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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 30, 2019 is: incognito • \in-kahg-NEE-toh\  • adjective or adverb : with one’s identity concealed Examples: “I do walk around the [Las Vegas] Strip. I walk with my head down and a baseball cap on and—so far—no one has noticed. I’ve been incognito .” — Paula Abdul, quoted in The Las Vegas Review-Journal , 17 Nov. 2019 “[Constance] Messmer remembers the night that the cast of ‘Beverly Hills 90210’ came to eat, and there were kids trying to peer in through the windows. Or the time that Sharon Stone arrived incognito , hiding underneath a big floppy hat.” — Geoff Currier, The Martha’s Vineyard Times , 17 Oct. 2019 Did you know? The ancient Greeks and Romans knew that there were times when you didn’t want to be recognized. For example, a myth tells how Zeus and Hermes visited a village incognito and asked for lodging. The apparently penniless travelers were turned away from every household except that of a poor elderly...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 29, 2019 is: mutt • \MUT\  • noun 1 : a stupid or insignificant person : fool 2 : a mongrel dog : cur Examples: Our family’s new dog is an affable, shaggy-haired mutt who is a delight to anyone who visits our home. “I worried that my new acquisition was unexceptional: a mutt on the small side of medium with a shiny black coat, an extra-long nose and ears that stick out at the angle of bat wings in flight. I fell in love at obedience class, where he demonstrated what I took for a drive to excel.” — Nora Caplan-Bricker, The New York Times Magazine , 17 Sept. 2019 Did you know? Mutt can now be used with either affection or disdain to refer to a dog that is not purebred, but in the word’s early history, in the U.S. around the turn of the 20th century, it could also be used to describe a person—and not kindly: mutt was another word for “fool.” The word’s history lies in another insult. It comes from muttonhead...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 28, 2019 is: comestible • \kuh-MESS-tuh-bul\  • adjective : edible Examples: “After all the figs have fully ripened on our farm…, we’ll start collecting grapes if the birds haven’t nabbed them first and then comes the olive harvest, our most precious comestible  commodity.” — Carol Drinkwater, The Daily Mail (London), 16 Aug. 2019 “My kids eat Spam because I ate it, and I eat it because my mother ate it: two generations and counting of comestible nostalgia, a sort of legacy.” — Sabina Murray, The New York Times , 6 Aug. 2019 Did you know? Did you expect comestible to be a noun meaning “food”? You’re probably not alone. As it happens, comestible is used both as an adjective and a noun . The adjective is by far the older of the two; it has been part of English since at least the 1400s. In fact, one of its earliest known uses was in a text printed in 1483 by William Caxton , the man who established England’...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 27, 2019 is: fawn • \FAWN\  • verb 1 : to court favor by a cringing or flattering manner 2 : to show affection — used especially of a dog Examples: “Like tech C.E.O.s today, Edison attracted an enormous following, both because his inventions fundamentally altered the texture of daily life and because he nurtured a media scrum that fawned over every inch of his laboratory and fixated on every minute of his day.” — Casey Cep, The New Yorker , 28 Oct. 2019 “I had planned to dislike Remo, the acting professor whose Chekhov class I took last spring. I had planned to feel this way because all the theater people I knew who took his classes fawned over him in a way that drove me nuts.” — Eliya O. Smith, The Harvard Crimson , 10 Oct. 2019 Did you know? Some people will be glad to learn the origins of fawn —and there’s a hint about the word’s etymology in that declaration. Middle English speakers adapted an Old English...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 26, 2019 is: retinue • \RET-uh-noo\  • noun : a group of retainers or attendants Examples: “The Handkerchief Prince was trailed by a retinue of 40 or so Japanese media members, complete with satellite trucks.” — Anthony Rieber, Newsday , 29 Mar. 2014 “Russian mezzo-soprano Alisa Kolosova, as the duchess who fully expects to marry Rodolfo, enjoyed the Entrance of Entrances, high on the statue of a horse, dressed in royal velvet, and surrounded by a retinue of similarly dressed minions.” — Nancy Malitz, The Chicago Sun-Times , 13 Oct. 2019 Did you know? Retinue derives via Middle English from the Anglo-French verb retenir , meaning “to retain .” Another word deriving from retenir is retainer , which means, among other things, “one who serves a person of high position or rank.” In the 14th century, that high person of rank was usually a noble or a royal of some kind, and retinue referred to that person’s collec...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 25, 2019 is: sempiternal • \sem-pih-TER-nul\  • adjective : of never-ending duration : eternal Examples: “For those who don’t ride public transit and for most of their adulthoods travel via automobile between a few tightly curated situations … Bourbon Street’s sempiternal  carnival gives them unmediated contact with all sorts of people they might not otherwise encounter.” — Jules Bentley, The Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), 20 Aug. 2018 “But by Page 10, I knew I’d never read ‘Moby-Dick.’ The novel—if you can call such an idiosyncratic book by any generic name—hit me like a storm out of nowhere. It contained a wild deluge of thoughts and ideas and  sempiternal  images.” — Amy Wilentz, The Los Angeles Times , 1 May 2011 Did you know? Despite their similarities, sempiternal and eternal come from different roots. Sempiternal is derived from the Late Latin sempiternalis and ultimately from sempe...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 24, 2019 is: billingsgate • \BIL-ingz-gayt\  • noun : coarsely abusive language Examples: A steady stream of billingsgate could be heard coming from my brother’s room as he tried to recover the files lost when his computer crashed.  “The torrent of involuntary filth that spewed from my mouth at those points couldn’t have been good for my son’s linguistic development. He, too, is in his gibberish phase. God help him if he ends up with my Billingsgate vocabulary.” — Benjamin Preston, Jalopnik , 29 July 2019 Did you know? From its beginnings during the time of the Roman occupation, the Billingsgate fish market in London, England, has been notorious for the crude language that has resounded through its stalls. In fact, the fish merchants of Billingsgate were so famous for their swearing centuries ago that their feats of vulgar language were recorded in British chronicler Raphael Holinshed’s 1577 account of King...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 23, 2019 is: jilt • \JILT\  • verb : to cast off or reject (someone, such as a lover) capriciously or unfeelingly Examples: “A Georgia court ruled that a man who jilted his fiancée is liable for $50,000 in damages.” — Robert W. Wood, Forbes , 8 Dec. 2013 “He went back to Fargo, where on May 5, 1924, he broke into a home and walked away with a $700 beaver coat, intending it as a present for his girlfriend. Before long, the young woman jilted him, moved to Valley City and took up with another man.” — Merry Helm, The Williston (North Dakota) Daily Herald , 8 Oct. 2019 Did you know? Jilt traces back to the English dialect noun jillet (“a flirtatious girl”), itself from Jill or Gill (used both as a proper name and as a noun meaning “girl”) plus the diminutive suffix – et . Jilt itself came into use in the second half of the 17th century as a noun meaning “an unchaste woman” (a sense that is now obsolete) or “a w...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 22, 2019 is: heterodox • \HET-uh-ruh-dahks\  • adjective 1 : contrary to or different from an acknowledged standard, a traditional form, or an established religion : unorthodox , unconventional 2 : holding unorthodox opinions or doctrines Examples: “His heterodox moves have been the ones requiring most careful explanation on social media. He bucks his party in not voting for measures he supports … because he disagrees with the underlying legislative approach.” — Isaac Stanley-Becker and Felicia Sonmez, The Washington Post , 20 May 2019 “Why, you’re ashamed to buy my book, ashamed to read it: the only thing you’re not ashamed of is to judge me for it without having read it; and even that only means that you’re ashamed to have heterodox opinions.” — George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman , 1903 Did you know? It’s true: individuals often see other people’s ideas as unconventional while regarding their own as beyo...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 21, 2019 is: fortitude • \FOR-tuh-tood\  • noun : strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage Examples: “She showed fortitude in 2013, when the restaurant, known for its cheery pink exterior, had a major fire. The taqueria soon reopened with a new, brick exterior and the same great food, and Perez said business is better than ever.” — Cassidy McDonald, The Wisconsin State Journal , 22 Sept. 2015 “… Captain Ahab stood erect, looking straight out beyond the ship’s ever-pitching prow.  There was an infinity of firmest fortitude , a determinate unsurrenderable wilfulness, in the fixed and fearless, forward dedication of that glance.” — Herman Melville, Moby Dick , 1851 Did you know? Fortitude comes from the Latin word fortis , meaning “strong,” and in English it has always been used primarily to describe strength of mind. For a time, the wor...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 20, 2019 is: expedite • \EK-spuh-dyte\  • verb 1 : to accelerate the process or progress of : speed up 2 : to execute promptly 3 : issue , dispatch Examples: To expedite the processing of your request, please include your account number on all documents. “The task force stemmed from an executive order issued earlier this year by Gov. Ron DeSantis that said the state should expedite work on water quality problems across the Sunshine State over the next five years.” — Chad Gillis, The News-Press (Fort Myers, Florida), 8 Oct. 2019 Did you know? If you’re really intent on expediting something, you jump in with both feet—or place a single foot where it will be most effective! And when you do, you’re drawing on the etymology of expedite itself. The word comes from the Latin verb expedire (“to extricate , prepare, be useful”), a word that traces back to the root ped- or pes , meaning “foot.” Expedite has bee...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 19, 2019 is: recondite • \REK-un-dyte\  • adjective 1 :  difficult or impossible for one of ordinary understanding or knowledge to comprehend :   deep 2 : of, relating to, or dealing with something little known or obscure 3 :  hidden from sight :   concealed Examples: “Ocampo (1903-1993) is a legend of Argentinian literature, and this collection of her short stories brings some of her most recondite and mysterious works to the English-speaking world.” — Publisher’s Weekly Review , 25 June 2019 “Deforestation, desertification, and sea-level rise are topographic, horizontal crises of land-clearing, creeping dunes, and saltwater surges. The realm of rocks, by contrast, seems too motionless and too recondite  to be shaped by unnatural shifts above.” — Rebecca Giggs, The Atlantic , July 2019 Did you know? While the adjective recondite may be used to describe something difficult to understan...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 18, 2019 is: mot juste • \moh-ZHEWST\  • noun : the exactly right word or phrasing Examples: “At best, thesauruses are mere rest stops in the search for the mot juste . Your destination is the dictionary.” — John McPhee, The New Yorker , 29 Apr. 2013 “My most potent talisman is the late Ted Hughes’ impressive writing lectern … which I bought last year at auction. I used to fish with him, and I imagine he would have been amused to see me stand here at it, looking out over my Perthshire loch , biting a ballpoint and straining for the  mot juste .” — David Profumo, The Daily Telegraph (London), 8 June 2019 Did you know? English was apparently unable to come up with its own mot juste to refer to a word or phrase that expresses exactly what the writer or speaker is trying to say, and so borrowed the French term instead. The borrowing was still very new when George Paston (the pen name of Emily Morse Symonds...

