The WordSmart WordCast Podcast
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The WordSmart WordCast is a weekly podcast comprised of a carefully selected set of vocabulary words based on the theme of the week. Each week's theme is designed to offer a selection of words that will be useful in everyday life and provide the most benefit to our listeners. Our five weekly words make this the perfect word of the day podcast for your work week. The chosen words are a sampling of our proven WordSmart vocabuarly system which is a 10 volume software application developed to improve the vocabulary, test scores and career performance of all individuals including: Grade School students, High School students needing SAT prep and career professionals.
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TABERNACLE: (n.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, Jun 6, 2008
A temple, place of worship, religious edifice, house of God, especially a place for a large congregation. In the test phrase: "He went to the TABERNACLE," the most frequent misconception yet found is MUSEUM. This comes from the Greek MOUSA, a muse. In Greek mythology, the MUSES were at first goddesses of memory; later, of song; and finally, goddesses of the arts and sciences. Of the nine described by later writers, three were: CALLIOPE, goddess of poetic inspiration; TERPSICHORE, goddess of song and dance; and MELPOMENE, goddess of tragedy. A MUSEUM is by derivation a temple of the muses, a place for worshiping the arts and sciences. Today a MUSEUM is a building that contains collections of any sort. There are art museums, natural history museums, and science museums. The word TABERNACLE comes from the Latin TABERNACULUM, a tent, a combination of TABERNA, a hut built of boards, shed constructed of planks, and the diminutive ending -ACULUM. TABERNACLE, originally a tent, pavilion, any temporary shelter, any place to stop, came to signify a number of specific resting places. In the Bible the word designates the human body as the temporary resting place of the soul. In Roman Catholic churches, the TABERNACLE is a recess, cupboard, receptacle, containing the eucharist, and built as part of the church. In Jewish history, the TABERNACLE was an oblong tent, forty-five by fifteen feet, divided into two parts, used for religious worship during the wandering of the Jews before their settlement in Jerusalem. From this, the word TABERNACLE came to mean not only any Jewish temple, but any house of worship. 
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BARRAGE: (n.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, May 23, 2008
A barrier of shellfire or machine-gun fire concentrated to form an obstacle to the advance of the enemy. The unusual word BARRAGE comes directly from the French BARRAGE, barrier, bar, dam, from the French verb BARRER, to bar, obstruct. In engineering, the word BARRAGE is used for any obstacle built in a watercourse, like a dam, to hold back the water. This word has been used enough in English to have the accent on the first syllable and a soft G: BARRAGE. The same word, pronounced with a ZH sound for the G and the stress on the second syllable, BARRAGE, like the French, is a military term meaning artillery or machine-gun fire so concentrated as to form a block to the enemy. A BARRAGE is thought by 11% of adult readers to be a MACHINE-GUN. The BARRAGE is the rain of bullets or shells that stops the enemy; it is not the guns that fire them. BARRAGE entered English during World War I, when the English and French were allied against the Germans. Today it is often used figuratively to refer to an overwhelming hail, shower, or pouring forth of something, as: "A BARRAGE of letters"; "A BARRAGE of questions"; "A propaganda BARRAGE."
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ANTEDILUVIAN: (adj.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, May 23, 2008
Literally, existing before the flood. ANTEDILUVIAN is also used figuratively to mean very old, ancient, primitive. ANTEDILUVIAN comes from the Latin ANTE, before, and DILUVIUM, flood. This Latin word DILUVIUM is the direct source of the English DILUVIUM, flood, deluge, inundation, overflow; ABLUTION, a cleansing; and DILUTE, to thin with liquid; through the French comes DELUGE, flood. ANTEDILUVIAN means literally before the flood; specifically, before the Noachian deluge, the flood in Noah's time, described in the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis. ANTEDILUVIAN is also used to mean before any great flood, deluge; and figuratively, very old, ancient, of ancient times.
