Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Bb: Bilking

Bilking:
1.
a. To defraud, cheat, or swindle: made millions bilking wealthy clients on art sales.
b. To evade payment of: bilk one's debts.
2. To thwart or frustrate: "Fate . . . may be to a certain extent bilked" Thomas Carlyle.
3. To elude.
n.
1. One who cheats.
2. Obsolete A hoax or swindle.
[Perhaps alteration of balk.]

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Tt: tracudianism

Tracudianism
Theology. the doctrine that a new human soul is generated from the souls of the parents at the moment of conception. — traducianist, n. — traducianistic, adj.
from Latin, vine-branch trained for propagation, to lead across.

-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.



Tt: Transmigration

Transmigration:
intr.v. trans·mi·grat·ed, trans·mi·grat·ing, trans·mi·grates
1. To migrate.
2. To pass into another body after death. Used of the soul.

Dd: Dionysia

Dionysia:
celebrations honoring the wine god, Dionysus.
Another word for revelry.


Monday, December 29, 2008

Dd: Delphic

Adjective
obscure or ambiguous, like the ancient Greek oracle at Delphi.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Aa: Apollonian

Apollonian: Harmonious, ordered rational, calm.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Vv: Venereal



Venereal: Having to do with sexual intercourse or disease transmitted by it.

Venus looks forward to the lovers she will draw to her at Virginia's Fountain. The fountain spouts in the middle of her beautiful garden. She listens to odes,wearing her silk kimono, as she looks alluringly. She smells of rose hips, sprinkled on her elongated neck. Venus uses her sirens to allure her next lover.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Oo: Odium

Found in the Apologetic of Tertullian:

But , if they condemn her unheard-let us set on one side the
odium such injustice will not incur- they will rouse the suspicion that they have some secret sense that they are unjust, when they refuse to hear what, once heard, they cannot condemn. (Line 3)

Odium (n):
1. Strong dislike, contempt, or aversion.
2. A state of disgrace resulting from hateful or detestable conduct.


Thursday, December 25, 2008

Aa: Axiom

1. A self-evident or universally recognized truth; a maxim.
2. An established rule, principle, or law.
3. A self-evident principle or one that is accepted as true without proof as the basis for argument; a postulate.

from Greek, axios, worthy

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Hh: Hector

Hector: to bully; to intimidate or harass by bluster or personal pressure.




Monday, December 22, 2008

Ss: Smarm

Verb
Brit informal
1. to bring (oneself) into favour (with)
2. Old-fashioned (often foll. by down)to flatten (the hair) with oil [origin unknown]

Adj: Smarmy



55 Word Story:
Warning: Smarm is sticky like a spider web. The smell gets around you, a great cloud that you can't shake off. It clouds clear perception and leads to self denying destruction. The car sales man wears the cowboy hat but has no cattle. Smarm is an offensive, slimy, gooey, obnoxious smell, and must be avoided.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Gg: Gossamer

They have even convinced themselves that thin air is good for their bellies and following that logic, have gone on sparse diets, refuting all but the most gossamer food.
Einstine's Dreams by Alan Lightman.

Noun
1. a very fine fabric
2. a filmy cobweb often seen on foliage or floating in the air [probably Middle English gos goose + somer summer; referring to St Martin's summer, a period in November when goose was eaten and cobwebs abound]







Saturday, December 20, 2008

Cc: Copacetic

Very satisfactory or acceptable; fine: "You had to be a good judge of what a man was like, and the English was copacetic" John O'Hara.



Happy Birthday to Gregorio Roth!!!!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Ss: Sisyphean



Ss: Sisyphean: Endless and difficult.
Reputedly the cleverest man on earth, Sisyphus tricked the gods into bring him back to life after he died. For this they punished him back to the underworld, where he must eternally roll a huge rock u p a long steep hill, only to watch it roll back to where it started.
55 Word Story:
Bloging? Am I involved with a deluded Sisyphean task? For there are thousands of blogs out there, least I forget! Why the endless task of 55 words, only to start again, renewal of, renewing itself, rewound to a tight precision... like a tight piece of leather, flogging out words in my mind...but I am like Sisyphus who endlessly rolled a rock up a hill only to start again....

