WON Word A Day – January 31st - ARBOREAL

arboreal • \ahr-BOR-ee-ul\  • adjective 1 : of or relating to a tree : resembling a tree 2 : inhabiting or frequenting trees

Examples: "… we emerge into open space, 70 acres of green grassland, a savanna of widely spaced, mature trees, many reaching 60 feet tall, gnarled and weathered, separated as if each had staked out its own territory: an arboreal Gothic cathedral indeed." — Bill Marken, Sunset, April 2014

"[The hammocks] are relatively indestructible, mimic the arboreal nests used by orangutans, and provide a resting area for the gibbons as they swing among the treetops." — Jim Redden, Portland Tribune (Oregon), August 25, 2014

Did you know? Arbor, the Latin word for "tree," has been a rich source of tree-related words in English, though some are fairly rare. Some arbor descendants are synonyms of arboreal in the "relating to trees" sense: arboraceous, arborary, arborical, and arborous. Some are synonyms meaning "inhabiting trees": arboreous and arboricole. Others mean "resembling a tree": arborescent, arboresque, and arboriform. The verb arborize means "to branch freely," and arborvitae is the name of a shrub that means literally "tree of life." There's also arboretum and arboriculture. And we can't forget Arbor Day, which since 1872 has named a day set aside by various states (and the national government ) for planting trees. But watch out—the word arbor, in the sense of a "bower," is from Anglo-French herbe.

WON Word A Day – January 30th - OBLOGUY

obloquy • \AH-bluh-kwee\  • noun 1 : a strongly condemnatory utterance : abusive language 2 : the condition of one that is discredited : bad repute

Examples:The manager walked quickly back to the dugout as insults and obloquy rained

down from the stands.

"Because of the stigma associated with drug convictions, such an indictment could be tantamount to a life sentence of obloquy in terms of future employment." — Floral Park Dispatch, January 15, 2014

Did you know? English speakers can choose from several synonyms to name a tongue-lashing. Abuse is a good general term that usually stresses the anger of the speaker and the harshness of the language, as in "scathing verbal abuse." Vituperation often specifies fluent, sustained abuse; "a torrent of vituperation" is a typical use of this term. Invective implies vehemence comparable to vituperation, but may suggest greater verbal and rhetorical skill; it may also apply especially to a public denunciation, as in "blistering political invective." Obloquy, which comes from the Late Latin ob- (meaning "against") plus loqui (meaning "to speak"), suggests defamation and consequent shame and disgrace; a typical example of its use would be "subjected to obloquy and derision."

WON Word A Day – January 29th – FULGENT

fulgent • \FULL-jint\  • adjective : dazzlingly bright : radiant

Examples: "Lilac and wistaria and redbud, even the shabby heaven-trees, had never been finer, fulgent, with a burning scent…." — William Faulkner, Sanctuary, 1931

"Both queens were outfitted with lush and representative mantles, white kid gloves, splendid jewelry and dazzling crowns to make a picture of fulgent finery." — Nell Nolan, Times Picayune (New Orleans), February 26, 2012

Did you know? "The weary Sun betook himself to rest; — / Then issued Vesper from the fulgent west." That's how the appearance of the evening star in the glowing western sky at sunset looked to 19th-century poet William Wordsworth. Fulgent was a particularly apt choice to describe the radiant light of the sky at sunset. The word derives from the Latin verb fulgēre, meaning "to shine," a root which is itself akin to the Latin flagrare, meaning "to burn." English speakers have been using fulgent to depict resplendence since at least the 15th century.

January, WON, WON Radio, Word A Day, Writers Online Network, Zachary Anderson Phillips, www.writersonlinenetwork.org, Wt Prater,

WON Word A Day – January 28th - TANKINI

tankini • \tang-KEE-nee\  • noun : a woman's two-piece swimsuit consisting of bikini briefs and a tank top

Examples: While women in the north are putting their swimsuits away for the season—be they one-pieces, bikinis, or tankinis—those in southerly climes can still comfortably relax poolside.

