Thought for the day.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I don't care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don't harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you're never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants...


A WORD FOR TODAY:

divination

DEFINITION: (noun) the art of predicting the future.

EXAMPLE: In ancient Greece, people wanting to know their fate would visit the priests at Delphi, supposedly skilled at divination.

SYNONYMS: forecast, prediction

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
They're too close to the trees to see the forest. People in California or New York understand that Alaska is not so big. They live in places where the wilderness once seemed limitless, but they know it disappears. -Edgar Wayburn, environmentalist and doctor (b. 1906)

A WORD FOR TODAY:

materfamilias

PRONUNCIATION:
(may-tuhr-fuh-MIL-ee-uhs) 

MEANING:
noun: The female head of a family, household, tribe, etc.


ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin materfamilias, from mater (mother) + familias, from familia (household), from famulus (servant, slave).


NOTES:
Paterfamilias is the masculine equivalent of the word.


USAGE:
"Equally, as materfamilias, she [Queen Elizabeth] will have time to devote to the motherless Prince William, and to groom him for kingship while his father reigns."
Tunku Varadarajan; A New Queen Mum?; The Wall Street Journal (New York, NY); Apr 2, 2002.

"First we have Nora [Nina Poliakoff], materfamilias of the bizarre brood in whose home this absurdist mystery-farce takes place."
K.C. Compton; CSF Opener is a Metaphor For Confusion; Santa Fe New Mexican; Oct 14, 1994.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
To be patriotic, hate all nations but your own; to be religious, all sects but your own; to be moral, all pretences but your own. -Lionel Strachey, writer and translator (1864-1927)

A WORD FOR TODAY:

pseudandry

PRONUNCIATION:
(su-DAN-dree) 

MEANING:
noun: The use of a male name as a pseudonym by a woman.


NOTES:
Many women wrote under male pen names because in the 18th and 19th centuries it was considered scandalous for a woman to write a book. The English novelist Mary Ann Evans wrote as George Eliot. Also, in olden times, people didn't take a woman's writing seriously.
The counterpart of pseudandry is pseudogyny where a man takes a woman's name as a pseudonym. The rationale here is that people expect certain genres, such as romance, to be written by women.


ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek pseudo (false) + andro (male).


USAGE:
"The first volume contains a short commentary by Dagon Khin Khin Lay in which she revealed her pseudandry and confessed that although she wrote these stories she did not believe in things supernatural."
Dagon Khin Khin Lay's Pseudandry; Myanmar Perspectives; 2000.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in...

A WORD FOR TODAY:

arbitrary

DEFINITION:    (adjective) based on random or merely personal preference.

EXAMPLE:    Both computers cost the same and had the same features, so in the end I made an arbitrary decision about which to buy.

SYNONYMS:    approximate, chance

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Success is 10% inspiration, 90% last minute changes...

A WORD FOR TODAY:

indistinct

DEFINITION:    (adjective) unclear, uncertain.

EXAMPLE:    We could see boats on the water, but in the thick morning fog their shapes were indistinct.

SYNONYMS:    obscure, ambiguous

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)


A WORD FOR TODAY:

evitable

PRONUNCIATION:
(EV-i-tuh-buhl) 

MEANING:
adjective: Capable of being avoided or evaded.


ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin evitare (to avoid).


USAGE:
"Racers insist they do it 'for the glory', which is a shrewd way of saying they do it for no good reason. This is an Entirely Evitable Event."
Don Kahle; Kinetic Challenge Recalls Rickies; The Register-Guard (Eugene, Oregon); Jul 18, 2008.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Although a democracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand. -Aharon Barak, law professor, former President of the Supreme Court of Israel (b.1936)
     
A WORD FOR TODAY:

wieldy

PRONUNCIATION:
(WEEL-dee)

MEANING:
adjective: Easily handled or managed.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English wealdan (to rule). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wal- (to be strong) that gave us the words valiant, avail, valor, and value.