原文链接 一周又开始了。加油工作！（由 IFTTT 发送） Lake桑 November 18, 2019 at 07:00AM

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 17, 2019 is: carouse • \kuh-ROWZ ("OW" as in 'cow')\  • verb 1 : to drink liquor freely or excessively 2 : to take part in a drunken revel : engage in dissolute behavior Examples: Each fall the campus newspaper runs an editorial urging students to recognize that studying and getting involved in official campus activities benefits them far more than carousing does. “Maroon leather chairs still line the high-ceilinged reading room where once area businessmen in white shirts and ties repaired to enjoy a Scotch and a fine cigar. And a grand staircase still leads to the basement, where members caroused around a four-lane bowling alley.” — Tom Mooney, The Providence (Rhode Island) Journal , 29 Sept. 2019 Did you know? Sixteenth-century English revelers toasting each other’s health sometimes drank a brimming mug of spirits straight to the bottom—drinking “all-out,” they called it. German tipplers di...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 16, 2019 is: officious • \uh-FISH-us\  • adjective 1 : volunteering one’s services where they are neither asked nor needed : meddlesome 2 : informal , unofficial Examples: “There are too many yellow flags being thrown around the NFL. Whether it’s too many rules or too many officious officials, it’s gotten ridiculous.” — Brent Musburger, The Las Vegas Review Journal , 21 Sept. 2019 “Instead we docked briefly at the Lionhead Campground before being chased off by an officious campground host because we’d overstayed the 15-minute loading and unloading limit.” — Eli Francovich, The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Washington), 16 Aug. 2019 Did you know? Don’t mistake officious for a rare synonym of official . Both words stem from the Latin noun officium (meaning “service” or “office”), but they have very different meanings. When the suffix – osus (“full of”) was added to officium , Latin officiosus came into being,...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 15, 2019 is: white elephant • \WYTE-EL-uh-funt\  • noun 1 : a property requiring much care and expense and yielding little profit 2 : an object no longer of value to its owner but of value to others 3 : something of little or no value Examples: “The white elephant exchange—aka dirty Santa, aka Yankee swap—has many names and many, many rules.… Guests arrive with a wrapped gift, usually under a certain price point, and aim to leave with the ‘best’ gift in the room.” — Becky Hughes, Parade , 10 Nov. 2018 “The foundation’s application for tax credits is formal recognition that The Avalon plays a role in economic development. That’s pretty good validation for a theater that has been criticized for being a white elephant .” — editorial, The Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction, Colorado), 18 Sept. 2019 Did you know? The real white elephant (the kind with a trunk) is a pale pachyderm that has long been an object of ven...

