Word of the Day Archive
August 2011
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- melismatic: characterized by the singing of several notes to one syllable of text, for emotional impact, as in blues and other musical styles.
- entelechy: a realization or actuality as opposed to a potentiality.
- hacienda: a large estate, especially one used for farming or ranching.
- aesopian: conveying meaning by hint, euphemism, innuendo, or the like.
- overslaugh: to pass over or disregard (a person) by giving a promotion, position, etc., to another instead.
- moxie: vigor; verve; pep.
- nervure: a vein, as of a leaf or the wing of an insect.
- chaptalize: to increase the alcohol in a wine by adding sugar.
- amaranthine: unfading; everlasting.
- willowwacks: a wooded, uninhabited area.
- billet: to provide or obtain lodging.
- mundify: to purge or purify.
- holus-bolus: all at once; altogether.
- burke: to suppress or get rid of by some indirect means.
- polemic: a controversial argument, as one against some opinion, doctrine, etc.
- polysemous: having a diversity of meanings.
- jointure: property given to a woman upon marriage, to be owned by her after her husband's death.
- purloin: to take dishonestly; steal.
- runic: having some secret or mysterious meaning.
- conglobate: to form into a ball.
- odoriferous: yielding or diffusing an odor.
- glace: ice placed in a drink to cool it.
- hobson jobson: the alteration of a word borrowed from a foreign language to accord more closely with the linguistic patterns of the borrowing language.
- collogue: to confer secretly.
- footle: to act or talk in a foolish or silly way.
- proclitic: (of a word) closely connected in pronunciation with the following word and not having an independent accent.
- personalia: personal details such as biographical data, reminiscences, or the like.
- homologate: to approve; confirm or ratify.
- flounce: to go with impatient, exaggerated movements.
- parergon: work undertaken in addition to one's principal work.
- metaphrastic: having the quality of a literary work that has been translated or changed from one form to another, as prose into verse.
