Word of the Day
appassionato
adjective
impassioned; with passion or strong feeling.
More about appassionato
Appassionato is based on the Italian verb appassionare, “to impassion, excite, thrill.” The ultimate source of appassionare is Latin patī, “to suffer,” which has two stems in English: pass-, as in passion, and pat-, as in patient. Appassionato was first recorded in English in the 1830s.
EXAMPLE OF APPASSIONATO USED IN A SENTENCE
The film’s score turned bombastic and appassionato as the two villains battled for victory.
ignimbrite
noun
a fine-grained volcanic rock consisting mainly of welded shards of feldspar and quartz.
More about ignimbrite
Ignimbrite is a compound of two Latin words: ignis, meaning “fire,” and imber, meaning “rain, shower.” Ignis is the source of igneous, ignition, and the Word of the Day ignescent, all of which involve fire and heat. Geologist Patrick Marshall coined ignimbrite in 1932.
EXAMPLE OF IGNIMBRITE USED IN A SENTENCE
The geologists chiseled out a block of ignimbrite to study an ancient volcanic eruption.
czardas
noun
a Hungarian national dance in two movements, one slow and the other fast.
More about czardas
Czardas is a slight alteration of Hungarian csárdás, from csárda “wayside tavern, inn.” Csárdás comes from Persian chārtāk, “four-cornered room,” in which the chār- element, meaning “four,” is a distant relative of English four, Latin quattuor, and Ancient Greek tésseres, as in the Word of the Day tessellate. Czardas was first recorded in English in the late 1850s.
EXAMPLE OF CZARDAS USED IN A SENTENCE
Dresses swirled and feathered hats spun as the czardas picked up in tempo.