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My word a day..

Sweetcherrie

By Sweetcherrie
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Sweetcherrie

Sweetcherrie

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Already for a while I have been registered for 'My word a day' from http://www.vocabvitamins.com/ , and they give me the most funny words. But, occasionally it's actually been really helpful, and hey my vocab does improve...slowly

 

Anyway, I thought we might be able to do something funny with this, so I'm just going to give this a try :)

 

It's not too difficult, I will give the word, and then you (and me) will come up with a sentence this word can be used in. They always give an example sentence as well, and I will use those here to clarify the meaning of the word.

 

We'll see how it goes :)

 

The word of today is: Insouciant

 

Marked by blithe unconcern; careless; indifferent: "These sunglasses are perfect for achieving an elegantly insouciant manner."

 

adverb form: insouciantly

My try: She leaned back against the wall, insouciant in the way her hand carressed the stone as her eyes followed his every move.

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Sweetcherrie

Sweetcherrie

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Yay, a brand new word! ^_^

 

Oh, forgot to tell they always work around a theme. This week's theme is: Devil may care!

 

Today's word: pococurante

 

1. apathetic, indifferent, or nonchalant: "Yan and I spent several hours trying to explain our situation to pococurante border officials."

 

noun

 

2. an apathetic, indifferent, or nonchalant person

 

additional noun form: pococurantism

I have to say, somehow this one makes me think more off law thingies (probably because in Dutch a procureur is someone who will council in civil lawsuits) than of not caring...oh well, lets give it a try :).

 

"She stroked with her finger over his arm, but her proccurante moves told him she no longer cared as much."

 

*frowns* not sure if it would actually work in that one...anybody want to try better?

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Katzaniel

Katzaniel

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I don't want to seem pococurante, but I just don't see why I should care.

 

(Er, that's not *me* talking. Just some person. I mean, I just realized how that sentence, alone, might look like I'm trying to be witty and insulting or something.)

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yochva

yochva

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What I don't understand is why people are so pococurante about the whole thing; I mean, these are WORDS!

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Quincunx

Quincunx

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This was a word I didn't know, so I wanted to find a reference from someone who knew what it meant:

 

Count Prococurante was a character in Voltaire's Candide, the book's satire on aristocratic ennui, and most likely Voltaire just made up the name to suit the temperament (as he did with Pangloss and some other characters). Little wonder that it looks out of place in test sentences!

 

Insouicance is saucy, contrived, best suited to the experienced flirt pretending not to notice the effect she has upon others.

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Sweetcherrie

Sweetcherrie

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Pretty cool background information :D

 

Vocab Vitamins gave this possible explanation to where the word came from:

 

Origin:

Approximately 1760; from Italian, 'poco': little + 'curare': to care, from Latin, 'cura': care.

I liked yours better, and they keep saying it's always a bit of a guess to where the words come from. Ooh, and maybe Voltaire even got it from this. Funky to see how words come to existence. ^_^

 

Thanks Quincunx :)

 

Today's word is: harum-scarum

 

adjective

 

1. cheerfully irresponsible; careless; reckless: "Liam seems to be less harum-scarum than before, and is now working diligently toward his musical goals."

 

adverb

 

2. in a wild or reckless manner; recklessly; irresponsibly

I guess my character Sweet could be described with a word like harum-scarum ;)

 

With a big jump Sweet landed on the other side, and giggled as she rolled over, only to bump into the other fuzzy monster. The girl had always been a bit harum-scarum, but today she really took a turn for the irresponsible.

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Sweetcherrie

Sweetcherrie

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They always give an email about a page long on the word in action. Seriously for someone willing to develop the English language beyong the words you use everyday this is not a bad way to do it, and most of the times their examples even make me laugh :) (sometimes because they simply still don't make sense :P)

 

This is the entire email they gave me about pococurante:

 

(adjective, noun)

[poe'-koe-koo-RAN-tee, poe'-koe-koo-RAWN-tee]

 

adjective

 

1. apathetic, indifferent, or nonchalant: "Yan and I spent several hours trying to explain our situation to pococurante border officials."

 

noun

 

2. an apathetic, indifferent, or nonchalant person

 

additional noun form: pococurantism

 

Origin:

Approximately 1760; from Italian, 'poco': little + 'curare': to care, from Latin, 'cura': care.

 

In action:

"In 'Candide', Voltaire thoroughly exposes the fallacies of the naïve optimistic worldview. Yet, through Candide's visit to the wealthy and esteemed Venetian senator Pococurante, Voltaire shows an equally dangerous pitfall to avoid in approaching reality: the mentality of perfectionism. Pococurante is surrounded by immense riches and objects of high culture--yet he is perpetually unhappy. The senator concocts impossibly high, unreasonable standards which he expects the world around him to meet--a goal the world cannot reach. Simultaneously, Pococurante does nothing to alleviate his displeasure and is hence doomed to perpetual disappointment. Through Pococurante's example, Voltaire rejects perfectionism as a route to happiness and instead presents the old Turkish man as a model for adhering to reality in setting reasonable expectations. The old man influences Candide to recognize that one can only gain happiness by aligning one's expectations with one's abilities to act in the real world. Voltaire presents readers with a real hope of flourishing in this world by working to affect what one can and refraining from empty complaints about falling short of arbitrarily high standards."

 

G. Stolyarov II. "What Candide Learns and Pococurante Does Not: Voltaire's Insistence on the Importance of Rational Expectations to Human Flourishing," The Autonomist (April 23, 2006).

 

"A 13-year-old eighth-grader from Dallas nailed 'pococurante' to win the 76th Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee on Thursday.

