snuggery (SNUG-uh-ree) noun

A snug, cozy place. chiefly British

[From snug, perhaps of Scandinavian origin.]

"The day when the Winter Olympics could be held in lovely mountain snuggeries like St. Moritz and Cortina has long passed."

- John Powers; Expansion Put Games on a Grander Scale; Boston Globe; Feb 24, 1992.

http://wordsmith.org/awad/archives/0107

Word of the Day: Monomania (Noun)

Pronunciation: [mah-nê-'mey-niyê]
Definition: Fixation on or obsession with a single object or idea.

Usage: People with a single-minded obsession are monomaniacs and they behave monomaniacally.

Suggested Usage: Here is a variant of "obsessive" that can be applied to any kind of single-minded obsession. "He is a football monomaniac and never watches anything else on TV" or "The media's monomaniacal focus on the election results is driving ME crazy."

Etymology: Greek mono-s "alone, only, solitary" + mania "passion, enthusiasm, madness." Monos also underlies most English words beginning with "mono-" such as "monotheism, monopoly, monotony" but also "monk" and "monastery," a place of solitude. "Mania" is related to English "mad," and via Latin to "mental, mention, money, memory."

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

Today's word is a comical neologism (made-up word) coined in the USA about 175 years ago. You probably will enjoy using it.

ab.squat.u.late (āb-skwŏch'ə-lāt') (ab-skwoch-uh-leyt) intr.verb

ab.squat.u.lat.ed,
ab.squat.u.lat.ing,
ab.squat.u.lates
Midwestern & Western U.S.

a. To depart in a hurry; abscond: " Your horse has absquatulated!" (Robert M. Bird).

b. To die.


[Mock-Latinate formation, purporting to mean "to go off and squat elsewhere".]

In the 19th century, the vibrant energy of American English appeared in the use of Latin affixes to create jocular pseudo-Latin "learned" words. There is a precedent for this in the language of Shakespeare, whose plays contain scores of made-up Latinate words. Midwestern and Western U.S. absquatulate has a prefix ab-, "away from," and a suffix -ate, "to act upon in a specified manner," affixed to a nonexistent base form -squatul-, probably suggested by squat. Hence the whimsical absquatulate, "to squat away from." Another such coinage is Northern busticate, which joins bust with -icate by analogy with verbs like medicate. Southern argufy joins argue to a redundant -fy, "to make; cause to become." Today, these creations have an old-fashioned and rustic flavor curiously at odds with their elegance. They are kept alive in regions of the United States where change is slow. For example, Appalachian speech is characterized by the frequent use of words such as recollect, aggravate, and oblige.

-The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

defenestrate (dee-FEN-uh-strayt), transitive verb:

To throw out of a window.

“Some of his apparent chums . . . would still happily defenestrate him if they caught him near a window.”
-- Andrew Marr, "No option bar the radical one", Independent, July 5, 1994

“I defenestrated a clock to see if time flies!”
-- Lane Smith, quoted in "Who's News", Time for Kids, September 25, 1998

"A woman, driven to fury by the manner in which her lover prefers to lavish his attention on a match on the telly rather than her, starts to throw his possessions out of the window. He's finally moved to stop her when she tries to defenestrate his new Puma boots."
-- Jim White, "Budgets substantial enough to buy most of the clubs in the Endsleigh", Independent, April 6, 1996

Defenestrate is derived from Latin de-, "out of" + fenestra, "window." The noun form is defenestration.

- http://www.dictionary.com

nascent (NAS-uhnt; NAY-suhnt), adjective:

Beginning to exist or having recently come into existence; coming into being.


"But there are other nascent technologies that are widely predicted to play a major part in moving the world from a dependence on oil, nuclear energy and coal."
"Out of thin air", The Guardian, Octobe- r 31, 2001


"By the time that John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839, Richford was acquiring the amenities of a small town. It had some nascent industries . . . plus a schoolhouse and a church."
- Ron Chernow, TitanThe Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.


"This surprising success prompted several other companies to enter this nascent market."
- Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz


Nascent comes from Latin nascens, "being born," present participle of nasci, "to be born."

A newly born hippopotamus swims under the protection of its mother called "Seventh Daughter"
at the Tianjin Zoo 75 miles southeast of Beijing.

Is this word politically correct?

uxorious (uk-SOR-ee-us; ug-ZOR-), adjective:

Excessively fond of or submissive to a wife.

—Related forms and words:
ux.o.ri.ous.ly, adverb

ux.o.ri.ous.ness, noun

uxory, (UX-or-ee) noun [Backformation from uxorious.] 1. Passionate attachment to a spouse. 2. Perfect blend of love and lust. source: http://www.langmaker.com/db/Uxory

uxorial, adjective, of, befitting, or characteristic of a wife.

uxoricide, the murder of a wife by her husband


“It is batty to suppose that the most uxorious of husbands will stop his wife's excessive shopping if an excessive shopper she has always been.”

