See also Law

Law is a set of rules or norms of conduct which forbid, permit or mandate specified actions and relationships among people and organizations. The authority upon which legal rules rest and the extent to which they are formally codified varies between jurisdictions but all legal systems are united in their attempt to ensure impartial treatment of those suspected of breaking the rules and to bring about justice. The word law derives from the late Old English lagu of probable North Germanic origin.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

koine
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 13, 2008 is: koine • \koy-NAY\  • noun 1 : the Greek language commonly spoken and written in eastern Mediterranean countries in the Hellenistic and Roman periods *2 : a dialect or language of a region that has become the common or standard language of a larger area Example sentence: Koines inevitably developed in the early British colonies as different dialects converged. Did you know? Koine, which means "common" or "shared" in Greek, was the language spoken in the eastern Mediterranean countries from the 4th century B.C. until the time of the Byzantine emperor Justinian (mid-6th century A.D.). In linguistics, the word "koine" is applied to a language developed from contact between dialects of the same language over a large region. Basically, a koine adopts those grammatical and lexical elements from the dialects of the region that are easily recognized by most area speakers and dispenses with those that are not. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
divulge
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 12, 2008 is: divulge • \duh-VULJ\  • verb : to make known (as a confidence or secret) Example sentence: Sarah promised not to divulge the news of her friend's promotion until it was official. Did you know? It isn't vulgar to make known the roots of "divulge" -- and that sentence contains two hints about the word's origin. "Divulge" was borrowed into Middle English in the 15th century from Latin "divulgare," a word that combines the prefix "dis-," which meant "apart" or "in different directions" in Latin, with "vulgare," meaning "to make known." "Vulgare," in turn, derives from the Latin noun "vulgus," meaning "mob” or “common people." As you have no doubt guessed, English "vulgar" is another word which can be traced back to "vulgus”; it came into use about a century before "divulge.”
hypocorism
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 11, 2008 is: hypocorism • \hye-PAH-kuh-riz-um\  • noun *1 : a pet name 2 : the use of pet names Example sentence: Darren started calling Sheila by her hypocorism, “Bubbles,” when they were juniors in high school. Did you know? In Late Latin and Greek, the words “hypocorisma” and “hypokorisma” had the same meaning as “hypocorism” does in English today. They in turn evolved from the Greek verb “hypokorizesthai” (“to call by pet names”), which itself comes from “korizesthai” (“to caress”). “Hypocorism” joined the English language in the mid-19th century and was once briefly a buzzword among linguists, who used it rather broadly to mean “adult baby talk,” that is, the altered speech adults use when supposedly imitating babies. Once the baby talk issue faded, “hypocorism” settled back into being just a fancy word for a pet name. Pet names can be diminutives like our “Johnny” for “John,” endearing terms such as “honey-bunch,” or, yes, names from baby talk, like “Nana” for “Grandma.” *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
posse
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 10, 2008 is: posse • \PAH-see\  • noun *1 : a large group often with a common interest 2 : a body of persons summoned by a sheriff to assist in preserving the public peace usually in an emergency 3 : a group of people temporarily organized to make a search (as for a lost child) 4 : one’s attendants or associates Example sentence: "On the Saturday morning we used to watch anxiously for the usual signs of activity and when we saw a large barrel of beer being escorted up the streets by a posse of small boys, we knew that all was well." (Edmund Barber, Country Life, October 12, 1951) Did you know? "Posse" started out as a technical term in law, part of the term "posse comitatus," which in Medieval Latin meant "power or authority of the county." As such, it referred to a group of citizens summoned by a sheriff to preserve the public peace as allowed for by law. "Preserving the public peace" so often meant hunting down a supposed criminal that "posse" eventually came to mean any group organized to make a search or embark on a mission. In even broader use it can refer to any group, period. Sometimes nowadays that group is a gang or a rock band but it can as easily be any group -- of politicians, models, architects, tourists, children, or what have you -- acting in concert. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
indagate
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 09, 2008 is: indagate • \IN-duh-gayt\  • verb : to search into : investigate Example sentence: The defense attorneys requested an adjournment so that they could fully indagate the new evidence. Did you know? A close examination of "indagate" reveals that it's a rather uncommon word. If we delve into the past, we discover that it first appeared in an English dictionary in 1623. Probing further, we see that its synonym "investigate" was already a hundred years old at the time. Despite the fact that our search turns up the derivatives "indagation," "indagator," "indagatory," and "indagative," we see that none of these words was ever used as widely as "investigation," "investigator," "investigatory," and "investigative." If we hunt for the etymology of "indagate," we sniff out the Latin verb "indagare" ("to track"), which often referred, as did Latin "investigare," specifically to tracking done by hunting dogs.
glom
Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:15:01 -0500
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 08, 2008 is: glom • \GLAHM\  • verb *1 : take, steal 2 : seize, catch Example sentence: “She signed an affidavit of confession attesting she glommed more than $284,000, the company contends.” (Frank Donnelly, Staten Island Advance, September 15, 2008) Did you know? It's a classic case of glomming: Americans seized on "glaum" (a term from Scots dialect that basically means "grab") and appropriated it as our own, changing it to "glom" in the process. "Glom" first meant "steal" (as in the purse-snatching, robber kind of stealing), but over time that meaning got stretched. Today, "glom" often figuratively extends that original "steal" sense. A busy professional might glom a weekend getaway, for example. "Glom" also appears frequently in the phrase "glom on to," which can mean "to appropriate for one's own use" ("glom on to another's idea"); "to grab hold of" ("glom on to the last cookie"); or "to latch on to" ("glom on to an opinion" or "glom on to an influential friend"). *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

MedTerms Word of the Day

Gallbladder agenesis
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Gallbladder agenesis: This is a condition in which the gallbladder fails to develop. This happens in approximately one out of every 1,000 people. Gallbladder agenesis is an isolated finding in more than two-thirds (70%) of people. The person with isolated gallbladder agenesis is healthy. No treatment is needed, and the prognosis (outlook) is excellent. Gallbladder agenesis occurs in association with additional abnormalities in the remaining (30%) of cases which fall into two groups: one (9%) with atresia (failure of opening) of the bile ducts, and the other (21%) with normal bile ducts but distant abnormalities such as ventricular septal defect (a hole between the ventricles of the heart), imperforate anus (blind rectum with no anus), malrotation of the gut (failure of the intestines to rotate normally during embryonic development), renal agenesis (absence of a kidney), and syndactyly (fusion of fingers). Agenesis of the gallbladder is most often a sporadic (unpredictable) occurrence with no clear cause. However, there are families in which the condition has occurred in several members suggesting that there are hereditary forms of gallbladder agenesis. Children with gallbladder agenesis plus distant malformations tend to have trisomy 13 or another chromosome abnormality that carries a poor prognosis.MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You

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