decussate

de•cus•sate (verb: di-KUHS-ayt, DEK-uh-sayt, adjective: di-KUHS-ayt)

Definition:
verb tr
to intersect or to cross

adjective
1. intersected or crossed in the form of an X
2. arranged in pairs along the stem, each pair at a right angle to the one above or below

decussately adverb

Origin:
1658; from L. decussatus, pp. of decussare "to divide crosswise, to cross in the form of an 'X,'" from decussis "the figure 'ten'" (in Roman numerals, represented by X) from decem "ten." As an adj., from 1825.

Related:
Synonyms: cross, bisect, crisscross, crosscut, intersect
Related Words: December, decimate, decimal

Sentence Examples:
• How I wished then that my body, too, if it had to droop and shrivel, for surely everyone's did, would furl and decussate with grace to sculpt the victory of my spirit. -Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter, J. Nozipo Maraire

• EThe simplest illustration of this arrangement is seen in the case of decussate leaves, where those organs are placed in pairs, and the pairs cross one another at right angles. -Vegetable Teratology, Maxwell T. Masters

Why This Word

The word originated from Latin "as" (plural asses) which was a copper coin and the monetary unit in ancient Rome. The word for ten asses was decussis, from Latin decem (ten) + as (coin). Since ten is represented by X, this spawned the verb decussare, meaning to divide in the form of an X or intersect.
Samuel Johnson, lexicographer extraordinaire, has a well-deserved reputation for his magnum opus "A Dictionary of the English Language", but as they say, even Homer nods. He violated one of the dictums of lexicography -- do not define a word using harder words than the one being defined -- when he used today's word and two other uncommon words in defining the word network:  Network: Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections. And what is "reticulated"? Again, according to Johnson:
Reticulated: Made of network; formed with interstitial vacuities.

Sources: Wordsmith, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

apothegm

ap•o•thegm (AP-uh-them)  n
also apophthegm (Britain)

Definition:
a short, pithy, and instructive saying or formulation

apothegmatic adjective; apothegmatically adverb
Origin:
circa 1587; from Gk. apophthegma "terse, pointed saying," lit. "something clearly spoken," from apophthengesthai "to speak one's opinion plainly," from apo- "from"  + phthengesthai "to utter." See aphorism for nuances of usage. Spelling apophthegm, restored by Johnson, is preferred in England, according to OED.

Related:
Synonyms: adage, aphorism, saying, epigram, maxim, proverb
Related Words: diphthong

Sentence Examples:
• In this deep gorge the winds and the pines chanted like a Greek chorus; the waves continuously murmured an intricate rune, as if conning it by frequent repetition; a bird would call out from the upper air some joyous apothegm in a language which no creature of the earth has learned enough of happiness to translate.  -The Moonshiners At Hoho-Hebee Falls, Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)

• “Laugh and grow fat” is an apothegm which all people cannot follow, but our mother did in the most satisfactory manner.  -Marmaduke Merry, William H. G. Kingston

• "That, Mrs. Lamon, is a vulgar error. It is an ancient form of worship. Virtue and beauty are the same thing--the two graces."
"What a nice apothegm! It makes religion so easy and agreeable."
-The Golden House, Charles Dudley Warner

Sources: Merriam-Webster, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

unguinous

un•gui•nous (UHNG-gwi-nuhs)  adj

Definition:
resembling, containing, or consisting of fat or oil; greasy; oily

Origin:
1595–1605; from Latin unguinosus,  equivalent to unguin-  (stem of unguen ) "ointment" + -osus  -ous

Related:
Synonyms: fatty, greasy, adipose, butyraceous, lubricous, oleaginous, unctuous
Related Words: ointment, anoint, unction, unctuous

Sentence Examples:
• Carson swore that the words, "we are betrayed" in her unguinous message referred to the intimate relationship between Carson and Mitchell, not to the robbery.12 Despite her lawyer Zeligman Philips's arguments that the court was at fault for trying accessories to a crime before it tried the principals, Carson was pronounced guilty as charged and sentenced to two years in prison. -Dangerous to know, Susan Branson

• It did not help that Evelyn fed Darren bitter stories about Warren's relatives, with whom Evelyn herself maintained, during those first years, an honorary civility. Evelyn welcomed them in her various homes with unguinous familiarity, but the boy remain mute and rebarbative in their presence. -Depraved Indifference, Gary Indiana

• His hair slicked back, unguinous. It was greased completely to prevent any stray locks from escaping. The black shimmer of his crown contrasted with his natural dull eyebrows. It gave the unsettling impression of borrowed hair. -Boring Boring Boring Boring Boring Boring Boring, Zach Plague

Sources: Dictionary.com

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

natality

na•tal•i•ty (ney-TAL-i-tee)  n

Definition:
the ratio of births to the general population; the birth rate


Origin:
late 15c., "birth," from natal, from late 14c., from L. natalis "pertaining to birth or origin," from natus, pp. of nasci "to be born" + -ity. Sense of "birth rate" is from 1884, from Fr. natalité

Related:
Synonyms: birthrate
Related Words: natal, neonate, nation, nature, native

Sentence Examples:
• Then the doctor went on to speak of the prolificness of wretchedness, the swarming of the lower classes. Was not the most hateful natality of all that which meant the endless increase of starvelings and social rebels? -Fruitfulness, Emile Zola