"For the first time, select tankini styles feature the popular zip-front styling, making it easier to put on and take off the swimsuit after a dip in the pool." — Marketwired, September 9, 2014

Did you know? The two-piece swimsuit we call the bikini made its debut on Paris runways in

1946. The word bikini comes from Bikini atoll, the name of one of the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific, where atomic-bomb tests were performed in 1946. One theory of the coinage is that the effect achieved by a scantily clad woman appearing in public may be compared to the effect of an A-bomb blast. Another possible explanation is that the bikini leaves its wearer nearly bare, the way the bomb tests stripped Bikini atoll. In 1985, the tankini began appearing on beaches in the U.S., and the word bikini was combined with tank to create its appropriate name.

WON Word A Day – January 27th - DISJUNCTIVE

disjunctive • \diss-JUNK-tiv\  • adjective 1 a : relating to, being, or forming a logical disjunction b : expressing an alternative or opposition between meanings of the words connected c : expressed by mutually exclusive alternatives joined by or 2 : marked by breaks or disunity

Examples:The detective walked into the interrogation room and bluntly asked the disjunctive question, "Were you with her on the night of the murder, or were you not?"

"I was not put off by the disjointed narrative—I was riveted by the character and the music—which I grew up with and adore. And while the film makes disjunctive cuts, especially from a pivotal backstage encounter with Brown's mother …, when we do return to the scene, the emotional payoff is there." — Anne Thomas, IndieWire, August 4, 2014

Did you know? Disjunctive comes to us from disjunctus, the past participle of the Latin verb

disjungere, meaning "to disjoin," and it is commonly used to describe things marked by breaks or separation, as in "a disjunctive account of events." Some people may be familiar with disjunctive conjunctions—like or, either… or, but, and though—which express an alternative or opposition between the meanings of the words connected. The opposite of such conjunctions are copulative conjunctions, which unite words or phrases—the principal one in English being and. In linguistics, disjunctive may also denote a vowel inserted in the body of a word to aid in pronunciation. For example, the schwa sometimes found in athlete is considered disjunctive.

WON Word A Day – January 26th - EXACERBATE

exacerbate • \ig-ZASS-er-bayt\  • verb : to make more violent, bitter, or severe

Examples:It seemed as though every new attempt at a solution served only to exacerbate

the problem.

"The rise of commercial data profiling is exacerbating existing inequities in society and could turn de facto discrimination into a high-tech enterprise." — Seeta Peña Gangadharan, The New York Times, August 7, 2014

Did you know? Make it a point to know that the Latin adjective acer, meaning "sharp," forms the basis of a number of words that have come intoEnglish. The words acerbic ("having a bitter temper or sour mood"), acrid ("having a sharp taste or odor"), and acrimony ("a harsh manner or disposition") are just the tip of the iceberg. First appearing in English in the 17th century, exacerbate derives from the Latin prefix ex-, which means "out of" or "outside," and acerbus, which means "harsh" or "bitter" and comes from acer. Just as pouring salt in a wound worsens pain, things that exacerbate can cause a situation to go from bad to worse. A pointed insult, for example, might exacerbate tensions between two rivals.

WON Word A Day – January 25th - RATHSKELLER

rathskeller • \RAHT-skel-er\  • noun : a usually basement tavern or restaurant

Examples: Beneath the service club's new meeting hall is a rathskeller that is open for

lunch and dinner.

"Troy's Germania Hall remains open. The club serves dinner every Friday night in its rathskeller." — Jeff Wilkin, The Gazette (Schenectady, New York), August 10, 2014

Did you know? Rathskeller is a product of Germany, deriving from two German nouns: Rat (also spelled Rath in early Modern German), which means "council," and Keller, which means "cellar." (Nouns in German are always capitalized.) The etymology reflects the fact that many early rathskellers were located in the basements of "council houses," which were equivalent to town halls. (The oldest rathskeller found in Germany today is said to date from the first half of the 13th century.) The earliest known use of rathskeller in English dates from 1766, but the word wasn't commonly used until the 1900s. Although the German word is now spelled Ratskeller, English writers have always preferred the spelling with the "h"—most likely to avoid any association with the word rat.