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Ee: Egregious

Egregious: shockingly bad: egregious government waste [Latin egregius outstanding (literally: standing out from the herd)]

Tt: Tremendum

Tt: Tremendum:
From RC Sproul's book The H0liness of God:

Otto spoke of the tremendum (awe-ful-ness) because of the fear the holy provokes in us.

Sometimes it causes me tremble... tremble... tumble."



Pp: Promethean



Promethean
: New or creative in a daring way. (Like stealing fire from the gods.)

Promothean:
Promethean stole fire from the Gods. His punishment was a renewal of each day exactly as the last day was played, some famous words on the punishment:

Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! he hates him much
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer.
King Lear, 5. 3 William Shakespeare

Phil: When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.
Groundhogs Day, 1993

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Vv: vulcanize



Vulcanize: To treat crude or synthetic rubber or plastic so that it becomes elastic and strong and resists decay.

55 Word Story:
Vulcan arms hammered on new iron, sweat bedded down his head, forging a new thunderbolt for Jupiter. Vulcan looked at his diploma on the wall, that said Official Fire Smithy For the Gods. Once a year he would attend his own "Burningman Festival", and watch live fish thrown into the bonfire as a pleasing sacrifice.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Tt: Triton


Triton: (1) A being with a human upper body and the lower body of a fish; a merman. (2)Any of various large mollusks with a heavy, conical shell.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Mm: Moni



Moni:
comes from the Latin verb monere, "to warn" or "to scold": Warning and scolding often are rather similar, since many warnings could be called "pre-scoldings."
admonish: to warn or criticize mildly.

monitory
: giving warning, cautionary.

monitor
: to keep track of or watch, usually for a special reason.

premonition:
A previous warning or notice: forewarning (2) A feeling about an even or situation before it happens.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Tt: Titanic



Titanic: Having great size, strength, or power.

Titans munched on jolly green vegetables, ambrosia and nectarines. The Titan's salivating glands splashed on the cold urban sidewalks, everyone thought it was raining, but we knew better, the rain was those jolly green giants. Kids splashed in the salty waters. The spittle ran down the titans chins and the juice went towards Ocean's rivers.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Ww: Wended



If the oranges hadn't wended their way northward by Thanksgiving, there were sure to arrive before the Christmas season, stacked first in crates at the depot, filling that musty place, where pews sat back to back, with a springtime acidity, as if the building had been rinsed with a renewing elixir that set it right for yet another year.
Larry Woiwode Ode to an Orange
Florida Orange Labels

Wended

to make (one's way) in a particular direction: it's time to wend our way back home [Old English wendan]

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Mm: Martial



Martial: Having to do with war and military life.

Mars awoke to the sound of pounding on wood. His pet woodpecker Picus was needy. He stretched out his mighty arms. His arms were tattooed with pictures of Britain, Spain, Crete, and Jerusalem; places he had conquered. His wolf, curled up at the end of the bed, raised his head, saying: "Feed the bird allready!"

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Jj: Junoesque


Junoesque:
Having mature , poised, and dignified beauty.

55 Word Story:

Juno heard the mature news from Hera.
She stood poised, and recapitulated all of it...
"Jupiter produced Minerva from his own head! Can you imagine your husband....birthing a child? What was he thinking? Should I bake a Carrot Kugel...or get even?"

So she gave birth to Mars and the rest is dignified beauty...


Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Cc: Cereal



The Origin of Cereal Named after the Roman Goddess Ceres:

The Roman goddess Ceres (Greek Demeter) was a pacifist who loved to vacation on Crete. She was a manager of the food-giving plants,and the grains came to carry her name; cereals of the Romans included wheat,barley, spelt, oats,and millet. She loved to feed her birds millet because she enjoyed their voluptuous dinning.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Ee- Evangelism



Ee- Evangelism

n.
1. Zealous preaching and dissemination of the gospel, as through missionary work.
2. Militant zeal for a cause.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Vv: Visceral




Visceral was found on 12.05.2008 at the blog post:

Film Review: Stellet Licht by the Naked Pastor

But I hung in there because I was intrigued by the very grounded, visceral and honest approach of the film.

adj.
1. Relating to, situated in, or affecting the viscera.
2. Perceived in or as if in the viscera; profound: "The scientific approach to life is not really appropriate to states of visceral anguish" Anthony Burgess.
3. Instinctive: visceral needs. See Synonyms at instinctive.


