博文

目前显示的是 八月, 2019的博文

每日一词:brackish(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 31, 2019 is: brackish • \BRACK-ish\  • adjective 1 : somewhat salty 2 a : not appealing to the taste b : repulsive Examples: The mangrove swamp is home to many species of plants and animals that thrive in brackish water. “For decades, the Battleship Texas has rested in the shallow, brackish waters of the Houston Ship Channel, slowly decaying. While tourists marvel at the last surviving dreadnought that fought in two world wars, beneath the surface a system of pumps pushes out water seeping through the ship’s corroded hull.” — Nick Powell, The Houston Chronicle , 26 June 2019 Did you know? When the word brackish first appeared in English in the 1500s, it simply meant “salty,” as did its Dutch parent brac . Then, as now, brackish water could simply be a mixture of saltwater and freshwater. Since that time, however, brackish has developed the additional meanings of “unpalatable” or “distasteful”—presumably because

又一个周五!

图片
原文链接 周五中午啦~ 吃完午饭,下午继续工作! (由 IFTTT 发送) Lake桑 August 30, 2019 at 12:05PM

每日一词:martinet(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 30, 2019 is: martinet • \mar-tuh-NET\  • noun 1 : a strict disciplinarian 2 : a person who stresses a rigid adherence to the details of forms and methods Examples: “Her father was a diet-and-exercise martinet , imposing a strict regimen on her as a condition for receiving an allowance.” — Michael Upchurch, The Boston Globe , 20 Aug. 2017 “Topping them all, though, has to be Gen. William Westmoreland. Tall. Ramrod straight. Grim visage. He just had that look, and he … is the subject of endless debate. Was he a martinet who never really understood his war and cost America a chance at victory, or was he perhaps something more complex?” — Andrew Wiest and Susannah Ural, The New York Times , 9 Oct. 2017 Did you know? When France’s King Louis XIV appointed Lieutenant Colonel Jean Martinet to be inspector general of the infantry in the late 17th century, he made a wise choice. As a drillmaster, Martinet trained his troops t

又一个周五!

图片
原文链接 周五中午啦~ 吃完午饭,下午继续工作! (由 IFTTT 发送) Lake桑 August 30, 2019 at 12:00PM

每日一词:augur(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 29, 2019 is: augur • \AW-gur\  • verb 1 : to foretell especially from omens 2 : to give promise of : presage Examples: “The new discovery should provide insight into the elusive origins of the strange bright signals, and augurs a dawning era in which they will be found and studied by the thousands.” — Nola Taylor Redd, Scientific American , 13 Aug. 2018 “Still, combined with Denver’s lack of postseason experience, its recent struggles against top competition doesn’t augur well for a deep playoff run.” — Grant Hughes, Bleacher Report , 5 Apr. 2019 Did you know? Auguring is what augurs did in ancient Rome. Augurs were official diviners whose function it was not to foretell the future, but to divine whether the gods approved of a proposed undertaking, such as a military move. They did so by various means, among them observing the behavior of birds and examining the entrails of sacrificed animals. Nowadays, the forete

每日一词:irascible(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 28, 2019 is: irascible • \ir-RASS-uh-bul\  • adjective : marked by hot temper and easily provoked anger Examples: That tidy little house belongs to an irascible crank who never has a kind word for any of his neighbors. “Working with Adam Baldwin, best known as the irascible mercenary Jayne in Firefly and Serenity and the gruff but lovable John Casey on Chuck , was another bonus.” — Tim Clodfelter, The News & Record (Greensboro, North Carolina), 9 June 2019 Did you know? If you try to take apart irascible in the same manner as irrational , irresistible , or irresponsible , you might find yourself wondering what ascible means—but that’s not how irascible came to be. The key to the meaning of irascible isn’t the negative prefix ir- (which is a variant of the prefix in- that is used before words beginning with “r”), but the Latin noun ira , meaning “anger.” From ira , which is also the root of irate and ire

