Word of the Day: miasma

miasma \my-AZ-muh; mee-\, noun:

1. A vaporous exhalation (as of marshes or putrid matter) formerly thought to cause disease; broadly, a thick vaporous atmosphere or emanation.
2. A harmful or corrupting atmosphere or influence; also, an atmosphere that obscures; a fog.

The critics, he says, "will sit in their large automobiles, spewing a miasma of toxic gas into the atmosphere, and they will thank you for not smoking a cigarette."
-- Charles E. Little, "No One Communes Anymore", New York Times, October 17, 1993

To destroy such prejudices, which many a time rise and spread themselves like a miasma, is an imperative duty of theory, for the misbegotten offspring of human reason can also be in turn destroyed by pure reason.
-- Carl von Clausewitz, On War (translated by Colonel James John Graham)

He spends whatever money he has on hash and eventually heroin . . . and proceeds to sink into a miasma of anger and alienation.
-- Jhumpa Lahiri, "Money Talks in Pakistan", New York Times, March 12, 2000

Girls of my generation stumbled through much of our early adolescence in a dense miasma of longing.
-- Ellen Pall, "She had a Crush on Them", New York Times, July 29, 1990

Miasma comes from Greek miasma, "pollution," from miainein, "to pollute."

Word of the Day: camarilla

camarilla \kam-uh-RIL-uh; -REE-yuh\, noun:

A group of secret and often scheming advisers, as of a king; a cabal or clique.

Mr Kiselev likened Yeltsin's entourage to a "camarilla" . . . which would turn Russia "into a gigantic banana republic corrupted from top to bottom by a rotten clique of demagogues".
-- Marcus Warren, "Moguls at war over control of Kremlin", Daily Telegraph, July 23, 1999

The arrest in October 1976 of Mao's radical camarilla, the so-called Gang of Four, led by his maniacal widow, Jiang Qing, was the second "liberation," delivering the Chinese from the most extreme forms of ideological conditioning.
-- Willem Van Kemenade, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Inc.

Camarilla comes from Spanish, literally, "a small room," from Late Latin camera, "chamber" ("vault; arched roof" in Latin), from Greek kamara, "vault."

Word of the Day: woebegone

woebegone \WOE-bee-gon\, adjective:

1. Beset or overwhelmed with woe; immersed in grief or sorrow; woeful.
2. Being in a sorry condition; dismal-looking; dilapidated; run-down.

Socrates, condemned to death by the people of Athens, prepares to drink a cup of hemlock, surrounded by woebegone friends.
-- Alain De Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy

This woebegone lot includes Henry, a real-estate developer whose dream project has, like his marriage, slipped into bankruptcy; Henry's sister, Wiloma, who has hurled herself headlong into the arms of a New Age church to survive her own divorce; and Henry and Wiloma's decrepit Uncle Brendan, a former monk whose faith has eroded along with his health, stranding him in a nursing home.
-- Jennifer Howard, review of The Forms of Water by Andrea Barrett, New York Times, June 13, 1996

After 40 years as a producer he thinks of himself as a battered, scarred but well-armoured animal, "like an old turtle"; and if such creatures could speak they would probably sound like [him], a bit woebegone but drolly unsurprised by life's vicissitudes.
-- "Time for another Hugo hit", Times (London), May 22, 2000

Woebegone is from Middle English wo begon, from wo (from Old English wa, used to express grief) + begon, past participle of begon, "to go about, to beset," from Old English began, bigan, from bi-, "around, about" + gan, "to go."

Word of the Day: bellwether

bellwether \BEL-weth-uhr\, noun:

A leader of a movement or activity; also, a leading indicator of future trends.

Raised to believe they were among their generation's best and brightest, my class can be seen as a bellwether for a generation caught without a compass on the cutting edge of uncharted territory.
-- Elizabeth Fishel, Reunion: The Girls We Used to Be, the Women We Became

Before that election, Maine's proud citizens had fancied their state to be a sort of bellwether, a notion embodied in the saying "As Maine goes, so goes the nation."
-- Robert Shogan, The Fate of the Union

Bellwether is a compound of bell and wether, "a male sheep, usually castrated"; from the practice of hanging a bell from the neck of the leader of the flock.

Word of the Day: jollification

jollification \jol-ih-fuh-KAY-shuhn\, noun:

Merrymaking; festivity; revelry.

