tomato

Wednesday, July 30th, 2025 07:30 am
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[personal profile] prettygoodword
tomato (toh-MAY-toh, toh-MAH-toh, let's call the whole thing off) - n., a widely cultivated plant, Solanum lycopersicum, with edible fruit; the rounded, edible, pulpy fruit of this plant.


tomatoes on a plicked vine
Thanks, WikiMedia!

Like chiles, the wild ancestor (L. pimpinellifolium) was native to western South America and first domesticated there. There are many cultivars, including some hybridized from close relatives of L. pimpinellifolium. Cultivation spread throughout the Americas, and was present in southern Mexico by 500 BCE, and from there the Spaniards introduced it to Europe and beyond. Interestingly, the Nahautl word the Spanish used for this, tomatl, actually means tomatillo, which is yes also a nightshade, but is less closely related to tomatoes as potatoes and eggplant, which are both also genus Solanum.

---L.
flwyd: (1895 Colorado map)
[personal profile] flwyd
Last week was Citzens' Climate Lobby's annual lobby day on Capitol Hill. 850 volunteers held over 400 meetings with Congressional offices in one day. Our approach to lobbying is built on respect and relationships. Even when we're working with an office that's opposed to the policies we support, we want to make sure they have a good impression of our organization. Staffers in DC move around a lot, so we never know where we'll next meet with someone.

I was part of a team last week that benefited from this relationship-building work. Meeting with a new Member of Congress, we had a few signals about their position based on bills they'd been involved with in the first six months, but we weren't sure how our organization and our message would go over. But when we sat down the staffer and asked if they were familiar with CCL, they said they'd spent four years with another Congressional office that had a reputation for climate leadership in the Republican party. That member retired, and this staffer was interested in learning more about issues in the American West, so jumped on the opportunity to work with a new western office. Although none of the people in the room had met this staffer, we already had their respect. We were able to quickly find common ground, and believe this is going to be a great office to work with into the future.

Tuesday word: Favonian

Tuesday, July 29th, 2025 05:37 pm
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Posted by simplyn2deep

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Favonian (adjective)
favonian [fuh-voh-nee-uhn]


adjective
1. of or relating to the west wind.
2. mild or favorable; propitious.

Origin: 1650–60; < Latin Favōniānus. See Favonius, -an. foehn

Example Sentences
Favonian, fav-ō′ni-an, adj. pertaining to the west wind, favourable.
From Project Gutenberg

Such soft favonian airs upon a flute, Such shadowy censers burning live perfume, Shall lead the mystic city to her tomb; Nor flowerless springs, nor autumns without fruit, Nor summer mornings when the winds are mute, Trouble her soul till Rome be no more Rome.
From Project Gutenberg

Soft spring, with breath Favonian, from warm chambers of the south, Recalls the first.”
From Project Gutenberg

See, the summer gay, 680 With her green chaplet, and ambrosial flowers, Droops into pallid autumn: winter grey, Horrid with frost, and turbulent with storm, Blows autumn, and his golden fruits, away: Then melts into the spring: soft spring, with breath Favonian, from warm chambers of the south, Recalls the first.
From Project Gutenberg

The wind blew free that morn that we, High-hearted, sailed away; Bound for Favonian islands blest, Remote within the utmost West, Beyond the golden day.
From Project Gutenberg

Tuesday word: Favonian

Tuesday, July 29th, 2025 10:38 am
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[personal profile] simplyn2deep posting in [community profile] 1word1day
Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Favonian (adjective)
favonian [fuh-voh-nee-uhn]


adjective
1. of or relating to the west wind.
2. mild or favorable; propitious.

