habiliment

ha•bil•i•ment (huh-BIL-uh-muhnt)  n
often plural

Definition:
1. clothing, especially the special dress or garb associated with an occasion or office
2. characteristic furnishings or equipment; trappings (habiliments)

habilimental, habilimentary, habilimented adjective
Origin:
early 15c.; from M.Fr. habillement, from abiller "prepare or fit out," probably from habile "fit, suitable"; alternative etymology makes the French verb originally mean "reduce a tree by stripping off the branches," from a- "to" + bille "stick of wood"; sense of "clothing, dress" developed late 15c., by association with habit

Related:
Synonyms: clothing, apparel, attire, clothes, dress, garb, gown, trappings
Related Words: able, habit

Sentence Examples:
• A lackey, whose habiliment, neat but not gaudy, indicated the unostentatious disposition of his master,, answered the summons of the knocker: "Mr. C. was gone to his office at the Royal Exchange." - Real Life in London
 
• The bedroom was shockingly cold. Going to bed is a test of character. I pride myself on the fact that generally, even when my room is cold, I can, with steady nerve and resolute hand, remove the last habiliment, and without undignified precipitation reach for and indue the nocturnal garment, I admit, however, that on this occasion I gave way to a weak irresolution at the critical instant and shivered for some moments in constantly increasing demoralization, before I could make up my mind to the final change. - The Cold Snap, Edward Bellamy

• Shaw passed on to the camp, while I remained to call upon Colonel Kearny. I found him still at table. There sat our friend the captain, in the same remarkable habiliments in which we saw him at Westport; the black pipe, however, being for the present laid aside. - The Oregon Trail, Francis Parkman, Jr.

Sources: Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

haruspicy

har•us•pi•cy (hur-RUS-puh-see; huh-)  n

Definition:
a form of divination by natural phenomena, especially from inspection of the entrails of animal sacrifices, especially the livers of sacrificed sheep and poultry



haruspex noun; haruspical adjective


Origin:
from Latin haruspicium, from haruspex, from hira "entrails" from PIE *ghere- "gut, entrail" + specere "to look at" from L. spic- "beholding, inspecting"

Related:
Synonyms: extispicy, haruspication, aruspicy, hieromancy, hieroscopy, hepatoscopy,  hepatomancy
Related Words: hernia, yarn

Sentence Examples:
• Astrology did away with, and gradually relegated to oblivion, all the ancient methods that had been devised to solve the enigmas of the future. Haruspicy and the augural art were abandoned, and not even the ancient fame of the oracles could save them from falling into irretrievable desuetude.  - The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, Franz Cumont

• Really, magic was repellent to the honesty of his mind, as well as to his nerves, by reason of the suspicious and brutal part of its operations. As a rule, it was involved with haruspicy, and had a side of sacred anatomy and the kitchen which revolted the sensitive--dissection of flesh, inspection of entrails, not to mention the slaughtering and strangling of victims. - Saint Augustin, Louis Bertrand

• Haruspicy goes back far beyond Biblical times. In Ezekiel 21:21 it says: “For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to us divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver." - The fortune-telling book, Raymond Buckland

Wikipedia:

In Roman and Etruscan religious practice, a haruspex (plural haruspices; Latin auspex, plural auspices) was a man trained to practice a form of divination called haruspicy, hepatoscopy or hepatomancy. Haruspicy is the inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals, especially the livers of sacrificed sheep and poultry. The rites were paralleled by other rites of divination such as the interpretation of lightning strikes, of the flight of birds (augury), and of other natural omens. Practitioners during the period of Roman dominance gradually adopted the title auspex from the older word haruspex, or from the Latin avis (bird) and specere or spectare (to look/see).

Being a specific form of the general practice of extispicy, haruspicy is not original to Etruscans nor Romans. Rather, it is now considered to have originated from the Near East where one would once find Hittites and Babylonians performing similar rites with entrails and producing comparable stylized models of the sheep's liver.

Sources: Free Dictionary, WordSmith

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

hale

(heyl)  adj

Definition:
free from disease or infirmity; robust; vigorous

haleness noun

Origin:
before 1000; O.E. hal "healthy, entire, uninjured". The Scottish and northern English form of whole; it was given a literary sense of "free from infirmity" (1734).