Friday, December 5, 2008

Ss: Sanctification

Found in Matthew Henry's commentary on Galations 1:1-5
But it is in vain for those who are not delivered from this present evil world by the sanctification of the Spirit, to expect that they are freed from its condemnation by the blood of Jesus.

tr.v. sanc·ti·fied, sanc·ti·fy·ing, sanc·ti·fies
1. To set apart for sacred use; consecrate.
2. To make holy; purify.
3. To give religious sanction to, as with an oath or vow: sanctify a marriage.
4. To give social or moral sanction to.
5. To make productive of holiness or spiritual blessing.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Pp Pen/Pun


Pen/Pun comes from the Latin words poena, "penalty" and punire, "to punish" . From them come such English words as penalty and repentance; when a penalty is given to someone it is expected that he or she will be moved to repentence.

impunity: freedom from punishment, harm, or loss.

penal:
Having to do with punishment or penalties, or instituions which punishment is given.

Penance:
An act of self punishment or religious devotion to show sorrow or rgeret for sin or wrongdoing.

punitive:
giving, involving, or aiming at punishment.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Pp: Word Family PATH



PATH:

comes from the Greek word pathos, which means "suffering." A pathetic sight moves us to pity, Pathos itself is used in English to describe the intense emotions produced by tragedy.

apathetic: (1) showing or felling little or no emotion. (2) Having no interest.

Empathy: the feeling of or the ability to feel, the emotions and sense of another.

Pathology: (1) The study of diseases

Sociopath: A mentally ill or unstable person who acts in a way that harms people and society.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Uu: Unctious



Unctuous:
Found in the book Silence in October by Jens Christian Grondahl...

To begin with I thought it was some kind of moral reform, and he did talk about having children with an unctuous piety I would never have ascribed to him, but they didn't have any, and soon he was on the rampage again like a fox in the hen house.

Unctuous:
adj.
1. Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness: "the unctuous, complacent court composer who is consumed with envy and self-loathing" Rhoda Koenig.
2. Having the quality or characteristics of oil or ointment; slippery.
3. Containing or composed of oil or fat.
4. Abundant in organic materials; soft and rich: unctuous soil.

Middle English from Old French unctueus, to anoint...


Synonyms: unctuous, fulsome, oily, oleaginous, smarmy
These adjectives mean insincerely, self-servingly, or smugly agreeable or earnest: an unctuous toady; gave the dictator a fulsome introduction; oily praise; oleaginous hypocrisy; smarmy self-importance.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Pp: Palimpset



Palimpset:
n.
1. A manuscript, typically of papyrus or parchment, that has been written on more than once, with the earlier writing incompletely erased and often legible.
2. An object, place, or area that reflects its history: "Spaniards in the sixteenth century . . . saw an ocean moving south . . . through a palimpsest of bayous and distributary streams in forested paludal basins" John McPhee.

From the Latin Word meaning to scrape, or scrape again...

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Mm: Word Family Mar



Mm MAR:
from the Latin word mare, meaning sea, brings its salty tang to English words in marine, and submarine...
Aquamarine Marina Mariner Maritime

Friday, November 28, 2008

Tt:: Terr


TERR comes from the Latin terra, "earth." Terra firma is a Latin phrase that means "Firm Ground" as opposed to the swaying seas; a terrace is a levled area along a sloping hill; the French call potatoes pommes de terre, litterally "apples of the earth", territory is a specific piece of land.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Ww: Wriggles V.


Wriggles:
The second (form of time) squirms and wriggles like a blue fish in a bay.
From: p.23 of Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams a Novel

1.
To turn or twist the body with sinuous writhing motions; squirm.
2. To proceed with writhing motions.
3. To worm one's way into or out of a situation; insinuate or extricate oneself by sly or subtle means.
v.tr.
1. To move with a wriggling motion: wriggle a toe.
2. To make (one's way, for example) by or as if by wriggling: He wriggled his way into favor.
n.
1. A wriggling movement.
2. A sinuous path, line, or marking.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Aa: Apologist




Aa
: Apologist: Noun

a person who argues to defend or justify some policy or institution; "an apologist for capital punishment"
justifier, vindicator advocate, advocator, exponent, proponent - a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea

Rr: RECAPITULATION


v. re·ca·pit·u·lat·ed, re·ca·pit·u·lat·ing, re·ca·pit·u·lates
1. To repeat in concise form.
2. Biology To appear to repeat (the evolutionary stages of the species) during the embryonic development of the individual organism.
3. Christ repeated Adam only in reverse.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Cc: Calcified ADV.