Origin: 1650–60; < Latin Favōniānus. See Favonius, -an. foehn

Example Sentences
Favonian, fav-ō′ni-an, adj. pertaining to the west wind, favourable.
From Project Gutenberg

Such soft favonian airs upon a flute, Such shadowy censers burning live perfume, Shall lead the mystic city to her tomb; Nor flowerless springs, nor autumns without fruit, Nor summer mornings when the winds are mute, Trouble her soul till Rome be no more Rome.
From Project Gutenberg

Soft spring, with breath Favonian, from warm chambers of the south, Recalls the first.”
From Project Gutenberg

See, the summer gay, 680 With her green chaplet, and ambrosial flowers, Droops into pallid autumn: winter grey, Horrid with frost, and turbulent with storm, Blows autumn, and his golden fruits, away: Then melts into the spring: soft spring, with breath Favonian, from warm chambers of the south, Recalls the first.
From Project Gutenberg

The wind blew free that morn that we, High-hearted, sailed away; Bound for Favonian islands blest, Remote within the utmost West, Beyond the golden day.
From Project Gutenberg

chile / chili / chilli / etc.

Tuesday, July 29th, 2025 07:29 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
Because of the overlapping spelling variations, this is gonna be confusing. Also, I have Opinions on this.


chile (US) or chili (US) or chilli (UK & India) or chilly (some Commonwealth) (CHIL-ee) - n., the spicy fresh or dried fruit of any of several cultivated varieties of capsicum peppers (genus Capsicum) used in cooking; (chiefly UK and so chilli) any pepper whether spicy or mild.

chili or chile or chilli (CHIL-ee) - n., a stew of meat and chiles.


chiles not chilies in the field
Thanks, WikiMedia!

Many culinary authorities (as well as every informant I've talked with living in the southwestern US) insist on using chile for the pepper and chili for the stew, but this distinction isn’t universal even in the US. The wild ancestors of the peppers (which are various cultivars of five or six species) were native to the highlands of Peru and Bolivia and first domesticated there, then spread through the Americas in all tropical and warm temperate regions. When Columbus encountered them in the Caribbean, he called them peppers because they were spicy like the black pepper long known to Europeans, and that name carried over into English. Spaniards in Mexico eventually took over the Nahautl name chīlli as chile, and that too entered English in the 17th century. Versions of the stew, called in Spanish chile con carne, "meat with chile," were cooked by Nahaus from before European contact, and continues to be made throughout Mexico and Mexican-settled areas -- as chili con carne, later shortened to chili, it was popularized throughout the US thanks to some food stalls from San Antonio at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

And while we're here, my recipe.

---L.

Word: Crenellated

Monday, July 28th, 2025 03:28 pm
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[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi posting in [community profile] 1word1day
crenellated [ˈkrɛnɪˌleɪtɪd ]

adjective
1. having battlements
2. (of a moulding, etc) having square indentations

examples

1. Maine’s coastline, crenellated with deep estuaries and bays fed by rivers mixing with cold ocean water that pumps nutrients up from below, may seem like a bivalve paradise. "Innovative Fish Farms Aim to Feed the Planet, Save Jobs and Clean Up an Industry’s Dirty Reputation," Scientific American 1 May 2022

2. From this central block rose the twin towers, ancient, crenellated, and pierced with many loopholes. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

origins

Old French quernelé, from crenel, quernel "crenellation" (from cren, cran "notch"—going back to Gallo-Romance *crēn- or *crĭn-, of uncertain origin)

crenellated

avocado

Monday, July 28th, 2025 07:27 am
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[personal profile] prettygoodword
I knew even before starting to research this theme that “interesting words from Native American/First Nations languages” was way too broad, so I decided to start with just “interesting words from Nahuatl,” the group of lects of the peoples known in history as Aztec, today called Nahau. This, though, was also way too broad—we’ve gotten a lot of words from central Mexico, via Spanish—so I restricted it further to just “food words from Nahautl.” Which is still too broad—we’ve gotten a lot of crops and dishes from central Mexico, via human propagation, enough to easily cover two weeks. But I’mma do just one week by sticking to the most common. With, okay, a little fudging around the edges. But it’ll fit! Promise! And we’re starting with:


avocado (av-uh-KAH-doh, ah-vuh-KAH-doh) - n., a tropical American tree (Persea americana) having oval or pear-shaped fruit with green-to-black leathery skin, yellowish-green flesh, and a large seed; the edible fruit of this tree; the dark green of the skin of an avocado          (hex value #568203).


an avocado and one sliced in half, showing the seed
Thanks, WikiMedia!

Also called alligator pear, it was domesticated somewhere in central America, and in Nahautl is called āhuacatl (which also means testicle, though the fruit sense came first). This in turn became Spanish aguacate, and then English modified this to avocado, first appearing in a 1696 catalogue of Jamaican plants.