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 November 15, 2019 at 12:00PM

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 14, 2019 is: incongruous • \in-KAHN-gruh-wus\  • adjective : lacking congruity : as a : not harmonious : incompatible b : not conforming : disagreeing c : inconsistent within itself d : lacking propriety : unsuitable Examples: The sight of a horse and carriage amongst the cars on the road was a bit incongruous . “The gunplay scene was so incongruous with the rest of the film that one wonders if [director Michael] Engler added the assassination storyline to simply beef up the movie’s runtime.” — John Vaaler, The Middlebury (Vermont) Campus , 3 Oct. 2019 Did you know? Incongruous is a spin-off of its antonym, congruous , which means “in agreement, harmony, or correspondence.” Etymologists are in agreement about the origin of both words: they trace to the Latin congruus , from the verb congruere , which means “to come together” or “to agree.” The dates of these words’ first uses in English match up pr...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 13, 2019 is: gambit • \GAM-bit\  • noun 1 : a chess opening in which a player risks one or more pawns or a minor piece to gain an advantage in position 2 a (1) : a remark intended to start a conversation or make a telling point  (2) : topic b : a calculated move : stratagem Examples: “The tournament, first held in 1934, was Roberts’s gambit for attracting attention, members, and money. He persuaded Jones to come out of retirement to compete in it—an instant lure to fans and players alike—but at first Jones wouldn’t agree to calling it the Masters, finding the word too grandiose.” — Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker , 24 June 2019 “Obviously, most suspense novels rely on keeping the reader in the dark about something. But a big, glaring omission in what is presented as first-person interior monologue—as if the person is redacting their own thoughts—is one of the least impressive gambits .” — The Kirkus Rev...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 12, 2019 is: bruit • \BROOT\  • verb : report , rumor — usually used with about Examples: “Analysts have bruited about the notion that Comcast and Disney might team up and divide Fox’s assets to prevent a drawn-out bidding war—a turn of events that Mr. Iger has dismissed.” — Edmund Lee, The New York Times , 20 June 2018 “In the new bio-pic ‘Judy,’ Renée Zellweger stars as Judy Garland…. The narrowly focussed yet emotionally expansive film has been bruited about as a likely springboard for a statuette for its lead actress ever since the movie’s première, last month, at the Telluride Film Festival.” — Richard Brody, The New Yorker , Sept. 25, 2019 Did you know? Back in the days of Middle English, the Anglo-French noun bruit , meaning “clamor” or “noise,” rattled into English. Soon English speakers were also using it to mean “report” or “rumor” (it was applied especially to favorable reports). They also began usi...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 11, 2019 is: armistice • \AHR-muh-stus\  • noun : temporary stopping of open acts of warfare by agreement between the opponents  : truce Examples: The Korean War ended with an armistice signed in July of 1953, though a permanent peace accord was never reached. “[Ralph] Bunche, a Howard University professor, was an African-American scholar and diplomat who achieved prominence in 1949 after negotiating armistice agreements between Israel and four Arab states, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.” — Richard Freedman, The Vallejo (California) Times-Herald , 24 Sept. 2019 Did you know? Armistice descends from Latin sistere , meaning “to come to a stand” or “to cause to stand or stop,” combined with arma , meaning “weapons.” An armistice, therefore, is literally a cessation of arms. Armistice Day is the name that was given to the holiday celebrated in the United States on November 11 before it was r...

原文链接 一周又开始了。加油工作！（由 IFTTT 发送） Lake桑 November 11, 2019 at 07:05AM

原文链接 一周又开始了。加油工作！（由 IFTTT 发送） Lake桑 November 11, 2019 at 07:01AM

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 10, 2019 is: teleological • \tel-ee-uh-LAH-jih-kul\  • adjective : exhibiting or relating to design or purpose especially in nature Examples: “The standard story about mass printing is a story of linear, teleological progress. It goes like this: Before Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, books were precious objects, handwritten by scribes and available primarily in Latin. Common people … were left vulnerable to exploitation by powerful gatekeepers—landed élites, oligarchs of church and state—who could use their monopoly on knowledge to repress the masses. After Gutenberg, books became widely available, setting off a cascade of salutary movements and innovations….” — Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker , 23 Sept. 2019 “A team of psychology researchers at Boston University (BU) asked chemists, geologists and physicists … to evaluate explanations for different natural phenomena. The statements included pu...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 9, 2019 is: aphorism • \AF-uh-riz-um\  • noun 1 : a concise statement of a principle 2 : a terse formulation of a truth or sentiment : adage 3 : an ingeniously terse style of expression Examples: “Michael sighed…. He had known that his mother had told Gina that cryptic aphorism , but he’d long since forgotten and could not think why it had any particular significance, now. No more significance than his father’s cryptic aphorism : What are people for, except to let you down .” — Joyce Carol Oates (as Rosamond Smith), Snake Eyes , 1992 “‘Brevity is the soul of wit,’ Shakespeare’s Polonius says, issuing the greatest unintentional aphorism in literature: at the time, scholars say, the line meant merely that concision is the essence of useful intelligence, and, of course, it was uttered as part of a deliberately long-winded speech. But it now captures … a subtler truth: a joke is improved by compression.” — Adam G...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 8, 2019 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 of an opera singer : having a light voice and a melodic style Examples: Critics are praising the novel as a lyric masterpiece that bravely lays out the emotional tensions experienced by its young protagonist. “Norgren’s encores were dazzling, as the cosmic cowboy tune ‘The Power’ combined psychedelic guitar lines and his headlong rush of lyric imagery careening into the chorus….” — Jay N. Miller, The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Massachusetts), 29 Sept. 2019 Did you know? To the ancient Greeks, anything lyrikos was appropriate to the lyre . That elegant stringed instrument was highly regarded...

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 November 08, 2019 at 12:05PM

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 November 08, 2019 at 12:00PM

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 7, 2019 is: espouse • \ih-SPOWZ\  • verb 1 : marry 2 : to take up and support as a cause : become attached to Examples: “Tradition associates [the period of the Lyrid meteor showers] with the Chinese teacher and philosopher Confucius , one of the first to  espouse  the principle: ‘Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself.'” — The Telegraph (UK), 10 Oct. 2019 “The beloved musical [Fiddler on the Roof] was revived entirely in Yiddish…. Directed by Oscar and Tony Award-winner Joel Grey, the timeless show captures the strength of Jewish people and their traditions, while espousing universal themes of love, belonging and community.” — Madeleine Fernando, Billboard.com , 3 May 2019 Did you know? As you might guess, the words espouse and spouse are related, both deriving from the Latin verb spondēre , meaning “to promise” or “to betroth.” In fact, the two were on...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 6, 2019 is: chilblain • \CHIL-blayn\  • noun : an inflammatory swelling or sore caused by exposure (as of the feet or hands) to cold Examples: “If you thought chilblains only belonged in 19th century novels, think again. They crop up in response to extreme cold…. You’re more likely to get chilblains in extreme weather through sitting in an under-heated house or working in a chilly office than walking through sub-zero temperatures outside.” — JR Thorpe, Bustle , 7 Feb. 2019 “Mrs. Goddard’s school was in high repute…; she had an ample house and garden, gave the children plenty of wholesome food, let them run about a great deal in the summer, and in winter dressed their chilblains with her own hands.” — Jane Austen, Emma , 1815 Did you know? Given that chilblains are caused by exposure to cold conditions, it may not surprise you to know that the first element of this word comes from the noun chill . The second ele...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 5, 2019 is: posthaste • \POHST-HAYST\  • adverb : with all possible speed Examples: “You must leave posthaste ,” Virginia theatrically admonished her guests, “or you’ll miss your ferry!” “These goats show almost nothing of the skittishness that we tend to expect of wild, hoofed mammals such as deer and elk, which almost always flee posthaste the instant they see a person (or, often as not, given the sensitivity of their senses, they smell or hear one).” — Jayson Jacoby, Baker City (Oregon) Herald , 9 Aug. 2019 Did you know? In the 16th century, the phrase “haste, post, haste” was used to inform posts (as couriers were then called) that a letter was urgent and must be hastily delivered. Posts would then speedily gallop along a route with a series of places at which to get a fresh horse or to relay the letter to a fresh messenger. William Shakespeare was one of the first to use a version of the phrase adverbially ...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 4, 2019 is: sobriquet • \SOH-brih-kay\  • noun : a descriptive name or epithet : nickname Examples: “As a member of Congress, he voted against so many bills that he earned the ‘Dr. No’ sobriquet ….” — Ben Terris, The Washington Post , 3 Sept. 2019 “[H]e had a rather flightly and dissolute mode of conversing, and furthermore avowed that among his intimate friends he was better known by the sobriquet of ‘The Artful Dodger ‘….” — Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist , 1839 Did you know? This synonym of nickname has the same meaning in modern French as it does in English. In Middle French, however, its earlier incarnation soubriquet referred to both a nickname and a tap under the chin. Centuries later, the connection between these two meanings isn’t clear, but what is clear is that the “nickname” meaning of sobriquet was well established in French by the time English speakers borrowed the term in the 17th century—and w...

