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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 31, 2020 is: palmy • \PAH-mee\  • adjective 1 : marked by prosperity : flourishing 2 : abounding in or bearing palms Examples: “The new breed of the Silicon Valley lived for work. They were disciplined to the point of back spasms. They worked long hours and kept working on weekends. They became absorbed in their companies the way men once had in the palmy  days of the automobile industry.” — Tom Wolfe, Hooking Up , 2000 “In Beaufort Road was a house, occupied in its palmier days, by Mr Shorthouse, a manufacturer of acids….” — J.R.R. Tolkien, letter, July 1964 Did you know? The palm branch has traditionally been used as a symbol of victory. It is no wonder then that the word palm came to mean “victory” or “triumph” in the late 14th century, thanks to the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer. Centuries later, William Shakespeare would employ palmy as a synonym for triumphant or flourishing in the tragedy Hamlet when t...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 30, 2020 is: gamut • \GAM-ut\  • noun 1 : the whole series of recognized musical notes 2 : an entire range or series Examples: “Possibly the most interesting man-made structural material is reinforced concrete …. It is economical, available almost everywhere, fire-resistant, and can be designed to be light-weight to reduce the dead load or to have a whole gamut of strengths to satisfy structural needs.” — Mario Salvadori, Why Buildings Stand Up , 1990 “[Beverly] Long, whose previous novels run a limited gamut from romance to paranormal romance to romantic suspense, scores well in her transition to hard-boiled thriller.” — Jay Strafford, The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia), 21 Mar. 2020 Did you know? To get the lowdown on gamut , we have to dive to the bottom of a musical scale to which the 11th-century musician and monk Guido of Arezzo applied his particular system of solmization —that is, of using syl...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 29, 2020 is: assail • \uh-SAIL\  • verb 1 : to attack violently : assault 2 : to encounter, undertake, or confront energetically 3 : to oppose, challenge, or criticize harshly and forcefully 4 a : to trouble or afflict in a manner that threatens to overwhelm b : to be perceived by (a person, a person’s senses, etc.) in a strongly noticeable and usually unpleasant way Examples: Most worthwhile achievements require that one persevere even when assailed by doubts. “What does it even mean to be good in a world as complex as ours, when great inequity remains unaddressed and often seems too daunting to assail , and when seemingly benign choices—which shoes to buy, which fruit to eat—can come with the moral baggage of large carbon footprints or the undercompensated labor of migrant workers?” — Nancy Kaffer, The Detroit (Michigan) Free Press , 9 Jan. 2020 Did you know? Assail comes from an Anglo-French verb, assaill...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 28, 2020 is: empirical • \im-PEER-uh-kul\  • adjective 1 : originating in or based on observation or experience 2 : relying on experience or observation alone often without due regard for system and theory  3 : capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment  4 : of or relating to empiricism Examples: “‘We have really good empirical  research dating back to the 1980s demonstrating that kids who are restricted around treat foods often just want to eat them more,’ said Charlotte Markey, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Rutgers University….” — Virginia Sole-Smith, The New York Times , 17 Apr. 2020 “Burger King’s advertising has been telling us that the Impossible Whopper tastes just like a Whopper. And so, in the spirit of empirical science and discovery, I ventured to a Burger King this week to test the claim.” — Eric Felten, The Examiner (Washington, DC), 31 Oct. 2019 Di...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 27, 2020 is: longueur • \lawn-GUR\  • noun : a dull and tedious passage or section (as of a book, play, or musical composition) — usually used in plural Examples: The otherwise crisp pacing of the movie is marred by some unnecessary longueurs that do little to advance the main story. “Small, clever musicals are fragile things, though, and I don’t want to oversell this one in praising it. ‘Scotland, PA’ still needs to cure a few structural hiccups (the first act seems to end twice) and to address its longueurs and lapses of logic.” — Jesse Green, The New York Times , 23 Oct. 2019 Did you know? You’ve probably come across long, tedious sections of books, plays, or musical works before, but perhaps you didn’t know there was a word for them. English speakers began using the French borrowing longueur in the late 18th century. As in English, French longueurs are tedious passages, with longueur itself literally meaning “...