• The great southern peninsula is for the most part a highland steppe endowed with a singularly pure air and an uncontaminated soil. It breeds, consequently,a healthy population whose natality, compared to its death-rate, is unusually high; but since the peculiar conditions of its surface and climate preclude the development of its internal food-supply beyond a point long ago reached, the surplus population which rapidly accumulates within it is forced from time to time to seek its sustenance elsewhere. -The Ancient East, D. G. Hogarth

• If the mortality has any influence upon the natality this cannot be in the form of replacement of lost infants and deceased old people, therefore, as has frequently been suggested. That a high death-rate at the child-bearing age should be conducive to increased fertility is absurd, neither does it seem likely that a large number of children should make the parents more liable to diseases which are prevalent at this period of life.  -Birth Control, Halliday G. Sutherland

Sources: Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

banausic

ba•nau•sic (buh-NAW-sik)  adj

Definition:
1. serving utilitarian purposes only; mechanical; practical; materialistic, uncultured, routine
2. relating to or concerned with earning a living
3. of or relating to a mechanic


Origin:
1845; from Gk. banausikos "pertaining to mechanics," from banausos "artisan, mere mechanical," hence (to the Greeks) "base, ignoble;" perhaps lit. "working by fire," from baunos "furnace, forge" (but Klein dismisses this as folk etymology and calls it "of uncertain origin")

Related:
Synonyms: prosaic, mundane, utilitarian, practical, mechanical, materialistic, uncultured, routine, ordinary


Sentence Examples:
• To very many men, indeed, who go up to the Universities with the intention of following teaching as a profession, a high degree is a mere investment, the one instinct in them which is not quite banausic being the conscientious thoroughness with which they impart what they have been taught.  -Ephemera Critica, John Churton Collins

• The Genoese, cavalier, are a banausic race, and penurious at that; they will go where the devil cannot, which is between the oak and the rind; opportunity given, they would sneak the breeches off a highlander: they divide their time between commercialism and a licentiousness of which, sordid as it is, they habitually beat down the price. -Sir John Constantine, Prosper Paleologus Constantine

• In most of the cities that were centres of intellectual life, the plebeians arose and replaced the formerly highly cultured patricians. The burghers began to tune the melodies of a new music: a banausic artisan song.  -Women of the Teutonic Nations, Hermann Schoenfeld

Sources: Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster, Wordnik, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

oblation

o•bla•tion (o-BLEY-shuhn)  n

Definition:
1. the act of offering something, such as worship or thanks, to a deity
2. a charitable offering or gift
3. the offering of the bread and wine of the Eucharist to God

oblatory, oblational adjectiveb
Origin:
1375–1425; from O.Fr. oblation "offering, sacrifice," from L. oblationem (nom. oblatio) "an offering, presenting, gift," in L.L. "sacrifice," from L. oblatus variant pp. of L. offerre "to offer, to bring before" (latus "carried, borne" used as suppletive pp. of ferre "to bear"), from *tlatos, from PIE base *tel-, *tol- "to bear, carry"

Related:
Synonyms: offering
Related Words: offertory, oblate

Sentence Examples:
• Through the air he flies looking down upon all beings: with the majesty of the heavenly dog, with that oblation would we pay homage to thee. -Cerberus, The Dog of Hades, Maurice Bloomfield

• Often they are very fine; but always they are the work of priests, artists in ritual. And if you look heedfully into it you will also mark that these priests are inclined to think that the act of sacrifice, the offering of, say, certain oblations in a particular manner with particular words accompanying them, is in itself potent, quite apart from the psalms which they sing over it, that it has a magic power of its own over the machinery of nature. -Hindu Gods And Heroes, Lionel D.  Barnett

• Again, their insinuations that in the mass Christ is not offered must be altogether rejected, as condemned of old and excluded by the faithful. For Augustine says this was a very ancient heresy of the Arians, who denied that in the mass an oblation was made for the living and the dead. -The Confutatio Pontificia, Anonymous

Sources: Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

iracund

i•ra•cund (AHY-ruh-kuhnd)  adj

Definition:
easily angered, irascible

iracundity noun

Origin:
1815–25; Latin iracundus,  equivalent to ira- "anger" + -cundus  "inclined to"

Related:
Synonyms: irascible, choleric, angry, irritable
Related Words: irascible, irate, ire

Sentence Examples:
• That particular chancellor, whom the chronology of the case brought chiefly into connection with Miss Watson's interests, was (if my childish remembrances do not greatly mislead me) the iracund Lord Thurlow. -Memorials and Other Papers, Thomas de Quincey

• "I thought you were in it," replied the mayor, turning very red in the face, for he had heard of Mr. Pullwool as the leader of said ring; andbbeing an iracund man, he was ready to knock his head off. -An Inspired Lobbyist, J. W. DeForest

• Dryasdust knows only that these Preussen were a strong-boned, iracund herdsman-and-fisher people; highly averse to be interfered with, in their religion especially. -History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Thomas Carlyle

Sources: Free Dictionary, Dictionary.com

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

yaw

yaw (yaw)

Definition:
verb (used without object)
1. to deviate temporarily from a straight course, as a ship
2. (of an aircraft) to have a motion about its vertical axis
3. (of a rocket or guided missile) to deviate from a stable flight attitude by oscillation of the longitudinal axis in the horizontal plane

verb (used with object)
4. to cause to yaw

noun
5. a movement of deviation from a direct course, as of a ship
6. a motion of an aircraft about its vertical axis
7. an angle, to the right or left, determined by the direction of motion of an aircraft or spacecraft and its vertical and longitudinal plane of symmetry
8. (of a rocket or guided missile) the act of yawing; the angular displacement of the longitudinal axis due to yawing