WON Word A Day – January 24th - STEREOTACTIC

stereotactic • \stair-ee-uh-TAK-tik\  • adjective : involving or used in a surgical technique for precisely directing the tip of a delicate instrument or beam of radiation in three planes using coordinates provided by medical imaging in order to reach a specific locus in the body

Examples: "Once in the OR, Mario was given a local anesthetic. His head had been shaved, his brain targeted to millimeter precision by MRIs. Attached to his head was a stereotactic frame to provide surgeons with precise coordinates and mapping imagery." — Lauren Slater, Mother Jones, November 2005

"The center is equipped with a $5 million machine, known as a stereotactic body radiotherapy system, that zaps tumors with high doses of radiation without damaging nearby tissue and organs." — James T. Mulder, The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), July 18, 2014

Did you know? At the beginning of the 20th century, neurosurgeons were experimenting with a technique used to direct the tip of a needle or an electrode in three spatial planes (length, width, and depth) to reach a particular place in the brain. At that time, the word for this technique was "stereotaxic," based on the prefix "stereo-" ("dealing with three dimensions of space") and "taxis" (referring to the manual restoration of a displaced body part). In 1950, "stereotactic" (based on "tactic," meaning "of or relating to touch") joined the medical vocabulary as a synonym of "stereotaxic." Around the same time, a noninvasive neurosurgery technique was developed using beams of radiation. It is this procedure that is now often described as "stereotactic" and (less frequently) "stereotaxic."

WON Word A Day – January 23rd - CULPRIT

culprit • \KUL-prit\  • noun 1 : one accused of or charged with a crime 2 : one guilty of a crime or a fault 3 : the source or cause of a problem

Examples: After the empty warehouse burned down, an investigation determined faulty wiring to be the culprit.

"Police searched a parking structure in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles Saturday for one of two armed suspects who robbed a pedestrian but were unable to locate the culprit." — Los Angeles Daily News, August 2, 2014

Did you know? We would be culpable if we didn't clearly explain the origins behind culprit.

Yes, it is related to culpable, which itself derives from Latin culpare, meaning "to blame," via Middle English and Anglo-French. But the etymology of culprit is not so straightforward. In Anglo-French, culpable meant "guilty," and this was abbreviated "cul." in legal briefs and texts. Culprit was formed by combining this abbreviation with prest, prit, meaning "ready"—that is, ready to prove an accusation. Literally, then, a culprit was one who was ready to be proven guilty. English then borrowed the word for one accused of a wrongdoing.

WON Word A Day – January 22nd - TANTAMOUNT

tantamount • \TAN-tuh-mount\  • adjective : equivalent in value, significance, or effect

Examples: The boss had told Morris that he was being reassigned to the shipping department, and he knew that it was tantamount to a demotion.

"Mrs. Clinton declined an invitation to speak, organizers said. Democratic analysts said that was no surprise—for her to attend such a gathering would have been tantamount to announcing a presidential run, which she is not yet ready to do." — Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New

York Times, July 19, 2014

Did you know? Tantamount comes from the Anglo-French phrase tant amunter, meaning "to

amount to as much." This phrase comes from the Old French tant, meaning "so much" or "as much," and amounter, meaning "to ascend" or "to add up to." When tantamount first entered

English, it was used similarly to the Anglo-French phrase, as a verb meaning "to be equivalent." "His not denying tant-amounteth to the affirming of the matter," wrote clergyman Thomas Fuller in 1659, for example. There was also a noun tantamount in the 17th century, but the adjective is the only commonly used form of the term nowadays.

WON Word A Day – January 21st - ALEATORY

aleatory • \AY-lee-uh-tor-ee\  • adjective: characterized by chance or random elements

Examples: Tom and Renee's romance had an aleatory beginning—for without the sudden rainstorm that led to their introduction beneath the shop's awning, would they ever have met?

