Word of the Day!

kerning [kur-ning]

noun

1. the setting of two letters closer together than is usual by removing space between them. Kerning can also set the letter glyphs wider apart, if the layout designer so chooses. The most commonly met kerning tightens the glyphs up (by a varying amount for each pair of glyphs, as adjusted by the typographer) to make text more readable.

examples

1. The finishing airbrushing of an illo, the final tweak or kerning of an art headline, was important to him.
"Pacific NW magazine honors the life and work of art director David Miller" Seattle Times 12/16/22

2. It highlights just how much thought goes into making sure the thickness, kerning, and size of a font is optimal for the environment where it’s viewed. "How to change your font in Slack" The Verge 09/11/20

origins

French carne corner, from French dialect, from Latin cardin-, cardo hinge

tantalus [tan-tl-uhs]

noun

1. a stand or rack containing visible decanters, especially of wines or liquors, secured by a lock; a case in which bottles may be locked with their contents tantalizingly visible

examples

1. A tantalus containing three kinds of spirit, all of a liqueur excellence, stood always on this table of luxury; but the fanciful have asserted that the whisky, brandy, and rum seemed always to stand at the same level. The Wisdom of Father Brown G.K. Chesterton

2. Carstairs made a gesture towards the tantalus on the table. Afterwards Kathlyn Rhodes

origin

Latin, from Greek Tantalos, from the Greek myth of Tantalus, a wicked king and son of Zeus; condemned in Hades to stand in water that receded when he tried to drink and beneath fruit that receded when he reached for it

parvenu [pahr-vuh-noo, -nyoo, pahr-vuh-noo, -nyoo]

noun

one that has recently or suddenly risen to an unaccustomed position of wealth or power and has not yet gained the prestige, dignity, or manner associated with it (derogatory)

examples

1. In 1952, backed by little more than his reputation as a war hero and a fortune staked by his parvenu father, 35-year-old John F. Kennedy swiped a Senate seat from Republican Henry Cabot Lodge, himself a wealthy combat veteran. Kevin Mahnken, The New Republic, 1 Sep. 2020

2. "...All the senior authorities from the Spanish administration, soldiers laden with decorations, attorneys and magistrates, representatives of Morocco's political parties and the Jewish community, the whole diplomatic corps, the directors of banks, posh civil servants, powerful businessmen, doctors, every Spaniard, Arab, and Jew of high social standing and--naturally--the odd parvenu like you, you shameless little thing, slipping through the back door with your limping reporter on your arms." The Seamstress María Dueñas

origins

1795–1805; < French: upstart, noun use of past participle of parvenir to arrive, reach < Latin pervenīre, equivalent to per- per- + venīre to come

dwam [dwɔːm or dwɑːm]

chiefly Scottish

noun:

1. a fainting spell or sudden attack of illness
2. daydream, reverie

examples:
1. Rebus drove to work next morning in what his father would have called "a dwam," unaware of the world around him. Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin.

2. Online shoppers don't drift or derive or dwam around: they point and click. The Guardian "Tales from the Mall by Ewan Morrison – review." August 2012

origin
akin to Old English dwolma chaos, Old High German twalm bewilderment, stupefaction, Old Norse dylminn careless, indifferent, Gothic dwalmon to be foolish, insane

snick [snik]

noun

1. a small cut
2. a slight often metallic sound
3. a glancing contact with the ball off the edge of the cricket bat

examples

1. Then it grew louder, and suddenly there came from the window a sharp metallic snick. "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty" by Arthur Conan Doyle

2. "...ye may hear the breech-bolt snick where never a man was seen..." "The Ballad of East and West" by Rudyard Kipling