USAGE:
"What Lotus means, of course, is that the Exige [car] is small and wieldy; that it can out-corner a mosquito."
Michael Booth; On Wheels: Lotus Exige S; The Independent (London, UK); Sep 3, 2006.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
We hand folks over to God's mercy, and show none ourselves. -George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), novelist (1819-1880)

A WORD FOR TODAY:

exorable

PRONUNCIATION:
(EK-suhr-uh-buhl)

MEANING:
adjective: Capable of being persuaded or moved.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin exorare (to prevail upon), from ex- (out) + orare (to pray, beg).

USAGE:
"Without reform, the result is an exorable middle-class tax increase."
Jonathan Rauch; A Bad Tax With Good Timing; National Journal (Washington, DC); Mar 18, 2006.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Ready money is Aladdin's lamp. -Lord Byron, poet (1788-1824)

A WORD FOR TODAY:

gainly

PRONUNCIATION:
(GAYN-lee)

MEANING:
adjective: Graceful; dexterous.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old Norse gegn (straight, direct).

USAGE:
"Poor Bob Stanfield. His flub of a football pass during the 1974 election campaign made Gerald Ford look gainly."
Sports and Politicians Are Not Always A Good Mix; Toronto Star (Canada); Jun 12, 2007.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
A man's name is not like a mantle which merely hangs about him, and which one perchance may safely twitch and pull, but a perfectly fitting garment, which, like the skin, has grown over and over him, at which one cannot rake and scrape without injuring the man himself. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832)

A WORD FOR TODAY:

corrigible

PRONUNCIATION:
(KOR-i-juh-buhl)

MEANING:
adjective: Capable of being corrected.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin corrigere (to correct). Ultimately from the Indo-European reg- (to move in a straight line, to lead or rule) that is also the source of regent, regime, direct, rectangle, erect, rectum, alert, source, and surge.

USAGE:
"[The regulator] should guide corrigible companies through their weaknesses to become more useful corporate citizens."
Patience Wheatcroft; FSA Should At Least Seek City's Respect; The Times (London, UK); Mar 4, 2005.

[yoda]

Interesting trend here for the word of the day.  For most of your recent words we usually use  the opposite (e.g. unwieldy, ungainly, inevitable)

[Cruncher Pete]

You are very observant WY.  I obtain most of my quotes and Word for the day from Wordsmith.org but not all the time, sometimes I freelance depending how I feel or time I have on hand.  Wordsmith generally has a theme for a week and this week's theme was forgotten positives. The words you quote are of course are all the negative connotations of the base word. evitable - inevitable...

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
There's nothing like biting off more than you can chew, and then chewing anyway.

A WORD FOR TODAY:

laudatory

DEFINITION:    (adjective) giving praise.

EXAMPLE:    The ads for the movie are filled with laudatory comments from critics.

SYNONYMS:    complimentary

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If a man is called a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that all the heaven and earth will pause to say, Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well...

A WORD FOR TODAY:

contemporary

DEFINITION: (adjective) modern; from the same time.

EXAMPLE: I prefer old-fashioned furniture rather than contemporary styles.

SYNONYMS: current

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
O, what a world of vile ill-favoured faults, / Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year! -William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616)


A WORD FOR TODAY:

dissimulate

PRONUNCIATION:
(di-SIM-yuh-layt) 

MEANING:
verb tr., intr.: To disguise one's intentions, thoughts, motives, etc. by pretense.


ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin dis- (apart, away) + simulare (to simulate), from similis (like). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sem- (one) that is also the source of simultaneous, assemble, simple, Sanskrit sandhi (union), Russian samovar (a metal urn), and Greek hamadryad (a wood nymph).


USAGE:
"Charles Clarke added: 'We need to talk straight to people, engaging the concerns and questions that they have, rather than appearing to evade and dissimulate.'"
Andrew Grice; Clarke: Brown Succession Is Not A Done Deal; The Independent (London, UK); Mar 29, 2007.