Words in Order
In July 2001 I began receiving a word a day from the Merriam Webster dictionary site; I would read them and if I liked something about them: sense, etymology, sound, etc. I would save them. After a while I decided to do something with them.
So I began to write sentences using each saved word in the order I received it, one or two in a complete sentence without knowledge of the next word to come. I began the first sentence without any idea of overall meaning beyond the first word. As I wrote each subsequent sentence I tried to make sense of the thoughts as the words appeared and the sentences continued. I ended the paragraphs when they seemed to be complete.
In February 2006 the words inexplicably stopped coming so I stopped writing. About six months later the words began coming again, but something had changed and I didn’t begin again.
This is the 2nd of 21 paragraphs
August 2 ’01-August 22 ‘01
The Guernsey grazing mulct(1) resulted in a substantial mulct(1) despite my testimony for the prosecution. In hindsight, it was improvident(2) of me to claim grass was not ubiquitous(3). No simple epigram(4) will serve to prognosticate(5) what will be. My current penury(6) is less than toothsome(7). But, believe me, I’ve a war story(8) that will be well served by pleonasm(9). Incidentally, a complete absence of fealty(10) rises from the miasma(11) of my circumstances as the sole reason for my current predicament. My redemption, a Sisyphean(12) task, will be completed. I will embrace honesty like some long wayward benedict(13) does marriage. Though my effort may seem wooden(14) at first, in the end there will be no need to cosmeticize(15) my life. I take leave of my simple Brigadoon(16), determined to forfeit the factitious(17) nature of my previous life. I will be a sounding board(18) for truth and seek to engender(19) honesty. I will not be whelmed(20) by the task.
1) mulct \MULKT\ (verb)
1 : to punish by a fine
2 : *a to defraud especially of money ; swindle b : to obtain by fraud, duress, or theft
Example sentence:
George was finally barred from the securities industry when it was discovered he’d been mulcting investors for years.
A fine assessed as a penalty for an infraction is generally considered justifiable. Fraud, on the other hand, is wrong – it’s just the sort of thing that deserves a fine. So in “mulct” we have a unique word, one that means both “to fine” and “to defraud.” The “fine “ sense came first. “Mulct” was borrowed from the Latin word for a fine, which is “multa” or “mulcta.” This sense is still in use, mostly in legal contexts (“the court mulcted the plaintiff for the costs”), but these days “mulct” is more often used for the illegal act. That use may have come about by association with the verb “milk,” in the sense “to exploit, to coerce profit from” ( as in “she was milked by the lawyers for everything she had”).
* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
2) improvident \im-PRAH-vuh-dunt or im-PRAH-vuh-dent\ (adjective)
: not provident : not foreseeing and providing for the future
Example sentence:
“Provident men are out in the short afternoons cutting next year’s wood supply; improvident men are rustling up this year’s wood, which they will have to burn green.” (Noel Perrin, Third Person Rural )
“Improvident” comes from the Late Latin “improvident-“ (with the same meaning as the English term), which in turn comes from Latin “providere” plus he negative prefix “im-.” “Providere,” which literally means “ to see ahead,” comes from “pro-,” meaning “forward” and “videre,” meaning “to see.” “Provide,” “improvise,” “providence,” “provision,” “prudent,” and “purvey all trace back to “providere.”
3) ubiquitous \yoo-BIH-kwuh-tuss\ (adjective)
: existing or being everywhere at the same time : constantly encountered : widespread
Example sentence:
“I liked that song when I first heard it,” said Kayla, “ but it’s so ubiquitous now that it’s beginning to annoy me.”
“Ubiquitous” comes to us from the noun “ubiquity,” meaning “presence everywhere or in many places simultaneously.” “Ubiquity” first appeared in print in the late 16th century, but “ubiquitous” didn’t make an appearance until 1837. (A second noun form, “ubiquitousness,” arrived around 1874.) Both words are derived from the Latin work for “everywhere,” which is “ubique.” “Ubiquitous” which has often been used with a touch of exaggeration for things and people that seem to turn up everywhere, has now become a more widespread and popular word than “ubiquity.” It may not quite be ubiquitous, but if you keep your eyes and ears open, you’re apt to encounter the word “ubiquitous” quite a bit.
