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<title>Dictionaries RSS : Gourt</title>
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<dc:rights>Copyright 2007, Gourt.com</dc:rights>
<dc:date>2008-08-30T06:15+34:00
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<item rdf:about="http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.30.2008">
<title>exasperate</title>
<link>http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.30.2008</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 30, 2008 is:

	exasperate &#149; \ig-ZAS-puh-rayt\&nbsp; &#149; verb
1    : to excite the anger of : enrage *2    :  to cause irritation or annoyance to 


	Example sentence:
	Our former neighbors' habit of throwing loud parties that lasted late into the night thoroughly exasperated us.


	Did you know?
	&quot;Exasperate&quot; hangs with a rough crowd. It derives from &quot;exasperatus,&quot; the past participle of the Latin verb &quot;exasperare,&quot; which in turn was formed by combining &quot;ex-&quot; with &quot;asper,&quot; meaning &quot;rough.&quot; Another descendant of &quot;asper&quot; in English is &quot;asperity,&quot; which can refer to the roughness of a surface or the roughness of someone's temper. Another relative, albeit a distant one, is the English word &quot;spurn,&quot; meaning &quot;to reject.&quot;

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.29.2008">
<title>bumptious</title>
<link>http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.29.2008</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 29, 2008 is:

	bumptious &#149; \BUMP-shus\&nbsp; &#149; adjective
 : presumptuously, obtusely, and often noisily self-assertive : obtrusive 


	Example sentence:
	&quot;I wish the DJs on this station weren't so bumptious,&quot; said Andrea. &quot;I'd prefer to just listen to the music.&quot;


	Did you know?
	Etymologists believe that &quot;bumptious&quot; was probably coined, perhaps playfully, from the noun &quot;bump&quot; plus &quot;-tious.&quot; When &quot;bumptious&quot; was first used around 1800, it meant &quot;self-conceited.&quot; Charles Dickens used it that way in David Copperfield: &quot;His hair was very smooth and wavy; but I was informed . . . that it was a wig . . . and that he needn't be so 'bounceable' -- somebody else said 'bumptious' -- about it, because his own red hair was very plainly to be seen behind.&quot;

]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.28.2008">
<title>refractory</title>
<link>http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.28.2008</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 28, 2008 is:

	refractory &#149; \rih-FRAK-tuh-ree\&nbsp; &#149; adjective
*1    :  resisting control or authority : stubborn, unmanageable 2  a : resistant to treatment or cureb  : unresponsive to stimulusc  : immune, insusceptible 3    : difficult to fuse, corrode, or draw out; especially : capable of enduring high temperature 


	Example sentence:
	Refractory students may be disciplined, suspended, or expelled, depending on the seriousness of their offense.


	Did you know?
	&quot;Refractory&quot; is from the Latin word &quot;refractarius.&quot; During the 17th century, it was sometimes spelled as &quot;refractary,&quot; but that spelling, though more in keeping with its Latin parent, had fallen out of use by the century's end. &quot;Refractarius,&quot; like &quot;refractory,&quot; is the result of a slight variation in spelling. It stems from the Latin verb &quot;refragari,&quot; meaning &quot;to oppose.&quot;

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.27.2008">
<title>pejorative</title>
<link>http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.27.2008</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 27, 2008 is:

	pejorative &#149; \pih-JOR-uh-tiv\&nbsp; &#149; adjective
 : having negative connotations; especially : tending to disparage or belittle : depreciatory 


	Example sentence:
	The team's star player has come under fire for making pejorative remarks about women during a magazine interview.


	Did you know?
	&quot;If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.&quot; Moms have given that good advice for years, but unfortunately many people haven't heeded it. The word &quot;pejorative&quot; makes it clear that both English and Latin speakers have long known that disparaging words can make a bad situation worse. &quot;Pejorative&quot; derives from the Late Latin adjective &quot;pejoratus,&quot; which in turn comes from the Latin verb &quot;pejorare,&quot; meaning &quot;to make or become worse.&quot; Although pejorative words have probably always been part of English, the adjective &quot;pejorative&quot; has only been found in English texts since the late 1880s. Before then, English speakers could rely on older synonyms of &quot;pejorative&quot; such as &quot;derogatory&quot; and &quot;uncomplimentary&quot; to describe disparaging words.

