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April 14, 2004

Words, words...words!

I found an old index card in my secondhand copy of "After Many a Summer Dies the Swan" with three words written on it--words a previous owner meant to look up and never did, or so I'm assuming. Here's my good deed for the day:

Bumptious – crudely or loudly assertive; pushy.

A fortiori – for a still stronger reason; all the more.

Serendipity – the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.

And, so long as we're on the topic of words, here's my latest batch from the Webster's Dictionary:

Acyrology – faulty diction.

Adactylism – congenital lack of fingers or toes

Ad captandum vulgus – to please and catch the crowd.

Addorsed – in heraldry, placed back to back, as two animals or figures.

Adelantado – formerly, a Spanish title for a governor of a province; a lieutenant governor; a commander.

Ademption – in law, the revocation of a grant, donation, or the like.

Adhamant – holding tightly, as by hooks.

Adipocere – a fatty or waxy substance of a light brown color into which the muscular fibers of dead animal bodies are converted by long exposure to moisture.

Ad libitum – as one desires; at pleasure; as much as one pleases.

Adoptionist – in ecclesiastical history, one who maintained that Jesus was the son of God by adoption only.

Ad patres – to one’s fathers; dead.

Adulterine – in law, a child issuing from an adulterous relationship.

Advowson – in English law, a right of presentation to a vacant benefice; a right of nominating a person as rector or vicar of a vacant parish.

Aerarian – A Roman citizen of the lowest class of freemen, who paid only a poll tax and was not qualified to vote.

Affy – to betroth; to bind or join.

Aflatoxin – any of several carcinogenic substances produced by a fungus found especially on peanuts.

Aftermath – a second crop of grass in the same season; hence, a result, usually an unpleasant one.

Agonal – in medicine, of or pertaining to the death agony.

Posted by patrick at April 14, 2004 01:30 AM

Comments

Posted by: James at April 17, 2004 12:54 AM

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