Origin:
1546; from O.N. jaga, O.Dan. jæge "to drive, chase," from M.L.G. jagen, from O.H.G. jagon, from P.Gmc. *jagojanan

Related:
Synonyms: bank, curve, deviate, slue, swerve, turn, veer, weave, zigzag
Related Words: yacht

Sentence Examples:
• Just in time I blow my horn, and your boat she yaw a little. Then I see you come all down. Eh, wha-at? I think you are cut into baits by the screw, but you dreeft—dreeft to me, and I make a big fish of you. So you shall not die this time. -Captains Courageous, Rudyard Kipling

• She had evidently more on her than she could bear; yet it was in vain to try to take it in--the clewline was not strong enough; and they were thinking of cutting away, when another wide yaw and a come-to, snapped the guys, and the swinging boom came in, with a crash, against the lower rigging.  -Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana

• We had almost despaired of escaping, when fortunately one of our shot brought down the advanced frigates fore topsail yard, and we soon found we were leaving her. The second yawed, and gave us a broadside; only two of her shot took effect by striking near the fore channels. Her yaw saved us, as we gained on her considerably. -A Sailor of King George, The Journals of Captain Frederick Hoffman

Sources: Dictionary.com, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

satiety

sa•ti•e•ty (suh-TAHY-i-tee)  n

Definition:
1. the state of being satisfactorily full and unable to take on more; fullness; sufficiency
2. the condition of being full or gratified beyond the point of satisfaction; surfeit
3. a glutted or cloyed state or condition; an excess of gratification which excites loathing; gratification to the full or beyond natural desire


Origin:
1533;  from Fr. satiété (12c.), from L. satietatem "abundance," from satis "enough," from PIE base *sa- "to satisfy"

Related:
Synonyms: satiation, engorgement, filling, gratification,  repletion, saturation, slaking, surfeit
Related Words: satisfy, satiate

Sentence Examples:
• It is wonderfully provided by the Creator that any sensation, which is selfishly indulged in, any sensation that a man remains in for its own sake, must lead first to satiety,—and then to worse than satiety and death. -A Man of the World, Annie Payson Call

• "And so you think you've won out against the gods?" he demanded.
"Why the gods?"
"Whose will but theirs has put satiety upon man?" he cried.
"And whence the will in me to escape satiety?" I asked triumphantly.
"Again the gods," he laughed. "It is their game we play. They deal and shuffle all the cards... and take the stakes. Think not that you have escaped by fleeing from the mad cities. You with your vine-clad hills, your sunsets and your sunrises, your homely fare and simple round of living!
-When God Laughs, Jack London

• No wonder that on this fine afternoon in September the crowd round Bibot's gate was eager and excited. The lust of blood grows with its satisfaction, there is no satiety: the crowd had seen a hundred noble heads fall beneath the guillotine to-day, it wanted to make sure that it would see another hundred fall on the morrow.  -The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy

Sources: Wordnik, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

hymnody

hym•no•dy (HIM-nuh-dee)  n

Definition:
1. the singing or the composition of hymns or sacred songs
2. hymns collectively, especially the collective hymns of a specific religion, place, or period
3. a study of hymns and their composers
4. the preparation of expository material and bibliographies concerning hymns

Origin:
1711; from Medieval Latin hymnodia,  from Greek hymnoidía  "chanting of a hymn", equivalent to hýmn  "hymn" + oidía  "singing" ( aoid-  "sing" + -ia)

Related:
Related Words: hymn, ode

Sentence Examples:
• This volume is presented because the author believes that the hymnody of the West must find much of its finest enrichment in the praise literature of the Church of the East.  -Hymns from the Greek Office Books, John Brownlie

• From the many English synonyms for song I have selected the word chant to translate qaçàl. In its usual signification hymnody may be its more exact equivalent, but it is a less convenient term than chant. -The Mountain Chant, Washington Matthews

• There is something very strange and surprising in this state of things, this contrast between the primitive Church with its few simple melodies that ravished the educated hearer, and our own full-blown institution with its hymn-book of some 600 tunes, which when it is opened fills the sensitive worshipper with dismay, so that there are persons who would rather not go inside a church than subject themselves to the trial. What is the matter? What is it that is wrong with our hymnody? Even where there is not such rooted disgust as I have implied, there is a growing conviction that some reform is needed in words or music, or both.A Practical Discourse on Some Principles of Hymn-Singing, Robert Bridges

Sources: Dictionary.com, Free Dictionary

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

wroth

wroth (rawth)  adj

Definition:
1. angry; wrathful
2. stormy; violent; turbulent

Origin:
before 12th century; O.E. wrað "angry" (lit. "tormented, twisted”), from P.Gmc. *wraithaz, from PIE *wreit- "to turn"

Related:
Synonyms: angered, apoplectic, ballistic, enraged, furious, incensed, inflamed, infuriated, livid, mad, outraged, rabid, wrathful
Related Words: wrath, writhe, wreathe

Sentence Examples:
• Then was Pharaoh, the king, exceeding wroth, and he gave commandment that an owl be given to Neoncapos, the king's jester, and that he be set forth without the gate of the king's palace, and that he be forbidden to return, or to speak to any in all the land, save only unto the owl which had been given him, until such time as the bird should answer and tell him what he should say.  -Bricks Without Straw, Albion W. Tourgee

