Word of the Day!

Embusqué
noun


Definition
One who avoids military service by securing a post in a government office or the Civil Service.


Etymology
From the French embusquerm to ambush.


Historical Usage
1916 J. Buchan Greenmantle i. 4:
Not some embusqué business in an office, but a thing compared to which your fight at Loos was a Sunday-school picnic.

1955 Times 21 May 9/4:
A number of idle and ill-disposed embusqués, whose principal aim in life is to blight their husbands' military career.


Usage
I love my country - and I also love freedom - but I don't share the same patriotic sense of duty that others, especially in the past, may have felt towards joining the army and knocking off a few Jerries or Commies for their countries. That said, if war ever rolled around my way, I would not hesitate to become an embusqué. Which seems, to me, a lot safer than just shooting yourself in the foot to get out of military service.

 Whoops, it happened again. Had a post all written up and lost it!

Well, this time I'll actually post it, albeit a little late. II'm sure it's still Sunday SOMEWHERE!


L'esprit d'escalier (L'esprit de l'escalier)

Definition
Literally staircase wit - thinking of a clever remark or retort when it is too latye or, when you are literally walking down the staircase and it is too late to be useful.

Etymology
From French esprit (noun), meaning humour or wit + escalier, stairs. The name was coined by French philosopher Denis Diderot's description of the situation in Paradoxe sur le comédien, where he states that at a dinner a comment was made that left him speechless, at which he explains:

l’homme sensible, comme moi, tout entier à ce qu’on lui objecte, perd la tête et ne se retrouve qu’au bas de l’escalier. [A sensible man like me, overwhelmed by the argument levelled against him, becomes confused and can only think clearly again when he reaches the bottom of the stairs.]


Real Quote
1906 H. W. & F. G. Fowler King's Eng. i. 32: No one will know what spirit of the staircase is who is not already familiar with esprit d'escalier.


Usage
Being surrounded by a lot of people at work all the time, I often find myself needing to come up with some kind of witty retort quite regularly. I usually try to avoid argumentm ad absurdum or ad hominem, but I do find that if nothing else comes to mind, I can avoid a case of l'esprit d'escalier by just resorting to the old, ever-faithful "That's what SHE said!" or "And that's what your mum said last night!"

Howdy all! Things I have learned this week: Five day weekends are awesome, the looming 27th birthday is fine until someone reminds you that it's officially "late twenties," and there are some really disturbing words out there. Namely..


Tricoteuse [trikotœz // tri-ko-tyoos]
noun

A woman who knits; specifically to women who, during the French Revolution, sat and knitted at meetings of the Convention or at guillotinings.


From the French tricot, knitting, tricoter, to knit.


1830 Hazlitt Life of Napoleon Buonaparte I. vi. 284
It was this [popular fury] that inspired the Furies of the Guillotine, and sat and smiled in the galleries of the Convention with the tricoteuses of Robespierre!

1973 Listener 22 Nov. 727
The wife of the production manager sits sourly knitting on set like a tricoteuse at the guillotine.


I was doing so well until I realised that I really had no idea what to write as a usage example for tricoteuse. Unfortunately I've misplaced my copy of The Scarlet Pimpernel, because I recall that the Pimpernel disguises himself as a wine-selling tricoteuse in order to smuggle aristocrats out of Paris in casks!

First of all, I'd like to again welcome all our new visitors to the community. I'm enjoying the increase in people commenting on words, and hope to see more join in! For those that don't know me, I'm nerdfury, the maintainer and Sunday poster for 1word1day.

Next item on the agenda - substitute posters. We're always on the lookout for subs to take over if the regular posters can't do it. Show of hands for anyone interested in a substitute role?

Finally, are there any interested in a themed role? A themed role would be a recurring weekly spot where you would post something on a theme - it could be science words, words derived from movies, games or other media, insulting words or whatever you like, as long as it passes.

Finally, my word of the Sunday!


Charientism [chah-ree-ehn-tiz'um]
noun

Definition
A rhetorical term to describe the delivering of an unpleasant or disagreeable thing in a more pleasant or agreeable manner.


