Word of the Day!

thurible [thoor-uh-buhl]

noun

a censer, specifically a metal censer suspended from chains, in which incense is burned during worship services

examples
1. Many looks were accessorized by personal fog machines, swung like ritual thuribles, emitting puffs of smoke into the air, blurring the edges. New York Times 2023 March 4 "The Brilliant Alchemy of Rick Owens"

2. Altar boys parade with palm fronds, a priest swings a thurible, a young woman joins her hands in prayer. Time. "Celebrating Faith in China’s Underground Churches" 28 March 2016

origin
Middle English thurribul, from Latin thuribulum, from thur-, thus incense, from Greek thyos incense, sacrifice, from thyein to sacrifice

hoatzin [hoh-at-sin, waht-sin]

noun
a blue-faced, crested bird, Opisthocomus hoazin, of the Amazon and Orinoco forests, having as a nestling a large, temporary claw on the second and third digits of the forelimb, for climbing among the tree branches.

examples
After another bird-filled stop, where we saw our first turkey-like hoatzin — whose ungainly size and clumsy movements made us all laugh — we were transferred into two smaller canoes. "Bears, Binoculars, and Bucket Lists: 15 days Birding in Ecuador." New York Times. 26 April 2023.

Conserving the Amazon's vast rainforests protects the planet and helps ensure that jaguars, hoatzins, and all forest dwellers have a home now and into the future. WWF calendar - November 2026

origin
1655–65; ≪ Nahuatl huāctzīn, huāhtzīn name for several hen-sized birds of the Valley of Mexico, apparently applied indiscriminately by early naturalists to similar New World birds

vorticist [ˈvɔːtɪsɪst]

noun

a member of a British artistic movement of 1914–15 influenced by cubism and futurism and favouring harsh, angular, machine-like forms

examples
1. The Kansas cyclone that whisks Dorothy into a dreamworld is evoked through vorticist projections the work of Jon Driscoll that betoken chaos in the cosmos. The Wizard of Oz - review 2011
2. The winter sales posters brilliantly harness the dynamic movement of vorticist and futurist art - one image is a blizzard of angled and curved raincoats, sheets of rain and upturned umbrellas. Evening Standard - Home Ben Luke 2011

origin
Latin vortic-, vortex; first known use in 1914

Wyndam Lewis, The Dancers, 1912

yeren [yěrén]


noun
1. a cryptid apeman reported to inhabit remote, mountainous regions of China, most famously in the Shennongjia Forestry District in the Hubei Province.

example
1. It also, I was forced to recognize, evoked the yeren, a semihuman creature said to dwell in Hubei province and which, until that night, I had never deemed anything other than mythical. The Railway Conspiracy by John Shen Yen Nee & SJ Rozan

origin
Chinese: 野人; pinyin, lit. 'wild man'

A statue of a baby yeren urinating rainwater at the gate of Guanmen Mountain (Emily Conrad)

callithumpian [ka-lə-ˈthəm-pē-ən]

adjective

1. related to a noisy boisterous band or parade

example

1. And the callithumpian custom of flour-bashing, very visible in the New York riot of 1828 and also observed at Mardi Gras, received a resounding revival. Halloween: from pagan ritual to party night by Nicholas Rogers.

2. He had been entertaining a regular callithumpian parade of Red Cross commissioners from America, and he probably felt that he had seen the worst and that this was just another cross. The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me by William Allen White, 1906

origin

Callithump and the related adjective "callithumpian" are Americanisms, but their roots stretch back to England. In the 19th century, the noun "callithumpian" was used in the U.S. of boisterous roisterers who had their own makeshift New Year's parade. Their band instruments consisted of crude noisemakers such as pots, tin horns, and cowbells. The antecedent of "callithumpians" is an 18th-century British dialect term for another noisy group, the "Gallithumpians," who made a rumpus on election days in southern England. Today, the words "callithump" and "callithumpian" see occasional use, especially in the names of specific bands and parades. The callithumpian bands and parades of today are more organized than those of the past, but they retain an association with noise and boisterous fun.

labret [ley-bret]

noun
an ornament worn in a pierced hole in the lip.

examples
1. Someone taps me on the shoulder then and I turn around and find myself staring at this unspeakably hot twenty-something girl with a labret piercing, flaming red hair, and boots up her calves. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

2. A “labret” of ivory or even of wood they valued at four or five dollars—or asked so much as that at first.Young Alaskans in the Far North by Emerson Hough

origins
1855–60; < Latin labr (um) lip + -et

Jungkook of Korean music group BTS revealed he removed his labret piercing recently

judder [juhd-er]

verb

1. to vibrate violently

examples
1. According to the report, the pilot tried to correct the deviation but was met with a "significant judder" from the nose gear. "Plane left runway due to bearing failure - report," BBC, 24 Oct 2024
2. 'It will be one hundred and four degrees today,' remarked Rangwalla as they juddered along the potholed access road leading out of the Air Force Colony within which Inspector Chopra lived. The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan.

origin
First recorded in 1925–30; origin uncertain; perhaps j(olt) or j(erk) + (sh)udder

velleity [vəˈlēədē, veˈlēədē]

noun

1. a wish or inclination not strong enough to lead to action

examples

1. We may well say: I would desire to be young; but we do not say: I desire to be young; seeing that this is not possible; and this motion is called a wishing, or as the Scholastics term it a velleity, which is nothing else but a commencement of willing, not followed out, because the will, by reason of impossibility or extreme difficulty, stops her motion, and ends it in this simple affection of a wish. Treatise on the Love of God, Saint Francis de Sales, 1567-1622
2. Ms. Marcus also errantly dismissed the Constitution’s separation of powers, which entrusts “all legislative powers” to Congress, as a mere velleity that should yield to executive legislation when Congress is divided. "The Separations of Powers is not a Suggestion." The Washington Post, Letters to the Editor, 14 Jan 2022.

origins

early 17th century: from medieval Latin velleitas, from Latin velle ‘to wish’.

daunder ['dȧn(d)ər or ˈdȯn-]

noun

1. a walk or amble

verb

1. to stroll; to meander.
2. to go on without reaching a conclusion (to daunder on)

examples

1. 'Man liked a nocturnal daunder, apparently.' Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin

2. If I was you, I would daunder about here for a bit, and no arrive at your hotel till after dark.
"Mr. Standfast" by John Buchan

origin

The word “daunder” originates from Scottish dialect, particularly Lowland Scots. The exact etymological roots are somewhat obscure, but it is believed to have connections to older Scots and Northern English words that describe walking or meandering.

prolix [proh-liks, proh-liks]

adjective
1. extended to great, unnecessary, or tedious length; long and wordy.

2. (of a person) given to speaking or writing at great or tedious length.

examples

1. In 1949, a young American artist named Ray Johnson left Black Mountain College near Asheville, N.C., moved to New York City and began to explore his prolix talents, both visual and verbal. "The Unknown Ray Johnson Takes the Spotlight." The New York Times 30 May 2024

2. On one especially prolix ballad, “Blind,” she lets her lyrics fly fast and furious, only half-apologizing for being “raunchy like Bob Saget” before outlining how toxic romances erode self-worth. "On SOS Sza unpacks her emotions in so many words." The Washington Post 9 Dec 2022

origin

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Latin prōlixus “extended, long,” equivalent to prō- pro- -lixus, akin to līquī “to flow”; liquor