• And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? -The Dore Gallery of Bible Illustrations, Gustave Dore

• Thereupon I forced my way through the underwood which hindered me from seeing, and when I presently saw Ann coming and had opened my lips to call, something, meseemed, took me by the throat, and I was fain to stand still as though I had taken root there, and could only lend eye and ear, gasping for breath, to what was doing yonder by the highroad.  And verily I knew not whether to rejoice from the bottom of my heart, or to lament and be wroth, and fly forth to put an end to it all. -Margery, Georg Ebers

Sources: Dictionary.com, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

autodidact

au•to•di•dact (aw-toh-DAHY-dakt)  n

Definition:
a person who has learned a subject without the benefit of a teacher or formal education; a self-taught person

autodidactic adjective; autodidactically adverb
Origin:
1748;  from Gk. autodidaktos , from autos "self" + didaktos "taught", pp. of didaskein "teach," from PIE base *dens- "wisdom, to teach, learn"

Related:
Related Words: didactic

Sentence Examples:
• Frye describes with accuracy, and shows much appreciation of fine scenery and architecture. His judgements in painting and sculpture are sincere, though often betraying the autodidact and amateur. -After Waterloo, Major W. E Frye

• For instance: if the narcissist talks to a psychologist, the narcissist first states emphatically that he never studied psychology. He then proceeds to make seemingly effortless use of obscure professional terms, thus demonstrating that he mastered the discipline all the same, as an autodidact - which proves that he is exceptionally intelligent or introspective. -Narcissistic And Psychopathic Leaders, Sam Vaknin

• Schoenberg is an autodidact, the lessons in composition from Alexander von Zemlinsky not affecting his future path-breaking propensities. -Ivory Apes and Peacocks, James Huneker

Sources: Dictionary.com, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

theophany

the•oph•a•ny (thee-OF-uh-nee)  n

Definition:
an appearance of a god to a human; a divine manifestation

theophanic, theophanous adjective
Origin:
1625–35; from L.L. theophania, from Gk. theophaneia, from theos "god" + phainein "to show" from PIE base *bha- "to shine"

Related:
Related Words: theogony, theocracy, Theodore, fedora, theism, cellophane, phenomenon, fantasy, epiphany

Sentence Examples:
• Why this theophany, or how the gods have got out to perform their various 'stunts' on the flammantia moenia mundi, is not asked by their incurious devotees. -Letters from America, Rupert Brooke

• The theophany is clearly no rebuke to an impatient prophet, nor a lesson that the kingdom of heaven was to be built up by the slow and gentle operation of spiritual forces. It expresses the spirituality of Yahweh in a way that indicates a marked advance in the conception of his nature. -Encyclopaedia Britannica: Elijah

• The naïveté of children appeals to us because they are what we were and what we should again become. They represent an ideal, a theophany. Though we may look down upon the childish, we can only look up to the childlike. -The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller, Calvin Thomas

Sources: Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

horrent

hor•rent (HAWR-uhnt)  adj

Definition:
1. standing erect, as bristles; covered with bristling points; bristling
2. horrible; abhorring


Origin:
1667; Latin horrent-  (stem of horrens,  present participle of horrere  "to stand on end, bristle with fear"), equivalent to horr- + -ent

Related:
Related Words: horrendous, horrid, hirsute, horripilation, horrible, horrific, abhor, horror

Sentence Examples:
• Voluminously the bloated boa convolves before him. All horrent the cobra exalts his hooded head, and the spanning jaws fly open. -The Fiend's Delight, Dod Grile

•  One look below the Almighty gave,
   Where streamed the lion-flags of thy proud foe;
   And near and wider yawned the horrent grave.
-The Invincible Armada, Poems of The Second Period, Frederich Schiller

• And worse and hatefuller our woes on land;
  For where we couched, close by the foeman's wall,
  The river-plain was ever dank with dews,
  Dropped from the sky, exuded from the earth,
  A curse that clung unto our sodden garb,
  And hair as horrent as a wild beast's fell.
-The House of Atreus, AEschylus


Sources: Wordnik, Dictionary.com

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

fritinancy

frit•i•nan•cy (FRIT-i-nan-see)  n

Definition:
a chirping or creaking, as of a cricket

Origin:
sometime before 1914; from Latin  fritinnire "to twitter", imitative of the rattle of dice

Related:
Synonyms: chirping, twittering
Related Words: fritillary

Sentence Examples:
• And from midst the teeming cedars that clung to the east- and west-side scarps, the clicking fritinancy of a million cicadas burst in shrill unison upon the humid night. -And the Ass Saw the Angel, Nick Cave

• Yet there comes a time in the passing of the summer when the youngsters are taught, or learn through necessity, to forage for themselves and cease their fritinancy. Then the thickets are strangely silent. -Wild pastures, Winthrop Packard

• Here in the United States the worship of Woman is carried to ludicrous lengths. . . . And perhaps in these days when the hens hold conventions and their fritinancy disturbs the ears of thoughtful men, it may not be superfluous to iterate the old truth that woman is physically, mentally and morally inferior to man.  -Steeplejack, James Huneker

Why This Word:

Few words could be rarer than this exotic creation by a master of neologisms, the physician and author Sir Thomas Browne, who is at number 69 in the list of most quoted authors in the Oxford English Dictionary. Browne — whom the English writer Philip Howard recently described as “a polysyllabic old quack” — invented it in his vast encyclopaedic work of 1646, Pseudodoxia Epidemica. This attempted to refute many of the errors and superstitions of his age, but has been ridiculed since for its own many errors.
Browne spelled his creation fritiniancy and used it for the sounds of insects (“The note or fritiniancy [of the Cicada] is far more shrill then that of the Locust”). He took it from the Latin fritinni-re, to twitter or chirp. The Oxford English Dictionary, in an entry dated 1898, prefers fritiniency, but notes that “modern dictionaries” prefer fritinancy. Today’s modern dictionaries don’t include it but the very few authors who have borrowed it have indeed mostly used that spelling. This is a rare sighting:

“The native thought of mankind is gratitude. The most significant noise of earth is the singing of birds,” said the professor with determination. “Fritinancy,” declared the young man beside the fire. “What’s that?” said the professor. “I said fritinancy, which is the whimper of gnats and the buzzing of flies.” “You’re talking nonsense.”
-Poet’s Pub, by Eric Linklater, 1929

Sources: Webster's, World Wide Words

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

Pickwickian

Pick•wick•i•an (pik-WIK-ee-uhn)  adj

Definition:
1. simple and kind
2. meant or understood in an idiosyncratic or unusual way; in a sense other than the obvious or literal one
3. of, relating to, or resembling Mr Pickwick in The Pickwick Papers

Pickwickianly adverb

Origin:
1836; After Samuel Pickwick, a character in the novel Pickwick Papers (serialized 1836-1837) by Charles Dickens.

Sentence Examples:
• Friends of Russia here think of the dictatorship of the proletariat as merely a new form of representative government, in which only working men and women have votes, and the constituencies are partly occupational, not geographical. They think that "proletariat" means "proletariat," but "dictatorship" does not quite mean "dictatorship." This is the opposite of the truth. When a Russian Communist speaks of dictatorship, he means the word literally, but when he speaks of the proletariat, he means the word in a Pickwickian sense.  -The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism, Bertrand Russell

• Daniel was no otherwise Laureate than his position in the queen's household may authorize that title. If ever so entitled by contemporaries, it was quite in a Pickwickian and complimentary sense. -Atlantic Monthly, 1858

• The mellow fervency of John's "With all my worldly goods I thee endow"--must be taken in a Pickwickian and Cupidian sense. - The Secret of a Happy Home, Marion Harland

Why This Word:

Mr Pickwick is known for his simplicity and kindness. In the novel Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Blotton call each other names and it appears later that they were using the offensive words only in a Pickwickian sense and had the highest regard for each other.
Another term that arose from the book is Pickwickian syndrome, which refers to a combination of interlinked symptoms such as extreme obesity, shallow breathing, tiredness, sleepiness, etc. The character with these symptoms was not Mr. Pickwick, but Fat Joe, so the term is really coined after the book's title. The medical term for the condition is obesity-hypoventilation syndrome.

Sources: Free Dictionary, Wordsmith

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

titivate

tit•i•vate (TIT-uh-veyt)  v

Definition:
to smarten or spruce up (oneself or another or a thing), as by making up, doing the hair, etc.


titivated past participle; titivated past tense; titivating present participle; titivates 3rd person singular present; titivation, titivator noun

Origin:
1824; alteration of earlier tidivate, perhaps based on tidy with a quasi-Latin ending

Related:
Synonyms: beautify, embellish, preen, primp, spruce

Sentence Examples:
• 'Yes,' he answered. 'I can be there and back in an hour or less. You titivate yourself, and we'll dine at the Savoy, or anywhere you please. We'll keep the ball rolling to-night. Yes,' he repeated, as if to convince himself that he was not a deserter, 'I really must call in at the office. You and John can see to the luggage, can't you?' -Tales of the Five Towns, Arnold Bennett

• Before we proceed on our way, the foppery of our charioteer reasserts itself. Of course, his neat and spruce trim has been considerably disarrayed, so now he proceeds to reorganize his appearance. Gravely and calmly he draws brushes and so on from a receptacle under the box-seat, and commences to titivate himself.  -Brighter Britain!, William Delisle Hay

• So here I am, at least what is left of me, and dreadful glad I am to see you too; but as it is about your dinner hour I will go and titivate up a bit, and then we will have a dish of chat for desert, and cigars, to remind us of by-gones, as we stroll through your shady walks here. - Nature and Human Nature, Thomas Chandler Haliburton

Sources: Free Dictionary

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

conspectus

con•spec•tus (kuhn-SPEK-tuhs)  n

Definition:
1. a usually brief survey or summary (as of an extensive subject) often providing an overall view
2. outline, synopsis

Origin:
1825; from L. conspectus "a looking at, sight, view; range or power of vision," from pp. of conspicere "to look at" from com-, intensive prefix, + specere "to look at"

Related:
Synonyms: summary, abstract, digest, outline, overview, précis, resume, review, rundown, summation, synopsis
Related Words: conspicuous, specimen, spectrum, speculum, aspect, spectacle, respect, introspection, expect, conspicuous, suspect, despicable, circumspect,  speculation, perspective, inspection, scope, despise, retrospect, prospect, prospectus

Sentence Examples:
• Here the narrow ridge crowded into a single street all the essential organs of a capital, and still presents with the rarest completeness of concentration a conspectus of modern civic life and development; and this alike as regards both spiritual and temporal powers, using these terms in their broadest senses as the respective expressions of the material order and its immaterial counterparts. -Civics as Applied Sociology, Patrick Geddes

