A.Word.A.Day--know-it-all

 Wordsmith.orgThe magic of words 


Mar 5, 2020
This week’s theme
Tosspot words

This week’s words
canker-blossom
cure-all
wantwit
know-it-all

know-it-all
“Sorry, you are out of refills for your Knowitall prescription. Looks like you’re gonna have to shut up.”
Image: someecards
Bookmark and Share Facebook Twitter Digg MySpace Bookmark and Share
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

know-it-all


PRONUNCIATION:
(NO-uht-ahl)

MEANING:
noun: One who acts as if they know everything, dismissing others’ ideas or advice.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English cnawan (to recognize, identify) + hit (it) + eall/all (all). Earliest documented use: 1873

USAGE:
“He shakes his head smiling. ‘Still an insufferable know-it-all.’
She gives him a taut, bitter grin. ‘And you’re still so smugly, blithely ignorant.’”
Robert Jackson Bennett; City of Stairs; Crown; 2014.

See more usage examples of know-it-all in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Sometimes they seem like living shapes, / The people of the sky, / Guests in white raiment coming down / From heaven, which is close by. -Lucy Larcom, teacher and author (5 Mar 1824-1893)

at No comments:

AWADmail Issue 924

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.
at No comments:

A.Word.A.Day--pleniloquence

 Wordsmith.orgThe magic of words 


Mar 13, 2020
This week’s theme
Yours to discover

This week’s words
quidditative
microcephalic
chrysocracy
lachrymogenic
pleniloquence

Enter the Contest
Today is the last day to enter
Bookmark and Share Facebook Twitter Digg MySpace Bookmark and Share
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

pleniloquence


PRONUNCIATION:
(ple-NIL-uh-kwens)

MEANING:
noun: Excessive talking.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin pleni- (full) + -loquence (speaking). Earliest documented use: 1838. The opposite is breviloquence.

USAGE:
“Their debate has become increasingly embroiled in pleniloquence over minutiae, as they dispute the actual number of lawyers in Germany, Korea, etc.”
Frank B. Cross; Lawyers, the Economy, and Society; American Business Law Journal (Oxford, Ohio); Summer 1998.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The most wonderful of all things in life, I believe, is the discovery of another human being with whom one's relationship has a glowing depth, beauty, and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing, it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of divine accident. -Hugh Walpole, writer (13 Mar 1884-1941)

at No comments:

A.Word.A.Day--lachrymogenic

 Wordsmith.orgThe magic of words 

delanceyplace . com: thinker's daily quote
A carefully selected non-fiction book excerpt free to your email each day.
delanceyplace . com today's sponsor 

Mar 12, 2020
This week’s theme
Yours to discover

This week’s words
quidditative
microcephalic
chrysocracy
lachrymogenic

“A word after a word after a word is power.” ~Margaret Atwood
Rush power to your friends & family
Bookmark and Share Facebook Twitter Digg MySpace Bookmark and Share
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

lachrymogenic


PRONUNCIATION:
(lak-ruh-muh-JEN-ik)

MEANING:
adjective: Inducing tears.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin lacrima (tear) + -genic (producing). Earliest documented use: 1907. Two related words are lachrymose and lachrymal.

USAGE:
“For there is no more lachrymogenic experience than the school Nativity play -- to see one’s little darling, enrobed in tea-towel/pashmina, clutching toy sheep/live special breed etc.”
Gill Hornby; Hankies at the Ready as the Nativity Season Arrives; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Dec 12, 2009.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
It is the hardest thing in the world to be in love, and yet attend to business. A gentleman asked me this morning, 'What news from Lisbon?' and I answered, 'She is exquisitely handsome.' -Richard Steele, writer and politician (bap. 12 Mar 1672-1729)

at No comments:

A.Word.A.Day--chrysocracy

 Wordsmith.orgThe magic of words 


Mar 11, 2020
This week’s theme
Yours to discover

This week’s words
quidditative
microcephalic
chrysocracy

Got a website?
Free content for your site
Words, quotations & more
Bookmark and Share Facebook Twitter Digg MySpace Bookmark and Share
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

chrysocracy


PRONUNCIATION:
(kri-SAH-kruh-see)

MEANING:
noun: Rule by the wealthy.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek chryso- (gold) + -cracy (rule). Earliest documented use: 1828. A synonym is plutocracy.

USAGE:
“[The] television show ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ is a ritzy, glitzy, ironyfree chronicle of the nouveau riche. The programme, aired on the US cable channel E!, is avidly watched in this country. In some respects it is a salutary demonstration of how the British aristocracy have been well and truly supplanted by the international chrysocracy.”
Judith Woods; Class vs Trash; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Sep 26, 2014.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated, and well supported in logic and argument than others. -Douglas Adams, author (11 Mar 1952-2001)

at No comments:

A.Word.A.Day--microcephalic

 Wordsmith.orgThe magic of words 

delanceyplace . com: thinker's daily quote
A carefully selected non-fiction book excerpt free to your email each day.
delanceyplace . com today's sponsor 

Mar 10, 2020
This week’s theme
Yours to discover

This week’s words
quidditative
microcephalic

On your calendar
Get A.Word.A.Day on your calendar
Bookmark and Share Facebook Twitter Digg MySpace Bookmark and Share
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

microcephalic


PRONUNCIATION:
(my-kro-suh-FA-lik)

MEANING:
adjective:
1. Having an abnormally small head.
2. Small-minded.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek micro- (small) + -cephalic (having a head), from kephale (head). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghebh-el- (head), which also gave us the word gable. Earliest documented use: 1857. The opposite of today’s word is macrocephalic.

USAGE:
“The dwarves weren’t infants, they had beards, though that one -- Sleepy? Dopey? -- seemed microcephalic, with a tiny pointed head and huge ears.”
Tama Janowitz; They Is Us; HarperCollins; 2016.

“Olga was amazed. What imbeciles men were! A country at the mercy of this microcephalic uncle of hers.”
Rufino Blanco-Fombona (Translation from Spanish by Isaac Goldberg); The Man of Gold; Brentano’s; 1920.

“Mr Hay’s letter today is symptomatic of the microcephalic xenophobia which characterises the debate (or lack of it) on entry to the EEC.”
Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland); May 20, 1971.

See more usage examples of microcephalic in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
All that separates, whether of race, class, creed, or sex, is inhuman, and must be overcome. -Kate Sheppard, suffragist (10 Mar 1847-1934)

at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

A.Word.A.Day--hoary

  Wordsmith.org The magic of words  Orijinz is “a fabulous game”, we laughed & laughed for hours.” A wonderful Mother’s D...

  • A.Word.A.Day--hermaphrodite
      Wordsmith.org The magic of words  MooT - the Semantics and Etymology game The world's toughest language game. mootgame....
  • A.Word.A.Day--flimflam
      Wordsmith.org The magic of words  delanceyplace . com: thinker's daily quote A carefully selected non-fiction book excerpt free...
  • A.Word.A.Day--Tapleyism
      Wordsmith.org The magic of words  delanceyplace . com: thinker's daily quote A carefully selected non-fiction book excer...