Writing Game Mod

http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl?Jul.14.2009

1 : unwilling, reluctant
*2 : done, given, or allowed unwillingly, reluctantly, or sparingly

Example Sentence:
Lydia's father greeted her new boyfriend with a rather cold and grudging handshake.

Did you know?
More than five hundred years have passed since English jurist Sir John Fortescue observed, "Somme . . . obtayne gretter rewardis than thei have disserved, and yit grugge, seying they have [too] litill." Fortescue's "grugge" (an early spelling of the verb "grudge") meant "to grumble and complain," just like its Middle English forerunner, "grucchen," and the Anglo-French word "grucer," which gave rise to the English forms. English speakers had adopted the "complaining" sense of "grudge" by the late 1400s, and by 1500 they had added the extended sense "reluctant." That second sense may have developed because people associated "grudge" with the related word "begrudge" (meaning "to give reluctantly"). "Grudging," which developed from "grudge," made its English debut around 1533.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl?Jul.12.2009

*1 : the legal right of using and enjoying the fruits or profits of something belonging to another
2 : the right to use or enjoy something

Example Sentence:
Dorothy's will bequeathed one-third of her estate to her husband; the remaining two-thirds was bequeathed to him as a lifetime usufruct, later to be donated to charity.

Did you know?
Thomas Jefferson said, "The earth belongs in usufruct to the living." He apparently understood that when you hold something in usufruct, you gain something of significant value, but only temporarily. The gains granted by usufruct can be clearly seen in the Latin phrase from which the word developed, "usus et fructus," which means "use and enjoyment." Latin speakers condensed that phrase to "ususfructus," the term English speakers used as the model for our modern word. "Usufruct" has been used as a noun for the legal right to use something since at least the 1630s. Any right granted by usufruct ends at a specific point, usually the death of the individual who holds it.

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/07/13.html

1.Of or relating to a tailor or to tailoring.
2.Of or relating to clothing, or style or manner of dress.
3.[Anatomy] Of or relating to the sartorius muscle.

Quotes:
His sartorial style runs toward jeans, Hawaiian shirts and cowboy boots, and he favors the grizzled, haven't-shaven-in-days look.
-- Gary Rivlin, "AOL's Rough Riders", Industry Standard, October 23, 2000

She probably sensed that he had married her for her beautiful dark eyes and sartorial splendor -- and she may now have regretted the plumed hats and luxurious fur collars she had worn seductively in her youth.
-- Thomas A. Underwood, Allen Tate: Orphan of the South

The Puritan leadership was especially distressed by the sartorial ostentation of the lower classes, who were supposed to content themselves with "raiment suitable to the order in which God's providence has placed them."
-- Patricia O'Toole, Money & Morals in America

Origin:
Sartorial derives from Latin sartor, "a patcher, tailor," from sartus, past participle of sarcire, "to patch, to mend."

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/07/12.html

1.Incapable of being expressed in words; unspeakable; unutterable; indescribable.
2.Not to be uttered; taboo.

Quotes:
. . .the tension inherent in human language when it attempts to relate the ineffable, see the invisible, understand the incomprehensible.
-- Jeffrey Burton Russell, A History of Heaven

Pope John Paul II notes that people are drawn to religion to answer the really big questions--for example, "What is the ultimate ineffable mystery which is the origin and destiny of our existence?"
-- William A. Sherden, The Fortune Sellers

One cannot blame them very much; explaining the ineffable is difficult.
-- Edward O. Wilson, "The Biological Basis of Morality", The Atlantic, April 1998

Origin:
Ineffable is from Latin ineffabilis, from in-, "not" + effabilis, "utterable," from effari, "to utter," from ex-, "out" + fari, "to speak."

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/07/11.html

1.Lacking social polish; tactless; awkward; clumsy.

