outre

outre
Definition:
(adjective) Conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual.
Synonyms:
bizarre, eccentric, flaky, freakish, gonzo, off-the-wall, outlandish
Usage:
The more outre and grotesque an incident is the more carefully it deserves to be examined.

otiose

otiose \OH-shee-ohss\ adjective
1 : producing no useful result : futile
2 : being at leisure : idle
*3 : lacking use or effect : functionless

Example sentence: "Half the streets are cobbled and half wide, empty, modern highways at whose pretentious crossings an occasional rickshaw waits for the otiose traffic lights to change to green." (Ian Fleming, Thrilling Cities)

Did you know? "Otiose" was first used in English in the late-18th century to describe things producing no useful result. By mid-19th century, it was being used in keeping with its Latin source "otiosus," meaning "at leisure." There is also the noun form "otiosity," which predates "otiose" by approximately three centuries. That noun is rarely found in writing today, but it makes an appearance on the occasional spelling bee word list.

corrigible

corrigible
PRONUNCIATION:(KOR-i-juh-buhl)

MEANING:adjective: Capable of being corrected.

ETYMOLOGY:From Latin corrigere (to correct). Ultimately from the Indo-European reg- (to move in a straight line, to lead or rule) that is also the source of regent, regime, direct, rectangle, erect, rectum, alert, source, and surge.

USAGE:"[The regulator] should guide corrigible companies through their weaknesses to become more useful corporate citizens."Patience Wheatcroft; FSA Should At Least Seek City's Respect; The Times (London, UK); Mar 4, 2005.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:A man's name is not like a mantle which merely hangs about him, and which one perchance may safely twitch and pull, but a perfectly fitting garment, which, like the skin, has grown over and over him, at which one cannot rake and scrape without injuring the man himself. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832)

embonpoint

embonpoint \ahng-bohng-PWANG (the "ng" is never pronounced, but the vowels are nasalized)\
noun : plumpness of person : stoutness

Example sentence: The judge was a man of stately embonpoint who walked with a heavy step as he entered the courtroom.

Did you know? "Embonpoint" is most often used to describe people of heavy, but not unattractive, girth. It derives from "en bon point," a phrase from Middle French that means "in good condition." The word was first used as a noun in English in the 17th century. It has subsequently appeared in works by Charlotte Bronte ("a form decidedly inclined to embonpoint" -- Shirley), James Fenimore Cooper ("an embonpoint that was just sufficient to distinguish her from most of her companions" -- Home as Found), and George Eliot ("as erect in her comely embonpoint as a statue of Ceres" -- Adam Bede), among others.

动词+y=adj

wield+y=wieldy
MEANING:adjective: Easily handled or managed.

ETYMOLOGY:From Old English wealdan (to rule). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wal- (to be strong) that gave us the words valiant, avail, valor, and value.

USAGE:"What Lotus means, of course, is that the Exige [car] is small and wieldy; that it can out-corner a mosquito."Michael Booth; On Wheels: Lotus Exige S; The Independent (London, UK); Sep 3, 2006.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:Although a democracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand. -Aharon Barak, law professor, former President of the Supreme Court of Israel (b.1936)

bombast

bombast \BAHM-bast\ noun
: pretentious inflated speech or writing

Example sentence: Laura complained that the editorial columns in her local newspaper were full of bombast and offered little in the way of intelligent opinion.

Did you know? The original meaning of "bombast" (now obsolete) is "cotton or any soft fibrous material used as padding or stuffing." It is derived through Middle French "bombace," from Medieval Latin "bombax," which means "cotton." "Bombax" in turn comes from "bombyx," a Latin and ultimately Greek word that means "silkworm" or "silk." Etymologists aren't certain why the shift from silk to cotton occurred, though one source attributes it to an error going back to the Roman scholar Pliny, who had reported that cotton was produced by an insect analogous to the silkworm. "Bombast" has been retained in modern English because it took on a figurative sense used in reference to speech or writing. Thus the basic sense of "stuffing or padding" has survived, but now the stuffing consists of words rather than cotton.

May 2: problem saturation

May 2: problem saturation
A process by which Mainstream Media addresses an issue incessantly, building up to a sense of pending doom. Of course, the problem, while worrisome, does not pose the grave threat they would like you to believe. Finally, MSM abandons coverage of the problem completely, moving on to another problem.


"Honey, why don't we hear any news about the drug cartels anymore?"
"That was last month's problem saturation, dear."