Word of the Day Archive
Sunday April 1, 2001
appellation \ap-uh-LAY-shun\
, noun:
1. The word by which a particular person or thing is called and known; name; title; designation.
2. The act of naming.
For as long as Olympia can remember, her mother has been referred to, within her hearing and without, as an invalid -- an appellation that does not seem to distress her mother and indeed appears to be one she herself cultivates.
-- Anita Shreve, Fortune's Rocks
A communist or a revolutionary, for example, would likely readily accept and admit that he is in fact a communist or a revolutionary. Indeed, many would doubtless take particular pride in claiming either of those appellations for themselves.
-- Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism
I feel honored by yet undeserving of the appellation "novelist." I am merely a craftsperson, a cabinetmaker of texts and occasionally, I hope, a witness to our times.
-- Francine Du Plessix Gray, "I Write for Revenge Against Reality", New York Times, September 12, 1982
Appellation comes from Latin appellatio, from appellare, "to name."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for appellation
