Word of the Week – Page 14 – Princeton Writes

Word of the Week: mawkish (MÔ-kĭsh)

Stephanie Whetstone2022-01-26T13:29:59-05:00

Word of the Week: mawkish (MÔ-kĭsh) Definition (Adjective) Imbued with sickly, false, or feeble sentiment; overly sentimental. In Context "To commercial filmmakers, the bromides suggested by OWI propagandists – wordy soliloquies about freedom, boring discussions of the war's meaning, mawkish dramatizations of unity – seemed destined to be box office poison." M. Todd Bennett, One World, Big Screen: Hollywood, the Allies, and World War II, 2012.

Word of the Week: mawkish (MÔ-kĭsh)Stephanie Whetstone2022-01-26T13:29:59-05:00

Word of the Week: polyglot (PŎL-ē-glŏt)

Stephanie Whetstone2022-01-26T13:10:26-05:00

Word of the Week: polyglot (PŎL-ē-glŏt) Definition (Adjective) Of a person: that speaks, writes, or understands a number of languages. In Context "The mood of the sessions was probably leavened by the presence of amiable, polyglot General Vernon A. Walters, the American ambassador known for his affinity for easing conversation with a good anecdote." Stanley Meisler, United Nations: A History, 2011.

Word of the Week: polyglot (PŎL-ē-glŏt)Stephanie Whetstone2022-01-26T13:10:26-05:00

Word of the Week: adamantine (ăd-ə-MĂN-tēn)

Stephanie Whetstone2021-12-07T14:15:18-05:00

Word of the Week: adamantine (ăd-ə-MĂN-tēn) Definition (Adjective) That cannot be easily overcome or defeated; rigid, unyielding; unwavering, immovable; (now especially) refusing to be persuaded or to change one's mind. In Context "Contrary to popular impression, the real art of colonial government was not an adamantine rigidity but a machiavellian flexibility in the perpetual search for collaborators." Robert Holland, Editor, Emergencies and Disorder in the European Empires after 1945, 1994.

Word of the Week: adamantine (ăd-ə-MĂN-tēn)Stephanie Whetstone2021-12-07T14:15:18-05:00

Word of the Week: factotum (făk-TŌ-təm)

Stephanie Whetstone2021-12-07T14:12:29-05:00

Word of the Week: factotum (făk-TŌ-təm) Definition (Noun) An employee who does all kinds of work; (especially in earlier use) a domestic servant or employee who undertakes all kinds of household tasks. In Context "An abbot is not a factotum; he cannot and should not do everything." Mark A. Scott, At Home with Saint Benedict: Monastery Talks, 2011.

Word of the Week: factotum (făk-TŌ-təm)Stephanie Whetstone2021-12-07T14:12:29-05:00

Word of the Week: fulminate (FŎŎL-mə-nāt)

Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-15T11:35:11-05:00

Word of the Week: fulminate (FŎŎL-mə-nāt) Definition (Verb) Of the pope, etc.: To issue censures or condemnations (against); generally to "thunder," inveigh violently against. In Context "By the early 1930s, watching defenders of Prohibition fulminate about the demon rum in the sound newsreels, thirsty moviegoers jeered and hissed." Thomas Doherty, Hollywood's Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration, 2007.

Word of the Week: fulminate (FŎŎL-mə-nāt)Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-15T11:35:11-05:00

Word of the Week: quotidian (kwō-TĬD-ē-ən)

Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-15T11:32:29-05:00

Word of the Week: quotidian (kwō-TĬD-ē-ən) Definition (Adjective) Of an everyday character; commonplace, mundane, ordinary. In Context "These are the solid, obvious, sharply outlined, in-the-way things of quotidian experience: the walls that obstruct, the rain that falls, the projectile that hits, the stone that stubs." Lorraine Daston, Editor, Biographies of Scientific Objects, 2000.

Word of the Week: quotidian (kwō-TĬD-ē-ən)Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-15T11:32:29-05:00

Word of the Week: instauration (in-staw-RAY-shun)

Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-15T11:36:13-05:00

Word of the Week: instauration (in-staw-RAY-shun) Definition (Noun) 1. restoration after decay, lapse, or dilapidation 2. an act of instituting or establishing something In Context "Once, humanity dreamed of the great instauration—a rebirth of ancient wisdom that would compel us into a New Age…." Knute Berger, Seattle Weekly, 14 Dec. 2005

Word of the Week: instauration (in-staw-RAY-shun)Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-15T11:36:13-05:00

Word of the Week: bamboozle (băm-BŌŌ-zəl)

Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-11T11:27:43-05:00

Word of the Week: bamboozle (băm-BŌŌ-zəl) Definition (Verb) To deceive by trickery, hoax, cozen, impose upon. In Context "No statesman, however old, eminent, selfish, or resourceful, was able for long to bamboozle or bedazzle his equally famous, and equally adroit, colleagues; only Bismarck, and perhaps Beaconsfield during the first fortnight, succeeded in establishing over the other delegates something of the personal ascendancy that they enjoyed in their own cabinets." W. N. Medlicott, The Congress of Berlin and After: A Diplomatic History of the Near Eastern Settlement, 1878-1880, Second Edition, 1963.

Word of the Week: bamboozle (băm-BŌŌ-zəl)Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-11T11:27:43-05:00

Word of the Week: gonfalon (GŎN-fə-lŏn)

Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-11T11:25:26-05:00

Word of the Week: gonfalon (GŎN-fə-lŏn) Definition (Noun) A banner or ensign, frequently composed of or ending in several tails or streamers, suspended from a cross-bar instead of being directly fastened to the pole, especially as used by various Italian republics or in ecclesiastical processions. In Context "At a critical moment the brave old sea-dog was seen erect in his armour on the prow of his galley, the gonfalon of St. Mark unfurled before him." Thomas Okey, The Story of Venice, 1905.

Word of the Week: gonfalon (GŎN-fə-lŏn)Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-11T11:25:26-05:00

Word of the Week: ductility (dŭk-TĬL-ĭ-tē)

Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-08T14:50:32-05:00

Word of the Week: ductility (dŭk-TĬL-ĭ-tē) Definition (Noun) Capability of being easily led or influenced; tractableness, docility. In Context "Bingley was endeared to Darcy by the easiness, openness, ductility of his temper, though no disposition could offer a greater contrast to his own, and though with his own he never appeared dissatisfied." Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice, 1813.

Word of the Week: ductility (dŭk-TĬL-ĭ-tē)Stephanie Whetstone2021-11-08T14:50:32-05:00

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