Lynne Kiesling Sitting here at O’Hare, 6 AM … today’s A Word A Day word is encaustic: encaustic (en-KO-stik) adjective A method of painting using pigments with wax fixed onto the surface by heat. [From Latin encausticus, from Greek enkaustikos, from enkaiein (to burn in), from en- + (kaiein) to burn. Some distant cousins of …
Lynne Kiesling Today’s word from A Word A Day is reprobate, a great word: reprobate (REP-ruh-bayt) adjective Depraved. noun A wicked person. verb tr. To disapprove or condemn. [From Middle English, from Late Latin reprobatus, from reprobare (to disapprove), from re- + probare (to test, approve), from probus (good).] AWAD is also good for the …
Michael Giberson A news story about GEICO and Google sent me to Thesaurus.com this morning, trying to find just the right word for the lawsuit the insurer filed against the search engine. But which is the right word? The great thing about Thesaurus.com is that there are a lot of options. For example, search on …
Lynne Kiesling OK, subtle it’s not, but here goes: Kirchoff and Maxwell have laws About why electrons don’t pause But not about why to keep on the power We have to allow markets to flower
Lynne Kiesling My friend Adam over at Arthur’s Seat has announced the first annual Clerihew competition. Please click through for full details, but the bottom line is a 4-line poem with two rhyming couplets. Entries to be accepted through 20 December. This will be fun! Diane, you know what you need to do …
I subscribe to the wonderful A Word A Day list operated by Anu Gang. It’s a superb little treat for anyone who loves language and etymology. Monday’s word was eudemonia (yoo-di-MO-nee-uh) noun, also eudaemonia 1. A state of happiness and well-being. 2. In Aristotelian philosophy, happiness in a life of activity governed by reason. [From …
The poem on Megan’s website, “In Flanders Fields”, is by John McCrae, one of the group of WWI poets that wrote so poignantly about the waste and destruction of war. Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen are three of the other most renowned WWI poets.
While I’m at it, the same website has a good explanation of cheap at half the price, a phrase I use relatively frequently.
Tonight, on the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board show on CNBC, Tunku Varadarajan used the phrase “curate’s egg.” We could tell in context what he meant, but my husband and I were sufficiently curious to check it out afterward. Here’s a translation from British English to ROW English. The essence is “parts of it are …
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