Learned a new word today

[silverfox]

quire 1 (kwr)

n.

1. Abbr. qr. or q. A set of 24 or sometimes 25 sheets of paper of the same size and stock; one twentieth of a ream*.

2. A collection of leaves of parchment or paper, folded one within the other, in a manuscript or book.

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[Middle English quayer, four double sheets of paper, from Old French quaer, from Vulgar Latin *quaternus, from Latin quatern, set of four, four each, from quater, four times; see kwetwer- in Indo-European roots.]

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quire 2 (kwr)

n. & v. Archaic

Variant of choir.

The American Heritage? Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ?2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

(* ream 1 n

1. (Communication Arts / Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) a number of sheets of paper, formerly 480 sheets (short ream), now 500 sheets (long ream) or 516 sheets (printer's ream or perfect ream). One ream is equal to 20 quires

2. (often plural) Informal a large quantity, esp of written matter he wrote reams

[from Old French raime, from Spanish rezma, from Arabic rizmah bale]

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ream2

vb (tr)

1. to enlarge (a hole) by use of a reamer

2. US to extract (juice) from (a citrus fruit) using a reamer

[perhaps from C14 remen to open up, from Old English rȳman to widen]

Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged ? HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003)

[YawnAlot]

I have quite the fondness for abligurition (excessive spending on food and drink!)

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Deracinated

1. To pull out by the roots; uproot.

2. To displace from one's native or accustomed environment.

Good old Telegraph.

[silverfox]

Embower

em?bow?er transitive verb \im-ˈbau̇(-ə)r\

Definition of EMBOWER:

to shelter or enclose in or as if in a bower

Examples of EMBOWER

like a rose embowered in its own green leaves ? P. B. Shelley

over the years grapevines have completely embowered the summerhouse in the garden

First Known Use of EMBOWER

1580

merriam-webster.com/dictionary

[Huguenot]

Antimacassar

Well strictly speaking not a new word, but I found out where it comes from...

Apparently Macassar was a hair cream widely used, and much celebrated, at the beginning of the 19th Century.

So the anti-Macassar was anti hair oil. They should install them on bus windows.

Which is a shame really, because antimacassar sounds like it would be much better if it were an elderly relative's oversized underwear.

[ianr]

>quire 2 (kwr)

>n. & v. Archaic

>Variant of choir.

Still battling on. Try a search on quire with, eg, chapel, church, or prayer.

[silverfox]

>quire 2 (kwr)

>n. & v. Archaic

>Variant of choir.

Quotation by Abraham Cowley

Even Lust the Master of a hardned Face,

Blushes if thou beest in the place,

To darkness' Curtains he retires,

In Sympathizing Night he rowls his smoaky Fires.

When, Goddess, thou liftst up thy wakened Head,

Out of the Mornings purple bed,

Thy Quire of Birds about thee play,

And all the joyful world salutes the rising day.

Abraham Cowley (1618?1667), British poet. Hymn: To Light (l. 57?64). . .

Seventeenth-Century Verse and Prose, Vols. I?II. Vol. I: 1600?1660; Vol. II: 1660?1700. Helen C. White, Ruth C. Wallerstein, and Ricardo Quintana, eds. (1951, 1952) The Macmillan Company.

Quiristers

Winchester, The Pilgrim?s School (Quiristers)

Late fourteenth century origins

On 28 March 1394 William of Wykeham formally opened his college at Winchester with 70 poor scholars, a warden, headmaster and second master, ten priest-fellows, three chaplains, three lay clerks, 10 commoners (that is, those who paid for their commons) and 16 quiristers. The latter lived in a very small house in Chamber Court. The statutes were issued in their final form in 1400. Concerning the quiristers they must be paupers and they should be under 12 years old, well mannered and with an ability to sing. They were to be eligible for Winchester college scholarships and would have a free education under a chaplain or other teacher in return for their singing.

For many years they served in the college, helping the servants to make the fellows? beds and waiting at table. Each quirister was given cloth for a gown and they must not wear hats. For about 150 years Wykeham?s plans worked smoothly and each year four or five quiristers were admitted to the college as scholars.

http://www.ofchoristers.net/Chapters/WinchesterQuiristers.htm

[Huguenot]

gas?tro?lith

noun \ˈgas-trə-ˌlith\

Definition: a stone or pebble ingested by an animal and functioning to grind food in gastric digestion

[Tarot]

blather. rambling talk with no real substance.

[david_carnell]

Malefic

1. Having or exerting a malignant influence.

2. Evil; malicious.

[Latin maleficus : male, ill; see mel-3 in Indo-European roots + -ficus, -fic.]

