imbroglio \im-BROHL-yoh\, noun:
1. A complicated and embarrassing state of things.2. A confused or complicated disagreement or misunderstanding.3. An intricate, complicated plot, as of a drama or work of fiction.4. A confused mass; a tangle.
The political imbroglio also appears to endanger the latest International Monetary Fund loan package for Russia, which is considered critical to avoid a default this year on the country's $17 billion in foreign debt.-- David Hoffman, "Citing Economy, Yeltsin Fires Premier", Washington Post, May 13, 1999
Worse still, hearings and investigations into scandals -- from the imbroglio over Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court nomination in 1991 to the charges of perjury against President Clinton in 1998 -- have overshadowed any consideration of the country's future.-- John B. Judis, The Paradox of American Democracy
To the extent that Washington had a policy toward the subcontinent, its aim was to be evenhanded and not get drawn into the diplomatic imbroglio over Kashmir.-- George Perkovich, India's Nuclear Bomb
The imbroglio over the seemingly arcane currency issue threatens to plunge Indonesia -- and possibly its neighbors as well -- into a renewed bout of financial turmoil.-- Paul Blustein, "Currency Dispute Threatens Indonesia's Bailout", Washington Post, February 14, 1998
Imbroglio derives from Italian, from Old Italian imbrogliare, "to tangle, to confuse," from in-, "in" + brogliare, "to mix, to stir." It is related to embroil, "to entangle in conflict or argument."
Friday, February 25, 2011
daedal
daedal \DEE-duhl\, adjective:
1. Complex or ingenious in form or function; intricate.2. Skillful; artistic; ingenious.3. Rich; adorned with many things.
Most Web-site designers realize that large image maps and daedal layouts are to be avoided, and the leading World Wide Web designers have reacted to users' objections to highly graphical, slow sites by using uncluttered, easy-to-use layouts.-- "Fixing Web-site usability", InfoWorld, December 15, 1997
He gathered toward the end of his life a very extensive collection of illustrated books and illuminated manuscripts, and took heightened pleasure in their daedal patterns as his own strength declined.-- Florence S. Boos, preface to The Collected Letters of William Morris
I sang of the dancing stars,I sang of the daedal earth,And of heaven, and the giant wars,And love, and death, and birth.-- Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Hymn Of Pan"
Daedal comes from Latin daedalus, "cunningly wrought," from Greek daidalos, "skillful, cunningly created."
1. Complex or ingenious in form or function; intricate.2. Skillful; artistic; ingenious.3. Rich; adorned with many things.
Most Web-site designers realize that large image maps and daedal layouts are to be avoided, and the leading World Wide Web designers have reacted to users' objections to highly graphical, slow sites by using uncluttered, easy-to-use layouts.-- "Fixing Web-site usability", InfoWorld, December 15, 1997
He gathered toward the end of his life a very extensive collection of illustrated books and illuminated manuscripts, and took heightened pleasure in their daedal patterns as his own strength declined.-- Florence S. Boos, preface to The Collected Letters of William Morris
I sang of the dancing stars,I sang of the daedal earth,And of heaven, and the giant wars,And love, and death, and birth.-- Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Hymn Of Pan"
Daedal comes from Latin daedalus, "cunningly wrought," from Greek daidalos, "skillful, cunningly created."
doppelganger
doppelganger \DOP-uhl-gang-uhr\, noun:
1. A ghostly double or counterpart of a living person.2. Alter ego; double.
To readers of science fiction, the idea of a single atom existing simultaneously in two states or places is reminiscent of the supernatural "doppelganger" -- a flesh-and-blood duplicate of one's self encountered while walking along a street.-- "Physicists Put Atom in Two Places at Once", New York Times, May 28, 1996
But my primary interest here is not the machinations of science itself but the fascinating life and times of its dark doppelganger, the mad scientist, in all his overreaching glory.-- David J. Skal, Screams of Reason
Doppelganger is from the German doppel, "double" + Gänger, "goer."