Quotes:
He was largely exempted from the formal socializing he said he found so hard to manage, flustered and gauche in polite company as he had always been.
-- John Sturrock, "Well on the Way to Paranoia", New York Times, July 28, 1991

He was by nature intellectual, shy, even gauche and he always believed he lacked the common touch.
-- "Editor whose legacy was diversity", Irish Times, October 9, 1999

The audience's performance was altogether more gauche, with scores of people in the stalls constantly turning round to gawp at Mick Jagger seated ten rows back.
-- Noreen Taylor, "How was it for him?", Times (London), August 3, 2000

Origin:
Gauche is from the French for left, awkward.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl?Jul.03.2009

: the use of a word to modify two or more words in such a way that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one

Example Sentence:
"Torpedoes hit their mark! Ship and many hopes sink!" said the headline, employing vivid zeugma.

Did you know?
"Zeugma, like the pun, is economical: it contracts two sentences into one . . . it links unrelated terms -- mental with moral, abstract with physical, high with low -- and thus generates surprise." (Walter Redfern, Puns) "Zeugma," which has been a part of the English language since the 15th century, comes from Greek, where it literally means "joining." The Greek word has another connection to English as well. In the early 1970s, a chemistry professor named Paul Lauterbur developed a technique for producing images of internal organs. He called it "zeugmatography," because it involved the joining of magnetic fields. Lauterbur was awarded a Nobel Prize, but the name he chose didn’t stick. The technique is known today as magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI.

http://wordsmith.org/words/jake.html

PRONUNCIATION:
(jayk)
MEANING:
adjective: Satisfactory; all right; okay.

ETYMOLOGY:
Of unknown origin.

USAGE:
"So far as the state is concerned, everything is jake. But the council seems determined to throw a monkey wrench into the works."
James Gill; Council Seems Eager to Trip Up Churchill; The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana); Apr 20, 2005.

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/06/11.html

Living again; brought back to life; revived; restored.

Redivivus comes from Latin, from the prefix red-, re-, "again" + vivus, "alive."

http://wordsmith.org/words/rachmanism.html

PRONUNCIATION:
(RAK-muh-niz-uhm)
MEANING:
noun: The exploitation and intimidation of tenants by landlords.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Peter Rachman (1919-1962), a landlord in London who became notorious for unethical practices including driving out tenants to maximize revenue from his rental properties. Another fellow who got his name in the dictionary for harassing tenants is Charles Boycott (1832-1897), a British land agent in Ireland, whose mistreatment of tenants resulted in his getting ostracized, i.e. he was boycotted.

USAGE:
"It is a story of pure Rachmanism. She had been threatened, had her rent cheque refused, her electricity cut off, and seen her absent neighbours' flats cleared of all their possessions, while rubbish was dumped outside her door."
Peter Beaumont; Drowned City Cuts Its Poor Adrift; The Observer (London, UK); Dec 11, 2005.

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/06/15.html

The state of being bright and radiant; splendor; brilliance.

From Latin ex, "out of, from" + fulgere, "to shine." The adjective form of the word is effulgent.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl?Jun.25.2009

: marked by an increase : increasing

Example Sentence:
"The people love me, and the sea is mine; / My powers are crescent, and my auguring hope / Says it will come to th' full." (William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra)

Did you know?
You probably know "crescent" as the shape of a moon that is less than half-illuminated. These days, "crescent" is generally used of either a waxing or waning moon, but that wasn't always the case. Originally, it referred only to the increasing illumination phase that immediately follows the new moon. That original meaning nicely reflects the meaning of the word's Latin ancestor "crescere," which means "to grow." The meaning of "crescere" also shines through when we use "crescent" as an adjective meaning "increasing" or "growing." English speakers have been using "crescent" in this way since the 16th century.

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/06/25.html

1. To make a soft, low sighing or rustling sound, as the wind.

noun:
1. A soft, low rustling or sighing sound.

Sough comes from Middle English swoughen, from Old English swogan.

