Category: word for the day

This is a word I didn’t know that was in the New York Times Crossword for Friday. I must admit to never having read Gulliver’s Travels.

Brobdingnagian – adj. – Colossal; of extraordinary height; gigantic.

From Brobdingnag, a country of giants in Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
(dictionary.com)

These are two words which I ran across yesterday. I had no idea what peculate meant and, although I had seen amerce before, I couldn’t dredge it up out of my brain. Peculate sounds like something that chickens do and amerce looks like it should be some sort of corporate abbreviation for American Ce… or perhaps the name of a hospital.

peculate – To embezzle (funds) or engage in embezzlement (dictionary.com)

amerce – To punish by a fine imposed arbitrarily at the discretion of the court (dictionary.com)

Who knew?

Here’s another pair of words that people avoid. If farther is the comparative of far; is further the comparative of fur?

According to The American Heritage® Book of English Usage as found on bartleby.com, the following is the correct usage.

“Many writers since the Middle English period have used farther and further interchangeably. A relatively recent rule, however, states that farther should be reserved for physical distance and further for nonphysical, metaphorical advancement. Thus 74 percent of the Usage Panel prefers farther in the sentence If you are planning to drive any farther than Ukiah, you’d better carry chains, whereas 64 percent prefers further in the sentence We won’t be able to answer these questions until we are further along in our research. In many cases, however, it is hard to see the difference. If we speak of a statement that is far from the truth, for example, we should also allow the use of farther in a sentence such as Nothing could be farther from the truth. But Nothing could be further from the truth is so common that it has become a fixed expression.”

Clear?

First a quick note; did you find the NY Times Sunday crossword just way too easy today? I think the theme clues really set up the puzzle to be done in about a half an hour or less. Interestingly, the word, “interstice,” was in the puzzle today. Because it was the one of the words for the day this week, I remembered what it meant. Yay!

The other day, Sarah and I were discussing the usage of certain words and how we tend to modify our sentences to avoid using them altogether. Words like “lie” and “lay,” and “further” and “farther.” My friend Sophie, who was an English teacher, has a good rule for lay and lie but I can’t remember what it is. Hopefully, she will write in with it. So I thought I’d start with something a little easier.

Have you ever been in a grocery store line and the sign says, “Ten items or less?” Here’s the correct usage for less and fewer.

The traditional rule holds that fewer should be used for things that can be counted (fewer than four players), while less should be used with mass terms for things of measurable extent (less paper; less than a gallon of paint).
(dictionary.com)

So the sign in the grocery store should say, “Ten items or fewer.”

Another reason I like to be home is that I have a great big dictionary open on a table in the family room. I can get up from my chair (do you have a special place to sit at home?) and go look up a word easily. I like dictionaries because while you are looking for your word, and singing the alphabet song in your head, you see all these other words. As I said back in December, my English teacher from junior year always made us responsible for all the words around the “Word for the Day.” Of course, I’ll go on using dictionary.com for words here because it’s easier.

The word today is one that has come up a lot in crossword puzzles. Every time I see it, I think, “I’ll remember it for next time.” Then I don’t. I’ve tried reading it and saying it out loud but it just doesn’t stick. Maybe I will always remember it if I write it here in my blog.

interstice – A space, especially a small or narrow one, between things or parts. (dictionary.com)

This word comes from the Latin intersistere, to pause, make a break . You’d think after four years of Latin I’d know this. For all you Latin fans, Omnia Gallia est divisa in tres partes.

First, a big thank you to Sarah and Leigh who sent excellent palindromes. In case you don’t read the comments, here they are.

Was it Eliot’s toilet I saw?
Go hang a salami; I’m a lasagna hog!

The other day my brother-in-law, Ted, mentioned that he was going to put on his dungarees. That comment prompted a discussion of the word. When I was going to college, other girls were wearing jeans but at my house we always referred to them as dungarees. Is this a New Jersey thing? What a strange looking word. So I thought I’d look it up.

dungarees – Trousers or overalls made of sturdy denim fabric. (Dictionary.com) Dungaree is the name of the fabric.
Here’s the derivation – from Hindi dungri “coarse calico,” from the name of a village, now one of the quarters of Bombay. (etymonline.com)

Interesting.

Here’s a word that was an answer in the New York Times Crossword Puzzle on Saturday. I’ve run across it before but never knew its derivation or pronunciation.

ukase -1. An authoritative order or decree; an edict. 2. A proclamation of a czar having the force of law in imperial Russia. (dictionary.com)

Well, this is embarrassing. It’s from the Russian ukaz meaning edict. I took three years of Russian in college but I guess we never had an edict.

For some reason, we were sitting around the table this morning (my sister, Phyllis and brother-in-law, Gary) thinking about three letter words that begin with “f.” Here are two –

fob –
1. A small pocket at the front waistline of a man’s trousers or in the front of a vest, used especially to hold a watch.
2. A short chain or ribbon attached to a pocket watch and worn hanging in front of the vest or waist.
3. An ornament or seal attached to such a chain or ribbon. (dictionary.com)
This is from the low German fobke meaning pocket.

fop -A man who is preoccupied with and often vain about his clothes and manners.
This word comes from Middle English fop, foppe, a fool. (dictionary.com)

I love palindromes. They are so cute and quirky. If you have a favorite, please send it along.

palindrome – A word, phrase, verse, or sentence that reads the same backward or forward. For example: A man, a plan, a canal, Panama! (dictionary.com)

WORD FOR THE DAY

I was paging through the dictionary.com site looking for a word for today. (Is paging the correct term?) I came across the word demagogue. Here’s a word whose meaning has mutated over the years.

demagogue – A leader who tries to stir up people by appeals to emotion, prejudice, etc., in order to achieve power. (dictionary.com)
But originally it meant a leader of the common people.

The root of demagogue is the same as the root for democracy. It comes from the Greek demagogos meaning a leader of the people, which derives from demos, the people + agogos, leading. ( BTW, -cracy is from the Greek, -kratia, meaning power or rule.)