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 26, 2020 is: homonymous • \hoh-MAH-nuh-mus\  • adjective 1 : ambiguous 2 : having the same designation 3 : of, relating to, or being homonyms Examples: “The Chelyabinsk meteorite became a media celebrity after the videos of its explosion in mid-air, occurring in February 2013 near the homonymous city, went viral on social networks.” — Luca Maltagliati, Nature , 17 Feb. 2017 “Like the bird homonymous with his name, ‘Cro’ operates like he’s under the cover of night. Though Cromartie’s numerically best game came against Tulane this fall, in which the senior recorded six tackles and a sack, Downing tabbed South Florida and Connecticut as the raider’s brightest.” — Katherine Fominykh, The Capital Gazette (Annapolis, Maryland), 12 Dec. 2019 Did you know? The “ambiguous” sense of homonymous refers mainly to words that have two or more meanings. Logicians and scientists who wanted to refer to (or complain about) such e...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 25, 2020 is: instigate • \IN-stuh-gayt\  • verb : to goad or urge forward : provoke Examples: “The big thing about effective advertising is that it uses data effectively to instigate behavior.” — Nicole Ortiz, Adweek , 14 Apr. 2020 “In his usual genuine and silly fashion, [Chris] Martin sincerely explained his intent for making the live video and instigating  a new series of live Instagram performances. ‘What would be nice would be to check in with some of you out there and see how you’re doing…. I had an idea that we could call this thing “Together At Home.” And who knows, maybe tomorrow someone else will take it over,’ he said.” — Sean Glaister, The Johns Hopkins (University) News-Letter , 6 Apr. 2020 Did you know? Instigate is often used as a synonym of incite (as in “hoodlums instigating violence”), but the two words differ slightly in their overall usage. Incite usually stresses an act of stirring somet...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 24, 2020 is: xeriscape • \ZEER-uh-skayp\  • noun : a landscaping method developed especially for arid and semiarid climates that utilizes water-conserving techniques (such as the use of drought-tolerant plants, mulch , and efficient irrigation) Examples: After the severe drought led to local water restrictions, some residents began to look into xeriscape for more easily maintainable yards. “This perennial has evergreen leaves from 2­-3 feet in length while the flower stalks can rise up to 5 feet with coral-colored tubular flowers. It’s drought-resistant, and the flowers can attract hummingbirds. This one would be great for xeriscape or low-maintenance gardens.” — Tom Ingram, The Tulsa (Oklahoma) World , 29 Feb. 2020 Did you know? Xēros is the Greek word for “dry” that is the base for a handful of English words related to mainly dry printing ( xerography ) and dry, or xerophilous , habitats and their plants. In the ...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 23, 2020 is: shaggy-dog • \shag-ee-DAWG\  • adjective : of, relating to, or being a long-drawn-out circumstantial story concerning an inconsequential happening that impresses the teller as humorous or interesting but the hearer as boring and pointless; also : of, relating to, or being a similar humorous story whose humor lies in the pointlessness or irrelevance of the plot or punch line Examples: “Like most of Irving’s other books, ‘Owen Meany’ is kind of a shaggy-dog  story. It wanders all over the place and there are many seemingly loose ends.” — Neil Gittleman, quoted in The Dayton (Ohio) Daily News , 13 Apr. 2020 “A shaggy-dog tale that treats crisscrossing forklift traffic as a sight worthy of the Blue Danube waltz, the German feature ‘In the Aisles’ mostly takes place in an anonymous, highway-side megastore….” — Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times , 13 June 2019 Did you know? The origin of the adjective sh...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 22, 2020 is: preen • \PREEN\  • verb 1 of a bird : to groom with the bill especially by rearranging the barbs and barbules of the feathers and by distributing oil from the uropygial gland 2 : to dress or smooth (oneself) up : primp 3 : to pride or congratulate (oneself) on an achievement 4 : to make oneself sleek 5 :  to behave or speak with obvious pride or self-satisfaction Examples: “Adding a water source to your yard also will attract birds, providing not only drinking water for them but a place to wash their feathers and preen .” — Joan Morris, The Mercury News (San Jose, California), 13 Apr. 2020 “We keep tight control over our [Instagram] accounts’ aesthetics, down to the color scheme…. A select few follow the lead of celebrities who log on to publicize their lavish lives to millions, turning Instagram into a place to preen and present a reality far above the mundane.” — Diti Kohli, The Boston Glo...