Monday, June 28, 2004

Breaking News

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari says the planned 30 June
handover of power in Iraq is to be brought forward to today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3845517.stm

Red Sox

June 27, 2004

Philadelphia 3, Boston 12 at Fenway Park

Winning Pitcher - Curt Schilling (10-4)
Losing Pitcher - Brett Myers (5-5)

PHI Runs: 3, Hits: 12, Errors: 0
BOS Runs: 12, Hits: 12, Errors: 1

HR: PHI: P. Burrell (13), D. Bell (8). BOS: D. Ortiz (19), M. Bellhorn (9).
Boston Record: (42-32)
Next Game: Jun 29, 2004 07:05 PM ET

Upcoming Home Games:
vs. Athletics, Jul 06, 2004 07:05 PM ET
vs. Athletics, Jul 07, 2004 07:05 PM ET
vs. Athletics, Jul 08, 2004 07:05 PM ET

Word Of The Day

peccant \PEK-unt\, adjective:
1. Sinning; guilty of transgression.
2. Violating a rule or a principle.

There must be redemption even for a formerly peccant father.
--John Simon, review of Lone Star, National Review, July 29, 1996

The peccant fellow is Cliff, who cheats, or tries to cheat, on his wife.
--John Simon, review of Crimes and Misdemeanors, National Review, December 8, 1989

No accuser, however, was prepared to come forward to initiate a prosecution, nor could the bishop find the necessary eyewitnesses to support a criminal case against the peccant clergymen.
--Peter Linehan and Janet L. Nelson, Medieval World

Peccant comes from the present participle of Latin of peccare, "to sin."

Thursday, June 17, 2004

Massive Word Of The Day Update

equanimity \ee-kwuh-NIM-uh-tee; ek-wuh-\, noun:
Evenness of mind; calmness; composure; as, "to bear misfortunes with equanimity."

For one whose mind has been notoriously troubled, Brian Lara is at least retaining a sense of equanimity.
--Richard Hobson, "Croft offers no respite as Lara's theme continues," Times (London), June 8, 2000

When one is happy, one can look at both comedy and tragedy with equanimity.
--Phillip Lopate, Totally, Tenderly, Tragically

I think one person can hardly understand why another has conducted his life in such a way, how he came to commit certain actions and not others, whether he looks upon the past with mostly pleasure or equanimity or regret.
--Chang-Rae Lee, A Gesture Life

Equanimity comes from Latin aequanimitas, "impartiality, calmness," from aequanimus, "impartial, even-tempered," from aequus, "even" + animus, "mind, soul."


bedizen \bih-DY-zuhn\, transitive verb:
To dress or adorn in gaudy manner.

At 18, he attended a party "frizzled, powdered and curled, in radiant pink satin, with waistcoat bedizened with gems of pink paste and a mosaic of colored foils and a hat blazing with 5,000 metallic beads," according to Michael Battersberry in "Fashion, The Mirror of History."
--Donna Larcen, "Details, Details: Everything Old Is New Again," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 19, 1994

... Ford's 2001-model F-150 SuperCrew "Harley-Davidson" model. This special edition pickup truck is bedizened with enough chrome, leather, and H-D logos to bring a RUBbie (Rich Urban Biker) weeping to his knees.
--"Summer Autos 2001," Newsday, May 19, 2001

Bedizen is the prefix be-, "completely; thoroughly; excessively" + dizen, an archaic word meaning "to deck out in fine clothes and ornaments," from Middle Dutch disen, "to dress (a distaff) with flax ready for spinning," from Middle Low German dise, "the bunch of flax placed on a distaff."

sonorous \suh-NOR-uhs; SAH-nuh-rus\, adjective:
1. Giving sound when struck; resonant; as, "sonorous metals."
2. Loud-sounding; giving a clear or loud sound; as, "a sonorous voice."
3. Yielding sound; characterized by sound; as, "the vowels are sonorous."
4. Impressive in sound; high-sounding.

Tecumseh spoke fluently in the Shawnee tongue, adding weight to his emphatic and sonorous words with elegant gestures.
--John Sugden, Tecumseh: A Life

The safety video began, optimistically, with Scott's "Great God, this is an awful place" delivered in a sonorous thespian voice and accompanying footage of well-clad individuals crashing into crevasses.
--Sara Wheeler, Terra Incognita

The Web, in Locke's view, brings the revolution against the sonorous all-knowing corporate voice to its inevitable climax and resolution in favor of the plebeians.
--Leslie Kaufman, "Internet Scene May Have a Lot in Common With the '60s," New York Times, April 10, 2000

Sonorous comes from Latin sonorus, from sonor, "sound."

enjoin \en-JOIN\, transitive verb:
1. To direct or impose with authority; to order.
2. To prohibit; to forbid.

