yaw \YAW\, verb:
1. To move unsteadily; weave.
2. To deviate temporarily from a straight course, as a ship.
3. (Of a vehicle) to have a motion about the vertical axis.
Test pilot Joseph A. Walker flew the X-15 an estimated 28 miles high Thursday, testing a new way to curb the rocket plane's tendency to yaw as it plunges back from the edge of space.
-- "X-15 Flight Tests Tighter Yaw Control", Milwaukee Journal, 1962
Now to this hand, now to that, he yawed in his faltering flight, and still at every billow that he broke, he spasmodically sank in the sea, or sideways rolled towards the sky his one beating fin.
-- Herman Melville, Moby Dick, or The Whale
Yaw migrates to English from the Old Norse jaga, "to drive, chase."
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
amok
amok \uh-MUHK\, adjective:
1. In or into a jumbled or confused state.
2. In or into an uncontrolled state or a state of extreme activity.
3. In a frenzy to do violence or kill.
noun:
1. A psychic disturbance characterized by depression followed by a manic urge to murder.
There's a legend that when the Lumiere brothers - pioneers of motion pictures - showed their film of an approaching train in 1896, the audience ran amok in terror.
-- Claire O'Neill, "Autochromes: The First Flash Of Color", NPR
With fiscal affairs amok, North Dakota higher education is experiencing its third major scandal since statehood.
-- Lloyd Omdahl, "Omdahl: Restraint the best recipe", Inforum
Amok enters English from the Malay amuk, "attacking furiously." The word was adopted into Portugese as amouco.
1. In or into a jumbled or confused state.
2. In or into an uncontrolled state or a state of extreme activity.
3. In a frenzy to do violence or kill.
noun:
1. A psychic disturbance characterized by depression followed by a manic urge to murder.
There's a legend that when the Lumiere brothers - pioneers of motion pictures - showed their film of an approaching train in 1896, the audience ran amok in terror.
-- Claire O'Neill, "Autochromes: The First Flash Of Color", NPR
With fiscal affairs amok, North Dakota higher education is experiencing its third major scandal since statehood.
-- Lloyd Omdahl, "Omdahl: Restraint the best recipe", Inforum
Amok enters English from the Malay amuk, "attacking furiously." The word was adopted into Portugese as amouco.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
indemnity
indemnity \in-DEM-ni-tee\, noun:
1. Protection or security against damage or loss.
2. Compensation for damage or loss sustained.
3. Something paid by way of such compensation.
4. Legal exemption from penalties attaching to unconstitutional or illegal actions, granted to public officers and other persons.
But he suddenly got up, and after a mad burst of laughter, he cried: "An indemnity! Holy Virgin, an indemnity! Don't you realize that I want to give her everything, the spring, the carnations, the house, and all the Soubeyran inheritance, the lands, the house, the treasure, my name, and my life?"
-- Marcel Pagnol, Jean de Florette
"Reconciliation is not simply a question of indemnity or amnesty and letting bygones be bygones," Omar said. "If the wounds of the past are to be healed... disclosure of the truth and its acknowledgment are essential."
-- "Mandela Will Grant Amnesty For Some Political Crimes", Jet, 1994.
One of the roots of indemnity, the Middle English damnum, "loss", relates to the modern verb damn.
1. Protection or security against damage or loss.
2. Compensation for damage or loss sustained.
3. Something paid by way of such compensation.
4. Legal exemption from penalties attaching to unconstitutional or illegal actions, granted to public officers and other persons.
But he suddenly got up, and after a mad burst of laughter, he cried: "An indemnity! Holy Virgin, an indemnity! Don't you realize that I want to give her everything, the spring, the carnations, the house, and all the Soubeyran inheritance, the lands, the house, the treasure, my name, and my life?"
-- Marcel Pagnol, Jean de Florette
"Reconciliation is not simply a question of indemnity or amnesty and letting bygones be bygones," Omar said. "If the wounds of the past are to be healed... disclosure of the truth and its acknowledgment are essential."
-- "Mandela Will Grant Amnesty For Some Political Crimes", Jet, 1994.
