Edifying Ourselves: Word-a-Day
Posted by Elizabeth Nowicki on March 26, 2007
I have a Word-a-Day calendar – each day of the calendar has its own page and its own vocabulary word. But I am visiting away from Richmond this semester, I am packing my Richmond house and moving to Tulane, I am buying a house, and I am selling my house. I am therefore very far behind on my Word-a-Day calendar. I do not have time to work each word into a sentence. If you devoted readers could work the following words (from the past two weeks of March) into conversation, I would appreciate it. I would hate to waste the calendar by not using the words. Thanks.
Edulcorate:Â To free from harshness (as of attitude)
Adventitious:Â coming from another source and not inherent or innate
Corvee:Â Unpaid labor due from a feudal vassal to his lord
Occident:Â regions or countries lying to the west of a specified or implied point of orientation
Zibeline: a soft lustrous wool fabric with mohair, alpaca, or camel’s hair
Panjandrum:Â a powerful personage or pretentious official
Hydromancy:Â divination by the appearance or motion of liquids (as water)
Vanward:Â located in the vanguard
Favonian:Â of or relating to the west wind
Realia:Â objects or activities used to relate classroom teaching to the real life especially of peoples studied
Comestible:Â edible
3 Responses to “Edifying Ourselves: Word-a-Day”
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M. Hodak said
I hope the favonian breezes blowing you toward your occidental opportunity proves an adventitious feather in your zibeline cap at Richmond, and does not leave you with a corvee to a panjandrum.
Or, best wishes.
Ivy Leaguer without pomposity said
This is the kind of crap that distances academics from the intelligent laymen. What a waste of time. Word of the day…get the f*** out of here with that BS. I stopped doing that during my 20s, when I realized I could do better things than nurture offputting pedantry.
Thom said
Pedantry, eh? That’s a pretty fancy word there, Ivy Leaguer. (So is pomposity, by the way.)