每日一词:desuetude(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 27, 2019 is: desuetude • \DESS-wih-tood\  • noun : discontinuance from use or exercise : disuse Examples: The old bridge, which fell into desuetude after the railroad was shut down, has recently been opened as a pedestrian walkway. “It has been 15 years since Mr. Klein and his partners paid $18 million for the Sunset Tower, a faded Art Deco relic on a stretch of Sunset Strip that, although now booming, had fallen into funky desuetude . Against most odds and all prevailing wisdom, he soon established it and its Tower Bar restaurant as essential landmarks of the new Hollywood.” — Guy Trebay, The New York Times , 23 Feb. 2019 Did you know? Desuetude must be closely related to disuse , right? Wrong. Despite the similarities between them, desuetude and disuse derive from two different Latin verbs. Desuetude comes from suescere , a word that means “to become accustomed” ( suescere also gave us the word custom ). Disuse

每日一词:wangle(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 26, 2019 is: wangle • \WANG-gul\  • verb 1 : to resort to trickery 2 : to adjust or manipulate for personal or fraudulent ends 3 : to make or get by devious means : finagle Examples: “He wangled an invitation to a White House Christmas party, where he and his wife posed for a photo with then-President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.” — Barbara Demick and Victoria Kim, The Los Angeles Times , 16 May 2019 “‘Our Mayor is the most appealing man I know,’ [ Franklin D. Roosevelt ] said on one occasion. ‘He comes to Washington and tells me a sad story. The tears run down my cheeks and the tears run down his cheeks and the next thing I know, he has wangled another $50 million out of me.'” — Mason B. Williams, City of Ambition , 2013 Did you know? Wangle , a verb of uncertain origin, has been used in its newest sense, “to obtain by sly methods,” since at least the early 20th century. Occasionally, one sees wrangle

又一个周一。

图片
原文链接 一周又开始了。加油工作!(由 IFTTT 发送) Lake桑 August 26, 2019 at 07:00AM

每日一词:kludge(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 25, 2019 is: kludge • \KLOOJ\  • noun : a haphazard or makeshift solution to a problem and especially to a computer or programming problem Examples: Andy knocked out a hasty kludge to circumvent the buggy code until a more robust solution could be developed. “When the theatre was built in and opened in 1920, there were no concessions of any kind. Everything that we’ve done to accommodate modern audiences was a kludge in various ways.” — Curtis McCrary, quoted in The Tucson (Arizona) Weekly , 25 Oct. 2018 Did you know? The first recorded use of the word kludge is attributed to Jackson W. Granholm, who defined the word in a 1962 issue of the magazine Datamation as “an ill-assorted collection of poorly-matching parts, forming a distressing whole.” He further explained that it was derived from the German word klug , meaning “smart” or “witty.” Why Granholm included a d in his spelling is not known. What we do know is t

每日一词:sporadic(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 24, 2019 is: sporadic • \spuh-RAD-ik\  • adjective : occurring occasionally, singly, or in irregular or random instances Examples: The team’s regular meetings became sporadic over the summer months, when at some points up to half of its members were on vacation. “Continuous permafrost hugs the Hudson Bay coast and spreads inland about 75 kilometres before becoming discontinuous and sporadic . Like peat , permafrost is an effective storehouse of greenhouse gases.” — Kenyon Wallace, The Toronto Star , 27 May 2019 Did you know? Sporadic describes the distribution of something across space or time that is not frequent enough to fill an area or period, often in scattered instances or isolated outbursts (as in “sporadic applause”). The word comes from Medieval Latin sporadicus , which is itself derived from Greek sporadēn , meaning “here and there.” It is also related to the Greek verb speirein (“to sow”), the ancestor fro

每日一词:excursion(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 23, 2019 is: excursion • \ik-SKER-zhun\  • noun 1 a : a going out or forth : expedition b (1) : a usually brief pleasure trip (2) : a trip at special reduced rates 2 : deviation from a direct, definite, or proper course; especially : digression 3 : a movement outward and back or from a mean position or axis; also : the distance traversed : amplitude Examples: Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass is an excursion into a fantastical world where nothing is what it seems to be, and everything appears to be what it is not. “Every morning for 10 years, Joey Gamez has hopped on a boat to take customers of his Golden State Sportfishing business on a San Francisco Bay excursion , a hobby-turned-business for the 42-year-old.” — Alejandra Reyes-Velarde, The Los Angeles Times , 15 July 2019 Did you know? In Latin, the prefix ex- means “out of” and the verb currere means “to run.” When the two are put togethe

又一个周五!

