每日一词：palmy（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 31, 2020 is:

palmy • \PAH-mee\  • adjective

1 : marked by prosperity : flourishing

2 : abounding in or bearing palms

Examples:

“The new breed of the Silicon Valley lived for work. They were disciplined to the point of back spasms. They worked long hours and kept working on weekends. They became absorbed in their companies the way men once had in the palmy days of the automobile industry.” — Tom Wolfe, Hooking Up, 2000

“In Beaufort Road was a house, occupied in its palmier days, by Mr Shorthouse, a manufacturer of acids….” — J.R.R. Tolkien, letter, July 1964

Did you know?

The palm branch has traditionally been used as a symbol of victory. It is no wonder then that the word palm came to mean “victory” or “triumph” in the late 14th century, thanks to the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer. Centuries later, William Shakespeare would employ palmy as a synonym for triumphant or flourishing in the tragedy Hamlet when the character Horatio speaks of the “palmy state of Rome / A little ere the mightiest Julius fell.”

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Lake桑

May 31, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：gamut（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 30, 2020 is:

gamut • \GAM-ut\  • noun

1 : the whole series of recognized musical notes

2 : an entire range or series

Examples:

“Possibly the most interesting man-made structural material is reinforced concrete…. It is economical, available almost everywhere, fire-resistant, and can be designed to be light-weight to reduce the dead load or to have a whole gamut of strengths to satisfy structural needs.” — Mario Salvadori, Why Buildings Stand Up, 1990

“[Beverly] Long, whose previous novels run a limited gamut from romance to paranormal romance to romantic suspense, scores well in her transition to hard-boiled thriller.” — Jay Strafford, The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia), 21 Mar. 2020

Did you know?

To get the lowdown on gamut, we have to dive to the bottom of a musical scale to which the 11th-century musician and monk Guido of Arezzo applied his particular system of solmization—that is, of using syllables to denote the tones of a musical scale. Guido called the first line of his bass staff gamma and the first note in his scale ut, which meant that gamma ut was the term for a note written on the first staff line. In time, gamma ut underwent a shortening to gamut but climbed the scale of meaning. It expanded to cover all the notes of Guido’s scale, then to cover all the notes in the range of an instrument, and, eventually, to cover an entire range of any sort.

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Lake桑

May 30, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：assail（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 29, 2020 is:

assail • \uh-SAIL\  • verb

1 : to attack violently : assault

2 : to encounter, undertake, or confront energetically

3 : to oppose, challenge, or criticize harshly and forcefully

4 a : to trouble or afflict in a manner that threatens to overwhelm

b : to be perceived by (a person, a person’s senses, etc.) in a strongly noticeable and usually unpleasant way

Examples:

Most worthwhile achievements require that one persevere even when assailed by doubts.

“What does it even mean to be good in a world as complex as ours, when great inequity remains unaddressed and often seems too daunting to assail, and when seemingly benign choices—which shoes to buy, which fruit to eat—can come with the moral baggage of large carbon footprints or the undercompensated labor of migrant workers?” — Nancy Kaffer, The Detroit (Michigan) Free Press, 9 Jan. 2020

Did you know?

Assail comes from an Anglo-French verb, assaillir, which itself traces back to the Latin verb assilire (“to leap upon”). Assilire combines the prefix ad- (“to, toward”) with the Latin verb salire, meaning “to leap.” (Salire is the root of a number of English words related to jumping or leaping, such as somersault and sally, as well as assault, a synonym of assail.) When assail was first used in the 13th century, it meant “to make a violent physical attack upon.” By the early 15th century, English speakers were using the term to mean “to attack with words or arguments.” Now the verb can refer to any kind of aggressive encounter, even if it is not necessarily violent or quarrelsome, as in “Upon entering the room, we were assailed by a horrible odor.”

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Lake桑

May 29, 2020 at 01:00PM

又一个周五！

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May 29, 2020 at 12:00PM

每日一词：empirical（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 28, 2020 is:

empirical • \im-PEER-uh-kul\  • adjective

1 : originating in or based on observation or experience

2 : relying on experience or observation alone often without due regard for system and theory 

3 : capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment 

4 : of or relating to empiricism

Examples:

“‘We have really good empirical research dating back to the 1980s demonstrating that kids who are restricted around treat foods often just want to eat them more,’ said Charlotte Markey, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Rutgers University….” — Virginia Sole-Smith, The New York Times, 17 Apr. 2020

“Burger King’s advertising has been telling us that the Impossible Whopper tastes just like a Whopper. And so, in the spirit of empirical science and discovery, I ventured to a Burger King this week to test the claim.” — Eric Felten, The Examiner (Washington, DC), 31 Oct. 2019

Did you know?

When empirical first appeared as an adjective in English, it meant simply “in the manner of an empiric.” An empiric was a member of an ancient sect of doctors who practiced medicine based exclusively on observation or experience as contrasted with those who relied on theory or philosophy. The name empiric derives from Latin empīricus, itself from Greek empeirikós, meaning “based on observation (of medical treatment), experienced.” The root of the Greek word (-peiros) is a derivative of peîra, meaning “attempt, trial, test.”

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Lake桑

May 28, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：longueur（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 27, 2020 is:

longueur • \lawn-GUR\  • noun

: a dull and tedious passage or section (as of a book, play, or musical composition) — usually used in plural

Examples:

The otherwise crisp pacing of the movie is marred by some unnecessary longueurs that do little to advance the main story.

“Small, clever musicals are fragile things, though, and I don’t want to oversell this one in praising it. ‘Scotland, PA’ still needs to cure a few structural hiccups (the first act seems to end twice) and to address its longueurs and lapses of logic.” — Jesse Green, The New York Times, 23 Oct. 2019

Did you know?

You’ve probably come across long, tedious sections of books, plays, or musical works before, but perhaps you didn’t know there was a word for them. English speakers began using the French borrowing longueur in the late 18th century. As in English, French longueurs are tedious passages, with longueur itself literally meaning “length.” An early example of longueur used in an English text is from 18th-century writer Horace Walpole, who wrote in a letter, “Boswell’s book is gossiping; . . . but there are woful longueurs, both about his hero and himself.”

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Lake桑

May 27, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：homonymous（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 26, 2020 is:

homonymous • \hoh-MAH-nuh-mus\  • adjective

1 : ambiguous

2 : having the same designation

3 : of, relating to, or being homonyms

Examples:

“The Chelyabinsk meteorite became a media celebrity after the videos of its explosion in mid-air, occurring in February 2013 near the homonymous city, went viral on social networks.” — Luca Maltagliati, Nature, 17 Feb. 2017

“Like the bird homonymous with his name, ‘Cro’ operates like he’s under the cover of night. Though Cromartie’s numerically best game came against Tulane this fall, in which the senior recorded six tackles and a sack, Downing tabbed South Florida and Connecticut as the raider’s brightest.” — Katherine Fominykh, The Capital Gazette (Annapolis, Maryland), 12 Dec. 2019

Did you know?

The “ambiguous” sense of homonymous refers mainly to words that have two or more meanings. Logicians and scientists who wanted to refer to (or complain about) such equivocal words chose a name for them based on Latin and Greek, from Greek hom- (“same”) and onyma (“name”). In time, English speakers came up with another sense of homonymous referring to two things having the same name (Hawaii, the state, and Hawaii, the island, for example). Next came the use of homonymous to refer to homonyms, such as see and sea. There’s also a zoological sense. Sheep and goats whose right horn spirals to the right and left horn spirals to the left are said to be homonymous.

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Lake桑

May 26, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：instigate（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 25, 2020 is:

instigate • \IN-stuh-gayt\  • verb

: to goad or urge forward : provoke

Examples:

“The big thing about effective advertising is that it uses data effectively to instigate behavior.” — Nicole Ortiz, Adweek, 14 Apr. 2020

“In his usual genuine and silly fashion, [Chris] Martin sincerely explained his intent for making the live video and instigating a new series of live Instagram performances. ‘What would be nice would be to check in with some of you out there and see how you’re doing…. I had an idea that we could call this thing “Together At Home.” And who knows, maybe tomorrow someone else will take it over,’ he said.” — Sean Glaister, The Johns Hopkins (University) News-Letter, 6 Apr. 2020

Did you know?

Instigate is often used as a synonym of incite (as in “hoodlums instigating violence”), but the two words differ slightly in their overall usage. Incite usually stresses an act of stirring something up that one did not necessarily initiate (“the court’s decision incited riots”). Instigate implies responsibility for initiating or encouraging someone else’s action and usually suggests dubious or underhanded intent (“he was charged with instigating a conspiracy”). Another similar word, foment, implies causing something by means of persistent goading (“the leader’s speeches fomented a rebellion”). Deriving from the past participle of the Latin verb instigare, instigate stepped into English in the 16th century, after incite and ahead of foment.

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Lake桑

May 25, 2020 at 01:00PM

又一个周一。

一周又开始了。加油工作！（由 IFTTT 发送）

Lake桑

May 25, 2020 at 07:00AM

每日一词：xeriscape（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 24, 2020 is:

xeriscape • \ZEER-uh-skayp\  • noun

: a landscaping method developed especially for arid and semiarid climates that utilizes water-conserving techniques (such as the use of drought-tolerant plants, mulch, and efficient irrigation)

Examples:

After the severe drought led to local water restrictions, some residents began to look into xeriscape for more easily maintainable yards.

“This perennial has evergreen leaves from 2­-3 feet in length while the flower stalks can rise up to 5 feet with coral-colored tubular flowers. It’s drought-resistant, and the flowers can attract hummingbirds. This one would be great for xeriscape or low-maintenance gardens.” — Tom Ingram, The Tulsa (Oklahoma) World, 29 Feb. 2020

Did you know?

Xēros is the Greek word for “dry” that is the base for a handful of English words related to mainly dry printing (xerography) and dry, or xerophilous, habitats and their plants. In the early 1980s, the Greek adjective was used to name a type of landscaping practiced primarily in the arid western regions of the United States. (The Water Department of Denver, Colorado, is credited with the coinage.) Xeriscape, as it is called, uses plants that require little water as well as techniques that efficiently use water and reduce evaporation.

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Lake桑

May 24, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：shaggy-dog（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 23, 2020 is:

shaggy-dog • \shag-ee-DAWG\  • adjective

: of, relating to, or being a long-drawn-out circumstantial story concerning an inconsequential happening that impresses the teller as humorous or interesting but the hearer as boring and pointless; also : of, relating to, or being a similar humorous story whose humor lies in the pointlessness or irrelevance of the plot or punch line

Examples:

“Like most of Irving’s other books, ‘Owen Meany’ is kind of a shaggy-dog story. It wanders all over the place and there are many seemingly loose ends.” — Neil Gittleman, quoted in The Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, 13 Apr. 2020

“A shaggy-dog tale that treats crisscrossing forklift traffic as a sight worthy of the Blue Danube waltz, the German feature ‘In the Aisles’ mostly takes place in an anonymous, highway-side megastore….” — Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times, 13 June 2019

Did you know?

The origin of the adjective shaggy-dog isn’t truly known, but lexicographer Eric Partridge rather believably tells us that it originated with a shaggy-dog story of the amusing sort that involves—of course!—a shaggy dog. Today, the word sometimes refers to a rambling story that impresses the teller as humorous or interesting but the hearer as boring and pointless, but it can also refer to a similar story (or movie or TV show) that is actually humorous and whose humor lies in its very pointlessness or irrelevance.

