Word of the Day for Saturday, July 27, 2013
additament \uh-DIT-uh-muhnt\, noun:
something added; an addition.
Secondly, with an additament, wherein brimstone is approved to help to the melting of iron or steel.
-- Francis Bacon, "Physiological Remains," The Works of Lord Bacon, 1838
But let her stand upon her female character as upon a foundation; and let the attentions incident to individual preference, be so many pretty additaments and ornaments, as many and as fanciful as you please, to that main structure.
-- Charles Lamb, Essays of Ella, 1838
Additament comes from the Latin word additāmentum which referred to an addition.
On This Day:
Saturday July 27, 2013
This is the 208th day of the year, with 157 days remaining in 2013.
Fact of the Day: sunflower
Sunflower heads consist of 1,000 to 2,000 individual flowers joined together by a receptacle base. The large petals around the edge of a sunflower head are individual ray flowers which do not develop into seed. A sunflower is ready to harvest when the back portion of the head turns brown. Floating rafts of sunflowers were used to clean up water contaminated by the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the former Soviet Union. The roots of the sunflower plants removed 95% of the radioactivity in the water by pulling contaminants out of the water.
Holidays
Feast day of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, St. Theobald of Marly, the Martyrs of Salsette, Saints Aurelia, Natalia and their Companions, and St. Pantaleon.
National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day.
National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day.
Events
1789 - Congress established the Department of Foreign Affairs, the forerunner of the Department of State.
1794 - Maximilien Robespierre, the architect of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, was overthrown and arrested by the National Convention.
1866 - Cyrus W. Field finally succeeded in laying the first underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe.
1921 - Canadian scientists Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully isolated insulin.
1940 - Bugs Bunny made his debut in the animated cartoon "A Wild Hare."
1953 - Representatives of the United Nations, Korea, and China signed the Korean War armistice at Panmunjon, Korea.
1976 - Air Force veteran Ray Brennan became the first person to die of so-called "Legionnaire's Disease" following an American Legionconvention in Philadelphia.
1995 - The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., by President Bill Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young-sam.
1996 - In Atlanta, Georgia, the XXVI Summer Olympiad was disrupted by the explosion of a nail-laden pipe bomb in Centennial Olympic Park, which killed one and injured more than 100.
2005 - Ahmed Ressam, aka "The Millennium Bomber," was sentenced to 22 years in prison for a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999.
2007 - Two news helicopters collide while covering a police car chase in Phoenix, Arizona.
1794 - Maximilien Robespierre, the architect of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, was overthrown and arrested by the National Convention.
1866 - Cyrus W. Field finally succeeded in laying the first underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe.
1921 - Canadian scientists Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully isolated insulin.
1940 - Bugs Bunny made his debut in the animated cartoon "A Wild Hare."
1953 - Representatives of the United Nations, Korea, and China signed the Korean War armistice at Panmunjon, Korea.
1976 - Air Force veteran Ray Brennan became the first person to die of so-called "Legionnaire's Disease" following an American Legionconvention in Philadelphia.
1995 - The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., by President Bill Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young-sam.
1996 - In Atlanta, Georgia, the XXVI Summer Olympiad was disrupted by the explosion of a nail-laden pipe bomb in Centennial Olympic Park, which killed one and injured more than 100.
2005 - Ahmed Ressam, aka "The Millennium Bomber," was sentenced to 22 years in prison for a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999.
2007 - Two news helicopters collide while covering a police car chase in Phoenix, Arizona.
Births
1824 - Alexandre (Dumas Fils) Dumas, French novelist and playwright.
1906 - Leo Durocher, American baseball player, manager.
1916 - Keenan Wynn, American actor.
1922 - Norman Lear, American Emmy Award-winning producer.
1944 - Jean-Marie Leblanc, a French retired professional road bicycle racer who was general director of the Tour de France from 1989 to 2005.
1906 - Leo Durocher, American baseball player, manager.
1916 - Keenan Wynn, American actor.
1922 - Norman Lear, American Emmy Award-winning producer.
1944 - Jean-Marie Leblanc, a French retired professional road bicycle racer who was general director of the Tour de France from 1989 to 2005.
Deaths
1946 - Gertude Stein, avant-garde American novelist and poet.
1988 - Frank Zamboni, Jr., U.S. inventor whose most famous invention is the modern ice resurfacer.