Some inform; some prompt the conscience; some entertain, while having more than jollification in mind.
-- Stuart Klawans, "A Greek Bearing Gifts", The Nation, June 21, 1999

In July, expect the usual impertinent jollifications in Key West: look-alike and Key-lime-pie-eating contests, arm-wrestling tournaments.
-- David Gates, "Resurrecting Papa", Newsweek, April 12, 1999

Jollification is from jolly (from Old French joli, jolif, "joyful, merry") + Latin -ficare, combining form of facere, "to make."

Word of the Day: misnomer

misnomer \mis-NO-muhr\, noun:

1. The misnaming of a person in a legal instrument, as in a complaint or indictment.
2. Any misnaming of a person or thing; also, a wrong or inapplicable name or designation.

Morning sickness is a misnomer -- it can strike any time.
-- Jane Bartlett, "Sick, and tired of it", Guardian, June 20, 2000

Copy cat is a misnomer because cats never copy anybody.
-- Carl Van Vechten, The Tiger in the House

The distinction between monkeys and apes is still muddled in the popular mind: Chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans are still frequently called "monkeys," and very good monkeys, such as Barbary "apes" and Celebes black "apes," continue to carry their misnomers.
-- Noel T. Boaz Ph.D., Eco Homo

Misnomer is from Medieval French mesnommer, "to misname," from mes-, "wrongly" + nommer, "to name," from Latin nominare, "to name," from nomen, "a name."

Word of the Day: anathema

anathema \uh-NATH-uh-muh\, noun:

1. A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, and accompanied by excommunication. Hence: Denunciation of anything as accursed.
2. An imprecation; a curse; a malediction.
3. Any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority.
4. Any person or thing that is intensely disliked.

The Communists were not prepared to accept any compromises; it was anathema to them that Tibet should have an international personality beyond being a region of China.
-- Tsering Shakya, The Dragon in the Land of Snows:A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947

Academies, the argument went, were anathema to creativity.
-- Deborah Solomon, "How to Succeed In Art", New York Times, June 27, 1999

Advertising was anathema to the Internet ethos, theysaid, and people would never pay for on-line material.
-- Steve Lohr, "The Freewheeling Net Meets the Free Market", New York Times, June 9, 1996

Anathema comes from the Greek word meaning "a thing devoted," especially a thing devoted to evil, hence "a curse," from anatithenai, "to dedicate, to set up," from ana, "up" + tithenai, "to place or put."

 

Word of the Day: remunerate

remunerate \rih-MYOO-nuh-rate\, transitive verb:

1. To pay an equivalent to for any service, loss, or expense; to recompense.
2. To compensate for; to make payment for.

Not to suggest that our bosses remunerate us for our high moral standards, but creative bureaucrats at Mesa City Hall have invented a new fund from tax revenue that sets up a $20,000 account for each virtuous City Council member.
-- Art Thomason, "Mesa Puts Quite a Price on Discretion", Arizona Republic, May 18, 2000

The plaintiff could therefore only recover payment for her services if there was evidence of an implied or express contract by the business of which he was a partner (or by the plaintiff personally) to remunerate her for the work which she had done.
-- Kate O'Hanlon, "No damages for wife's gratuitous work", Independent, May 27, 1999

[The firm] wanted to meet long-term investment requirements out of retained profits and also to be able to properly remunerate all the staff and give them a share of the profits.
-- Roger Trapp, "Legal firms 'go offshore' to avoid litigation", Independent, May 2, 1996

Remunerate comes from Latin remunerari, "to reward," from re-, "back, again" + munerari, "to give, to present," from munus, "a gift."

Word of the Day: myriad

myriad \MIR-ee-uhd\, adjective:

1. Consisting of a very great, but indefinite, number; as, myriad stars.
2. Composed of numerous diverse elements or aspects.
3. The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. (Chiefly in reference to the Greek numeral system, or in translations from Greek or Latin).
4. An immense number; a very great many; an indefinitely large number.

Home is a place to which one is attached by myriad habits of thought and behavior--culturally acquired, of course, yet in time they become so intimately woven into everyday existence that they seem primordial and the essence of one's being.
-- Yi-Fu Tuan, Escapism

Hawks and condors hunted all along the river, while myriad other bird species including cuckoos, owls, vireos, and woodpeckers inhabited the willow groves that flourished along its course.
-- Blake Gumprecht, The Los Angeles River

The myriad mind of Shakespeare.
-- H. Reed, Lectures on the British Poets

The catastrophic melting of Earth's surface is just one out of a myriad of events that are waiting to occur as the universe and its contents grow older.
-- Fred Adams and Greg Laughlin, The Five Ages of the Universe

Myriad is from Greek myrias, myriad-, "ten thousand; a myriad," from myrios, "numberless; countless; ten thousand."