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Lake桑

May 23, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：preen（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 22, 2020 is:

preen • \PREEN\  • verb

1 of a bird : to groom with the bill especially by rearranging the barbs and barbules of the feathers and by distributing oil from the uropygial gland

2 : to dress or smooth (oneself) up : primp

3 : to pride or congratulate (oneself) on an achievement

4 : to make oneself sleek

5 : to behave or speak with obvious pride or self-satisfaction

Examples:

“Adding a water source to your yard also will attract birds, providing not only drinking water for them but a place to wash their feathers and preen.” — Joan Morris, The Mercury News (San Jose, California), 13 Apr. 2020

“We keep tight control over our [Instagram] accounts’ aesthetics, down to the color scheme…. A select few follow the lead of celebrities who log on to publicize their lavish lives to millions, turning Instagram into a place to preen and present a reality far above the mundane.” — Diti Kohli, The Boston Globe, 8 Apr. 2020

Did you know?

Preen hatched in 14th-century Middle English, and early on it displayed various spelling forms, including prenen, prayne, prene, and preyne. The word traces to Anglo-French puroindre, or proindre, linking pur-, meaning “thoroughly,” with uindre, oindre, meaning “to anoint or rub.” One of the first writers known to apply preen to the human act of primping was Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales. Centuries later (sometime during the late 19th century), the prideful meaning of preen hatched, joining another bird-related word, plume, which was being used with the meaning “to pride or congratulate (oneself)” from the first half of the 17th century.

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Lake桑

May 22, 2020 at 01:00PM

又一个周五！

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Lake桑

May 22, 2020 at 12:00PM

每日一词：cowcatcher（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 21, 2020 is:

cowcatcher • \KOW-ketch-er\  • noun

: an inclined frame on the front of a railroad locomotive for throwing obstacles off the track

Examples:

For his entry in the town parade, John outfitted his black truck with a cowcatcher and smoke stack to resemble a 19th-century locomotive.

“Not in this show, unfortunately, is the amazing ‘Galloping Goose,’ which Springer photographed. Until the early 1950s its modified truck-boxcar mashup—with a cowcatcher in front—lumbered from Ridgway to Lizard Head Pass in Colorado.” — Harriet Howard Heithaus, The Naples (Florida) Daily News, 17 June 2019

Did you know?

New Jersey’s Camden and Amboy Railroad was the first in the U.S. to adopt the cowcatcher, adding it to its John Bull locomotive in the early 1830s. But, as the Model Railroader Cyclopedia warned, “don’t ever let a railroad man hear you use ‘cowcatcher.'” In its heyday, railroad workers preferred the name pilot for that v-shaped frame. In the 1940s and ’50s, cowcatcher jumped the tracks and took on a new life in TV and radio advertising jargon. The term was used for a commercial that was aired immediately before a program and that advertised a secondary product of the program’s sponsor. Such ads apparently got the name because they “went in front.”

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Lake桑

May 21, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：neoteric（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 20, 2020 is:

neoteric • \nee-uh-TAIR-ik\  • adjective

: recent in origin : modern

Examples:

“From the runways of Paris to the boutiques of New York to the time-sucking scroll of my social media-feeds, it seemed as if every few weeks I encountered some neoteric innovation that made me smirk or scratch my head, sometimes simultaneously.” — Jacob Gallagher, The Wall Street Journal, 30 Dec. 2019

“The projects I have designed mirror the correlation between past and present, always celebrating the old and welcoming the neoteric. I am respectful of the strong impressive history and strive to elevate the level of what has been left behind in time.” — Melinda Bell Dickey, quoted in The Danville (Virginia) Register & Bee, 15 Mar. 2020

Did you know?

An odd thing about neoteric is that this word for things that are modern and new is itself rather old. It’s been part of English since at least 1596, and its roots go back even further—to ancient Greek. We adapted the word from Late Latin neōtericus, which also means “recent.” Neōtericus in turn comes from Late Greek neōterikós and ultimately from Greek néos, meaning “new” or “young.” As old as its roots are, however, neoteric itself entered English later than its synonyms modern (which appeared earlier in the 16th century) and newfangled (which has been with us since the 15th century).