图片
原文链接 周五中午啦~ 吃完午饭,下午继续工作! (由 IFTTT 发送) Lake桑 August 23, 2019 at 12:00PM

每日一词:chivy(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 22, 2019 is: chivy • \CHIV-ee\  • verb 1 : to tease or annoy with persistent petty attacks 2 : to move or obtain by small maneuvers Examples: Marielle watched her little brother as he chivied an olive from the jar with his fingers. “To encounter Hemingway as an adult was to be faced with a man whose appetite for supposedly masculine pursuits was so assiduously cultivated as to border on parody…. He would routinely chivy his friends into the ring in order to engage in tests of strength.” — Matthew Adams, The Washington Post , 17 May 2017 Did you know? Chivy , which is also spelled chivvy , became established in our language in the 19th century and, at first, meant “to harass or chase.” Early usage examples are of people chivying a chicken around to catch it and of a person chivying around food that is frying. The verb comes from a British noun chivy meaning “chase” or “hunt.” That chivy is believed to be derived f

每日一词:misnomer(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 21, 2019 is: misnomer • \miss-NOH-mer\  • noun 1 : the misnaming of a person in a legal instrument 2 a : a use of a wrong or inappropriate name b : a wrong name or inappropriate designation Examples: “When you see flashes along the horizon on a summer night, it could be lightning within a storm that’s more than 100 miles away. ‘Heat lightning ‘ is a misnomer —they’re just ordinary strikes that lack thunder and appear diffuse when witnessed from a long distance.” — John Boyer, The Richmond (Virginia) Times Dispatch , 27 June 2019 “Ten candidates will debate for two hours each night Wednesday and Thursday—although ‘debate’ is something of a misnomer , in the Lincoln – Douglas sense of the word, given the time constraints and limited ability for great depth or lengthy engagement.” — Mark Z. Barabak and Michael Finnegan, The Los Angeles Times , 25 June 2019 Did you know? What’s in a name? Well, in some cases, a name w

每日一词:ethereal(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 20, 2019 is: ethereal • \ih-THEER-ee-ul\  • adjective 1 a : of or relating to the regions beyond the earth b : celestial , heavenly c : unworldly , spiritual 2 a : lacking material substance : immaterial , intangible b : marked by unusual delicacy or refinement c : suggesting the heavens or heaven 3 : relating to, containing, or resembling a chemical ether Examples: “Like Howe’s  Omniverse , van Herpen’s finale piece used aluminum and stainless steel on the skeleton, covering it with a thin layer of feathers that ruffled, turning as if graced with gust of wind. The penultimate look channeled the same ethereal vibe, featuring laser-cut strips of fabric that give the appearance of pulsating angel wings.” — Barry Samaha, Surface , 2 July 2019 “ Colored Everything has an air of maturity about it. … What you’ll hear is seemingly endless layers of airy, ethereal sound that makes you wonder what kinds of instrume

每日一词:brandish(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 19, 2019 is: brandish • \BRAN-dish\  • verb 1 : to shake or wave (something, such as a weapon) menacingly 2 : to exhibit in an ostentatious or aggressive manner Examples: Michael appeared before the town council brandishing a petition signed by 500 people asking the town to increase funding for the public skate park. “Our plates of crisply battered cod, chips and mushy peas and our drinks arrived and we set to. Atticus ate with his fingers…. ‘Do you know how to use a knife and fork?’ I said to him, purely out of interest. He said he did know and he picked them up and brandished  them at me to prove it. The fork was in his right hand, the knife in his left. ‘Bravo,’ I said.” — Jeremy Clarke, The Spectator , 21 July 2018 Did you know? Often when we encounter the word brandish in print, it is soon followed by a word for a weapon, such as knife or handgun . That’s appropriate given the word’s etymology: it is a descen

又一个周一。

图片
原文链接 一周又开始了。加油工作!(由 IFTTT 发送) Lake桑 August 19, 2019 at 07:00AM

每日一词:hiatus(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 18, 2019 is: hiatus • \hye-AY-tus\  • noun 1 a : a break in or as if in a material object : gap b biology : a gap or passage in an anatomical part or organ 2 a : an interruption in time or continuity : break ; especially : a period when something (as a program or activity) is suspended or interrupted b : the occurrence of two vowel sounds without pause or intervening consonantal sound Examples: “The bus service will run from Dec. 3 to Dec. 21 before going on hiatus for the holidays. Regular service will resume on Jan. 7.” — Alison Brownlee, The Huntsville Forester , November 27, 2012 “It’s a new era for pop/rockstar Adam Lambert. After a four-year hiatus from his solo career, during which he became the new frontman for Queen, the singer returned earlier this year with two new singles and the announcement of his upcoming fourth studio album Velvet.” — Stephen Daw, Billboard.com , 19 June 2019 Did you know?