4) epigram \EH-puh-gram\ (noun)
1 : a concise, often satirical poem
*2 : a terse, sage, or witty saying
Example sentence:
Ever the master of insightful epigrams, Oscar Wilde once observed: “In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, the other is getting it.”
“Epigram” comes form the Greek word “epigraphein,” meaning “to write on, inscribe.” “Epi” means “on” or “upon” and “graphein” means “to write.” Originally, epigrams were verse inscriptions that appeared on buildings, statues, or tombstones. By about the 1st century BC, the term had taken on it’s current meaning of a concise poem. Epigrams often deal with a single thought or even and end with an ingenious turn of thought. For example, Martial, a Roman poet and master of the form, wrote: “ You puff the poets of other days, / the living you deplore. / Spare me the accolade: your praise / Is not worth dying for.” In the late 18th century, English speakers began using “epigram” for concise, witty sayings as well as poetry.
* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
5) prognosticate \prahg-NAHSS-tuh-kayt\ (verb)
*1 : to foretell from signs and symptoms : predict
2 : presage
Example sentence:
“They clip newspaper reviews, compare notes on performances, discuss mistakes made, and prognosticate the outcome.” (Bill Marvel, Dallas Morning News, June 2001)
“Prognosticate” comes to us from the Medieval Latin verb “prognosticare,” which in turn is ultimately derived from the Greek word “prognostikos,” meaning “ knowing beforehand.” “Prognosticate” first appeared in English in the 15th century. It was preceded a century before by the related noun “prognostic,” which means both “something that foretells” and “prophecy.” (The adjective “prognostic” appeared later. Both words are also related to “prognosis,” from the Greek “prognosis,” meaning “foreknowledge.”) When “prognosticate” was first used, it essentially meant “to predict from prognostics” (that is, from signs). Later, it developed a second sense that applied to the signs themselves, meaning simply “ to give an omen or warning of” or “to foreshadow.”
* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
6) penury \PEN-yuh-ree\ (noun)
*1 : a cramping and oppressive lack of resources (as money) ; especially : severe poverty
2 : extreme frugality
Example sentence:
As a young man Granddad endured great penury, and though he later became a successful shop owner, he never forgot the hardships of his youth.
The exact meaning of “penury” (from Latin “penuria,” meaning “want, scarcity”) can vary a bit from context to context. It occasionally has had a broad sense od “lack” or “scarcity,” as when one character remarks on another’s “penury of conversation” in Jane Austen’s Emma . It can also mean “frugality,” as in Edith Wharton’s description of an excessively thrifty hostess in The Age of Innocence : “Her relatives considered that the penury of her table discredited the Minfott name, which had always been associated with good living.” The most common sense of “penury,” however, is simply “poverty,” as in Shakespeare’s As You Like It : “ Shall I keep your hogs, and eat husks with them ? What prodigal portion have I spent that I should come to such penury?”
* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
7) toothsome \TOOTH-sum\ (adjective)
1 : agreeable, attractive
*2 : of palatable flavor and pleasing texture : delicious
Example sentence:
The restaurant offers a wide variety of toothsome desserts, my favorite being a positively scrumptious chocolate torte topped with raspberry coulis.
One meaning of “tooth” is “a fondness or taste for something specified, a liking.” “Toothsome” comes form this definition of “tooth” plus the suffix “-some,” meaning “characterized by.” Although “toothsome” was at first used t describe general attractiveness, it quickly developed a second sense that was specific to the sense of taste ( perhaps because from as far back as Chaucer’s time, “tooth” could also refer specifically to eating and the sense of taste). In addition, “toothsome” is now showing signs of acquiring a third sense, “toothy” (as in “a toothsome grin”), but this sense is not yet established enough to qualify for dictionary entry.
* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
8) war story \WOR-STOR-ee\ (noun)
: a story of a memorable personal experience typically involving an element of danger, hardship, or adventure
Example sentence:
“I have quite a war story to tell about this!” said Marvin, proudly displaying the Moroccan rug he had acquired in a hidden backstreet in Marrakech.
Veterans of wars have probably been swapping war stories since the beginning of human history. Listeners, willing or unwilling, have een regaled with anecdotes, true or embellished, about real wars since long before Washington Irving wrote the following in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow : “sager folks . . . sat smoking ar one end of the piazza, . . . drawing out long stories about the war.” But in the last quarter century or soothe tellers of “ war stories” need not have ever ventured onto the battlefield. Nowadays such accounts can encompass other challenges – in the workplace, on the campaign trail, in sports, in one’s travels . . . wherever difficulties need to be overcome.
9) pleonasm \PLEE-uh-naz-um\ (noun)
1 : the use of more words than those necessary to denote mere sense : redundancy
*2 : an instance or example of pleonasm
Example sentence:
“I hate it when people use the pleonasm ‘true fact,’ ” said Geoff, adding, “A fact by it’s very nature is true, so what’s the point of the extra word?
“Pleonasm,” which stems via Latin from the Greek verb “pleonazein” (“to be in excess”), is a fancy word for “redundancy.” It’s related to our words “plus” and “plenty,” and ultimately it goes back to the Greek word for “more,” which is “pleon.” Pleonasm is commonly considered a fault of style, but it can also serve a useful function. “Extra” words can sometimes be helpful to a speaker or writer in getting a message across, adding emphasis or simply adding an appealing sound and rhythm to a phrase – as, for example, with the pleonasm “I saw it with my own eyes!”
* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
10) fealty \FEEL-tee\ (noun)
1 a : the fidelity of a vassal or feudal tenant to his lord b : the obligation of such fidelity
*2 : intense fidelity
Example sentence:
“The fealty of country music fans to their favorite stars is as strong as old-time religion.” (Nicholas Dawidoff, New Republic, July 1994)
In 1626, Francis Bacon explained, “Fealty is to take an oath upon a book, that he will be a faithful Tenant to the King.” That’s a pretty accurate summary of the early meaning of “fealty.” Early forms of the term were used in Middle English around 1300, when they specifically designated the loyalty of a vassal to a lord. Eventually the meaning of the word broadened. Fealty can be paid to a country, a principle, or a leader of any kind – though synonyms “fidelity” and “loyalty” are more commonly used. “Fealty”comes from the Old French word “feelte,” or “fealte,” which comes from the Latin “fidelitat -, fidelitas,” meaning “fidelity.” These words are ultimately derived from “fides,” the Latin word for “faith.”
* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
11) miasma \mys-AZ-muh or mee-AZ-muh\ (noun)
1) : a vaporous exhalation formerly believed to cause disease; also : a heavy vaporous emanation or atmosphere
*2) : an influence or atmosphere that tends to deplete or corrupt; also : an atmosphere that obscures : fog
Example sentence:
Hallie couldn’t wait to escapr the miasma of petty rivalry that had enveloped the band and stifled her musicianship.
“Miasma” entered English from New Latin in the mid-1600s and comes ultimately from the Greek “miasma,” meaning “pollution.” In notes taken during a voyage to South America in HMS Beagle in the 1830s, Charles Darwin described an illness that he believed was caused by “miasma” emanating from stagnant pools of water. For him, “miasma” meant an invisible emanation of “infecting substances floating in the air . . . .noxious to health.” As defined in the Webster’s dictionary of his time. Nowadays, we know germs are the source of infection, so we aren’t likely to use the unscientific “miasma” this way. But while Darwin was out to sea, broader applications of “miasma” were just starting to spread. Now the term is used for something destructive or demoralizing the surrounds or permeates.
* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
12) Sisyphean \sih-suh-FEE-un\ (adjective)
: of, relating to, or suggestive of the labors of Sisyphus;
specifically : requiring continual and often ineffective effort
Example sentence:
No one works at the Happy Burger for very long, so it’s a Sisyphean task for the manager just to keep the place adequately staffed.
