Word of the Day
credulous
adjective
willing to believe or trust too readily, especially without proper or adequate evidence; gullible.
More about credulous
Credulous comes from the Latin adjective crēdulus “inclined to believe or trust, trustful, credulous, rash.” The first part of crēdulus comes from the verb crēdere “to believe, trust, entrust,” most likely a compound of Proto-Indo-European kerd-, kred- (and other variants) “heart” and -dere, a combining form meaning “to put, place,” from the root dhē-, dhō-, with the same meaning. Latin crēdere “to place my heart” is a very ancient religious term that has an exact correspondence with Sanskrit śrad-dadhāti “he trusts,” and Old Irish cretim “I trust.” The second part of crēdulus is the diminutive noun and adjective suffix –ulus, which frequently has a pejorative sense, as in rēgulus “petty king, chieftain.” Credulous entered English in the mid-16th century.
how is credulous used?
When the British news network aired a three-minute segment about Swiss spaghetti farmers plucking long strands of pasta straight from tree branches, hundreds of credulous viewers wrote in asking how they could cultivate their own spaghetti tree.
I did not believe half of what she told me: I pretended to laugh at it all; but I was far more credulous than I myself supposed.
felicific
adjective
causing or tending to cause happiness.
More about felicific
The adjective felicific “tending to cause happiness,” is a term used in ethics, a branch of philosophy. The word is formed from the Latin adjective fēlix (stem fēlīci-) “happy, lucky” and the English combining form -fic “making, producing,” from Latin -ficus. Felicific entered English in the 19th century.
how is felicific used?
Bentham was advancing his felicific calculus (though without much actual mathematics to back it up) as the scientific solution to the problems of morality and legislation.
The problem is that as more humans run their felicific calculations and decide to live in pleasant places, their presence changes the balance.
transliterate
verb (used with object)
to change (letters, words, etc.) into corresponding characters of another alphabet or language: to transliterate the Greek Χ as ch.
More about transliterate
The verb transliterate is formed from the Latin preposition and prefix trans, trans- “across, on the other side of” and the noun lītera (littera) “letter.” Transliteration is only changing the letters of one alphabet into those of another, for example, from Greek δόγμα into Latin dogma. Transliteration does not provide a pronunciation or a translation. Transliterate entered English in the 19th century.
how is transliterate used?
Up on the bridge, Captain Orlova was looking thoughtfully at a dense mass of words and figures on the main display. Floyd had painfully started to transliterate them when she interrupted him.
In many of the early stories Chekhov uses proper names that sound comic, carry comic allusions, or are in other ways meaningful. Simply to transliterate such names fails to convey to the English reader an element that is present in the original and sometimes extremely important.