每日一词:tortuous(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 17, 2019 is: tortuous • \TOR-chuh-wus\  • adjective 1 : marked by repeated twists, bends, or turns : winding 2 a : marked by devious or indirect tactics : crooked , tricky b : circuitous , involved Examples: “What a cast! A tsunami of lawyers, such as William Evarts, Benjamin Butler and others swept over Washington with a vengeance, launching long-winded speeches—one lasted 14 hours—and tortuous explanations of policies.” — Sam Coale, The Providence Journal , 23 May 2019 “Introduced to the Tour in 2012, the Planche des Belles Filles ascent immediately became a classic. Set up in the Vosges mountains, it is steep, tortuous and brutal, featuring a 20 percent gradient at the top.” — Samuel Petrequin, The Associated Press , 1 July 2019 Did you know? Be careful not to confuse tortuous with torturous . These two words are relatives—both ultimately come from the Latin verb torquere, which means “to twist,” “to wind,

每日一词:satiate(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 16, 2019 is: satiate • \SAY-shee-ayt\  • verb : to satisfy (a need, a desire, etc.) fully or to excess Examples: After eating three pieces of pie and one of cake at the potluck, Jamie’s sweet tooth was finally satiated . “While the battles between Shazam and his arch enemy Thaddeus Sivana … will satiate superhero fans, the emotional center of the movie is the Philadelphia foster family that embraces Billy.” — Brian Truitt, USA Today , 3 Apr. 2019 Did you know? Satiate , sate , surfeit , cloy , pall , glut , and gorge all mean to fill to repletion. Satiate and sate sometimes imply only complete satisfaction but more often suggest repletion that has destroyed interest or desire, as in “Years of globe-trotting had satiated their interest in travel” and “Readers were sated with sensationalistic stories.” Surfeit implies a nauseating repletion, as in “They surfeited themselves with junk food,” while cloy stresses the

又一个周五!

图片
原文链接 周五中午啦~ 吃完午饭,下午继续工作! (由 IFTTT 发送) Lake桑 August 16, 2019 at 12:00PM

每日一词:miscible(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 15, 2019 is: miscible • \MISS-uh-bul\  • adjective : capable of being mixed; specifically : capable of mixing in any ratio without separation of two phases Examples: Oil and water are not miscible —if you pour oil in a glass of water, it will float to the top.  “Although the alkalized cocoa was not completely soluble in milk or water, it was more miscible than any other cocoa product, blending more evenly in solution….” — Deborah Cadbury, Chocolate Wars , 2010 Did you know? Miscible isn’t simply a lesser-known synonym of mixable —it’s also a cousin. It comes to us from the Medieval Latin adjective miscibilis , which has the same meaning as miscible and which derives, in turn, from Latin miscēre , meaning “to mix.” Miscēre is also the ultimate source of our mix ; its past participle mixtus (meaning “mixed”) spawned mixte in Anglo-French and Middle English, and mix came about as a back-formation of mixte . The s

每日一词:garniture(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 14, 2019 is: garniture • \GAHR-nih-cher\  • noun 1 : embellishment , trimming 2 : a set of decorative objects (such as vases, urns, or clocks) Examples: “Above the fireplace: a scene of a cow jumping over the moon, in an elaborate gilt frame. On the mantle below, we see a clock…, flanked by garniture sturdy enough to be a murder weapon out of Agatha Christie.” — Rumaan Alam, Slate , 23 Aug. 2016 “Once upon a time, this was probably one of a pair of vases that comprised a garniture set used to decorate a Victorian mantel. Its mate has vanished into the lost and found of history, but this one with its superb craftsmanship remains a thing of beauty.” — Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson, The New Hampshire Union Leader , 29 June 2019 Did you know? In Middle French, garniture meant “accessory.” It is an alteration of the Old French noun garneture , which is derived from the verb garnir , which meant “to equip, trim, or de

