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
Word of The Day for Wednesday, February 9, 2011
facinorous
Word of The Day for Sunday, January 16, 2011
maritorious
ma•ri•tor•i•ous (ma-ri-TOR-ee-uhs) adj
Definition:
excessively fond of one's husband
Origin:
from Latin maritus "married man, husband"
Related:
uxorious: excessively fond of one's wife
Synonyms: none
Related Words: marry, marital
Sentence Examples:
• There once was a man most uxorious,
Who was married to a dame quite maritorious,
This suited them fine as they wined and they dined,
And produced five offspring all rubicund! -2009
• And wherefore doe you this? To please your husband?
Tis grosse and fulsome: if your husbands pleasure
Be all your object, and you ayme at honour
In living close to him, get you from Court,
You may have him at home; these common put-ofs
For common women serve: "my honour! husband!"
Dames maritorious ne're were meritorious:
Speak plaine, and say "I doe not like you, sir,
Y'are an ill-favour'd fellow in my eye,"
And I am answer'd.
-Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois, George Chapman
The Storyline
Seeing the look in Anna's eyes and then turning around, Anna's father announced, "I'm married again. This is Sara, " thus explaining the maritorious affectation of the woman in Anna's office. At this, Sara thrust out her hand toward Anna - silently and awkwardly.
Why This Word:
This is the partner to uxorious, of a man who is fond of his wife to the point of doting excess. It is much less well known, to the extent that I have had no success in finding a modern example of its use outside the books on words that cite it.
A Google search turned up what looked at first sight like a number of examples, such as the surprising statement from a school that “Medals and prizes are given to maritorious students”. It took a moment to realise that should have been meritorious. As it happens, that’s oddly relevant, since the only example of the word on record is in Bussy D’Ambois, a tragedy by George Chapman of 1607, in which he coins the word to make a bad pun: “Dames maritorious ne’re were meritorious”.
The word to describe a husband who is excessively fond of a wife is uxorious. The word maritorious is rare, while uxorious is fairly well known. What does that say about the relative fondness of husbands and wives to each other?
Sources: WordSmith, World Wide Words
Word-E: A Word-A-Day
Word of The Day for Tuesday, January 11, 2011
quean
quean (kween) n
Definition:
1. an overly forward, impudent woman; shrew; hussy.
2. a prostitute.
3. Scots. a girl or young woman, esp. a robust one.
Origin:
before 1000; ME quene, OE cwene; c. MD quene, kone, OS, OHG quena, Goth qino < Gmc *kweno-n-; akin to OE cwe-n woman, queen
Related:
Synonyms: bimbo, floozy, harlot, hussy, jezebel, slattern, tramp, wench
Sentence Examples:
• Well at length he was admitted, and made a member of the family, in which he demeaned himself so well by his willingness to run or go or do any service how mean so ever that he had got the good will of all the whole houshold, only the kitchin maid being a curst quean, and knowing him to be an under servant to her, domineered over him and used him very coursely and roughly, of which he would never complain, though he had cause enough. -The History of Sir Richard Whittington, T. H.
• ExAs fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney, as your
French crown for your taffety punk, as Tib's rush for Tom's
forefinger, as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday, a morris for Mayday,
as the nail to his hole, the cuckold to his horn, as a scolding
quean to a wrangling knave, as the nun's lip to the friar's
mouth; nay, as the pudding to his skin.
-All's Well That Ends Well, William Shakespeare
•UNLUCKILY, a neighbour's prying eyes
Beheld their playful pranks with great surprise,
She, from her window, could the scene o'erlook;
When this the fond gallant observ'd, he shook;
Said he, by heav'ns! our frolicking is seen,
By that old haggard, envious, prying quean;
But do not heed it; instantly he chose
To run and wake his wife, who quickly rose;—
So much the dame he fondl'd and caress'd,
The garden walk she took at his request,
To have a nosegay, where he play'd anew
Pranks just the same as those of recent view,
Which highly gratified our lady fair,
Who felt dispos'd, and would at eve repair,
To her good neighbour, whom she bursting found,
With what she'd seen that morn upon the ground.