And because it's made with avocado, a bonus word:


guacamole (gwah-kuh-MOH-lee) - n., a dip of mashed avocado mixed with tomato, onion, and seasonings.


First found in English the late 1910s, from Mexican Spanish, from Nahuatl āhuacamōlli, from āhuacatl, avocado + mōlli, sauce.

Fun fact: varieties of Nahautl (correct pronunciation) are spoken by around 1.5 million people, the most of any Indigenous language north of Panama.

---L.

Sunday Word: Boscage

Sunday, July 27th, 2025 10:12 am
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Posted by sallymn

boscage [-kij]

noun:
a mass of trees or shrubs; wood, grove, or thicket


(click to enlarge)

Examples:

The journey took 48 hours with a stopover in a Bates-style motel in the one-horse town of Marblemount - the last services for 70 wild miles of boscage and bears. (Dan Richards, 'You could see it all from that marvellous glass cabin in the Cascade mountains', The Guardian, February 2021)

The forest continued almost to the city walls. Peering from behind the final boscage, I saw their overwhelming battlements in the sky above me, and noted the flawless jointure of their prodigious blocks. (Clark Ashton Smith, 'The City of the Singing Flame')

It was a perfect June night, the heavens a sable pall studded with innumerable star-clusters, the little vagrant breezes redolent of new mown hay, a nightingale singing in a nearby boscage. (Van Tassel Sutphen, In Jeopardy)

On such a spot fairies would pitch for their revels, noticing how the curtains of the shrubberies would mask their troopings, and the extending wings of boscage give surprise to their exits and entrances. (Frank Fox, England)

Origin:

Middle English boskage, borrowed from Anglo-French boscage 'wood, woodland,' from bois, bos 'grove, forest, wood (the material)' (Old French also bosc) + -age (Merriam-Webster)

Middle English boskage, from Old French boscage, from bosc, forest, of Germanic origin. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)

Sunday Word: Boscage

Sunday, July 27th, 2025 05:11 pm
sallymn: (words 6)
[personal profile] sallymn posting in [community profile] 1word1day

boscage [-kij]

noun:
a mass of trees or shrubs; wood, grove, or thicket


(click to enlarge)

Examples:

The journey took 48 hours with a stopover in a Bates-style motel in the one-horse town of Marblemount - the last services for 70 wild miles of boscage and bears. (Dan Richards, 'You could see it all from that marvellous glass cabin in the Cascade mountains', The Guardian, February 2021)

The forest continued almost to the city walls. Peering from behind the final boscage, I saw their overwhelming battlements in the sky above me, and noted the flawless jointure of their prodigious blocks. (Clark Ashton Smith, 'The City of the Singing Flame')

It was a perfect June night, the heavens a sable pall studded with innumerable star-clusters, the little vagrant breezes redolent of new mown hay, a nightingale singing in a nearby boscage. (Van Tassel Sutphen, In Jeopardy)

On such a spot fairies would pitch for their revels, noticing how the curtains of the shrubberies would mask their troopings, and the extending wings of boscage give surprise to their exits and entrances. (Frank Fox, England)

Origin:

Middle English boskage, borrowed from Anglo-French boscage 'wood, woodland,' from bois, bos 'grove, forest, wood (the material)' (Old French also bosc) + -age (Merriam-Webster)

Middle English boskage, from Old French boscage, from bosc, forest, of Germanic origin. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)

pantechnicon

Thursday, July 24th, 2025 07:54 am
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[personal profile] prettygoodword
pantechnicon (pan-TEK-ni-kon) - (UK) n., (obs.) an indoor bazaar, with stalls selling various goods; (dated) a furniture removal van.


Shortened to pantech, that last sense is still in use in Australia, per one dictionary (can anyone confirm?). I don't usually include obsolete senses, but this one is important to the history. In 1831, such a bazaar opened in fashionable Belgravia, London, combined with a furniture store due to the site's odd geometry, and because of the building's Doric front, the proprietors went all in on the Greek and coined the name Pantechnicon from Ancient Greek roots pan-, all + tekhnikón, neuter singular of tekhnikós, technical/skilled/arts. The bazaar part of the business eventually closed down, but not until after the name had spread to other similar establishments. Meanwhile, the furniture business flourished, to the point that the proprietors developed special delivery vans (initially horse-drawn but motorized once that became a thing), and the name again spread as those also were imitated.

