Word of the Day-bromide0 评论
Part of Speech: noun
Pronunciation: ['bro-mId] Definition: (1) A compound with bromine plus another element; (2) a commonplace remark or notion, a platitude, cliché; (3) a tiresome person, a bore. Usage: Although we no long resort to bromides (1), bromides (3) still have the same dulling, sleep-inducing effect, "Farnsworth is such an old bromide, I fall asleep just looking at him." The most common use of today's word, however, is in the second sense: "If Kratzer uses that bromide, 'no pain, no gain,'（一分耕耘，一分收获） one more time, I'm going to give him a significant gain on the nose." Suggested Usage: Bromides were such common sedatives in the 19th and early 20th centuries that a syndrome, bromism, was introduced to describe the effects of overdosing on them. Bromism resulted in depression, loss of memory, and slow mental processing. The adjective is "bromidic," as a bromidic phrase (= a cliché). Etymology: Today's word is a stinky one, based on Greek brômos "a stink" + the scientific suffix –ide, a suffix widely used in chemistry to denote a compound based on the element referred to by the root. So "bromide" refers to a compound based on bromine, a dark red poisonous liquid with a strong, repulsive smell (whence its name). A very commonplace bromide in the 19th and early 20th century was potassium bromide, widely taken as a mild sedative before going to bed to induce sleep. From this usage, it is but a short skip to the sense of a commonplace remark that makes you yawn and from there to a person who puts you to sleep. (Today's word is brought to you by Dr. Richard R. Everson, Phyllis Stabler, and Eric Thornton of Exton, Pennsylvania, who have justifiably lobbied for its inclusion in our series for some months, now.) bromide \BROH-myd\, noun:1. A compound of bromine and another element or a positive organic radical.2. A dose of potassium bromide taken as a sedative.3. A dull person with conventional thoughts.4. A commonplace or conventional saying. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. The words are in fact already a bromide when the pompous Malvolio finds and reads them.-- Marjorie Garber, Symptoms of Culture He cannot resist the occasional bromide: "Ninety percent of diplomacy is a question of who blinks first."-- Gary J. Bass, "The Negotiator", New York Times, July 11, 1999 The next president could live up to that old political bromide "Let's run the government like a business" by staffing his cabinet with some leading figures from the new world of business.-- Daniel H. Pink, "Fast.Gov", Fast Company, October-2000 Word of the Day-brandish0 评论
Part of Speech: verb
Pronunciation: ['bræn-dish] Definition: To wave or otherwise display ostentatiously, flashily; to wield or flourish defiantly. Usage: Today's word is about body language and implies someone is carrying an object with emphasis, so that it cannot be ignored, "Delores stumbled into the room brandishing a brandy glass that obviously had been filled several times." Generally, you can brandish only what is held in the hand, "Cord entered the room brandishing a pen as though he were going to sign the contract but we ended up just making more revisions." Suggested Usage: Today's word does not come from "brand," though it is related in a round-about way to the original meaning of that word (as in branding livestock). It comes from a French word meaning "sword," hence refers to movements like those associated with wielding a sword. One who brandishes is a brandisher. Etymology: Today's word originates in Old French brandir, brandiss-, from brand "sword." The French word "brand," however, was borrowed from a Germanic language, possibly Dutch branden "to burn, distill" (or temper steel) which gave us "brandy." The root clearly goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gwher-/gwhor- "heat, burn" which became thermos "warm, hot" in Greek, found in English "thermometer," "hypothermy" and "Lobster Thermidor. The initial [gwh] of this stem became [f] in Latin, hence the Latin word fornax "oven" which underlies our word "furnace." Finally, in the Germanic languages the initial consonant became [b], as in "burn" (German "brennen") and "brand." Word of the Day-boycott0 评论
Part of Speech: noun
Pronunciation: ['boi-kaht] Definition: A concerted refusal to do business with a person or organization, usually to express disapproval of conditions or policies. Usage: The literal use of this word, as in, "So long as the Almighty Dollar（万能的金元） speaketh, the boycott will remain an effective way of getting a company's attention," is always available. But in the spirit of "think global, nag local," one could say, "Jacob is boycotting the company of his grandchildren until they stop listening to hip-hop" (he won't be seeing them for awhile). Suggested Usage: The noun and verb of today's word are the same: "boycott." A person who refuses to do business because of principles is a boycotter. Etymology: Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott, a land agent in County Mayo, Ireland in the 1880s, is the eponym of today's word. Boycott worked for an absentee English landlord and was ruthless in his treatment of tenants. He became the target of Charles Parnell, an Irish activist set on reforming the laws of land ownership. Parnell incited Boycott's native