• I found, ten years ago, that there were a number of writers doing work which appeared to me extremely good, but which was narrowly known; and I thought that anyone, however unprofessional and meagrely gifted, who presented a conspectus of it in a challenging and manageable form might be doing a good turn both to the poets and to the reading public. -Georgian Poetry 1920-22

• What if philosophy, at a certain extreme range, and of a certain kind, tends of necessity to pass into poetry, and can hardly help being passionate and metrical? If so, might not the omission of poets, purely as being such, from a conspectus of the speculative writers of any time, lead to erroneous conclusions, by giving an undue prominence in the estimate of all such philosophizing as could most easily, by its nature, refrain from passionate or poetic expression?  -Percy Bysshe Shelley as a Philosopher and Reformer, Charles Sotheran

Sources: Merriam-Webster, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

neoteric

ne•o•ter•ic (nee-uh-TER-ik)

Definition:
adj
of recent origin; modern; belonging to a new fashion or trend

noun
1. a new writer or philosopher
2. a modern person; one accepting new ideas and practices

neoterically adverb
Origin:
1596; from L. neotericus, from Gk. neoterikos, from neoteros, comp. of neos "new"

Related:
Synonyms: new, contemporary, current, modern
Antonyms: palaioteric
Related Words: neophyte, new, neon, neoteny, misoneism

Sentence Examples:
• To be sure the vices of the episodic style must be pruned away, and they were, mercilessly. The Aeneid has none of the meretricious involutions of plot, none of the puzzling half-uttered allusions to essential facts, none of the teasing interruptions of the neoteric story book.  -Vergil, Tenney Frank

• Max Müller properly calls touch, scent, and taste the palaioteric, and sight and hearing the neoteric senses, the latter of which often require to be verified by the former. Touch is the lowest in specialization and development, and is considered to be the oldest of the senses, the others indeed being held by some writers to be only its modifications. -Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples And Deaf-Mutes, Garrick Mallery

• Change, my dear, you will speedily have, to satisfy the most craving of women, if Willoughby, as I suppose, is in the neoteric fashion of spending a honeymoon on a railway: apt image, exposition and perpetuation of the state of mania conducting to the institution! -The Egoist, George Meredith

Sources: Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

facinorous

fa•cin•or•ous (fa-SIN-uhr-uhs)  adj

Definition:
extremely wicked

Origin:
from Latin facinorous, from facinus "bad deed", from facere "to do or make"

Related:
Synonyms: wicked, corrupt, abominable, atrocious, contemptible, degenerate, depraved, devilish, dissolute, egregious, evil, fiendish, flagitious, foul, heinous, immoral,  iniquitous, nefarious, profane, reprobate, rotten, vicious, vile, villainous

Sentence Examples:
• And that all this is true, Sir Donough O'Conor, who was taken prisoner by the same men, because he would not assist them in their facinorous and wicked design of killing the earl, will justify; but in the morning the earl was rescued by the country folk, which conveyed him safely out of the town. -The Land-War In Ireland, James Godkin

• The infant now is naturally quite as irascible, as envious, and as vindictive, as ever was the offspring of the most facinorous Philistine; the existing boy, too, derives quite as much delight from the torture of a butterfly, or a beetle, as did his predecessor of two, three, or four thousand years ago; and the man of the present day, were he not restrained by the strength of the laws, which, in the indirect knowledge of his own infirmity, he has, in the long course of ages, imposed upon his powers of self-indulgence, would again eagerly and cheerfully lay his fellow on the wheel, the cross, or the gridiron, rub the rust from the screw and the pincers, re-pile the fagots, and depopulate continents, in the names of religion or policy, of heresy or state-necessity, of Moloch or Mahomet, but really in the fell and insatiate thirst of human blood.
The Literary gazette, 1835

•  MOR: Why? if I had made an assassinate upon your father, vitiated
   your mother, ravished your sisters—
   TRUE: I would kill you, sir, I would kill you, if you had.
   MOR: Why, you do more in this, sir: it were a vengeance centuple,
   for all facinorous acts that could be named, to do that you do.
-Epicoene, Ben Jonson

Sources: Wordsmith

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

exuviate

ex•u•vi•ate (ig-ZOO-vee-eyt)  v

Definition:
to cast off or shed (exuviae); molt

exuviation noun

Origin:
1850–55; Latine exuvi(ae) "that which is stripped off," from stem of exuere, from PIE *eis- "to dress"  + -ate

Related:
Synonyms: molt, peel, slough, shed, decorticate

Sentence Examples:
• The shrimp when in confinement becomes very tame, and readily exuviates. The process is frequent, the integument separates entire, and is almost colourless.  -Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, 1852

• Rumors have circulated since the filming that she and Zhang Yimou were conjugating together, but they both refer to each other as "good friends." It's the Zhang Yimou factor that remains both her agony and ecstasy: hard as she tries to exuviate his influence, her contemporaries insist she's defined by it. Time Asia, 2000

• The lexicographers behind Britain's Collins English Dictionary have decided to exuviate  rarely used and archaic words as part of an abstergent  process to make room for up to 2,000 new entries. "We want the dictionary to be a reflection of English as it is currently spoken," says Ian Brookes, managing editor of Collins, "rather than a fossilized version of the language." - Time, 2008

Sources: Dictionary.com, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

volitant

vol•i•tant (VOL-i-tnt)  adj

Definition:
1. flying or capable of flying
2. moving about rapidly; flit about


Origin:
1840–50; Latin volitant  (stem of volitans ), present participle of volitare  "to flutter", frequentative of volare  "to fly"