 

It was Sai Gunturi's fourth time in the competition.

 

'I studied it,' a beaming Sai said of the word after winning the contest, $12,000 and other prizes. 'That's why I was kind of laughing.' The word means indifferent or nonchalant."

 

"After winning, he certainly wasn't feeling pococurante," [P-o-c-o-c-u-r-a-n-t-e, meaning indifferent or nonchalant, made it a winning day for Sai Gunturi at the 76th annual bee.] Associated Press (May 30, 2003).

 

"The pronouncer, Jacques A. Bailly, started to call out the words, which all came from the New Webster's Third International Dictionary. Seriatim. Gadarene. Symphily. Peirastic.

 

And then Evelyn slipped. She left the 'g' off 'gnathonic,' which means 'fawning or flattering,' a mistake that left Sai with the next two words. He spelled 'rhathymia' and 'pococurante' correctly, and staggered back from the microphone as the applause rolled across the grand ballroom."

 

"At U.S. Spelling Bee, a Prize for 'Pococurante'," The New York Times (May 30, 2003).

So here they used Voltaire as an example, and not as the origin. Still if Voltaire was the first to use it, it is well possible that he were the one making it up from the latin words, as they say in the origin part.

 

Funny how writers can actually make up words, and that those same words are still used centuries later. :)

 

But if I were to use the whole email here each day, it would first of all become annoying, and second of all half the time their examples make absolutely no sense to me at all, and then they use half a dozen words I have to look up on the side :P

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Gwaihir

Gwaihir

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In my experience that word is often used about youth. "Oh, she's a little harum scarum imp, but she's alright and I'm proud of her." Kind of like hooligan if that helps. I'm told it's more often used in Britain but I don't know if that's true.

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Sweetcherrie

Sweetcherrie

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Yay, new week, new theme ^_^

 

This week's theme: Express yourself.

 

Today's word: Opine

 

 

(transitive verb, intransitive verb)

[oe-PIEN]

 

transitive verb

 

1. to state as an opinion

 

intransitive verb

 

2. to express an opinion: "I had to opine on the situation because I thought a different perspective was in order."

 

Origin:

Approximately 1456; from Latin, 'opinari': to have an opinion, to suppose, perhaps related to 'optare': to desire, to choose.

*grins* I should probably opine on situations a bit less, and stick my nose elsewhere.... :P

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Zepheri

Zepheri

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Opine is the word...

 

I had to change my opine, or choice of words so I wouldn't hurt someone.

 

Does that work? Or did I use it wrong? I used it wrong...I knew it...*goes under a rock*

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Sweetcherrie

Sweetcherrie

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*lifts the rock and smiles at Zepheri*

 

This whole thread is there because I'm learning new words...that means I don't know them either :)

 

And besides, not knowing something is definitely no reason to crawl under a rock, it's a reason to stand up and ask more...at least around here.

 

*hugs*

 

Now if someone with more English than the two of us could kindly explain? *winks at Zepheri* I think we might need that...

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Yui-chan

Yui-chan

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I had to change my opine, or choice of words so I wouldn't hurt someone.

Opine is a verb, so it is something you can DO, not something you can HAVE. Zepheri, in your example, you've used it as a noun. You would want to trade 'opine', the verb, for 'opinion', the noun.

 

Basically, I always remember opine as being the act of having or sharing an opinion.

 

"I wish to opine on this subject."

"When given the opportunity, he has a reputation for opining ad nauseum. That's why people try to avoid asking him for his opinion."

 

Sweetcherrie's usage is correct. I often say the same thing to myself. ;)

 

Keep the words coming. This is a really good exercise. We used to do this sort of thing in grade school, and I learned so much vocabulary this way!

 

Good work,

~Yui

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Zepheri

Zepheri

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So Opine is a verb...that helps me. ^_^

So is opine the root word of opinion then? Is there an easy way to remember when to use a noun or a verb of a word?

I'm sorry my grammer is not the greatest... I'm trying though.

And thank you for your help. Yui-chan

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Alaeha

Alaeha

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Well, to quote the old Schoolhouse Rock songs...

 

A Noun is a Person, Place, or Thing.

 

Verbs -- That's what's happening!

 

or in other words, a Noun is something you do a Verb to; 'cause Mr. Morton is the Subject of the sentence, and what the Predicate says, he does. :D

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Sweetcherrie

Sweetcherrie

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Thank you Yui and Aleaha ^_^

 

Today's word is: Animadvert

 

(intransitive verb)

[an'-ah-mad-VURT]

 

1. to comment critically or unfavorably; to express censure: "You can complain about anything you like at this dinner party, but please don't animadvert on the art hanging on their walls."

 

Origin:

Approximately 1650; from Latin, 'animadvertere': to turn the mind toward ('animus': mind + 'advertere': to turn toward, from 'vertere': to turn).

hehe, this word somehow made me think of anime...but I guess it has little to do with that :P

 

Hmm..another verb...lessee

 

Please don't animadvert my work, it's a rather sensitive subject. (think it's something like that meaning at least :))

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Sweetcherrie

Sweetcherrie

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Today's word is: exhort

 

(transitive verb, intransitive verb)

[ig-ZORT]

 

transitive verb

 

1. to urge on by strong and often stirring argument or appeal: "In the second half of a losing game, the soccer coach exhorted his players to keep focused and give it their best."

 

intransitive verb

 

2. to make an urgent or earnest appeal

 

noun form: exhorter

no idea what transitive or intranstive verbs are :blink: , but I think it could be used as followed:

 

"I tried to exhort the commission in giving me a fast reply, instead they delayed the matter further."

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