- Angela Huth, "All you need is love", Daily Telegraph, April 24, 1998


“Flagler seems to have been an uxorious, domestic man, who liked the comfort and companionship of a wife at his side.”

- Michael Browning, "Whitehall at 100", Palm Beach Post, February 22, 2002

Uxorious is from Latin uxorius, from uxor, wife.

source: http://www.dictionary.com

In a review at http://www.Salon.com Kate Moss writes the following:

“Uxorious is a word I can hardly believe anyone possessed the far-flung imagination to make up. It comes at first glance as a disorienting shock, an unthinkable stroke of good luck -- like Ed McMahon showing up at your screen door with a big cardboard check. On second thought, though, its existence is a little troubling -- especially when you consider what being "excessively fond of one's wife" might mean. Isn't excessive fondness what all wives might reasonably expect?"

You may read Ms Moss’ entire article at http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/1998/05/20feature.html

Word of the Day: Ravel (Verb)

Pronunciation: ['ræ-vêl]
Definition: To unweave, to disentangle, to unwind or untwist; to fray.

Usage: Here is another word we have bungled. Because raveling knitwear is undoing something previously done, we feel we need the prefix un- on this verb but the meaning of that suffix is built into the meaning of "ravel." The error is similar to the one which led us to remove the in- from "inflammable," thinking that it means "un-" when in fact it means "begin." Inflame means "to ignite," so inflammable means "ignitable." Well, guess what: unravel means "to reweave" that is, to un-unweave. The British like to double the [L] with suffixes: "ravelling," "ravelled," while North Americans prefer hobbling along on one: "raveling," "raveled." Both are correct.

Suggested Usage: Sweaters are not the only things that go raveling: "As Germaine explained her situation, Percy could see his plans for a quiet domestic life with her raveling before his ears." Things ravel outside the head, too: "Celeste could feel her new hair-do raveling in the wind and mist of Foggy Bottom." Harsh winters can ravel poorly maintained roads and the nerves of those who drive over them.

Etymology: The etymology of today's word is something of a disappointment. We only know that English borrowed it from an obsolete Dutch verb ravelen "ravel" from ravel "a loose thread". There is a dialectal English word raffle "tangle, ravel" but it is apparently a variant of today's word and no help in tracing the origin of "ravel."

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

effete (eh-FEET; ih-), adjective:

1. No longer capable of producing young; infertile; barren; sterile.
2. Exhausted of energy; incapable of efficient action; worn out.
3. Marked by self-indulgence or decadence; degenerate.
4. Overrefined; effeminate.

[ Effete derives from Latin effetus, "weakened by giving birth; worn out, exhausted;” from ex- + fetus, "bearing young, pregnant."



“In a democracy decadence does not arrive when the aristocracy becomes effete -- it shows up in the life of the average man.”
- Andrew Holleran, In September, the Light Changes

“He wasn't refined or effete, but a horse trader, smart, clever, always with his ear to the ground.”
- Bob Ortega, In Sam We Trust

"Effete results from virile efforts." - Mrs. Browning


Synonyms
(1.) unproductive, infecund, fruitless
(2.) used up, spent, exhausted, dissipated, depleted, frazzled, strengthless, debilitated, asthenic, devitalized, ineffectual, burnt-out.
(3.) dissipated, depraved, dissolute, degenerate, profligate
(4.) affected, precious, mincing, précieuse [Fr] ; womanish, muliebrous, soft, prissy

Synonyms do not alway have the same meaning as the tartet word, but looking at them may help one to find a more precise word; one that will make your language clear and pellucid.

moil (MOYL) intransitive verb: moiled, moil.ing, moils

1. To work with painful effort; to labor; to toil; to drudge.
2. To churn or swirl about continuously.

noun:
1. Toil; hard work; drudgery.
2. Confusion; turmoil.

moiler, noun
moil.ing.ly, adverb

Moil comes from Middle English moillen, "to soak, to wet," hence "to soil, to soil one's hands, to work very hard," from Old French moillier, "to soften, especially by making wet," ultimately from Latin mollis, "soft."

“Why should he toil and moil, and be at so much trouble to pick himself up out the mud, when, in a little while hence, the strong arm of his Uncle will raise and support him?”
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

“He saw himself in the sleepless moil of early parenthood, and felt a plunging anxiety.”
- Alan Hollinghurst, The Spell
source: http://www.dictionary.com

There is a word turmoil useful to describe the state of an overworked mind; especially when it has to make too many hard decisions!

Here's and juicy tidbit about Gail's word 'ravel' from yesterday:

ravel

1582, "to untangle, unwind," also "to become tangled or confused" (1585), from Du. ravelen "to tangle, fray, unweave," from rafel "frayed thread." The seemingly contradictory senses of this word (ravel and unravel are both synonyms and antonyms) are reconciled by its roots in weaving and sewing: as threads become unwoven, they get tangled.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper