Category: Word of the Day

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Word for the Day – Gibbet

Gibbet

  • Noun:
    1. gallows
    2. an upright post with a projecting arm for hanging the bodies of executed criminals as a warning
  • Verb:
    1.  to expose to infamy or public scorn
    2. to put to death by hanging on a gibbet
  • Synonyms:
    1. gallows
    2. pillory
  • Usage:
    1.  The witch’s body was swinging in the wind from the gibbet for all to view.
  • Encountered:
    1. While reading Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame

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Word for the Day – Dues ex machina

Dues ex machina

  • Noun:
    1. a character or thing that suddenly enters the story in a novel, play, movie, etc., and solves a problem that had previously seemed impossible to solve
    2. a god introduced by means of a crane in ancient Greek and Roman drama to decide the final outcome
  • Synonyms:
    1. contrivance
    2. gimmick
  • Usage:
    1. Some folks consider Poe’s abrupt ending of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket a deus ex machina.
  • Encountered:
    1. A comment on my blog by the Dictionary Dude

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Word of the Day – Avuncular

  • Adjective:
    1. of or relating to an uncle.
    2. of or relating to the relationship between men and their siblings’ children
    3. suggestive of an uncle especially in kindliness or geniality
  • Adverb
    1. avuncularly
  • Noun
    1. avuncularity
  •  Synonyms:
    1. counseling
    2. helping
    3. benevolent
    4. amiable
  • Usage:
    1. The avuncular CPA did not bat an eye when his client dumped a shoebox full of receipts on his desk.
  • Encountered:
    1.  It was a an interview on TV, but for the sake me I can not remember who was being interviewed and who was interviewing.

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Word of the Day – Paradigm

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  • Noun:  Paradigm
    1. a typical example or pattern of something; a model.
    2. a set of linguistic items that form mutually exclusive choices in particular syntactic roles.
  •  Synonyms:
    1. model
    2. pattern
    3. example
    4. exemplar
    5. template
    6. standard
    7. prototype
    8. archetype
  • Usage:
    1. Ayn Rand’s paradigm, Objectivism, is  every man for themselves.
  • Encountered:
    1. Overused in business and educational circles

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Word of the Day –Laconic

  • Adjective:
    1. using or involving the use of a minimum of word
    2. concise to the point of seeming rude or mysterious
  • Adverb
    1. laconically
  •  Synonyms:
    1. terse
    2. concise
    3. pithy
    4. succinct
  • Usage:
    1. ‘”My lord, what are your orders in case you are killed?” “To do like me,” replied Wellington. To Clinton he said laconically, “To hold this spot to the last man.”.’
  • Encountered:
    1.  While reading Les Miserables

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Word for the Day — Lassitude

  • Noun:
    1. a state of physical or mental weariness; lack of energy.
    2. a condition of listlessness
  • Synonyms:
    1. burnout
    2. collapse
    3. exhaustion,
    4. frazzle
    5. prostration
    6. tiredness
    7. weariness
  • Usage:
    1. “He had returned to prison, this time for having done right; he had quaffed fresh bitterness; disgust and lassitude were overpowering him; even the memory of the Bishop probably suffered a temporary eclipse, though sure to reappear later on luminous and triumphant.”
  • Encountered:
    1.  While reading Les Miserables

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Word of the Day – Intransigence

  •  Adjective:  Intransigence
    1.  Refusing to moderate a position, especially an extreme position; uncompromising.
  • Synonyms:
    1. stubbornness
    2. inflexibility
    3. obstinacy
    4. mulishness
    5. pigheadedness
    6. rigidity
  • Usage:

“Not only does their moral system not allow compromise, but extreme conservatives believe that if this intransigence leads to a non-functioning  government, so much the better, since that would prove the government doesn’t work.” ~~  from the book referenced below

  • Encountered:

While reading The Little Blue Book by George Lakoff and Elisabeth Wehling

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Word of the Day – Revenant

  •  Noun:  Revenant
    1. a person who has returned, especially supposedly from the dead.
  • Synonyms:
    1. Apparition
    2. Specter
    3. Phantasm
    4. Spook
    5. Shade
    6. Wraith
  • Usage:

“Under the head of demons are classified only such spirits as are believed to enter into relations with the human race; the term therefore includes (I) human souls regarded as genii or familiars, (2) such as receive a cult (for which see Ancestor Worship), and (3) ghosts or other malevolent revenants; excluded are souls conceived as inhabiting another world.

  • Encountered:

The new Leonardo DiCaprio film titled, The Revenant

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Word of the Day – Ameliorate

  •  Verb:  Ameliorate
    1. to make better or more tolerable
  • Synonyms:
    1. Improve
    2. Make better
    3. Enhance
    4. Help
    5. Boost
    6. Amend
  • Usage:
    • “Louisa, Louisa!” cried the father impatiently. “I cannot understand why Louisa should not behave in the normal way. I cannot see why she should only think of herself, and leave her family out of count. The thing is enough in itself, and she ought to try to ameliorate it as much as possible. And if–“
  • Encountered:
    • The short story Daughters of the Vicar by D. H. Lawrence

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Word of the Day – Ignominy

  • Noun: Ignominy
    1. deep personal humiliation and disgrace
    2. disgraceful or dishonorable conduct, quality, or action
  • Synonyms:
    1. Discredit
    2. Disesteem
    3. Dishonor
    4. Disrepute
    5. Infamy
    6. Opprobrium
    7. Shame
  • Usage:
    • “Shame, blind, deep shame and ignominy overthrew his spirit and left it writhing. He stood there shrunk over himself, trying to obliterate himself.”
  • Encountered:
    • The short story The Thorn in the Flesh by D. H. Lawrence

To see more Words of the Day, visit this link: Words of the Day