-Quotes and Images From The Tales and Novels of Jean de La Fontaine
The Storyline
She hadn't seen him since he ran off with the woman who facetiously became referred to as the quean.
Sources: Dictionary.com
Word-E: A Word-A-Day
Word of The Day for Saturday, October 23, 2010
zoopery
zo•op•er•y (zoh-op'-er-ee) n
Definition:
1. the performing of experiments on animals, especially the lower animals
zooperal adjective; zooperist adverb
Related:
Synonyms: vivisection
Related Words:
zooerastia, n. - sexual intercourse with an animal
zoogamy, n. - sexual reproduction of animals
zoogenous, adj. - originating in animals
zoography, n. - description of animals
zooid, n. - organism resembling animal, especially asexually produced; sperm cell. zooidal, adj
zoolite, zoolith, n. - fossil animal
zoology, n. - study of animals. zoologist, n. zoological, adj
zoomancy, n. - divination by observation of animals. zoomantic, adj
zoometry, n. - measurement of animals
zoomimetic, adj. - imitating an animal or part of an animal
zoomorph, n. - object in form of animal. zoomorphic, adj
zoomorphism, zoomorphy n. - representing animals in decoractive arts; representation of God as lower animal
zoonic, adj. - pertaining to or derived from animals
zoonosis, n. - disease that can be communicated among animals or from animal to human. zoonotic, adj.
zooparasite, n. - a parasite of animals
zoopathology, n. - animal pathology
zoophaga, n. - an artificial group comprising various carnivorous and insectivorous animals
zoophagy, n. - feeding on animals. zoophagous, adj. zoophagan, n
zoophile, n. - lover of animals; plant pollinated by animals. zoophilia, zoophilist, n. zoophilous, zoophilic, adj
zoophobia, n. - dread of animals
zoophorus, zophorus, n. - sculptured relief frieze with a continuous pattern of humans or animals
zoophyte, n. - plant-like animal, as coral, sea anemone, etc. zoophytal, zoophytic, adj
zoophytology, n. - study of plant-like animals
zoopsia, n. - hallucination of animals
zooscopy, n. - hallucination of seeing animals. zooscopic, adj
zootechny, zootechnics, n. - breeding and taming of animals. zootechnic, adj
zootheism, n. - attributing divine attributes to animals
zootomy, n. - study of animal anatomy. zootomic(al), adj. zootomist, n
zootrophy, n. - feeding of animals. zootrophic, adj
zootypic, adj. - of the animal type
Example:
• ...scheduled as he was, before a week was out, to undergo a required bit of zoopery with a psychiatrist. "It would of course be taken as healthier — more normal — for you to hate her," the psychiatrist muttered, sitting back and meditatively circling his foot. It was absurd: hate Isabel?
The Storyline
So perhaps as a defense mechanism, Anna watched the scene unfolding before her with a sense of detachment, like a zooperist observing rats in an artificial environment, drugged, dazed and navigating the experimenter's obstacles.
Origin:
from Greek zoion, "animal" + peiran, "to experiment"
Sources: Free Dictionary, Luciferous Logolepsy, Webster's Unabridged (print)
Why This Word:
The one sentence fragment posted above is the only use of zoopery in a sentence, on the whole internet. (Feel free to prove me wrong.) So I have the opportunity to post the only complete sentence example freely available using zoopery (or derived form). So there's that.
The Greek root zoion, is a veritable argosy of derived words. (Zoo is two syllables, excepting in The Zoo.) So there's that too.
But what really drew me to the word was how rare the word is but how common the practice. Even though zoopery is an essential component of medical component of medical, food and cosmetic research, the practice is as invisible to most of us as the word.
