Maniacs

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 19, 2009 is:

bardolater • \bar-DAH-luh-ter\  • noun
: a person who idolizes Shakespeare

Example sentence:
"[Abraham] Lincoln was a lifelong Bardolater and serial Shakespeare-quoter, as Mr. [Barack] Obama noted in remarks at the recent reopening of Ford's Theater." (Barry Edelstein, The New York Times, April 26, 2009)

Did you know?
George Bernard Shaw once described a Shakespeare play as "stagy trash." Another time, Shaw said he'd like to dig Shakespeare from the grave and throw stones at him. Shaw could be equally scathing toward Shakespeare's adoring fans. He called them "foolish Bardolaters," wrote of "Bardolatrous" ignoramuses, and called blind Shakespeare worship "Bardolatry." Oddly enough, Shaw didn't despise Shakespeare or his work (on the contrary, he was, by his own admission, an admirer), but he disdained those who placed the man beyond reproach. The word "bardolater," which Shaw coined by blending Shakespeare's epithet -- "the Bard" -- with an affix that calls to mind "idolater," has stuck with us to this day, though it has lost some of its original critical sting.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 18, 2009 is:

reiterate • \ree-IT-uh-rayt\  • verb
: to state or do over again or repeatedly sometimes with wearying effect

Example sentence:
Megan rolled her eyes as her mother reiterated the rules for the umpteenth time.

Did you know?
Can you guess the meaning of "iterate," a less common relative of "reiterate"? It must mean simply "to state or do," right? Nope. Actually, "iterate" also means "to state or do again." It's no surprise, then, that some usage commentators have insisted that "reiterate" must always mean "to say or do again AND AGAIN." No such nice distinction exists in actual usage, however. Both "reiterate" and "iterate" can convey the idea of a single repetition or of many repetitions. "Reiterate" is the older of the two words -- it first appeared in the 15th century, whereas "iterate" turned up around 1533. Both stem from the Latin verb "iterare," which is itself from "iterum" ("again"), but "reiterate" took an extra step, through Latin "reiterare"("to repeat").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 17, 2009 is:

omnibus • \AHM-nih-bus\  • adjective
*1 : of, relating to, or providing for many things at once 2 : containing or including many items

Example sentence:
At the beginning of the school year, teachers held an omnibus meeting to tie up many of the loose ends that were left unaddressed over the summer.

Did you know?
The adjective "omnibus" may not have much to do with public transportation, but the noun "omnibus" certainly does -- it not only means "bus,"but it's also the word English speakers shortened to form "bus." The noun "omnibus" originated in the 1820s as a French word for long, horse-drawn vehicles that transported people along the main thoroughfares of Paris. Shortly thereafter, omnibuses -- and the noun "omnibus" -- arrived in New York. But in Latin, "omnibus" simply means "for all." Our adjective "omnibus," which arrived in the mid-1800s, seems to hark back to that Latin "omnibus," though it may also have been at least partially influenced by the English noun. An "omnibus bill" containing numerous provisions, for example, could be likened to a bus loaded with people.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 16, 2009 is:

etiquette • \ET-ih-kut\  • noun
: the conduct or procedure required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be observed in social or official life

Example sentence:
According to Miss Manners, it is a myth that newlyweds have up to a year to write thank-you notes for wedding gifts; rather, etiquette dictates that the notes should be sent as soon as possible.

Did you know?
One definition of the French word "étiquette" is "ticket" or "label attached to something for identification." In 16th-century Spain, the French word was borrowed (and altered to "etiqueta") to refer to the written protocols describing orders of precedence and behavior demanded of those who appeared in court. Eventually, "etiqueta" came to be applied to the court ceremonies themselves as well as the documents which outlined the requirements for them. Interestingly, this then led to French speakers of the time attributing the second sense of "proper behavior" to their "étiquette," and in the middle of the 18th century English speakers finally adopted both the word and the second meaning from the French.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 15, 2009 is:

fractious • \FRAK-shus\  • adjective
*1 : tending to be troublesome : unruly 2 : quarrelsome, irritable

Example sentence:
The class was fractious and uncontrollable when Mr. Douglas first took over as teacher, but he now has the students disciplined, focused, and ready to learn.

Did you know?
The Latin verb "frangere" ("to break or shatter") has many modern English relations. Dishes that are "fragile" can break easily. A person whose health is easily broken might be described as "frail." A "fraction" is one of the many pieces into which a whole can be broken. But "fraction" also once meant "disharmony" or "discord" -- that is, a "rupture in relations." From this noun sense came the adjective "fractious," meaning "unruly" or "quarrelsome." Though the "disharmony" sense of the noun is now obsolete, "fractious" is still common today.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 14, 2009 is:

grudging • \GRUH-jing\  • adjective
1 : unwilling, reluctant *2 : done, given, or allowed unwillingly, reluctantly, or sparingly

Example sentence:
Lydia's father greeted her new boyfriend with a rather cold and grudging handshake.

Did you know?
More than five hundred years have passed since English jurist Sir John Fortescue observed, "Somme . . . obtayne gretter rewardis than thei have disserved, and yit grugge, seying they have [too] litill." Fortescue's "grugge" (an early spelling of the verb "grudge") meant "to grumble and complain," just like its Middle English forerunner, "grucchen," and the Anglo-French word "grucer," which gave rise to the English forms. English speakers had adopted the "complaining" sense of "grudge" by the late 1400s, and by 1500 they had added the extended sense "reluctant." That second sense may have developed because people associated "grudge" with the related word "begrudge" (meaning "to give reluctantly"). "Grudging," which developed from "grudge," made its English debut around 1533.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 13, 2009 is:

brachiate • \BRAY-kee-ayt\  • verb
: to progress by swinging from hold to hold by the arms

Example sentence:
Sarah sat on the park bench and watched as her five-year-old son confidently brachiated along the monkey bars.

