Category: Word of the Day

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Word of the Day – Habiliment

A_Mughal_Infantryman

  •  Noun: Habiliment (archaic and usual use is plural)
    1. Plural: characteristic apparatus; trappings
    2. The dress characteristic of an occupation or occasion – usually in the plural
    3. Clothes – usually in the plural
  • Synonyms:
    1. apparel
    2. attire
    3. clothes
    4. dress
    5. garb
    6. gown
    7. trappings
  • Usage:

“Behind this figure glowed a vast fireplace alive with leaping flames; great logs of oak blazed and crackled on the polished brass andirons whose flicker shone upon the superb habiliments of the lonely tenant of the room, which was illumined grandly by twin candelabra rich with wax-lights.”

  • Encountered:

While reading Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

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Word of the Day – Prig

  • Noun: Prig
  • Adjective: Priggish
    1. one who offends or irritates by observance of proprieties (as of speech or manners) in a pointed manner or to an obnoxious degree
    2. a self-righteously moralistic person who behaves as if superior to others.
  • Synonyms:
    1. prude
    2. puritan
    3. killjoy
    4. goody-goody
  • Usage:

“There was his wonderful, desirable life-rapidity, the rare quality of an utterly desirable man: and there was at the same time this ridiculous, mean effacement into a Salvator Mundi and a Sunday-school teacher, a prig of the stiffest type.”

  • Encountered:

While reading Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence

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Word of the Day – Feckless

  • Adjective: Feckless
  1. Having or resulting from a week character or nature
  2. irresponsible

 

  • Synonyms:
  1. Useless
  2. Worthless
  3. Incompetent
  4. Inept
  5. Good-for-nothing
  • Usage:

‘On Saturday, former Arkansas governor Mr. Huckabee described Mr. Obama’s foreign policy as “the most feckless in American history” and said the deal with Iran was “idiotic”.’

  • Encountered:feckless

BBC news article: Obama attacks Mike Huckabee over Israel ‘oven’ remarks

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Word of the Day – Churlish

  • Adjective: Churlish
    1. of, resembling, or characteristic of a churl
    2. marked by a lack of civility or graciousness
    3. difficult to work with or deal with
  • Synonyms:
    1. vulgar
    2. surly
    3. intractable
    4. rude
    5. ill-mannered
    6. ill-bred
    7. uncivil
  • Usage:

“’Perhaps,’ he said. ‘I don’t WANT her to furnish the rooms here—and I don’t keep her hanging on. Only, I needn’t be churlish to her, need I? At any rate, I shall have to go down and see them now. You’ll come, won’t you?’”

  • Encountered:

While reading Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence

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

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Word of the Day – Agitprop

  • Noun: Agitprop
    1. political (originally communist) propaganda, especially in art or literature.
  • Synonyms:
    1. Hype
    2. Hogwash
    3. Disinformation
  • Usage:

“So is Mrs. Fiorina so deep inside the bubble that she can’t tell the difference between facts and agitprop? Or is she deliberately spreading a lie? And most important, does it matter?”

  • Encountered:

While reading Paul Krugman editorial in the New York Times Fantasies and Fictions at G.O.P. Debate

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Word of the Day – Halberd

halberd_thrust_by_Dukesketches

  • Noun: Halberd
    1. a weapon especially of the 15th and 16th centuries consisting typically of a battle-ax and pike mounted on a handle about six feet long
  • Synonyms:
    1. battleax
  • Usage:

‘”Aha!” continued D’Artagnan, “it is clear that they are afraid of something or other; for look, the sentinels are being reinforced. They had only halberds before, now they have muskets. The halberds were for the audience in the rear; the muskets are for us.”’

  • Encountered:

While reading Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

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Word of the Day – Mien

Mien

  •  Noun: Mien
    1. air or bearing especially as expressive of attitude or personality : demeanor <of aristocratic mien>
    2. appearance, aspect <dresses of formal mien>
  • Synonyms:
    1. Appearance
    2. Look
    3. Expression
    4. Countenance
    5. Aura
    6. Demeanor
    7. Attitude
    8. Air
    9. Manner
  • Usage:

“This commissary was a man of very repulsive mien, with a pointed nose, with yellow and salient cheek bones, with eyes small but keen and penetrating, and an expression of countenance resembling at once the polecat and the fox.”

  • Encountered:

Reading The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

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Word of the Day – Grass Widow

  • Noun: Grass Widow

    1. A woman who is divorced or separated from her husband.
    2. A woman whose husband is temporarily absent.
    3. An abandoned mistress.
    4. The mother of a child born out of wedlock..
  • Synonyms:
    1. Divorcee
  • Usage:

 “The other man’s voice was fainter, but his words were unmistakable enough: ‘Grass widows who turn into old maids have funny notions sometimes.’”.”

  • Encountered:

While reading The Servant Problem by Robert J. Young

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