Word of the Day
communiqué
noun
an official bulletin or communication, usually to the press or public.
More about communiqué
Communiqué “an official bulletin or communication” is a borrowing from French, in which it means “communicated” and is the past participle of the verb communiquer “to communicate.” Communiquer comes from Latin commūnicāre “to impart, make common,” based on the adjective commūnis “common,” which itself is likely related to mūnus (stem mūner-) “gift, duty” and immūnis “exempt from taxes” (compare English remunerate and immunity). The French suffixes -é and -i are used to mark past participles and derive from Latin -ātus and -ītus, which are preserved in English as -ate and -ite, in Portuguese and Spanish as -ado and -ido, and in Italian as -ato and -ito or -uto. Communiqué was first recorded in English in the early 1850s.
how is communiqué used?
Nearly all the messages that humans have broadcast into space so far start by establishing common ground with a basic lesson in science and mathematics …. A far messier question is how to encode these concepts into the communiqué. Human languages are out of the question for obvious reasons, but so are our numeral systems. Though the concept of numbers is nearly universal, the way we depict them as numerals is entirely arbitrary.
The United States and China have given a bit of a lift to the United Nations COP26 gathering in Glasgow. The world’s two largest polluters issued a surprise joint statement on Wednesday …. On the face of it, the U.S.-China communiqué does almost nothing to change the trajectory .… Politically, however, their statement is more powerful. For starters, simply having the two countries unite on a message is a victory of sorts.
Saturnian
adjective
prosperous, happy, or peaceful.
More about Saturnian
Saturnian “prosperous, happy, or peaceful” derives from the Latin adjective Sāturnius “of Saturn.” The mythological figure Saturn, known to the Romans as Sāturnus and considered an equivalent of the Ancient Greek figure Kronos (Latinized as Cronus), was a Titan and a god of agriculture. The positive aspects of Saturn’s reign, referred to as the “golden age,” are what give Saturnian its meaning. Though Saturnian shares an origin with saturnine, they are almost antonyms; saturnine means “sluggish, gloomy, taciturn” and derives its meaning from astrology, in which the influence of the planet Saturn is associated with negative personality traits (in contrast to the recent Word of the Day jovial). The name Sāturnus is likely of Etruscan origin—compare the name of the Etruscan god Satre—but has long attracted (false) folk etymology hypotheses, such as derivations from Latin satus “sown” or satis “enough.” Saturnian was first recorded in English in the 1550s.
how is Saturnian used?
Days came and went; and now returned again / To Sicily the old Saturnian reign; / Under the Angel’s governance benign / The happy island danced with corn and wine, / And deep within the mountain’s burning breast / Enceladus, the giant, was at rest.
How seemed this globe of ours when thou didst scan it? / When, in its lusty youth, there sprang to birth / All that has life, unnurtured, and the planet / Was Paradise, the true Saturnian Earth! / Far toward the poles was stretched the happy garden; / Earth kept it fair by warmth from her own breast; / Toil had not come to dwarf her sons and harden; / No crime (there was no want) perturbed their rest.
makai
adverb
toward or by the sea; seaward.
More about makai
Makai “toward the sea” is a loanword from Hawaiian, in which it is equivalent to ma, a particle indicating direction, and kai “ocean, sea.” The opposite of makai is mauka, comprising the particle ma and the noun uka “inland.” Because Hawaiian is a member of the expansive Austronesian language family, kai has cognates in languages spoken throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Although the k and t sounds are allophonic in Hawaiian, meaning that they are variations of the same sound that only appear in certain contexts, the Hawaiian alphabet does not have the letter t and instead uses k regardless of a word’s pronunciation in a given dialect. This alternation between k, which is pronounced in the rear of the mouth, and t, which is pronounced near the teeth, is not as unusual as one might think; after all, in English, French, and Spanish alike, the letter c is pronounced either as k or s depending on the context. Makai was first recorded in English in the late 19th century.
how is makai used?
I show him where to transfer, where to get off. I tell him when he gets off the bus to walk makai one block to get to the museum. Makai, I repeat. Make sure you go makai …. That means toward the ocean. The opposite way from mauka. Mauka is toward the mountain, yeah? …. He swings his arm around the room and says, But the ocean surrounds the island, so makai is everywhere you go that’s not mountain.
The Hixon apartment was typical of new construction along the outskirts of Napua. Those buildings makai of the street obscured the sea view, while the ones on the mauka side cut off sight of the low ridge forming the island’s backbone as well as the sloping green pastureland along the flanks of the high ground …. [F]ive years of trade winds, tropical sun and sea air had already wrought havoc with the buildings’ poor quality stucco and their badly installed composition roofs.