Word of the Week: Pasha

pasha (PA-shuh, PASH-uh, puh-SHAH) noun

A person of high rank or importance.

[From Turkish pasa, from Persian padshah, from pati (master) + shah (king).
Pasha was used as a title of high-ranking officials in the Ottoman Empire.]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

"The rise and rise of Ajay Bijli as the pasha of Indian multiplexes
is born out of his passion for motion pictures."
Moinak Mitra & Shubham Mukherjee; Sundowner with Ajay Bijli;
The Economic Times (New Delhi, India); Oct 6, 2007.

Word of The Day: Verjuice

verjuice (VUHR-joos) adjective

Sour in temper.

[From French verjus, from vert (green) + jus (juice).]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

"Then, leaning forward with a most verjuice expression on his pale face,
he said, `Give that gentleman half a minute to get out of the way.'"
Charlotte Brontë; Tales of Angria; 1834.

Word of the Day: Paradox

Paradox: noun

An apparently absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition, or a strongly counter-intuitive one, which investigation, analysis, or explanation may nevertheless prove to be well-founded or true.

Here's a quote for you... who said it, and where/when?
"The future is the past; the past is the future. It all gives me a headache.”
[evil grin]

Word of the Day: Nosism

nosism (NO-siz-em) noun

The use of 'we' in referring to oneself.

[From Latin nos (we).]

As it's often used by editors, it's also known as the "editorial we".
It's also called "the royal we" owing to its frequent use by royalty.
Mark Twain once said, "Only kings, presidents, editors, and people
with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial 'we'."

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

Word of the Day: Archon

archon (AHR-kon) noun

A high official or ruler.

[From Latin archon, from Greek arkhon (magistrate), from arkhein (to be first, to rule). An archon was one of the nine principal magistrates in ancient Athens.]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

"Nick Sylvester, editor of The Harvard Lampoon calls James Murphy 'The supreme eminent archon of dance.'"
-- Tammy la Gorce; From Sulking Teenager to the King of Disco-Punk; The New York Times; May 22, 2005.

[Now you know where they got the term from for that ST:TOS episode with the zombie-people!]

Word of the Day: QUIDDITY

Pronunciation: ['kwi-dê-ti]

Definition: (1) The essential nature of a thing, its character; (2) a trivial issue, a quibble.

Usage: "Quiddity" is a little oddity proving the fluidity of the English idiom. It is odd because, like "sanction" and "cleave," its two meanings seem to be antonyms, referring to the most important and the least important aspects of a thing. It comes with an odd little verb, too, "quiddle," which means only to chatter over trifles. Are you ever a quiddler? The plural is as to be expected, "quiddities." (For the relation to "quibble," see the Etymology below.)

Suggested Usage: Today's word is what Richard Lederer (Crazy English 1989) calls a contranym, a word with two contradictory meanings. On the one hand, it refers to the essential thing, "The quiddity of his intentions became evident when he asked if she would mind paying for the engagement ring." On the other hand, it refers to a triviality: "Irving is quite a quiddling quitter." This makes multiple uses in the same phrase possible, if not advisable: "Can we get past the quiddities and down to the quiddities of the issue?" That should send them off to their dictionaries (or you off to a mental institution).

Etymology: Today's word comes from Medieval Latin "quidditas" based on quid "what," as in quid pro quo "something for something" and a recent word in our series, "quidnunc." We have mentioned before that the interrogative pronouns of all Indo-European languages come from the same root, *kwo-, which loses its [k] sound in some languages and its [w] sound in others. The sound [k] became [h] in English, so "what," "where," and "who" all come from this source is Russian chto "what," kto "who," and kuda "where to." Latin maintained both initial sounds, spelling them [qu]: qui [kwi] "who, what." The dative-ablative plural of this pronoun is quibus "to/from what," which we find in "quibble."

–Dr. Language, YourDictionary.com

Word of the Day: Cacoepy

Pronunciation: [kæk-'o-ê-pee or 'kæk-o-e-pee]

Definition: Incorrect pronunciation.

Usage: Occasionally, we need words we have long since abandoned or that have abandoned us. We may be facing a period in our history now when we need to retrieve "cacoepy" from our lexical attic. "Cacoepy" is not to be confused with cacology "bad choice of words." The antonym of "cacoepy" is orthoepy "the correct pronunciation of words." "Cacoepistic" is the adjective form of today's word and a person who often mispronounces words is a "cacoepist.

Suggested Usage: We think that such a ten-dollar word (the legendary "fifty-cent word" adjusted for inflation) as today's ought to be reserved for those who consistently get it wrong. "The Cacoepist-In-Chief mispronounced word after word, even making up a few, leading one newspaper to ask "'Hain't English his Native Lingo?'"