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SEETHE: (v.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, May 30, 2008
This verb is usually intransitive, and means to boil, be agitated by heat, bubble, be in a state of ebullition as the result of heat. To SEETHE may be literal or figurative. Thus a liquid may SEETHE; or a nation may SEETHE with discontent because of internal friction. In the test phrase: "The water SEETHES," the word is thought by 14% of adult readers to mean FLOWS RAPIDLY, and by another 8% to mean TUMBLES, the two popular misconceptions. A rapidly flowing river, striking an obstacle, does not SEETHE; nor does a TUMBLING waterfall. There are words for this bubbling action due to causes other than heat. One is the unusual noun EBULLITION, which has no verb in good standing. EBULLITION is the same agitated state, which may or may not be caused by heat. A torrent which bubbles is, if one wishes to be perfectly correct, in a state of EBULLITION. To EFFERVESCE is another verb for this same bubbling action. It is to be in a state of natural EBULLITION, bubbling. EFFERVESCENCE, the noun, the act of bubbling, is never the result of heat. To EFFERVESCE and to FERMENT are similar; except that to FERMENT is to decompose by bubbling invisibly, so slowly and gently that the bubbles are not apparent; to EFFERVESCE is to bubble visibly. The verb to SEETHE is also used occasionally in a transitive sense, to boil, cook by boiling, as: "To SEETHE food," to prepare food by boiling. In this sense, the word is related to DECOCT, which means to boil down or to extract the essence of a thing by boiling. A DECOCTION is the liquid in which something has been boiled and which has become impregnated with its essence. SEETHE is derived from words which are connected with the idea of burning. It is related to Icelandic and Danish words meaning to burn, singe; to a Gothic word meaning burnt offering; and to the Anglo-Saxon word for smoke. SEETHING, correctly used, must be caused by heat.
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BOURGEOISIE: (n.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, Jun 13, 2008
The middle class; especially those members of the middle class involved in commercial pursuits, such as shopkeepers, merchants, and businessmen. BOURGEOISIE is a French word that comes from BOURGEOIS. Properly this word means a citizen of France, a burgher, man of middle rank. It is the modern form of an older French word that meant citizen. A BOURGEOIS is by derivation a citizen, and the BOURGEOISIE are the citizenry. BOURGEOIS is also an English adjective, and means of the middle class; it is often used in an uncomplimentary sense to mean conventional, unrefined, materialistic, Philistine. In the test phrase: "The BOURGEOISIE," the word is thought by 7% of high-vocabulary adults to mean PEASANTS. A PEASANT is a member of the farming class, workman on a farm, differentiated sharply in France from a PROPRIETAIRE, a farm owner, higher on the social scale, and also from the BOURGEOISIE, those who make their living in the business of buying and selling. By another 2% BOURGEOISIE is thought to mean ARISTOCRATS, in suggestion an opposite of the correct meaning. The ARISTOCRACY are the nobles, those of high rank, members of the upper class. The BOURGEOISIE are the middle class, below the ARISTOCRACY, but above the poor, proletarian, wage-earning class. They are the commercial group.
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CLOVE: (n.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, May 30, 2008
Ravine, chine, rocky cleft, gorge, narrow valley, coomb, fissure. In the test phrase: "Seen from a small CLOVE," the word is thought by 27% of adult readers to mean WOODED SLOPE. The literal meaning of the unusual noun CLIVUS, listed in the CENTURY DICTIONARY, and used technically in anatomy, is a slope, incline, from the Latin CLIVUS, slope, ascent, hill. The OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY, though it gives no English noun CLIVUS, lists an adjective CLIVOSE, hilly, steep, from the same Latin source, and cites Nathan Bailey's dictionary of 1731. The word CLOVE is of Dutch origin and is used in the Catskills and along the Hudson River in New York State, where occasionally Dutch words still remain.
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QUIZZICAL: (adj.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Mon, May 19, 2008
Odd, comical, queer, amusingly eccentric; also, questioning, puzzled, curious; and bantering, teasing, chaffing, making fun of by regarding ironically or ridiculing humorously. The noun a QUIZ originally meant an odd or eccentric person, a meaning which survived well into the 19th century and is still listed in some dictionaries today; Charlotte Bronte, in 1857, wrote: "He was not odd-- no QUIZ." In 1790 QUIZ was applied to a fashionable toy, a wheel with a deep groove, fastened at the end of a string by which the wheel was made to unwind and rewind itself. This toy was popular in England and in France, where it was called a BANDALORE; today it is known by the trade name YO-YO. From this QUIZ came to mean any odd thing, something designed to puzzle one; and still later, a practical joke, hoax, piece of ridicule or banter, something that made one ridiculous. From the idea of puzzling comes the modern meaning an examination, short set of oral or written questions, of United States colloquial origin. The adjective QUIZZICAL reflects the capricious development of the noun, and dictionaries rarely agree on its exact use. As used today, QUIZZICAL may mean odd, eccentric, comical; curious, questioning, puzzled; or teasing, bantering, chaffing.
