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(Noun)Pronunciation: [ê-'mah-lyê-mênt or ee-'mah-lyê-mênt] ListenDefinition: Compensation or perquisites received for employment. [@more@]Usage: The Irish philosopher Edmund Burke (1729-1797) once wrote "Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it." The adjective, "emolumental," is rarely used. Suggested Usage: This is a rather flighty term that might be used

(Verb)Pronunciation: ['fa-sik] ListenDefinition: (1) To search for gold in a disorganized manner, especially in abandoned mines. (2) To fossick about: to rummage around for something, to nose about.[@more@]Suggested Usage: Well, one can fossick about in a drawer for a sharpened pencil or fossick about the shells on the beach for sharks' teeth. Even dogs may fossick about the yard for yesterday's bone. Closets are a good place to fossick about for just about anything (if yours are like mine). Ety

(Noun)Pronunciation: [hê-'mên-kyê-lês ] ListenDefinition: A very small man. [@more@]Usage: The plural is "homunculi" [hê-mên-kyê-lee] or [hê-mên-kyê-lI]. The Oxford English Dictionary for some reason prefers homuncule [hê-'mên-kyul]. Until modern medicine, it was believed that a human sperm cell contained a "preformed" complete homunculus that began growing in the womb. We recommend that you avoid this usage. Suggested Usage: The term once substituted for "mi

(Adjective)Pronunciation: [in-'ko-êt ('in-kê-wêt British)] ListenDefinition: Incipient, in an initial, incomplete, imperfect state. [@more@]Usage: The verb is also inchoate [in-'ko-weyt] "to begin" and the action of beginning is "inchoation." Another adjective, "inchoative," refers mostly to a verb form of certain languages which indicates the beginning of an action, such as Russian zarabotat' "begin working, start (engine)" from za- (inchoative) + rabo

(Noun)Pronunciation: [je-rê-'mI-æd] ListenDefinition: An extended lamentation; a long, drawn-out complaining tirade, often accompanied by a prophecy or insinuation of imminent doom. [@more@]Usage: One could write a jeremiad about this word itself, a poor lexical orphan without siblings or off-spring and whose parents lie far away in the Middle East (see Etymology). However, the etymology will prove its lineage heavenly and no cause for lament. Suggested Usage: Today's Biblical word works

(Noun)Pronunciation: [lahn-'yahp] ListenDefinition: A gratuity given by a merchant to a customer beyond the value of a purchase; a bonus or additional benefit of any sort. [@more@]Usage: Today's word entered US English directly from the language of the Acadians (Cajuns) of Louisiana and has spread rapidly eastward. In 'Life on the Mississippi' (1883) Mark Twain writes, "We picked up one excellent word—a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word 'lag

(Noun)Pronunciation: ['mæ-lê-prahp-iz-êm] ListenDefinition: The unintentional use of one word that sounds a bit like another (almost homophones), but which is completely and hilariously wrong in context.[@more@]Usage: Like another recent Word of the Day, "spoonerism," a malapropism is a type of speech error that happens to be funny. A "malapropist" is someone noted for their malapropisms and the adjective is "malapropian." However, "malaprop" may b

(Noun)Pronunciation: [ne-fê-lê-kak-'si-jee-yê ] ListenDefinition 1: (Literally, "Cloudcuckoosville") Interpreting the shapes of clouds. Definition 2: La-la land, a dream land cut off from reality. [@more@]Usage 2: Nephelococcygia was dreamed up by Aristophanes for his comedy, "The Birds" (414 BC). In this play, two characters turn into birds and immediately begin planning a city (never realized), which they decide to call "Nephelococcygia." Capitalize the word if

(Adj.)Pronunciation: [ahb-'stre-pê-rês] ListenDefinition: Uncontrollably loud hence unruly, uncontrollable. Also boisterously defiant. [@more@]Suggested Usage: Impress your buddies at the poker game by substituting this expressive adjective for clichés like 'raise hell', 'raise Cain': If you guys get any more obstreperous, you'll have to leave. I wonder why the bartender seldom says things like: If things get any more obstreperous, I'll have to bring out me baseball bat? Wouldn't it add to th

(Noun)Pronunciation: ['pæ-nê-plee or -pli] ListenDefinition: A full suit of armor; an impressive array of something rich and lustrous. [@more@]Usage: Today's word is an orphan except that it may be used as a verb. Mark Twain in "The Gilded Age" (1873) wrote, "It would be…judicious to send her forth well panoplied for her work. So he had added new and still richer costumes to her wardrobe, and assisted their attractions with costly jewelry" Suggested Usage: Keep in min