employees to refuse to cooperate, next stores refused to serve his family, then the post refused to deliver mail, until finally the entire community shunned the Boycott family in the manner now manifest in today's word. Today's word, by the way, appears in virtually every European and in many other languages around the world. boycott \BOY-kaht\ verb: to engage in a concerted refusal to have dealings with (as a person, store, or organization) usually to express disapproval or to force acceptance of certain conditions Example sentence: The group boycotted the clothing company to protest its practice of employing sweatshop labor. Did you know? In the 1870s, Irish farmers faced an agricultural crisis that threatened to result in a repeat of the terrible famine and mass evictions of the 1840s. Anticipating financial ruin, they formed a Land League to campaign against the rent increases and evictions landlords were imposing as a result of the crisis. Retired British army captain Charles Boycott had the misfortune to be acting as an agent for an absentee landlord at the time, and when he tried to evict tenant farmers for refusing to pay their rent, he was ostracized by the League and community. His laborers and servants quit, and his crops began to rot. Boycott's fate was soon well known, and his name became a byword for that particular protest strategy. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. Word of the Day-boggle0 评论
Part of Speech: verb
Pronunciation: ['bahg-gêl] Definition: (1) To startle or be startled, to shy away from fearfully; (2) to bungle, botch, or fumble; (3) to overwhelm with amazement. Usage: The intransitive use is still available, "The horse boggled at a barbed wire fence and threw its rider to the ground." The sense of botching retains its usefulness, too, "He boggled (sense 2) through the match, then clinched his position in infamy with a shot into his own goal, which boggled (sense 3) everyone in the stadium." So, don't let this verb boggle your imagination—deploy it generously in the glory of all its meanings. Suggested Usage: Today's word has almost penned itself up in one word, "mind-boggling（令人难以置信的）." Historically, however, this verb has mostly been used intransitively with the preposition "at" or "about," as in, "He would never boggle at a bungee jump or two." An interesting noun from the second meaning of today's word is boggledy-botch "a complete mess, foul up," as in "You've made a complete boggledy-botch of the party with your lampshades and karaoke!" Etymology: Of the various names "bogle," "boggard," "bogy" attached to English-speaking goblins, "bogle" has been around the longest, since around 1500. Although these words seem obviously related, their relationship is unclear. They may derive from bogge or bog "hobgoblin, ghost" which, in turn, are probably variants of "bugge" or "bug," seen in current "bugaboo" and "bugbear." "Bug" in this sense may be borrowed from Welsh bwg (= bug) "ghost, hobgoblin." The forms "bogle" or "boggle" could be ancient diminutives of these words or they, too, might come directly from Welsh bwgwl (= bugul) "terror, terrifying.” Who knows? Word of the Day-boor0 评论
Part of Speech: noun
Pronunciation: ['bur or 'bu-wêr] Definition: A lout, a grossly rude and tactless person. Usage: Remember, boors are seldom bores, "How that boor got his FOOT in the punch bowl I'll never know; he usually keeps it tucked safely in his mouth." Rather, boors tend to behave rather vulgarly: "The giggling boys watched Gordon boorishly pick his nose and made bets on how he would dispose of the by-product." Suggested Usage: Do not confuse today's word with "bore" [bor] (one of the few deverbal person nouns without the suffix –er: a writ-er writes and a read-er reads, but cooks, guides, and bores cook, write and bore). Boors are boorish and behave boorishly because of their boorishness. Most boors now live far from South Africa, where the boers are now gentleman farmers all, producing excellent wines, among other produce. Etymology: From Afrikaans boer "farmer" related to Dutch boer and German Bauer "peasant farmer" and to Old English buan "dwell, live" from which contemporary "bower" is derived. To English colonialists in South Africa, the boers were rude and uncivilized, so they adopted the word in that sense, but misspelling in their own "civilized" way. The original root of today's word underlies the word for "be" in all Indo-European languages, and hence has too enormous a lexical progeny to be covered here. We do thank Christo Lombaard, himself of South Africa, for pointing out most unboorishly how English speakers shot themselves in the foot misborrowing today's word. Word of the Day-blatant0 评论
Part of Speech: adjective
