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- crepe (n): a light, thin fabric with a wrinkled surface ("a silk crepe blouse"); hard-wearing wrinkled rubber, used especially for the soles of shoes ("Hush Puppies" - style of shoes); a band of black silk or imitation silk, formerly worn around a person's hat as a sign of mourning; a thin pancake --- from Old French "crespe" - ‘curled, frizzed’
- haute couture (n): the designing and making of high-quality fashionable clothes by leading fashion houses, especially to order; expensive, fashionable clothes --- French, literally ‘high dressmaking’
- diaspora (n): the dispersion of any people from their original homeland ("the diaspora of boat people from Asia"); the dispersion of the Jews beyond Israel; Jews living outside Israel --- Greek, from "diaspeirein" - ‘disperse’ and from "dia" - ‘across’ + "speirein" - ‘scatter’
- stave (v/n): v: to break something by forcing it inward or piercing it roughly ("the door was staved in"); to avert or delay something bad or dangerous ("to stave off a panic attack"); n: a vertical wooden post or plank in a building or other structure; a strong wooden stick or iron pole used as a weapon; a verse or stanza of a poem
- virology (n): the branch of science that deals with the study of viruses, viral diseases, and virus-like agents: their structure, classification and evolution, their ways to infect and exploit cells, etc.
- prosaic (adj): having the style or diction of prose; lacking poetic beauty ("prosaic language can't convey the experience"); commonplace; unromantic ("the masses were too preoccupied by prosaic day-to-day concerns") --- from late Latin "prosaicus," from Latin "prosa" - ‘straightforward (discourse)’
- self-recrimination (n): an act or an instance of blaming or censuring oneself
- maven (n): an expert or connoisseur; a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others ("fashion mavens") -- 1960s: Yiddish + comes from Hebrew, meaning "one who understands"
- livery stable (n): a stable where horses are kept at livery or let out for hire; a boarding stable; a stable where horse owners pay a weekly or monthly fee to keep their horses
- foray (n/v): n: a sudden attack or incursion into enemy territory, especially to obtain something; a raid; an attempt to become involved in a new activity or sphere ("my first foray into journalism"); v: make or go on a foray --- from Old French "forrier" - ‘forager,’ from "fuerre" - ‘straw’
- cache (n/v): n: a collection of items of the same type stored in a hidden or inaccessible place; a stockpile or supply ("an arms cache"); a hidden or inaccessible storage place for valuables, provisions, or ammunition; (computing) an auxiliary memory from which high-speed retrieval is possible; v: to store away in hiding or for future use; (computing) to store (data) in a cache memory or to provide (hardware) with a cache memory --- from French, from "cacher" - ‘to hide’
- cavort (v): to jump or dance around excitedly ("spider monkeys leap and cavort in the branches"); to engage in extravagant behavior; (informal) to apply oneself enthusiastically to sexual or disreputable pursuits ("he spent his nights cavorting with the glitterati")
- contentious (adj): causing or likely to cause an argument; controversial ("a contentious issue"); involving heated argument; (of a person) given to arguing or provoking argument ("a contentious amateur politician who has offended minority groups"); (law) relating to or involving differences between contending parties
- fovea (n): (anatomy) a small depression in the retina of the eye where visual acuity is highest; the center of the field of vision is focused in this region, where retinal cones are particularly concentrated; a tiny pit located in the macula of the retina that provides the clearest vision of all-only in the fovea are the layers of the retina spread aside to let light fall directly on the cones, the cells that give the sharpest image --- from Latin, literally ‘small pit’
- calibrate (v): to mark (a gauge or instrument) with a standard scale of readings; to correlate the readings of (an instrument) with those of a standard in order to check the instrument's accuracy; to adjust (experimental results) to take external factors into account or to allow comparison with other data-adjust, graduate, correct (""calibrate the scale before weighing the packages"); to carefully assess, set, or adjust (something abstract) ("the regulators cannot properly calibrate the risks involved")
- trounce (v): to defeat heavily in a contest ("the Knicks trounced the Rockets on Sunday"); to rebuke or punish severely ("some shows were trounced by critics")
- towhead (n): a head of very light blond, almost white hair; a person with such hair; a head of hair resembling tow especially in being flaxen or tousled; also- a low alluvial island or shoal in a river : sandbar
- subsidiary (adj/n): adj: less important than but related or supplementary to; subordinate; secondary ("many environmentalists argue that the cause of animal rights is subsidiary to that of protecting the environment"); n: a company controlled by a holding company; branch ("two major subsidiaries") --- from Latin "subsidiarius," from "subsidium" - ‘support, assistance’
