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word | 1 Aug 2004 06:00

cajole

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The Word of the Day for August 1 is:

cajole   \kuh-JOAL\   verb 
    *1 : to persuade with flattery or gentle urging especially 
in the face of reluctance : coax 
     2 : to deceive with soothing words or false promises 

Example sentence: 
     Peter's friends cajoled him into coming to the party even 
though he was not in the mood to go.

Did you know? 
     You might not think to associate "cajole" with "cage," but 
it's likely that these two words are connected. Researchers have 
made an association between the prattle of a caged bird and the 
persistent wheedling of a person attempting to get something out 
of someone else. "Cajole" comes from a French verb, "cajoler," 
which now means "coax" but at one time meant "to chatter like a 
jay." Some etymologists theorize that "cajoler" is 
from "gaiole," an Old North French word meaning "birdcage" and 
ancestor to our word "jail." "Gaiole" derives from a Late Latin 
word, "caveola," which means "little cage" and is the diminutive 
of the Latin "cavea" ("cage" or "cavity"). Our word "cage" 
derives from this noun, and "cave" is a close relative.
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word | 2 Aug 2004 06:00

hebetude

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The Word of the Day for August 2 is:

hebetude   \HEB-uh-tood ("oo" as in "food")\   noun 
     : lethargy, dullness 

Example sentence: 
     As the professor droned on and on in the overheated lecture 
hall, Kim was overcome with such hebetude that she had to fight 
to keep her eyes open. 

Did you know? 
     The dullness of "hebetude" tends to lean toward mental 
dullness, often marked by laziness or torpor. As such, it was a 
good word for one Queenslander correspondent, who wrote in a 
letter to the editor of the Weekend Australian of "an epidemic 
of hebetude among young people who . . . are placing too great a 
reliance on electronic devices to do their thinking and 
remembering." "Hebetude" comes from Late Latin "hebetudo," which 
means pretty much the same thing as our word. It is also closely 
related to the Latin word for "dull" -- "hebes," which has 
extended meanings such as "obtuse," "doltish," and "stupid." 
Other "hebe-" words in English include "hebetudinous" ("marked 
by hebetude") and "hebetate" ("to make dull").
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word | 3 Aug 2004 06:00

imperturbable

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The Word of the Day for August 3 is: 

imperturbable   \im-per-TER-buh-bul\   adjective
     : marked by extreme calm, impassivity, and steadiness : 
serene

Example sentence:
     As an emergency medical technician, Carol was expected to 
remain imperturbable even under the most chaotic and demanding 
of circumstances.

Did you know?
     There is an interesting time lag between the appearance 
of "imperturbable" and its antonym, "perturbable." 
Although "imperturbable" is known to have existed since the 
middle of the 15th century, "perturbable" didn't show up in 
written English until 1800. The verb "perturb" (meaning "to 
disquiet" or "to throw into confusion") predates 
both "imperturbable" and "perturbable"; it has been part of 
English since the 14th century. All three words derive from the 
Latin "perturbare," also meaning "to throw into confusion," 
which in turn comes from the combination of "per-" 
and "turbare," which means "to disturb." Other relatives 
of "imperturbable" include "disturb" and "turbid."
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word | 4 Aug 2004 06:59

disparage

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The Word of the Day for August 4 is: 

disparage   \di-SPAIR-ij\   verb
     1 : to lower in rank or reputation : degrade 
    *2 : to speak slightingly about : belittle 

Example sentence:
     Several respected scientists have disparaged the authors of 
the study for using sloppy methods.

Did you know?
     In Middle English, to "disparage" someone meant causing 
that person to marry someone of inferior rank. "Disparage" 
derives from the Anglo-French "desparager," meaning "to marry 
below one's class." "Desparager," in turn, combines the negative 
prefix "des-" with "parage"("equality" or "lineage"), which 
itself comes from "per," meaning "peer." The original "marriage" 
sense of "disparage" is now obsolete, but a closely-related 
sense ("to lower in rank or reputation") survives in modern 
English. By the 16th century, English speakers (including 
Shakespeare) were also using "disparage" to mean simply "to 
belittle."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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word | 5 Aug 2004 06:59

rectitudinous

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The Word of the Day for August 5 is:

rectitudinous   \rek-tuh-TOO-duh-nuss\   adjective
    *1 : characterized by straightness or moral integrity 
     2 : piously self-righteous 

Example sentence: 
     "Their leader-to-be was . . . a sternly rectitudinous 
former federal judge who may be the straightest straight arrow 
in Washington." (_Newsweek_, March 16, 1987)

Did you know? 
     "Rectitudinous" comes to us straight from the Late 
Latin "rectitudin-" (English added the "-ous" ending), which is, 
in turn, ultimately derived from the Latin word "rectus," 
meaning both "straight" and "right." (There are other "rectus" 
descendants in English, including "rectitude," of course, 
and "rectilinear," "rectangle," and "rectify.") 
When "rectitudinous" first appeared in print in 1897, it was in 
the phrase "notoriously and unctuously rectitudinous." 
Although "rectitude" often expresses an admirable moral 
integrity, "rectitudinous" has always had a less flattering 
side. It can suggest not only moral uprightness but also a 
displeasing holier-than-thou attitude.
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word | 6 Aug 2004 06:59

goober

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The Word of the Day for August 6 is:

goober   \GOO-ber (the "OO" may be pronounced either as 
in "food" or as in "good")\   noun
     : peanut

Example sentence:
     Gerald has been trying to cut down on salty snacks this 
year, but he still can't help stealing a few goobers from the 
candy dish.