每日一词:smite(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 13, 2019 is: smite • \SMYTE\  • verb 1 :  to strike sharply or heavily especially with the hand or an implement held in the hand 2 a :  to kill or severely injure by so striking b : to attack or afflict suddenly and injuriously 3 : to cause to strike 4 : to affect as if by striking 5 : captivate , take Examples: The cartoon’s villain was, as tradition would have it, smote by an anvil dropping mysteriously from the sky. “Down the street, Teresa Benner’s 1963, 23-window Volkswagen van was also turning heads. She bought it recently when it came up at a Barrett-Jackson auction in Arizona. She was smitten at first sight.” — Joel Mills, The Lewiston (Idaho) Morning Tribune , 23 June 2019 Did you know? Today’s word has been part of the English language for a very long time; the earliest documented use in print dates to the 12th century. Smite can be traced back to the Old English smītan , meaning “to smear or defile

每日一词:plaintive(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 12, 2019 is: plaintive • \PLAYN-tiv\  • adjective : expressive of suffering or woe : melancholy Examples: “Dean Nicholson was pedaling up a hill in Bosnia … when he heard a plaintive meow. He looked over his shoulder. In the lambent December light, he saw a gray-and-white kitten chasing him up the incline.” — Isaac Stanley-Becker, The Philadelphia Inquirer , 4 Apr. 2019 “[Stevie] Wonder did perform a plaintive cover of the John Lennon classic ‘Imagine’ for his penultimate number—a statement piece that he’s incorporated on his tours since the 1990s, and which he noted as being ‘still relevant,’ despite originally coming out in 1971.” — Mara Reinstein, Billboard.com , 25 June 2019 Did you know? Like its relative plangent , plaintive is often used to describe sad sounds. “A plaintive wail,” for example, is a common use. Plaintive and plangent (along with relatives plaintiff and complain ) ultimately derive from the

又一个周一。

图片
原文链接 一周又开始了。加油工作!(由 IFTTT 发送) Lake桑 August 12, 2019 at 07:00AM

每日一词:démarche(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 11, 2019 is: démarche • \day-MARSH\  • noun 1 a : a course of action : maneuver b : a diplomatic or political initiative or maneuver 2 : a petition or protest presented through diplomatic channels Examples: “On Feb. 23, less than a week after the U.S. démarche to the Cuban government, DeLaurentis accompanied two visiting U.S. senators … to see President Raúl Castro at the Palace of the Revolution.” — Tim Golden and Sebastian Rotella, ProPublica , 14 Feb. 2018 “European Union foreign ministers … will also issue a demarche —a formal diplomatic protest note—to Moscow as early as next week over Russia’s continued detention of 24 Ukrainian sailors captured in the November incident, they added.” — The Washington Post , 25 Jan. 2019 Did you know? When it comes to international diplomacy, the French may not always have the last word—but they have quite a few, many of which they’ve shared with English. We began using démar

每日一词:balkanize(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 10, 2019 is: balkanize • \BAWL-kuh-nyze\  • verb 1 :  to break up (a region, a group, etc.) into smaller and often hostile units 2 : divide , compartmentalize Examples: “Tech companies and civil rights advocates warn that the increasing push by nations to create their own internet rules will Balkanize the internet and potentially lead to privacy violations and the stifling of political dissent.” — Cecilia Kang and Katie Benner, The New York Times , 7 Jan. 2017 “Historical scholarship had become Balkanized into dozens of subfields and specialized methodologies, many of them virtually inaccessible to lay readers or even to specialists in other subfields.” — James M. McPherson, The New York Times Book Review , 19 Sept. 1999 Did you know? The Balkan Peninsula of southeastern Europe is lapped by the Adriatic Sea in the west and the Black Sea in the east. It is named for the Balkan Mountains, a mountain range which exten

