Learning At Home Just Got Easier!
noun
a sphere of operation or influence; range; scope.
Ambit comes straight from the Latin noun ambitus, a noun of many meanings associated with or derived from circular motion, e.g., “circuit, revolution; a ring, periphery, or circuit; a strip of ground around a building“ but not the English sense “sphere of operation or influence; range; scope,” a sense that developed in English in the mid-17th century. In Cicero’s speeches, ambitus was the common crime of bribery, graft, or corruption in electioneering committed by a candidate or his associates. Ambitus is a derivative of the verb ambīre “to visit in rotation, solicit or canvass for votes,” a compound of the prefix ambi– “both, on both sides, around” and the verb īre “to go.” Ambit entered English in one of its original Latin senses “strip of ground around a house or other building” in the second half of the 15th century.
The EPA’s ambit is too narrow, and climate change too sprawling, for Inslee’s time and talents.
The Oversight and Reform Committee has a broad ambit that allows it to scrutinize seemingly everything done by the executive branch.
phrase
a word to the wise is sufficient; no more need be said.
Verbum sap is short for Latin Verbum sapientī sat(is) est “a word to the wise is sufficient.” Verbum comes from the Proto-Indo-European root wer– (with variants) “to speak,” the same source as English word, German Wort, Old Prussian wirds “word,” and Lithuanian vardas “name.” Sapientī is the dative singular of sapiēns “rational, sane, understanding,” the present participle of sapere “to taste, taste of, have good taste; to be intelligent, know, understand.” Sapere is the source of the Romance verbs savoir (French), saber (Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan), and Italian sapere, all meaning “to know.” The participle sapiēns is also the specific epithet for the genus Homo “human being.” Sat or satis “enough, sufficient” is by origin an indeclinable noun, i.e., the noun has no inflections. Satis comes from the Proto-Indo-European root sā-, sə– “to satisfy, fill,” and its derivative noun sātis “satiety, fullness” (also the source of Old Irish sāith “satiety”). The variant sə– is the source of Gothic saths “full,” German satt, Old English sæd “grave, heavy, full,” originally “sated, full” (English sad), and Greek hádēn “enough” (in Greek, original initial s before a vowel becomes h). Est is related to Old English and English is, German and Gothic ist, Greek estí, Sanskrit ásti, Old Irish is, Old Lithuanian esti, Old Church Slavonic jestĭ, and Hittite eszi, all meaning “is,” from Proto-Indo-European esti. Verbum sapienti entered English in the second half of the 16th century, verbum sap in the first half of the 19th century.
Never yet, my dear girl, did I long to administer a productive pecuniary Squeeze to any human creature as I long to administer it to Mr. Novel Vanstone. I say no more. Verbum sap.
P.S. I have mentioned to your mother that I am thinking of buying you a small car. Verbum sap.
Scot.
a tantrum.
Tirrivee “a tantrum, a display of bad temper” is another perplexing Scots word with no secure etymology. It may be a variant or corruption of the verb tailyevey “to move from side to side, rock” another Scots word of no known etymology. Sir Walter Scott used tirrivee in his Waverley novels, enough to ensure the word’s survival. Tirrivee entered English in the early 19th century.
Say that you forgive me, that you love me not a whit the less for my yesterday’s tirrivee …
What a tirrivee Dominie was in!
adjective
very old, old-fashioned, or out of date; antiquated.
Antediluvian “occurring before the biblical Flood (in Genesis); very old, old-fashioned, or out of date,” comes from the Latin preposition and prefix ante, ante– “before” (naturalized in English) and the noun dīluvium “flood, deluge, inundation,” a derivative of the verb dīluere “to dissolve and wash away” (dīlūtus, the past participle of dīluere, is the source of English dilute). The original meaning of antediluvian was to biblical events or people before the Flood, such as the patriarchs between Adam and Noah; the exaggerated sense “very old, old-fashioned, out of date” developed in the first half of the 18th century. Antediluvian entered English in the first half of the 17th century.
How can it be that in a country that landed men on the moon, antediluvian locomotives are pushing and pulling dirty, smelly, 50-year-old cars perforated by rust, past crumbling stations, over track that looks like spilled overcooked spaghetti?
So my on-the-job training in science writing started in the antediluvian age when magazines and newspapers held a near-monopolistic control over science writing.
the practice of obsessively checking online news for updates, especially on social media feeds, with the expectation that the news will be bad, such that the feeling of dread from this negative expectation fuels a compulsion to continue looking for updates in a self-perpetuating cycle.
Doomscrolling, one our top word trends in 2020, sounds something like the Doomsday Machine in Stanley Kubrick’s movie Dr. Strangelove (1964). (The phrases doomsday machine and doomsday bomb actually date to 1960.) Doomscrolling and its verb doomscroll are very recent neologisms, modeled on doomsday, the day of the Last Judgment, a belief common to Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism. Scroll and scrolling are used in their computer sense “moving text up, down, or across a display screen.”
Doomscrolling will never actually stop the doom itself. Feeling informed can be a salve, but being overwhelmed by tragedy serves no purpose.
Another trick is to wear a rubber band around your hand while you are reading the news, and when you believe you are succumbing to doomscrolling, snap the rubber band against your wrist …
the state of being dull; lethargy.
Hebetude comes straight from the Late Latin noun hebetūdō, a derivative of the adjective hebes (inflectional stem hebet-) “blunt, dull (physical or mental), obtuse (angle or person).” Hebetūdō first appears in the Commentary on the “Dream of Scipio” (ca. a.d. 430) by the pagan author Macrobius. Macrobius’ Commentary was so popular and influential in late antiquity and the Middle Ages and so important and invaluable a source for Neoplatonic philosophy that its numerous manuscripts cannot be sorted into families. Hebes has no known etymology; scholars cannot even blame hebes on the Etruscans (their usual go-to for strange Latin words). Hebetude entered English in the first half of the 17th century.
Why did I take up Latin at this late age? I did so not only to fight off hebetude but also to avoid becoming my mother.
Urban hebetude, he discovers, can be cured at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.
the doing of good; active goodness or kindness; charity.
Beneficence “active goodness or kindness; charity,” comes via French bénéficence from Latin beneficentia “kindness, kind treatment of others,” a derivative of the adjective beneficus “generous, liberal, kind.” Beneficus is a compound composed of the adverb and prefix bene, bene– “well,” a derivative of the adjective bonus “good” (and completely naturalized in English), and the combining form –ficus (English –fic) “making, producing” (as in honorific, pacific) a derivative of the all-purpose, overworked verb facere “to do, make, construct.” Beneficence entered English in the early 15th century.
My general misery was alleviated by what felt like a measure of Victorian beneficence: I had the run of the house’s library.
Better still would be the inculcation into all our moral considerations of beneficence as an internal good rather than an ethical calculation. Be good for goodness’ sake.