[silverfox]

hieing

Used by woolmarkthedog on the Ask Silverfox thread in the Lounge

HIE (verb)

hied hy-ing or hie-ing

Definition of HIE

intransitive verb: to go quickly: hasten

transitive verb: to cause (oneself) to go quickly

Examples of HIE

we had best hie home before the snow gets worse

Origin of HIE

Middle English, from Old English h?gian to strive, hasten

First Known Use: 12th century

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

[Huguenot]

Great thread this. When people accuse me of winning debates from 'clever words' this is where I learn them.

[silverfox]

rheumy

As in "Casting a rheumy eye round the chamber, Charlie realised he was under-dressed..." Quentin Letts Daily Mail (3/11/10)

rheum noun \ˈr?m\

Definition of RHEUM

1: a watery discharge from the mucous membranes especially of the eyes or nose

2 archaic: tears

? rheumy\ˈr?-m?\ adjective

Origin of RHEUM

Middle English reume, from Anglo-French, from Latin rheuma, from Greek, literally, flow, flux, from rhein to flow

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

His head and rheumy eyes distill in showers. --Dryden.

And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air

To add unto his sickness. --Shakespeare.

[silverfox]

shellacking 

As used by President Obama when taking the blame for the the midterm election results

shel?lack?ing[shuh-lak-ing]

?noun Slang (chiefly US, Canadian)

1. an utter defeat: "a shellacking their team will remember".

2. a sound thrashing: "His father gave him a shellacking for stealing the book".

Origin:

1705?15; shell + lac (trans. of F laque en ?cailles)

1 shel?lac  [shuh-lak]

noun, verb, -lacked, -lack?ing.

?noun

1. lac that has been purified and formed into thin sheets, used for making varnish.

2. a varnish (shellac varnish) made by dissolving this material in alcohol or a similar solvent.

3. a phonograph record made of a breakable material containing shellac, esp. one to be played at 78 r.p.m.: an LP that can hold nearly 10 times as much as the old shellac.

?verb (used with object)

4. to coat or treat with shellac.

5. Slang .

a. to defeat; trounce.

b. to thrash soundly.

Word Origin & History

1713, from shell + lac (see lacquer). Translates Fr. laque en ?cailles "lac in thin plates." The verb is 1876, from the noun. The slang sense of "beat soundly" is 1920s, perhaps from the notion of shellac as a "finish." Shellacked "drunk" is from 1922 (cf. plastered).

Online Etymology Dictionary, ? 2010 Douglas Harper

[Ladymuck]

Dilettante

Thank you to the person who used this word in an email (and made me laugh most heartily in the process) - I hope you know who you are.

[silverfox]

Hacktivist

As in: "Amazon brought down by ?hacktivists?"

Hacktivist(s) (noun)

A hacker, or group of hackers, who carry out 'dedicated denial of service' (DDOS) attacks on websites as a protest or in furtherance of a cause, by using a botnet (a network of computers controlled by one hacker) to overload a website with high numbers of requests so that it stops working.

Cited in The Times, today, December 13

[silverfox]

Albedo

The difference in the reflection of light between the face of a planet facing its sun and the face turned away from that sun

As in:

"...They measured the amount of light coming from the planet's "night side" - when it is directly in front of its star. They compared that to the light coming from its "day side", just before it passes behind its star and Kepler sees it bathed in light.

The difference between the two gives a measure of how much light the planet reflects - or its albedo

In our Solar System, clouds on Jupiter give it an albedo of 52%; Earth's is about 37%. But it appears that TrES-2b reflects less than 1% of its star's light.

"This albedo is darker than that of black acrylic paint or coal - it's weird," Dr Kipping told BBC News..."

(Darkest exoplanet spotted by astronomers http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14476411)

[silverfox]

BLOVIATE

As in:

"...Interestingly, though, Carr?s* book never mentions the fact that the internet material itself, the very ideas that we are skimming, are mostly puerile crap and bloviating nonsense..."

blo?vi?ate verb

blo?vi?at?ed, blo?vi?at?ing, blo?vi?ates

Definition of Bloviate

intransitive verb

: to speak or write verbosely and windily/to discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner/ to speak loudly, verbosely, and at great length, without saying much

? blo?vi?a?tion \ˌbl?-v?-ˈ?-shən\ noun

Origin of BLOVIATE

US Slang Mock-Latinate formation, from blow.