Related:
Synonyms: fit, healthy, hearty, robust, strapping, strong, vigorous, well
Related Words: whole, health

Sentence Examples:
• Joseph was an elderly, nay, an old man: very old, perhaps, though hale and sinewy. - Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

• “After all, there is a countryman of ours on board,” I said, pointing to a pair of broad shoulders, disappearing under the companion-hatch. I caught sight of him just now; a fine, hale man, rather advanced in years, with a fair complexion, ruddy, and a profusion of grey hair. He wears a suit of drab; very plain, but well turned out. - Rambles in the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia, Thomas Forester

• Or, nearer home, our steps he led
  Where Salisbury’s level marshes spread
  Mile-wide as flies the laden bee;
  Where merry mowers, hale and strong,
  Swept, scythe on scythe, their swaths along
  The low green prairies of the sea.
-Snow-Bound, John Greenleaf Whittier

Hale

(heyl) v

Definition:
1. to compel to go
2. to pull, draw, drag, or hoist (archaic)

haled past participle; halded past tense; haling present participle; hales 3rd person singular present


Origin:
c.1200,  in M.E. used of arrows, bowstrings, reins, anchors, from O.Fr. haler "to pull, haul" (12c.), from a Germanic source, perhaps Frankish *halon or O.Du. halen; probably also from O.E. geholian "obtain". Figurative sense of "to draw (someone) from one condition to another" is late 14c.

Related:
Synonyms: compel, coerce, oblige
Related Words: halyard, haul


Sentence Examples:
• It is not enough to catch a ghost white-handed and to hale him into the full glare of the electric light. A brutal misuse of the supernatural is perhaps the very lowest degradation of the art of fiction. - Short Story Writing, Charles Raymond Barrett

• Ah, but this was not a joke—this was going beyond fun.  The laughter ceased on the instant, and fury took its place.  A dozen shouted— "Hale him forth!  To the horse-pond, to the horse-pond!  Where be the dogs?  Ho, there, Lion! ho, Fangs!" - The Prince and Pauper, Mark Twain

•    Not long he stay'd within his quiet house,
     To rest his bones after his weary toil;
     But new exploits do hale him out again:
     And, mounted then upon a dragon's back,
     That with his wings did part the subtle air,
     He now is gone to prove cosmography,
     That measures coasts and kingdoms of the earth;
     And, as I guess, will first arrive at Rome,
     To see the Pope and manner of his court,
     And take some part of holy Peter's feast,
     The which this day is highly solemniz'd.
- Dr. Faustus, Christopher Marlowe

Sources: Dictionary.com, Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

heuristic

heu•ris•tic (hyoo-RIS-tik)

Definition:
adj
1. involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial-and-error methods
2. of or relating to exploratory problem-solving techniques that utilize self-educating techniques to improve performance
3. serving to indicate or point out; stimulating interest as a means of furthering investigation
n
4. the study or practice of heuristic procedure, argument, or method

heuristically adverb


Origin:
1821; German heuristisch, from New Latin heuristicus, irregular formation from Gk. heuretikos "inventive," related to heuriskein "to find"

Related:
Related Words: eureka

Sentence Examples:
• This does not mean that the method should be heuristic in Rousseau's sense, that the child should be told nothing, but be left to rediscover all knowledge for himself. But it does mean that in the imparting of the garnered experience of the race the child must be trained in the methods by which the race has slowly and gradually built up a knowledge of the means necessary for the realisation of the many and complex ends of civilised life. -The Children: Some Educational Problems, Alexander Darroch

• There is a common heuristic about the amount of food to order, expressed as "Get N - 1 entrees"; the value of N, which is the number of people in the group, can be inferred from context.- The Hackers' Dictionary

• There are no leading strings to interfere with the independence of one's progress. But this self-activity is increased, if the guide—to keep up the simile—lets go the hand of his companion, because the latter, with the goal in sight, is so sure of foot as to need no further assistance. In other words, the developmental method of teaching should be dropped to let the pupil find knowledge by himself; or, in technical terms, the genetic method should be exchanged for the heuristic. -The science of education in its sociological and historical aspects, Otto Willmann, Felix Marie Kirsch


Why This Word:

Heuristic methods are used to speed up the process of finding a good enough solution, where an exhaustive search is impractical. Examples of this method include using a "rule of thumb", an educated guess, an intuitive judgment, or common sense. In more precise terms, heuristics are strategies using readily accessible, though loosely applicable, information to control problem solving in human beings and machines.