每日一词:omnium-gatherum(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 9, 2019 is: omnium-gatherum • \ahm-nee-um-GA-thuh-rum\  • noun : a miscellaneous collection (as of things or persons) Examples: “Muldoon’s Picnic—the critically acclaimed omnium-gatherum of music, storytelling, poetry, and more—has become a staple of New York’s cultural diet.” — BroadwayWorld.com , 4 Sept. 2018 “In his diary, a small, haphazardly kept omnium-gatherum , Arlen set down axioms, vocabulary words, and quotes from a wide-ranging reading list—Marcus Aurelius, Aristotle, Santayana, Nietzsche.” — John Lahr, The New Yorker , 19 Sept. 2005 Did you know? English abounds in Latin phrases. They roll off the learned tongue like peas off a fork: tabula rasa , ab ovo , a posteriori , deus ex machina , ex cathedra , mea culpa , terra firma , vox populi , ad hominem , sub rosa . Omnium-gatherum belongs on that list too, right? Not exactly. Omnium-gatherum sounds like Latin, and indeed omnium (the genitive plural of La

又一个周五!

图片
原文链接 周五中午啦~ 吃完午饭,下午继续工作! (由 IFTTT 发送) Lake桑 August 09, 2019 at 12:00PM

每日一词:aggregate(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 8, 2019 is: aggregate • \AG-rih-gut\  • noun 1 : a mass or body of units or parts somewhat loosely associated with one another 2 : the whole sum or amount : sum total Examples: The university’s various departments spent an aggregate of 1.2 million dollars in advertising last year. “Their bill would require companies that collect user data to tell consumers and regulators what they collect, how they make money off it and how much it’s worth—in aggregate and broken down by users.” — James Condliffe, The New York Times , 1 July 2019 Did you know? We added aggregate to our flock of Latin borrowings in the 15th century. It descends from aggregāre (“to cause to flock together” or “to join together”), a Latin verb made up of the prefix ad- (which means “to,” and which usually changes to ag- before a g ) and greg- or grex (meaning “flock, herd, or group”). Greg- also gave us congregate , gregarious , and segregate .

每日一词:ransack(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 7, 2019 is: ransack • \RAN-sak\  • verb 1 : to look through thoroughly in often a rough way 2 : to search through and steal from in a forceful and damaging way : plunder Examples: The kids had ransacked the cabinets looking for snacks, leaving not a chip or cracker uneaten. “Also in the spring, I bring the bird feeders inside the house to avoid tempting bears into our yard…. A resident bear only had to ransack my feeders once for me to learn my lesson.” — Aislinn Sarnacki, The Bangor (Maine) Daily News , 6 June 2019 Did you know? Ransack carries the image of a house being roughly disarranged, as might happen when you are frantically searching for something. This is appropriate given the word’s origin. Ransack derives, via Middle English ransaken , from Old Norse rannsaka ; the rann in rannsaka means “house.” The second half of rannsaka is related to an Old English word, sēcan , meaning “to seek.” But our moder

每日一词:totem(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 6, 2019 is: totem • \TOH-tum\  • noun 1 a : an object (such as an animal or plant) serving as the emblem of a family or clan and often as a reminder of its ancestry; also   : a usually carved or painted representation of such an object b : a family or clan identified by a common  totemic object 2 : one that serves as an emblem or revered symbol Examples: The Delaware Indians of eastern North America belonged to one of three groups whose totems were the turkey, the turtle, and the wolf. “A totem reached the end of its life with a unifying ceremony after 65 years standing the grounds of Thunderbird Park. Members of First Nations … spoke to the significance of the Kwakwaka’wakw house post replica, which was built in 1954…. — Nicole Crescenzi, The Victoria (British Columbia) News , 31 May 2019 Did you know? Totem comes to us from Ojibwa , an Algonquian language spoken by an American Indian people from the regions

每日一词:passim(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 5, 2019 is: passim • \PASS-im\  • adverb : in one place and another : here and there Examples: The old cookbooks that once belonged to Michael’s grandmother had some of her own recipes and other annotations penciled on the pages passim . “Finally, may I say that I respect the views of those who have read and researched the same information as I, but reached the opposing conclusion, as displayed in your letter pages passim .” — Stephen Brown, The North Devon Journal , 12 Dec. 2013 Did you know? Passim is from the Latin word passus (“scattered”), itself from pandere, meaning “to spread.” Pandere is the root of the common word expand and the not-so-common word repand , meaning “having a slightly undulating margin” (as in “a repand leaf” or “a repand colony of bacteria”). It is also the progenitor of pace , as in “keep up a steady pace.” Passim itself appears in English both on its own and as part of the adverb sic p

