Category: Word of the Day

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Word of the Day – Maleficium

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  • Noun: Maleficium
    1. Witchcraft; Harmful magic
    2. Legal definition (civil law): waste, damage, tort
  • Synonyms:
    1. Sorcery
    2. Witchcraft
    3. Mischief
    4. Tort
  • Usage:

“Discover whether you are guilty of maleficium and/or would have been accused of practicing witchcraft according to the laws and evidence used during the 1692 Salem Witch Trials.”

  • Encountered:

While reading 17 Signs That You’d Qualify as a Witch in 1692 at mentalfloss.com

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Word of the Day – Portmanteau

portmanteau

  • Noun: Portmanteau
  1. a large suitcase
  2. a word or morpheme whose form and meaning are derived from a blending of two or more distinct forms (as smog from smoke and fog)
  • Synonyms:
  1. Carryall
  2. carry-on
  3. grip
  4. handbag
  5. holdall [chiefly British]
  6. suitcase
  7. wallet
  • Usage:

“This doublet and hose, though new, were creased, like traveling clothes for a long time packed in a portmanteau. “

  • Encountered:

Reading The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

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Word of the Day – Hegemony

  • Noun: HegemonyIRAQI MCDONALDS
    1. preponderant influence or authority over others :  domination <battled for hegemony in Asia>
    2. the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group
  •  Synonyms:
    1. leadership
    2. dominance
    3. dominion
    4. supremacy
    5. authority
    6. mastery
    7. control
    8. power
    9. sway
    10. rule
    11. sovereignty
  • Usage:
  • “Yet, in an American context, we face again a hegemony that allows us to narrate a single Jewish memory, i.e., a European one. ”

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Word of the Day – Rhapsody

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  •  Noun: Rhapsody
    1. an effusively enthusiastic or ecstatic expression of feeling. “rhapsodies of praise”
    2. a free instrumental composition in one extended movement, typically one that is emotional or exuberant in character
    3. (in ancient Greece) an epic poem, or part of it, of a suitable length for recitation at one time
  • Synonyms:
    1. cloud nine
    2. elatedness
    3. elation
    4. euphoria
    5. exhilaration
    6. heaven
    7. high
    8. intoxication
    9. paradise
    10. rapture
  • Usage:

“The accountant was in a state of rhapsody as the calculator whirled adding up the long line of figures representing billable hours.”

  • Encountered:

I saw the word on a vanity plate

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Word of the Day – Ontology

  • Noun: OntologyKant_foto
    1. a branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature and relations of being
    2. a particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of things that have existence
  • Adjective:  Ontological

    1. of or relating to ontology
    2. relating to or based upon being or existence
  •  Synonyms:
    1.  existential
    2. metaphysical
    3. phenomenological
    4. philosophical
    5. supernatural
    6. transcendental
  • Usage:
  • “To be a European or American Jew has hardly been perceived as a contradiction, but to be an Arab Jew has been seen as a kind of logical paradox, even an ontological subversion.”

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Word of the Day – Sacrosanct

  •  Noun: SacrosanctPrayer_in_Cairo_1865
    1. most sacred or holy : inviolable
    2. treated as if holy : immune from criticism or violation <politically sacrosanct programs>
  • Synonyms:
    1. Sacred
    2. Hallowed
    3. Respected
    4. Inviolable
    5. Inviolate
    6. Unimpeachable
    7. Invulnerable
    8. Untouchable
    9. inalienable
  •  Usage:

“Another kind of modern tribune would be ombudsmen to whom the poor could appeal against routine bureaucratic indignities, as the Roman poor were protected by a tribune’s “sacrosanct” physical presence. ~~ New York Times Editorial

  • Encountered:

New York Times Editorial: An Ancient Civics Lesson

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Word of the Day – Dictator

  •  Noun: Dictator361px-Bashar_al-Assad_(cropped)
    1. a person granted absolute emergency power; especially :  one appointed by the senate of ancient Rome
    2. one holding complete autocratic control
    3. one that dictate
  •  Synonyms:
    1. autocrat
    2. absolute ruler
    3. despot
    4. tyrant
    5. oppressor
  • Usage:
  • “The good news for President Obama: His detractors no longer think he’s a socialist. The bad news: He’s now a dictator.” ~ Washington Post article
  • Encountered:
    • Over and over that Obama is a dictator

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Word of the Day – Communism

  •  Noun:  Communismroflbot122314
    1. a theory advocating elimination of private property
    2. a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed
    3. a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
    4. a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production
    5.  a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably
    6. communist systems collectively
  •  Synonyms:
    1. commie
    2. comrade
    3. Red
    4. socialist
  • Usage:
  • “Publicity for an event sponsored by the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity served up a blunt Obama-is-a-communist message over the weekend, as Talking Points Memo reports..”
  • Encountered:
    • Over and over that Obama is a communist

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