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word | 1 Apr 2006 07:50

lyric

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The Word of the Day for April 1 is:

lyric   \LEER-ik\   adjective
     1 a : suitable for singing to the lyre or for being set to music and sung  b : of, relating to, or being drama set to
music; especially : operatic  
     2 *a : expressing direct usually intense personal emotion especially in a manner suggestive of song  b :
exuberant, rhapsodic 
     3 : having a light voice and a melodic style

Example sentence:
     The critics are praising Jessica's debut novel as a lyric masterpiece that bravely lays out the emotional
tensions experienced by its young author.

Did you know?
     To the ancient Greeks, anything "lyrikos" was appropriate to the lyre. That elegant stringed instrument
was highly regarded by the Greeks and was used to accompany intensely personal poetry that revealed the
thoughts and feelings of the poet. When the adjective "lyric," a descendant of "lyrikos," was adopted
into English in the 1500s, it too referred to things pertaining or adapted to the lyre. Initially, it was
applied to poetic forms (such as elegies, odes, or sonnets) that expressed strong emotion, to poets who
wrote such works, or to things that were meant to be sung; over time, it was extended to anything musical or
rhapsodic. Nowadays, "lyric" is also used as a noun naming either a type of poem or the words of a song.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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word | 2 Apr 2006 07:50

maverick

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The Word of the Day for April 2 is:

maverick   \MAV-rik\   noun
     1 : an unbranded range animal; especially : a motherless calf
    *2 : an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party

Example sentence:
     The award-winning columnist was regarded as a political maverick who clashed with his colleagues on many issues.

Did you know? 
     When a client gave Samuel A. Maverick 400 cattle to settle a $1,200 debt, the 19th-century south Texas
lawyer had no use for them, so he left the cattle unbranded and allowed them to roam freely (supposedly
under the supervision of one of his employees). Neighboring stockmen recognized their opportunity and
seized it, branding and herding the stray cattle as their own. Maverick eventually recognized the folly
of the situation and sold what was left of his depleted herd, but not before his name became synonymous with
such unbranded livestock. By the end of the 19th century, the term "maverick" was being used to refer to
individuals who prefer to blaze their own trails. 

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word | 3 Apr 2006 07:50

phlegmatic

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The Word of the Day for April 3 is:

phlegmatic   \fleg-MAT-ik\   adjective 
     1 : resembling, consisting of, or producing the humor phlegm 
    *2 : having or showing a slow and stolid temperament 

Example sentence:
     He is a phlegmatic coach at courtside, but in the locker room he fires up (and, when necessary, reams out) his
players, inspiring them to win.

Did you know?
     According to the ancient Greeks, human personalities were controlled by four bodily fluids or semifluids
called "humors": blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm. Each humor was associated with one of the
four basic elements: air, earth, fire, and water. Phlegm was paired with water -- the cold, moist element
-- and it was believed to impart the cool, calm, unemotional personality we now call the "phlegmatic
type." That's a bit odd, given that the term derives from the Greek "phlegma," which literally means
"flame," perhaps a reflection of the inflammation that colds and flus often bring.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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word | 4 Apr 2006 07:50

devious

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The Word of the Day for April 4 is: 

devious   \DEE-vee-us\   adjective
    *1 : deviating from a straight line : roundabout
     2 : behaving wrongly : errant 
     3 : tricky, cunning; also : deceptive

Example sentence:
     In _The Discoverers_, Daniel J. Boorstin describes the Strait of Magellan as "the narrowest, most
devious, most circuitous of all the straits connecting two great bodies of water."

Did you know?
     If you think someone devious has lost their way, you're right, etymologically speaking -- the word derives
from the Latin adjective "devius," itself formed by a combination of the prefix "de-" ("from, away") and
the noun "via," meaning "way." When "devious" was first used in the late 16th century, it referred to a
literal wandering off the "way," describing something that meandered or had no fixed course ("a devious
route" or "devious breezes"). Relatively quickly, however, the word came to describe someone or
something that has metaphorically rather than literally left the "right path," and then to apply to
deceitful or otherwise behavior that is not "straight"-forward.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. 

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word | 5 Apr 2006 06:50

orchidaceous

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The Word of the Day for April 5 is:

orchidaceous   \or-kuh-DAY-shus\   adjective 
     1 : of, relating to, or resembling the orchids 
    *2 : showy, ostentatious 

Example sentence: 
     "There's no clutter; no outlandish designer flatware or china; no orchidaceous, wordy wine lists. . . ."
(James Villas, _Town and Country Monthly_, March 1998) 

Did you know? 
     In its sense first used by botanists in the 1830s, "orchidaceous" means "belonging to the family
Orchidaceae" -- that is, to the orchid family, a very large family of flowering plants. While the basic
shape of an orchid is simple -- three petals with, on many orchids, an enlarged middle petal -- there is no
such thing as a typical orchid. Orchids range in size from very tiny flowers on inch-high plants to flowers
a foot across, and they grow in habitats from tropical rain forests to semideserts. But when people use
"orchidaceous" as a flashy term in phrases like "orchidaceous writing," "orchidaceous colors," and
"orchidaceous ladies," it's the colorful, showy tropical species they have in mind --- species which, as
Jacob Breynius, a 17th-century German botanist, put it, "surely excite our greatest admiration." 