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 21, 2020 is: cowcatcher • \KOW-ketch-er\  • noun : an inclined frame on the front of a railroad locomotive for throwing obstacles off the track Examples: For his entry in the town parade, John outfitted his black truck with a cowcatcher and smoke stack to resemble a 19th-century locomotive. “Not in this show, unfortunately, is the amazing ‘Galloping Goose,’ which Springer photographed. Until the early 1950s its modified truck-boxcar mashup—with a  cowcatcher  in front—lumbered from Ridgway to Lizard Head Pass in Colorado.” — Harriet Howard Heithaus, The Naples (Florida) Daily News , 17 June 2019 Did you know? New Jersey’s Camden and Amboy Railroad was the first in the U.S. to adopt the cowcatcher, adding it to its John Bull locomotive in the early 1830s. But, as the Model Railroader Cyclopedia warned, “don’t ever let a railroad man hear you use ‘cowcatcher.'” In its heyday, railroad workers preferred the na...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 20, 2020 is: neoteric • \nee-uh-TAIR-ik\  • adjective : recent in origin : modern Examples: “From the runways of Paris to the boutiques of New York to the time-sucking scroll of my social media-feeds, it seemed as if every few weeks I encountered some neoteric innovation that made me smirk or scratch my head, sometimes simultaneously.” — Jacob Gallagher, The Wall Street Journal , 30 Dec. 2019 “The projects I have designed mirror the correlation between past and present, always celebrating the old and welcoming the neoteric . I am respectful of the strong impressive history and strive to elevate the level of what has been left behind in time.” — Melinda Bell Dickey, quoted in The Danville (Virginia) Register & Bee , 15 Mar. 2020 Did you know? An odd thing about neoteric is that this word for things that are modern and new is itself rather old. It’s been part of English since at least 1596, and its roots go back e...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 19, 2020 is: disabuse • \diss-uh-BYOOZ\  • verb : to free from error, misconception, or fallacy Examples: “While it’s difficult to predict how the practice of hiring will evolve over time, one thing is clear: it is extremely difficult to disabuse  people of their biases, especially when those biases become cultural norms.” — Mark Travers, Forbes , 22 Mar. 2020 “[Anton] Chekhov has a way of disabusing  us of our specialness, of making us realize that our problems are, in fact, just like everyone else’s.” — Megan O’Grady, The New York Times , 19 Feb. 2020 Did you know? We know the verb abuse as a word meaning “to misuse,” “to mistreat,” or “to revile .” But when disabuse first appeared in the early 17th century, there was a sense of abuse , now obsolete, that meant “to deceive.” Sir Francis Bacon used that sense, for example, when he wrote in 1605, “You are much abused if you think your virtue can withstand ...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 18, 2020 is: exiguous • \ig-ZIG-yuh-wus\  • adjective : excessively scanty : inadequate Examples: New computer equipment would be prohibitively expensive, given the rural school’s  exiguous  resources. “[Adam] Smith’s death was the subject of rather little interest, in England and even in Scotland. The published obituaries were exiguous ….” — Emma Rothschild, Economic Sentiments , 2001 Did you know? Exiguous is so expansive sounding that you might expect it to mean “extensive” instead of “meager.” Even a scanty glimpse at the word’s etymology will disabuse you of that notion, however. Exiguous derives from the Latin exiguus , which has the same basic meaning as the modern English term. Exiguus , in turn, derives from the Latin verb exigere , which is variously translated as “to demand,” “to drive out,” or “to weigh or measure.” The idea of weighing or measuring so precisely as to be parsimonious or petty g...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 17, 2020 is: malapropism • \MAL-uh-prah-piz-um\  • noun : the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; especially : the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context Examples: “A malapropism is using the wrong word, but one that sounds similar to the right word—like saying that medieval cathedrals are supported by flying buttocks. A good malapropism can throw you off, so that you scrape your head trying to figure out the error, and then having to think what the word should have been. (It’s flying buttresses , by the way).” — Britt Hanson, The Tuscon (Arizona) Weekly , 3 July 2014 “[Gilda Radner] brought a lot of charm and energy as a player [on Saturday Night Live]; from her impressions of Lucille Ball … to her unforgettable characters like … the malapropism -prone Emily Litella, the geeky Lisa Loopner and the letter-reading Roseanne Rosea...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 16, 2020 is: bodacious • \boh-DAY-shuss\  • adjective 1 Southern & Midland : outright , unmistakable 2 : remarkable , noteworthy 3 : sexy , voluptuous Examples: “House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has made a bodacious  name for himself on several fronts. The California lawmaker has now set an all-time annual fundraising record for any Republican….” — Jennifer Harper, The Washington Times , 29 Jan. 2020 “The other period elements, as always, remain intact: jousting on horseback, outrageous cockney accents from bearded storytellers strumming lyres, and many bodacious , curvy bodices.” — Phillip Valys, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel , 10 Feb. 2020 Did you know? Some of our readers may know bodacious as a word that figured prominently in the lingo of the 1989 film Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure . Others may recall the term’s frequent use in the long-running “Snuffy Smith” comic strip. Neither the crea...