Etymology
From the Latin charientismus, Greek χαριεντισμός (I think that's right, stupid character map), gracefulness of style, expression of an unpleasant thing in an agreeable manner.


Quoteable
1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie (Arb.) 201: The Greeks call it charientismus.
1709 Brit. Apollo II. No. 19. 1/1 A Charientism is that Species of an Irony, which couches a Disagreeable Sense under Agreeable Expressions.


Usage
Normally a Friday is generally a Very Good Day for those of us that work, but last Friday was far less agreeable than usual, as our managers called us in for a meeting to advise us that our promised pay rises were being 'reinvested into the company.' There seemed to be hefty charientism at work, as we all felt WE were worth an investment!

Gah! Normally if I can get my post in before brbplayingchess, I can still claim on time! *shakes fist* I should edit her post to later than mine. :D

Exsibilation [ex-si-bi-lay-shun]
noun


Definition
The action of hissing someone off of the stage; ignomious rejection.


Etymology
From Latin exsibilare, ex- out + sibilare to hiss.


Example
1842 De Quincey Pagan Orac. Wks. VIII. 184: The brief exsibilation from the stage by the stern Roman of all Greek testimony.


Usage
There are many grand traditions that have died out, and are no longer passed onto our children: standing when a lady enters and leaves, learning to tie seventeen different knots, how to tie a bow-tie. And, of course, the correct exsibilation of  a poor performance off of the stage.

Oh man, I just can't get rid of this gorram cold! It's some weird strain that makes me forget to do things like post words on time. Someone make me some soup, please? :D


Gobemouche  [gaw'ber-moosh]
noun


Definition
One who credulously accepts all news, however improbable or absurd.


Etymology
From French, gobe-mouches (from gober to swallow + mouche fly) flycatcher (bird and plant), credulous person.


Use In Literature
1818 E. Blaquiere tr. Sig. Pananti 52 Such a representation the gobes mouches of Florence might have readily magnified into a change of religion.


Usage
By the gobemouche expression on my colleague's face, he still hadn't realised that I wasn't actually quite telling the truth when I said 'gobemouche' wasn't in the dictionary. Gullible still was, though!

 Thanks to everyone for your great feedback on how well I'm doing, as well as on my suggestions. It seems a few of you are interested in both themes and open posting times, and so I'll definitely do both! To address the concerns on having your Friends Lists filled with wordy spam, don't worry - I'd already thought of that, and when I do open the gates, it'll be on moderated posting only. Depending on the number of posts, I'll likely only post a certain amount per day, and only for a certain time.

Regarding themes, I'm glad there's such a big interest in it! So, here's your chance to throw in your suggestions/wishlists for theme ideas! Just comment with your grand idea for a theme week, and I'll add it to the list for consideration. Don't be shy - if you don't voice your ideas they'll never get used.


Now, onto my word:

Epizeuxis [eh-pi-zyook-sis]
noun

Definition

A figure by which a word is repeated with vehemence or emphasis. As in "no, no, NO!" or "why, why WHY!?"



Etymology
From Greek , 'a fastening upon.' From , from  'upon' +  'to yoke.'


First seen
1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xix. 167 Ye have another sort of repetition, when ye iterate one word without any intermission, as thus—It was Maryne, Maryne, that wrought mine woe - The Greekes call him, Epizeuxis, the Latins Subiunctio.


Usage
Only earlier tonight I walked past a house in my street where, with the window open, I heard an awkwardly-played rendition of some classical song or another on piano, as if by an untrained hand, and followed swiftly by an epizeuxis of words as the stern piano teacher berated them for not practising harder!


Also, apologies for the awkwardly placed Greek words. I spent the better part of over an hour working out how to get them into my post, and eventually settled on saving my OED page as a HTM document, opening that in Dreamweaver, taking a screenshot, opening it in Photoshop, cropping the words and sticking them here as images. And then when I realised they were weird lookin' I figured screw it - I'm tired and going to bed!

