Word of the Day!

presage [noun pres-ij; verb pres-ij, pri-seyj]
1 adjective:
1a Be a sign or warning of (an imminent event, typically an unwelcome one)
1b (archaic, of a person) predict
2 noun:
2a An omen or portent; warning or indication of the future
2b (archaic) A feeling of presentiment or foreboding

Examples:

In the Optimist production, this number is sung twice; its first appearance comes at the top of the show and is rendered by Hero, who unwittingly presages the way she herself will later be undone by Claudio. (Mike Fischer, Much Ado About Nothing leans hard on gags Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2017)

Rather than zoom in on a single disorienting upheaval in a character’s life, the novel endeavors to show how, these days, every aspect of everyone’s life feels threatened, and how every decision seems to presage a duel between individual survival and collective action. (Lauren Oyler, Are Novels Trapped by the Present?The New Yorker, 2020)

These stamps are not a response to recent events, but a presage - Toguo has been exploring these ideas for years. As early as the mid-1990s, he was working on a series of confrontational performances entitled Transit. (Dale Berning Sawa, Unfamiliar territory: artists navigate the complexities of the refugee crisis The Guardian, 2017)

In their eyes it was blood, and a presage of dreadful slaughter. (Emily Sarah Holt, Robin Tremayne: A Story of the Marian Persecutio)

But your face to-night is like a presage of calamity, like the dull, livid sky that goes before a thunderstorm. (M E Braddon, Phantom Fortune)

Origin:

Late Middle English (as a noun): via French from Latin praesagium, from praesagire 'forebode', from prae 'before' + sagire 'perceive keenly'. (Oxford English Dictionary)

The verb presage was predated by a noun presage, meaning 'omen.' Both forms derive from the Latin prefix prae- combined with the adjective sagus, meaning 'prophetic.' Foretell, predict, forecast, prophesy, and presage all mean 'to tell beforehand.' Foretell applies to telling of a future event by any procedure or any source of information ('seers foretold the calamity'). Predict commonly implies inference from facts or accepted laws of nature ('astronomers predicted an eclipse'). Forecast implies anticipating eventualities and is usually concerned with probabilities ('to forecast snow'). Prophesy connotes inspired or mystic knowledge of the future ('prophesying a new messiah'). Presage may apply to suggesting a coming event or indicating its likelihood. (Merriam-Webster)

filch [filch]
verb:
1 (informal) Pilfer or steal (something, especially an item of small value) in a casual way.

Examples:

Now in that night Boxtel would climb over the wall and, as he knew the position of the bulb which was to produce the grand black tulip, he would filch it; and instead of flowering for Cornelius, it would flower for him, Isaac; he also, instead of Van Baerle, would have the prize of a hundred thousand guilders, not to speak of the sublime honour of calling the new flower Tulipa nigra Boxtellensis, -- a result which would satisfy not only his vengeance, but also his cupidity and his ambition.(Alexandere Dumas, The Black Tulip)

It is base to filch a purse - daring to embezzle a million - but it is immeasurably great to steal a diadem. (Friedrich Schiller, Fiesco or, The Genoese Conspiracy)

Origin:

'steal,' especially in a small, sly way, 1560s, slang, perhaps from c. 1300 filchenfilzen 'comb through.' (Online Etymological Dictionary)

I am glad I am so acquit of this tinder-box: his thefts were too open; his filching was like an unskilful singer-he kept not time. So says Falstaff in Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Windsor. The Bard was fond of filch in both its literal and figurative uses; Iago says to Othello, 'he that filches from me my good name / Robs me of that which not enriches him / And makes me poor indeed.' Filch derives from the Middle English word filchen ('to attack' or 'to steal') and perhaps from Old English gefylce ('band of men, troop, army'). As a noun, filch once referred to a hooked staff used by thieves to snatch articles out of windows and from similar places, but this use is now obsolete. (Merriam-Webster)

epiphany [ih-pif-uh-nee ]
noun:
1 capitalized : January 6 observed as a church festival in commemoration of the coming of the Magi as the first manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles or in the Eastern Church in commemoration of the baptism of Christ

2 an appearance or manifestation especially of a divine being

3a a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something
3b an intuitive grasp of reality through something (such as an event) usually simple and striking
3c an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure; a revealing scene or moment