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Lake桑

May 20, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：disabuse（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 19, 2020 is:

disabuse • \diss-uh-BYOOZ\  • verb

: to free from error, misconception, or fallacy

Examples:

“While it’s difficult to predict how the practice of hiring will evolve over time, one thing is clear: it is extremely difficult to disabuse people of their biases, especially when those biases become cultural norms.” — Mark Travers, Forbes, 22 Mar. 2020

“[Anton] Chekhov has a way of disabusing us of our specialness, of making us realize that our problems are, in fact, just like everyone else’s.” — Megan O’Grady, The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2020

Did you know?

We know the verb abuse as a word meaning “to misuse,” “to mistreat,” or “to revile.” But when disabuse first appeared in the early 17th century, there was a sense of abuse, now obsolete, that meant “to deceive.” Sir Francis Bacon used that sense, for example, when he wrote in 1605, “You are much abused if you think your virtue can withstand the King’s power.” The prefix dis- has the sense of undoing the effect of a verb, so it’s not surprising that disabuse means “to undeceive.” English speakers didn’t come up with the idea of joining dis- to abuse all on their own, however. It was the French who first appended their prefix dés- to their verb abuser. English disabuse is modeled after French désabuser.

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Lake桑

May 19, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：exiguous（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 18, 2020 is:

exiguous • \ig-ZIG-yuh-wus\  • adjective

: excessively scanty : inadequate

Examples:

New computer equipment would be prohibitively expensive, given the rural school’s exiguous resources.

“[Adam] Smith’s death was the subject of rather little interest, in England and even in Scotland. The published obituaries were exiguous….” — Emma Rothschild, Economic Sentiments, 2001

Did you know?

Exiguous is so expansive sounding that you might expect it to mean “extensive” instead of “meager.” Even a scanty glimpse at the word’s etymology will disabuse you of that notion, however. Exiguous derives from the Latin exiguus, which has the same basic meaning as the modern English term. Exiguus, in turn, derives from the Latin verb exigere, which is variously translated as “to demand,” “to drive out,” or “to weigh or measure.” The idea of weighing or measuring so precisely as to be parsimonious or petty gave exiguous its present sense of inadequacy. Just so we aren’t accused of being skimpy with the details, we should also mention that exigere is the parent term underlying other English words including exact and exigent.

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Lake桑

May 18, 2020 at 01:00PM

又一个周一。

一周又开始了。加油工作！（由 IFTTT 发送）

Lake桑

May 18, 2020 at 07:00AM

每日一词：malapropism（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 17, 2020 is:

malapropism • \MAL-uh-prah-piz-um\  • noun

: the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; especially : the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context

Examples:

“A malapropism is using the wrong word, but one that sounds similar to the right word—like saying that medieval cathedrals are supported by flying buttocks. A good malapropism can throw you off, so that you scrape your head trying to figure out the error, and then having to think what the word should have been. (It’s flying buttresses, by the way).” — Britt Hanson, The Tuscon (Arizona) Weekly, 3 July 2014

“[Gilda Radner] brought a lot of charm and energy as a player [on Saturday Night Live]; from her impressions of Lucille Ball … to her unforgettable characters like … the malapropism-prone Emily Litella, the geeky Lisa Loopner and the letter-reading Roseanne Roseannadanna.” — Paolo Alfar, Screen Rant, 10 Mar. 2020

Did you know?

Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard Sheridan’s 1775 play The Rivals, was known for her verbal blunders. “He is the very pine-apple of politeness,” she exclaimed, complimenting a courteous young man. Thinking of the geography of contiguous countries, she spoke of the “geometry” of “contagious countries,” and she hoped that her daughter might “reprehend” the true meaning of what she was saying. She regretted that her “affluence” over her niece was small. The word malapropism derives from this blundering character’s name, which Sheridan took from the French term mal à propos, meaning “inappropriate.”