While the Qur'an contains a number of references, some direct and some oblique, to the other four pillars, in only one place does it specifically enjoin fasting during the month of Ramadan: "O you faithful, fasting is ordained for you in the same way that it was ordained for those who came before you, so that you may fear God.... It was during the month of Ramadan that the Qur'an was sent down as a guidance for humanity. . .. Whoever among you sees the moon, then he should fast, but the one who is sick or on a journey, [can fast] an equal number of other days" (Sura 2:183-85).
--Jane I. Smith, Islam in America

Few judges were friendly to unions, as demonstrated by a steady stream of decisions enjoining strikes, boycotts, picket lines, and other collective actions.
--Sanford M. Jacoby, Modern Manors

Enjoin derives from Old French enjoindre, from Latin injungere, "to attach, to fasten to; also, to bring upon," from in- + jungere, "to join."

Trivia: Enjoin is its own antonym. Other self-antonyms include fast ("moving quickly; fixed firmly in place") and cleave ("to split; to adhere").

homily \HAH-muh-lee\, noun:
1. A sermon; a discourse on a religious theme.
2. A moralizing lecture or discourse.
3. An inspirational saying; also, a platitude.

Trumpets sounded, wine ran from fountains, bishops delivered homilies, magistrates presented the keys to their cities, triumphal arches sprang up along the way.
--Christine Pevitt, Philippe, Duc D'Orleans: Regent of France

He launched into a homily about marriage as a garden that requires care.
--Janet Maslin, " 'Somehow Form a Family': Between the Hills and Gilligan's Island," New York Times, June 7, 2001

Fathers Cyprien and Marie-Nizier were the first to nod off during the homily on bad thoughts.
--Rémy Rougeau, "Cello"

The book consisted of easy-to-remember rhyming homilies on the subjects of selling, winning, and making money ("If you want to earn your dough, get up in the morning and GO, GO, GO!").
--Brad Barkley, Money, Love

A Washington homily fit the situation: "That which must be done eventually is best done immediately."
--Ward Just, Echo House

Homily ultimately derives from Greek homilia, "instruction," from homolein, "to be together or in company with," hence "to have dealings with," from homilos, "an assembled crowd," from homos, "same." One who delivers homilies is a homilist. Homiletic means "of or pertaining to a homily."

comely \KUHM-lee\, adjective:
1. Pleasing or agreeable to the sight; good-looking.
2. Suitable or becoming; proper; agreeable.

Why should it matter if an author is comely or plain?
--Robb Forman Dew, "Silence of the Father," New York Times, January 19, 1992

Although aware that she was considered quite comely, she had never felt entirely confident of her charms, a hangover from her childhood.
--Kate Lehrer, Out of Eden

His glossy nails made his hands look ornamental and special, caressive, comely and lovely with which to be touched.
--Anne O'Brien Rice, The Vampire Armand

Comely derives from Old English cymlic, from cyme, "pretty, beautiful, fine, delicate" + lic, adjectival suffix.

politic \POL-ih-tik\, adjective:
1. Of or pertaining to polity, or civil government; political (as in the phrase "the body politic").
2. (Of persons): Sagacious in promoting a policy; ingenious in devising and advancing a system of management; characterized by political skill and ingenuity; hence, shrewdly tactful, cunning.
3. (Of actions or things): Pertaining to or promoting a policy; hence, judicious; expedient; as, "a politic decision."

Plato, in Aristotle's judgment, confused and treated as one the diverse elements that make up the body politic-- household, community (village), and state.
--Richard Pipes, Property and Freedom

It also occurred to me then that members of the circle around Peres thought that since negotiations with Syria were bound to continue, it would be more politic to present the concessions that would have to be made as having been made by the late Rabin.
--Itamar Rabinovich, The Brink of Peace

I, on the other hand, loathed Philby... but it hardly seems politic to say this to my host.
--John le Carre, "My New Friends in the New Russia: In Search of A Few Good Crooks, Cops and Former Agents," New York Times, February 19, 1995

It didn't seem too politic to give voice to this thought.
--Lesley Hazleton, Driving To Detroit

Politic derives from Greek politikos, from polites, "citizen," from polis, "city."

aegis \EE-jis\, noun:
1. Protection; support.
2. Sponsorship; patronage.
3. Guidance, direction, or control.
4. A shield or protective armor;-- applied in mythology to
the shield of Zeus.