---L.

Thursday Word: Kulfi

Thursday, July 24th, 2025 01:28 pm
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Posted by calzephyr77

Hi peeps, I've gotten behind on my weekly word due to a busy summer! Things may be spotty for me until September.

Thinking of summer, kulfi</ib> is on my mind! This creamy, frozen dessert, made from evaporated milk, has been around for centuries. Although it is considered a popular South Asian dessert, the word originates from qulfi, a Persian word for "covered cup". Kulfi comes in many different flavours and you may find a freezer full of them at your local South Asian import store or grocery!


Matka kulfi.jpg
By Commoner247 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link


Thursday Word: Kulfi

Thursday, July 24th, 2025 07:19 am
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[personal profile] calzephyr posting in [community profile] 1word1day
Hi peeps, I've gotten behind on my weekly word due to a busy summer! Things may be spotty for me until September.

Thinking of summer, kulfi is on my mind! This creamy, frozen dessert, made from evaporated milk, has been around for centuries. Although it is considered a popular South Asian dessert, the word originates from qulfi, a Persian word for "covered cup". Kulfi comes in many different flavours and you may find a freezer full of them at your local South Asian import store or grocery!


Matka kulfi.jpg
By Commoner247 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link


polyanthus

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025 07:44 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
polyanthus (pol-ee-AN-thuhs) - n., any of various hybrid garden primroses (Primula × polyantha, sometimes listed as Primula polyantha) having clusters of variously colored flowers.


yellow polyanthus being showy
Thanks, WikiMedia!

Originally a hybrid cross between the common cowslip (Primula veris) and the common primrose (P. vulgaris), now bred on its own in pretty much every color pattern there is. Taken around 1630 from New Latin, where it was coined from Ancient Greek roots poly-, many +‎ ánthos, flower.

---L.
siderea: (Default)
[personal profile] siderea
I think this is important, and really insightful. Video and slightly excerpted transcript below.

Of note, Parkrose Permaculture is a crunchy secular leftist who is, herself, an ex-evangelical, and speaks with some personal authority about the world-view and culture.

2025 July 17: ParkrosePermaculture on YT: "MAGA mom apologizes for supporting Trump. Regrets her vote. How do we respond?" [9 min 43 sec]:



[0:00] Can we talk about that viral video of that young woman who got on here and was like, "Y'all, I'm really sorry that I voted for Trump. I'm really sorry that I was MAGA. I realize now that I was wrong"? This this video:

[0:12] [stitched video, white woman speaking to camera, with title "Official apology: I voted for Trump"]
I voted for Trump and I'm sorry. I am uneducated. I grew up in, um, public school system. I believed anything a teacher and a principal told me, and I didn't question it. And I walked in a straight line and I didn't use critical thinking skills, okay? I didn't read Project 2025, I have a disabled child, I'm a single mom of three. I believed what he said in his campaigns and I fucked up. And I'm sorry, okay?
I find the responses to that video on social media quite interesting, because on one hand you have folks who are like, I don't forgive you. And I understand that. People are angry. Trumpers did incredible damage to this country. Getting Trump and Elon Musk put in positions of power in the United States is killing millions of people, right? We know that just the cancellations to USAID are going to kill 14 million people according to a new piece out in the Lancet. Trump and Steven Miller are now freely enacting an ethnic cleansing in the United States. People have a right to be really, really angry about those things.

[1:21] I've also seen a lot of other creators who have my complexion [i.e. white -- S.] and most of them are women, who have said, "It's okay, girlfriend. We all make mistakes. We all have been hoodwinkedked in the past. Yeah, people in America are very much indoctrinated. And we forgive you. We forgive you."

[1:38] And I guess I, I disagree fundamentally with both of those takes. And here's why.

