word of the day

[The Edge]

sedulous (SEJ-uh-luhs)
1. Diligent in application or pursuit; steadily industrious.
2. Characterized by or accomplished with care and perseverance.

He did not attain this distinction by accident but by sedulous study from the cradle forward.
--Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Al Gore: A User's Manual

This writing is clearly the product of sedulous art, but it has the flame of spontaneity and the grit of independence both as to mode and spirit.
--"The Wonder and Wackiness of Man," New York Times, January 17, 1954

And so he reminded the legion that, even though his veneration of his country's flag may not have inhibited sedulous avoidance of the inconveniences of serving under it, he is a patriot so wholehearted that he signed the Arkansas law that forbids flag-burning.
--Murray Kempton, "Signs of Defeat In the Wind," Newsday, August 30, 1992


Edge

[ungeraynrand]

hmm.... this is a good idea.

a lot of times, we have an idea what a particular word means, but i think its important we learn precisely what it means and also the secondary meanings.

here's mine:

his.tri.on.ic /6hIstri'å8nIkMF-'ónIkM/ adj
1 derog behaving or done in a too theatrical way, esp. in showing feelings that are insincere or pretended
2 rare concerning the theater or acting
—~ally /kli/ adv
Of or relating to actors or acting.
Excessively dramatic or emotional; affected.

[ungeraynrand]

btw, some of these entries are taken from dictionary.com in addition to my local interactive dictionary: longman's.

Hubris:great and unreasonable pride, often bringing great misfortune to the person who shows it

Arrogate: to take or claim (for oneself) without a proper or legal right: Having seized power in the country, he arrogated to himself the right to change the law. In a really shocking press conference yesterday afternoon, Daley actually arrogated to himself the role of Florida elector: "If the will of the people is to prevail, Al Gore should be awarded a victory in Florida and be our next president."

venal: 1 ready to behave in an unfair or dishonest way, esp. by using one’s power or position to help other people in return for money or other reward: venal judges
2 (of an action, practice, or behavior) done in order to gain money, rather than for the proper or honest reasons —compare VENIAL
—~ly adv
—~ity /vi8'nælKti/ n [U]
That tells you a little about the IQ of some voters and the venality of that guy from Tennessee who wants to be president(al gore).

venial: (of a fault, mistake, wrongdoing, etc.) of only slight importance and therefore forgivable: a venial sin —compare VENAL

mettle:1 the will to continue bravely in spite of difficulties: The runner fell and twisted his ankle badly, but he showed his mettle by continuing in the race.
2 be on one’s mettle/put someone on their mettle old-fash to have to make/force someone to make the best possible effort
Even onetime Vice President Richard Nixon had the mettle to concede the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy, close and fraught with alleged corruption though it was. Indeed, Mr. Nixon lived to fight another day and went on to win the presidency eight years later. Vice President Gore, will you not spare the country this unwarranted and unmerciful constitutional crisis and live to fight another day?

[markrb]

I can't believe what just happened. I was reading the post with Histrionic and listening to the news on Tv when the guy said Histrionic. This is just too wierd.

Mark

[ammck55]

synchronicity--an occurrence of coincidence in time, the bringing together in one picture different parts of a story. (Taken from Wordsworth's Concise English Dictionary)

@Mark, yeah, when that happens to me, I get that "deja vu all over again feeling", as Yogi Berra would say.

@The Edge & ungeraynrand--Rock on!

ammck55

[The Edge]

querulous \KWER-uh-luhs; -yuh\, adjective:
1. Apt to find fault; habitually complaining.
2. Expressing complaint; fretful; whining.

Querulous Oscar rattles on, never more or less than himself, but never much more than the content of his grumpy rattling.
--Sven Birkerts, "A Frolic of His Own," New Republic, February 7, 1994

Mam is a tragic figure when transported to New York by her successful sons -- querulous, unable to get a decent cup of tea.
--Maureen Howard, "McCourt's New World," New York Times, September 19, 1999

Men who feel strong in the justice of their cause, or confident in their powers, do not waste breath in childish boasts of their own superiority and querulous depreciation of their antagonists.
--James Russell Lowell, "The Pickens-and-Stealin's Rebellion," The Atlantic, June 1861

Edge

[?¿öM¿?]

monomania--obsession of the mind with one idea or interest.

Does anyone DivX how this DivX could be DivXed in a DivX?
Get my point?

