1. Astronomy -- the ratio of the light reflected by a planet or satellite to that received by it.

2. Meteorology -- such a ratio for any part of the earth's surface or atmosphere.

3. the white, inner rind of a citrus fruit.

Origin:
1855–60; < LL albēdō whiteness, equiv. to alb ( us ) white + -ēdō n. suffix; cf. torpedo

From the Old French felonie---lotsa English legal terms come from French, for historical reasons---look it up!

Adverb, describing a crime more serious than a misdemenor, or, in general, something awful or terrible.

when in doubt... cheat.

edit~ Sepulchral - adj., 1. of, pertaining to or serving as a tomb, 2. pertaining to burial, 3. funeral or dismal, 4. hollow and deep.

used in a sentence. (does it have to be grammatically... aw nevermind.)

She looked up from her plate, her face ashen, sepulchral, and spoke in barely a whisper, "This is broccoli... you tricked me, Mother! How could you? I trusted you!"

{b]Enervate[/b]

1: To tire, wear out

2: drain energy or vigor from

(from Latin enervare 'weaken by extraction of the sinews')

From the Latin spurius, "bastard," also sperno, verb, "to despise."

Not legitmate, not from the true source, not genuine, counterfeit, somehow different and inferior.

Use in a sentence: "Longtime football coach Steve Spurious said today..."

[edited to respell a word---awkward doing this with a dictionary in one's lap]

Tenet

1: a principle, belief, or doctrine generally held to be true; especially : one held in common by members of an organization, movement, or profession

examples:
1. the central tenets of a religion
2. one of the basic tenets of the fashion industry

from Latin: tenēre: to hold

Greek-through-French, from stereos, solid, and typos, type.

Making a plaster cast of composed type and recasting it in type metal, or a printing plate made this way...or a typical image or conception of people in a particular group.

Jetsam-noun:
1. the part of a ship, it's equipment or cargo that is cast overboard to lighten the load in time of distress and that sinks or is washed ashore.

"No, no," she corrected the auditor, "the oldest is Flotsam, the redhead is named Jetsam."

Unhallowed

1. not hallowed or consecrated; not regarded as holy or sacred: <unhallowed ground.>
2. impious; unholy.
3. wicked or sinful: <unhallowed practices.>

From ME unhalewed, OE unhālghod, ungehālghod.

"I press not to the quire, nor dare I greet
The holy place with my unhallowed feet;
My unwashed Muse pollutes not things divine,
Nor mingles her profaner notes with thine;
Here humbly at the porch she listening stays,
And with glad ears sucks in thy sacred lays."

Latin-through-French, occidens (or occident-), the west. Also occidere, fall, or go down, as the sun does.

Noun. Referring to the western regions of, well, anywhere. Counterpart of orient. Also occidental and assorted adjectives and verbs and such.

Used in a sentence: "When the Arab prayed facing west instead of east, he was said to be occident-prone."

Whether

1: Expressing a doubt or choice between alternatives <he seemed undecided whether to go or stay><it is still not clear whether or not he realizes>
2: Expressing an inquiry or investigation (often used in indirect questions) <I'll see whether she's at home>
3: Indicating that a statement applies whichever of the alternatives mentioned is the case <I'm going whether you like it or not>

Not to be confused with: weather: The state of the atmosphere at a given time and place, with respect to variables such as temperature, moisture, wind velocity, and barometric pressure.

Bonus use: Weathers: Changes of fortune: had known him in many weathers.

French, a dieu, to God (short for I commend you to God), but used commonly enough in English to have an entry in my late 1970s dictionary. (Also adios from Spanish.)

Good-bye, a phrase of parting, conveying kind wishes.

1-1-2011 +1

Rare word.

Pshaw!

1: an exclamation of disgust, impatience, disbelief, etc

Used between 1665–75 though there are rare occasions some writer might use it in a sentence. <Oh Pshaw! This word is a day late!>

Temporal

1. of or pertaining to time.
2. pertaining to or concerned with the present life or this world; worldly: temporal joys.
3. enduring for a time only; temporary; transitory ( opposed to eternal).
4. Grammar .
a. of, pertaining to, or expressing time: a temporal adverb.
b. of or pertaining to the tenses of a verb.
5. secular, lay, or civil, as opposed to ecclesiastical.
6. a temporal possession, estate, or the like; temporality.
7. something that is temporal; a temporal matter or affair.