We need to give Trumpers a place to land as they are deconstructing. Maybe the Epstein files [...] [2:14] And so everybody's going to have– everybody who ends up walking away from MAGA is going to have the beginning of that journey. [...] Not everybody starts from the same baseline. I guarantee you for folks watching that woman, if you wanted to judge her, then you probably didn't start with the same level of intense indoctrination, you're probably not from the same kind of subculture that she's from. And you didn't start from the same place that she's starting at. Every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And you've got to give her space to take that step.

[3:02] So, I, I do want to give her all of the praise for getting online with her real face and doing something that's very hard to do. She was willing to swallow her pride in a culture where we very much center the self and we're not good at taking responsibility. We are not good at eating crow. We're not good at facing the music, right? She did that. [...] She deserves all the praise for that. I don't want to in any way minimize the work, the risk that she undertook in being willing to own it and being willing to say, "I was deeply wrong." Again, especially because we live in a culture where people taking accountability is not something that we are particularly good at or used to.

[4:04] And so I very much appreciate the other creators who are saying, "Come over here with us," – Right? – "I'll be a safe landing spot for you. It is never too late to admit that you were wrong."

But I also think when we're looking at MAGA, who has caused tremendous, tremendous harm in this country, right? They have contributed to the rise of fascism. They have supported the takeover of this nation by a fascist dictator. I understand a lot of them were ignorant. They chose to be willfully ignorant. I understand a lot of them come from a background where they are taught to deny their own intuition, to subvert their own will, to listen to and unconditionally obey what an authority figure is telling them. I know that so many of these folks go to churches that are telling them that Donald Trump is God's anointed, that he has God's favor, that he is doing the Lord's work. I understand the heaviness, the intense pressure, the hard sell of the subcultures that these folks belong to, and I understand the strength of character that it takes in that context to admit that you were wrong and say, "I shouldn't have done this, and I'm sorry."

[5:11] But I would encourage all of those mostly white women creators who are telling this young woman, "It's okay, girl. We forgive you. Everybody makes mistakes": this was not a mistake. And it doesn't really matter that there were extenduating circumstances and indoctrination. Doesn't matter that somebody caused great harm without understanding the full depth and breadth of the trauma and the suffering they would inflict by supporting this regime.

I know I have brought it up many times since the election and it continues to be one of the most relevant books when we are discussing people leaving MAGA, when we are discussing people deconstructing from Trumperism, when we are discussing how it is that we fold these folks back into society, and that book is called The Sunflower by Simon Visenthal. It is an incredibly important and relevant book in these times.

The subtitle of the book is "On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness." It is a book about a young Nazi soldier who is dying and he wants to be forgiven the sins that he committed in the Holocaust. But he is asking forgiveness of somebody who is not his victim. And the question that is being posed to all kinds of faith leaders and philosophers in this book is who has the right to extend forgiveness, and what does it mean to extend forgiveness and what does it mean to ask for forgiveness?

[6:35] And I know I've said this in other videos and I just I think it's so important to continue to reiterate it when we're looking at ex-Maga. I appreciate their apology. I appreciate their contrition. I appreciate that they have realized how much harm they've caused and that they want people to know they no longer support the things that they once voted for. Really important.

But at the same time, if we are not the injured party, do we have a right to forgive? And also, there's so much more to earning forgiveness, working to be forgiven, than just saying, "I'm sorry."

[7:12] I know in evangelical Christian culture it's like if somebody says "I'm sorry", it's like, "oh, we forgive you! That's what Jesus would do!" Other religions don't view it that way. But also I personally think if somebody is truly truly sorry for what they've done, they need to work to repair the harm that they've inflicted.

If somebody voted for Donald Trump and they now realize that they were wrong, [if] they now are asking you to forgive them, they need to demonstrate changed behavior. They need to now go volunteer for a Democratic campaign in the midterms. They need to commit to evangelizing on behalf of democracy and against the fascist regime of Donald Trump to all of the people in their subculture, in their community, all of the MAGA that they know. They need to go actively work for immigrants rights. They need to contribute financially to organizations like the ACLU, to progressive Democrats in the midterms, to organizations that are engaged in mutual aid for all of the people who are suffering because of what MAGA has done.