Speaking - "Giving orders and instructions "

While learning english, I was eager to know how to make instructions in a very lucid and elegant manner. How can you ask someone to do something for you in English without sounding rude? So, here are some of the ways that you can give orders and instructions.

1. Use the imperative form

We use the imperative form to give orders, warnings and advice:

Be quiet!
Take care!
Listen to me carefully!

Because it can sound rude to give direct orders (especially if you are talking to an adult), we "soften" the imperative form with "let's" or "please":

Let's go now.
Please listen to what I'm saying.

2. Use a modal verb to turn the order into a request

We use modals to change the mood of a sentence. For example, "You should help her" is more polite than "Help her!"

Other modal verbs you can use to make requests are:

Could: Could you make me some tea?
Can: Can you come here please?
Will: Will you shut the door please?
Would: Would you wait here until the doctor is ready for you?

3. Use an introductory phrase to soften the order

Instead of using an imperative, you can use a phrase instead. Here are some common ways of phrasing an order, in order of the most indirect to the most direct:

Would you mind possibly… (+ ing) (Most indirect)
Would you mind possibly moving your car? It's parked right in front of mine.

I was hoping you could … (+ infinitive without to)
I was hoping you could spare me a few minutes this morning.

Do you think you could … (+ infinitive without to)
Do you think you could do this photocopying for me?

If you have a couple of minutes spare…
If you have a couple of minutes spare, the office needs tidying up.

I'd like you to…
I'd like you to file this correspondence for me.

I want you to…
I want you to finish this by tomorrow.

4. Use sequencing words

You can use sequencing words to make instructions clear.

 

 

Word of the Day: nefarious

nefarious \nuh-FAIR-ee-uhs\, adjective:
Wicked in the extreme; iniquitous.
Despite involvement in protection, narcotics, strong-arm debt collecting, strikebreaking, and blackmail, among other nefarious activities, all of them professed to be a cut above mobsters in other lands.
-- Robert Whiting, Tokyo Underworld
The liar, however, can become a truly subversive and scandalous figure, whose nefarious influence may extend far more widely than her own individual actions.
-- John Forrester, Truth Games
Nefarious is from Latin nefarius, from nefas, "that which is contrary to divine command; a crime, transgression, sin," from ne-, "not" + fas, "divine command or law."

Word of the Day: chagrin

chagrin \shuh-GRIN\, noun:

1. Acute vexation, annoyance, or embarrassment, arising from disappointment or failure.
2. To unsettle or vex by disappointment or humiliation; to mortify.

He ran away to the recruiting office at Ottumwa, a river port where Union soldiers were transported east--how he got to the town, a good half-day journey by wagon, isn't clear--and to his chagrin, he found his father waiting there.
-- Allen Barra, Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends

He noted with chagrin how little hair clung to his head.
-- John Marks, The Wall

Rich Moroni was earning $20,000 a year as a cook and was chagrined to discover that he couldn't keep up with the style of life and spending of his preferred reference group -- the lawyers and executives who shared his passion for squash and belonged to the same health club.
-- Peter T. Kilborn, "Splurge", New York Times, June 21, 1998

Chagrined to find that her current boyfriend has become best pals with her ex-boyfriend Hank, she goes to her ex with the problem.
-- Stephen J. Dubner, "Boston Rockers", New York Times, July 26, 1998

Chagrin is from the French, from chagrin, "sad."

Word of the Day for Tuesday, March 11, 2008

assuage \uh-SWAYJ\, verb:

1. To make milder or less severe; to reduce the intensity of; to ease; to relieve.
2. To appease; to satisfy.
3. To soothe or calm; to pacify.

His generosity toward a group of young graffiti writers was, perhaps, one way to assuage his guilt.
-- Phoebe Hoban, Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art

Even with the requirement of lay review boards, the code will fail to assuage concerns of the church's most vocal critics that the unseemly methods of the past won't repeat themselves.
-- "Bishops take step in right direction", Chicago Sun-Times, November 15, 2002

If only she would come outside
and let us meet her--face to face;
perhaps our words could turn
her anger's tide, perhaps
we could, if not erase,
at least assuage her rage.
-- Euripides, Medea edited by David R. Slavitt and Palmer Bovie

In one final attempt to assuage fears, the agency claims that these audits will comprise only "1.1 percent of the total audit-related contacts planned for the year."
-- Daniel J. Pilla, "IRS prepares to intensify its kinder, gentler audits", Insight on the News, April 29, 2002

Assuage comes from Latin ad + suavis, "sweet".