Word of the Week – Page 26 – Princeton Writes

intaglio (ĭn-TĂL-yō)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-12-12T12:00:40-05:00

Definition (Noun) A figure or design incised or engraved; a cutting or engraving in stone or other hard material. In Context "No memory of them both is more vivid than this mind's eye picture of them at their evening meal in old age, engraved like an intaglio on a wall along one of the corridors of memory, two old people seen always in the roseate glow of sundown, caught forever by memory's brush on a canvas only death can fade." August Derleth, Walden West, 1961.

intaglio (ĭn-TĂL-yō)Stephanie Whetstone2016-12-12T12:00:40-05:00

nosegay (NŌZ-gā)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-12-05T12:00:53-05:00

Definition (Noun) A bunch of flowers or herbs, especially ones having a sweet smell; a small bouquet, a posy. Also: an imitation or representation of this. In Context "An arrangement should be appropriate to the occasion – a plump nosegay of roses to say 'thank you,' an exuberant garland of evergreens to decorate a holiday mantel." Carol Endler Sterbenz, Homemade: The Heart and Science of Handcrafts, 2011.

nosegay (NŌZ-gā)Stephanie Whetstone2016-12-05T12:00:53-05:00

scullery (SKŬL-ə-rē)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-11-28T12:00:40-05:00

Definition (Noun) In modern usage: A small room attached to a kitchen, in which the washing of dishes and other dirty work is done; a back kitchen. In Context "She had some cardboard, she thought, some old dress-boxes, in the scullery, where most of the litter of the house accumulated." Elizabeth Ferrars, Alive and Dead, 1974.

scullery (SKŬL-ə-rē)Stephanie Whetstone2016-11-28T12:00:40-05:00

pleonasm (PLĒ-ə-năz-əm)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-11-21T12:00:33-05:00

Definition (Noun) The use of more words in a sentence or clause than are necessary to express the meaning; redundancy of expression either as a fault of style, or as a rhetorical figure used for emphasis or clarity. Also: an instance of this; a superfluously worded expression or phrase. In Context "The term 'digital computer' is not a pleonasm: There are, in fact, analogue computers which, by their design, are not restricted to the digital representation of information." Thomas Riechmann, Learning in Economics: Analysis and Application of Genetic Algorithms, 2001.

pleonasm (PLĒ-ə-năz-əm)Stephanie Whetstone2016-11-21T12:00:33-05:00

sophistry (SŎF-ĭ-strē)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-11-14T12:00:43-05:00

Definition (Noun) Specious but fallacious reasoning; employment of arguments which are intentionally deceptive. In Context "Bryan Edwards, the Jamaican planter-historian, justified this coercion with the sophistry: 'Men in savage life have no incentive to emulation: persuasion is lost on such men, and compulsion, to a certain degree, is humanity and charity.'" Alvin O. Thompson, The Haunting Past: Politics, Economics and Race in Caribbean Life, 1997.

sophistry (SŎF-ĭ-strē)Stephanie Whetstone2016-11-14T12:00:43-05:00

suffragist (SŬF-rə-jĭst)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-11-07T12:00:20-05:00

Definition (Noun) An advocate of the extension of the political franchise, especially (after about 1885) to women. In Context "Eleven panes of glass in the Hitchin post office were broken by a Letchworth suffragist, who was taken to the police station and afterwards escorted out of the town by a constable." "Window Breaking: Renewal of Suffragist Outrages," The Times, June 29, 1912.

suffragist (SŬF-rə-jĭst)Stephanie Whetstone2016-11-07T12:00:20-05:00

gimcrack (JĬM-krăk)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-10-17T12:00:33-04:00

Definition (Adjective) Trivial, worthless; showy but unsubstantial; trumpery. In Context "Even though this policy was never entirely implemented – there were transfers from the metropoles to build colonial infrastructure, pay down debts, and even to pay routine administrative expenses – it meant that the colonial enterprise was run as cheaply as possible: 'a gimcrack effort run by two men and a dog.'" M. A. Thomas, Govern Like Us: U.S. Expectations of Poor Countries, 2015.

gimcrack (JĬM-krăk)Stephanie Whetstone2016-10-17T12:00:33-04:00

sutler (SŬT-lər)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-10-10T12:00:20-04:00

Definition (Noun) One who follows an army or lives in a garrison town and sells provisions to the soldiers. In Context "When a soldier captured more than a sufficiency for his own wants, he would either sell to his comrades or to the brigade sutler." D. Augustus Dickert, History of Kershaw's Brigade, 1899.

sutler (SŬT-lər)Stephanie Whetstone2016-10-10T12:00:20-04:00

codicil (KŎD-ə-sĭl)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-10-03T12:00:02-04:00

Definition (Noun) A supplement to a will, added by the testator for the purpose of explanation, alteration, or revocation of the original contents. In Context "She had amended her will in the year before her death through a codicil executed by a new lawyer; the codicil gave John McCabe 8 million." Alice Schroeder, The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life, 2008.

codicil (KŎD-ə-sĭl)Stephanie Whetstone2016-10-03T12:00:02-04:00

pernicious (pər-NĬSH-əs)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-09-26T12:00:41-04:00

Definition (Adjective) Of a thing, action, intent, etc.: causing or likely to cause harm, especially in a gradual or insidious manner; dangerous, destructive; evil. Also in weakened use: having a harmful influence; undesirable. In Context "His mother was affectionate, but also exacting and somewhat censorious; she was firmly persuaded that only the pernicious influence of ill-chosen friends had seduced her son from the evangelical principles which she had inculcated in his youth." Edward Tyas Cook, The Life of John Ruskin: Volume 2, 1860-1900, 1911.

pernicious (pər-NĬSH-əs)Stephanie Whetstone2016-09-26T12:00:41-04:00

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