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apprehend
Pronunciation: a-pri-HENDExample:
"I think some of the answer has to do with what, for lack of a better word, I'll call crisis-ism. This is a condition in which you don't know you're in crisis because you're always in crisis, you've always been in crisis, and you've always gotten through, so what the heck. Crisis-ism is the inability to apprehend that this time it's different, that this time the crisis is an actual crisis." - Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 2/26/2011.
Definition source: Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary
Weekly GrammarTip |
Non-English Words in English Text |
Foreign words can attach a sense of sophistication and flair to your text. Misused, they can bring a sense of idiocy--and nobody wants that. Pay attention, mi amigo, and let's make you an international star.
Italics. Italics are used for isolated words and phrases in a foreign language if they are likely to be unfamiliar to readers.
Parentheses and quotation marks. A translation following a foreign word, phrase, or title is enclosed in parentheses or quotation marks.
pasha, in vitro, recherché, de novo, weltanschauung, a priori, eros and agape, the kaiser
but
He never missed a chance to épater les bourgeois.
Source: The Chicago Manual of Style.
According to Wikipedia, Theodor Geisel's middle name, Seuss, was pronounced like Soice. But Geisel switched to the anglicized pronunciation, "Sooss," because it "evoked a figure advantageous for an author of children's books to be associated with Mother Goose" and because most people used this pronunciation.
Word Challenge |
Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss! |
Today, March 2, 2011, is Read Across America Day. On this day in 1904, Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, was born in Springfield, MA. Try today's vocab list after your breakfast of green eggs and ham.
1. diddle: (a) fiddle; (b) to grope for or handle something clumsily or aimlessly; (c) to move with short rapid motions; (d) to act nervously or indecisively.
2. paradiddle: (a) a quick succession of drumbeats slower than a roll and alternating left- and right-hand strokes in a typical L-R-L-L, R-L-R-R pattern; (b) a device (as a slat, rack, or light railing) to keep objects from sliding off a table aboard ship; (c) a restatement of a text, passage, or work giving the meaning in another form; (d) two matched diddles.
3. taradiddle: (a) a mound marking the site of a primitive human habitation; (b) pretentious nonsense; (c) one appointed to act in place of another; (d) three matched diddles.
4. fusilli: (a) in an irresolute, undecided, or hesitating manner; (b) spiral-shaped pasta; (c) a short, continuous train of a combustible substance enclosed in a cord or cable for setting off an explosive charge by transmitting fire to it; (d) a quick temper.
5. rockabilly: (a) an afficionado of mountain climbing on rocky cliffs; (b) a literary genre or style associated especially with the American West that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction; (c) popular music marked by features of rock and country music; (d) teenage Bill Clinton's garage band.
6. Caerphilly: (a) flavored custard or pureed fruit combined with gelatin and whipped cream; (b) a fine hard bland soap made from olive oil and sodium hydroxide in Ireland's Caerphilly district; (c) clotted cream; (d) a mild white friable cheese of Welsh origin.
7. dulcify: (a) to make agreeable; (b) to make dull; (c) to make melodious; (d) to make fun of.
8. fructify: (a) to sweeten; (b) to make fruitful or productive; (c) to expand (as a statement) by the use of detail or illustration or by closer analysis; (d) to become inflexible and changeless.
9. lithify: (a) to change to vapor; (b) to make transparent; (c) to render harmless; (d) to change to stone.
10. contumacious: (a) marked by restraint especially in the consumption of food or alcohol; (b) stubbornly disobedient; (c) produced by special effort; (d) musically discordant.
Click here for the answers to today's Word Challenge!