1300–50; ME (adj. and n.) < L temporālis, equiv. to tempor- (s. of tempus ) time + -ālis -al1

can also mean:

1. of, pertaining to, or situated near the temple or a temporal bone.
–noun
2. any of several parts in the temporal region, esp. the temporal bone.

UIAS: The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. -Anonymous

Throe

1. a violent spasm or pang; paroxysm.
2. a sharp attack of emotion.
3. throes,
a. any violent convulsion or struggle: <the throes of battle.>
b. the agony of death.
c. the pains of childbirth.

[Old English thrāwu threat; related to Old High German drawa threat, Old Norse thrā desire, thrauka to endure]

UIAS: While in the throes of battle he no longer knew friend from foe.

From Lord De La Warre, who was an early governor of the Colony of Virginia.

Name of the state, first applied as a colony...then applied to the Indian tribe...also applied to the language said tribe speaks.

Zeit·geist - [tsahyt-gahyst] –noun

* the spirit of the time; general trend of thought or feeling characteristic of a particular period of time.
* the spirit, attitude, or general outlook of a specific time or period, esp as it is reflected in literature, philosophy, etc
* The taste, outlook, and spirit characteristic of a period or generation.

Origin - German
zeitgeist - 1848, from Ger. Zeitgeist , lit. "spirit of the age," from Zeit "time" (see tide) + Geist "spirit" (see ghost).

Noun 1. One who has recently become rich, especially one who flaunts newly acquired wealth.

Nouveau-riche

Noun 1. nouveau-riche - a person who has suddenly risen to a higher economic status but has not gained social acceptance of others in that class.

Adj. 1. nouveau-riche - characteristic of someone who has risen economically or socially but lacks the social skills appropriate for this new position

ex "Susan liked Helen just fine, but found her manner decidedly nouveau-riche."

(From thefreedictionary.com)

Ramshackle

1: Loosely made or held together; rickety; shaky: <a ramshackle house.>

from obsolete ransackle - to ransack

UIAS: He never ceases, as he reads, to run up some rickety and ramshackle fabric which shall give him the temporary satisfaction of looking sufficiently like the real object to allow of affection, laughter, and argument. - Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), British novelist, essayist, and diarist. The Common Reader, ch. 1 (1925).

1-5-2011 Ok I'm caught up now, Yeah!

Bedraggled

1: To make limp, untidy, dirty, or soiled, as with rain, dirt, or mud.

1727, from be- + draggle , frequentative of drag.

Said to be a variant of squilgee, but, I suspect, ultimately derives from the sound made when you use one.

A tool, usually with a rubber edge, for sweeping water off decks or water off windows.

milquetoast
very timid, unassertive or spineless person.

When Liza forgot to add eggs in her french toast batter, I was left with a cinnamon-nutmeg blend of soggy milquetoast."

–adjective
1. causing or capable of causing laughter; laughable; ludicrous.
2. having the ability, disposition, or readiness to laugh.
3. pertaining to or connected with laughing.

The two headed witness caused risible courtroom antics.

Torrid

1. Parched with the heat of the sun; intensely hot.<The torrid sands>
2. Scorching; burning: <the torrid noonday sun.>
3. Passionate; ardent: highly charged emotionally <torrid love letters>
4. Hurried; rapid: set a torrid pace; torrid economic growth.

Latin torridus, from torrre, to parch or scorch

NOUN (1)

1. a rack with hooks for temporarily holding coats and hats;

2. a magic treehouse with hooks for temporarily holding kooks and hacks;

kooks

NOUN (1)

1. someone regarded as eccentric or crazy and standing out from a group;

hack
NOUN (8)

1. one who works hard at boring tasks;
[syn: hack, drudge, hacker]

2. a politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends;
[syn: machine politician, ward-heeler, political hack, hack]

3. a mediocre and disdained writer;
[syn: hack, hack writer, literary hack]

4. a tool (as a hoe or pick or mattock) used for breaking up the surface of the soil;

5. a car driven by a person whose job is to take passengers where they want to go in exchange for money;
[syn: cab, hack, taxi, taxicab]

6. an old or over-worked horse;
[syn: hack, jade, nag, plug]

7. a horse kept for hire;

8. a saddle horse used for transportation rather than sport etc.;

*** Edited to say, this is supposed to be funny, and not an insult to anyone here. Yay for hatrack, and yay for all of us trying to stand out from the crowd.