3. Silence held for a few minutes, unbroken except for the snick of Didi’s scissors and the rattle of Adele’s beads. —Hannah Natanson, Washington Post, 19 Oct. 2020

origin
In the Annotated Sherlock Holmes there is a footnote that states: The Oxford English Dictionary credits "The Naval Treaty" (which was published in Oct-Nov 1893) as the first usage of this word to mean a sound, but my friend pointed out its use in the Kipling poem which was published in 1889. And Merriam-Webster says that for definiton 2, the origin is 1886. Definition 1 is said to have first appeared in 1775.

haulm (or halm)

[hawm]

noun

1. stems or stalks collectively, as of grain or of peas, beans, or hops, especially as used for litter or thatching.
2. a single stem or stalk


Examples

1. Potato haulms, and club-rooted cabbage crops should, however, never be mixed with ordinary clean vegetable refuse, as they would be most likely to perpetuate the terrible diseases to which they are subject. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition

2. There was a bad to be prepared for planting out late cabbages for succession, and fresh seed to be sown for the kind that can weather the winter, as well as pease to be gathered, and the dead, dried haulms of the early crop to be cleared away for fodder and litter. One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters

origin

First recorded before 900; Middle English halm, Old English healm; cognate with Dutch, German halm, Old Norse halmr; akin to Latin culmus “stalk,” Greek kálamos “reed”

gibus [jahy-buhs]

noun

1. opera hat, a collapsible top hat

examples

1. Ask little Tom Prig, who is there in all his glory, knows everybody, has a story about every one; and, as he trips home to his lodgings in Jermyn Street, with his gibus-hat and his little glazed pumps, thinks he is the fashionablest young fellow in town, and that he really has passed a night of exquisite enjoyment. The Book of Snobs, 2006
2. Ispenlove stood leaning against the piano, as though intensely fatigued; he crushed his gibus with an almost savage movement, and then bent his large, lustrous black eyes absently on the flat top of it. Sacred and Profane Love, Arnold Bennett, 1899

origin

French gibus, from Gibus, name of its 19th century French inventor

orison [awr-uh-zuhn]

noun
1. a prayer

examples
1. Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia! —Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
Hamlet, Act 3, Scene I, Shakespeare

For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him. / For he is of the tribe of Tiger.
"Jubilate Agno" (also known as "For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry") by Christopher (Kit) Smart

origins

Middle English, from Anglo-French ureisun, oreison, from Late Latin oration-, oratio, from Latin, oration

anaglypta

noun [a-nə-glip-tə]

1. embossed wallpaper, a type of wallpaper that has a permanent raised design [often used before another noun]

examples
1. Three coats of deep blue paint bring out the texture in the anaglypta wall covering. Barbara Hertenstein, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 29 Apr. 2000
2. These Victorian and Edwardian houses often conceal the evidence of earlier tastes in decoration—contoured Anaglypta wallpaper, dark varnishes, here and there the piece of stained glass that must have added to the general gloom. Alexander McCall Smith, Sunday Times (London), 27 Apr. 2008
3. The bed was a four-poster, hung with patterned drapes that matched the Anaglypta on the walls. Cabaret Macabre by Tom Mead

origin
earlier a trademark, borrowed from Latin, "vessels carved in low relief," from neuter plural of anaglyptus "carved in low relief"

rantipole

(ræntɪ pəʊl)

adjective

wild, reckless, boisterous

noun

a wild reckless sometimes quarrelsome person

verb

to be wild, reckless, or boisterous, to behave like a rantipole

examples
1. This rantipole hero had for some time singled out the blooming Katrina for the object of his uncouth gallantries, and though his amorous toyings were something like the gentle caresses and endearments of a bear, yet it was whispered that she did not altogether discourage his hopes. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Washington Irving

2. For example: that my wife, Lady Vibrate, is an extravagant rackety rantipole woman of fashion, can I doubt that? No. That she squanders my money, disturbs my peace, and contradicts for contradiction's sake, can I doubt that? No. Thomas Holcroft, He's Much To Blame, Act II, Scene I, 1798.

origins
From ranty and pole, poll ("head").