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 15, 2020 is: stymie • \STYE-mee\  • verb : to present an obstacle to : stand in the way of Examples: “Ventura County supervisors are reviving an effort to build a bicycle path for commuting and recreation in a railroad corridor that parallels Highway 126, a project that’s been stymied in the past by agricultural interests who say it could jeopardize their crops.” — Kathleen Wilson, The Ventura County (California) Star , 23 Mar. 2020 “A bout with polio when she was 18 months old has left her wheelchair bound, but it’s clear … that it hasn’t stymied her instinct for leadership. Heumann would go on to serve under Presidents Clinton and Obama as an advisor on disability rights….” — David Alm, Forbes , 26 Mar. 2020 Did you know? Golf was being played in Scotland as early as the 15th century, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that the sport really caught on in England and North America. It was also in the 19th century ...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 14, 2020 is: refulgence • \rih-FULL-junss\  • noun : a radiant or resplendent quality or state : brilliance Examples: “Looking back, … I am inclined to date the burgeoning refulgence of our love to something more like the calendar equivalent of April.” — Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22 , 2010 “In reality, Poinsettia’s bracts, like holly’s berries, only said ‘blood’ to the very devout. Most people saw in their scarlet a warmth, cheeriness and opulence that made it the season’s special hue…. In the centuries ahead, that refulgence would … make it the plant of the winter holidays for countless millions, whether Christian, secular or other.” — Mark Griffiths, Country Life , 21 Dec. 2019 Did you know? “The full bow of the crescent moon peeps above the plain and shoots its gleaming arrows far and wide, filling the earth with a faint refulgence, as the glow of a good man’s deeds shines for a while upon his little world afte...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 13, 2020 is: pelagic • \puh-LAJ-ik\  • adjective : of, relating to, or living or occurring in the open sea : oceanic Examples: “Smith counted 10 rock pigeons and another red-breasted merganser , along with a thin-billed pelagic cormorant and three Brandt’s cormorant.” — Paul Rowley, The Vashon-Maury Island (Washington) Beachcomber , 14 Jan. 2020 “Bait fish schools usually long gone at this juncture are still fairly thick in Tampa Bay, Charlotte Harbor and out in the Gulf as well. Most of the pelagic  species that migrate by our coast in the fall are still being caught with some regularity offshore.” — Zach Zacharias, The Herald Tribune (Sarasota, Florida), 15 Jan. 2020 Did you know? Pelagic comes to us from Greek, via Latin. The Greek word pelagikos became pelagicus in Latin and then pelagic in English. ( Pelagikos is derived from pelagos , the Greek word for the sea—it is also a source of archipelago —pl...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 12, 2020 is: flotsam • \FLAHT-sum\  • noun 1 : floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo; broadly : floating debris 2 a : a floating population (as of emigrants or castaways) b : miscellaneous or unimportant material c : debris , remains Examples: The young couple’s apartment was adorned with the flotsam and jetsam of thrift stores and yard sales. “The set is one room—but what a room, stuffed with the furniture, flotsam and jetsam of a half-century. And it’s not like the stage crew could go out and rent a lot of 1930s-era furniture. So the company has borrowed furniture from local residents for the duration of the play.” — Cheryl Schweizer, The Columbia Basin Herald (Moses Lake, Washington), 6 Feb. 2020 Did you know? English speakers started using flotsam , jetsam , and lagan as legal terms in the 16th and 17th centuries (the earliest evidence of flotsam dates from around the early 1600s). The three words w...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 11, 2020 is: aggrandize • \uh-GRAN-dyze\  • verb 1 : to make great or greater : increase , enlarge 2 : to make appear great or greater : praise highly 3 : to enhance the power, wealth, position, or reputation of Examples: “I read [ Ball Four by Jim Bouton] when I was 14, and, although I’ve never gone back to re-read or study it, it changed my view of the so-called heroes that played and play sports at a high level. They were and are great at what they do…. But they are only human, with remarkable skills and contributions to be appreciated. In some ways and cases, though, they are ordinary, less than ordinary, not to be aggrandized or worshipped.” — Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune , 11 July 2019 “By definition and disposition, the spy presents a daunting challenge to the historian. Expected to be elusive and deceptive, secret agents prefer to swallow written evidence, not preserve it. Then, if they survive to...