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(noun)Pronunciation: ['nyu-men] Definition: (1) The spirit, driving force or divine presence (but not a deity) residing in a particular kind of object or place; (2) creative powers or spirit, a muse with attitude and muscle. [@more@]Usage: The plural is numens or numina; no one seems to care. Just remember that the vowel [e] becomes [i] in the Latin plural, as it does in the adjective, numinous "containing the aura of a supernatural or divine power." Aside from their many gods, the Rom

(Adjective)Pronunciation: [sê-'lu-bri-ês or (British) sê-lyu-bri-ês]Definition: Favorable or conducive to health; attractive and prosperous (Australian).[@more@]Usage: Today's word sounds much like a combination of "salacious" and "lugubrious" but don't be deceived: it bears a purely positive sense of health enhancement. The Oxford English Dictionary allows "unsalubrious" and the noun in all dialects is "salubrity." Suggested Usage: Of course we all pr

(Adjective)Pronunciation: [mæg-'ni-lê-qwênt]Definition: Grandiloquent, flowery, elevated, orotund (referring to language)[@more@]Usage: Today's word packs an adverb, "magniloquently," and a noun, "magniloquence," so it is prepared for any function in a sentence except that of the verb. Suggested Usage: In a political discussion, you can use today's word in your descriptions, "If Lucy Lastic had solutions to our economic problems to match her magniloquent speeches

(Verb)Pronunciation: [in-'spi-seyt]Definition: To thicken or condense (a liquid) through evaporation [@more@]Usage: The verb itself is hardly used. The participle "inspissated" appears metaphorically as an adjective in the cliché "(an atmosphere of) inspissated gloom." Suggested Usage: Most suggestions about usage in Word of the Day involve metaphorical uses of a word whose usual sense is literal. Here there is scope for the reverse innovation: in cookery recipes, the instru

(Noun)Pronunciation: ['e-kê-tIp or 'e-ko-tIp] ListenDefinition: In an ecospecies, the smallest taxonomic subdivision. Individuals in an ecotype are highly evolved to suit their environment. For example, in climatically severe areas, some trees, like the Pacific madrone, grow as a bushy ecotype. [@more@]Usage: This word stems from biology, but like many of our Words of the Day, it just begs to be used metaphorically. Suggested Usage: The word is occasionally useful in the literal sense: "St

(Noun)Pronunciation: ['de-swê-tyud] ListenDefinition: A state of disuse. [@more@]Usage: The adjective from which this noun is derived, desuete "unused, out of use" has been deemed archaic, though it continues to lurk there behind the suffix –ude of "desuetude." (Old words never die but forever lurk inside others.) Suggested Usage: Today's word is a term from the highest registers of English speech, "Watching television talk shows has convinced me that the rules of Engl

(Verb)Pronunciation: ['ee-tee-ê-leyt] ListenDefinition: (1) To bleach or make pale, especially by depriving of light. (2) To make feeble or sickly.[@more@]Usage: Today's word is unusual for its stress on the first syllable. Keep an eye (or a tongue) on that problem area. The noun is "etiolation." Suggested Usage: This word is used most often in its horticultural sense, as in "etiolated asparagus," i.e. white from light deprivation. Aside from asparagus, the word is used in r

(Adjective)Pronunciation: [pê-'næn-yê-lêr] ListenDefinition: Nearly annular, forming an almost complete ring.[@more@]Usage: Another word for "circular" is "annular," from annulus "circular configuration" such as the skirt that circumscribes some mushroom stems. The prefix pen(e)- isn't used at all widely enough; it could added to many other adjectives, e.g. "Since he was penomnipotent figure at the firm, his penefelonious book-keeping habits came as no

(Noun)Pronunciation: [rah-dê-mên-'teyd, ro-dê-mên-'teyd] ListenDefinition: Pretentious boasting or bragging; bluster and hence any arrogant act.[@more@]Usage: The same word may be used as an intransitive verb: "We have a $10 million deal with IBM? That's just Jack rodomontading about his sales department again." Suggested Usage: This is the pretentious means of referring to pretentious boasting. Using the word itself is a sort of rodomontade. (Don't you just love words like that?)