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CUBICLE: (n.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, May 2, 2008
Private bedroom, cubiculum, small sleeping apartment. CUBICLES are often small sleeping rooms made by subdividing a large room. CUBICLE is sometimes used generally to mean any small, partitioned-off space. To 43 percent of college seniors CUBICLE means GEOMETRIC FIGURE. CUBICLE and CUBICAL are HOMONYMS; they are pronounced alike but have different meanings. Despite the similarity between the two words, there is no etymological connection. CUBICAL, ending in -AL, is from the Greek CUBOS, a die, cube, and means like a cube in shape. CUBICLE, ending in -LE, is from the Latin CUBARE, to lie, lie down. From a Latin nasalized form of CUBARE come a number of words with an M inserted, as: RECUMBENT, lying down, reclining, INCUMBENT, officeholder; PROCUMBENT, lying face downward, prone. From CUBARE, to lie, come also two words without the M: INCUBATE and ACCUBATION. INCUBATE, by derivation lying on, is now used to mean sit on for the purpose of hatching; or, still more figuratively, to aid hatching by any mechanical means. ACCUBATION is an unusual word that means the act of reclining in the manner of the ancients at their meals, either resting on the left elbow or lying flat on the stomach. ACCUMBENT, with the M, is the adjective, leaning or reclining in this manner. In botany, ACCUMBENT means lying against. CUBICULAR, literally belonging to the bedchamber, is the adjective of the noun CUBICLE, small bedroom, tiny compartment.
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SAURIAN: (adj.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, Mar 14, 2008
Reptilian, having legs and scales, lacertiform, lacertilian. The adjective SAURIAN, and the corresponding SAURIA, come from the Greek masculine noun SAUROS, lizard, with the feminine form SAURA, lizard. SAURIA is today an order of reptiles having scales and legs. DINOSAUR, and the genus DINOSAURUS, come from the Greek DEINOS, terrible, mighty, and SAUROS, lizard. The term ICHTHYOSAURUS, one of the great extinct fishlike reptiles, comes from the Greek ICHTHYS, fish, and the same SAUROS, lizard. These PREHISTORIC lizards belong to the MESOZOIC period, which is called the AGE OF REPTILES. This may lead 26 percent of adult readers to believe that SAURIAN means PREHISTORIC. By derivation PREHISTORIC means before written records, prior to recorded history. SAURIAN means reptilian, like a lizard.
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INAUGURATE: (v.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, Mar 14, 2008
Install, introduce, induct into office with formal ceremonies, begin appropriately a term of service. INAUGURATE comes from the Latin INAUGURATUS, the past participle of INAUGURARE, to practice augury, a combination of the Latin IN, in, and AUGUR, augur, soothsayer, fortuneteller. Later INAUGURARE came to mean install ceremoniously into office with good auguries, predictions of success. In the test phrase: "The president was INAUGURATED," the word is thought by 12% of adult readers to mean ELECTED, chosen, voted for, decided upon. The president of the United States is ELECTED in November; but at one time he was not INAUGURATED, installed in office, until the following March. This long gap between ELECTION, choice, and INAUGURATION, installation, was to allow the president-elect time to travel to the nation's capital by coach or horseback.
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ETHNOLOGY: (n.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, Jun 27, 2008
Science of races, study of the origin of mankind, division of man into races, investigation of ethnic habits, customs, and institutions. In the test phrase: "The science of ETHNOLOGY," the word is thought by 20% of adult readers to mean HUMAN CHARACTER. This may be a confusion of ETHNOLOGY with an unusual word ETHOLOGY, invented in 1843 by John Stuart Mill in his SYSTEM OF LOGIC, book VI, chapter V, where he says: "A science is thus formed, to which I would propose to give the name of ETHOLOGY, or the Science of Character; from ETHOS, a word more nearly corresponding to the term 'character' as I here use it, than any other word in the same language." The Greek ETHOS originally meant an accustomed seat, abode, haunt, and so, from this, custom, usage, habit, manner, disposition, character. The word ETHOS may be used today in English to mean customs of a people, their character, disposition, mores. ETHOLOGY is the science of the formation of character. ETHNOLOGY comes from the Greek ETHNOS, a people, a company, a nation, and LOGOS, the outward form or word by which the inner thought is expressed, discourse, speech. This comes in turn from LEGEIN, to speak. Robert Hunter, in his little-known ENCYCLOPAEDIC DICTIONARY of 1884, says of ETHNOLOGY: "The science which treats of the various races of mankind and attempts to trace them to their origin. It developed from ETHNOGRAPHY, of which it is the extension, and to which it stands in a relation akin to that which GEOLOGY possesses to GEOGRAPHY. Itself it has now been merged in ANTHROPOLOGY, of which it is only one branch, though an important one. ANTHROPOLOGY, again, is a branch of BIOLOGY." GEOGRAPHY is a description of the areas of the earth as they are today. GEOLOGY is the study of how they got that way. ETHNOGRAPHY is a description of the present distribution of races. ETHNOLOGY is again a study of how they got that way.