原文链接 一周又开始了。加油工作！（由 IFTTT 发送） Lake桑 November 04, 2019 at 07:00AM

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 3, 2019 is: fraught • \FRAWT\  • adjective 1 : full of or accompanied by something specified — used with with 2 : causing or characterized by emotional distress or tension : uneasy Examples: “Ruth didn’t think of herself as the kind of person who cared deeply about the outcome of a game played by fifth graders … but even she found it impossible not to get swept up in the excitement as the clock wound down, and every play became fraught with danger and possibility.” — Tom Perrotta, The Abstinence Teacher , 2007 “… The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards … will be loads of fun for the nominees and presenters, and for the audience at home, but this one is fraught . With television in a state of flux that was once unimaginable—multiple new streaming services will launch between now and next year’s Emmys—and bristling tensions among writers, their agents and studios, there’s a lot at stake.” — John Doyle, The Globe and Mail ...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 2, 2019 is: dilapidated • \duh-LAP-uh-day-tud\  • adjective : decayed , deteriorated , or fallen into partial ruin especially through neglect or misuse Examples: Although extensive renovations would be needed to convert the dilapidated warehouse into apartments, Sam still thought it was a sound investment. “The 11-by-16-foot room is a sun-washed garret , taller than it is wide, on the fifth floor of a dilapidated 19th-century commercial building on lower Broadway that the artist has rented since January.” — Alice Newell-Hanson, The New York Times , 20 Sept. 2019 Did you know? Something that is dilapidated may not have been literally pummeled with stones, but it might look that way. Dilapidated derives (via the English verb dilapidate ) from dilapidatus , the past participle of the Latin verb dilapidare (“to squander or destroy”). That verb was formed by combining dis- , meaning “apart,” with the verb lapidare ...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for November 1, 2019 is: apocryphal • \uh-PAH-kruh-ful\  • adjective 1 : of doubtful authenticity : spurious 2 often capitalized Apocryphal : of or resembling the Apocrypha Examples: “The first official sighting of the creature dates from 1912, although apocryphal stories have the monster overturning the canoe of a Quapaw Indian and sinking a Confederate gunboat during the Civil War.” — Scott Liles, The Baxter Bulletin (Mountain Home, Arkansas), 28 Aug. 2019 “In the chapter on cetology , we have to plow through a dozen pages of whale species, some of them possibly apocryphal , before we get to the payoff, a motto for freelance writers: ‘Oh Time, Strength, Cash and Patience!'” — Mary Norris, The New York Times , 26 June 2019 Did you know? In Bible study, the term Apocrypha refers to sections of the Bible that are not sanctioned as belonging to certain official canons . In some Protestant versions, these sections appear...

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 November 01, 2019 at 12:01PM