[8:27] It takes a measure of risk to get on the internet and say, "I'm so sorry. I regret my vote for Donald Trump." Yeah. And we want to acknowledge that they have taken that risk. We want to acknowledge the work that is done. We want to acknowledge how hard it is to take that first step on that journey. Absolutely true. But at the same time, they need to put their money where their mouth is.

They need to work to repair the harm that they have done. They need to work now. They need to sacrifice now. They need to demonstrate changed behavior because at the end of the day, words are cheap. People are suffering and dying. Now, if you truly understand the ramifications of what you have supported and what you have done, you must work to fix it.

[9:10] So, to that young woman and any other person who has left MAGA, who has taken that first step on your deconstruction journey: I applaud you. That's wonderful, that's wonderful. If your conscience is eating you up? If you have loads of regrets? The best way you can work to find peace in your heart, to find peace with the people you have harmed, is to get to work – fixing it. Because there's so much work for everybody to do. Join the resistance. Yep, come join the party. Yeah, we'll take you. We are a safe landing spot. We have lots of work for you to do here.

Tuesday word: Mugwump

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025 10:34 pm
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Posted by simplyn2deep

Tuesday, Jul. 22, 2025

Mugwump (noun)
mugwump [muhg-wuhmp]


noun
1. a Republican who refused to support the party nominee, James G. Blaine, in the presidential campaign of 1884.
2. a person who is unable to make up their mind on an issue, especially in politics; a person who is neutral on a controversial issue.

Other Word Forms
mugwumpish adjective
mugwumpery noun
mugwumpism noun
mugwumpian adjective

Origin: First recorded in 1830–35, artificial 19th-century revival of Massachusett ( English spelling) mugquomp, syncopated form of muggumquomp “war leader” (equivalent to Proto-Algonquian (unattested) memekw- perhaps “swift” + (unattested) -a·pe·w “man”)

Example Sentences
Telford Taylor, a mugwump Democrat, remarks that though good intentions may be mitigating circumstances, they do not negate the fact of a crime, if one occurred.
From New York Times

Indeed, the infamous mugwump was predictably dragged on social media after news of the decision broke.
From Salon

This year’s list included “blithering,” ”gauche” and “mugwump,” which refers to a person who remains aloof or independent - especially from party politics.
From Washington Times

This year’s list included “blithering,” ”gauche” and “mugwump,” which refers to a person who remains aloof or independent — especially from party politics.
From Seattle Times

It's not everyday you get called a mugwump.
From BBC

Tuesday word: Mugwump

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025 03:25 pm
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[personal profile] simplyn2deep posting in [community profile] 1word1day
Tuesday, Jul. 22, 2025

Mugwump (noun)
mugwump [muhg-wuhmp]


noun
1. a Republican who refused to support the party nominee, James G. Blaine, in the presidential campaign of 1884.
2. a person who is unable to make up their mind on an issue, especially in politics; a person who is neutral on a controversial issue.

Other Word Forms
mugwumpish adjective
mugwumpery noun
mugwumpism noun
mugwumpian adjective

Origin: First recorded in 1830–35, artificial 19th-century revival of Massachusett ( English spelling) mugquomp, syncopated form of muggumquomp “war leader” (equivalent to Proto-Algonquian (unattested) memekw- perhaps “swift” + (unattested) -a·pe·w “man”)

Example Sentences
Telford Taylor, a mugwump Democrat, remarks that though good intentions may be mitigating circumstances, they do not negate the fact of a crime, if one occurred.
From New York Times

Indeed, the infamous mugwump was predictably dragged on social media after news of the decision broke.
From Salon

This year’s list included “blithering,” ”gauche” and “mugwump,” which refers to a person who remains aloof or independent - especially from party politics.
From Washington Times

This year’s list included “blithering,” ”gauche” and “mugwump,” which refers to a person who remains aloof or independent — especially from party politics.
From Seattle Times

It's not everyday you get called a mugwump.
From BBC

apotropaic

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025 07:37 am
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[personal profile] prettygoodword
apotropaic (ap-uh-truh-PAY-ik) - adj., intended to ward off evil.