[killingspree]

now as a non-native speaker you are just starting to think that after 8 years of studying english combined with a half year stay at a canadian high school and several trips to the US you have some knowledge of a foreign language and then something like this... not really encouraging... I've never heard (or at least actively noticed) any of these words. despite hours of watching english TV, filmes, reading through english websites, magazines or books.

anyway, i guess one has to see this as an oportunity and MAYBE i once stumble across one of the above mentioned words and think: "Wow, that IS the word i read about on the doom9 forums" :-)

well, i took the time to look all of them up in the dictionary (langenscheidt english - german/ german - english cdrom version)
of all of these it could only translate the three following:

querulous = nörglerisch
venal = käuflich
mettle = Mut, Eifer, Feuer

just for the other german speaking readers of the board#

regards
steVe

PS: oh i found all of them in the monolingual dictionary though (:

[ungeraynrand]

ob.fus.cate /'å8bfEskeItF'ób-/ v [T] fml

to confuse or make difficult to understand, perhaps intentionally: The report obfuscates the principal points.
—-cation /6å8bfE'skeISfnF6ób-/ n [U]

Inept filmmakers use Martin Lawrence in much the same way that inept cooks use Tabasco sauce. The hope seems to be that, thrown into the mix haphazardly and without any sense of moderation, Lawrence's mere presence will be sufficient to obfuscate the lackluster and sub-par characteristics of the film's other ingredients.
-James Berardinelli in his recent review of the new Martin Lawrence 'comedy'.
:devil:

[The Edge]

Didn't think anybody was gonna reply to this tread.
here's another....

abstemious \ab-STEE-mee-uhs\, adjective:
1. Sparing in eating and drinking; temperate; abstinent.
2. Sparingly used or consumed; used with temperance or moderation.
3. Marked by or spent in abstinence.

They were healthy and abstemious; their chief pleasure was reading and Oliver was a life member of the London Library.
--Sylvia Townsend Warner, The Music at Long Verney

For a man who trafficked in excess, he was surprisingly abstemious.
--Ralph Blumenthal, Stork Club

When the 1796 outbreak of yellow fever turned into an epidemic, the frightened citizens followed each preventive vogue: herb tea, cold baths, cream of tartar, vinegar, camphor and abstemious diets.
--Christina Vella, Intimate Enemies

In the clubby world of the Senate, the elder Gore was an aloof figure whose "divinity student blue" suits and abstemious habits (no cigarettes, little alcohol, and a daily swim in the Senate pool) created the aura "of a man just come from a powerful hell-and-brimstone sermon."
--Bill Turque, Inventing Al Gore: A Biography


Edge

[ungeraynrand]

why thank you! i had previously pronounced that word ab-STEM-mee-ous
what a fool i am.

de.us ex mach.in.a /6deIUs eks 'må8kInEF- 'mæk-/ n Lat

1 (in early Greek and Roman theater) a god brought onto the stage to decide the end of the play
any unlikely or artificial way of doing something that is used suddenly or at the last minute to end a problem: The author produces a perfect deus ex machina in the form of the woman’s long lost twin who cures all her problems in about two pages.


-Pronounced: day-oooose-ex-moch-key-na

[ungeraynrand]

ap.o.lo.gi.a /6æpE'lEUdZiE, -dZE/ n [(for, of)] fml
a formal defense or explanation, esp. of a belief

(Please note, this word is pronounced ‘apple-low-gee-ah’ and doesn’t sound a thing like apology :) )

-Because Menno Meyjes's film "Max" presents a humanized portrait of the young Adolf Hitler as a desperately ambitious young painter, it has been prejudged in some quarters as an inappropriately sympathetic apologia for one of history's monsters.

[ungeraynrand]

ob.verse /'å8bv¨8rsF'óbv¨8s/ n [the]

1 tech the front side of a coin or MEDAL —opposite reverse
2 [(of)] fml a necessary opposite: Defeat is the obverse of victory.

Calling a book “The 'Greatest Book Ever Written'” tells me nothing of consequence. Except that you are an over-excitable twit. This rule also applies to the obverse: saying a CD is “The 'Worst Sonic Abomination Ever'” not only reveals your over-excitable twitness, but also that you are very sad. Cheer up, friend. It’s not that bad.