- extradition (n): the action of extraditing a person accused or convicted of a crime; deportation; expulsion ("detainees awaiting extradition") --- from French, from ex- ‘out, from’ + tradition ‘delivery’
- turnstile (n): a mechanical gate consisting of revolving horizontal arms fixed to a vertical post, allowing only one person at a time to pass through (e.g., the ones used in subways)
- vervet (n): a common African guenon with greenish-brown upper parts and a black face
- guenon (n): an African monkey found mainly in forests, with a long tail and typically a brightly colored coat; the male is much larger than the female
- capricious (adj): given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior; volatile, fickle, or inconstant
- Levite (n): a member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi, especially of that part of it that provided assistants to the priests in the worship in the Jewish temple
- extemporaneous (adj): spoken or done without preparation ("an extemporaneous speech")
- smattering (n): a slight superficial knowledge of a language or subject ("Edward had only a smattering of Spanish"); a small amount of something ("a smattering of snow")
- incubator (n): an enclosed apparatus providing a controlled environment for the care and protection of premature or unusually small babies; an apparatus used to hatch eggs or grow microorganisms under controlled conditions; (north american) a place, especially with support staff and equipment, made available at low rent to new small businesses
- quantum (n): the unit quantity of acetylcholine released at a neuromuscular junction by a single synaptic vesicle, contributing a discrete small voltage to the measured end-plate potential; a share or portion ("each man has only a quantum of compassion"); (physics) a discrete quantity of energy proportional in magnitude to the frequency of the radiation it represents; an analogous discrete amount of any other physical quantity, such as momentum or electric charge --- mid 16th century (in the general sense ‘quantity’): from Latin, neuter of "quantus"
- chasm (n): a deep fissure in the earth, rock, or another surface; gorge, abyss, or canyon ("a deep chasm"); a profound difference between people, viewpoints, feelings, etc. ("the chasm between rich and poor") --- late 16th century (denoting an opening up of the sea or land, as in an earthquake): from Latin "chasma," from Greek "khasma" - ‘gaping hollow’
- arcane (adj): understood by few; mysterious or secret --- mid 16th century: from Latin "arcanus," from "arcere" - ‘to shut up,’ from arca - ‘chest’
- coot (n): (informal) a foolish or eccentric person, typically an old man; an aquatic bird of the rail family, with blackish plumage, lobed feet, and a bill that extends back onto the forehead as a horny shield
- anoxia (n): an absence of oxygen; (medicine) an absence or deficiency of oxygen reaching the tissues; severe hypoxia; the shortage of blood to the brain --- 1930s: from "an" + "ox(ygen)" + -"ia1"
- scion (n): a descendant of a notable family ("he was the scion of a wealthy family"); a young shoot or twig of a plant, especially one cut for grafting or rooting --- from Old French "ciun" - ‘shoot, twig’
- glazier (n): a person whose profession is fitting glass into windows and doors; a construction tradesperson who selects, cuts, installs, replaces, and removes residential, commercial, and artistic glass
- pillory (v): to attack or ridicule publicly; criticize ("he found himself pilloried by members of his own party"); to put (someone) in the pillory --- from Old French "pilori," probably from Provençal "espilori" (associated by some with a Catalan word meaning ‘peephole,’ of uncertain origin)
- curtail (v): to reduce in extent or quantity; impose a restriction on; cut ("civil liberties were further curtailed"); archaic- to deprive someone of (something) ("I that am curtailed of this fair proportion") --- from obsolete "curtal" - ‘horse with a docked tail,’ from French "courtault," from "court" - ‘short,’ from Latin "curtus" ...the change in the ending was due to association with "tail" and perhaps also with French "tailler" - ‘to cut’
- truculent (adj): eager or quick to argue or fight; aggressively defiant ("his days of truculent defiance were over") --- from Latin "truculentus," from trux, truc- ‘fierce’
- grassroots (n): the most basic level of an activity or organization; bottom-up; non-hierarchical ("the whole campaign would be conducted at the grass roots"); ordinary people regarded as the main body of an organization's membership ("you have lost touch with the grass roots of the party"); the common or ordinary people, especially as contrasted with the leadership or elite of a political party, social organization, etc.; the rank and file
- bedrock (n): solid rock underlying loose deposits such as soil or alluvium; understructure; base ("we're digging till we hit bedrock"); the fundamental principles on which something is based; core, basis, foundation ("honesty is the bedrock of a good relationship")
- impetus (n): the force or energy with which a body moves; momentum ("hit the booster coil before the flywheel loses all its impetus"); the force that makes something happen or happen more quickly ("the crisis of the 1860s provided the original impetus for the settlements") --- from Latin, ‘assault, force,’ from "impetere" - ‘assail,’ from in- ‘toward’ + petere ‘seek’
apr 20 2015 ∞
mar 29 2024 +
mar 29 2024 +