Did you know? 
     We're just nuts about the word "goober." It's a regional 
term, used mainly in the southern and east-central part of the 
United States. But the plant didn't originate in the U.S.; it's 
actually native to South America. It was taken from there to 
Africa, where the local people gave new names to the high-
protein legumes. Peanuts traveled back to North America with 
slave traders, and there English speakers adopted a term from 
the Bantu languages of central and southern Africa to 
form "goober." But "goober" isn't the only name for "peanut" 
that has stuck with us. That snack staple is also known as 
the "groundnut," "earthnut," and, more rarely, the "pinder," 
another term that originated in the Bantu languages.
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word | 7 Aug 2004 06:59

quiddity

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The Word of the Day for August 7 is: 

quiddity   \KWID-uh-tee\   noun
   *1 : whatever makes something the type that it is : essence 
     2 a : a trifling point : quibble b : crotchet, eccentricity 

Example sentence: 
     "We wanted to enhance [the house] without 'countrifying' 
it -- for it to retain its quiddity, its 'whatness.'" (April 
Gornik in _Architectural Digest_, April 1989) 

Did you know? 
     When it comes to synonyms of "quiddity," the Q's have it. 
Consider "quintessence," a synonym of the "essence of a 
thing "sense of "quiddity" (this oldest sense of "quiddity" 
dates from the 14th century). "Quibble" is a  synonym of 
the "trifling point" sense; that meaning of "quiddity" arose 
from the subtler points of 16th-century academic arguments. 
And "quirk," like "quiddity," can refer to a person's 
eccentricities. Of course, "quiddity" also derives from a "Q" 
word, the Latin pronoun "quis," which is one of two Latin words 
for "who" (the other is "qui"). "Quid," the neuter form 
of "quis," gave rise to the Medieval Latin "quidditas," which 
means "essence," a term that was essential to the development of
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word | 8 Aug 2004 06:59

jimjams

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The Word of the Day for August 8 is: 

jimjams   \JIM-jamz\   noun plural
     : jitters

Example sentence:
     "I love cappuccinos, but the caffeine gives me the 
jimjams," said Paula.

Did you know?
     When "jimjams" entered English in the mid-19th century, it 
probably referred to a specific kind of jitters -- the "delirium 
tremens," a violent delirium caused by excessive 
drinking. "Jimjams" is not particularly common today, but when 
it is used in current American English it means 
simply "jitters." Etymologists aren't sure about the origin of 
the term. Some speculate that it came about as an alteration 
of "delirium tremens." Others, though uncertain of the origin 
of "jim" and "jam," notice that the word follows a pattern of 
similar words in which one sound is repeated or altered 
slightly. Interestingly, other words for "jitters" were formed 
in the same repetitive way -- "whim-whams" and "heebie-jeebies" 
are examples.
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word | 9 Aug 2004 06:59

tawdry

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The Word of the Day for August 9 is:

tawdry   \TAW-dree\   adjective
    : cheap and gaudy in appearance or quality; also : ignoble

Example sentence:
     Tom and Pam found themselves in an unfamiliar section of 
the city, walking by tawdry storefronts and shady bars.

Did you know?
     In the 7th century, Etheldreda, the queen of Northumbria, 
renounced her husband and her royal position for the veil of a 
nun. She was renowned for her saintliness and is traditionally 
said to have died of a swelling in her throat, which she took as 
a judgment upon her fondness for wearing necklaces in her youth. 
Her shrine became a principal site of pilgrimage in England. An 
annual fair was held in her honor on October 17th, and her name 
became simplified to St. Audrey. At these fairs various kinds of 
cheap knickknacks were sold, along with a type of necklace 
called "St. Audrey's lace," which by the 17th century had become 
altered to "tawdry lace." Eventually, "tawdry" came to be used 
to describe anything cheap and gaudy that might be found at 
these fairs or anywhere else.
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word | 10 Aug 2004 06:59

abjure

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The Word of the Day for August 10 is: 

abjure   \ab-JOOR\   verb
     1 a : to renounce upon oath  b : to reject solemnly 
   *2 : to abstain from : avoid 

Example sentence: 
     "The idea that we can learn from history is one 
professional historians usually abjure. They leave it to 
politicians...." (Michael Howard, _The New York Times Book 
Review_, January 10, 1988)

Did you know? 
     Just as a jury swears to produce an unbiased verdict, and a 
witness swears to tell the truth on pain of perjury, those who 
abjure their former ways "swear them away." "Abjure" (as well 
as "jury" and "perjury") comes from Latin "jurare," which 
means "to swear" (and which in turn is based on the root "jus," 
meaning "law"), plus the prefix "ab-," meaning "away." These 
days, we can casually abjure (that is, abstain from) vices such 
as smoking or overeating, but in the 15th and 16th centuries to 
abjure was a matter of renouncing something under oath -- and 
sometimes a matter of life and death. For example, during the 
Spanish Inquisition, individuals were given the choice between
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Gmane