From the Latin matricula, a public register, a diminuitive of matrix, which means womb. (Really.)

Transitive verb, meaning being admitted to membership as a student in a college or university.

From the Greek, anthropos, meaning man or human, and morphos, meaning shape or form.

Seeing a human shape (literally or metaphorically) in things that are not human. (the hands of a clock, the car had a mind of it's own)

Greek, pertaining to Thespis, a Greek tragic poet.

Noun, an actor or actress, more specifically a tragedian...also an adjective, pertaining to tragedy or the dramatic arts.

Pander

–noun Also, pan·der·er.
1. a person who furnishes clients for a prostitute or supplies persons for illicit sexual intercourse; procurer; pimp.
2. a person who caters to or profits from the weaknesses or vices of others.
3. a go-between in amorous intrigues.

to act as a pander;<to pander to the vile tastes of vulgar persons.>

Origin:
1325–75; earlier pandar ( e ), generalized use of ME name Pandare Pandarus

pan·der·age, noun
pan·der·ing·ly, adverb
pan·der·ism, noun
pan·der·ly, adjective

1-8-2011

Dilatory

1. tending to delay or procrastinate; slow; tardy.
2. intended to cause delay, gain time, or defer decision: a dilatory strategy.

My dilatory behavior always catches up with me.

Origin:
1250–1300; ME (< AF) < L dīlātōrius, equiv. to dīlā-, suppletive s. of differre to postpone ( see differ) + -tōrius -tory1

From French esclave, which comes from Middle Latin sclavus, which was originally Sclavus, a Slav.

One who's the property of another, or solely subject to another...used metaphorically to refer to someone who's under the influence of something or another...one who labors like a slave...or a device wholly under the control of another device.

Not by any means to be regarded as a substitute for another familiar word as used in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.

Used in a sentence: "As honorary chairman of the welcoming committee, it's my privilege to present a laurel and hearty handshake to our new...slave."

Conflate Borrowed from tchernabyelo reply on my Titling post. Had to look up what the heck it meant.

1: to bring together : fuse

2: to combine (as two readings of a text) into a composite whole

UIAS: the movie conflates documentary footage and dramatized reenactments so seamlessly and ingeniously that viewers may not know what is real and what is not.

Latin conflatus, past participle of conflare to blow together, fuse, from com- + flare to blow

Ultimately from Middle Latin totalis and Latin totus, the whole, entire.

Adjective, relating to a form of government that permits no opposition. Coined by Mussolini.

Hackle

1. one of the long, slender feathers on the neck or saddle of certain birds, as the domestic rooster, much used in making artificial flies for anglers.
2. the neck plumage of a male bird, as the domestic rooster.
3. hackles,
a. the erectile hair on the back of an animal's neck: At the sound of footsteps, the dog raised her hackles.
b. anger, esp. when aroused in a challenging or challenged manner: with one's hackles up.

—Idiom
4. raise one's hackles, to arouse one's anger: Such officiousness always raises my hackles.

1570–80; hack1 + -le; c. MD hakkelen

1-11-2011

Infrasonic

1: having or relating to a frequency below the audibility range of the human ear
2: utilizing or produced by infrasonic waves or vibrations

1925–30; infra- + sonic

1-12-2011

Parallax

1: the apparent displacement of an observed object due to a change in the position of the observer.
2. Astronomy . the apparent angular displacement of a celestial body due to its being observed from the surface instead of from the center of the earth (diurnal parallax or geocentric parallax) or due to its being observed from the earth instead of from the sun (annual parallax or heliocentric parallax). A parallactic ellipse.
3. the difference between the view of an object as seen through the picture-taking lens of a camera and the view as seen through a separate viewfinder.
4. an apparent change in the position of cross hairs as viewed through a telescope, when the focusing is imperfect.

1585–95; < Gk parállaxis change, equiv. to parallak- (s. of parallássein to cause to alternate

From French, cantaloup, from Cantalupo, a former estate of the Pope near Rome.

A small, ribbed melon, Cucumis melo cantalupensis, of specific flavor and orange color of its flesh, popular in fruit salads.

Juxtaposition

1. an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, esp. for comparison or contrast.
2. the state of being close together or side by side.

