bunkum (BŬNG-kəm) Definition (Noun) Empty clap-trap oratory; "tall talk"; humbug. In Context "I heard of some interesting cases of bunkum, by which is signified the bringing forward of a sham proposal, in order to catch popular applause." William Chambers, Things As They Are in America, 1854.
We Real Cool Gwendolyn Brooks THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon.
Definition (Verb) To deviate from straightforwardness; to speak or act in an evasive way; to quibble, equivocate. In Context "If a crisis nevertheless occurred then the appropriate course of action was to prevaricate, to avoid drawing lines in the sand, and to seek a compromise solution that would permit both sides to step back from the brink with honour intact." John Stone, Military Strategy: The Politics and Technique of War, 2011.
Cause of Death Sandra Gustin These are times when judicial proceedings would do well to include a linguist, a forensic linguist... —El País, Catalan Edition, 27 March 2018 A foreigner, I walk Barcelona breathless, marveling at files of school children laughing, chatting as teachers shepherd them in Catalan, at street signs in the same language, at elderly men and elderly women on benches or peering down from balconies, once shamed or worse for speaking this, their heart language, gossiping now in short words ending in plosives, in fricative zh´s and sh´s not found in Spanish, all in my lifetime, and I [...]
Definition (Adjective) Of or belonging to a feast or banquet; characterized by feasting or jovial companionship; such as befits a feast, festive. In Context "Voltaire was particularly attracted by the fact that the Fontaine-Martel house was a convivial establishment, in which she would often invite her lodgers to eat and drink together, at suppers which were apparently long and gay." Ian Davidson, Voltaire: A Life, 2010.
14 Love Songs Elizabeth Jacobson Above a pond, I sit on a wooden bench and throw pebbles into the willows. A rush of sunlight and wind creates a path in a channel of water, dances between the melting ice and brown islands of bulrush. The resident osprey, its eyes the color of yellow grass, follows my tossing hand. Love is a diorama of inner life in an outer world. I look down and find a chunk of fossilized rock with an entire Paleozoic shell sticking out. I am not afraid of love, but terrified of how it is my steady guide. [...]
Everyone is Welcome! Though we may dread yet another meeting in front of our computer screens these days, our move to connecting with each other via Zoom and other video conferencing platforms has had at least one silver lining: accessibility. Princeton University is committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment that is welcoming, accessible, engaging, and exciting to all participants and viewers. Keep this guidance and these best practices in mind as you create presentations to make your events and videos accessible to people with permanent or temporary disabilities. Many of these practices will benefit all viewers! Captioning Princeton University’s [...]
Word of the Week: canard (kə-NÄRD) Definition (Noun) An extravagant or absurd story circulated to impose on people's credulity; a hoax, a false report. In Context "The news of the awful calamity of Johnstown, Pa., with all its horrors, appalled us; and so frightful and improbable were the reports, that it required twenty-four hours to satisfy ourselves that it was not a canard." Clara Barton, The Red Cross in Peace and War, 1898.
Cut Lilies Noah Warren More than a hundred dollars of them. It was pure folly. I had to find more glass things to stuff them in. Now a white and purple cloud is breathing in each corner of the room I love. Now a mass of flowers spills down my dining table— each fresh-faced, extending its delicately veined leaves into the crush. Didn’t I watch children shuffle strictly in line, cradle candles that dribbled hot white on their fingers, chanting Latin—just to fashion Sevilla’s Easter? Wasn’t I sad? Didn’t I use to go mucking through streambeds with the skunk cabbage raising [...]
Book of the Month: The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (2005) Critical Evaluation " More to the point, The History of Love is a significant novel, genuinely one of the year’s best. Old Leo (a new entry in the Jewish-lit canon) nurses the loss of his true love, as well as his only son—a famous writer—and his own great manuscript. Krauss’s novel is emotionally wrenching yet intellectually rigorous, idea-driven but with indelible characters and true suspense. It draws a career arc that may very soon surpass her husband’s, in book clubs (it’s a Today show pick) as well as Hollywood. (Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated comes out this [...]