The legendary Corinthian king Sisyphus annoyed the gods with his trickery. As a consequence, in Hades he was condemned for eternity to roll a huge rock up a long, steep hill, only to watch it roll back down. Sisyphus’s story is often told in conjunction with that of Tantalus, another king who offended the gods and paid the price in Hades. Tantalus was condemned to stand beneath fruit-laden boughs, up to his chin in water. Whenever he bent his head to drink, the water receded, and whenever he reached fo the fruit, the branches moved beyond his grasp. Thus to “tantalize” is to tease or torment by offering something desirable but keeping it out of reach – and something “Sisyphean” (or “Sisyphian,” pronounced \sis-SIH-fee-un\) demands unending, thankless, and ultimately unsuccessful efforts.
13) benedict \BEH-nuh-dikt\ (noun)
: a newly married man who has long been a bachelor
Example sentence:
Tabloid reporters never tire of asking celebrity benedicts what they think of married life.
“Benedick” is the chief male character in Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing. Throughout the play, both Benedick and his female counterpart Beatrice exchange barbed comments and profess to detest the very idea of marriage, but the story eventually culminates in their marriage to each other. As a result, Benedick’s name came to be applied to men who marry later in life. The spelling was changed to “benedict,” possibly by association with a use of “benedict” meaning “bachelor” (although the evidence for this use is scant). Some early 20th century usage commentators regarded the respelling as incorrect with regards to the etymology, but “benedict” has become the established spelling nevertheless.
14) wooden \WOO-dun (WOO as in “wood” ) (adjective)
1 : made or consisting of wood
*2 : lacking ease or flexibility : awkwardly stiff
Example sentence:
“The plotline is silly and simplistic, the characters are stereotypical and flat, and the dialogue is strained and wooden,” wrote the critic.
Humans have been making objects out of wood since before there was even and English language, but neither the adjective “wooden” not the adjectival use of “wood” came into being until the 16th century. (The word “wood” has ancient roots, but it originally existed only as a noun.) In Old and Middle English, the adjective of choice was “tree” or “treen,” as in a “tree vessel” or “treen shoes.” (The suffix “-en” was applied to nouns in Old and Middle English to form adjectives indicating that something was composed of a certain material.) As far as we know, no one ever used “treen” figuratively to describe things that are stiff as a board, but “wooden” was put to broader use soon after its appearance
* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
15) cosmeticize \kahz-MEH-tuh-size\ (verb)
: to make (something unpleasant or ugly) superficially attractive
Example sentence:
When the novel became a movie, the director chose not to soften or cosmeticize the gritty realism of the story.
“Cosmeticize” first appeared in print in the early 19th century as a descendent of the noun “cosmetic.” Originally, its use was often literal, wih the meaning “to apply a cosmetic to,” but today it is usually used figuratively. “Cosmeticize” does occasionally draw criticism; usage commentators are sometimes irritated by verbs coined using”-ize” as they can sound like silly, one-time words. However, “cosmetize” is fairly well established in contrast with the two other, rarer verbs that have been derived from “cosmetic”: which often turns up in the literal sense that has been mostly lost from “ cosmeticize” (“cosmeticize the face”), and “cosmetic,” which can be literal or figurative (“cosmeticked with bright rouge”; “embellished and cosmeticked”).
16) Brigadoon \brih-guh-DOON\ (noun)
; a place that is idyllic, unaffected by time, or remote from reality
Example sentence:
“Out here in this little Brigadoon of a town, where the worst offense seems to be the occasional violation of the local leash law, crime seems remote and abstract.” (Jake Page, Science, September 1984)
This word is from the popular 1947 stage musical Brigadoon, by Alan Jay Learner and Frederick Loewe. In the musical, “Brigadoon” is a Scottish village that is protected from the outside world by a magic spell from which the village awakens every hundred years. In the story, love bridges the gap when a lonely, 20th century boy meets a beautiful, 18th century girl. In the past few decades, the word “Brigadoon” has often been applied to places that resemble the fictional village – that is, places that are old fashioned, idyllic, or out of touch with reality.
