Today's Word: vol-au-vent

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	This week's theme is: Harry Potter Vocab

vol-au-vent

	Your current subscription status is: MyWordaDay Only. > Did you know Vocab Vitamins Complete is just $16.50/year? Open Spigot: The Vocab Vitamins Blog 6/27 Vocab Vitamins is opening up Vocab Vitamins - The Book. Your vitamins -- now wrapped in paper with original illustrations. > Subscribe > Account Settings To UNSUBSCRIBE, click here and follow the instructions on our simple form. Fire Escape Partners 3465 25th Street, Suite 17 San Francisco, CA 94110	(noun) [vo'-loe-VAWN*] 1. a puff pastry shell filled with a savory meat or fish mixture in a sauce: "I could eat five vol-au-vent appetizers and still have room for an entree." * from the French pronunciation, where the preceding vowel is nasalized, as in 'bon.' Origin: Approximately 1820; from French, literally, 'flight with the wind' ('vol': flight + 'au': with the + 'vent': wind). In action: "For $14, most people probably split dessert, even though the servings are small enough for one. Yet, the apricot vol-au-vent with mulberry preserves and creme fraiche ice cream, and a stellar chocolate pudding cake with salted caramel sauce and coffee ice cream made the $400 bill for two go down a little easier." Michael Bauer. "The dish on Los Angeles," [Restaurant Review: 'Cut'] San Francisco Chronicle (July 25, 2007). "Starters were masterful. Blush-pink foie gras terrine, served with a tiny glass of gew�rztraminer, was among the best I have had. Ahi tuna tartare is rarely done so well; paired with julienned cucumber, it had a melting texture and was just salty enough. In lobster vol-au-vent, a house favorite, creamy leeks filled the delicate pastry shell, and claw meat were playfully posed with green and white asparagus spears. Saffron scented a light lobster bisque. Presented in a tiny copper pot, tender sweetbreads and morels in a vermouth emulsion gave off a wonderful fragrance when the lid was lifted. Only snails, imported from Burgundy and swimming in garlic butter, were disappointing; served scorching hot, their nutty flavor was lost. Like a horse that goes out early but flags in the stretch, entrees could not keep pace with appetizers. To be fair, rosy lamb with buttery spaetzle made a fine showing. Cassoulet, touted here, was a bit heavy-handed, perhaps more satisfying in winter than in spring. Roasted duck was nicely done, but the offering of fresh peach sauce in April, when navel oranges are at their peak, was puzzling." Alice Gabriel. "A French Kitchen Fares Well in Transition," [Restaurant Review: 'Buffet de la Gare' in Hastings-on-Hudson] The New York Times (May 14, 2006).
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A.Word.A.Day--decolletage

Wordsmith.org

The Magic of Words

Aug 31, 2010

This week's theme
Terms from French

This week's words
agent provocateur
decolletage

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with Anu Garg

decolletage or décolletage

PRONUNCIATION:

(day-kol-TAZH, -kol-uh-)

MEANING:

noun: A low neckline on a woman's dress.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French décolletage (low-cut), past participle of décolleter (to expose the neck), from de- (away) + collet (collar), diminutive of col (neck).

USAGE:

"If you order The Proposal [as an in-flight movie on Saudi Arabian Airlines], you get a blurry blob over Sandra Bullock's modest decolletage, and even her clavicles."
Maureen Dowd; A Girls' Guide to Saudi Arabia; Vanity Fair (New York); Aug 2010.

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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- that is to be educated. -Edith Hamilton, educator and writer (1867-1963)

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"Rubicon" - Word of the Day from the OED

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Rubicon, n.

SECOND EDITION 1989

(rubkn)  [The ancient name of a small stream on the east coast of northern Italy, forming part of the southern boundary of Cisalpine Gaul; the crossing of it by Cæsar marked the beginning of the war with Pompey.] 

    1. a. to cross or pass the Rubicon, to take a decisive or final step, esp. at the outset of some undertaking or enterprise.

1626 J. MEAD in Birch Crt. & Times Chas. I (1848) I. 180 Queen Dido did never more importune Æneas's stay at Carthage, than his mother and sister do his continuance here at London... But now he is past the Rubicon. 1643 J. OWEN Death of Death Wks. 1852 X. 150 The die being cast and Rubicon crossed. 1672 DRYDEN Conq. Granada I. III, This noyse may chill your Blood, but mine it warms: We have already past the Rubicon. 1722 DE FOE Col. Jack (1840) 214 Giving her to understand..that she had passed the Rubicon; that she had taken such a step of her own accord. 1771 Junius Lett. liv. (1788) 301 note, The very soliloquy of Lord Suffolk before he passed the Rubicon. 1827 SCOTT Napoleon IV. 21 [Bonaparte] would,..like Cæsar, have crossed the Rubicon at the head of the popular party. 1847 C. BRONTË J. Eyre vii, A pausein which I began to steady the palsy of my nerves, and to feel that the rubicon was passed.

    b. attrib. in Rubicon die (alluding to Cæsar's words alea jacta est).

a1628 F. GREVIL Life Sidney (1907) 113 [He] rather thought good to venture upon the cast of a Rubicon Dy.