I like the cadence of this, the way it lilts off the tongue. Apotropaic acts include gestures to avert the evil eye and horseshoes fixed over a doorway, not to mention uses of crucifixes. Taken in 1883 from Ancient Greek apotrópaios (the Ancient Greeks used apotropaic decorations like paired eyes on ship prows and gorgon heads), from apotrepein, to ward off, from apó-, away + trepein, to turn.

---L.

Monday Word: Goyle

Monday, July 21st, 2025 03:33 pm
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[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi posting in [community profile] 1word1day
goyle [or goyal] [gȯi(ə)l]

noun

dialectal, England: a steep narrow valley : RAVINE, GULLY


examples

1. These, though known for their valour and their breed, were whimpering in a cluster at the head of a deep dip or goyal, as we call it, upon the moor. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

2. In front, where a goyle runs up to a hollow of the hill, the ground has been cleared of wood, and the forest of tall teazle-tops is full of goldfinches, flying from seed-head to seed-head, too tame to mind the noise or care for anything but their breakfast. The Naturalist on the Thames 1882

origins

Unknown. Its earliest known use dates back to the early 1600s, with the first recorded instance in 1617 by John Lane. The word is possibly derived from the term "gool," which also refers to a gully or depression. Found (initially) in the dialects of Somerset and Devon.

goyle

conglobate

Monday, July 21st, 2025 07:32 am
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[personal profile] prettygoodword
conglobate (kon-GLOH-bayt, KONG-gloh-bayt) - v., to form into a round compact mass. adj., shaped like a ball.


To conglobe, to use its older synonym. This is Latinate, obvs., taken around 1630 from Latin conglobātus, the perfect passive participial of conglobō, gather into a ball/crowd together, from con-, together + globus, ball + a verb-forming suffix. And yes, we also get globe from globus.

---L.

Sunday Word: Magniloquent

Sunday, July 20th, 2025 09:31 am
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Posted by sallymn

magniloquent [mag-nil-uh-kwuhnt]

adjective:
speaking or expressed in a lofty or grandiose style; pompous; bombastic; boastful


(click to enlarge)

Examples:

His star power is based on brains and brawn; he can recite magniloquent phrases while also giving the impression that he could fillet an enemy, Jason Bourne style, armed with only a Bic pen (Jody Rosen, Why Is Matt Damon Shilling for Crypto?, New York Times, February 2022)

The revealing, magniloquent letter is one of more than 1,600 records and documents relating to George IV from the Royal Archives published online for the first time. (Mark Brown, Letters shed light on lovelorn prince who became George IV, The Guardian, October 2019)

In such magniloquent language did the doctor describe the very simple process of fixing a door to the top landing of the house, which gave her the floor to herself. (Edgar Wallace, The Hand of Power)

His magniloquent western name was the moral umbrella upon which he balanced the fine problem of his finances. He was widely respected. (James Joyce, Dubliners)

It was empty, magniloquent, abstract, flatulent, pretentious, confused, and sub-human. I could have wept salt tears. But I couldn't do anything else; the young man wanted a clean heart and a new spirit, not a little top-dressing. (Logan Pearsall Smith, Unforgotten Years)

Origin:

1650s, a back-formation from magniloquence, or else from Latin magniloquentia 'lofty style of language,' from magniloquus 'pompous in talk, vaunting, boastful,' from combining form of magnus 'great' (from PIE root meg- 'great') + -loquus 'speaking,' from loqui 'to speak' (from PIE root tolkw- 'to speak'). Wycliffe (late 14c) translates Latin magniloquam as 'speechy'. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Magnus means 'great' in Latin; loqui is a Latin verb meaning 'to speak.' Combine the two and you get magniloquus, the Latin predecessor of magniloquent. English-speakers started using magniloquent in the 1600s, despite having had its synonym grandiloquent since the 1500s. (Grandiloquent comes from Latin grandiloquus, which combines loqui and grandis, another word for 'great' in Latin.) Today, these synonyms continue to exist side by side and to be used interchangeably, though grandiloquent is the more common of the two. (Merriam-Webster)

Sunday Word: Magniloquent

Sunday, July 20th, 2025 04:29 pm
sallymn: (words 6)
[personal profile] sallymn posting in [community profile] 1word1day

magniloquent [mag-nil-uh-kwuhnt]

adjective:
speaking or expressed in a lofty or grandiose style; pompous; bombastic; boastful