First Known Use: circa 1879

Cited by Kevin Maher in The Times today (The internet will produce nothing less than a new generation of surface-skimming morons - Times2)

(*The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains. Nicholas Carr 2011)

[silverfox]

Organoleptically

As in:

"...Dedicated trained staff are employed as salt testers and flavour attendants. These people organoleptically assess the product on an hourly basis to determine the acceptability of the flavour level..." *

or?gan?o?lep?tic - adjective

Definition of Organoleptic

1 being, affecting, or relating to qualities (including taste, sight, smell, and touch) of a substance (as a food or drug) that stimulate the sense organs

2 involving use of the sense organs

or?gan?o?lep?ti?cal?ly - adverb

Origin of Organoleptic

French organoleptique, from organ- + Greek lēptikos receptive (from lēptos, taken, seized, from lambanein, to take)

First Known Use: 1852

(* Cited by United Biscuits regarding the production process for KP Dry Roasted Nuts)

[silverfox]

SUSURRUS (soo-sur-uhs) noun

As in "a soft susurrus of conversation"

plural -rus?es.

Definition of SU-SUR-RUS (also su?sur?ra?tion - noun)

- A soft, whispering or rustling sound; a murmur.

su?sur-rous, su?sur?rant?adjectives

Origin of?SUSURRUS

Middle English susurracioun, from Late Latin susurrti, susurrtin-, from Latin susurrtus, past participle of susurrre, to whisper, from susurrus, whisper, ultimately of imitative origin.

First Known Use: 1826

Cited today by Brendan, as below

Re: ?45,000 a year not enough for truck drivers new

Posted by: Brendan Today, 04:27PM

I want to be a susurrus.

[silverfox]

SPURTLE

spur?tle noun \ˈspər-təl\

Definition of SPURTLE

(chiefly Scottish): a wooden stick for stirring porridge

Origin of SPURTLE

origin unknown

First Known Use: 1756

Cited On BBC website in article about World Porridge Making Championships

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-19854182

[silverfox]

PLEONASM

ple?o?nasm

noun

Definition of PLEONASM

1: the use of more words than those necessary to denote mere sense (as in the man he said): redundancy

2: an instance or example of pleonasm

? ple?o?nas?tic adjective

? ple?o?nas?ti?cal?ly adverb

Origin of PLEONASM

Late Latin pleonasmus, from Greek pleonasmos, from pleonazein to be excessive, from pleiōn, pleōn more

First Known Use: 1610

Cited by RosieH today on the Unnecessary Words thread

[silverfox]

Interesting addition to Comport, the first word on this thread.

The use of Comport as a noun, which I haven't come across in the dictionaries:

Comport (noun)

A large, covered glass bowl on a stem, which can be used as a serving piece for compotes

Cited by Replacements, Ltd. Dean's Corner

"Most tableware glossaries define ?compote? as a large, covered glass bowl on a stem, which can be used as a serving piece. These items were commonly found on tables from the mid-1800s until well into the 20th century. However, at a conference several years ago, we learned from glassware expert Frank Fenton that all compotes are actually comports!

Fenton explained that ?compote? was a type of food, and that comports were the pieces used to serve this tasty dish. He then showed us a number of period catalog illustrations http://www.replacements.com/thismonth/images/deans_corner_comport_x.jpg indeed, the glass objects were listed as comports in every instance.

http://www.replacements.com/thismonth/archive/v1314n.htm?s1=let&652&

See also LuLu Too's mention of Comportment above

com?port?ment

noun

- personal bearing or conduct; demeanor; behaviour.

[Siduhe]

Tautonym: zoological name of species consisting of two identical words (the generic name and the specific name have the same spelling - eg rattus rattus)

[silverfox]

Spoliation

As in: "... it is not impossible that one or two of these objects may, as research goes on, prove to have come from collections which were the subject of spoliation during the Nazi period ..."

(Cited by curator Tim Wilson, 'Oxford's Ashmolean Museum unveils silver treasure trove' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21274496 )

spo?li?a?tion

[spoh-lee-ey-shuhn]

noun

1. the act or an instance of plundering or despoiling.

2. authorized plundering of neutrals at sea in time of war.

3. Law. the destruction or material alteration of a bill of exchange, will, or the like.

4. the act of spoiling or damaging something.

Verb - to spoliate

Origin:

1350?1400; Middle English, from Anglo-French spoliacion, < Latin spoliātiōn- (stem of spoliātiō ), equivalent to spoliāt(us) (past participle of spoliāre to spoil/plunder; see -ate ) + -iōn- -ion