Word of the Day
agglomeration
noun
a jumbled cluster or mass of varied parts.
More about agglomeration
The English noun agglomeration, “a jumbled cluster or mass of varied parts,” comes from Latin agglomerātus, the past participle of agglomerāre “to mass together, pile up, join forces,” a derivative of glomerāre “to roll into a ball, collect into a dense mass.” Glomerāre in turn is a derivative of the noun glomus (inflectional stem glomer-) “a ball, a skein or ball of yarn.” Glomus is related to the Latin nouns globus “round body, round cake, sphere” (English globe) and glēba (also glaeba) “lump or clod of earth” (English glebe “soil, field”). Agglomeration entered English in the second half of the 17th century.
how is agglomeration used?
In our exuberance to build more green things, we need to focus on updating what we’ve already damaged. That dead mall could be a solar field. (It already has the power hookups.) That agglomeration of gas pumps could be a park-and-ride charging station for commuters traveling farther by train.
A galaxy is much more than a radiant agglomeration of stars. To modern astrophysicists, galaxies are more notable for their dark sides: their hidden material that is only “seen” by its gravitational pull upon the shiny stuff it seems to vastly outweigh.
deliquesce
verb (used without object)
to melt away.
More about deliquesce
Deliquesce, “to melt away; become liquid,” comes straight from Latin dēliquēscere “to become liquid, dissipate one’s energy,” a compound of the preposition and prefix dē, dē-, here indicating removal, and the verb liquēscere “to melt, decompose, putrefy.” Liquēscere is an inchoative verb (also called an inceptive verb), meaning that the verb indicates the beginning, the inception of an action. In Latin (and in Greek) the suffix –sc– (Latin) and –sk– (Greek) changes a verb of state, such as liquēre “to be liquid, be clear,” to an inceptive verb. Derivatives of liquēre include liquidus “clear, fluid” (English liquid) and liquor “fluidity, liquid character” (English liquor). Deliquesce entered English in the mid-18th century.
how is deliquesce used?
My thoughts started to deliquesce and slide through my brain like melting cheese.
A subsequent painting in the album … sees Jeong render the white peaks in ink that fades from the top of the composition to the bottom, making the mountain range deliquesce as if in fog.
stultify
verb (used with object)
to render absurdly or wholly futile or ineffectual, especially by degrading or frustrating means.
More about stultify
Stultify comes straight from Late Latin stultificāre, “to turn into foolishness,” a compound verb formed from the adjective stultus “stupid, dense, foolish” and the combining form –ficāre “to make, make become” (source via Old French –fier of the English verb suffix –fy), formed from facere “to do, make.” Stultus and stolidus “dull, brutish, stupid” come from the root stel-, stol– “to (make) stand, put.” One odd thing about stultify is that its original meaning in English was as a legal term “to allege or prove (oneself or another) to be of unsound mind,” that is, if one stultified oneself, one could evade responsibility for one’s actions. Stultify entered English in the second half of the 18th century.
how is stultify used?
Up to recently we have proceeded from a premise that poverty is a consequence of multiple evils: lack of education restricting job opportunities; poor housing which stultified home life and suppressed initiative; fragile family relationships which distorted personality development.
Such critics stultify themselves by the coarseness of view (and sometimes of expression) with which they meet the grossness they condemn.