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Lake桑

May 17, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：bodacious（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 16, 2020 is:

bodacious • \boh-DAY-shuss\  • adjective

1 Southern & Midland : outright, unmistakable

2 : remarkable, noteworthy

3 : sexy, voluptuous

Examples:

“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has made a bodacious name for himself on several fronts. The California lawmaker has now set an all-time annual fundraising record for any Republican….” — Jennifer Harper, The Washington Times, 29 Jan. 2020

“The other period elements, as always, remain intact: jousting on horseback, outrageous cockney accents from bearded storytellers strumming lyres, and many bodacious, curvy bodices.” — Phillip Valys, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10 Feb. 2020

Did you know?

Some of our readers may know bodacious as a word that figured prominently in the lingo of the 1989 film Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Others may recall the term’s frequent use in the long-running “Snuffy Smith” comic strip. Neither the creators of the comic strip nor the movie can claim to have coined bodacious, which began appearing in print during the 1800s, but both likely contributed to its popularity. The exact origin of the word is uncertain, but it was most likely influenced by bold and audacious, and it may be linked to boldacious, a term from British dialect meaning “brazen” or “impudent.”

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Lake桑

May 16, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：stymie（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 15, 2020 is:

stymie • \STYE-mee\  • verb

: to present an obstacle to : stand in the way of

Examples:

“Ventura County supervisors are reviving an effort to build a bicycle path for commuting and recreation in a railroad corridor that parallels Highway 126, a project that’s been stymied in the past by agricultural interests who say it could jeopardize their crops.” — Kathleen Wilson, The Ventura County (California) Star, 23 Mar. 2020

“A bout with polio when she was 18 months old has left her wheelchair bound, but it’s clear … that it hasn’t stymied her instinct for leadership. Heumann would go on to serve under Presidents Clinton and Obama as an advisor on disability rights….” — David Alm, Forbes, 26 Mar. 2020

Did you know?

Golf was being played in Scotland as early as the 15th century, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that the sport really caught on in England and North America. It was also in the 19th century that the word stymie entered English as a noun referring to a golfing situation in which one player’s ball lies between another ball and the hole on the putting green, thereby blocking the line of play. Later, stymie came to be used as a verb meaning “to bring into the position of, or impede by, a stymie.” By the early 20th century, the verb was being applied in similarly vexing non-golf contexts.

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Lake桑

May 15, 2020 at 01:00PM

又一个周五！

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Lake桑

May 15, 2020 at 12:01PM

每日一词：refulgence（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 14, 2020 is:

refulgence • \rih-FULL-junss\  • noun

: a radiant or resplendent quality or state : brilliance

Examples:

“Looking back, … I am inclined to date the burgeoning refulgence of our love to something more like the calendar equivalent of April.” — Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, 2010

“In reality, Poinsettia’s bracts, like holly’s berries, only said ‘blood’ to the very devout. Most people saw in their scarlet a warmth, cheeriness and opulence that made it the season’s special hue…. In the centuries ahead, that refulgence would … make it the plant of the winter holidays for countless millions, whether Christian, secular or other.” — Mark Griffiths, Country Life, 21 Dec. 2019

Did you know?

“The full bow of the crescent moon peeps above the plain and shoots its gleaming arrows far and wide, filling the earth with a faint refulgence, as the glow of a good man’s deeds shines for a while upon his little world after his sun has set, lighting the fainthearted travellers who follow on towards a fuller dawn.” So British author Sir Henry Rider Haggard described the light of the moon in King Solomon’s Mines, published in 1885. Haggard’s example reflects both the modern meaning and the history of refulgence. That word derives from Latin refulgēre, which means “to shine brightly” and which is itself a descendant of the verb fulgēre, meaning “to shine.” Fulgēre also underlies effulgence, a shining synonym of refulgence.