Noun)Pronunciation: ['thee-êr-jee] ListenDefinition: White magic, the conjuring of beneficent gods or supernatural powers to do one's bidding; divine intervention. [@more@]Usage: The adjective is "theurgic(al)" and the adverb is "theurgically." Not to be confused with "theology," the study of God and religion. Suggested Usage: Here is a term we can use to indicate extremely difficult circumstances: "It would take an act of theurgy to get François to cha

(Noun)Pronunciation: ['e-kwê-nahks] ListenDefinition: (1) One of the two days in the year when day and night are of equal length—12 hours each; (2) the two points at which the sun's path, as seen from earth, crosses the equator. [@more@]Usage: There are two equinoxes: the vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox. The vernal equinox, the traditional first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, occurs (or occurred) at exactly 1:49 a.m. Eastern Standard Time today. Easter is on the first Sunday

(Noun)Pronunciation: ['yu-zê-frêkt or 'yu-zyu-frêkt (British)] ListenDefinition: A usufruct is the right of using and receiving profits (the fruits) from a property that belongs to someone else. [@more@]Usage: We are hardly sure of the pronunciation of the word since it is so seldom spoken though it is fairly frequently written. A usufructuary is a person who has the usufruct of some property. Suggested Usage: It is surprising that the word is spoken so rarely, since it represents a useful co

(Verb)Pronunciation: ['hwelm ] ListenDefinition: To overturn a concave object (boat, bowl, etc.) to cover something with it (= to whelve); to bury under earth, snow, or water; to engulf in a devastating manner, e.g. a flood, storm, avalanche. [@more@]Usage: If "overwork" derives from "work" and "overcharge," from "charge," where does "overwhelm" come from? It turns out, it was derived the same way; we have simply allowed the original verb to slip

(Noun)Pronunciation: [ 'vi-gê-rish] ListenDefinition: (Argot) Usurious interest paid to a money-lender or a book-maker's usual commission on an illegal bet. [@more@]Usage: "Vigorish" comes from an argot, a secretive criminal dialect (or sociolect) designed to conceal meaning from all but the initiated. "Vigorish" is a lexical orphan with no corresponding verb or adjective. It is often clipped to just "vig."Suggested Usage: Today's is another word we suggest you don

(Noun)Pronunciation: [I-'lu-rê-fIl] ListenDefinition: A cat fancier; a lover of cats. [@more@]Usage: It is amazing that in a land of so many ailurophiles, the word is used so rarely. Cat-lover may be a more straightforward term but it is also ambiguous and potentially misleading. Play it safe and use this: ailurophile. Don't like cats? Well, we have something for you, too—you are an "ailurophobe," someone who hates or fears cats. The adjective is ailurophilic, unless you mean "

(Adjective)Pronunciation: [blæn-'di-lê-qwênt] ListenDefinition: Smooth-talking, honey-tongued; flattering.[@more@]Usage: Today's word is another tottering on the brink of extinction—most dictionaries have already given up on it. The Oxford English Dictionary has retained the noun, "blandiloquence," and an adjectival cousin, "blandiloquous." We need to retain this word, however, if for no other reason than it sounds better than "smooth-talking."Suggested Usa

(Adjective)Pronunciation: ['bahr-mê-sId-êl] ListenDefinition: Illusory, unreal sumptuousness, especially though not exclusively of a meal or hospitality. [@more@]Usage: Dickens wrote, "It is a Barmecide Feast; a pleasant field for the imagination to rove in," in American Notes (1850). As you see, the noun may be used adjectivally, too. The adjective is never capitalized and, since the original word, "barmecide," has joined the ranks of common nouns, there is no further need

(Adjective)Pronunciation: [shê-'toy-ênt] ListenDefinition: Having a changeable luster, like a cat's eye or the gem of the same name. [@more@]Usage: The adjective may be used as a noun to refer to chatoyant gems, e.g. the moonstone is a radiant chatoyant. "Chatoyancy" is the noun referring to a chatoyant quality, e.g. the chatoyancy of her hair in the moonlight. Suggested Usage: We can play metaphorically with the semantic luster of this word in several ways, "She sauntered down

(Noun)Pronunciation: ['dæs-têrd] ListenDefinition: Originally this word referred to a dullard, dimwit or sot but in the 16th century it began to be used to mean "despicable coward," where it stands today. [@more@]Usage: The adjective "dastardly" is used most frequently today. The quality of a dastard is "dastardliness." Suggested Usage: Guess which inappropriate word today's can replace in your anger vocabulary? "The rotten dastard introduced his new gir

(Noun)Pronunciation: ['fês-chên] ListenDefinition: (1) Originally today's word referred to a course, heavy material made of cotton and flax but today it refers to a cotton material with a short nap, like corduroy and velveteen; (2) pompous, turgid, bombastic language or speech. [@more@]Usage: The only interesting note on the usage of today's word is that it may be used freely as an adjective or noun: a fustian jacket or a jacket of fustian—makes no difference. The same applies to the other me