(click to enlarge)

Examples:

His star power is based on brains and brawn; he can recite magniloquent phrases while also giving the impression that he could fillet an enemy, Jason Bourne style, armed with only a Bic pen (Jody Rosen, Why Is Matt Damon Shilling for Crypto?, New York Times, February 2022)

The revealing, magniloquent letter is one of more than 1,600 records and documents relating to George IV from the Royal Archives published online for the first time. (Mark Brown, Letters shed light on lovelorn prince who became George IV, The Guardian, October 2019)

In such magniloquent language did the doctor describe the very simple process of fixing a door to the top landing of the house, which gave her the floor to herself. (Edgar Wallace, The Hand of Power)

His magniloquent western name was the moral umbrella upon which he balanced the fine problem of his finances. He was widely respected. (James Joyce, Dubliners)

It was empty, magniloquent, abstract, flatulent, pretentious, confused, and sub-human. I could have wept salt tears. But I couldn't do anything else; the young man wanted a clean heart and a new spirit, not a little top-dressing. (Logan Pearsall Smith, Unforgotten Years)

Origin:

1650s, a back-formation from magniloquence, or else from Latin magniloquentia 'lofty style of language,' from magniloquus 'pompous in talk, vaunting, boastful,' from combining form of magnus 'great' (from PIE root meg- 'great') + -loquus 'speaking,' from loqui 'to speak' (from PIE root tolkw- 'to speak'). Wycliffe (late 14c) translates Latin magniloquam as 'speechy'. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Magnus means 'great' in Latin; loqui is a Latin verb meaning 'to speak.' Combine the two and you get magniloquus, the Latin predecessor of magniloquent. English-speakers started using magniloquent in the 1600s, despite having had its synonym grandiloquent since the 1500s. (Grandiloquent comes from Latin grandiloquus, which combines loqui and grandis, another word for 'great' in Latin.) Today, these synonyms continue to exist side by side and to be used interchangeably, though grandiloquent is the more common of the two. (Merriam-Webster)

empyrean

Friday, July 18th, 2025 07:43 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
empyrean (em-puh-REE-uhn, em-pay-REE-uhn, em-PIR-ee-uhn, em-PAY-ree-uhn) - n., in ancient cosmologies, the highest heaven, believed to be a realm of pure fire or light; in medieval cosmology, the highest celestial sphere, believed to be the abode of God and the angels; the skies, the firmament, the heavens.


I wanted, given this week's theme, to put that last sense first, but the historical order really is as given. This dates to around 1600, from Medieval Latin empyreum, from Latin empȳreus, of the empyrean, from Greek empúrios, fiery, from en-, in + pûr, fire, and yes there's a root of four-element theory in there.


And that wraps up this week of words for the sky -- back with the regular mix on Monday.

---L.

firmament

Thursday, July 17th, 2025 07:20 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
firmament (FUR-muh-muhnt) - n., the vault of the heavens, the sky; in Ptolemaic cosmology, the eighth celestial sphere, carrying the fixed stars.


Another old one, going back to the early 13th century, taken this time from Latin firmāmentum, the sky, originally support/prop, from firmāre, strengthen/support/make firm + -menutum, noun suffix of agency ("that which"). Firmāmentum was used in the Vulgate Bible to translate the Septuagint Greek steréōma, foundation/framework, from stereós, solid/rigid. This in turn was used to translate Hebrew rāqī́aʿ, the barrier used in Genesis 1:6 to separate the heavenly waters from the earth below, which has a root sense of being beaten out thinly -- which is an interesting image for what Elohim was doing.

---L.

welkin

Wednesday, July 16th, 2025 08:08 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
welkin (WEL-kin) - (lit./arch.) n., the sky, the vault of the heavens.


Another that goes back to Old English, in this case wolcen/wolcn, cloud (cognate of German Wolke, cloud), and after the transition to Middle English welken/wolken, it initially retained that meaning before shifting to the current sense. According to one dictionary, the carol that now starts "Hark, the herald angels sing" was originally "Hark, how all the welkin ring" (using modernized spelling).

---L.
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