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 10, 2020 is: indomitable • \in-DAH-muh-tuh-bul\  • adjective : incapable of being subdued : unconquerable Examples: “‘An American in Paris’ is the new Tony Award-winning musical about an American soldier, a mysterious French girl and an indomitable European city, each yearning for a new beginning in the aftermath of war.” — The Richmond County (North Carolina) Daily Journal, 31 Mar. 2020 “I’m encouraged by the indomitable  human spirit—the capacity to innovate out of necessity and for the greater good, and the capacity to adapt.” — Karen Natzel, The Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, Oregon), 24 Mar. 2020 Did you know? The prefix in- means “not” in numerous English words (think of indecent , indecisive , inconvenient , and infallible ). When in – teamed up with the Latin domitare (“to tame”), the result was a word meaning “unable to be tamed.” Indomitable was first used in English in the 1600s as a synonym...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 9, 2020 is: decoupage • \day-koo-PAHZH\  • noun 1 : the art of decorating surfaces by applying cutouts (as of paper) and then coating with usually several layers of finish (such as lacquer or varnish) 2 : work produced by such art Examples: Her eye was drawn to a small table that had been decorated with decoupage . “… the Glen House is bathed in natural light, heated by hydroelectric power and dotted with bits of history along with whimsical artwork that celebrates nature just outside, respectfully (witness the deer head mounted above the fireplace; it’s a decoupage made from reclaimed fabric that picks up on the accents of the room).” — Moira McCarthy, The Boston Herald , 29 Jan. 2020 Did you know? Decoupage originated in France in the 17th century as a means of artistically decorating pieces of furniture with pictures. It took a few centuries, but by the mid-20th century decoupage became a household name in Ameri...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 8, 2020 is: verboten • \ver-BOH-tun\  • adjective : forbidden ; especially : prohibited by dictate Examples: “An array of other city meetings have been canceled…. Scott said his office is working as fast as it can to find new, 21st-century solutions to the needs of the community and of city government at a time when physical gatherings are verboten .” — Kevin Rector and Liz Bowie, The Baltimore Sun , 30 Mar. 2020 “Yet divorce was still frowned on in British society—and marrying a divorcee whose former spouse was still alive was verboten according to the Church of England. This is why Edward VIII had to abdicate the throne for his brother George VI: He couldn’t be both the head of his country’s Church—a role established, ironically, by his divorced ancestor Henry VIII—and the husband of a divorced woman with two living spouses.” — Kate Williams, CNN.com, 22 Mar. 2020 Did you know? Despite its spelling, the adjective ...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 7, 2020 is: truckle • \TRUK-ul\  • verb : to act in a subservient manner : submit Examples: “ Walt Whitman became a pop star for reminding his countrymen of the duty never to truckle : ‘Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men.'” — Virginia Heffernan, The Los Angeles Times , 3 June 2018 “More, though, than simply truckling  to mass taste, [Gore] Vidal is clearly using the pulp format to figure out what he’s good at (sardonic worldliness) and what he’s not (romance). And through it all, he keeps the words flowing.” — Louis Bayard, The New York Times , 12 Apr. 2015 Did you know? When truckle was first used in English in the 15th century, it meant “small wheel” or “pulley.” Such small wheels were often attached to the underside of low beds to allow them to be easily moved under high beds for storage. These beds came to be known as truckle beds (or trundle beds ), and a verb tr...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 6, 2020 is: quintessence • \kwin-TESS-unss\  • noun 1 : the fifth and highest element in ancient and medieval philosophy that permeates all nature and is the substance composing the celestial bodies 2 : the essence of a thing in its purest and most concentrated form 3 : the most typical example or representative Examples: Roasting marshmallows over an open fire and making s’mores is the quintessence of camping in the great outdoors. “Native, which opened in 2016 and garnered the number 12 spot on this year’s World’s 50 Best Bars list, is discretely located above a Japanese noodle restaurant in a 200-year-old building. Shiny steel-and-glass skyscrapers, the quintessence of modernity, cast shadows on this historic structure.” — Liza Weisstuch, The Daily Beast , 17 Dec. 2019 Did you know? Long ago, when people believed that the earth was made up of four elements—earth, air, fire, and water—they thought the stars an...