Calcified was found in the poem The O's by Baron Wormser, Writers Almanac Nov. 25, 2008:

A sack of calcified lust.

Calcified: Adverb
1. To make or become stony or chalky by deposition of calcium salts.
2. To make or become inflexible and unchanging.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Pp: Propagandize

n.
1. The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause.
2. Material disseminated by the advocates or opponents of a doctrine or cause: wartime propaganda.
3. Propaganda Roman Catholic Church A division of the Roman Curia that has authority in the matter of preaching the gospel, of establishing the Church in non-Christian countries, and of administering Church missions in territories where there is no properly organized hierarchy.
Short for New Latin Sacra Congrgatio de Propanda Fide, Sacred Congregation for Porpogating the fatih (established 1622) propagare to propagate)


Is it Child Abuse to propagandize a Christian belief system to them?

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Pp: Word Family PUT

Pp
PUT, from the Latin Verb putare, meaning "to think, consider, or believe," has come into English in a variety of forms. A reputation, for example is what others think of you; a deputy is someone "considered as" the person who appointed him or her.
Words in the family are: disputatious, impute, putative, reputed.

From:
Websters New Explorer Vocabulary Skill Builder, Spring Field, Massachusetts: Meriam Webster, 2000.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Ff: Flummoxed

Sited: Tom Peters used the word in the book, RE-Imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age:
IBM nailed Control Data's scalp to the wall, but was flummoxed by the new kid on the block, geeky Bill Gates.
Flummoxed:
tr.v. flum·moxed, flum·mox·ing, flum·mox·es Informal
To confuse; perplex.

[Probably of English dialectal origin.]

Thursday, November 20, 2008

S s: secular

adj. (describing a person, place or thing):
1. Worldly rather than spiritual.
2. Not specifically relating to religion or to a religious body: secular music.
3. Relating to or advocating secularism.
4. Not bound by monastic restrictions, especially not belonging to a religious order. Used of the clergy.
5. Occurring or observed once in an age or century.
6. Lasting from century to century.
n.
1. A member of the secular clergy.
2. A layperson.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Definitions from: THE FREE DICTIONARY from FARLEX

A-a
Antinomian:

1. Opposed to or denying the fixed meaning or universal applicability of moral law: "


[From Medieval Latin Antinom, antinomians, pl. of antinomus, opposed to the moral law : Greek anti-, anti- + Greek nomos, law; see nem- in Indo-European roots.]
B-b
benevolent
adj.
1. Characterized by or suggestive of doing good.
2. Of, concerned with, or organized for the benefit of charity.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin benevolns, benevolent- : bene, well; see deu-2 in Indo-European roots + volns, present participle of velle, to wish; see wel-1 in Indo-European roots.]

be·nevo·lent·ly adv.
Synonyms: benevolent, charitable, eleemosynary, philanthropic
These adjectives mean of, concerned with, providing, or provided by charity: a benevolent fund; a charitable foundation; eleemosynary relief; philanthropic contributions. See Also Synonyms at kind1.

E-e

eschatology
1. The branch of theology that is concerned with the end of the world or of humankind.
2. A belief or a doctrine concerning the ultimate or final things, such as death, the destiny of humanity, the Second Coming, or the Last Judgment.

[Greek eskhatos, last; see eghs in Indo-European roots + -logy.]

Eucharist
n.
1. A sacrament and the central act of worship in many Christian churches, which was instituted at the Last Supper and in which bread and wine are consecrated and consumed in remembrance of Jesus's death; Communion.
2. The consecrated elements of this rite; Communion.

[Middle English eukarist, from Old French eucariste, from Late Latin eucharistia, from Greek eukharisti, from eukharistos, grateful, thankful : eu-, eu- + kharizesthai, to show favor (from kharis, grace; see gher-2 in Indo-European roots).]


M-m

malevolent
adj.
1. Having or exhibiting ill will; wishing harm to others; malicious.
2. Having an evil or harmful influence: malevolent state.

ma·levo·lent·ly adv.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


malevolent [mal-lev-a-lent]
Adjective
wishing evil to others; malicious [Latin malevolens]
malevolence n
malevolently adv

Collins Essential English Dictionary 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2004, 2006