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

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

hypnagogic

hyp•na•gog•ic (hip-nuh-GOJ-ik)  adj

Definition:
of, relating to, or occurring in the period of drowsiness immediately preceding or following sleep
Origin:
1886; from Fr. hypnagogique, from Gk. hypnos “sleep”, from PIE *swep-no, from base *swep- "sleep" + agogos “leading”

Related:
Synonyms: hypnotic, somniferous, somnolent, soporiferous, soporific, somnial
Related Words: pedagogue, demagogue, hypnosis

Sentence Examples:
• Wilson's dream world is informed by the perspective of the hypnagogic state: the sleep of reason may produce monsters, as Goya thought, but it can also call forth visions. -Time 1984

• We will first consider a condition of muscular activity which is peculiar to the hypnagogic state. It is well known that even on being suddenly awakened from a deep sleep, full consciousness is not immediately regained. Complete consciousness is reached only after passing through this intermediary hypnagogic state. -Abnormal psychology, Isador Henry Coriat

• "Often," she says, "when I am awake I pass into a state resembling sleep, in which I lose control of my imagination, but keep my powers of perception and reasoning. I dream before I go to sleep, and the way I have proved this is by opening my eyes, looking around the room, turning over in bed, closing my eyes again, and taking up the dream where I left off. Very often I am able to finish a dream in this way when I have been waked in the middle of it." Waking dreams of this sort, like hypnagogic images, indicate the unity which underlies all the distinctions of waking and dreaming life. -The American journal of psychology, 1896

Sources:Merriam-Webster, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

hagiarchy

hag•i•ar•chy (HAG-ee-ahr-kee, HEY-jee-)  n

Definition:
1.  government by saints, holy persons, or people in holy orders
2. a state so governed
3. (ecclesiastical term) an order of saints


Origin:
1820–30; from Gk hagi- from hagios "holy"   + -archy "rule," from L. -archia, from Gk. -arkhia, from arkhos "leader, chief, ruler," from arkhe "beginning, origin, first place"

Related:
Synonyms: hagiocracy
Related Words: hagiography

Sentence Examples:
• Nowhere was the crystallization of form and principle more pronounced than in religious life, which fastened upon the mother country a deadening weight that hampered all progress, and in the colonies, notably in the Philippines, virtually converted her government into a hagiarchy that had its face toward the past and either could not or would not move with the current of the times. -The Social Cancer, José  Rizal

• He became so renowned as a bringer of gifts that when the Reformation banished most of the saints he was allowed to stay behind, still working his annual miracle of generosity. The children kept him, in spite of the protests of reformers, as the darling of the old hagiarchy. In the United States he is the only saint, outside of the Roman communion, who survives at all. -The Nation, 1919

• Gerard did not know that he had rifled a shrine of the Panchpiryas. How should he? He did not know that such a sect existed. Had he heard of them he might perhaps have guessed from their name that they worshipped five saints, in which case he would not have taken one, leaving a diminished hagiarchy. -Living age, Eliakim Littell & Robert S. Littell

Sources: Free Dictionary

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

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

helotism

hel•o•tis•m (HEL-uh-tiz-uhm, HEE-luh-)  n

Definition:
1. a system under which a nominally free social class or a religious, national, or racial minority is permanently oppressed and degraded
2. a type of symbiosis, as among certain ants, in which one species is dominant and makes the members of another species perform the tasks required for their mutual survival
3. the condition or quality of being a Helot

Origin:
1815–25; Helot  + -ism; Helot from Gk. Heilotes, pl. of Heilos, popularly assoc. with Helos, Laconian town reduced to serfdom by Sparta, but perhaps related to Gk. halonai "be captured"


Sentence Examples:
• In describing her object, Miss Wright said: "No difference will be made in the schools between the white children and the children of color, whether in education or in any other advantage. This establishment is founded on the principle of community of property and labor: these fellow-creatures, that is, the blacks, admitted here, requiting these services by services equal or greater, by filling occupations which their habits render easy, and which to their guides and assistants might be difficult or unpleasing." This form of helotism flourished but three years on American soil. -Woman and the Republic, Helen Kendrick Johnson

• The tyrannical prohibition of emigration excited his vehement protest, and he proceeded also to denounce to the new king the right of seizing the property of deceased foreigners, and demanded for burghers the freedom of purchasing the estates of nobles. He urged Frederick William to abolish the prerogatives claimed by nobles and the helotism of all who were not noble, and suggested that judges should be appointed for life and justice rendered free of expense. -Memoirs, Comte de Mirabeau

• These spendthrifts mingled the roughest practical jokes with a life not so much reckless as suicidal; they drew back from no impossibility, and gloried in pranks which, nevertheless, were confined within certain limits; and as they showed the most original wit in their escapades, it was impossible not to pardon them. No sign of the times more plainly discovered the helotism to which the Restoration had condemned the young manhood of the epoch. -A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, Honore de Balzac

The Storyline
"You know the importance I've always placed on being free to be one's authentic self. It's how we raised you kids," he droned on for far too long without reaching the point. But it wasn't true. And the lie brought to mind her repressed resentment of the subtle helotism she lived under growing up.