2001 - Leon Russell Wilkeson, the bass guitarist of Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1972 until his death.
2003 - Bob Hope (born Leslie Townes Hope), London-born American comedian and actor.
1988 - Frank Zamboni, Jr., U.S. inventor whose most famous invention is the modern ice resurfacer.
2001 - Leon Russell Wilkeson, the bass guitarist of Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1972 until his death.
2003 - Bob Hope (born Leslie Townes Hope), London-born American comedian and actor.
Spanish Word of the Day
Saturday, July 27, 2013
presumir, verb
to show off
to show off
Presumir is a bit of a ‘false friend’, since it doesn’t generally mean ‘presume’ - in the sense of ‘suppose.’ However, if someonepresume in Spanish, they are being a little bit presumptuous.
Lleva ropa cara sólo para presumir ante los amigos.
He wears expensive clothes just to show off in front of his friends.
The structure presumir de followed by a noun or adjective means to think you are the thing described by the noun or adjective:
Presume de generoso.
He likes to think he’s generous.
Presume de liberal.
He likes to think he’s a liberal.
Content By
© HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2006. All rights reserved.
Word of the Day for Friday, July 26, 2013
cyclopean \sahy-kluh-PEE-uhn, sahy-KLOP-ee-uhn\, adjective:
1. (sometimes lowercase) gigantic; vast.
2. of or characteristic of the Cyclops.
3. (usually lowercase) Architecture, Building Trades. formed with or containing large, undressed stones fitted closely together without the use of mortar: a cyclopean wall.
2. of or characteristic of the Cyclops.
3. (usually lowercase) Architecture, Building Trades. formed with or containing large, undressed stones fitted closely together without the use of mortar: a cyclopean wall.
Together in this greater self they felt the headway of the long, low hull, the prodigious heart glow of the hungry fires, the cyclopeanpush of steam in eight vast boilers, the pulsing click and travail of the engines...
-- George Washington Cable, Gideon's Band, 1915
On his return, he threw himself into the cyclopean labour of clearing, ploughing and planting the virgin territory he'd inherited; it was in the far south-west of the island, an area known as Terrenos de Sio Miguel.
-- Miguel Sousa Tavares, Equator, 2009
Cyclopean refers to the mythical Greek creature Cyclops, a kind of giant who has one large eye in the middle of its face. This adjective has been used to mean "gigantic" since it entered English in the 1600s.
Spanish Word of the Day
Friday, July 26, 2013
presentar, verb
to introduce
to introduce
You may need to introduce people to one another in Spanish. If so, presentar is the verb you need.
Le presento a Carlos Solchaga, un compañero de trabajo.
This is Carlos Solchaga, a colleague of mine.
Quiero presentarte a nuestra profesora, Marta.
I’d like you to meet our teacher, Marta.
En la fiesta nos presentó a toda su familia.
At the party she introduced us to her whole family.
Content By
© HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2006. All rights reserved.
Word of the Day for Thursday, July 25, 2013
dispositive \dih-SPOZ-i-tiv\, adjective:
involving or affecting disposition or settlement: a dispositive clue in a case of embezzlement.
Perhaps it had been a hallucination, or it was a false memory. Boggs had even predicted that later Ellis would doubt the incident had even happened—which seemed dispositive toward the dead man's reality…
-- Nick Arvin, The Reconstructionist, 2012
Looks and charm were often dispositive, the more attractive partner sailing on to other waters.
-- Louis Begley, About Schmidt, 1996
Dispositive comes from the word dispose meaning "to put in a particular place."
Spanish Word of the Day
por si, conjunction | |
Word of the Day for Wednesday, July 24, 2013
grammatology \gram-uh-TOL-uh-jee\, noun:
the scientific study of systems of writing.
"...He can figure out the surface of a cube and of a sphere, he's studied grammatology and stroboscopy, he has beautiful books in his library,” I explained all in one breath.
-- Emmanuel Dongala, Maria Louise Ascher, Johnny Mad Dog, 2007
"She was never in Troy," says one version of the myth, meeting, imaging in this negation the metaphysics or grammatology of absence implicit in optatives of the verb.
-- George Steiner, Antigones, 1996
Grammatology was coined in the 1950s from Greek roots, the root grámma meaning "letter" and -ology, a combining form used in the names of sciences or bodies of knowledge.
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