1. A ghostly double or counterpart of a living person.2. Alter ego; double.
To readers of science fiction, the idea of a single atom existing simultaneously in two states or places is reminiscent of the supernatural "doppelganger" -- a flesh-and-blood duplicate of one's self encountered while walking along a street.-- "Physicists Put Atom in Two Places at Once", New York Times, May 28, 1996
But my primary interest here is not the machinations of science itself but the fascinating life and times of its dark doppelganger, the mad scientist, in all his overreaching glory.-- David J. Skal, Screams of Reason
Doppelganger is from the German doppel, "double" + Gänger, "goer."
philomath
philomath \FIL-uh-math\, noun:
A lover of learning; a scholar.
It is precisely for the philomaths that universities ought to cater.-- Aldous Huxley, Proper Studies
It's nothing to laugh about, he says. "Strange things happen in this country -- things that philosophers and other philomaths had never dreamed of."-- Tomek Tryzna, Miss Nobody
Philomath is from the Greek philomathes, "loving knowledge," from philos, "loving, fond" + mathein, "to learn, to understand."
A lover of learning; a scholar.
It is precisely for the philomaths that universities ought to cater.-- Aldous Huxley, Proper Studies
It's nothing to laugh about, he says. "Strange things happen in this country -- things that philosophers and other philomaths had never dreamed of."-- Tomek Tryzna, Miss Nobody
Philomath is from the Greek philomathes, "loving knowledge," from philos, "loving, fond" + mathein, "to learn, to understand."
desideratum
desideratum \dih-sid-uh-RAY-tum; -RAH-\, noun;plural desiderata:
Something desired or considered necessary.
No one in Berkeley -- at least, no one I consorted with -- thought art was for sissies, or that a pensionable job was the highest desideratum.-- John Banville, "Just a dream some of us had", Irish Times, August 24, 1998
Immense wealth, and its lavish expenditure, fill the great house with all that can please the eye, or tempt the taste. Here, appetite, not food, is the great desideratum.-- Frederick Douglass, My Bondage, My Freedom
A technical dictionary . . . is one of the desiderata in anatomy.-- Alexander Monro, Essay on Comparative Anatomy
Desideratum is from Latin desideratum, "a thing desired," from desiderare, "to desire."
Something desired or considered necessary.
No one in Berkeley -- at least, no one I consorted with -- thought art was for sissies, or that a pensionable job was the highest desideratum.-- John Banville, "Just a dream some of us had", Irish Times, August 24, 1998
Immense wealth, and its lavish expenditure, fill the great house with all that can please the eye, or tempt the taste. Here, appetite, not food, is the great desideratum.-- Frederick Douglass, My Bondage, My Freedom
A technical dictionary . . . is one of the desiderata in anatomy.-- Alexander Monro, Essay on Comparative Anatomy
Desideratum is from Latin desideratum, "a thing desired," from desiderare, "to desire."
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
rakish
rakish \REY-kish\, adjective:
1. Smart; jaunty; dashing.
2. Of a vessel: having an appearance suggesting speed.
3. Like a rake; dissolute: rakish behavior.
Just as they stepped into the house Beard remembered that it was Patrice's afternoon off, and there she was, at the head of the stairs, in rakish blue eye patch, tight jeans, pale green cashmere sweater, Turkish slippers, coining down to meet them with a pleasant smile and the offer of coffee as her husband had made the introductions.
-- Ian McEwan, Solar
General Bernard Rutkowski, his cap set at a slightly rakish, angle strode along the tunnel.
-- Fletcher Knebel, Charles Waldo Bailey, Seven days in May
Rakish enters the English lexicon in the 1700s, but rake, as in "immoral person," goes back further, possibly descended from the Middle English rakel, "headstrong."