又一个周一。

图片
原文链接 一周又开始了。加油工作!(由 IFTTT 发送) Lake桑 August 05, 2019 at 07:00AM

每日一词:faze(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 4, 2019 is: faze • \FAYZ\  • verb : to disturb the composure of : disconcert , daunt Examples: My grandfather was a stolid individual who was not easily fazed by life’s troubles. “The heat didn’t faze the crowd, though, as families swarmed up to Kirkbride Park to browse vendors and watch performances.” — Johanna Armstrong, The Fergus Falls (Minnesota) Daily Journal , 8 June 2019 Did you know? Faze (not to be confused with phase ) first appeared in English in the early 1800s—centuries after the works of Shakespeare and Chaucer were penned. But both of those authors were familiar with the word’s ancient parent: faze is an alteration of the now-rare verb feeze , which has been in use since the days of Old English (in the form fēsian ), when it meant “to drive away” or “to put to flight.” By the 1400s, it was also being used with the meaning “to frighten or put into a state of alarm.” The word is still used in some En

每日一词:silly season(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 3, 2019 is: silly season • \SIL-ee-SEE-zun\  • noun 1 : a period (such as late summer) when the mass media often focus on trivial or frivolous matters for lack of major news stories 2 : a period marked by frivolous, outlandish, or illogical activity or behavior Examples: “The St. Louis Blues have claimed their first Stanley Cup, officially ending the 2018-19 season and unofficially kicking off the silly season of trade speculation, draft gossip and free agent scuttlebutt.” — Chip Alexander, The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina), 18 June 2019 “I’m talking about the silly season . Remember the silly season ? Every August, politicians would leave us all in peace and we’d have a blissful month of light-hearted, meaningless non-news.” — Michael Deacon, The Daily Telegraph (London), 11 Aug. 2018 Did you know? Silly season was coined in the 19th century to describe the time when journalists face a bit of a co

每日一词:clarion(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 2, 2019 is: clarion • \KLAIR-ee-un\  • adjective : brilliantly clear; also : loud and clear Examples: “The guitars take off like fighter planes and [Stef Chura] delivers a clarion , country-steeped vocal, somewhere between Kitty Wells and Kurt Cobain.” — Megan Reynolds, Jezebel , 3 June 2019 “The commonest winter birds cheered me on: the chickadees and titmice, woodpeckers and jays, crows, cardinals, and sparrows.  And of course my clarion wrens.” — Jack Wennerstrom, The Bird Watcher’s Digest , September/October 1992 Did you know? In the Middle Ages, clarion was a noun, the name for a trumpet that could play a melody in clear, shrill tones. The noun has since been used for the sound of a trumpet or a similar sound. By the early 1800s, English speakers also started using the word as an adjective for things that ring as clear as the call of a well-played trumpet. Not surprisingly, clarion ultimately derives (via the

又一个周五!

图片
原文链接 周五中午啦~ 吃完午饭,下午继续工作! (由 IFTTT 发送) Lake桑 August 02, 2019 at 12:05PM

又一个周五!

图片
原文链接 周五中午啦~ 吃完午饭,下午继续工作! (由 IFTTT 发送) Lake桑 August 02, 2019 at 12:00PM

每日一词:luftmensch(转自 韦氏词典)

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for August 1, 2019 is: luftmensch • \LOOFT-mensh (the "OO" is as in "foot")\  • noun : an impractical contemplative person having no definite business or income Examples: “People like Luftmenschen , and they’ve liked them for a long time. The image of Thales , called the world’s first philosopher, cannot be proven, but it’s comforting to think that intellectuals have their heads in the clouds and stumble into the well before their feet.” — Susan Neiman, Einstein for the 21st Century , 2008 “Initially, antihero Shmuel Ash seems to be one of [Israeli writer, Amos] Oz’s more familiar types, a luftmensch , concerned with intellectual pursuits, sharing many of the dysfunctional and antiheroic qualities of his predecessors….” — Ranen Omer-Sherman, The Forward , 7 Nov. 2016 Did you know? Are you one of those people who always seem to have their head in the clouds? Do you have trouble getting down to the lowly busines