Word of the Day
extenuate
verb (used with object)
to represent (a fault, offense, etc.) as less serious: to extenuate a crime.
More about extenuate
Extenuate comes from Latin extenuāt-, the past participle of the verb extenuāre “to make thin or narrow, whittle down, contract, reduce.” The only common English meaning of extenuate, “to represent a fault or offense as less serious,” is an extended meaning of one of the Latin senses “to diminish or lessen (in size, quantity, or degree).” The root underlying extenuāre is the Latin adjective tenuis “thin,” a derivative of the very common Proto-Indo-European root ten-, tend-, ton-, tṇ– (and other variants) “to stretch, extend, spin (cloth).” The root appears in Latin tenēre “to hold in the hand, grasp,” tendere “to stretch out, offer”; Sanskrit tanṓti “(he) stretches, spins,” tāna– “thread, tone”; Greek teínein “to stretch, pull tight,” and tónos “tension, sinew, cord, string, tension (in the voice), tone (of the voice).” The Germanic forms thunw– and thunni– yield the Old English verb thenian (also thennan) “to stretch, spread out, bend (a bow),” Old High German dennen “to extend, stretch” (German dehnen), the Old English adjective thynne “thin,” and German dünn “thin.” Extenuate entered English in the first half of the 16th century.
how is extenuate used?
Revelation of embryonic activity in the sixties does not extenuate crimes of more recent vintage, but they will show us how pervasive and dangerous our unconcern has been.
This was what no reasoning, no appeal to the calmer judgment, could ever, in his inmost thoughts, undo or extenuate.
emporium
noun
a large retail store, especially one selling a great variety of articles.
More about emporium
Emporium with its Latin ending –um still looks foreign. In Latin, emporium means “trade center, business district, market town.” The Latin word means something larger and more permanent than the Greek original empórion “trading station, trading post, entrepôt.” Empórion is a derivative of emporía “commerce, trade, business,” itself a derivative of émporos “passenger on a ship, traveler, merchant, trade.” The compound noun émporos breaks down into em-, a variant of en– “in, on,” and póros “way, passage, journey.” Póros derives from the Proto-Indo-European root per-, por-, pṛ– “to lead, pass, pass over.” Per– is the source of English firth and fjord (both from Old Norse fjǫrth, inflectional stem firth-, from Germanic ferthuz “ford”). The variant por– is the source of Old English faran “to go on a journey, get along” (English fare). The suffixed form por–eyo– forms the causative Germanic verb farjan “to make go, lead,” which becomes ferian in Old English and ferry in English. The variant pŗ– forms the Latin nouns porta “door, gate,” portus “port, harbor,” and the verb portāre “to carry, transport.” Emporium entered English in the second half of the 16th century.
how is emporium used?
He sold everything in the emporium, from coffee to collar studs, camisoles to cuckoo clocks, candied sugar to collapsible top hats.
Following a stint as a window dresser at Luisa Via Roma, Florence’s famous fashion emporium, she relocated to Paris, learning tailoring from the French designer Myrène de Prémonville ….
spitzenburg
noun
any of several red or yellow varieties of apple that ripen in the autumn.
More about spitzenburg
A spitzenburg or spitzenberg is a variety of apple from Esopus, New York, a town on the west bank of the Hudson River about 100 miles north of New York City. The full name of the variety of apple is Esopus Spitzenberg, after Esopus, a Lenape (Delaware Indian) word meaning “high banks,” and Dutch spits “point” and berg “mountain” (a seedling was found on a hill near Esopus). This variety of apple was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson, who had several trees of the variety planted at Monticello. Spitzenburg entered English at the end of the 18th century.
how is spitzenburg used?
… the old gentleman turned in his tracks, looked at me severely, and said, “Young man, the Spitzenburg is the best apple God ever invented.”
Biting into a Spitzenburg produces an explosion of flavor; the yellow flesh is crisp, firm, tender, juicy with an extremely rich, aromatic flavor: the ultimate gourmet apple.