phalanx

phalanx - noun - a group of heavily armed infantry formed in ranks and files close and deep with shields joined and long spears overlapping.

Inspired by today's word 'legion', I couldn't help but think quickly to come up with a similar military word. Indeed, I'm fascinated with ancient military weapons and tactics. I personally believe we have evolved to a point where warfare is 'clean' in so far as innocent bystanders are not targets and killing them is a veritable crime. So war has become a common occurrence, but we don't call it that. We call it military action. War is an atrocity. It should be fought with shields, spears and swords, up close so you know the man (or woman) you are killing. Raping and pillaging should be allowed as spoils to the victor. In such a climate, war once again becomes dirty and it's use as an extension of political or economic power becomes less commonplace. But I digress. Here is a quote which applies to today's word:

“Now of those, who dare, abiding one beside another, to advance to the close fray, and the foremost champions, fewer die, and they save the people in the rear; but in men that fear, all excellence is lost. No one could ever in words go through those several ills, which befall a man, if he has been actuated by cowardice. For ‘tis grievous to wound in the rear the back of a flying man in hostile war. Shameful too is a corpse lying low in the dust, wounded behind in the back by the point of a spear.” [Tyrtaeus: The War Songs Of Tyrtaeus]

exude

exude - v. - to ooze out; to undergo diffusion

I'm back!

I've read through all (most all, anyway) the words y'all posted on the days I missed. Great words! It really is amazing how many words we've been through...and how many more there are left! Yay!

BTW...maybe John is right and y'all do need me to keep you two honest. I saw those pictures (you know which ones I'm talking about)!

legion

legion – n - A division of the Roman army, usually comprising 3000 to 6000 soldiers.

For centuries Rome had the best-trained, most efficient army the world had ever seen. They usually won, but there were at least two notable exceptions: in A.D. 9, Varus walked into a German ambush and lost three legions, and in A.D. 378 the emperor Valens took over 60% casualties against the Visigoths at Adrianople.

Jerry Pournelle noted that there have been only two extended periods of peace in history, the Pax Romana and the Pax Brittanica, and both were enforced by imperial military forces.

magnitude

magnitude - noun - Size; extent; great importance or consequence; a number characteristic of a quantity and forming a basis for comparison with similar quantities such as length; the brightness of a star or other celestial body as viewed by the unaided eye and expressed by a mathematical ration of 2.512: a star of the first magnitude is approximately 2.5 times as bright as one of the second magnitude and 100 times brighter than one of the sixth magnitude

I think that definition is long enough to not warrant commentary, don't you?

factor

factor – A person who acts or transacts business for another; an agent entrusted with the possession of goods to be sold in the agent's name; a merchant earning a commission by selling goods belonging to others.

Obviously, the word has several definitions; I've given a couple that may be less familiar. In the ante-bellum South, such crops as cotton, tobacco, and indigo would be shipped overseas to a factor, who would then handle the sale. The factor might also purchase and ship back items that were not readily available in the states. This became a bone of contention in the states that eventually made up the Confederacy. Since the federal government in its pre-income-tax days was mostly financed by import tariffs, Southerners felt - with some justification - that they were bearing a disproportianate share of the burden.

impatience

impatience - noun - eager desire for relief or change; restlessness; intolerance of anything that thwarts, delays or hinders.

This is listed as a virtue in programming circles. I found this article to be quite amusing and often accurate. Note the other virtues of programmers is hubris and laziness.

decimate

decimate – v - To destroy a great number or proportion of; to select by lot and kill every tenth person of.

Both sides, Union and Confederate, were decimated on the single bloodiest day in American history, September 17, 1862. The scene was the ridges and fields west of Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland. There were over 23,000 casualties, more than the total casualties for the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Spanish-American War combined. A sorrowful day indeed.

honorific

honorific - n - A title, phrase, or grammatical form conveying respect, used especially when addressing a social superior.

For example, a cardinal is addressed as "Your Eminence," a king as "Your Highness," etc.

And now I have some mournful news: Natalie has thrown in the towel; the co-founder of our institution is no longer with us. Ave Atque Vale, Natalia!

picture of a punty (click here)

punty - noun - an iron rod used in glassmaking for handling the hot glass.

