Category: Word of the Day

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Word of the Day – Opprobrious

  • Adjective:  Opprobrious
    1. conveying or expressing opprobrium ( harsh criticism or censure), as language or a speaker: opprobrious invectives.
    2. outrageously disgraceful or shameful:  opprobrious conduct
  • Synonyms:
    1.   abusive
    2. contumelious
    3. invective
    4. scurrilous
    5. truculent
    6. vitriolic
    7. vituperative
    8. vituperatory
    9. wee what a list of words…several Words of the Day in there
  • Usage:
    1. “’It does Mr. Peters,’ says she. ‘I might have known you wouldn’t have gone into anything that wasn’t opprobrious. But what will my duties be? Do I have to reject personally these 3,000 ramscallions you speak of, or can I throw them out in bunches?’”
  • Encountered:
    1. While reading O. Henry’s short story, The Exact Science of Matrimony

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

Just as an aside, I have spent 50 or 60 years thinking William Sydney Porter’s pen name was O’Henry not O. Henry.  Live and learn.   I’ll let you figure out what the O stands for.

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Word of the Day – Solipsism

  • Noun:  Solipsism
    1. a theory holding that the self can know nothing but its own modifications and that the self is the only existent thing also
    2. extreme egocentrism
  • Synonyms:
    1. egoism
    2. self-containment
    3. subjectivity
    4. egocentricity
    5. ipseity
    6. narcissism
    7. self-absorption
    8. self-reliance
    9. autonomy
  • Usage:
    1. “But what has taken me by surprise and torn me up inside are the aloofness, arrogance, pettiness, meanness, narcissism and solipsism that persist in Trump — that flourish in him — even during a once-in-a-lifetime emergency that demands something nobler. Under normal circumstances, these traits are galling. Under the current ones, they’re gutting.”
  • Encountered:
    1. New York Times editorial –Has Anyone Found Trump’s Soul? Anyone?

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

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Word of the Day – Conurbation

  • Noun:  Conurbation
    1.   an aggregation or continuous network of urban communities
  • Synonyms:
    1. capital
    2. center
    3. downtown
    4. metropolis
    5. municipality
    6. megalopolis
    7. boom town
    8. metropolitan area
    9. polis
    10. urban place
    11. urbs
  • Usage:
    1. “In the midst of this planetary pandemic, nobody wants to meet any more at the “Crossroads of the World”. A city known for its infectious energy, a city that likes to boast it never even has to sleep, has been forced into hibernation. With more cases than any other American conurbation, this city is once again Ground Zero, a term no New Yorker ever wanted applied here again. With manic suddenness, our world has been turned upside down, just as it was on September 11th..”
  • Encountered:
    1. Article on BBC.COM news site –Coronavirus: What this crisis reveals about US – and its president

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

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Word of the Day – Outré

  • Adjective:  Outré
    1.   violating convention or propriety : bizarre
  • Synonyms:
    1. bizarro
    2. crazy
    3. eccentric
    4. far-out
    5. funky
    6. off-kilter
    7. outlandish
    8. peculiar
    9. quirk
    10. weird
  • Usage:
    1. “Guest host Cynthia Nixon presents stories by two masters of the form who share an outré sensibility. Humor, humanity, and fantasy all combine in four tales of things gone wrong.”
  • Encountered:
    1. Written introduction to this week’s episode of  the Selected Shorts podcast –Embracing Disaster: Joyce Carol Oates and Etgar Keret

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

Just as an aside, if you love short stories you need to check out the Selected Shorts podcast.  I have listened to some truly remarkable stories over my years of listening to this show.  Do yourself a favor and check it out.

Their description of their show: “Its story time for adults with PRI’s award-winning series of short fiction read by the stars of stage and screen. Recorded live at Peter Norton Symphony Space in NYC and on tour. A co-production of Symphony Space and WNYC Radio.”

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Word of the Day – Horologist

  • Noun:  Horologist
    1.  a person skilled in the practice or theory of horology (the study and measurement of time; the art of making clocks and watches)
    2. a maker of clocks or watches
  • Synonyms:
    1. watchmaker
    2. clockmaker
    3. horologer
    4. timekeeper
  • Usage:
    1. Witness on the stand to Prosecuting Attorney, “Yes I am a horologist, but the correct pronunciation of my profession is ho·rol·o·gist, not whore·rol·o·gist.”
  • Encountered:
    1. In dinner conversation with an horologist

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

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Word of the Day – Consigliere

  • Noun:  Consigliere
    1.   An adviser, especially to a crime boss.
  • Synonyms:
    1. advisor
    2. consultant
    3. counselor
  • Usage:
    1. “Trump and his consigliere Steve Bannon have been quietly encouraging a civil war between Trump’s base of support – mostly white and worried – and everyone who’s not.” ~ Robert Reich
  • Encountered:
    1. Alternet.org editorial – Robert Reich: Trump Is Trying to Start a Civil War

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

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Word of the Day – Kakistocracy

  • Noun:

    1. “government by the worst element of a society,” 1829, coined (by Thomas Love Peacock) on analogy of its opposite, aristocracy, from Greek kakistos “worst,” superlative of kakos “bad” (which perhaps is related to the general Indo-European word for “defecate;” see caco-) + -cracy. Perhaps the closest word in ancient Greek was kakonomia “a bad system of laws and government,” hence kakonomos “with bad laws, ill-governed.
  • Synonyms:
    1. ochlocracy
    2. mob rule
    3. choas
    4. misrule
    5. dystrumpia
  • Usage
    • “Luckily we have one word that sums it all up: a kakistocracy, which literally means government by the worst element of a society. A kakistocracy is a government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens. Trump plans to bring us the worst of both.”
  • Encountered
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Word of the Day – Preternatural/Preternaturally

  • Adjective/Adverb: Preternatural/Preternaturally
    1. existing outside of nature
    2. exceeding what is natural or regular : extraordinary
    3. inexplicable by ordinary means; especially : psychic
  • Synonyms:
  1. extraordinary
  2. exceptional
  3. unusual
  4. uncommon
  5. singular
  6. unprecedented
  7. remarkable
  • Usage:

“Yet the person tens of millions of viewers saw in this fall’s debates was hugely impressive all the same: self-possessed, almost preternaturally calm under pressure, deeply prepared, clearly in command of policy issues.”

  • Encountered:

While reading an opinion piece by Paul Krugman in the New York Times – Why Hillary Wins

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

 

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Word of the Day – Balut

  •  Synonyms:
    1. None found
  • Usage:
  • “Everyone watched the American tourist with anticipation as balut was served to him.”
  • Encountered:
    • Visiting with a Filipino co-worker about food oddities around the world

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

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Word of the Day – Quisling

  •  Noun: Quisling
    1. a traitor who collaborates with an enemy force occupying their country
  • Synonyms:
    1. collaborator
    2. sympathizer
    3. traitor
    4. turncoat
    5. Judas
  • Usage:

“His biggest concern seems to be that after he dies, China will select a new pet Dalai Lama who may act as a quisling to help the Chinese control Tibet and to give legitimacy to their policies there.”

  • Encountered:

Nicholas Kristof column in New York Times – Dalai Lama Gets Mischievous

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