"Pollard had learned the 'cut-up' technique from Burroughs, in which the song (or poem) is completed, then spliced, then rearranged in random order. This writing technique is aleatory: in other words, it deposits chance directly into the creative process. What’s produced as a result of the technique is completely random …." — Brian Burlage, The Michigan Daily, July 30, 2014

Did you know? If you're the gambling type, then chances are good you've come across aleatory in your travels. Deriving from the Latin noun alea, which refers to a kind of dice game, aleatory was first used in English in the late 17th century to describe things that are dependent on uncertain odds, much like a roll of the dice. The term now describes things that occur by sheer chance or accident, such as the unlucky bounce of a golf shot or the unusual shape of an ink blot.

Going a bit further, the term aleatory music, or chance music, describes a musical composition in which certain parts are left for the performer to concoct through improvisation.

WON Word A Day – January 20th - HEGEMONY

hegemony • \hih-JEM-uh-nee\  • noun 1: dominant influence or authority over others 2 : the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group

Examples: Consumers welcomed the diversification of the software market as smaller

innovators challenged the hegemony of the large companies.

"In the novel, a United States aircraft carrier group is sunk in the Pacific Ocean by a mysterious wing of fighter jets, later revealed to bear the red star of the Soviet forces from the parallel dimension, crossing over into our world to turn back the tide of American hegemony."

— Andrew E. Kramer, The New York Times, August 20, 2014

Did you know? Hegemony comes to English from the Greek hēgemonia, a noun formed from the verb hēgeisthai ("to lead"), which also gave us the word exegesis ("exposition" or "explanation"). The word was first used in English in the mid-16th century in reference to the control once wielded by the ancient Greek states, and it was reapplied in later centuries as other nations subsequently rose to power. By the 20th century, it had acquired a second sense referring to the social or cultural influence wielded by a dominant member over others of its kind, such as the domination within an industry by a business conglomerate over smaller businesses.

WON Word A Day – January 19th - GRUBSTAKE

grubstake • \GRUB-stayk\  • verb : to provide with material assistance (as a loan) for launching an enterprise or for a person in difficult circumstances

Examples: For the production of his short film, Zachary was grubstaked by online donations from friends and supporters.

"Almost simultaneously, the Auerbachs opened a series of stores. They sold merchandise on commission throughout the Western states…. They grubstaked miners, held mining interests, purchased a sawmill and a 30-pack mule train." — Eileen Hallet Stone, The Salt Lake Tribune, November 16, 2013

Did you know? Grubstake is a linguistic nugget that was dug up during the famous California Gold Rush, which began in 1848. Sometime between the first stampede and the early 1860s, when the gold-seekers headed off to Montana, prospectors combined grub ("food") and stake, meaning "an interest or share in an undertaking." At first grubstake was a noun, referring to any kind of loan or provisions that could be finagled to make an undertaking possible (with the agreement that the "grubstaker" would get a cut of any profits). By 1879, grubstake was also showing up as a verb meaning "to give someone a grubstake," and, since at least 1937, it has been applied to other situations in which a generous benefactor comes through with the funds.

WON Word A Day – January 18th - DIVARICATION

divarication • \dye-vair-uh-KAY-shun\  • noun 1 : the action, process, or fact of spreading apart 2 : a divergence of opinion

Examples:The team of botanists studied the growth patterns of the trees, including the

divarication of their branches.

"For journalists, the futurists were at worst nothing more than a further example of the divarication between the world of art and the tastes of the public.…" — Luca Somigli, Legitimizing the Artist, 2003

Did you know? There's no reason to prevaricate about the origins of divarication—the word derives from the Medieval Latin divaricatio, which in turn descends from the verb divaricare, meaning "to spread apart." Divaricare itself is derived from the Latin varicare, which means "to straddle" and is also an ancestor of prevaricate ("to deviate from the truth"). The oldest sense of divarication, which first appeared in print in English in 1578, refers to a literal branching apart (as in "divarication of the roads"). The word eventually developed a more metaphorical second sense that is used when opinions "stretch apart" from one another.