[dragongodz]

needtogetalife - something some people obviosly need to do more of. :D

[ungeraynrand]

double en.ten.dre /6du8blå8n'tå8ndrEF-blón'tón-/ n Fr
a word or phrase that may be understood in two different ways, one of which is usu. sexual

think: James Bond.

the word is pronounced: dooble - aan-taan-dra
(aan as in Caan as in James Caan, same with taan).

[TheWEF]

Originally posted by markrb
I can't believe what just happened. I was reading the post with Histrionic and listening to the news on Tv when the guy said Histrionic. This is just too wierd.

Mark

usually that's just a glitch in the matrix...

[The Edge]

usually that's just a glitch in the matrix...

Yeah. Hate when that happens.:p

Edge

[dani82]

my favorite word, "eventually" it means "sooner or later."

Hey, if you keep sleeping in your Engish class, eventually you're goinig to fail, again!



unrelated:

everytime my friend says something smart or uses big words on me, just to make me look dumb, i say "and this is what they teach you at community college."

just cause people use big words, doesn't mean they're smarter or better than you.

[The Edge]

For anybody still reading this fine tread.



inveterate \in-VET-uhr-it\, adjective:
1. Firmly established by long persistence; deep-rooted; of long standing.
2. Fixed in habit by long persistence; confirmed; habitual.

In Montpelier, where this prison stands, the inveterate prejudice against prisoners has been swept away.
--Morrison I. Swift, "Humanizing the Prisons," The Atlantic, August 1911

He is an inveterate nibbler, popping nuts and chocolate into his mouth as he talks, leaning forward in his chair to forage in the tins with his right hand.
--Michael Ignatieff, Isaiah Berlin: A Life

I was an inveterate museum-goer from the age of fourteen, when I'd take the trolley to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts after school and wander the halls of Greek antiquities.
--Jane Alexander, Command Performance

Edge

[killingspree]

hey the edge
i'm just wondering where you get these words from? i mean perhaps there's a nice site which has tons of these all in connection with the fitting quotes?

regards
steVe

[The Edge]

@killingspree
No Problem. (http://wordsmith.org/awad/index.html)
I'll finish posting here. ;)

Edge

[ungeraynrand]

just cause people use big words, doesn't mean they're smarter or better than you.


that is soooooooo true. being articulate != smart (necessarily). there are a lot of smart ppl who
have trouble expressing themselves. trouble with that is, unless you articulate or write down your thoughts they just vaporize :(


de.noue.ment /6deInu8'må8nFdeI'nu8món/ n
the end of a story when everything is explained
pronounced: de-noo(as in noodle)-mon(sounds like mourn)

*** this is the word that the fictional Donald Kaufman bungles (he pronounced it den-nooey-ment) in the movie ADAPTATION. now who says this thread is useless? haha

[ungeraynrand]

com.part.men.tal.ize also -ise BrE /kEm6på8rt'mentl-aIzF6kómpå8t-/ v [T]

to divide into separate compartments, divisions, etc.; CATEGORIZE: compartmentalized information
—-ization /kEm6på8rtmentl-E'zeISfnF6kómpå8t6mentl-aI'zeISfn/ n [U]

The men seemed to want their families to exist in this pure arena, wherein they could view themselves as somewhat genteel. At home among family, they could forget their own self-loathing over what they felt they had to do. Their home was the pristine castle, the place where they could exercise the part of themselves they most wanted others to believe they were. For example, they swore freely in their bars and ogled half-naked women, but did not swear at home. They had sex all over the place away from home, but the members of their home life were to be "faithful." They killed, lied and stole without compunction, but this is not an acceptable part of their "family man" identity. While these men had a supreme ability to compartmentalize—to be psychopathic in one venue but caring and "good" in another---their families were also viewed as idealized extensions of a part of themselves. It was another area of control. Family members—especially wives--were not allowed to be people in their own right. They were to play a role that suited the mobster's purpose.
-Katherine Ramsland on Mobsters.

[ungeraynrand]

in.tra.mu.ral /6IntrE'mjUfrElM/ adj
(happening) within a place or organization: intramural courses at college | intramural sports (=between teams from the same school or college) —opposite extramural

in.ter.ne.cine /6IntEr'ni8sfnM, -'nesi8nMF6IntE'ni8saInM/ adj fml
(of fighting, etc.) between members of the same group, nation, etc.: internecine strife

Here we have two words that somwhat similar on the surface but it's usage is wholly different. Just like you wouldn't say intramural conflict, you don't say internecine sports.

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