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INDICTMENT: (n.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, Feb 29, 2008
An accusation especially by a legal process, formal complaint, grand jury charge. INDICTMENT comes from the Latin DICERE, to say, the source of the English word DICTIONARY. The two nouns INDICTMENT and IMPEACHMENT are specific; ACCUSATION and CHARGE are more general. Legally, the House of Representatives in the United States and the House of Commons in Great Britain make an IMPEACHMENT; a grand jury may make an INDICTMENT, formal complaint, legal accusation.
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LAMA: (n.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, Jun 6, 2008
Tibetan monk, Buddhist celibate, priest, pontiff of Lamaism. The Grand LAMA, called the DALAI, is the head of the hierarchy. In the test phrase: "A famous LAMA," the word is thought by 11% of adult readers to mean MOUNTAIN PASS, a path or narrow road made through a valley or over the lowest part of a mountain range, the easiest way over a mountain barrier. LAMAS live in mountain retreats, where they meditate apart from the bustle of the commercial world. By another 6 percent LAMA, priest, is thought to mean DIRGE. This is probably a confusion of LAMA, priest, with LAMENT, a weeping, wailing, elegy, dirge. LAMAISM is a religion, a branch of Buddhism, practiced in Tibet, just north of India, where Buddhism started, and in Mongolia, further north. A LAMA is a priest of LAMAISM, a monk noted for learning and sanctity.
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AMBIGUOUS: (adj.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, May 2, 2008
Uncertain, vague, doubtful, dubious, obscure, questionable, puzzling, indeterminate, equivocal, of double meaning, capable of being understood in either of two senses. AMBIGUOUS is from the Latin AMBI-, around, and AGERE, to drive, move, do. By derivation, AMBIGUOUS is driving all around without touching the real heart of the matter. From AGERE come also the English words AGILE, active, brisk, moving quickly; AGITATE, disturb, excite, make something move; and finally AGENT, one who acts. The Latin prefix AMBI- is used sometimes to mean around, and sometimes to mean on both sides. To be AMBIDEXTROUS is to use both hands. The Latin AMBI- comes from the Greek AMPHI, which appears in the English word AMPHITHEATER, by derivation a theater on both sides or all around, an open-air theater with tiers of seats around a central space in which contests are held. In the test phrase: "AMBIGUOUS terms," the word is thought by 21% of elementary school students to mean ADVANTAGEOUS, favorable, profitable, beneficial. By another 18% AMBIGUOUS is thought to mean OBVIOUS, clear. This may be a confusion of OBVIOUS, clearly apparent, with OBSCURE. The adjectives AMBIGUOUS and OBSCURE are both used with reference to things which are not clear. OBSCURE is from the Latin OBSCURUS, dark, shady, covered over. AMBIGUOUS is used more often of words, and refers to that which moves around a clear meaning. The confusion of AMBIGUOUS and OBVIOUS may also be a confusion of opposites, for OBVIOUS, clear, unquestionable, is an exact opposite of AMBIGUOUS, uncertain, vague, doubtful.
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PASTEURIZE: (v.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, Jun 13, 2008
Sterilize, preserve by heating to about 140 degrees Fahrenheit. PASTEURIZE and PASTEURIZATION are both from the proper name PASTEUR. LOUIS PASTEUR was a French scientist, a chemist and microscopist, who lived from 1822 to 1895. To PASTEURIZE is to heat to a temperature between 55 degrees and 70 degrees centigrade, or between 130 degrees and 160 degrees Fahrenheit. This prevents fungi and spores from causing further fermentation. Beers, wines, and milk, are PASTEURIZED in order to stop fermentation. PASTEURIZE and PASTEURIZATION may be spelled without capital P's, as: pasteurize, pasteurization.