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 5, 2020 is: lorn • \LORN\  • adjective : left alone and forlorn : desolate , forsaken Examples: “So the day passes, and it is evening. Rough and I have been to see a grave. It is a  lorn place, and the wind has grown shrill, and we come home feeling rather desolate.” — Rosa Mulholland, “Bracken Hollow” in Irish Monthly , February 1890 “Romantic poets had a particular fondness for the lone, lorn shore—while a string of impressionist painters expounded the moral usefulness of the beach….” — DJ Taylor, The Mail on Sunday (London), 19 July 1998 Did you know? Lorn and forlorn are synonyms that mean “desolate” or “forsaken.” The similarity in form and meaning of the two words is hardly a coincidence. Lorn comes down to us from loren , the Middle English past participle of the verb lesen (“to lose”), itself a descendant of the Old English lēosan . Similarly, forlorn comes from the Middle English forloren , a de...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 4, 2020 is: collimate • \KAH-luh-mayt\  • verb : to make parallel Examples: “Amazingly, some astrophysical jets—streams of charged particles collimated and accelerated over astronomical distances—also exhibit a helical structure.” — Mario Livio, The Huffington Post , 6 Dec. 2017 “Multiple sessions will demonstrate how to set up different kinds of telescopes.… Another session will be held on collimating  the reflector, which means aligning everything so it works well.” — Rebecca Hazen, The Houston Chronicle , 1 Feb. 2018 Did you know? One might expect a science-y word like collimate to have a straightforward etymology, but that’s not the case. Collimate comes from Latin collimāre , a misreading of the Latin word collineāre , meaning “to direct in a straight line.” The erroneous collimāre appeared in some editions of the works of ancient Roman statesman Cicero and scholar Aulus Gellius. The error was propa...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 3, 2020 is: politesse • \pah-lih-TESS\  • noun : formal politeness : decorousness Examples: “The politesse of good society and the politesse of the dueling ground were, as we shall see, cut out of the same cloth.” — Robert A. Nye, Masculinity and Male Codes of Honor in Modern France , 1993 “Now it’s true that no one should expect an American football coach to possess the politesse of a career diplomat. But c’mon. There is a place and time for righteous indignation, especially if you’re, say, Bill Belichick and you’ve just lost the Super Bowl.” — Lincoln Millstein, The New Haven (Connecticut) Register , 19 Oct. 2019 Did you know? Nowadays, no one refers to a “polite” looking glass or houses “polite” and in good repair, but polite (or polit or polyt , as it was spelled in Middle English) originally meant simply “polished” or “clean.” By the early 1600s, polite was being used of polished and refined people, and po...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 2, 2020 is: gratuitous • \gruh-TOO-uh-tuss\  • adjective 1 : not called for by the circumstances : not necessary, appropriate, or justified : unwarranted 2 a : given unearned or without recompense b : costing nothing : free c law : not involving a return benefit, compensation, or consideration Examples: “The language of lawyers often disparagingly referred to as legalese is abstruse, verbose, rife with gratuitous  Latin phrases, and designed to create a linguistic barrier between lawyers and non-lawyers.” — Mark A. Cohen, Forbes , 3 Mar. 2020 “The responses are varied but reflect two main themes that have infiltrated design thinking globally: The first is how to create products that are meaningful and enduring as opposed to gratuitous  and disposable; the second focuses on process over product….” — Stephen Todd, The Australian Financial Review , 7 Mar. 2020 Did you know? Like gratitude , grace , an...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 1, 2020 is: appellation • \ap-uh-LAY-shun\  • noun 1 : an identifying name or title : designation 2 : a geographical name (as of a region, village, or vineyard) under which a winegrower is authorized to identify and market wine 3 archaic : the act of calling by a name Examples: “Mr. Bling is the preferred appellation  of Mauricio Benitez, a Colombian artist who has made portraits of Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, and several of the Kardashians and whose preferred medium is Swarovski crystals.” — Amanda Whiting, The Washingtonian , 22 Dec. 2019 “The late Gary Andrus, founder of Pine Ridge, was wise enough over the years to purchase vineyards in several appellations  of Napa Valley.” — Tom Hyland, Forbes , 9 Mar. 2020 Did you know? Ask a Frenchman named Jacques his name, and you may very well get the reply, “Je m’appelle Jacques.” The French verb appeler means “to call (by a name),” so Jacques’ answer literal...

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 May 01, 2020 at 12:01PM