Word-E: A Word-A-Day
Word of The Day for Tuesday, October 19, 2010
obdormition
ob•dor•mi•tion (ob-dohr-mish-uhn) / ŏb'dôr-mĭsh'ən/ n
Definition
1. numbness in a limb, often caused by constant pressure on nerves or lack of movement
2. (obsolete) going to sleep; the state or condition of being asleep
Related
Related Words: dormant, dormitory, dormer, dormouse
paresthesia
a sensation of tingling, pricking, or numbness of a person's skin with no apparent long-term physical effect
1857, from para- (here “disordered”) + Gk. aisthesis “perception”, from PIE base *au- "to perceive"Related: anesthesia, audience
Examples
• The bark decoction is taken once a day for seven days to fight a weariness from demanding job, ease body pain and legs obdormition after carrying heavy weights.
• Perhaps it is just obdormition of the brain, but you call me a far right blowhard and cannot see yourself in the same light.
The Storyline
A very fuzzy-headed Tyler awoke but could only manage cognizance of the obdormition of his right arm, followed hard on by the soft torture of paresthesia.
Origin
from Latin obdormire "to fall asleep," from L. dormire "to sleep," from PIE base *drem- "to sleep"
Sources: Wikipedia, Wordnik
Why This Word:
As recently the 1913 Webster's Dictionary, sleep is the only sense given.The 1914 Century Dictionary does list the sense of numbness and the sense of sleep as "rare." So the original Latin meaning of to fall asleep gave way to just sleep and even that fell into disuse with the word surviving only as a medical term, for a condition medicine is not particularly concerned about. Excluding references to the meaning of the word itself and uses in the now obsolete sense of sleep, I found almost no uses on the net, and none in Google Books, of obdormition with the contemporary meaning. But just as with pandiculation, it's a common experience and it's nice to know the word for it.
Word-E: A Word-A-Day
Word of The Day for Tuesday, October 5, 2010
macarism
mac•a•rism (mak-uh-riz-uhm) n
Definition
1. pleasure in or praise of another's joy; a beatitude
2. the practice of making others happy through praise and felicitation
macarize verb
Related
Synonyms: none found
Examples
• If we consider such typical examples of macarism as the Beatitudes, or again such proverbial expressions as "Happy is the bride that the sun shines on; happy are the dead that the rain rains on", we can surely see that these sentences are not used to convey propositions. 1980
• This passage concerning David's macarism, therefore, is parenthetical as related to the main line of thought. 1889
The Storyline
She wasn't afforded the luxury, however, of experiencing macarism for their high spirits.
Origin
from the Greek makarismos, beatification; attribution of good fortune
Sources: Dictionary of Difficult Words, Free Dictionary, My Etymology
Why This Word:
When one sees the word schadenfreude, pleasure in another's sorrow or pain, it is almost always accompanied by a definition. It is both foreign and seldom used. Yet it's antonym is, sadly, more obscure. A GoogleFight between the words gives schadenfreude the win by a margin of 1,590,000 to 170.
Today, macarism is almost entirely a religious term, essentially in use synonymous with beatitude. And yet don't we need a word for taking pleasure in another's joy? Don't you want to be able congratualate yourself silently on the macarism you feel from another's good fortune?
Word-E: A Word-A-Day
Word of The Day for Saturday, September 18, 2010
oniochalasia
ō-nē-ō-kə-lā'zē-ə n
Definition
Usage example
Bellboy: Sir, that woman is pulling at her hair, is bright red and screaming at other guests. Should I have her removed?
Concierge: No, that is our favourite customer at the gift shop. She practices oniochalasia. Watch what happens now.
Bellboy: Well she is attacking the shop keeper and tearing up the postcards of our hotel.
Concierge: No problem, give her a minute.
Bellboy: She seems to have stopped.
Concierge: Yes and now she is about to purchase 12 our most expensive glass statues of the Burj al Arab.
Bellboy: Incredible.
Concierge: Never underestimate the value of oniochalasia on one’s pocket.Feb 18, 2010 - HotelierMiddleEast.com