Word of the Week: gudgeon (GŬJ-ən) Definition (Noun) One that will bite at any bait or swallow anything: a credulous, gullible person. In Context "And that makes me for to take it the less to heart, when I do see you be such a gudgeon, Tim, with no more sense than to swallow neat down every thing that do come in your way." Frances Burney, The Wanderer: Or, Female Difficulties, 1814.
Word of the Week: pellucid (pə-LŌŌ-sĭd) Definition (Adjective) Clear in sense and expression, lucid. In Context "For there is a remarkable diversity in Cicero's style, ranging from the solemn rotundity of his oratorical perorations, through the pellucid but still formal rhythms of his treatises, to the various degrees of colloquialism in his letters." Michael Grant, Translator, Cicero: Selected Works, 1960. This word was suggested by Robert Sweet in the Office of Development.
Word of the Week: fatuous (FĂCH-ōō-əs) Definition (Adjective) Of persons, their actions, feelings, utterances, etc.: Foolish, vacantly silly, stupid, besotted. In Context "Our city governments are, in many instances, foul cancers on the body politic; and for us to boast of having solved the problem of local self-government is as fatuous as for a strong man to exult in his health when his body is covered with running sores." James M. Beck, The Constitution of the United States, 1924.
Word of the Week: avatar (ĂV-ə-tär) Definition (Noun) Manifestation in human form; incarnation. In Context "Black music was everywhere in New York in the mid-1920s as an avatar of the contemporary moment." Todd Decker, Show Boat: Performing Race in an American Musical, 2013.
Word of the Week: stupefy (STŌŌ-pə-fī) Definition (Verb) To make stupid or torpid; to deprive of apprehension, feeling, or sensibility; to benumb, deaden. In Context "Before the introduction of anaesthesia during the nineteenth century, a mixture of opium and alcohol was extensively used to stupefy surgical patients and to shield them from the pain of operations." Martin Plant, Roy Robertson, Moira Plant, and Patrick Miller, Drug Nation: Patterns, Problems, Panics, and Policies, 2011.
Word of the Week: ineffable (in-EFF-uh-bul) Definition (Adjective) 1. a) incapable of being expressed in words : indescribable b) inexpressibly bad : unspeakable 2. not to be uttered : taboo In Context "Such haziness was inevitable, because the questions Buber was trying to answer were the most ineffable ones of human life: What is the meaning of our existence? How can we achieve the feeling of wholeness that we so painfully lack?" Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker, 29 Apr. 2019
Word of the Week: quibble (KWIB-ul) Definition (verb) 1. to evade the point of an argument by caviling about words 2. a) to find fault by raising trivial or frivolous objection b) to engage in a petty quarrel : bicker 3. to subject to minor objections or criticisms Context "A few researchers and doctors have also quibbled with some of the details in the dietary advice…." Eliza Barclay, Vox.com, 24 Jan. 2019
Word of the Week: abhorrent (ab·hor·rent \ -ənt) Definition (Adjective) 1 : causing or deserving strong dislike or hatred : being so repugnant as to stir up positive antagonism 2 : not agreeable : contrary 3 a : feeling or showing strong dislike or hatred b archaic : strongly opposed In Context class="cite-example">"The Syrian Regime has a history of using chemical weapons against its own people in the most cruel and abhorrent way." — CNN, "READ: UK Prime Minister Theresa May's statement on Syria strikes," 14 Apr. 2018
Word of the Week: kakistocracy (kakə̇ˈstäkrəsē) Definition (Noun) government by the worst people In Context "Whether this partakes more of an aristocracy, or caucocracy, or rather Kakistocracy, is a problem, in the solution of which, he may find some amusement and employment of his genius." — The Weekly Aurora, (Philadelphia, PA), 31 Oct. 1815
Word of the Week: vocation (voh-KAY-shun) Definition (noun)1. a) summons or strong inclination to a particular state or course of action; especially : a divine call to the religious life. b) an entry into the priesthood or a religious order 2. a) the work in which a person is employed : occupation b) the persons engaged in a particular occupation 3. the special function of an individual or group In Context "The superpower I've always wished for is invisibility, and I chose my vocation accordingly. A novelist gets 140,000 words per one tiny author photo. That's a visibility ratio I can live with." [...]
