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Word of the dayPrevious WeekMonday, May 27, 2019
decoration
noun [dek-uh-rey-shuhn]a badge, medal, etc., conferred and worn as a mark of honor: a decoration for bravery.See Full DefinitionGet to know dictionary.com
What is the origin of decoration?
English decoration is a straightforward borrowing from Late Latin decorātiō (inflectional stem decorātiōn-) “adornment, ornament,” a derivative of the verb decorāre. Decorāre in turn derives from decor- (inflectional stem of decus) “an ornament, splendor, honor.” Decus is related to the verbs decēre “to be acceptable, be fitting” and docēre “to teach,” i.e., “to make fitting.” Decoration entered English in the 16th century.Previous DayHow is decoration used?
He was later awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration .... Harrison Smith, "Howard Lee, Medal of Honor recipient who led a long-odds defense, dies at 85," Washington Post, March 31, 2019
In short order, White won a Rhodes scholarship, became the best-paid player of his era in the National Football League and its rushing champion and earned decorations for his wartime Navy service. Laura Kalman, "John Kennedy's Nonconformist," New York Times, August 23, 1998
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Word of the daySunday, May 26, 2019
seriatim
adverb, adjective [seer-ee-ey-tim, ser-]in a series; one after another.See Full DefinitionWhat is the origin of seriatim?
The English adverb seriatim “one after another, in a series,” comes directly from the Medieval Latin adverb seriātim, which has the same meaning. Seriātim is composed of the Latin noun seriēs “line, series” and the adverb suffix -ātim, extracted from Latin adverbs like gradātim “by steps, ascending or descending gradually,” and certātim “in rivalry, emulously.” The suffix is a useful one, forming adverbs like literātim “literally, letter for letter, literatim,” and verbātim “literally, word for word, verbatim.” Seriatim entered English in the late 15th century.Previous DayHow is seriatim used?
I’ve been reading all the “Doonesbury” strips from the fall of 1976 through January of 1980, seriatim. Rick Perlstein, "Rick Perlstein: By the Book," New York Times, August 28, 2014
This is no place to list his achievements, nor need his failures be set down seriatim. "President Taft," The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 109, 1912
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Word of the daySaturday, May 25, 2019
hermitage
noun [hur-mi-tij]any secluded place of residence or habitation; retreat; hideaway.See Full DefinitionWhat is the origin of hermitage?
The history of the English noun hermitage is complicated by the unetymological h-. Middle English and Old French have both hermitage and ermitage (and many other spellings). Late Latin (in a 5th-century Christian author) has erēmīta (correctly) “eremite, hermit,” from Greek erēmī́tēs, a very rare noun and adjective meaning “of the desert,” and first occurring in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible dating from the 3rd century b.c.) in the Book of Job. The Greek noun (and therefore the Latin, too) is a derivative of erêmos (also érēmos), an adjective and noun meaning “solitary, desolate, lonely; a desert.” The spellings herēmīta and its derivative herēmītagium “hermitage” first appear in Medieval Latin. Hermitage entered English in the late 13th century.Previous DayHow is hermitage used?
... I had found out for myself a little hermitage. It was a kind of leafy cave, high upward into the air, among the midmost branches of a white-pine tree. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance, 1852
In the end, the legend holds, Lancelot goes to live in penitence in a hermitage, while the king, mortally wounded, is set adrift on a ship—to one day rise again. Kathryn Schulz, "Rapt," The New Yorker, March 2, 2015
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Word of the dayFriday, May 24, 2019
proselyte
noun [pros-uh-lahyt]a person who has changed from one opinion, religious belief, sect, or the like, to another; convert.See Full DefinitionWhat is the origin of proselyte?
The English noun proselyte comes via Old French and Late Latin prosēlytus “sojourner, foreigner, stranger, a convert from paganism to Judaism.” Prosēlytus first occurs in the Vulgate, the Latin version of the Bible, prepared chiefly by Saint Jerome at the end of the 4th century a.d. Prosēlytus comes from Greek prosḗlytos “one who has arrived, stranger, sojourner.” Prosḗlytos and its kindred terms occur in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible dating from the 3rd century b.c.) and the Greek New Testament. Prosḗlytos is equivalent to an unrecorded prosḗlythos, a derivative of the verb prosérchesthai “to come forward, go, approach.” Proselyte entered English in the 14th century.Previous DayHow is proselyte used?
... I began to believe that if he did not make a proselyte of me, I should certainly make one of him .... Charlotte Lennox, Henrietta, 1758
Still, proselytes often find that being Paleo quickly becomes a round-the-clock duty. Alex Williams, "The Paleo Lifestyle: The Way, Way, Way Back," New York Times, September 19, 2014
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Word of the dayThursday, May 23, 2019
overmorrow
noun [oh-ver-mawr-oh, ‐mor-oh]the day after tomorrow: I’ve heard that tomorrow and overmorrow may bring exceptionally high waves.See Full DefinitionWhat is the origin of overmorrow?
Overmorrow had a brief history, first recorded in the first half of the 16th century and lasting into the second half of that same century. The rare word occurred in the phrase “today, tomorrow, and overmorrow.”Previous DayHow is overmorrow used?
It comes round on the overmorrow— / Then why we wake we know aright. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), Faust, translated by Thomas E. Webb, 1880
"Do ye stop in tha cove over 'morrow, Ralph?" she asked, with a sanguine intonation. W. F. Alexander, "Down Zabuloe Way," The Gentleman's Magazine, August 1898
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Word of the dayWednesday, May 22, 2019
self-possessed
adjective [self-puh-zest, self-]having or showing control of one's feelings, behavior, etc.; composed; poised.See Full DefinitionWhat is the origin of self-possessed?
The adjective self-possessed, which entered English in the mid-18th century, is a derivative of the earlier noun self-possession, which appeared a hundred years earlier.Previous DayHow is self-possessed used?
There was an occasional copied page of her diary in which she appeared contented, and self-possessed: autonomous in a way I could not imagine for myself. Alice Walker, Possessing the Secret of Joy, 1992
Unburdening himself his coat, he was not self-possessed enough to find in his pocket the scroll of resolutions which every one saw protruding from it ... Wendell Phillips, "Mobs and Education," Speeches, Lectures, and Letters, 1863
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Word of the dayTuesday, May 21, 2019
stellate
adjective [stel-it, -eyt]like the form of a conventionalized figure of a star; star-shaped.See Full DefinitionWhat is the origin of stellate?
Stellate comes straight from the Latin adjective stellātus, formed from the noun stella “star” and -ātus, a suffix that forms adjectives from nouns. The noun stella comes from an unrecorded stēr-lā or stēr-o-lā. Stēr- comes from a very widespread Proto-Indo-European root ster-, stēr- “star,” appearing in Sanskrit star-, Germanic (English) star. Greek preserves the most ancient form, astḗr, the a- being the remainder of a Proto-Indo-European laryngeal consonant. Stellate entered English at the end of the 15th century.Previous DayHow is stellate used?
The cut edges of the glasses were projecting stellate tessellations across the mahogany. Ethan Canin, A Doubter's Almanac, 2016
In their experiments, the researchers placed the amoeba in the center of a stellate chip, which is a round plate with 64 narrow channels projecting outwards, and then placed the chip on top of an agar plate. Lisa Zyga, "Amoeba finds approximate solutions to NP-hard problem in linear time," Phys.org, December 20, 2018
