Wednesday, April 15, 2009
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Stuff I Check Obsessively
- kris
- royal oak, mi
- this is my wish to defer life, to elude it. In other words, this is a blog dedicated to procrastination on a grand scale.
Blog Archive
philology
November 28, 2009
lapidary, adj.
of precious stones; concise and polished
"...to adapt Lord Widgery's lapidary words..."
Culture and Equality, Brian Barry
lapidary, n.
one who cuts and polishes gems
October 18, 2009
erudite, adj
1. Of persons and their faculties: a. Trained, well-instructed (obs. or arch.); b. Learned, scholarly. (Now somewhat rare exc. in sarcastic use.)
"..A grammar school...where two or three boys could have all to themselves the advantages of a large and lofty building, together with a head-master, toothless, dim-eyed and deaf, whose erudite indistinctness and inattention were engrossed by them at the rate of three hundred pounds."
The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot
October 10, 2009
jejune, adj.
Unsatisfying to the mind or soul; dull, flat, insipid, bald, dry, uninteresting; meagre, scanty, thin, poor; wanting in substance or solidity
"It is certain than an acquiescent, mild wife would have left his meditations comparatively jejune and barren of mystery."
The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot
July 28, 2009
intimation, n.
an expression by sign or token, an indication; a suggestion, a hint.
"A wedding, after all, represents a symbolic as well as an actual union, an intimation of possible perfection in a decidedly imperfect world."
Review of Rachel Getting Married, A. O. Scott
July 23, 2009
propinquity, n.
1. Nearness or closeness in space; neighbourhood, proximity
2. Nearness in blood or relationship; close kinship
3. Nearness in nature, association, etc.; similarity, affinity
4. Nearness in time; imminence
"Though unsophisticated in the usual sense, she was not incomplete; and it would have denoted deficiency of womanhood if she had not instinctively known what an argument lies in propinquity."
Tess of the D'urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
*all definitions from oed.com
lapidary, adj.
of precious stones; concise and polished
"...to adapt Lord Widgery's lapidary words..."
Culture and Equality, Brian Barry
lapidary, n.
one who cuts and polishes gems
October 18, 2009
erudite, adj
1. Of persons and their faculties: a. Trained, well-instructed (obs. or arch.); b. Learned, scholarly. (Now somewhat rare exc. in sarcastic use.)
"..A grammar school...where two or three boys could have all to themselves the advantages of a large and lofty building, together with a head-master, toothless, dim-eyed and deaf, whose erudite indistinctness and inattention were engrossed by them at the rate of three hundred pounds."
The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot
October 10, 2009
jejune, adj.
Unsatisfying to the mind or soul; dull, flat, insipid, bald, dry, uninteresting; meagre, scanty, thin, poor; wanting in substance or solidity
"It is certain than an acquiescent, mild wife would have left his meditations comparatively jejune and barren of mystery."
The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot
July 28, 2009
intimation, n.
an expression by sign or token, an indication; a suggestion, a hint.
"A wedding, after all, represents a symbolic as well as an actual union, an intimation of possible perfection in a decidedly imperfect world."
Review of Rachel Getting Married, A. O. Scott
July 23, 2009
propinquity, n.
1. Nearness or closeness in space; neighbourhood, proximity
2. Nearness in blood or relationship; close kinship
3. Nearness in nature, association, etc.; similarity, affinity
4. Nearness in time; imminence
"Though unsophisticated in the usual sense, she was not incomplete; and it would have denoted deficiency of womanhood if she had not instinctively known what an argument lies in propinquity."
Tess of the D'urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
*all definitions from oed.com