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Lake桑

May 14, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：pelagic（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 13, 2020 is:

pelagic • \puh-LAJ-ik\  • adjective

: of, relating to, or living or occurring in the open sea : oceanic

Examples:

“Smith counted 10 rock pigeons and another red-breasted merganser, along with a thin-billed pelagic cormorant and three Brandt’s cormorant.” — Paul Rowley, The Vashon-Maury Island (Washington) Beachcomber, 14 Jan. 2020

“Bait fish schools usually long gone at this juncture are still fairly thick in Tampa Bay, Charlotte Harbor and out in the Gulf as well. Most of the pelagic species that migrate by our coast in the fall are still being caught with some regularity offshore.” — Zach Zacharias, The Herald Tribune (Sarasota, Florida), 15 Jan. 2020

Did you know?

Pelagic comes to us from Greek, via Latin. The Greek word pelagikos became pelagicus in Latin and then pelagic in English. (Pelagikos is derived from pelagos, the Greek word for the sea—it is also a source of archipelago—plus the adjectival suffix –ikos.) Pelagic first showed up in dictionaries in 1656; a definition from that time says that Pelagick (as it was then spelled) meant “of the Sea, or that liveth in the Sea.” Centuries later, writers are still using pelagic with the same meaning, albeit less frequently than its more familiar synonym oceanic.

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Lake桑

May 13, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：flotsam（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 12, 2020 is:

flotsam • \FLAHT-sum\  • noun

1 : floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo; broadly : floating debris

2 a : a floating population (as of emigrants or castaways)

b : miscellaneous or unimportant material

c : debris, remains

Examples:

The young couple’s apartment was adorned with the flotsam and jetsam of thrift stores and yard sales.

“The set is one room—but what a room, stuffed with the furniture, flotsam and jetsam of a half-century. And it’s not like the stage crew could go out and rent a lot of 1930s-era furniture. So the company has borrowed furniture from local residents for the duration of the play.” — Cheryl Schweizer, The Columbia Basin Herald (Moses Lake, Washington), 6 Feb. 2020

Did you know?

English speakers started using flotsam, jetsam, and lagan as legal terms in the 16th and 17th centuries (the earliest evidence of flotsam dates from around the early 1600s). The three words were used to establish claims of ownership to the three types of seaborne, vessel-originated goods they named. Flotsam was anything from a shipwreck (the word comes from Old French floter, meaning “to float”). Jetsam and lagan were items thrown overboard to lighten a ship. Lagan was distinguished from jetsam by having a buoy attached so the goods could be found if they sank. In the 19th century, when flotsam and jetsam took on extended meanings, they became synonyms, but they are still very often paired.

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Lake桑

May 12, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：aggrandize（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 11, 2020 is:

aggrandize • \uh-GRAN-dyze\  • verb

1 : to make great or greater : increase, enlarge

2 : to make appear great or greater : praise highly

3 : to enhance the power, wealth, position, or reputation of

Examples:

“I read [Ball Four by Jim Bouton] when I was 14, and, although I’ve never gone back to re-read or study it, it changed my view of the so-called heroes that played and play sports at a high level. They were and are great at what they do…. But they are only human, with remarkable skills and contributions to be appreciated. In some ways and cases, though, they are ordinary, less than ordinary, not to be aggrandized or worshipped.” — Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 11 July 2019

“By definition and disposition, the spy presents a daunting challenge to the historian. Expected to be elusive and deceptive, secret agents prefer to swallow written evidence, not preserve it. Then, if they survive to write memoirs, they often aggrandize their achievements at the expense of truth.” — Harold Holzer, The Wall Street Journal, 2 Aug. 2019

Did you know?

Aggrandize has enhanced the English vocabulary since the early 17th century. English speakers adapted agrandiss-, the stem of the French verb agrandir, to form aggrandize, and later used the French form agrandissement as the basis of the noun aggrandizement. (The root of agrandiss- is Latin; it comes from grandis, meaning “large, great.”) Nowadays, both noun and verb are regularly paired (somewhat disparagingly) with the prefix self- to refer to individuals bent on glorifying themselves, as sports writer Alan Shipnuck demonstrates in a 2015 Sports Illustrated article, writing “golf is not a sport that smiles upon the self-aggrandizing.”