    2. A boundary, bounding line, or limit, in lit. or fig. senses.

1690 CROWNE Eng. Friar v. Dram. Wks. 1874 IV. 101 I'll be hanged if this fellow got me. Some Cæsar pass'd my mother's Rubicon; wou'd I had his commentaries. 1711 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. V. 132 The bancks of the Boyn.., the ould Rubicon of the Pale. 1738 DE FOE Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 2) III. 19 Having thus passed the Rubicon (Trent) and set my Face Northward. 1829 SYD. SMITH Wks. (1859) II. 29/2 The moment the punishment passes this Rubicon, it becomes less and less, instead of greater and greater. 1862 M. E. BRADDON Lady Audley xxvi, He was behindhand in his education, and had not yet passed the intellectual Rubicon of words of two syllables. 1895 BOSCAWEN Bible & Monuments (1896) 112 The Deluge formed the rubicon between the mythic period and the heroic and polyarchal age.

    3. attrib. Applied to varieties of bezique and piquet. Also absol. (see quots.).

1882 ‘CAVENDISH’ (title) The laws of Rubicon piquet, adopted by the Portland Club. 1887 ‘CAVENDISH’ (title), The Laws of Rubicon Bezique. 1890 BERKELEY Bezique & Cribbage 4 The game came much into vogue in France, under the name of Japanese or Rubicon Bezique. 1897 R. F. FOSTER Compl. Hoyle 438 Rubicon piquet, for two players. The chief difference between this game and the usual form, Piquet au cent, is in the manner of declaring... Rubicons. If either or both players fail to reach 100 points in the six deals, the one having the most is the winner, and adds to his own score all the points made by the loser, with 100 in addition for game. 1950 Hoyle's Games Modernized (ed. 20) 76 It is only necessary to discuss the Rubicon Game, the game of 100 or 101 points being in disuse. Ibid., There is another condition, namely, the establishment of 100 as a ‘Rubicon’. 1973 J. SCARNE Encycl. Games 604 Rubicon (piquet), failure of the loser of a game to reach 100 points. 1975 Way to Play 105/1 The procedure then depends on whether these totals exceed the ‘rubicon’ of 100 points.

    Hence rubicon v. (see quot. 1890).

1890 BERKELEY Bezique & Cribbage 10 If the loser's score, with his brisques, is less than 1,000, he is said to be rubiconed. 1897 R. F. FOSTER Complete Hoyle 623 Rubiconed, lurched, defeated before getting half way.

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[Increase My Vocabulary]