Pronunciation: ['bleyt-ênt] Definition: Annoyingly loud, coarse, or out of harmony with others; shockingly expressive of matters that should not be revealed. Usage: Remember, "blatant" basically refers to something offensively loud or outspoken, "Crystal Ball has been a blatant critic of all efforts to regulate palm-reading and fortune-telling in our fair city." A musical instrument may be too blatant if it doesn't blend in with the orchestra. The other meaning of today's word describes the expression of matters best left unsaid, "I was appalled at Mortimer's blatant discussion of our plan to blow up Bin Laden's TV studio" or "Marge blatantly told Ullie that she didn't love him any more at Noreen's cocktail party." Suggested Usage: Be careful to remember that today's word does not mean "serious," so it cannot be properly used in phrases like "a blatant breach of formality" or "a blatant lie." It also does not exactly mean "flagrant." This word means "glaring, stark, outrageously obvious," and tends to suggest visual rather than auditory offense. The adverb of today's word is "blatantly" and the noun, "blatancy." Etymology: Today's word is a participle of Latin blatire "to babble, blabber, gossip," akin to Swedish pladder "chatter, gossip" and probably German plappern "babble, rattle on." Russian boltat' "chatter, blabber" and Serbian blebetati "blab, jabber" are also related. Word of the Day-bogus0 评论
Part of Speech: adjective
Pronunciation: ['bo-gês] Definition: Fake, false, not genuine. Usage: Today's word is a common colloquial replacement for "fake" or "false": "Frederique, the Count of Mountebank, as he called himself, made a costly mistake when he set up a company that was as bogus as his name." Just take a look at television and you will see a plethora of bogus investment schemes, weight-loss and body-building programs. Caveat emptor! Suggested Usage: "Bogus" today is used almost exclusively as an adjective, even though it started out as a noun (see Etymology). At one time con artists passed bogus to unwary victims; now, they pass bogus coins and bills. Etymology: There are many explanations of the origin of today's word, most of them are, well, bogus. That it is a shortening of tantrabogus "an unusual object," a word used at one time in Vermont seems unlikely, since only one person has reported hearing the word. The most likely explanation is that it is a fanciful Latinization of "bogy" or "bogey" as in "bogy-man" or "booger-man," which originally referred to evil goblins or ghosts. What is sure is that by 1827 it referred to machines that produced counterfeit money, especially coins. Money produced by such machines was itself called "bogus" and the current meaning is but a very small metaphorical hop from the adjectival use. (There is nothing bogus about our gratitude to Tim J. Dobbins, III for suggesting today's word. It is genuine.) Word of the Day-blithe0 评论
Part of Speech: adjective
Pronunciation: [bLIdh] Definition: Joyous, spiritedly if not giddily happy; happy to the point of ignoring reality. Usage: I'm for returning to the old Scottish greeting, "I'm blithe to meet you" though I will probably attract few to the cause. In the US we tend to overuse the adverb without its central meaning, as in "He blithely understated her qualifications," meaning he did so simply without thought rather than as a result of being carried away with happiness. Today's word retains its sense of joy, as Shelley used it to address his skylark: "Hail thee, blithe spirit! Bird thou never wert- That from heaven or near it Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art." (Then the poem gets even better.) Suggested Usage: The comparative is "blither," pronounced [bLIdh-êr] in contrast to the verb "blither" [blidhêr]. The superlative is "blithest" and "blithely" is the adverb. "Blithesome" is an odd variant with a superfluous adjective suffix tacked onto an adjective that simply retains the original meaning, "cheerful." When the Scots were blithe to meet a new born child, blithemeat "happy food" was served, a term from the time when "meat" meant simply "food," as it does in "mincemeat." Word of the Day-blithesome0 评论
blithesome \BLYTHE-sum\ adjective
Meaning: gay, merry Example Sentence In The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-Day, Mark Twain's Laura, who had been struck by love, wondered why she had never before noticed "how blithesome the world was." Did you know? "Blithesome" comes from "blithe," a word that has been a part of English since before the 12th century. "Blithe" can mean "casual" and "heedless" as well as "joyful" and "lighthearted," but "blithesome" obviously makes use of only the "joyful, lighthearted" sense. "Blithesome" didn't show up in print in English until 1724, and is now relatively uncommon, but you'll find it in the works of such authors as Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Word of the Day-bravura0 评论
bravura \bruh-VYUR-uh; brah-; -VUR-\
noun:1. A florid, brilliant style of music that emphasizes the technical force and skill of a performer; virtuoso music. 2. A showy or brilliant display. But it was not just the bravura of his self-expression that gave him such a hold on his contemporaries.-- Peter Ackroyd, "Oscar Wilde: Comedy as Tragedy,", New York Times, November 1, 1987 The straightforward narrative account is set down with old-fashioned punctilio in prose of classic distinction, singularly free of bravura, and marked by the hard clarity of outline that is one of Waugh's several manners.-- Charles A. Brady, "Figure of Grace", New York Times, January 24, 1960 With his customary display of dramatic bravura, Sir Alan Ayckbourn is giving us twin comedies about a village fete and staging them simultaneously in each of the National's big, adjacent auditoriums.-- Benedict Nightingale, "Witches of Updike Flying to London", New York Times, March 12, 2000
订阅：
博文 (Atom)
|