1. Smart; jaunty; dashing.
2. Of a vessel: having an appearance suggesting speed.
3. Like a rake; dissolute: rakish behavior.
Just as they stepped into the house Beard remembered that it was Patrice's afternoon off, and there she was, at the head of the stairs, in rakish blue eye patch, tight jeans, pale green cashmere sweater, Turkish slippers, coining down to meet them with a pleasant smile and the offer of coffee as her husband had made the introductions.
-- Ian McEwan, Solar
General Bernard Rutkowski, his cap set at a slightly rakish, angle strode along the tunnel.
-- Fletcher Knebel, Charles Waldo Bailey, Seven days in May
Rakish enters the English lexicon in the 1700s, but rake, as in "immoral person," goes back further, possibly descended from the Middle English rakel, "headstrong."
jobbery
jobbery \JOB-uh-ree\, noun:
The conduct of public or official business for the sake of improper private gain.
To a large portion of the people who frequent Washington or dwell there, the ultra fashion, the shoddy, the jobbery are as utterly distasteful as they would be in a refined New England City.
-- Mark Twain, The gilded age and later novels
Casting about for some way of breaking through this vicious circle, he saw but one expedient - to wit, some great service to be rendered to the government, or some profitable bit of jobbery.
-- Honoré de Balzac, The Unconscious Mummers
Jobbery combines the sense of job and robbery and reflects the historically negative connotation of job, whose definition may derive from gob, as in "a mass or lump."
Sunday, February 13, 2011
palpitate
palpitate \PAL-pi-teyt\, verb:
1. To pulsate with unusual rapidity from exertion, emotion, disease, etc.; flutter.2. To cause to pulsate or tremble.
Then, having done all, she would wait and palpitate, and palpitate and wait, until Stephen came.-- Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin, Rose o' the river
But every heart in the stands would palpitate one more time as Amherst put together a drive of its own, pushing the ball deep into Bulldog territory with just six seconds left.-- Mike Holzheimer, "Olmsted Falls High School gets big SWC football win," Sun-Post Herald, October, 2010
Palpitate derives from the Latin palpare, "to stroke."
1. To pulsate with unusual rapidity from exertion, emotion, disease, etc.; flutter.2. To cause to pulsate or tremble.
Then, having done all, she would wait and palpitate, and palpitate and wait, until Stephen came.-- Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin, Rose o' the river
But every heart in the stands would palpitate one more time as Amherst put together a drive of its own, pushing the ball deep into Bulldog territory with just six seconds left.-- Mike Holzheimer, "Olmsted Falls High School gets big SWC football win," Sun-Post Herald, October, 2010
Palpitate derives from the Latin palpare, "to stroke."
nacreous
nacreous \NEY-kree-uhs\, adjective:
Resembling nacre (mother-of-pearl); lustrous; pearly.
Nacreous pearl light swam faintly about the hem of the lilac darkness; the edges of light and darkness were stitched upon the hills.
-- Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel
For the first time in his life Stephen found that he and Rubens were of one mind, particularly as their generous decolletes and their diaphanous gowns showed expanses of that nacreous Rubens flesh that had so puzzled him before.
-- Patrick O'Brian, The nutmeg of consolation
Nacreous is the adjectival form of nacre, a "type of shellfish that yields mother-of-pearl." The word may ultimately derive from the Arabic nakara, "to hollow out," in reference to the shape of the mollusk shell.
Resembling nacre (mother-of-pearl); lustrous; pearly.
Nacreous pearl light swam faintly about the hem of the lilac darkness; the edges of light and darkness were stitched upon the hills.
-- Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel
For the first time in his life Stephen found that he and Rubens were of one mind, particularly as their generous decolletes and their diaphanous gowns showed expanses of that nacreous Rubens flesh that had so puzzled him before.
-- Patrick O'Brian, The nutmeg of consolation
Nacreous is the adjectival form of nacre, a "type of shellfish that yields mother-of-pearl." The word may ultimately derive from the Arabic nakara, "to hollow out," in reference to the shape of the mollusk shell.
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