victuals (VĬT-ls) Definition (Noun) Articles of food; supplies, or various kinds, of provisions; in later use especially articles of ordinary diet prepared for use. In Context "Perhaps, he thought, he would venture outside to scour the war-ravaged countryside for some victuals, but he quickly thought better of it." William Pencak, Editor, Pennsylvania's Revolution, 2010.
Word of the Week: weltschmerz (VELT-shmairts) Definition (Noun) 1. often capitalized Weltschmerz : mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state. 2. often capitalized Weltschmerz : a mood of sentimental sadness In Context "The mad narrator or central figure is in a world that may be experienced as confusing, grotesque or volatile; above all, it is private, closed in on itself, unavailable to outsiders.… The notion of insanity as a kind of extreme loneliness is good for a wallow in adolescent-romantic weltschmerz, if not much else." Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed, [...]
Word of the Week: gallivant (GĂL-ə-vănt) Definition (Verb) To gad about in a showy fashion, especially with persons of the other sex. In Context "I thought it a bit weird that people wanted to gallivant around hunting a fox, but having read my Trollope I understood it is a part of our history." Tony Blair, A Journey: My Political Life, 2010.
Word of the Week: flâneur (flä-NÛR) Definition (Noun) A lounger or saunterer, an idle "man about town." In Context "All in all, and with his days as a dilettante and a flâneur far behind him, he looked set upon pursuing a professional career as a responsible married man." Patrick Gardiner, Kierkegaard: A Very Short Introduction, 2002.
Word of the Week: vatic (VĂT-ĭk) Definition (Adjective) Of or pertaining to, characteristic of, a prophet or seer; prophetic, inspired. In Context "In 1990, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn emerged from his isolation in Cavendish, Vermont, and issued a vatic manifesto entitled 'How to Revitalize Russia.'" David Remnick, "Putin's Pique," The New Yorker, March 17, 2014.
Word of the Week: prescient (PRĔSH-ənt) Definition (Adjective) Having foreknowledge or foresight; foreseeing. In Context “In 1984, written in 1948, George Orwell left a prescient description of the sort of totalitarian architecture that would soon dominate the Communist bloc, imposing and hideous: the Ministry of Truth, an ‘enormous, pyramidal structure of white concrete, soaring up terrace after terrace, three hundred metres into the air . . .’” Ben Macintyre, “Look on Those Monuments to Megalomania, and Despair,” The Times, March 30, 2007.
Word of the Week: pergola (PÛR-gə-lə) Definition (Noun) An arbour; a covered walk or shelter (usually in a garden), especially one formed of growing plants trained over a (usually wooden or metal) framework; this framework itself. Also: a small open-sided shelter or sunshade usually consisting of a roof supported on columns. In Context "At the end of the garden there was a place – a pergola dense with briar rose, and behind it a fir where there would be shade from the hot yellow light." Paul Scott, The Day of the Scorpion, 1968.
Word of the Week: innuendo (ĭn-yōō-ĔN-dō) Definition (Noun) An oblique hint, indirect suggestion; an allusive remark concerning a person or thing, especially one of a depreciatory kind. In Context "The Grimms' transformation of a tale replete with sexual innuendo into a prim and proper nursery story with a dutiful daughter is almost as striking as the folkloric metamorphosis of frog into prince." Maria Tatar, The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales, Second Edition, 2003.
Word of the Week: trundle (TRŬN-dl) Definition (Verb) To draw or push along on a wheel or wheels, as a wheelbarrow, vehicle, etc. In Context “On more than one such hopeless night we had to load him into a wheelbarrow and trundle him down the hill to his bed, dumping him onto it like a load of bricks, him all the while snarling and snoring and muttering about bad things sure to happen.” Kim Stanley Robinson, Galileo’s Dream, 2009.
Word of the Week: confabulate (kən-FĂB-yə-lāt) Definition (Verb) To talk familiarly together, converse, chat. In Context "In the large room, where several different groups had been formed, and the hum of voices and of laughter was loud, these two young persons might confabulate, as the Doctor phrased it to himself, without attracting attention." Henry James, Washington Square, 1880.