One of the roots of indemnity, the Middle English damnum, "loss", relates to the modern verb damn.
festoon
festoon \fe-STOON\, verb:
1. To adorn with hanging chains or strands of any material.
2. Dentistry. To reproduce natural gum patterns around the teeth or a denture.
noun:
1. A string or chain of flowers, foliage, ribbon, etc., suspended in a curve between two points.
2. A decorative representation of this, as in architectural work or on pottery.
3. A fabric suspended, draped, and bound at intervals to form graceful loops or scalloped folds.
4. Dentistry. The garlandlike area of the gums surrounding the necks of the teeth.
Its medium green leaves are perfect backdrops for the large orb-shaped white flowers blushed with pink that festoon the tree in May and June.
-- Leslie Cox, "Leaf beetles don't give snowball a chance in ...", Comox Valley Record
For nearly half a mile along both sides of a secondary road near Prattville, Alabama, you can see thousands of signs, crosses, wrecked cars, and mailboxes festooned with barbed wire.
-- Mark Sceurman, Mark Moran, Matt Lake, "Rice's Miracle Cross Garden", Weird U.S. The ODDyssey Continues: Your Travel Guide to America's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets
A festoon is "a string or chain of flowers, foliage, ribbon, etc., suspended in a curve between two points." Modern usage has expanded the definition of the verb form to mean "to fill or cover", but dictionaries tend to maintain the narrower scope. Festoon derives from the Italian feston, "decoration for a feast."
1. To adorn with hanging chains or strands of any material.
2. Dentistry. To reproduce natural gum patterns around the teeth or a denture.
noun:
1. A string or chain of flowers, foliage, ribbon, etc., suspended in a curve between two points.
2. A decorative representation of this, as in architectural work or on pottery.
3. A fabric suspended, draped, and bound at intervals to form graceful loops or scalloped folds.
4. Dentistry. The garlandlike area of the gums surrounding the necks of the teeth.
Its medium green leaves are perfect backdrops for the large orb-shaped white flowers blushed with pink that festoon the tree in May and June.
-- Leslie Cox, "Leaf beetles don't give snowball a chance in ...", Comox Valley Record
For nearly half a mile along both sides of a secondary road near Prattville, Alabama, you can see thousands of signs, crosses, wrecked cars, and mailboxes festooned with barbed wire.
-- Mark Sceurman, Mark Moran, Matt Lake, "Rice's Miracle Cross Garden", Weird U.S. The ODDyssey Continues: Your Travel Guide to America's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets
A festoon is "a string or chain of flowers, foliage, ribbon, etc., suspended in a curve between two points." Modern usage has expanded the definition of the verb form to mean "to fill or cover", but dictionaries tend to maintain the narrower scope. Festoon derives from the Italian feston, "decoration for a feast."
Monday, June 14, 2010
quintessential
quintessential \kwin-te-SEN-shel\, adjective:
Being the most typical manifestation of a quality or a thing.
Carrie, the quintessential single girl, finally ends up married to her true love but doesn't know what to do with him.
-- Ian Caddell, "Morocco brought Sex and the City 2's Sarah Jessica Parker and castmates together", Straight.com
In such a moonlight Gloria's face was of a pervading, reminiscent white, and with a modicum of effort they would slip off the blinders of custom and each would find in the other almost the quintessential romance of the vanished June.
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The beautiful and the damned
Quintessential translates from Latin as the "fifth element", quint "fifth" and essentia "essence." The idea of the fifth element stems from Greek and medieval alchemical beliefs in the purest essence of a substance.
Being the most typical manifestation of a quality or a thing.
Carrie, the quintessential single girl, finally ends up married to her true love but doesn't know what to do with him.
-- Ian Caddell, "Morocco brought Sex and the City 2's Sarah Jessica Parker and castmates together", Straight.com
In such a moonlight Gloria's face was of a pervading, reminiscent white, and with a modicum of effort they would slip off the blinders of custom and each would find in the other almost the quintessential romance of the vanished June.
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The beautiful and the damned
Quintessential translates from Latin as the "fifth element", quint "fifth" and essentia "essence." The idea of the fifth element stems from Greek and medieval alchemical beliefs in the purest essence of a substance.
vernacular
vernacular \ver-NAK-yuh-ler\, noun:
1. The plain variety of language in everyday use.
2. The language or vocabulary peculiar to a class or profession.
3. The native speech or language of a place.
4. Any medium or mode of expression that reflects popular taste or indigenous styles.
adjective:
1. (of language) Native or indigenous.
