If you're looking for information on grammar, punctuation, or word usage, GrammarTip is for you. Whether you're writing marketing brochures, legal briefs, medical papers, website pages, e-mails or business letters and memos, you'll find something in each issue to help. And don't forget to take our Word Challenge! |
koan
Pronunciation: 'ko-an
Example:
"Apple won't as much throw a penny back to stockholders via dividends or buybacks. So far, company executives, including ailing Steve Jobs, have offered only vague, nearly dismissive
koans about possible acquisitions and the need to remain flexible and conservative."
- Dennis K. Berman, Wall Street Journal, 1/18/2011, p. C1.
Definition source: Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary.
Weekly GrammarTip |
Do You Believe in Capital Punishment? |
Word Challenge |
Have You a Raven-ous Appetite for Words? |
On this day in 1809, poet, author, and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Whether or not tonight is dreary, or if you are weak and weary, ponder this week's tell-tale words and see if you fall into a pit - with a pendulum swinging o'er you - or if you rise to fame and (fleeting) fortune by way of this one majestic accomplishment.
1. purloin: (a) to influence or lead by deceit, trick, or artifice; (b) to move over a position occupied by an opponent's piece in a board game often thereby capturing the piece; (c) to appropriate wrongfully and often by a breach of trust; (d) to protest, demand, or complain vehemently.
2. masque: (a) a short allegorical dramatic entertainment of the 16th and 17th centuries performed by masked actors; (b) pretense; (c) an often grotesque carved head or face used as an ornament (as on a keystone); (d) a warm coat worn over indoor clothing.
3. mesmeric: (a) insidious; (b) fascinating; (c) not genuine; (d) hard to bear.
4. colloquy: (a) a high-level serious discussion; (b) a customary course of action; (c) a respite especially from a disagreeable or painful state or action; (d) to speak to or address in a witty and teasing manner.
5. gambol: (a) one who avidly seeks or collects something; (b) to play a game for money or property; (c) to skip about in play; (d) an excursion undertaken especially for pleasure.
6. burthen: archaic variant of (a) bearing; (b) birth; (c) burn; (d) burden.
7. coppice: (a) a thicket, grove, or growth of small trees; (b) a rounded vault resting on a usually circular base and forming a roof or a ceiling; (c) a stroke or blow delivered with a sweeping arm movement; (d) a culminating point.
8. misanthropy: (a) a particular fondness of humankind; (b) a hatred or distrust of humankind; (c) a state of suffering and want that is the result of poverty or affliction; (d) containing malodorous sulfur compounds.
9. manumit: (a) to conscript for military service; (b) to return to custody pending trial or for further detention; (c) to relinquish voluntarily (as a legal right); (d) to release from slavery.
10. foolscap: (a) a metal covering or cowl (as for a fireplace, valve chamber, or ventilator); (b) a piece of writing paper; (c) a woolen cap of Scottish origin called also glengarry bonnet; (d) fake gold.
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