Examples:

Invention has its own algorithm: genius, obsession, serendipity, and epiphany in some unknowable combination. (Malcolm Gladwell, In The Air, New Yorker, 2008)

But Scrooge's Christmas epiphany is interrupted by an aggro, mech-suit wearing time traveler (Veep's Sam Richardson) crashing through the wall to warn him about the apocalyptic Christmas in 3050. But Scrooge's Christmas epiphany is interrupted by an aggro, mech-suit wearing time traveler (Veep's Sam Richardson) crashing through the wall to warn him about the apocalyptic Christmas in 3050. (Jess Joho, The weirdest versions of 'A Christmas Carol', Mashable, 2019)

But after seeing Frank Stella’s wall reliefs in 1958, Woodman experienced an epiphany: that painting could spring out of the frame and assert itself in three dimensions. (Spinning craft into art at the Whitney Museum, Financial Times, 2019)

It was a grand farewell dinner, as he and Denisov were leaving to join their regiment after Epiphany. About twenty people were present, including Dolokhov and Denisov. (Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace)

Origin:

early 14c., 'festival of the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles' (celebrated Jan. 6; usually with a capital -E-), from Old French epiphanie, from Late Latin epiphania, neuter plural (taken as feminine singular), from late Greek epiphaneia 'manifestation, striking appearance, festival held in commemoration of the appearance of a god at some particular place' (in New Testament, 'advent or manifestation of Christ'), from epiphanes 'manifest, conspicuous,' from epiphainein 'to manifest, display, show off; come suddenly into view,' from epi 'on, to' (see epi-) + phainein 'to show' (from PIE root *bha- (1) 'to shine'). Of divine beings other than Christ, first recorded 1660s; general literary sense of 'any manifestation or revelation' appeared 1840, first in De Quincey. (Online Etymological Dictionary)

Middle English epiphanie, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin epiphania, from Late Greek, plural, probably alteration of Greek epiphaneia 'appearance, manifestation', from epiphainein 'to manifest', from epi- + phainein 'to show' (Merriam-Webster>

blithe [blahyth, blahyth ]
adjective:
1 Happy or carefree, of a lighthearted character or disposition

2 Showing a casual and cheerful indifference considered to be callous or improper

Examples:

His blithe self-assurance made me wonder whether I had somehow gone to sleep in the wrong bed. (Yu Hua, As The North Wind Howled, New Yorker, 2018)

This blithe comic remake of a crackpot science-fiction thriller just might be the best theory yet about the bizarre political events in Washington DC these last few years. Long answer short: tiny alien bugs have taken control of the politicians. (Craig Mathieson, Nothing on TV? Stream these overlooked and classic shows over the summer break, Sydney Morning Herald, 2017)

Housed in Finnish architect Eero Saarinen’s landmarked 1962 TWA Flight Center at JFK International Airport, the forthcoming TWA Hotel is an homage to the midcentury era of Jet Age optimism—and blithe indifference. (Aileen Kwun, The Problem With Fetishizing Midcentury Modernism, Fast Company, 2018)

Her anger had a good effect, however, for she hid it under a smiling face, and seemed unusually blithe and brilliant. (Louisa May Alcott, Little Women)

Yet we have a great deal to make us glad, and just now I feel as blithe as a bird. (Martha Finley, The Thorn in the Nest)

Origin:

Before 1000; Middle English; Old English blīthe; cognate with Old Norse blīthr, Old High German blīdi, Gothic bleiths (Dictionary.com)

Old English bliþe 'joyous, kind, cheerful, pleasant,' from Proto-Germanic blithiz 'gentle, kind' (source also of Old Saxon bliði 'bright, happy,' Middle Dutch blide, Dutch blijde, Old Norse bliðr 'mild, gentle,' Old High German blidi 'gay, friendly,' Gothic bleiþs 'kind, friendly, merciful').

No cognates outside Germanic. The earlier application was to the outward expression of kindly feeling, sympathy, affection to others, as in Gothic and ON.; but in OE. the word had come more usually to be applied to the external manifestation of one's own pleased or happy frame of mind, and hence even to the state itself (Online Etymology Dictionary)