]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.26.2008">
<title>sophistry</title>
<link>http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.26.2008</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 26, 2008 is:

	sophistry &#149; \SAH-fuh-stree\&nbsp; &#149; noun
*1    :  subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation 2    : an argument apparently correct in form but actually invalid; especially : such an argument used to deceive 


	Example sentence:
	The senatorial candidate argued that his opponent was using sophistry in an effort to distort his plan for education reform.


	Did you know?
	The original Sophists were ancient Greek teachers of rhetoric and philosophy prominent in the 5th century B.C. In their heyday, these philosophers were considered adroit in their reasoning, but later philosophers (particularly Plato) described them as sham philosophers, out for money and willing to say anything to win an argument. Thus &quot;sophist&quot; (which comes from Greek &quot;sophist&#275;s,&quot; meaning &quot;wise man&quot; or &quot;expert&quot;) earned a negative connotation as &quot;a captious or fallacious reasoner.&quot; &quot;Sophistry&quot; is reasoning that seems plausible on a superficial level but is actually unsound, or reasoning that is used to deceive.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.25.2008">
<title>dilapidate</title>
<link>http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.25.2008</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 25, 2008 is:

	dilapidate &#149; \dih-LAP-uh-dayt\&nbsp; &#149; verb
*1    :  to bring into a condition of decay or partial ruin 2    : to become decayed or partially ruined 


	Example sentence:
	Although years of abandonment had dilapidated the old warehouse, Stuart still thought it could be salvaged and remade into an apartment building.


	Did you know?
	Something that is dilapidated may not have been literally pummeled with stones, but it might look that way. &quot;Dilapidate&quot; derives from the past participle of the Latin verb &quot;dilapidare,&quot; meaning &quot;to squander or destroy.&quot; That verb was formed by combining &quot;dis-&quot; with another verb, &quot;lapidare,&quot; meaning &quot;to pelt with stones.&quot; From there it's just a stone's throw to some other English relatives of &quot;dilapidate.&quot; You might, for example, notice a resemblance between &quot;lapidare&quot; and our word for a person who cuts or polishes precious stones, &quot;lapidary.&quot; That's because both words share as a root the Latin noun &quot;lapis,&quot; meaning &quot;stone.&quot; We also find &quot;lapis&quot; in the name &quot;lapis lazuli,&quot; a bright blue semiprecious stone.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.24.2008">
<title>aggregate</title>
<link>http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.24.2008</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 24, 2008 is:

	aggregate &#149; \AG-rih-gut\&nbsp; &#149; noun
1    : a mass or body of units or parts somewhat loosely associated with one another *2    :  the whole sum or amount : sum total 


	Example sentence:
	&quot;The aggregate of incriminating details unmistakably points towards a conviction,&quot; said the prosecuting attorney.


	Did you know?
	We added &quot;aggregate&quot; to our flock of Latin borrowings in the 15th century. It descends from &quot;aggregare&quot; (&quot;to add to&quot;), a Latin verb made up of the prefix &quot;ad-&quot; (which means &quot;to,&quot; and which usually changes to &quot;ag-&quot; before a &quot;g&quot;) and &quot;greg-&quot; or &quot;grex&quot; (meaning &quot;flock&quot;). &quot;Greg-&quot; also gave us &quot;congregate,&quot; &quot;gregarious,&quot; and &quot;segregate.&quot; &quot;Aggregate&quot; is commonly employed in the phrase &quot;in the aggregate,&quot; which means &quot;considered as a whole&quot; (as in the sentence &quot;In the aggregate, the student's various achievements were sufficiently impressive to merit a scholarship&quot;). &quot;Aggregate&quot; also has some specialized senses. For example, it is used for a mass of minerals formed into a rock and for a material, such as sand or gravel, used to form concrete, mortar, or plaster.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.23.2008">
<title>callow</title>
<link>http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.23.2008</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 23, 2008 is:

	callow &#149; \KAL-oh\&nbsp; &#149; adjective
 : lacking adult sophistication : immature 


	Example sentence:
	&quot;Back when I was a callow college student,&quot; said Emma, &quot;I paid little attention to the advice given to me by my professors.&quot;


	Did you know?
	You might not expect a relationship between &quot;callow&quot; and baldness, but that connection does in fact exist. &quot;Callow&quot; comes from &quot;calu,&quot; a word that meant &quot;bald&quot; in Middle English and Old English. By the 17th century, &quot;callow&quot; had come to mean &quot;without feathers&quot; and was applied to young birds not yet ready for flight. The term was also used for those who hadn't yet spread their wings in a figurative sense. &quot;Callow&quot; continues to mean &quot;inexperienced&quot; or &quot;unsophisticated&quot; today.