Etymology: The first part of today's word comes from the Greek kakos "bad." The PIE root is kakka- "to defecate." Words like "poppycock" and "cacophony" have their origins in the same root. The second half, -epy, is from Greek: epos "song, word." Its PIE root is wekw-, which also turns up in "vocal," "voice," "invoke" and "vote."
—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

Word of the Day: Lugubrious

lugubrious (lu-GOO-bree-uhs) adjective

Mournful, dismal, especially in an exaggerated or affected manner.

[From Latin lugere (to mourn).]

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Word of the Day: Weltschmerz

The Word of the Day is:

weltschmerz \VELT-shmairts\ noun, often capitalized
*1 : a mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state
2 : a mood of sentimental sadness

Example sentence: The early lyrical works of Austrian poet Nikolaus Lenau express the weltschmerz of the Romantic period.

Did you know?
The word "weltschmerz" initially came into being as a by-product of the Romanticism movement in Europe of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The poets of the Romantic era were a notably gloomy bunch, unwilling or unable to adjust to those realities of the world that they perceived as threatening their right to personal freedom.

"Weltschmerz," which was formed by combining the German words for "world" ("Welt") and "pain" ("Schmerz"), aptly captures the melancholy and pessimism that often characterized the artistic expressions of the era. The term was coined in German by the Romantic author Jean Paul (pseudonym of Johann Paul Friedrich Richter) in his 1827 novel _Selina_, but it wasn't adopted into English until nearly 50 years later.

Word of the Day: Desuetude

Pronunciation: ['de-swê-tyud]

Definition: A state of disuse.

Usage: The adjective from which this noun is derived, desuete "unused, out of use" has been deemed archaic, though it continues to lurk there behind the suffix –ude of "desuetude."

Suggested Usage: Today's word is a term from the highest registers of English speech, "Watching television talk shows has convinced me that the rules of English grammar have fallen in to complete desuetude." The important point is that "desuetude" is a place where things vanish, as the quaint habit of removing your hat inside fell into desuetude, oddly, at about the same time men stopped wearing fedoras.

Etymology: From French désuétude, a reflex of Latin desuetudo, the noun from desuescere "put out of use," based on de- "un-, dis-" + suescere "become accustomed." The Latin root comes from *swe also found in sui "of oneself," as in sui generis "in a class of its own," akin to Russian svoi "one's own" and "swami," borrowed from Sanskrit svami "one's own." The dative of this pronoun, sibi "to oneself", is related to Russian sebya "oneself" and English "self." It is also the origin of the [sol] in "solo, solitary, soliloquy, desolate."

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

Word of the Day: Whigmaleery

The Word of the Day is: Whigmaleery [whig-muh-*leer*-ee]

A Scottish word for any whimsical thing or fanciful notion.
- from _Totally Weird and Wonderful Words_ , edited by Erin McKean

Word of the Day: Thalassic

Word of the Day: Thalassic (adjective)

Pronunciation: [thê-'læ-sik]

Definition: Pertaining to the sea; marine.

Usage: This is a euphonic onomatopoeic alternative to "marine." The
liquid [l] and hissing [s] give the word more semblance of sea sounds
than does "marine." The mind swoons at the thought of the illustrious
members of the thalass- word family: "When England ruled the seas, it
was a thalassocracy," "In college Mary is studying endangered
thalassians—sea turtles," and "It's cool to study thalassography by
walking along the seashore."

Suggested Usage: We may speak of thalassic smells or colors and the
thalassic civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea. Thalassic rocks
are those composed of sediments of the sea. We can dream thalassic
dreams until the occasion for a thalassic respite from work presents
itself. Wouldn't you much prefer a thalassic respite to shelling out
for a vacation at the shore?

Etymology: The adjective "thalassic" goes back to Greek thalassa
"sea." It was made memorable by Xenophon in his "Anabasis" as the cry
of the Greek mercenaries recruited by Cyrus the Younger to fight in
Persia. Upon return to their homeland, when they first saw the Black
Sea that would lead them to Greece, they shouted, "Thalassa,
thalassa."

—Dr. Language

The Word of the Week is...

quiescent \kwy-ESS-unt\ adjective
*1 : marked by inactivity or repose : tranquilly at rest
2 : causing no trouble or symptoms

Example sentence:
The storm was over, and the quiescent waters betrayed no sign of yesterday's turbulence.

Did you know?
"Quiescent" won't cause you any pain, and neither will its synonyms "latent," "dormant," and "potential," at least not immediately.

All four words mean "not now showing signs of activity or existence." "Latent" usually applies to something that has not yet come forth but may emerge and develop, as in "a latent desire for success."

"Dormant" implies a state of inactivity similar to sleep, as in "their passions lay dormant."

"Potential" applies to what may or may not come to be. "A potential disaster" is a typical example.

"Quiescent," which traces to the Latin "quiescere" (meaning "to become quiet" or "to rest"), often suggests a temporary cessation of activity, as in "a quiescent disease" or "a summer resort quiescent in wintertime."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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