Related:
Related Words: volatile, volley

Sentence Examples:
• Adaptiveness is the peculiarity of human nature. We are golden averages, volitant stabilities, compensated or periodic errors, houses founded on the sea. - Representative Men, Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Now, just as volitant bird-life attains its highest expression in the habit of singing on the wing, so it may be said that cursorial bird-life attains its highest expression in those concerted dances, mock-battles, and displays, which have excited the wonder and admiration of all naturalists. -Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York, 1908

• The head waiter smiles knowingly, and, while volitant minions were bringing the truffles and pheasant, he continues in these terms : 'I must confess, Monsieur, that this famous gastronomic permit issued by the essess is a pure invention. It doesn't exist." -The blue flowers, Raymond Queneau

Sources: Free Dictionary, Dictionary.com

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

tocsin

toc•sin (TOK-sin)  n

Definition:
1. an alarm bell or the ringing of it
2. a warning signal

Origin:
1586; from M.Fr. toquassen "an alarm bell, the ringing of an alarm bell" (late 14c.), from O.Prov. tocasenh, from tocar "to strike" (from V.L. *toccare "strike a bell;") + senh "bell, bell note," from L.L. signum "bell, ringing of a bell," in Latin "mark, signal." The current English spelling is from 1794, adopted from modern French

Related:
Synonyms: alarm, alert, bell, horn, sign, signal, siren, warning
Related Words: touch; sign, signal

Sentence Examples:
• Similes are very well in their way. None can be sufficient in this case without levelling a finger at the taxpayer--nay, directly mentioning him. He is the key of our ingenuity. He pays his dues; he will not pay the additional penny or two wanted of him, that we may be a step or two ahead of the day we live in, unless he is frightened. But scarcely anything less than the wild alarum of a tocsin will frighten him.  -Beauchamp's Career, George Meredith

• The tocsin of insurrection tolls its dismal knell in the towers of Paris. Through scenes surpassing fable, the king and his family escape to the hospitable shores of England. Here, in obscurity and exile, he reaches the end of life's journey, and passes away to the unknown of the spirit-land.  -Louis Philippe, John S.C. Abbott

• Ring the tocsin--call all the citizens
  To save their country--never yet has Paris
  Forsook the representatives of France.
-Literary Remains, Coleridge

Sources: Merriam-Webster, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

bibacious

bi•ba•cious (by-BAY-shuhs)  adj

Definition:
overly fond or addicted to drinking; disposed to imbibe

Origin:
from Latin bibere "to drink"

Related:
Synonyms: bibulous, drunken, alcoholic, boozy
Related Words: bib, bibulous, imbrue, beverage, imbibe, beer

Sentence Examples:
• "It's moonlight, I reckon," said Mike, who was just meditating over his last draught, and his consequent departure from this bibacious paradise.  - Traditions of Lancashire, John Roby

• But I had the impression that the author of the Spectator was afflicted with a dropsy, or some such inflated malady, to which persons of sedentary and bibacious habits are liable. -The Poet at the Breakfast Table, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

• Now the original proposition, commencing with the word “take,” was meant by its propounder to achieve its climax in “a seat on one of the hall chairs;” but the liquid inferences of A1, with a dark lantern, had the desired effect, and induced a command from Mr. Adolphus Casay to the small essential essence of condensed valetanism in the person of Jim Pipkin, to produce the case-bottles for the discussion of the said A1, with the dark lantern, who gained considerably in the good opinion of Mr. James Pipkin, by requesting the favour of his company in the bibacious avocation he so much delighted in.- Punch, or The London Charivari

Sources: Wordsmith, Wordnik, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

caliginous

ca•lig•i•nous (kuh-LIJ-uh-nuhs)  adj

Definition:
misty; dim; dark; devoid of or deficient in light or brightness; shadowed or black
Origin:
1548; rom L. caliginosus "misty," from caliginem (nom. caligo) "mistiness, darkness, fog, gloom"

Related:
Synonyms: tenebrous, fuliginous, dark, dim, gloomy, misty, murky, nebulous, opaque, dusky, obscured, stygian


Sentence Examples:
• Alice looked into the Texan's face with a peculiar little puckering of the brows, and laughed: "See here, Mr. Tex," she said, "of course, I know that java must be coffee, but if you will kindly render the rest of your remarks a little less caliginous by calling the grub by its Christian name, maybe I'll get along better with the breakfast." - The Texan, James B. Hendryx

• A strange child,--fearless, and yet seemingly fond of things that inspire children with fear; fond of tales of fay, sprite, and ghost, which Mrs. Primmins draws fresh and new from her memory as a conjurer draws pancakes hot and hot from a hat.  And yet so sure is Blanche of her own innocence that they never trouble her dreams in her lone little room, full of caliginous corners and nooks, with the winds moaning round the desolate ruins, and the casements rattling hoarse in the dungeon-like wall. -The Caxtons, Edward Bulwer-Lytton

• "I am just admiring your gorgeousness!" said Telly in a musical tone of voice. "Are you the next TV heart-throb? The next Susan Lucci? Are you going to take the couch potatoes of the world by storm and make all of them yearn to be you? You could, you know. You surely are already the envy of everyone who has ever laid eyes upon you!"
The Witch looked at her prisoner. "What is this machine up to, boy? And you'd best not lie to me again!"
"Oh, no!" replied Graham. "I have learned my lesson, to be sure. I wouldn't think of telling another lie."
"Then what is this clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous junk babbling about?" she sneered.
-Abducted to Oz. Bob Evans and Chris Dulabone