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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word | 6 Apr 2006 06:50

slugabed

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The Word of the Day for April 6 is:

slugabed   \SLUG-uh-bed\   noun
      : a person who stays in bed after the usual or proper time to get up; broadly : sluggard

Example sentence:
     Rather than be a slugabed for her entire vacation, Jeanne made it a goal to rise at 6:00 AM and go for a jog every morning.

Did you know? 
     The first known usage of "slugabed" in English can be found in Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_ (1592),
when Juliet's nurse attempts to rouse the young heroine by chiding, "Why, lamb! why, lady! Fie, you
slug-abed!" The first half of the word, "slug," is a now-rare verb once used in English to mean "to be lazy or
inert" or "to move slowly." Experts believe this word to be of Scandinavian origin, and the same thing can
be said of the noun "slug," which can mean "sluggard" or "lazy person" as well as refer to the slow-moving
gastropod. The second half of our featured word, "abed," is a word still used in English today to mean "in
bed."  

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word | 7 Apr 2006 06:50

benedict

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The Word of the Day for April 7 is:

benedict \BEN-uh-dikt\   noun 
   : a newly married man who has long been a bachelor 

Example sentence: 
     Tabloid reporters never tire of asking celebrity benedicts what they think of married life. 

Did you know? 
     "Benedick" is the chief male character in Shakespeare's play _Much Ado About Nothing_. Throughout the
play, both Benedick and his female counterpart Beatrice exchange barbed comments and profess to detest
the very idea of marriage, but the story eventually culminates in their marriage to each other. As a
result, Benedick's name came to be applied to men who marry later in life. The spelling was changed to
"benedict," possibly by association with a use of "benedict" meaning "bachelor" (although the evidence
for this use is scant). Some early 20th-century usage commentators regarded the respelling as incorrect
with regards to the etymology, but "benedict" has become the established spelling nevertheless.

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word | 8 Apr 2006 06:50

undulate

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The Word of the Day for April 8 is: 

undulate   \UN-juh-layt\   verb
     1 : to form or move in waves : fluctuate 
    *2 : to rise and fall in volume, pitch, or cadence 
     3 : to present a wavy appearance 

Example sentence:
     The opera singer's voice undulated as she expressed the grief and despair of the song.

Did you know?
     "Undulate" and "inundate" are word cousins, sharing "unda," the Latin word for "wave," as their common
ancestor. No surprise there. But would you have guessed that "abound," "surround," and "redound" are
also "unda" offspring? The connection between "unda" and these words is easier to see when you learn that
at some point in their early histories each of them essentially had the meaning of "to overflow," just as
"inundate" (which can mean either "to overflow" or "to overwhelm") does. Today that connection is
obscured, since the "overflow" senses of the words are, well, down the drain. 

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. 

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word | 9 Apr 2006 06:50

a cappella

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The Word of the Day for April 9 is: 

a cappella   \ah-kuh-PEL-uh\   adverb or adjective
     : without instrumental accompaniment

Example sentence:
     The group is famous for a cappella performances in which human voices mimic the sounds of instruments.

Did you know?
     "A cappella" arrived in English from Italian sometime around the mid-19th century. In Italian, "a
cappella" means "in chapel or choir style." "Cappella" in Italian means "chapel"; the English word
"chapel" is ultimately (if independently) derived from the Medieval Latin word "cappella," which is the
source of the Italian "cappella" as well. Scholars once thought all "chapel style" music written before
the 1600s was performed a cappella, but modern research has revealed that instruments might have doubled
or substituted for some voices back then. Today "a cappella" describes a purely vocal performance.

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(c) 2006 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
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word | 10 Apr 2006 06:50

catchpole

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The Word of the Day for April 10 is:

catchpole   \KATCH-poal\   noun 
     : a sheriff's deputy; especially : one who makes arrests for failure to pay a debt

Example sentence:
     David knew that it must be the catchpole knocking at his door, so he quickly threw on his shoes and coat and
snuck out the back.

Did you know?
     Imagine chasing a chicken around the barnyard. Catching it would be no mean feat. And chasing down someone
who owes you money is pretty challenging too. It's no surprise then that these two taxing tasks come
together in "catchpole," which derives from a word that literally means "chicken chaser" --
Anglo-French "cachepole." Before it referred to the debt police, "catchpole" was used more generally
for any tax collector. That's the sense demonstrated in a 12th-century homily about the apostle Matthew: 
"Matheus thet wes cachepol thene he iwende to god-spellere" ("Matthew who was a catchpole until he turned
into a writer of the Gospel").

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