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/06/21.html

Having the guardianship or charge of protecting a person or a thing; guardian; protecting; as, "tutelary goddesses."

Tutelary derives from Latin tutelaris, from tutela, protection, guardianship, from tutus, past participle of tueri, to look at, to regard, especially to look at with care or for the purpose of protection. It is related to tutor, to have the guardianship or care of; to teach; to instruct.

http://wordsmith.org/words/excoriate.html

PRONUNCIATION:
(ik-SKOR-ee-ayt)
MEANING:
verb tr.:
1. To severely criticize someone or something.
2. To strip off the skin.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin excoriare (to strip or to skin), ex- (out) + corium (skin, hide). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (to cut) that is also the source of words such as skirt, sharp, scrape, screw, shard, shears, carnage, curt, carnivorous, hardscrabble, and incarnadine.

USAGE:
"Why is she [Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, president of Philippines] being excoriated for trying to implement her campaign promise?"
Efren L. Danao; Give Light, Not Heat, to Cha-cha Issue; The Manila Times (Philippines); Jun 17, 2009.

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/06/28.html

1. Characterized by fullness, clarity, strength, and smoothness of sound.
2. Pompous; bombastic.

Orotund derives from Latin ore rotundo, "with a round mouth," hence "clear, loud," from os, oris, "the mouth" + rotundus, "round." It is related to oral.

http://wordsmith.org/words/choleric.html

PRONUNCIATION:
(KAHL-uhr-ik)
MEANING:
adjective: Easily irritated or angered; hot-tempered.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin cholericus, from Greek cholerikos, from chole (bile). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghel- (to shine) that is also the source of words such as yellow, gold, glimmer, gloaming, glimpse, glass, arsenic, and cholera.

USAGE:
"In every choleric outburst from Sir Alan, every lifted eyebrow and pursed lip from his lieutenants, the subtext is clear."
Libby Purves; The Apprentice; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Jun 6, 2009.

http://wordsmith.org/words/sanguine.html

PRONUNCIATION:
(SANG-gwin)
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Cheerfully optimistic or confident.
2. Having a healthy reddish color.
3. Blood-red.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French sanguin, from Latin sanguineus (bloody), from sanguis (blood).

USAGE:
"As usual, Phillips is sanguine: Michael is totally focused now, and the insurance wasn't a problem, it was just expensive."
Robert Sandall; Will Michael Jackson Survive His Concert Marathon? The Sunday Times (London, UK); May 31, 2009.

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/06/22.html

A thicket or grove of small trees.

Copse derives from Old French copeiz, "a thicket for cutting," from coper, couper, "to cut." It is related to coupon, at root "the part that is cut off."

http://wordsmith.org/words/countervail.html

PRONUNCIATION:
(koun-tuhr-VAYL)
MEANING:
verb tr., intr.: To counterbalance or to neutralize.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French contrevaloir, from Latin contra (against) + valere (to be strong). Ultimately, from the Indo-European root wal- (to be strong) that is also the source of valiant, avail, valor, and value.

USAGE:
"China is the unique case of a country arming a neighbour with nuclear weapons to countervail a rival."
K. Subrahmanyam; Befriending the Dragon; The Times of India (New Delhi); Jul 5, 2004.

http://wordsmith.org/words/yester.html

PRONUNCIATION:
(el-uh-MOS-uh-ner-ee, el-ee-, -MOZ-)
MEANING:
adjective: Relating to charity.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin eleemosynarius, from eleemosyna (alms), from Greek eleemosyne (pity, charity), from eleemon (pitiful), from eleos (pity).

USAGE:
"The Guzmans started their non-profit organization, Path of Hope Foundation, 18 years ago. Their single goal: to care for the poor who live near their corner. The Thanksgiving dinner is one of their eleemosynary events."
Lynn Seeden; Free Thanksgiving Dinner Feeds 1,400; Orange County Register (Santa Ana, California); Dec 4, 2003.