WON Word A Day – January 17th - PELL-MELL

pell-mell • \pel-MEL\  • adverb 1 : in mingled confusion or disorder 2 : in confused haste

Examples: After the final bell of the day rang, the pupils bolted from their desks and

ran pell-mell out the door into the schoolyard.

"So Congress has been racing pell-mell this month to fix this crisis that’s been simmering for two decades. And what they’ve come up with is a Rube Goldberg contraption even by their usual convoluted standards." — Danny Westneat, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin (Washington),

July 18, 2014

Did you know? The word pell-mell was probably formed through a process called reduplication.

The process—which involves the repetition of a word or part of a word, often including a slight change in its pronunciation—also generated such terms as bowwow, helter-skelter, flip-flop, and chitchat. Yet another product of reduplication is shilly-shally, which started out as a single-word compression of the question "Shall I?" For pell-mell, the process is believed to have occurred long ago: our word traces to a Middle French word of the same meaning, pelemele, which was likely a product of reduplication from Old French mesle, a form of mesler, meaning "to mix."

WON Word A Day – January 16th -OLFACTORY

olfactory • \ahl-FAK-tuh-ree\  • adjective: of, relating to, or connected with the sense of smell

Examples: The aroma of cinnamon rolls coming from the kitchen served as an enticing

olfactory clue that breakfast was almost ready.

"First things first, it has to be said that the place smells like an aromatic candle. Equal parts cedar, pine, campfire, and patchouli, with a dash of earthiness, Awendaw Green is an olfactory

wonderland." — Kirsten Schofield, Charleston City Paper, August 19, 2014

Did you know? Olfactory derives from the past participle of the Latin olfacere, which means "to smell" and which was formed from the verb olēre (also "to smell") and facere ("to do"). Olfactory is a word that often appears in scientific contexts (as in "olfactory nerves," the nerves that pass from the nose to the brain and contain the receptors that make smelling possible), but it has occasionally branched out into less specialized contexts. The pleasant smell of spring flowers, for example, might be considered an "olfactory delight." A related word, olfaction, is a noun referring to the sense of smell or the act or process of smelling.

WON Word A Day – January 15th - VELAR

velar • \VEE-ler\  • adjective 1 : formed with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate 2 : of, forming, or relating to a velum and especially the soft palate

Examples: The word "keg" contains two velar consonants, "k" and "g."

 "Those throat-clearing sounds you hear in German? That's the voiceless velar fricative, and it adds a wonderful percussiveness to '99 Luftbalons.' English speakers don't have it; it's one reason the Anglicized version of Nena's 1984 hit falls flat." — William Weir, Slate, November 8,

2012

Did you know? Velar is ultimately derived from Latin velum (meaning "curtain" or "veil"), which was itself adopted into English by way of New Latin as a word for the soft palate (the fold at the back of the hard palate—palate, by the way, refers to the roof of the mouth—that partially

separates the mouth from the pharynx). Velar is used by phonologists to refer to the position of the tongue in relation to the soft palate when making certain sounds. Other terms for what phonologists refer to as "places of articulation" are palatal (tongue against the roof of the mouth), dental (tongue against the upper teeth), and alveolar (tongue against the inner surface of the gums of the upper front teeth).

WON Word A Day – January 14th - CAROUSE

carouse • \kuh-ROWZ ("OW" as in "cow")\  • verb 1: to drink liquor freely or excessively 2 : to take part in a drunken revel : engage in dissolute behavior

Examples: The sailor spent all of shore leave carousing with his mates.