Sources: Free Dictionary, Dictionary.com, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

acclivity

ac•cliv•i•ty (uh-KLIV-i-tee)  n

Definition:
an upward slope, as of a hill; an ascent

acclivities plural; acclivitous, acclivous adjective

Origin:
1614; from L. acclivitatem (nom. acclivitas) "an ascending direction, an upward steepness," from acclivis "mounting upwards, ascending," from ad- "up" + clivus "hill, a slope," from PIE *klei-wo-, suffixed form of *klei- "to lean"

Related:
Synonyms: incline, hill, rise, ascent, grade, gradient, incline, rise
Antonyms: declivity
Related Words: proclivity

Sentence Examples:
• After ascending, by a gentle acclivity, into a picturesque and romantic pass, we entered a spacious valley, and, in the course of little more than half an hour, reached this town; the largest, the most populous, and the most superb that I have yet seen. -The Ayrshire Legatees, John Galt

• And none the less I wished it, for now first noticing what seemed some sort of glen, or grotto, in the mountain side; at least, whatever it was, viewed through the rainbow's medium, it glowed like the Potosi mine. But a work-a-day neighbor said, no doubt it was but some old barn--an abandoned one, its broadside beaten in, the acclivity its background. But I, though I had never been there, I knew better. -The Piazza, Herman Melville

• On the northern shore of Sicily are still to be seen the magnificent remains of a castle, which formerly belonged to the noble house of Mazzini. It stands in the centre of a small bay, and upon a gentle acclivity, which, on one side, slopes towards the sea, and on the other rises into an eminence crowned by dark woods. -A Sicilian Romance, Ann Radcliffe

The Storyline
She saw the way up from here. The acclivity wasn't steep, but it was long.

Sources: Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

lambent

lam•bent (LAM-buhnt)  adj

Definition:
1. brushing or flickering gently over a surface
2. glowing or luminous, but lacking heat
3. exhibiting lightness or brilliance of wit; clever or witty without unkindness

lambency noun; lambently adverb

Origin:
1647; from figurative use of L. lambentem (nom. lambens), prp. of lambere "to lick," from PIE base *lab-

Related:
Synonyms: beaming, brilliant, candescent, effulgent, fulgent, glowing, incandescent, bright, lucent, luminous, lustrous, radiant, refulgent, bright
Related Words: lamprey

Sentence Examples:
• His wit is bright, his humour attractive, but both bear the same relation to his serious genius that the mere lambent sheet-lightning playing under the edge of the summer-cloud does to the electric death-spark hid in its womb. -Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

• As she spoke, the beautiful apparition held up her delicate hand. From the tip of each of her long taper fingers issued a lambent flame of such surpassing brilliancy as would have plunged a whole gas company into despair--it was a 'Hand of Glory,' -Grey Dolphin, Richard Harris Barham

• The rolling of heaven’s artillery seemed to afford inexpressible satisfaction to his little heart, but it was the lightning that affected him most. It filled him with a species of awful joy. No matter how it came—whether in the forked flashes of the storm, or the lambent gleamings of the summer sky—he would sit and gaze at it in solemn wonder.  -The Battery and the Boiler, R.M. Ballantyne

The Storyline
The room was dead. All three were paralyzed and not sure they had understood what had just happened in the past few minutes. Perhaps it was the long needed release, perhaps it was a cognitive break but softly a lambent change began to flicker in her eyes.

Sources: Wiktionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

soporific

sop•o•rif•ic (sop-uh-RIF-ik)

Definition: 
adj
1. causing or tending to cause sleep
2. pertaining to or characterized by sleep or sleepiness; sleepy; drowsy

noun
something that causes sleep, as a medicine or drug

soporifically adverb
Origin:
1665 adj, 1727 noun; from Fr. soporifique, formed in French from L. sopor (gen. soporis) "deep sleep," from a causative form of the PIE base *swep- "to sleep"

Related:
Synonyms: anesthetic, quietening, sedative, slumberous, somniferous, somnolent, soothing, tranquilizing, hypnotic, soporiferous

Sentence Examples:
• Time, which beautifies unlovely things, begins to cast its glamour over the old Italian régimes. It is forgotten how low the Italian race had fallen under puny autocrats whose influence was soporific when not vicious. -Cavour, Countess Evelyn Martinengo-Cesaresco

• But the Magnolia was fragrant, like its namesake, with mint and herbal odors, cool with sprinkled floors, and sparkling with broken ice on its counters, like dewdrops on white, unfolded petals—and slightly soporific with the subdued murmur of droning loungers, who were heavy with its sweets.  -Colonel Starbottle's Client, Bret Harte

• An author must ever wish to discover a hapless member of the Public who, never yet having read a word of his writing, would submit to the ordeal if reading him right through from beginning to end. Probably the effect could only be judged through an autopsy, but in the remote case of survival, it would interest one so profoundly to see the differences, if any, produced in that reader's character or outlook over life. This, however, is a consummation which will remain devoutly to be wished, for there is a limit to human complaisance. One will never know the exact measure of one's infecting power; or whether, indeed, one is not just a long soporific.  -Villa Rubein, John Galsworthy

The Storyline
The effect on Anna of emptying this long contained rage was soporific and upon completion she slumped into her chair before a stunned father and mortified mother-in-law.

Sources: Dictionary.com, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day