Dictionary.com Word Of The Day Thus Far 2011

Front 1

One who returns after death (as a ghost) or after a long absence.

Back 1

revenant \REV-uh-nuhnt\ , noun;

Hint 1

Quotes:
Lazarus, as a revenant, is often used by the religious romance-writers of the middle ages as a vehicle for their conceptions of the lower world.
-- R. C. Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord
He pale, immobile like a revenant himself, looked sometimes out of the window, sometimes closed his eyes.
-- D. H. Lawrence, Women in Love
The folklore of the Irish countryside too, with its hauntings, revenants and changelings... was an integral part of everyday awareness, even in the middle-class world of Yeats's childhood.
-- Terence Brown, The Life of W. B. Yeats
Origin:
Revenant is from French revenir, "to return," which is also the source of the word revenue, "that which returns from an investment."

Front 2

The use of more words than are necessary to express an idea; as, "I saw it with my own eyes."
2. An instance or example of pleonasm.
3. A superfluous word or expression.

Back 2

pleonasm \PLEE-uh-naz-uhm\ , noun;

Hint 2

Quotes:
Dougan uses many words where few would do, as if pleonasm were a way of wringing every possibility out of the material he has, and stretching sentences a form of spreading the word.
-- Paula Cocozza, "Book review: How Dynamo Kiev beat the Luftwaffe", Independent, March 2, 2001
Such a phrase from President Nixon's era, much favored by politicians, is "at this moment in time." Presumably these five words mean "now." That pleonasm probably does little harm except, perhaps, to the reputation of the speaker.
-- Eoin McKiernan, "Last Word: Special Relationships", Irish America, August 31, 1994
Origin:
Pleonasm is from Greek pleonasmos, from pleon, "greater, more."

Front 3

Happening or done after a meal.

Back 3

postprandial \post-PRAN-dee-uhl\ , adjective;

Hint 3

A gourmand who zealously avoids all exercise as "seriously damaging to one's health," he had caviar for breakfast and was now having oysters for lunch, whetted with wine, as he fueled himself for a postprandial reading at the Montauk Club in Brooklyn.
-- Mel Gussow, "The Man Who Put Horace Rumpole on the Case", New York Times, April 12, 1995
When I wake up in the morning, I can have my usual breakfast -- a slightly bizarre concoction of three kinds of cold cereal topped with grapes and a cup of decaf -- and then stagger back to bed for a postprandial snooze.
-- Sylvan Fox, "It's Less Hectic Staying Put In One Place", Newsday, April 3, 1994
Origin:
Postprandial is from post- + prandial, from Latin prandium, "a late breakfast or lunch."

Front 4

Strictly attentive to the details of form in action or conduct; precise; exact in the smallest particulars.

Back 4

punctilious \puhnk-TIL-ee-uhs\ , adjective;

Hint 4

Quotes:
The convert who is more punctilious in his new faith than the lifelong communicant is a familiar figure in Catholic lore.
-- Patrick Allit, Catholic Converts
Nicholas showed us his butterfly collection. He had done a splendid job of spreading them (better than I ever have, let alone at his age). I tried to impress upon him the need for punctilious labeling, a tedious business that raises a butterfly from a mere curio to a specimen of scientific value.
-- Robert Michael Pyle, Chasing Monarchs
Cooper had always been very punctilious about observing the rules laiddown in the . . . brochure.
-- Josef Skvorecky, Two Murders in My Double Life
Origin:
Punctilious derives from Late Latin punctillum, "a little point," from Latin punctum, "a point," from pungere, "to prick."

Front 5

1. (plural, capitalized) The ancient Roman festival in honor of Bacchus, celebrated with dancing, song, and revelry.