"Separatist fighters have taken to carousing drunkenly at night and wearing civilian clothes." — Andrew E. Kramer, The New York Times, August 20, 2014

Did you know? Sixteenth-century English revelers toasting each other's health sometimes drank a brimming mug of spirits straight to the bottom—drinking "all-out," they called it. German tipplers did the same and used the German expression for "all out"—gar aus. The French adopted the German term as carous, using the adverb in their expression boire carous ("to drink all out"), and that phrase, with its idiomatic sense of "to empty the cup," led to carrousse, a French noun meaning "a large draft of liquor." And that's where English speakers picked up carouse in the mid-1500s, first as a noun (which later took on the sense of a general "drinking bout"), and then as a verb meaning "to drink freely."

WON Word A Day – January 13th - APHELION

aphelion • \a-FEEL-yun\  • noun : the point in the path of a celestial body (such as a planet) that is farthest from the sun

Examples: The comet is predicted to reach aphelion a mere 22 years from now.

"Although this seems somewhat counter-intuitive for those of us in the northern hemisphere, Earth is actually at perihelion in early January each year, and at aphelion? in early July." — Alan Hale, Alamo Gordo News, August 14, 2014

Did you know? Aphelion and perihelion are troublesome terms. Which one means a planet is nearest to the sun and which means it is farthest away? An etymology lesson may help you keep those words straight. Just remember that the "ap" of aphelion derives from a Latin prefix that means "away from" (the mnemonic "'A' for 'away'" can help too); peri-, on the other hand, means "near." And how are aphelion and perihelion related to the similar-looking astronomical pair, apogee and perigee? Etymology explains again. The "helion" of aphelion and perihelion is based on the Greek word hēlios, meaning "sun," while the "gee" of apogee and perigee is based on gaia, meaning "earth." The first pair describes distance in relation to the sun, the second in relation to the earth.

WON Word A Day – January 12th - ESURIENT

esurient • \ih-SUR-ee-unt\  • adjective : hungry, greedy

Examples: No one was surprised that the esurient media mogul planned to expand his empire into the social-media marketplace.

"She sat opposite him …, as plump and indifferent to his presence as an old tabby cat whose esurient eye was wholly focused on a particularly toothsome mouse." — Pamela Aidan, An Assembly Such as This: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman, 2006

Did you know? If you’re hungry for a new way to express your hunger, you might find that esurient suits your palate. Be forewarned, however, that when used literally esurient has a humorous flavor. This somewhat obscure word first appeared in English in the second half of the 17th century, deriving from the present participle of the Latin verb esurire, meaning "to be hungry." It is also related to edere, the Latin verb for "eat," which has given us such scrumptious fare as edible and its synonyms esculent and comestible. Esurient can be used somewhat playfully to suggest an actual hunger for food, but it is more often applied to such things as wealth or power. In the latter contexts, it takes on the connotation of greedy.

WON Word A Day – January 11th - SYLLEPSIS

syllepsis • \suh-LEP-sis\  • noun 1 : the use of a word to modify or govern syntactically two or more words with only one of which it formally agrees in gender, number, or case 2 : the use of a word in the same grammatical relation to two adjacent words in the context with one literal and the other metaphorical in sense

Examples: Jeannie held the door open for her unwelcome guest and, in a clever use of syllepsis, said, "Take a hint and a hike!"

"… it works as two words in one: She shot the rapids and her boyfriend. Syllepsis produces a surprise, almost requiring the reader to go back and reparse the sentence to savor the double meaning of the word." — Jeanne Fahnestock, Rhetorical Figures in Science, 2002

Did you know? Charles Dickens made good use of syllepsis in The Pickwick Papers when he wrote that his character Miss Bolo "went straight home, in a flood of tears and a sedan chair." Such uses, defined at sense 2 above, are humorously incongruous, but they’re not grammatically incorrect. Syllepsis as defined at sense 1, however, is something to be generally avoided. For

example, take this sentence, "She exercises to keep healthy and I to lose weight." The syllepsis occurs with the verb exercises. The problem is that only one subject, "she" (not "I"), agrees with the verb. The word syllepsis derives from the Greek syllēpsis, and ultimately from syllambanein, meaning "to gather together." It has been used in English since at least 1550.