Shot one this time!

Gymnologise (-ize) [jim-noh-loh-jyze]
adjective

Definition
To dispute or argue naked. Literally.

Etymology
From Latin, gymnologizare, from a Greek term (the Greek itself doesn't translate to LJ) naked + speech. I'm assuming gym is the naked part, and logos is the speech part!

Usage
It's often that I'll argue a point, though rarely naked - however if those damn door-bashing religious folk come knocking on my doorstep early on a Saturday or Sunday again, I'll be gymnologising the hell out of them, I swear!


Now, I love Greek loanwords, but it's frustrating having the OED which uses symbols that aren't used by most browsers, it seems - does anyone know, short of taking screenshots and editing them, a way to present Greek letters in LJ? Or some other workaround?

Evening folks! Slightly late again - I knowm I'm a bad man. Unfortunately I'm also a sick man. STILL. *grumbles*

Today's word is disgusting!

Lant [lant]
verb or noun

Alternative spellings
hland, hlond, land, leint

Definition
Noun - Urine, esp. stale urine used for various industrial purposes, chamber-lye or beer.
Verb - To mingle with lant, esp. beer or liquor.

In times past, urine used to be an ingredient in many things, including remedies, in use bt barbers, used to wash the dirt and oils from wools before processing and even added to beer and other liquors to make them stronger or make it last longer.

Quotations
c1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 362 Wearras & weartan on weg to donne nim wulle & wæt mid biccean hlonde. (that's for the Old English nuts here ;)
1630 Tinker of Turvey Ded. Ep. 5 I have drunke double~lanted Ale, and single-lanted, but never gulped downe such Hypocrenian liquor in all my life

Etmology
The etymology is pretty sketchy, and all I can find out is that it's from Old English hland or hlond, and the form lant seems to belong to the North-Western dialects of Lancashire. There's no further information on what it's supposed to mean, so I'll assume it's just the word for 'urine.'

Usage
I love beer. Never used to, mind - used to think it tasted like lant. Now I'm a beer enthusiast, and often tell people that drink cheaper beers that they're cheap because bar staff lanted the barrels. Of course, it was true back in the day! Perhaps urine was cleaner back then, just like music was better, and children were more polite to their elders. Possible, but my guess was hygenic standards were just waaay lower.


Bonus round!

Hypocrenian [high-poh-creen'i'an]
adverb

Pertaining to Hypocrene, obs. form of Hippocrene. Name of a fountain on Mount Helicon, sacred to the Muses; hence used allusively in reference to poetic or literary inspiration

Derived from Latin Hippocrene, from a Greek word I can't write into LJ (stupid Greek letters!). 'Fountain of the horse.' So called because it was fabled to have been created by a stroke of Pegasus' hoof.

Sorry for missing last week - I'm such a bad maintainer! Unfortunately, the same injury that plagued me a few weeks ago is still present. Though I can move my arm without pain, my shoulder has some lingering ligament damage that sometimes hurts like whoa. Last SUnday was one such time! I'll try to avoid making a habit of it, though.

Today's word is:

Sansculottic [sans-kyoo'lot'ik]
adjective

Definition
1. Without knee-breeches, usually explained as one wearing trousers instead of knee-breeches, which was a sign of poorer classes.

2. In the French Revolution, a republican of the poorer classes in Paris. An extreme republican or revolutionary.

3. Without breeches, unbreeched; hence, inadequately or improperly clothed.


Etymology
From French sans + culotte (without knee-breeches). So, sansculotte + ic


First seen

1822 C. Butler Remin. xv. 211
The reader probably remembers the sans-culottic exhibitions, equally ridiculous and disgusting, of the Goddess of Reason.

Usage
It's a constant source of frustration for the managers of my workplace, who regularly ask their sansculottic staff to dress more appropriately for a place of business. We're not asking for full suits and blouses, but we'd kinda like it if the guys could wear something more appropriate than board-shorts and t-shirts, and if the girls would stop wearing oversized shirts over leggings!