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Lake桑

May 11, 2020 at 01:00PM

又一个周一。

一周又开始了。加油工作！（由 IFTTT 发送）

Lake桑

May 11, 2020 at 07:00AM

每日一词：indomitable（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 10, 2020 is:

indomitable • \in-DAH-muh-tuh-bul\  • adjective

: incapable of being subdued : unconquerable

Examples:

“‘An American in Paris’ is the new Tony Award-winning musical about an American soldier, a mysterious French girl and an indomitable European city, each yearning for a new beginning in the aftermath of war.” — The Richmond County (North Carolina) Daily Journal, 31 Mar. 2020

“I’m encouraged by the indomitable human spirit—the capacity to innovate out of necessity and for the greater good, and the capacity to adapt.” — Karen Natzel, The Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, Oregon), 24 Mar. 2020

Did you know?

The prefix in- means “not” in numerous English words (think of indecent, indecisive, inconvenient, and infallible). When in– teamed up with the Latin domitare (“to tame”), the result was a word meaning “unable to be tamed.” Indomitable was first used in English in the 1600s as a synonym of wild, but over time the wildness associated with indomitable developed into a specific kind of strength. By the 1800s, indomitable was being used for people whose courage and persistence helped them to succeed in difficult situations.

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Lake桑

May 10, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：decoupage（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 9, 2020 is:

decoupage • \day-koo-PAHZH\  • noun

1 : the art of decorating surfaces by applying cutouts (as of paper) and then coating with usually several layers of finish (such as lacquer or varnish)

2 : work produced by such art

Examples:

Her eye was drawn to a small table that had been decorated with decoupage.

“… the Glen House is bathed in natural light, heated by hydroelectric power and dotted with bits of history along with whimsical artwork that celebrates nature just outside, respectfully (witness the deer head mounted above the fireplace; it’s a decoupage made from reclaimed fabric that picks up on the accents of the room).” — Moira McCarthy, The Boston Herald, 29 Jan. 2020

Did you know?

Decoupage originated in France in the 17th century as a means of artistically decorating pieces of furniture with pictures. It took a few centuries, but by the mid-20th century decoupage became a household name in American interior decoration. The word is fashioned from Middle French decouper, meaning “to cut out.” Decouper, in turn, pastes together the prefix de- (“from” or “away”) and couper (“to cut). Other descendants of couper include coppice (a growth of small trees that are periodically cut), coupé (a horse-drawn carriage for two with a driver outside and whose name is thought to be from French carrosse coupé, literally, “cut-off coach”), and the clear-cut coupon.

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Lake桑

May 09, 2020 at 01:00PM

每日一词：verboten（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for May 8, 2020 is:

verboten • \ver-BOH-tun\  • adjective

: forbidden; especially : prohibited by dictate

Examples:

“An array of other city meetings have been canceled…. Scott said his office is working as fast as it can to find new, 21st-century solutions to the needs of the community and of city government at a time when physical gatherings are verboten.” — Kevin Rector and Liz Bowie, The Baltimore Sun, 30 Mar. 2020

“Yet divorce was still frowned on in British society—and marrying a divorcee whose former spouse was still alive was verboten according to the Church of England. This is why Edward VIII had to abdicate the throne for his brother George VI: He couldn’t be both the head of his country’s Church—a role established, ironically, by his divorced ancestor Henry VIII—and the husband of a divorced woman with two living spouses.” — Kate Williams, CNN.com, 22 Mar. 2020

Did you know?

Despite its spelling, the adjective verboten has nothing to do with verb, or any of the other words in English related to Latin verbum. Rather, verboten comes from German, and originally from Old High German farboten, the past participle of the verb farbioten, meaning “to forbid.” (Forbid itself derives from Old English forbēodan, a relative of farbioten.) Verboten is used to describe things that are forbidden according to a law or a highly regarded authority. There also exists the rarely used noun verboten, meaning “something forbidden by authority,” as in “well-established verbotens.”

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Lake桑

May 08, 2020 at 01:00PM