UIAS: "Juxtaposition marries men." - Herman Melville (1819–1891), U.S. author. Pierre (1852), bk. III, The Writings of Herman Melville

1660s, coined in Fr. 17c. from L. juxta "beside, near" + Fr. position (see position (n.)). Latin juxta is a contraction of *jugista (adv.), superlative of adj. *jugos "closely connected," from stem of jugum "yoke," from jungere "to join"

Ok, today is the thirty day review. Here is the list in the order of posts. Thank you to all who have contributed. Tomorrow starts another thirty days. Any words you don't know you can find in order. Thank you. W.

Ephemeral, Esoteric, horticulture, lacuna, liminal, quintessential, phantasmagorical, Sward, Conclave, mawkish, blench, Obdurate, meretricious, Insipid, Prehensile, yeoman, Scarf, excoriate, Hydronate, Portentous, Obfuscate, isthmus, roué, salmonella, Disparate, aquiline, Veracious, Voracious, Overt, jactation, apotheosis, nyctophobia, egregious, vehement, Fervent, Vernacular, defenestrate, chaffer, boondoggle, Christmastide, Indecorous, mnemonic, Either, aberration, tachyon, DRaney's Infinitely long word, Loquacious, Albedo, felonious, Sepulchral, Enervate, spurious, denouement, Tenet, stereotype, Flotsam, Jetsam, Unhallowed, occident, Whether, adieu, Pshaw, Temporal, Throe, Delaware, Zeitgeist, nouveau riche, Ramshackle, Bedraggled, squeegee, Litany, milquetoast, risible, Torrid, hatrack, kooks, hack, matriculate, Anthropomorphic, thespian, Pander, Dilatory, slave, Conflate, totalitarian, Hackle, Infrasonic, Parallax, cantaloup, Prise, Juxtaposition.

noun - a slight trace, as of a particular taste or flavor, a slight amount; dash

Lunch ain't ready yet, but soupçon.

Through Late Latin catechismus from Greek katechizein, teaching orally, kata down, echein, sound.

Religious instruction, or, usually, a book containing this religious instruction...also a set of questions put to candidates for the church in question.

New Latin anthropologia from Greek anthropos, "man," and [/i]logos[/i], "discourse" here in my dictionary, but really "word."

Ostensibly the science of man and mankind, with the emphasis on physical and mental constitution and cultural development, past and present.

Quid pro quo

1: something given or received for something else; also : a deal arranging a quid pro quo

UIAS: In politics nobody does something for nothing: there's always a quid pro quo involved.

New Latin, something for something
First Known Use: 1582

1-16-2011

metaphor

1: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money)

Middle English methaphor, from Middle French or Latin; Middle French metaphore, from Latin metaphora, from Greek, from metapherein to transfer, from meta- + pherein to bear

1-17-2011

Analogy

1. agreement or similarity, esp in a certain limited number of features or details
2. a comparison made to show such a similarity to draw an analogy between an atom and the solar system
3. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Biology) Biology the relationship between analogous organs or parts
4. (Philosophy / Logic) Logic maths a form of reasoning in which a similarity between two or more things is inferred from a known similarity between them in other respects
5. (Linguistics) Linguistics imitation of existing models or regular patterns in the formation of words, inflections, etc. a child may use ``sheeps'' as the plural of ``sheep'' by analogy with ``dog'', ``dogs'', ``cat'', ``cats'', etc

Parable

1: specifically : a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle

UIAS: He told the children a parable about the importance of forgiveness.

Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin parabola, from Greek parabolē comparison, from paraballein to compare, from para- + ballein to throw

Hyperbole

1. obvious and intentional exaggeration.
2. an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”

1520–30; < Gk hyperbolḗ excess, exaggeration, throwing beyond, equiv. to hyper- hyper- + bolḗ throw

"Taffeta phrases, silken phrases precise,
Three-piled hyperbole, spruce affectation,
Figures pedantical—these summer flies
Have blown me full of maggot ostentation.
I do forswear them." - Shakespeare - Love's labor's lost.

Used in a sentence:

You may ask whether wethers weather weather better than ewes.

From Latin obsolescens, and from obsoletus...well, you can guess just what.

Noun (also obsolescent, adjective), something that's fallen into disuse or is no longer in use, something that's been replaced by something else. Also a certain specialized use in biology for something gradually disappearing or imperfectly developed.