late 16th century.