Sources: Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

hesternal

he•ster•nal (he-STER-nuhl)  adj

Definition:
of or pertaining to yesterday


Origin:
from Latin hesternus "of yesterday"

Related:
Synonyms: yester
Related Words:
hodiernal (ho-di-ER-nuhl) of or pertaining to the present day
nudiustertian (nu-di-uhs-TUR-shuhn) of or relating to the day before yesterday
crastinal (tense) is a future tense for the following day

Sentence Examples:
• "There is ice at both poles, north and south—all extremes are the same—misery belongs to the highest and the lowest only,—to the emperor and Pg 24the beggar, when unsixpenced and unthroned. There is, to be sure, a damned insipid medium—an equinoctial line—no one knows where, except upon maps and measurement.
"'And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.'
I will keep no further journal of that same hesternal torch-light; and, to prevent me from returning, like a dog, to the vomit of memory, I tear out the remaining leaves of this volume, and write, in Ipecacuanha,—'that the Bourbons are restored!!!'—'Hang up philosophy.' To be sure, I have long despised myself and man, but I never spat in the face of my species before—'O fool! I shall go mad.'"
 -Life of Lord Byron, Thomas Moore

• I rose by candle-light, and consumed, in the intensest application, the hours which every other individual of our party wasted in enervating slumbers, from the hesternal dissipation or debauch. -Pelham, Edward Bulwer-Lytton

• Indoor smoking is detestable. Life has few direr disenchanters than the morning smells of obsolete tobacco, relics though they be of hesternal beatitude. -Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce, E. R. Billings

The Storyline
The unfinished hesternal papers and reports were right where she had left them No kind soul had completed the tasks in the interim and they didn't vanish on their own accord.

Sources: Wordsmith

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

henotheism

hen•o•the•ism (HEN-uh-thee-iz-uhm)  n

Definition:
the worshipping of a single god while not precluding the existence of others

henotheist noun; henotheistic adjective; henotheisticly adverb

Related:
Related Words: atheism, the lack of a belief in a god; monotheism, the belief in only one god; kathenotheism, the belief in one god at a time; transtheism, a religious philosophy which is neither theistic nor atheistic - and many others of this type

Sentence Examples:
• On the whole it seems wise to distinguish some things which are here confused, the henotheism (as it is called) of the earlier period of Jewish history which regarded Jehovah only as one among many Gods, the one who fought on the side of the Israelites, and who ought to be worshipped by them; and, contrasted with it, the later and truly monotheistic ideal of the prophets, which emphasised the solity of Jehovah. -Nature, Sir Norman Lockyer, 1906

• In conformity with the law governing the development of paganism, the Semitic gods tended to become pantheistic because they comprehended all nature and were identified with it. The various deities were nothing but different aspects under which the supreme and infinite being manifested itself. Although Syria remained deeply and even coarsely idolatrous in practice, in theory it approached monotheism or, better perhaps, henotheism. -The Oriental Religions in Roman paganism, Franz Valéry Marie Cumont, Grant Showerman, 1911

The Storyline
She had met Andy, now an expert on early Christian henotheistic sects, through her brother when both men were at seminary.

Origin:
Greek heno-,  comb. form of hén  one (neut. of heîs ) + theism 
The term was first coined by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775–1854) and was later brought into common usage by linguist Max Müller (1823–1900).

Sources: Wikipedia, Dictionary.com

Why This Word:
To understand the concept of henotheism, we need to contrast it both with monotheism and monolatrism - the recognition of the existence of many gods, but with the consistent worship of only one deity.  The monotheist worships one god and precludes the possibility of any other. The monolatrist allows that there may be many gods, but worships only one. And the henotheist worships the one, but neither allows nor precludes the existence of others.