17) factitious \fak-TIH-shuss\ (adjective)
1 : produced by humans rather then by natural forces
2 a : formed by or adapted to an artificial or conventional standard
* b : produced by special effort : sham
Example sentence:
Much to his friends’ amusement, Al returned from his semester abroad speaking with a factitious British accent and peppering his speech with words such as “dodgy” and “bloke.”
Like the common words “fact” and “factual,” “factitious” ultimately comes from the Latin verb “facere,” meaning “to do” or “to make.” But in current use, “factitious” had little to do with things factual and true – actually, “factitious” often implies the opposite. The most immediate ancestor of “factitious” is the Latin adjective “facticius,” meaning “made by art” or “artificial.” When English speakers first adopted the word as “factitious” in the 17th century, it meant “produced by human effort or skill” (rather than arising from nature). This meaning gave rise to such meanings as “artificial” and “false” or “feigned.”
* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
18) sounding board \SOWND-ing-BORD\ (noun)
1 : a structure behind or over a pulpit, rostrum, or platform to give distinctness and sonority to sound
2 ; a device or agency that helps propagate opinions or utterances
*3 : a person or group on whom one tries out an idea or opinion as a means of evaluating it
Example sentence:
Gabriel is my sounding boardwhen I have a new story idea, and after I tell it to him, I know if it’s good even without his saying anything.
Beginning during the Renaissance, a flat wooden canopy called a sounding board was placed over the church pulpits, amplifying the sound of the preacher’s voice, carrying it to the farthest reached of the church. Similarly, ideas can be spread by a figurative sounding board. A publication, for example, can be a sounding board for propaganda. That’s one modern sense of the word. But when sound bounce off a literal sounding board, not only does it reach more people, it also comes across more clearly. Likewise, “bouncing” ideas off another person can lend clarity to one’s thought processes. If someone comes to you and says “How does this sound?” and leaves with his or her mind made up (whether or not you’ve ventured a word), you have served as a very effective sounding board.
* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
19) engender \in-JEN-der or en-JEN-der\ (verb)
1 : begat, procreate
*2 : to cause to exist or to develop : produce
3 : to assume form : originate
Example sentence:
The new company dress code engendered a great deal of resentment among younger employees, many of whom did not own a single suit.
When “engender” was first used in the 14th century, it meant “propagate” or “procreate,” but extended meanings soon developed. “Engender” comes from the Latin verb” generare,” which means “to generate” or “begat.” “Generate,” “regenerate,” “degenerate,” and “generation” are of course related to the Latin verb as well. As you might suspect, the list of “engender” relatives does not end there. “Generare,” comes from the Latin noun “genus,” meaning “birth,” “race,” or “kind.” From “genus” we have our own word “genus,” plus “gender,” “general,” and “generic,” among other words.
* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
20) whelm \HWELM or WELM\ (verb)
1 : to turn(as a dish or vessel) upside down usually to cover something : cover or engulf completely with usually disastrous effect
*2 : to overwhelm
3 : to pass or go over something so as to bury or submerge it
Example sentence:
Marya was a bit whelmed by the new and unfamiliar task.
“It is not overwhelming and it is not underwhelming. You leave the production feeling merely whelmed.” Thus wrote Michael Phillips in the Los Angeles Times, February 6, 2001. Recently, writers like Phillips have begun using “whelm” to denote a middle stage between “underwhelm” and “overwhelm.” But that’s not how “whelm” has traditionally been used. “Whelm” and “overwhelm” have been with us since Middle English (when they were “whelmen” and “overwhelmen”), and throughout the years their meanings have largely overlapped. Both words early on meant “to overturn,” for example, and both have also come to mean “to overpower in thought or feeling.” Around 1950, however, folks started using a third word, “underwhelmed,” for “unimpressed,” and lately “whelmed” has been popping up with the meaning “moderately impressed.”
* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