Did you know?
Certain members of the ape family, such as the gibbon, have the ability to propel themselves by grasping hold of an overhead tree branch (or other projection) and swinging the body forward. (Chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans are less likely to travel in this manner, due to the weight of their bodies; when they do, it is only for very short distances.) The word for this action, "brachiate," derives from "bracchium," the Latin word for "arm." "Brachiate" shares etymological ancestors with such words as "bracelet" (an ornamental band or chain worn around the wrist) and "brachiopod" (a category of marine organisms with armlike feeding organs called lophophores). Another relative is "pretzel." That word’s German root, ''Brezel,'' is related to the Latin ''brachiatus,'' meaning ''having branches like arms.''

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 12, 2009 is:

usufruct • \YOO-zuh-frukt\  • noun
*1 : the legal right of using and enjoying the fruits or profits of something belonging to another 2 : the right to use or enjoy something

Example sentence:
Dorothy's will bequeathed one-third of her estate to her husband; the remaining two-thirds was bequeathed to him as a lifetime usufruct, later to be donated to charity.

Did you know?
Thomas Jefferson said, "The earth belongs in usufruct to the living." He apparently understood that when you hold something in usufruct, you gain something of significant value, but only temporarily. The gains granted by usufruct can be clearly seen in the Latin phrase from which the word developed, "usus et fructus," which means "use and enjoyment." Latin speakers condensed that phrase to "ususfructus," the term English speakers used as the model for our modern word. "Usufruct" has been used as a noun for the legal right to use something since at least the 1630s. Any right granted by usufruct ends at a specific point, usually the death of the individual who holds it.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 11, 2009 is:

weird • \WEERD\  • adjective
1 : of, relating to, or caused by witchcraft or the supernatural *2 : of strange or extraordinary character : odd, fantastic

Example sentence:
"Again was I suddenly recalled to my immediate surroundings by a repetition of the weird moan from the depths of the cave." (Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars)

Did you know?
You may know today’s word as a generalized term describing something unusual, but "weird" also has older meanings that are more specific. "Weird" derives from the Old English noun "wyrd," essentially meaning "fate." By the 8th century, the plural "wyrde" had begun to appear in texts as a gloss for "Parcae," the Latin name for the Fates -- three goddesses who spun, measured, and cut the thread of life. In the 15th and16th centuries, Scots authors employed "werd" or "weird" in the phrase "weird sisters" to refer to the Fates. William Shakespeare adopted this usage in Macbeth, in which the "weird sisters" are depicted as three witches. Subsequent adjectival use of "weird" grew out of a reinterpretation of the "weird" used by Shakespeare.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 10, 2009 is:

brogue • \BROHG\  • noun
1 : a heavy shoe often with a hobnailed sole *2 : a stout oxford shoe with perforations and usually a wing tip

Example sentence:
Even though his brogues are scuffed and old, John prefers them to his new loafers.

Did you know?
Did you expect "brogue" to be defined as "an Irish accent"? You're probably not alone. The reason our definition is different is because "brogue" has two homographs (words that are spelled -- and in this case pronounced -- the same but have different origins or parts of speech). "Brogue" the shoe comes from the Irish word "bróg," which probably derives from an Old Norse term meaning "leg covering." "Brogue" the accent comes from a different Irish word, "barróg," which means "accent" or "speech impediment."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 09, 2009 is:

inexorable • \i-NEK-suh-ruh-bul\  • adjective
: not to be persuaded, moved, or stopped : relentless

Example sentence:
These ancient ruins have slowly succumbed to the inexorable ravages of time.

Did you know?
The Latin antecedent of "inexorable" is "inexorabilis," which is itself a combination of the prefix "in-," meaning "not," plus "exorabilis," meaning "pliant" or "capable of being moved by entreaty." "Exorabilis" in turn derives ultimately from the Latin verb "orare," meaning "to speak or plead." It's a fitting etymology for "inexorable." You can beseech and implore until you're blue in the face, but that won't have any effect on something that's inexorable. "Inexorable" has been a part of the English language since the 1500s. Originally, it was often applied to persons, or sometimes to personified things ("deaf and inexorable laws"). These days, it is usually applied to things, as in "inexorable monotony" or "an inexorable trend." In such cases, it essentially means "unyielding" or "inflexible."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 08, 2009 is:

lamster • \LAM-ster\  • noun
: a fugitive especially from the law

Example sentence:
"The vast majority of identity-changers become scurrying lamsters, spinning an endless wheel of lies and deception…." (Christopher Loudon, The Financial Post [Toronto, Canada], September 23, 1995)

Did you know?
Lamsters as a class are probably as old as the law from which they flee, but the term "lamster" didn't sneak into our language until the early 1900s, less than ten years after the appearance of the noun "lam," meaning "sudden or hurried flight especially from the law" (as in the phrase "on the lam"). Both words have an old verb relation, though. "Lam" has meant "to beat soundly" or "to strike or thrash" since the late 16th century, but in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it developed another meaning: "to flee hastily." The origins of the verb are obscure, but etymologists suggest that it is Scandinavian in origin and akin to the Old Norse "lemja," meaning "to thrash."