2. Using the native language of a place.
3. Using plain, everyday language.
The BOP, as it is known in industry vernacular, sits atop the wellhead on the seafloor and contains a series of plates, known as rams, stacked on top of each other. The plates close and seal the well if a problem occurs.
-- Lauren Steffy, "Oil rig's blowout preventer might not be the main culprit", Herald Tribune, May 2010
The Dow dropped nearly 1,000 points on May 6, before it recovered around 600 points to close down over 300 points. In mountain climbing vernacular, that's an "elevation change" of 1,600, or almost 15 percent, in one day's hike through the jagged peaks of Wall Street.
-- Stan Sewitch, "Fastest lemmings in the West", San Diego Daily Transcript, May 2010
The origin of vernacular is the Latin vernaculus, "domestic or native."
1. The plain variety of language in everyday use.
2. The language or vocabulary peculiar to a class or profession.
3. The native speech or language of a place.
4. Any medium or mode of expression that reflects popular taste or indigenous styles.
adjective:
1. (of language) Native or indigenous.
2. Using the native language of a place.
3. Using plain, everyday language.
The BOP, as it is known in industry vernacular, sits atop the wellhead on the seafloor and contains a series of plates, known as rams, stacked on top of each other. The plates close and seal the well if a problem occurs.
-- Lauren Steffy, "Oil rig's blowout preventer might not be the main culprit", Herald Tribune, May 2010
The Dow dropped nearly 1,000 points on May 6, before it recovered around 600 points to close down over 300 points. In mountain climbing vernacular, that's an "elevation change" of 1,600, or almost 15 percent, in one day's hike through the jagged peaks of Wall Street.
-- Stan Sewitch, "Fastest lemmings in the West", San Diego Daily Transcript, May 2010
The origin of vernacular is the Latin vernaculus, "domestic or native."
juggernaut
juggernaut \JUHG-er-nawt\, noun:
1. Any large, overpowering, destructive force.
2. Something, such as a belief or institution, that elicits blind and destructive devotion.
3. An idol of Krishna, at Puri in Orissa, India, annually drawn on an enormous cart under whose wheels devotees are said to have thrown themselves to be crushed.
It is a pity that every time this economic juggernaut encounters successful international competition in manufacturing, it resorts to bullying against its own consumers' welfare and that of the working poor worldwide.
-- Zhang Xiang, "Going toe to toe with the bully", Xinhua
It sounds like a kamikaze mission: an upstart with a meager number of users and no capital squaring off against Facebook, a social networking juggernaut with more than 400 million members and a $15 billion valuation.
-- Jenna Wortham, "Rivals Seize on Troubles of Facebook", New York Times, May 2010
Juggernaut is a borrowing from Hindi with dramatic roots. The Hindu source Jagannath, is a name of the divinity Krishna, literally "lord of the world." Reputably, Jagannath also refers to an idol of Krishna, at Puri in Orissa, India, annually drawn on an enormous cart under whose wheels devotees are said to have thrown themselves to be crushed.
1. Any large, overpowering, destructive force.
2. Something, such as a belief or institution, that elicits blind and destructive devotion.
3. An idol of Krishna, at Puri in Orissa, India, annually drawn on an enormous cart under whose wheels devotees are said to have thrown themselves to be crushed.
It is a pity that every time this economic juggernaut encounters successful international competition in manufacturing, it resorts to bullying against its own consumers' welfare and that of the working poor worldwide.
-- Zhang Xiang, "Going toe to toe with the bully", Xinhua
It sounds like a kamikaze mission: an upstart with a meager number of users and no capital squaring off against Facebook, a social networking juggernaut with more than 400 million members and a $15 billion valuation.
-- Jenna Wortham, "Rivals Seize on Troubles of Facebook", New York Times, May 2010
Juggernaut is a borrowing from Hindi with dramatic roots. The Hindu source Jagannath, is a name of the divinity Krishna, literally "lord of the world." Reputably, Jagannath also refers to an idol of Krishna, at Puri in Orissa, India, annually drawn on an enormous cart under whose wheels devotees are said to have thrown themselves to be crushed.
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