You can't see it very well in this picture, but the rod in approximately the center of the picture running into the orange mass of glass is the punty. Glassblowing has always fascinated me. There used to be a glassblower in Colorado Springs which we used to visit from time to time, and I never wanted to leave. It was so exciting to watch the blow and manipulate the glass into such beautiful shapes.

limn

limn –v - To represent in drawing or painting; to portray in words; describe; to illuminate manuscripts.

I'm a big fan of the lost art of manuscript illumination. Here's a page from the Book of Kells (c. A.D. 800), a copy of the gospels produced by Irish monks.

inscrutable

inscrutable - adj - difficult to fathom or understand; difficult to be explained or accounted for satisfactorily; obscure; incomprehensible; impenetrable

Kind of like the Democratic response to the Presidents speech last night. Some of the comments, especially those related to the economy didn't make sense to me. Not because I'm not an economist, but because they seemed to be restating the same points the President made. Further, the comments related to the defense of the nation seemed more related to how his father had served a long tour, how he had served with the Marines, how his son was serving currently, more than a rebuttal of how the President was handling the situation in Iraq. I guess I'm just not cut out for political endeavors.

patina

patina – n - A film or incrustation, usually green, produced by oxidation on the surface of old bronze and often esteemed as being of ornamental value; a similar film or coloring appearing gradually on some other substance; a surface calcification of implements, usu. indicating great age.

en masse

en masse – n - In a mass; all together; as a group.

George Bush is expected to push for amnesty en masse for illegal aliens in his State of the Union speech tonight. I wish I could remember who said that "a declining civilization will almost instinctively make the wrong decisions." Incidentally, how seriously am I supposed to take this so-called War on Terror?

logistics

logistics – n - The branch of military science and operations dealing with the procurement, supply, and maintenance of equipment, with the movement, evacuation, and hospitalization of personnel, with the provision of facilities and services, and with related matters; the planning, implementation, and coordination of the details of a business or other operation.

I was interested to learn that the Union Army of the Potomac, with about 105,000 men present in Spring of 1862, needed 600 tons of supplies daily to maintain itself. I am therefore highly skeptical of Herodotus' claim that Xerxes fielded a five-million-man army in the second Persian War (480-479 BC). McLellan had railroads and steamboats at his disposal; Xerxes had sailboats and oxcarts.

imprecation

imprecation - noun - a curse; the act of invoking evil upon someone

This word comes in pretty handy today. It seems, as the roads improve, people drive slower. I have been leaving an extra 10 or so minutes before my normal (non-winter-weather time) and arriving at work at a progressively later time. GAH! Why? Well the idiots[backspace][backspace][backspace][backspace][backspace][backspace] people on the road who can't figure out the accelerator is on the right-hand side and drive like a normal person on perfectly clear highways. Driving 20 mph below the speed limit when the roads are clear does nothing but make every driver behind you frustrated and angry, and potentially causes wrecks. I speak an imprecation on these morons!

consummate

consummate - verb - to bring to a state of perfection; fulfill (adj - complete or perfect; supremely skilled; superb)

I used this word in the definition of yesterday's allegedly 'R' rated posting, so I thought to define it today. Surprisingly it hasn't already been used!

doxology

doxology - n - A hymn or form of words containing an ascription of praise to God; the Doxology, the metrical formula beginning “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”

One reason I'm not a libertarian is that, if I can judge from such Austrian school writers as Lew Rockwell, their doxology is, "Praise be to Walmart from which all blessings flow."

Congratulations are in order for Jeff, who produced our first R-rated WoD! I'm now working on a second such entry.

exquisite

exquisite - adj - of special beauty or charm or rare and appealing excellence as a face, a flower, coloring, music or poetry; extraordinarily fine or admirable; consummate

In following yesterday's word, I am providing a couple of pictures I find matching today's word. These are posted by request from Jack. The credit for the pictures goes to http://www.domai.com where they were originally posted.



An exquisite beauty!

et alia

et alia - adv - And others (used as an abbreviation of 'et alii' (masculine plural) or 'et aliae' (feminine plural) or 'et alia' (neutral plural) when referring to a number of people).

