Word Of The Day

megrim \MEE-grim\, noun:
1. A migraine.
2. A fancy; a whim.
3. In the plural: lowness of spirits -- often with 'the'.

That might justify her, fairly enough, in being kept away from meeting now and again by headaches, or undefined megrims.
--Harold Frederic, The Damnation of Theron Ware

Tonight, by some megrim of the scheduler, I have the honor of working with the departmental chairman, Dr. B.
--Pamela Grim, Just Here Trying to Save a Few Lives

They do say it's always darkest before the dawn, she thought. I reckon this is proof of it. I've got the megrims, that's all.
--Stephens Mitchell, Scarlett

Kate had learned a long time ago that the best way to deal with Effie's megrims was to maintain an attitude of determined cheerfulness.
--Susan Carroll, Midnight Bride

Megrim is from Middle English migrem, from MiddleFrench migraine, modification of Late Latin hemicrania, "pain inone side of the head," from Greek hemikrania, from hemi-, "half"+ kranion, "skull."

apotheosis \uh-pah-thee-OH-sis; ap-uh-THEE-uh-sis\, noun plural apotheoses \-seez\:
1. Elevation to divine rank or stature; deification.
2. An exalted or glorified example; a model of excellenceor perfection of a kind.

Following martyrdom at the Alamo and apotheosis in song, tall tale, and celluloid myth, this bumpkin from west Tennessee [Davy Crockett] became better known and more revered than all but a handful of American presidents.
--Mark Royden Winchell, Cleanth Brooks and the Rise of Modern Criticism

Plato's Athens, conventionally the apotheosis of civilized Western urbanity, endured Diogenes the Cynic, who (according to tradition) dwelt in contented filth under an overturned bathtub outside the city gates, heaping ribald scorn on philosophers and citizens alike.
--Mark Caldwell, A Short History of Rudeness

Charles I's court represented the English apotheosis of this Renaissance ideal of kingship.
--John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination

Apotheosis comes from Greek, from apotheoun, "to deify,"from apo- + theos, "a god."

fructuous \FRUHK-choo-uhs\, adjective:
Fruitful; productive.

It had by now reached much beyond even that status to appear in our minds as a place sentient, actively helping these once forlorn and homeless sailors, presenting us with fructuous soil to grow our food, bountifully adding its own edible offerings, its waters supplying us with an abundance of fish.
--William Brinkley, Last Ship

Theory does not provide us worthy marching orders for a fructuous future, for theory in itself tells us nothing about how and when it is applicable.
--Sheila McNamee and Kenneth J. Gergen, Relational Responsibility

Fructuous comes from Latin fructuosus, from fructus, "enjoyment, product, fruit," from the past participle of frui, "to enjoy."