Posted on 02/02/2007 6:21:08 AM PST by VRWCmember
In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day".
glasnost • \GLAHZ-nohst\ • noun
a Soviet policy permitting open discussion of political and social issues and freer dissemination of news and information
Example sentence:
Yuri welcomed glasnost because he could finally publish the article he had written about poverty in Moscow.
Did you know?
"Glasnost'" wasn't coined by former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, but he was responsible for catapulting the word into the international media and the English vocabulary. The term derives from the Russian adjective "glasnyi," which means "public" and which itself traces to "glas," a root meaning "voice." In Russian, "glasnost" was originally used (as long ago as the 18th century) in the general sense of "publicity," and the Oxford English Dictionary reports that V.I. Lenin used it in the context of freedom of information in the Soviet state. However, it wasn't until Gorbachev declared it a public policy in the mid-1980s that "glasnost" became widely known and used in English.
Bonus Friday Words:
lothario \loh-THAIR-ee-oh\ noun
a man whose chief interest is seducing women
The Story Behind the Word
"Lothario" comes from The Fair Penitent (1703), a tragedy by Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718). In the play, Lothario is a notorious seducer, extremely attractive but beneath his charming exterior a haughty and unfeeling scoundrel. He seduces Calista, an unfaithful wife and later the fair penitent of the title. After the play was published, the character of Lothario became a stock figure in English literature. For example, Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) specifically modeled the character of Lovelace on Lothario in his 1748 novel Clarissa. As the character became well-known, his name became progressively more generic, and since the 18th century the word "lothario" has been used for a foppish, unscrupulous rake.
osculate \AHSS-kyuh-layt\ verb
kiss
The Story Behind the Word
"Osculate" comes from the Latin noun "osculum," meaning "kiss" or "little mouth." It was included in a dictionary of "hard" words in 1656, but we have no evidence that anyone actually used it until the 19th century (except for scientists who used it differently as a word for "contact"). Would any modern writer use "osculate"? Ben Macintyre did. In a May 2003 (London) Times piece entitled "Yes, It's True, I Kissed the Prime Minister's Wife," Macintyre wrote, "Assuming this must be someone I knew really quite well, I screeched 'How are you,' . . . and leant forward preparatory to giving her a chummy double-smacker . . . Perhaps being osculated by lunatics you have never seen before is one of the trials of being a Prime Minister's wife. She took it very well."
roué \roo-AY\ noun
a man devoted to a life of sensual pleasure; RAKE
The Story Behind the Word
The word roué can be traced back to the Latin noun rota, meaning 'wheel.' From the noun the verb rotare, 'to rotate,' was derived, which in Medieval Latin took on the sense 'to break on the wheel.' The wheel in question was the instrument of torture designed to extract a confession of guilt by stretching, disjointing, or otherwise mutilating the victim. Rotare became rouer in French, and roué is the past participle of that verb, meaning 'broken on the wheel.' About the year 1720 Philippe II, the Duke of Orleans and Regent of France, who was himself a profligate, called his wantonly licentious companions "roués," by which he meant that they deserved to be broken on the wheel. It has also been suggested that the duke may have called his friends roués because their debauches so exhausted them that they felt as though they had been broken on the wheel. In any case, roué then came to be applied to other such rakes and profligates, and its first appearance in English was around the year 1800.
Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the Word for the Day in a sentence.
The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day.
The Review threads are linked for your edification. ;-)
Practice makes perfect.....post on....
Review Threads:
Review Thread One: Word For The Day, Thursday 11/14/02: Raffish (Be SURE to check out posts #92 and #111 on this thread!)
Review Thread Two: Word For The Day, Tuesday 1/14/03: Roister
Review Thread Three: Word For The Day, Tuesday 1/28/03: Obdurate
Review Thread Four: Word For the Day, Friday 7/25/03: Potation
Review Thread Five: Word For the Day, Monday 8/19/03: Stolid
Review Thread Six: Word for the Day, Tuesday 11/09/2004: Peripatetic (Post #125 may be my best anagram post ever)
Nor did you notice it when I brought it to your attention in ppost #16................
That was ok when you were up there in PA, but now that you're back in Texas you need to get with the program.
I didn't realize that was what you meant. I thought you were pointing out that it was Argh's day rather than mine.
Sometimes you have to speak up. ;-)
I'm in PA and I have bacon grease in my fridge. I don't think it's distincly "southern" at all. More to do with frugality.
A likely story :)
Way to go, doubled, you killed another one.
I wonder if they sell bacon grease flavored Pam?
It could double as Muslim deterrent spray.
Today is Lunatic Fringe's Birthday! Let's start the party!
Ti
It looks like the lunatic birthday party has started.
Yay! I love getting that cake!
I did not see my shadow!
No shadow? Huh. Does that mean an early spring?
more to do with a taste for ANIMAL FAT!
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