As in a recent email by Michael George to "Clint et al." Just call me Et for short. (Yes, you're right: that p---ed me off.)

pulchritudinous

pulchritudinous - adj - physically beautiful; comely

I had in mind to add a link to a picture of something I consider extremely beautiful, but then thought perhaps it (the picture) wouldn't be well received. So I'll leave you with some ideas of things I consider beautiful, ranked in order of most to least. However keep in mind, the 'least' on this list is still extremely beautiful.

the unclad feminine form
vibrant Sunsets
the Ocean
flora in full bloom

macabre

macabre – adj - Gruesome and horrifying; ghastly; horrible; of, pertaining to, dealing with, or representing death, esp. its grimmer or uglier aspect; of or suggestive of the allegorical dance of death.

One of my earlier movie memories is of the brouhaha surrounding the 1955 movie Macabre. The gimmick was that every ticket purchased came with a $1000 Lloyds of London insurance policy covering the purchaser if he died of fright watching the movie. As far as I know, nobody collected.

absentminded

absentminded - adj - lost in thought and unaware of one's surroundings or actions.

I guess this applies to me on this list recently. I have had time to put words in the list, but just haven't thought about it. I've been preoccupied with getting my software written and ready for testing and being responsive to the bugtracker to get defects fixed and closed as quickly as possible. I'll try to be less absentminded and be more attentive to getting my words on the list.

bien pensant

Bien pensant - n - A French phrase literally translated as "good thinking" or "right thinking", commonly used as a mild pejorative to describe the acceptance of a fashionable idea after it has been established in the mainstream without a sufficient amount of critical thought. The term has been used by both the political left and right, to critique, respectively, views seen as reactionary, or excessively politically correct, amongst other things.

My son Michael was married yesterday, and will be heading for Fort Riley as soon as the honeyman is over. For once, I have an answer to "What's new?" other than "I ate dinner, read a book, and hit the sack."

favonian

favonian - adj - pertaining to the west wind; soft; mild; gentle

I can't believe I haven't used this word before. I was going through some of my word lists from back in high school and thought about this one. I used to try to find ways to use this one in a sentence because of how neat it sounds. Anyway, probably doesn't apply to what just happened to Hz employees a couple of days ago.

unequivocal

unequivocal –adj - Not equivocal; unambiguous; clear; having only one possible meaning or interpretation: absolute; unqualified; not subject to conditions or exceptions

I've actually seen three good movies lately, and I recommend them all: World Trade Center (PG-13), Apocalypto (rated R for some intense violence), and (much to my surprise) The Black Dahlia (rated a hard R; strictly for adults).

ineluctable

ineluctable – adj - Incapable of being evaded; inescapable.

Jeff, you may have heard that we had a couple of hundred layoffs Friday. The rewrite group didn't lose any heads but legacy and GDD did. Another thing: I think we may have lost Natalie, co-founder of our peculiar institution. Do you have any ideas why?

sunder

sunder - verb - to break apart; to separate; to divide; to sever

I ran across this word in reading more of my Andre Norton books, in this case "The Beast Master" and "The Beast Master's Ark". Both real page-turners. I have a hard time putting them down and going to sleep. Highly recommended, as are all the Andre Norton books, which are typically short, quick reading, but very addictive.

bildungsroman

Bildungsroman – n - a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.

As just one example, try Robert Lewis Taylor's Pulitzer Prize winner The Travels of Jamie McPheeters.

cortege

cortege - noun - a train of attendants; a procession, especially a funeral procession


It is interesting this word can mean the folks following a king or those following a hearse.

ex nihilo

ex nihilo - adv & adj - Out of nothing.

Sorry about my recent absences, but I seldom get a chance to come up for air these days. Implementaion of the rewrite is less than a year away.

impart

impart - verb - to make known, tell, relate or disclose; to give, bestow or communicate; to grant a part or share of

Slightly related to yesterday's word. It was used in the same sentence which I recall even less now.

impute

impute - verb - to attribute or ascribe (something discreditable) as to a person; to attribute (righteousness, guilt, etc) to a person or persons vicariously; ascribe as derived from another.

What an interesting word. This was used in a sentence Sunday which I can't recall completely (and now _really_ wish I could) but was in the gist of something God does to us. Something like 'God imputes us with grace'. I find the concept of ascribing someone with righteousness vicariously a bit odd.

hoi polloi

hoi polloi – n - The common people; the masses.

This is another word dating back to my earliest youth. The Kavanaghs, I was told, were members of the hoi polloi.