]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.22.2008">
<title>idee fixe</title>
<link>http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.22.2008</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 22, 2008 is:

	id&eacute;e fixe &#149; \ee-day-FEEKS\&nbsp; &#149; noun
 : an idea that dominates one's mind especially for a prolonged period : obsession 


	Example sentence:
	The fear that he was going to be fired became such an id&eacute;e fixe for Toby that he could think of nothing else.


	Did you know?
	According to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the term &quot;id&eacute;e fixe&quot; was coined by French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830, who used it to describe the principal theme of his Symphonie fantastique. That reference goes on to say that, at about the same time, French novelist Honore de Balzac used &quot;id&eacute;e fixe&quot; in Gobseck to describe an obsessive idea. By 1836, Balzac's more generalized use of the term had carried over into English, where &quot;id&eacute;e fixe&quot; was embraced as a clinical and literary term for a persistent preoccupation or delusional idea that dominates a person's mind. Nowadays &quot;id&eacute;e fixe&quot; is also applied to milder and more pedestrian obsessions.

]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.21.2008">
<title>trepidation</title>
<link>http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.21.2008</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 21, 2008 is:

	trepidation &#149; \trep-uh-DAY-shun\&nbsp; &#149; noun
 : timorous uncertain agitation : apprehension 


	Example sentence:
	As she boarded the plane for her first flight, Corrine felt a mixture of trepidation and excitement.


	Did you know?
	If you've ever trembled with fright, you know something of both the sensation and etymology of &quot;trepidation.&quot; The word &quot;trepidation&quot; comes from the Latin verb &quot;trepidare,&quot; which means &quot;to tremble.&quot; When &quot;trepidation&quot; first appeared in English in the early 1600s, it meant &quot;tremulous motion&quot; or &quot;tremor.&quot; Around the same time, English speakers also started using the &quot;nervous agitation&quot; sense of &quot;trepidation&quot; that we use today.

]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.20.2008">
<title>rapporteur</title>
<link>http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Aug.20.2008</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 20, 2008 is:

	rapporteur &#149; \ra-por-TER\&nbsp; &#149; noun
 : a person who gives reports (as at a meeting of a learned society) 


	Example sentence:
	The rapporteur compiled the available evidence into a report and presented it to the full committee.


	Did you know?
	&quot;Rapporteur&quot; was adopted into English in the early 16th century and is a descendant of the Middle French verb &quot;rapporter,&quot; meaning &quot;to bring back, report, or refer.&quot; Other descendants of &quot;rapporter&quot; in English include &quot;rapportage&quot; (a rare synonym of &quot;reportage,&quot; in the sense of &quot;writing intended to give an account of observed or documented events&quot;) and &quot;rapport&quot; (&quot;harmonious relationship&quot;). The words &quot;report,&quot; &quot;reporter,&quot; &quot;reportage,&quot; etc., are also distant relatives of &quot;rappouteur&quot;; all can ultimately be traced back to the Latin prefix &quot;re-,&quot; meaning &quot;back, again, against,&quot; and the Latin word &quot;portare,&quot; meaning &quot;to carry.&quot;

]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.medterms.com/guide.asp?s=rss&#x26;k=WordOfTheDay&#x26;a=6481">
<title>Koplik&#x27;s spots</title>
<link>http://www.medterms.com/guide.asp?s=rss&#x26;k=WordOfTheDay&#x26;a=6481</link>
<description><![CDATA[Koplik's spots:  Little spots inside 
the mouth that are highly characteristic of the early phase 
of measles (rubeola). The spots look like a tiny grains of 
white sand, each surrounded by a red ring. They are found 
especially on the inside of the cheek (the buccal mucosa) 
opposite the 1st and 2nd upper molars. Named for the New 
York pediatrician Henry Koplik (1858-1927) who described 
them. MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You]]></description>
</item>

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