To be sure, these are academic distinctions not likely to be discussed outside of seminaries. However, what's interesting to me is that this term coined to describe a stage of the early transition from polytheism to monotheism is becoming relevant again today. In an age of spiritual searching, I've heard people describe to me their pantheism, process theism, universalism, syncretism and an ecumenicism bordering on henotheism or monolatrism. People are trying to reconcile discrete and exclusive beliefs with knowledge of and respect for other beliefs in an increasingly interconnected world.

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

hypocorism

hy•poc•o•rism (hahy-pok-uh-riz-uhm)  n

Definition:
1. a pet name
2. the practice of using a pet name
3. the use of forms of speech imitative of baby talk, esp. by an adult

hypocoristic adjective & noun; hypocoristically adverb

Examples:
• Most first names of any currency had recognized hypocoristic forms. Some names attracted only one or two main forms; others had several; and there was scope for a fair degree of inventiveness.
• This hypocorism started about a century ago, as friendly British barmaids clipped the word's pronunciation slightly to use it as a term of endearment: "What'll yer 'ave, Luv?"

The Storyline
While Anna could not hear what Kurt said into Tyler's ear when he went to his aid, she amused herself by imagining some private hypocorism.

Origin:
1840–50: Late Latin hypocorisma, a loan from Ancient Greek noun hypokórisma from the verb  hypokorízomai, “to talk in a childish manner”. The Ancient Greek verb hypokorízomai is compounded from  hypo-, “under, beneath, secretly” +  korízomai, “to caress”.

Sources: Wiktionary, Dictionary.com, Wikipedia

Why This Word:
Don't you just wub cutsie wittle pet names? And don't try to act like you've never done it.
Hypocorism can take the form of a shorter form of a word or given name (Elizabeth -> Beth); a reduction of a longer word to a single syllable, then adding -y or -ie to the end (television -> telly); a baby-talk form (love -> wub); pet-names (pookey-bear); a given name with a diminutive suffix (John -> Johnny); and duplication (Ben -> Ben-Ben).
In the 19th Century, hypocorism "was once briefly a buzzword among linguists, who used it rather broadly to mean 'adult baby talk,' that is, the altered speech adults use when supposedly imitating babies." Today, in an age of ads, Twitter and texting, we are awash in foreshortened speech of a different sort. I suppose it's arguable whether the abbreviations and pronunciation spellings, like wassup and gonna, of the 140-character set constitute hypocorism. Certainly it's informal speech meant to cultivate the same sort of familiarity as hypocorisms.
And it shouldn't go unnoticed that the title of this blog is something of a hypocorism. In addition to be a play on wordy and e-word, it's a play on wordie, as in foodie, implying being into words.

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

hebetudinous

heb•e•tud•in•ous (heb-i-tood-n-uhs) / he-bə-ˌtüd-ə-nəs/   adj

Definition 
1. dull or lethargic, especially relating to the mind

hebetude noun

Related
Synonyms: lethargic, languorous, listless, debilitated, dilatory, dull, enervated, laggard, languid, languorous
Related Words: hebetate (to dull)

Examples
•“But somehow trouble always finds you,” Miss Devlin retorted, angry, but not sure why. “I've always suspected men like you wear guns in a futile effort to disguise your hebetudinous natures. The word "hebetudinous" rolled off Miss Devlin's tongue with the all the ostentation of the wise preaching to the foolish. It wouldn't be the first time she called a man stupid to his face with a word he couldn't understand. 
• The audience waits in a kind of hebetudinous fixation, perhaps astonished at the perfectly sustained level of mediocrity.
• Some of their proposals are sufficiently platitudinous — and hebetudinous — to convey antidote with their bane. Others, however, cannot thus be dismissed.

The Storyline
Just as suddenly as the hullabaloo arose, a now decidedly hebetudinous Kurt began mumbling Anna's name through the door.

Origin
1620s, from L. hebetudo, noun of quality from hebes “blunt, dull.”

Sources: Wordsmith, Online Etymology

Why This Word:
Hebetudinous isn't so rare that you can be certain that you'll never stumble upon it. And when you do, you wouldn't want to seem... hebetudinous. As one of the quotes aver, hebetudinous has a pretentious quality about it in use, which frankly is part of its appeal. But getting past that, it lies in the space mapped out by the intersection of dullness and lethargy and that starts to paint the picture. Who among has not encountered a hebetudinous youth whose mental dullness seems to stem more from a lack of motivation than ability? And now you can point that out to them without fear of them being able to take offense.

Word-E: A Word-A-Day