(Noun)Pronunciation: [re-zis-'ten-chê-li-zêm] ListenDefinition: The mock philosophy by P. Jennings as depicted in The Spectator (1948) claiming that inanimate objects are hostile to humans. [@more@]Usage: yourDictionary's South African friend, Chris Stewart, who suggested today's word, is convinced it is not used enough, though he does not pointedly claim that things are out to get him. We at YDC are not convinced that its current usage underrepresents its usefulness but we bring it to you, an

(Adjective)Pronunciation: [see-'kwey-shês] ListenDefinition: (1) Inclined to follow rather than lead, conformist, following others in thought and behavior; (2) continuing in a consistent direction, as a line of reasoning. [@more@]Usage: Since "sequacity" is too close to a sound a duck might produce, most writers today prefer "sequaciousness" as the noun for this adjective. "Sequaciously" is the adverb, available to modify verbs, as to think sequaciously. Suggested

(Adj.)Pronunciation: [têrp-sê-'kor-ee-yên] ListenDefinition: Pertaining to dance. [@more@]Usage: "Terpsichorean" may also be used as a high-style noun meaning "dancer." Today "terpsichore" refers more often to the art of dancing than to the Greek goddess (see Etymology). However, you may refer to the muse that inspires your dancing as "Terpsichore." (May she fill your days with dance and song—without any song and dance).Suggested Usage: "Terpsicho

(Adverb)Pronunciation: ['wid-êr-shinz] ListenDefinition: Moving in a direction opposite the usual; moving counterclockwise or in the contrary direction (of the sun, especially). [@more@]Usage: Today's word is basically an adverb but may be used as an adjective without the final [s]. As a predicate adjective, however, the [s] is usually left on. D. H. Lawrence wrote in 'Plumed Serpent' (1926) "She made up her mind, to be alone, and to cut herself off from all the mechanical widdershin conta

(Verb)Pronunciation: ['es-tê-veyt]Definition: Spend the summer, especially in a dormant state (antonym of "hibernate"). [@more@]Usage: The adjective is "aestival" and the noun, "aestivation." Bears hibernate through the winter; desert amphibians aestivate during the hot, dry season.Suggested Usage: Do you speak fast and find the long phrases like "spend my summers" slowing you down? Try: "I aestivate in Florida" to save your breath. Perhaps you

(Noun)Pronunciation: [bran-tê-'fo-bi-ê] Definition: The fear of thunder or thunderstorms. [@more@]Usage: Very rare despite the fact that the phenomenon is rather common, especially among children. A person fearing thunder is a brontophobe because they are brontophobic. Suggested Usage: Perhaps we should ignore this word because it is so rarely needed, "Percy, I'm not sure brontology is the right field for a brontophobe like yourself Why don't you try nuclear physics?" But, no, add it

(Verb)Pronunciation: [kê-'lêm-nee-eyt] Definition: To make malicious statements known to be false in an effort to harm someone's reputation or character.[@more@]Usage: Our language can damage others in several ways: we may defame (to focus an attack on the victim's reputation), malign (to attack someone's character by speaking badly of him or her), or vilify (to grossly criticize someone to undermine their character and reputation). "Calumniate" implies an attack on character or repu

(Noun)Pronunciation: [dee-'hi-sêns] Definition: Spontaneous opening of a seed pod or organ to expel its contents; an unexpected opening of anything, such as that of a surgical wound. [@more@]Usage: Today's noun comes from the verb "dehisce" and is accompanied by an adjective, "dehiscent." A dehiscent seed pod either opens to disperse its seeds, is in the process of opening to disperse its seeds or already has opened. A dehiscent surgical wound is one that has opened because

(Adjective)Pronunciation: ['es-kyê-lênt] Definition: Edible, eatable, able to be eaten, as the yam is a large esculent tuber. [@more@]Usage: Today's word has exactly the same meaning and distribution as "edible," so why do we even need it? It even derives from the same root as "edible" (see Etymology). The reason is simple: it is a more beautiful word than either "eatable" or "edible." The noun is esculence "edibility or degree of edibility," t

(Adjective)Pronunciation: ['flæ-bê-lêt] Definition: Fan-shaped[@more@]Usage: Which had you rather be, "flabby" or "flabellate?" The good news is that they are not mutually exclusive. The bad news is that you wouldn't want to be either. Flabellation is the act of fanning, based on the verb, "flabellate" ['flæ-bê-leyt]. Don't confuse the word with "flabby" and double the [b]; remember: two [l]s, not [b]s. "Flabbergast?" It probably c