2. A riotous, boisterous, or drunken festivity; a revel.

Back 5

bacchanalia \bak-uh-NAIL-yuh\ , noun;

Hint 5

Quotes:
Alpha Epsilon brothers began their bacchanalia with an off-campus keg party featuring "funneling," in which beer is shot through a rubber hose into the drinker's mouth.
-- Adam Cohen, "Battle of the Binge", Time, September 8, 1997
This is not at all to suggest that the Revolution was a sort of non-stop bacchanalia, but that partial drunkenness was often an important component in a certain type of revolutionary excitability, particularly in meetings or committees.
-- Richard Cobb, The French and Their Revolution
Origin:
Bacchanalia comes from Latin, from Bacchus, god of wine, from Greek Bakkhos. The adjective form is bacchanalian. One who celebrates the Bacchanalia, or indulges in drunken revels, is a bacchanal \BAK-uh-nuhl; bak-uh-NAL\, which is also another term for a drunken or riotous celebration.

Front 6

1. Possessing or displaying a strange and otherworldly aspect or quality; magical or fairylike; elfin.
2. Having power to see into the future; visionary; clairvoyant.
3. Appearing slightly crazy, as if under a spell; touched.
4. (Scots.) Fated to die; doomed.
5. (Scots.) Marked by a sense of approaching death.

Back 6

fey \FAY\ , adjective;

Hint 6

Quotes:
. . .the former a gang of dangerous delinquents, fearless, macho, vulgar . . ., the latter a group of mischievous schoolboys, whimsical, fey, sophisticated and daringly experimental.
-- Sean Kelly, "What Did You Expect, the Spanish Inquisition?", New York Times, July 25, 1999
Beneath a fey manner, his mother was highly competitive.
-- Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men
Leo, suddenly fey, sports a rhinestone ascot and black velvet waistcoat, homburg and walking stick.
-- Edward Karam, "Fast and louche", Times, March 29, 2001
Origin:
Fey comes from Middle English feye, feie, from Old English fæge, "fated to die."

Front 7

1. Dash or flamboyance in manner or style.
2. A plume or bunch of feathers, esp. such a bunch worn on the helmet; any military plume, or ornamental group of feathers.

Back 7

panache \puh-NASH; -NAHSH\ , noun;

Hint 7

Quotes:
Dessert included a marvelous bread pudding and a fair bananas Foster,the old-time New Orleans dish, which was prepared with great panache tableside, complete with a flambé moment.
-- Eric Asimov, "New Orleans, a City of Serious Eaters.", New York Times, July 4, 1999
It is... an inevitable hit, a galvanizing eruption of energy, panache and arrogantly sure-footed stage craft that comes at a time when theatrical dance is in the doldrums.
-- Terry Teachout and William Tynan, "Seamy and Steamy.", Time, January 25, 1999
Although Black didn't have many friends and was not among the school's leaders, he was likeable, had panache, and his contemptuous tirades were rarely taken at face value.
-- Richard Siklos, Shades of Black: Conrad Black and the World's Fastest Growing Press Empire
Origin:
Panache is from the French, from Medieval French pennache, from Italian pinnacchio, feather, from Late Latin pinnaculum, diminutive of penna, feather. It is related to pen, a writing instrument, originally a feather or quill used for writing.

Front 8

1. Tending to put off what ought to be done at once; given to procrastination.
2. Marked by procrastination or delay; intended to cause delay; -- said of actions or measures.

Back 8

dilatory \DIL-uh-tor-ee\ , adjective;

Hint 8

Quotes:
I am inclined to be dilatory, and if I had not enjoyed extraordinary luck in life and love I might have been living with my mother at that very moment, doing nothing.
-- Carroll O'Connor, I Think I'm Outta Here
And what is a slumlord? He is not a man who own expensive property in fashionable neighborhoods, but one who owns only rundown property in the slums, where the rents are lowest and the where the payment is most dilatory, erratic and undependable.
-- Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson
Origin:
Dilatory is from Latin dilatorius, from dilator, "a dilatory person, a loiterer," from dilatus, past participle of differre, "to delay, to put off," from dis-, "apart, in different directions" + ferre, "to carry."