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RIMOSE: (adj.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, May 30, 2008
Full of chinks, creviced, fissured, cracked, cleft like the bark of a tree. To 16% of adult readers RIMOSE incorrectly means FROSTED. This confusion is probably due to the dual meaning of the noun RIME. RIME, derived from Icelandic, through Anglo-Saxon, means hoarfrost, white frost, the coating of tiny crystals which forms on a windowpane in the winter. The corresponding adjective is RIMY, frosty, frosted, covered with hoarfrost. Another noun RIME, derived from the Latin RIMA, means crack, chink, fissure. The OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY calls this RIME obsolete; the adjective RIMOSE, however, meaning fissured, full of chinks, is in good standing. RIMOSE and SMOOTH are practically opposites.
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NETHER: (adj.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Thu, Jul 3, 2008
Lower, under, underneath, beneath, inferior, at the nadir, lying beneath the earth, in a position opposed to upper; for NETHER is an exact opposite of UPPER. NETHER, THITHER, and HITHER, all go directly back to Anglo-Saxon. HITHER means nearer. The HITHER side is the nearer side, toward the speaker, the opposite of THITHER. THITHER means more remote, farther, distant, opposite, as: "The THITHER side." This word misleads 25 percent of adult readers into believing that NETHER, lower, means REMOTE, farther, thither. The -THER at the end of these words is an Anglo-Saxon comparative suffix, like -TER at the end of AFTER, -DER at the end of YONDER, and -ER at the end of so many adjectives, as: COOL, COOLER, HIGH, HIGHER, LOW, LOWER. The NETHERLANDS, literally the low lands, often called the LOW COUNTRIES in reference to the low-lying land, much of it practically at sea level, once included both Holland and Belgium. Now Holland alone is called the NETHERLANDS. LOW GERMAN is the language, not of South Germany, as one might expect, but of North Germany, of the country adjacent to the NETHERLANDS, the Low Countries.
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LASCIVIOUS: (adj.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Mon, Mar 10, 2008
Wanton, lewd, lecherous, licentious, salacious, libidinous, lustful, arousing or indicative of sexual desire. LASCIVIOUS comes through the Latin LASCIVUS, from LAXUS, loose, lax, the source also of the English LAX. The Latin adjective LASCIVUS was used sometimes in the pleasant sense of sportive, playful, and sometimes in the unpleasant sense of wanton, loose, lustful, licentious. The English adjective LASCIVIOUS has only this last meaning; but the first meaning of the Latin may lead to a pair of popular misconceptions, for LASCIVIOUS is thought by 19% of readers to mean FRIVOLOUS, and by another 16% to mean MISCHIEVOUS. FRIVOLOUS comes from the Latin FRIVOLUS, silly, empty, trifling, worthless. FRIVOLOUS today means worthless, childish, unimportant, petty, foolish, trashy, characterized by unbecoming levity of mind. MISCHIEVOUS and the corresponding noun MISCHIEF come from the Latin MINUS, less, which becomes MIS-, without, and CAPUT, head, which through Old French becomes CHIEF, head. MISCHIEVOUS is literally without a head. The MISCHIEVOUS person does harm, causes annoyance. LASCIVIOUS is much stronger and more disagreeable than either FRIVOLOUS, worthless, trifling, foolish, or MISCHIEVOUS, annoying. It is one of the positively disagreeable words.
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SCONCE: (n.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, May 2, 2008
A candleholder projecting from a wall, a bracket-candlestick of metal, brass, iron, or silver, an ornamental bracket holding several candles, sometimes with a mirror fastened against the wall. SCOTCH CAKES is the most popular choice as a synonym for SCONCES, obviously a confusion of SCONCE, a candlestick fixed to a wall, with SCONE. SCONE is a Scotch word for a soft cake, a small thin cake of wheat or barley meal cooked on a griddle. The second most popular mislead is SHELLFISH. A CONCH is so often pronounced CONCH as to be easily confused with SCONCE. A CONCH is a large spiral seashell. SHELLFISH include crabs, lobsters, crawfish, oysters, mussels, periwinkles, and whelks. Third in popularity is TRIMMINGS. This may be a confusion of SCONCES with FLOUNCES. A FLOUNCE is a strip of cloth, gathered full, and sewed to a skirt by its upper edge; the American lexicographer Joseph Worcester says: "A frill or ruffle sewed to a gown, and hanging loose and waving." Originally in English a SCONCE was a candlestick, carried by a handle, with a screen or cover to protect the flame from the wind. A lantern was carried by a chain, a SCONCE by a handle. The word comes through Middle English and Old French words for dark lantern, from the same source as the Latin verb ABSCONDERE, to hide away, the source of the English ABSCOND, to steal off and hide, go away secretly. Today a SCONCE is seldom a dark lantern, but instead a wall bracket to hold a candle, or a group of candleholders projecting from the wall.