Glomerule:
a compacted or sessile cyme

Today's Word: chortle

Your daily dose of

	This week's theme is: Harry Potter Vocab

chortle

	Your current subscription status is: MyWordaDay Only. > Did you know Vocab Vitamins Complete is just $16.50/year? Open Spigot: The Vocab Vitamins Blog 6/27 Vocab Vitamins is opening up Vocab Vitamins - The Book. Your vitamins -- now wrapped in paper with original illustrations. > Subscribe > Account Settings To UNSUBSCRIBE, click here and follow the instructions on our simple form. Fire Escape Partners 3465 25th Street, Suite 17 San Francisco, CA 94110	(noun, intransitive verb, transitive verb) [CHOR-tl] noun 1. a noisy joyful laugh, often featuring a snort: "He interrupted himself with loud chortles as he told us his favorite joke." intransitive and transitive verb 2. to laugh or express with a chortle additional noun form: chortler Origin: Approximately 1872; coined by Lewis Carroll in "Through the Looking Glass," probably a blend of chuckle and snort. In action: "Mr. MacGowan still possesses the morbid streak he has had since his days as a punk rocker in his first band, the Nipple Erectors. In another tangent, speaking about 'The Butcher Boy,' Neil Jordan's film version of Patrick McCabe's darkly satirical novel about a boy's murder spree in County Monaghan, he said with a rasping chortle, 'It's great if you don't actually know everything that happens in every Irish town every day of the week.' He said he loved Mr. Jordan's adaptation of Mr. McCabe's 'Breakfast on Pluto,' about a London drag queen in trouble with the I.R.A. in the 1970s. He said it brought 'back nostalgia for mass killings and bombings, you know what I mean?' Hours later the Pogues were onstage at the Avalon, playing to a sold-out house. Fans were carried aloft over the mosh pit, as the eight-man band pounded out frenzied jigs and reels with a controlled fury. Workouts like 'Fiesta' and 'Sally MacLennan' prompted stomping and fist pumping; 'Dirty Old Town,' a tune by the folk singer Ewan MacColl and a longtime Pogues signature, became a deafening singalong. More than once Mr. MacGowan, staggering, knocked the microphone off its stand or knocked the stand over altogether, to good-natured laughter. But his voice was sure, and his bond with the audience unmistakable." Andy Webster. "A Ramble Through the Mind of the Pogues' Poet," The New York Times (March 13, 2007). "Elephants travel considerable distances to scarf douka fruits when they're ripe and falling, and the well-worn elephant trails we'd been following ourselves seemed to run like traplines from one douka to another. Take away those mature, fruiting trees (by selective logging, for instance) and the local elephant population would lose part of its seasonal diet. But for now the grand old doukas were still here, showing evidence of recent attention (fresh elephant dung, gnaw marks in the bark), and so were the elephant trails. We hit another short stretch of good walking, then heard another group of monkeys. This time, in response to the eagle whistle, there came a low, grunting chortle: chooga- chooga-chooga-chooga-chooga. Having heard it many times over the months, even I could recognize that as the alarm call of the gray-cheeked mangabey, Lophocebus albigena, an-other species dependent on fruiting trees. 'It looks like the old gray-cheeks are gonna make it to the beach after all,' Fay said. 'That's cool. I was a little worried, 'cause we hadn't seen them for three or four days.' The presence of Lophocebus albigena, overlapping here with its red-capped cousin, became another notebook entry. Then again we walked�westward, toward the beach�but only for five minutes, until the black lake stopped us cold." David Quammen. "End of the Line: Megatransect Part 3," National Geographic.com (August 2001). "Speaking of comedy, that's a funny word, lad. 'Macaroons.' Makes you chuckle just to say it, what? Ha. Uh, yeah. Funny. So -- Fallopian tubes. Huh? Another funny word. And monkey. Ha! You just can't say monkey without a good chortle!" King Kaufman. "The sound of one horse clopping," [Satire: interview with the horse from Monty Python and the Holy Grail] Salon.com (June 16, 2001).
	VocabVitamins.com	Tune in tomorrow for: VOL-AU-VENT

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A.Word.A.Day--agent provocateur

Wordsmith.org

The Magic of Words

Aug 30, 2010

This week's theme
Terms from French

This week's words
agent provocateur

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with Anu Garg

In their advice on good writing, some style guides recommend avoiding expressions borrowed from a foreign language (for example, savoir-faire). While the advice is well-intentioned, there are situations where a term from another language sums up an idea precisely in a few syllables that would otherwise take a few sentences in English.

Besides, if you take a larger view, it's hard to say where one language ends and another begins. Consider such everyday words as coach, garage, ketchup, and pal. Do they seem like one hundred percent English language words? In fact, we borrowed them from Hungarian, French, Chinese, and Romany, respectively.

So when a word appears to be foreign, often it's just that it hasn't tumbled around in the river of our language long enough to make it look (spelling) and sound (pronunciation) like a native. Also, some words take longer than others in getting naturalized.

This week we've picked five terms from French that -- even though they have been a part of the English language for more than a century -- still look very French.

Feel free to pepper your lingo with these terms, but remember, just like pepper, a little goes a long way.

A note about pronunciation: Some of the terms have their pronunciations naturalized while others are still pronounced as in French.

agent provocateur

PRONUNCIATION:

(ah-ZHON* proh-vok-uh-TUHR)

[* the second syllable is nasal]
plural agents provocateurs (pronunciation same)

MEANING:

noun: Someone employed to encourage or provoke suspects into doing something illegal so they can be arrested or discredited.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French agent provocateur (provoking agent).

USAGE:

"Stanislav Beranek was critical over the creation of the role of agent provocateur, who will seek to provoke artificial situations in which someone will accept a bribe."
Cillian O'Donoghue; New Pandur Purchase Inquiry Launched; The Prague Post (Czech Republic); Jul 21, 2010.

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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Now is the time to understand / That all your ideas of right and wrong / Were just a child's training wheels / To be laid aside / When you finally live / With veracity / And love. -Hafez, poet (1315-1390)

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