Front 9

1. Relating to the mourning or remembering of the dead.
2. Used in, suitable for, or resembling an elegy.
3. Expressing sorrow.

Back 9

elegiac \el-i-JAHY-uhk\ , adjective;

Hint 9

This is an evocative and profoundly elegiacsequence that connects the team in the clubhouse with the field of play and the ballpark.
-- Paul Loukides, Linda K. Fuller, Beyond the Stars: Locales in American popular film
It is this elegiac concept of happiness that transforms existence into a forest preserve of memory for Proust.
-- Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project
Origin:
Elegiac stems from the Greek elegos, "poem or song of lament," a word that may date back to the Phrygian language.

Front 10

A leader of a movement or activity; also, a leading indicator of future trends.

Back 10

bellwether \BEL-weth-uhr\ , noun;

Hint 10

Raised to believe they were among their generation's best and brightest, my class can be seen as a bellwether for a generation caught without a compass on the cutting edge of uncharted territory.
-- Elizabeth Fishel, Reunion: The Girls We Used to Be, the Women We Became
Before that election, Maine's proud citizens had fancied their state to be a sort of bellwether, a notion embodied in the saying "As Maine goes, so goes the nation."
-- Robert Shogan, The Fate of the Union
Origin:
Bellwether is a compound of bell and wether, "a male sheep, usually castrated"; from the practice of hanging a bell from the neck of the leader of the flock.

Front 11

Affectedly trendy.

Back 11

chichi \SHEE-shee\ , adjective;

Hint 11

Quotes:
"Going in gangs to those chichi clubs at Maidenhead."
-- E. Taylor, Game of Hide-&-Seek
"Whether the chichi gender theorists like it or not, sexual duality is a law of nature among all highly evolved life forms."
-- Camille Paglia,
"The sort of real delicious Italian country cooking that is a revelation after so much chichi Italian food dished up in London."
-- Daily Telegraph, January 22, 1969
"[Judith] Hope -- who lives in East Hampton, where the Clintons have a lot of chichi friends -- has been getting ink by the barrelful with her regular interviews quoting conversations with the first lady, on subjects ranging from Senate ambitions to summer and post-White House living arrangements."
-- Washington Post, June 4, 1999
Origin:
From the French word that literally means "curl of false hair"; used figuratively in the phrases faire des chichis, "to have affected manners, to make a fuss"; and gens à chichis, "affected, snobbish people." Sometimes spelled "chi-chi."

Front 12

To teach and impress by frequent repetition or instruction.

Back 12

inculcate \in-KUHL-kayt; IN-kuhl-kayt\ , verb;

Hint 12

It is difficult, if not impossible, to inculcate in those who do not want to know, the curiosity to know; I think it is also impossible to kill this need in those who really want to know.
-- T. V. Rajan, "The Aha! Factor", The Scientist, March 21, 2002
A tragic indication that even the most noble attempts to inculcate children with the basic principles of universal humanism -- that, whatever our differences, we are more alike than unalike -- will founder against the rocks of deeply held prejudices of their parents.
-- Gary Younge, "Sesame sans frontieres", The Guardian, October 14, 2002
But Havelock would insist that the epics constitute the accumulated wisdom of the culture, beyond which the audience (thoroughly inculcated with the teachings of the epics) cannot go.
-- Michael E. Hobart and Zachary S. Schiffman, Information Ages
Origin:
Inculcate is from Latin inculcare, "to tread upon, to force upon," from in-, "in, on" + calcare, "to trample," from calx, calc-, "heel."

Front 13

Assurance of manner or of action; self-possession; confidence; coolness.