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FLORA: (n.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, Jun 20, 2008
The plants of a particular region taken collectively, aggregate of the plants indigenous to a country, native flowers of a region. FLORA, spelled with a capital, was the Roman goddess of the flowers. The word comes from the Latin FLOS, FLORIS, flower. In the test phrase: "The FLORA of the Sierras," the word is thought by 12% of adult readers to mean WILDLIFE. This is no doubt a confusion of FLORA, plants of a region, with FAUNA, animals of a region. The term FAUNA comes from the Latin FAUNA, sister of FAUNUS, god of agriculture and of the shepherds. Today FAUNA signifies all the animals of a region, or of a period. FLORA is all the plants of a region, or of some geological era.
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LINTEL: (n.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, May 2, 2008
Top of a doorway or window, horizontal beam across the top of an opening. LINTEL goes back through Middle English and Old French to the Latin LIMES, LIMITIS, a boundary, border. In architecture, the LINTEL is the horizontal timber or stone resting on the jambs and supporting the weight above. Three parts of a door opening are LINTEL, JAMB, and THRESHOLD. A well-known detective story writer describes his heroine with her foot upon the LINTEL of the door, confusing it with THRESHOLD. The THRESHOLD is a board across the opening at the foot of the door, designed to keep the door from scraping on the floor when it opens. The LINTEL is parallel to the THRESHOLD, but across the top of the door, not at the bottom. LINTEL and JAMB are confused by 24 percent of readers. The JAMB is the upright side of the opening, the vertical part of the frame into which the door itself fits. JAMB goes back through the French JAMBE, leg, and the Italian GAMBA, leg, to the Late Latin GAMBA, leg. Joseph Conrad, at least twice in his writings, speaks of a man as leaning against a LINTEL, obviously confusing LINTEL with JAMB. JAMB is the vertical, upright side of an opening; LINTEL is the horizontal top.
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RECUMBENT: (adj.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, Feb 29, 2008
Reclining, lying down, supine, leaning back, reposing, prostrate, flat on one's back. To 7 percent of adult readers RECUMBENT incorrectly means UNTENABLE, indefensible, incapable of being held. RECUMBENT is from the Latin RE-, back, and CUBARE, to lie; from the same source as the English word INCUMBENT, officeholder, and CUBICLE, a small room. RECUMBENT is literally lying back.
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BLAZON: (v.)
Author: WordSmart Corp.webmaster@wordsmart.com (WordSmart Corp.)
Fri, Mar 28, 2008
To proclaim pompously, make known, display, publish boastingly, exhibit conspicuously, publicize. In the test phrase: "BLAZONED it out," the word is thought by 21% of adult readers to mean BLUFFED. In 1726 Bailey in his dictionary defined the word to BLUFF as: "To blindfold or hoodwink." Today the word is used to mean deceive by a show of strength, mislead another with feigned assurance. The verb to BLUFF suggests the same boastful display as BLAZON, but always with the aim of deceiving, never implied in BLAZON. BLAZON goes back to an Old French word BLAZON which meant a coat of arms or shield with a coat of arms on it. The noun a BLAZON originally in English meant a coat of arms, armorial bearings. It then came to mean a pompous display, show. The verb to BLAZON first meant to explain a coat of arms; then to decorate with a coat of arms; and from this to embellish, display, exhibit conspicuously; and so to publish, but always with a suggestion of boasting. To another 27% of adult readers to BLAZON means to BURN. This is obviously a confusion of BLAZON with BLAZE. This verb to BLAZE goes directly back to Anglo-Saxon. It means to burn with a bright flame, burst into flame, flare up. Another verb to BLAZE comes from an Anglo-Saxon word which meant to blow on a trumpet. This verb, rarely used today, at first meant blow on a trumpet, and then publish, make known, announce. From the same source comes BLAZON, more frequently used today to mean proclaim loudly. |