Category: Word of the Day

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Word of the Day – Paradigm

  • 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

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

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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

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Word of the Day – Heliotrope

  • Noun: Heliotrope
    1. a plant of the borage family, cultivated for its fragrant purple or blue flowers, which are used in perfumeheliotrope
  • Adjective: Heliotrope
  1. a light purple color, similar to that typical of heliotrope flowers
  • Synonyms:
    1. Purple
    2. Burgundy
    3. Grape
  • Usage:
    • “Struggling with the string of a packet, she opened a white cardboard box, and there lay a white silk handkerchief packed neatly under the paper lace of the box, and her initial, worked in heliotrope, fully displayed. She smiled pleasantly, and gently put the box aside”
  • Encountered:
    • The short story The White Stocking by D. H. Lawrence

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Word of the Day – Peevish

  • Noun:  Peevish
    • querulous in temperament or mood
    • perversely obstinate
    • marked by ill temper
  • Synonyms:
    • Choleric
    • Crabby
    • Cranky
    • Grumpy
    • Snappish
  • Usage:
    • “So, her rather good-looking square face was peevish, she had that air of having been compelled all her life to serve unwillingly, and to control where she did not want to control.”
  • Encountered:
    • The short story Daughters of the Vicar by D. H. Lawrence

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Word of the Day – Collier

  • Noun:  Collier
    • A coal miner
    • A ship carrying coal
  • Synonyms:collier
    • Miner
    • Pitman
    • Coaler
    • Digger
  • Usage:
    • “”You don’t want to marry a collier, you little fool,” cried Mrs Lindley harshly. She lay obese and helpless upon the couch, swathed in a loose, dove-grey gown.”
  • Encountered:
    • The short story Daughters of the Vicar by D. H. Lawrence

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