Thursday, July 15, 2010

Ss: Synergism

Christianity The doctrine that individual salvation is achieved through a combination of human will and divine grace.
Syn: Together
Ergos: Work

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Rr: Remonstrance

v.tr.
To say or plead in protest, objection, or reproof.
v.intr.
To reason or plead in protest; present an objection.

Aa: Apostate

n.
One who has abandoned one's religious faith, a political party, one's principles, or a cause.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin apostata, from Greek apostats, from aphistanai,to revolt; see apostasy.]

a·postate adj.


Monday, July 12, 2010

Jj: Jig

n. Offensive Slang
Used as a disparaging term for a Black person.


n.
1.
a. Any of various lively dances in triple time.
b. The music for such a dance. Also called gigue.
2. A joke or trick. Used chiefly in the phrase The jig is up.
3. A typically metal fishing lure with one or more hooks, usually deployed with a jiggling motion on or near the bottom.
4. An apparatus for cleaning or separating crushed ore by agitation in water.
5. A device for guiding a tool or for holding machine work in place.
v. jiggedjig·gingjigs
v.intr.
1. To dance or play a jig.
2. To move or bob up and down jerkily and rapidly.
3. To operate a jig.
v.tr.
1. To bob or jerk (something) up and down or to and fro.
2. To machine (an object) with the aid of a jig.
3. To separate or clean (ore) by shaking a jig.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Pp: Pica


pi·ca 1  (pk)
n.
1.
a. A printer's unit of type size, equal to 12 points or about 1/6 of an inch.
b. An equivalent unit of composition measurement used in determining the dimensions of lines, illustrations, or printed pages.
2. A type size for typewriters, providing ten characters to the inch.

[Probably from Medieval Latin pcalist of church services (perhaps from the typeface used to print it).]


pi·ca 2  (pk)
n.
An abnormal craving or appetite for nonfood substances, such as dirt, paint, or clay.

[New Latin pca, from Latin, magpie (from its omnivorous nature).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.



The reading-matter is compressed into two hundred and five small-pica lines, and is lighted up with eight pica headlines.



Friday, July 2, 2010

Pp: Phantasies

n pl -sies
an archaic spelling of fantasy

Deep within her there was something that would not be cheated by phantasies and that demanded some definite answer from life.  (Anderson, Sherwood page 118) 

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Ee: Epitome

epitome
something representative as a fine example of the whole group of things to which it belongs. See also books.
See also: Representation

-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.



Noun1.epitomeepitome - a standard or typical example; "he is the prototype of good breeding"; "he provided America with an image of the good father"
examplemodel - a representative form or pattern; "I profited from his example"
concentrate - a concentrated example of something; "the concentrate of contemporary despair"
imago - (psychoanalysis) an idealized image of someone (usually a parent) formed in childhood


Word in Context:


The individual, the personal, the concrete, as distinguished from, yet revealing in its fulness, the general, the universal--that is Mr. Browning's chosen subject-matter: "Every man is for him an epitome of the universe, a centre of creation." It is always the particular soul, and the particular act or episode, as the flower of the particular soul--the act or episode by which its quality comes to the test--in which he interests us. With him it is always "a drama of the interior, a tragedy or comedy of the soul, to see thereby how each soul becomes conscious of itself."