Back 13

aplomb \uh-PLOM\ , noun;

Hint 13

Quotes:
Then, unexpectedly, she picked up a microphone and began to sing. She sang several songs, handling herself with the aplomb of a professional entertainer.
-- "Rediscovering Japanese Life at a Bike's Pace", New York Times, April 24, 1988
In the jostling hubbub of Tim Hammack's kitchen at the Bay Area Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter in an eddy of urban need, it is about taking life as it comes. It means embracing the unexpected arrival of 200 flats of donated organic strawberries, say, or 600 pounds of bologna with equal culinary aplomb.
-- Patricia Leigh Brown, "Finding Purpose in Serving the Needy, Not Just Haute Cuisine", New York Times, June 13, 2009
His initial broadcasting success was due at least as much to his considerable professional aplomb as it was to his father's broadcasting connections.
-- John A. Jackson, American Bandstand: Dick Clark and the Making of a Rock 'n' Roll Empire
Origin:
Aplomb is from the French word meaning "perpendicularity, equilibrium, steadiness, assurance," from the Old French phrase a plomb, from a, "according to" (from Latin ad) + plomb, "lead weight" (from Latin plumbum, "lead").

Front 14

1. To deceive.
noun:
1. In backgammon, a victory in which the winner throws off all his or her pieces before the opponent throws off any.
verb:
1. To win a gammon (in the game of backgammon) over.
noun:
1. A smoked or cured ham.
2. Deceitful nonsense.

Back 14

gammon \GAM-uhn\ , verb;

Hint 14

"Come," said Perrot to Luned, stopping short; "we will gammon him with a silver bit or so."
-- Ernest Rhys, The whistling maid: A romance
It is all very well for preachers and philosophers to try to gammon people into making the best of a bad lot; but there is a sort of poverty which does nothing but degrade.
-- Justin McCarthy, My enemy's daughter: A novel
Origin:
This sense of gammon owes its meaning to the Middle English gamen, the ancestor of the Modern English "game."

Front 15

The suggestion, by deliberately brief treatment of a topic, that much of significance is being omitted, as in "not to mention other faults."

Back 15

paralipsis \par-uh-LIP-sis\ , noun;

Hint 15

Quotes:
"I need not tell you," he deplored, sinking to paralipsis, "that there resides in almost every one of 'em the unconscious desire not to grow up.
-- Millard Kaufman, Bowl of Cherries: A Novel
"Your question, which is really more paralipsis, than question, suggests that I suspect you, doesn't it?"
-- Rich Jackson, Beyond the Mast
Origin:
Paralipsis owes its English sense to the Greek paraleíp(ein), "to leave on one side."

Front 16

1. To sprout; appear above the ground.
noun:
1. The first sprouts or shoots of grass, corn, or other crops; new growth.

Back 16

braird \BRAIRD\ , verb;

Hint 16

Quotes:
Oats require about a fortnight to braird in ordinary weather.
-- Henry Stephens, The book of the farm
And yet, in puny, distorted, phantasmal shapes albeit,/It will braird again; it will force its way up/Through unexpectable fissures.
-- Hugh MacDiarmid, On a Raised Beach
Origin:
Braird derives from the Old English brerd, "edge, top."

Front 17

1. To become vague, or indistinct.
2. To reduce to a fine spray.

Back 17

nebulize \NEB-yuh-lahyz\ , verb;

Hint 17

Quotes:
There is, however, not one of the seven that is truly effective as a novel; not one that has balance and sustained force; not one that doesn't break apart into episodes or nebulize into a vague emotion.
-- Walter Bates Rideout, Sherwood Anderson: a collection of critical essays
To argue that class is at heart a temporal category of change and movement can work to nebulize the issue of poverty, dissolving it into categorical indistinctness and impermanence.
-- Gavin Jones, American Hungers: The Problem of Poverty in U.S. Literature, 1840-1945
Origin:
Nebulize takes the ancient Proto-Indo-European root nebh- "mist," and adds the Greek suffix -lize, "to make." The word first appears in the 1800s.

Front 18

1. To grow dark, gloomy, etc.
2. To appear dark; show indistinctly.

Back 18

darkle \DAHR-kuhl\ , verb;

Hint 18

Quotes:
Beyond the open trunk, the desert seemed to darkle, brighten, darkle rhythmically, but in fact the acuity of his vision sharpened briefly with each systolic thrust of his pounding heart.
-- Dean Koontz, The Husband
And the fire-flies wink and darkle, Crowded swarms that soar and sparkle, And in wildering escort gather!
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust: a tragedy
Origin:
Darkle is a back-formation from the obsolete darkling, "to be in the dark."

Front 19

1. Something that is spread or laid under something else.
2. In biochemistry. the substance acted upon by an enzyme.
3. In electronics, a supporting material on which a circuit is formed or fabricated.

Back 19

substrate \SUHB-streyt\ , noun;

Hint 19

Quotes:
Perhaps, over millenia of time, periods of very intense erosion would be required to renew the weathering substrate and in effect renew the ecosystem.
-- F. Herbert Bormann, Gene E. Likens, Pattern And Process In a Forested Ecosystem
Under the desk a strange odor rises from the trays of substrate, fumey and metallic.
-- F. G. Priest, Iain Campbell -, Brewing Microbiology

Origin:
Substrate combines the Latin sub-, "under," and sternere, "to spread."

Front 20

Having the quality of a literary work that has been translated or changed from one form to another, as prose into verse.

Back 20

metaphrastic \met-uh-FRAST-ik\ , adjective;

Hint 20

Quotes:
In a word, the whole place was involved in the maze of a metaphrastic mystery; it enchanted our wanderers, and tempted them into fields of speculation.
-- Arthur Edward Waite, Belle and the Dragon
By this maneuver, the mind is protected from clutter - mind and body, separated out, are actually coerced into a negatively metaphrastic liaison.
-- Lesley Stern, The Smoking Book
Origin:
Metaphrastic comes into English from the medieval Greek metaphrastes, "one who translates."

Front 21

1.Work undertaken in addition to one's principal work.
2.Something that is an accessory to a main work or subject; embellishment.

Back 21

parergon \pa-RUR-gon\ , noun;

Hint 21

This labor resulted in a side adventure or parergon: On his way to the chase, Heracles was entertained by the centaur Pholus, who set before him a jar of wine that belonged to all the centaurs in common.
-- P. O. Morford, Robert J. Lenardon, Classical mythology
"It is a singular thing that you at the outset of your career - even as I thirty years ago at the same point of mine - should take up such a parergon and alight upon the same discovery."
-- Stanley John Weyman, Chippinge
Origin:
Parergon consists of a combination of Greek roots, para- meaning "beyond, and ergo meaning "work, labor."

Front 22

1.
To go with impatient, exaggerated movements.
noun:
1.
A strip of material gathered or pleated and attached at one edge, with the other edge left loose or hanging
verb:
1.
To throw the body about spasmodically.

Back 22

flounce \FLOUNS\ , verb;

Hint 22

Witches keen, movie stars flounce off with tarnished auras.
-- Salman Rushdie, East, West
"It would please me no end," she said, as I registered on my face precisely the amount of sympathy I felt for her outfit, "if you wouldn't flounce around this place in your nightclothes!"
-- Philip Roth, Letting Go
Origin:
Flounce may have emerged from the Scandinavian flunsa, "to plunge, hurry," but the first record of these is 200 years later than the English word. The English bounce may be an influence.

Front 23

1.
To approve; confirm or ratify.
2.
To register (a specific make of automobile in general production) so as to make it eligible for international racing competition.

Back 23

homologate \huh-MOL-uh-geyt\ , verb;

Hint 23

Now, my lord, as a true Scottish man, and educated at the Mareschal College of Aberdeen, I was bound to uphold the mass to be an act of blinded papistry and utter idolatry, whilk I was altogether unwilling to homologate by my presence.
-- Sir Walter Scott, A legend of Montrose
But Albany had made no secret of the fact that the main reason for this parliament was to homologate his plans for the invasion of England on France's behalf, and this the assembly quite definitely refused to agree to.
-- Nigel G. Tranter, The Riven Realm
Origin:
Homologate is based on the Greek homologos, "of the same word."

Front 24

1.
Personal details such as biographical data, reminiscences, or the like.
2.
Personal belongings.

Back 24

personalia \pur-suh-NEY-lee-uh\ , noun;

Hint 24

Quotes:
For better or worse, this way of believing, of living fearfully in the world, was so much a part of Janice's personalia that it dictated her actions at an involuntary level.
-- Steven Sherrill, The locktender's house: a novel
With the exception of a few small tidbits of personalia, Sean knew no more about Hong than when she had started.
-- John James Kielty, Return to the Ashau
Origin:
Personalia is adapted from the Late Latin personalis, "personal."

Front 25

1.
(Of a word) closely connected in pronunciation with the following word and not having an independent accent.

Back 25

proclitic \proh-KLIT-ik\ , adjective;

Hint 25

Quotes:
Tarlinskaja showed that the proclitic form is quite common in English, given 'the prevailing tendency of English speech to stress the last notional word of a phrase (sentence) particularily strongly.
-- Brian Vickers, Counterfeiting Shakespeare
In Latin the preposition in and the connective et are both proclitic, even though they are written as separate words in modern texts.
-- James Clackson, Geoffrey Horrocks, The Blackwell History of the Latin Language
Origin:
Proclitic is modeled on the Greek procliticus, "to lean forward." It was formed in relation to enclitic, "a monosyllabic word or form that is treated as a suffix of the preceding word."

Front 26

1.
To act or talk in a foolish or silly way.
noun:
1.
Nonsense; silliness.

Back 26

footle \FOOT-l\ , verb;

Hint 26

Sometimes, on a good day, I would go upstairs with my duster and footle around the parlor, adjusting paintings and straightening cushions, knocking them into shape with such military precision that even my mother would have saluted them.
-- Marion McGilvary, A Lost Wife's Tale: A Novel
I say, Charlie, for any sake do play up tomorrow, and don't footle.
-- Rose Macaulay, Abbots Verney: a novel
Origin:
Footle has an uncertain origin. One candidate is the French se foutre, to care nothing." Another possibility is the Dutch vochtig, "damp or musty."

Front 27

1.
To confer secretly.

Back 27

collogue \kuh-LOHG\ , verb;

Hint 27

But come, you make me only the more earnest to collogue with you.
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne, Septimius Felton
I lay patiently, gradually recovering, while they took it in turns to look into my eye and then collogue over me.
-- William Cooper, Scenes from married life
Origin:
Collogue appears in print around 1600, perhaps a blend of collude and dialogue.

Front 28

1.
The alteration of a word borrowed from a foreign language to accord more closely with the linguistic patterns of the borrowing language.

Back 28

hobson jobson \HOB-suhn-JOB-suhn\ , noun;

Hint 28

Quotes:
They did the Englishman's dirty work, spoke his language in their own ugly hobson-jobson, full of vulgar abuse, but had none of his cricketing spirit.
-- Khushwant Singh, I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale
She had learned enough hobson-jobson to get along with the other servants, but she was only really fluent in Burushaski.
-- Raymond A. Sokolov, Native Intelligence
Origin:
Hobson-jobson is an example of its own definition: British soldiers' mangled Anglicization of the Arabic cry they heard at Muharram processions in India, Ya Hasan! Ya Husayn! ("O Hassan! O Husain!".)

Front 29

1.
Ice placed in a drink to cool it.

Back 29

glace \GLAS\ , noun;

Hint 29

Quotes:
The serving girl brought the glace-Thiago inspected his plate with satisfaction.
-- George R. R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, Songs of the Dying Earth
This morning at breakfast - she calls it "dejuner" - much to the waiter's astonishment, she ordered "cafe o'lay with milk, and at dinner, frozen champagne glace.
-- David Ross Locke, Nasby In Exile
Origin:
Glace derives from the Canadian-French word for "ice."

Front 30

1.
Yielding or diffusing an odor.

Back 30

odoriferous \oh-duh-RIF-er-uhs\ , adjective;

Hint 30

Quotes:
Wherever I go, I leave behind an odoriferous wake.
-- Mario Girard, Susan Ouriou, The Fat Princess: A Story for Grown-Ups
They finally located an unshaven and odoriferous man in a bed-sitting room at the back of the otherwise deserted property.
-- Elizabeth George, A Place of Hiding
Origin:
Odoriferous enters English from a similar Latin word.

Front 31

1.
To form into a ball.

Back 31

conglobate \KON-gloh-beyt\ , verb;

Hint 31

He knew not where to begin; his ideas rolled round upon each other like the radii of a wheel; the words he desired to utter, instead of issuing, as it were, in a right line from his lips, seemed to conglobate themselves into a sphere.
-- Thomas Love Peacock, Maid Marian
Heav'n's gifts, which do, like falling stars, appear Scatter'd in others; all, as in their sphere, Were fix'd and conglobate in 's soul' and thence Shone thro' his body, with sweet influence
-- John Dryden, Upon the Death of Lord Hastings
Origin:
Conglobate originates with the Latin conglobare, made from the roots con-, "together," and glob, "round," and -ate, "possessing the nature of."

Front 32

1.
Having some secret or mysterious meaning.
2.
Consisting of or set down in runes.
3.
Referring to an interlaced form seen on ancient monuments, metalwork, etc., of the northern European peoples.

Back 32

runic \ROO-nik\ , adjective;

Hint 32

Quotes:
And he dances, and he yells; keeping time, time, time, in a sort of runic rhyme.
-- Edgar Allan Poe, The Bells
To that end, he hid the secret in this runic code.
-- James Rollins, Black Order: A Sigma Force Novel
Origin:
Runic comes from the Old English rūn, "secret."

Front 33

.
The highest point of something; the highest level or degree attainable.

Back 33

acme \ACK-mee\ , noun;

Hint 33

Quotes:
In 1990 Iraq's Saddam Hussein aimed to corner the world oil market through military aggression against Kuwait (also aimed at Saudi Arabia); control of oil, a product of land, represented the acme of his ambitions.
-- Richard Rosecrance, The Rise of the Virtual State
So we drove around looking at daffodils and exploring countryside hamlets instead of lakeside tourist traps. These should not be scorned, however, by a browser interested in the curious categories of British humor, one of which achieves a kind of acme in funny postcards on sale in such places. "The weather's here," went one postcard I saw, "I wish you were lovely."
-- Joseph Lelyveld, "The Poet's Landscape", New York Times, August 3, 1986
Origin:
Acme comes from Greek akme, point, highest point, culmination.

Front 34

1.
Impossible to refute; incontestable; undeniable; as, an irrefragable argument; irrefragable evidence.

Back 34

irrefragable \ih-REF-ruh-guh-buhl\ , adjective

Hint 34

Quotes:
I had the most irrefragable evidence of the absolute truth and soundness of the principle upon which my invention was based.
-- Sir Henry Bessemer, Autobiography
On June 4, the Citizen featured an interview with the Joneses' lawyer, R. S. Newcombe, who insisted that at the pending manslaughter trial he would bring "positive, absolute, irrefragable proof from . . . the most eminent scientists in the world" to show that both the Bates and Hunt operations were necessary and that no surgeon could have saved their lives.
-- Regina Morantz-Sanchez, Conduct Unbecoming a Woman
Origin:
Irrefragable derives from Late Latin irrefragabilis, from Latin in-, "not" + refragari, "to oppose."

Front 35

The act of plundering; the seizing and carrying away of another's property by force.

Back 35

rapine \RAP-in\ intransitive verb;

Hint 35

He who has once begun to live by rapine always finds reasons for taking what is not his.
-- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (translated by N.H. Thomson)
Extortion and rapine are poor providers.
-- Olaudah Equiano, Unchained Voices: an anthology of Black authors in the English-Speaking World of the 18th Century
The war, proclaimed William Lloyd Garrison, was one "of aggression, of invasion, of conquest, and rapine - marked by ruffianism, perfidy, and every other feature of national depravity."
-- Robert W. Johannsen, "America's Forgotten War (Mexican War, 1846-1848)", The Wilson Quarterly, Spring 1996
Origin:
Rapine derives from Latin rapina, from rapere, "to seize and carry off, to snatch or hurry away," which also gives us rapid.

Front 36

1.
A vein, as of a leaf or the wing of an insect.

Back 36

nervure \NUR-vyoor\ , noun;

Hint 36

Quotes:
It was a sorrel, between three and four years old, tall, svelte, with a straight back, a belly tight with muscles, thin legs wrapped up in a vigorous nervure and a small head.
-- Francisco Coloane, Cape Horn and Other Stories from the End of the World
We walked along a corridor affected by the regular spacing of the trees, beneath a sort of dais for which the framework was made of delicate leaf nervure.
-- J. H. Matthews, The Custom-House Of Desire: A Half-Century of Surrealist Stories
Origin:
Nervure is French for "rib."

Front 37

1.
To increase the alcohol in a wine by adding sugar.

Back 37

chaptalize \SHAP-tuh-lahyz\ , verb;

Hint 37

Quotes:
A proprietor who chaptalizes juice or ameliorates juice or wine, or both, shall maintain a record of the operation and the transaction date.
-- U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 27, Alcohol, Tobacco Products
They chaptalize, they blend, fudge their appellations, water down with lesser stuff.
-- Peter Lewis, Dead in the Dregs: A Babe Stern Mystery
Origin:
Chaptalize comes from the French chaptaliser, which is in turn named for the French chemist J. A. Chaptal.

Front 38

Unfading; everlasting.
2.
Of or like the amaranth flower.
3.
Of purplish-red color.

Back 38

amaranthine \am-uh-RAN-thin\ , adjective;

Hint 38

Quotes:
Though she had been made an amaranthine immortal when she was twelve years of age, she'd had to wait for her extraordinary abilities until her body matured to its most perfect state before fully transforming.
-- Kim Lenox, Darker Than Night
It made him jealous to imagine them lost in this amaranthine profundity.
-- Sir Compton Mackenzie, Sinister Street
Origin:
Amaranthine is a form of the Greek amarantos, "everlasting," ascribed to an imaginary flower that never fades.

Front 39

A wooded, uninhabited area.

Back 39

willowwacks \WIL-oh-waks\ , noun;

Hint 39

Quotes:
There aren't many airports in Eastern Canada; you look at one like Upper Blackville, out there in the spruce-and-fir willowwacks, and wonder what it's doing there.
-- The AOPA pilot: Voice of General Aviation, Volume 37
Sure there were difficult moments, like an awkward fall below Texas Pass that twisted my previously broken ankle the wrong way, or 30 minutes lost on a wrong turn due to trail that disappeared in a stream, or a willowwacks that just wouldn't end; but overall today was a great day.
-- Mike DiLorenzo, "Yellowstone, 2005." D-Low.com
Origin:
Willowwacks is of uncertain origin.

Front 40

1.
To provide or obtain lodging.
2.
To direct (a soldier) by ticket, note, or verbal order, where to lodge.
noun:
1.
Lodging for a soldier, student, etc., as in a private home or nonmilitary public building.
2.
A small chunk of wood; a short section of a log, especially one cut for fuel.

Back 40

Billet \BIL-it\ , verb;

Hint 40

Quotes:
If you do not billet my officers upon free quarters this day, I'll order here all the troops in North America.
-- Francis Parkman, David Levin, France and England in North America
Now worn, harassed, and overworked, he could give Smith-Dorrien no news of Haig's Corps which was expected to billet that night at Landrecies, twelve miles east of Le Cateau.
-- Barbara Wertheim Tuchman, The Guns of August
Origin:
Billet stems from the French billet, "official register." The word relates to the English bill.