It is this ideal of the human under the aegis of something higher which seems to me to provide the strongest counterpressure against the fragmentation and barbarization of our world.
--Ted J. Smith III (Editor) In Defense of Tradition: Collected Shorter Writings of Richard M. Weaver, 1929Ð1963

A third round of talks is scheduled to begin on May 23rd in New York under the aegis of the United Nations.
--"Denktash declared head after rival withdraws," Irish Times, April 21, 2000

In real life, Lang's father was commercially astute and fantastically hardworking, and under his aegis the construction business flourished.
--Patrick McGilligan, Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast

Aegis derives from the Greek aigis, the shield of Zeus, from aix, aig-, "a goat," many primitive shields being goatskin-covered.

pernicious \pur-NISH-us\, adjective:
Highly injurious; deadly; destructive; exceedingly harmful.

Half-truths can be more pernicious than outright falsehoods.
--Wendy Lesser, "Who's Afraid of Arnold Bennett?" New York Times, September 28, 1997

But he said they were not thinkers but snobs, and their influence was pernicious.
--Saul Bellow, Ravelstein

Racism should be condemned because its effects are pernicious.
--Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Genes, Peoples, and Languages

Pernicious comes from Latin perniciosus, "destructive, ruinous," from pernicies, "destruction, disaster, ruin," from per-, "through, thoroughly" + nex, nec-, "violent death."

neologism \nee-OLL-uh-jiz-um\, noun:
1. A new word or expression.
2. A new use of a word or expression.
3. The use or creation of new words or expressions.
4. (Psychiatry) An invented, meaningless word used by a person with a psychiatric disorder.
5. (Theology) A new view or interpretation of a scripture.

The word "civilization" was just coming into use in the 18th century, in French and in English, and conservative men of letters preferred to avoid it as a newfangled neologism.
--Larry Wolff, "'If I Were Younger I Would Make Myself Russian': Voltaire's Encounter With the Czars," New York Times, November 13, 1994

If the work is really a holding operation, this will show in a closed or flat quality in the prose and in the scheme of the thing, a logiclessness, if you will pardon the neologism, in the writing.
--Harold Brodkey, "Reading, the Most Dangerous Game," New York Times, November 24, 1985

The word popularizing was a relative neologism (the Review boasted five years later, "Why should we be afraid of introducing new words into the language which it is our mission to spread over a new world?").
--Edward L. Widmer, Young America

The French word neologisme, from which the English is borrowed, is made up of the elements neo-, "new" + log-, "word" + -isme, -ism (all of which are derived from Greek).

A neologist is one who introduces new words or new senses of old words into a language. Neologistic, or neologistical, describes that which pertains to neology, "the introduction of a new word, or of words or significations, into a language." To neologize is to coin or use neologisms, and neologization is the act or process of doing so.

suasion \SWAY-zhun\, noun:
The act of persuading; persuasion.

As in the 1960s, violence converged with dynamism in American life, but unlike that subsequent period of protest, the militancy of the 1930s was restrained by the long arm of an American political tradition that favored reform by moral suasion.
--Nona Balakian, The World of William Saroyan

He visualized a world wherein power is exercised peacefully by moral suasion and political acumen, a world of idealism in many ways.
--George Perkovich, India's Nuclear Bomb

Some of the earliest protests of the incipient civil rights movement demanded the removal of baseball's color line. Beyond this cultural suasion, legal efforts to mandate integration were under way almost two years before Jackie Robinson donned a Brooklyn Dodger uniform.
--Dean Chadwin, Those Damn Yankees

Even more reassuring--more wishful and escapist, from our secularist-modern perspective--is the idea that the universe is moral and hence responsive to moral suasion.
--Yi-Fu Tuan, Escapism

Suasion comes from Latin suasio, from suadere, "to present in a pleasing manner," hence, "to advise." It is related to suave, "gracious or agreeable in manner."

hullabaloo \HUL-uh-buh-loo\, noun:
A confused noise; uproar; tumult.

True, he had diplomatic immunity as the assistant agricultural officer at the consulate, but the publicity and hullabaloo of an arrest and interrogation, not to mention expulsion from the country, would not be career-enhancing.
--Stephen Coonts, Hong Kong

By jumping on and off goods trains and encountering a sympathetic manager who hid him down a mine until the hullabaloo over his escape had died down, he finally reached freedom.
--David Stafford, Churchill and Secret Service

Hullabaloo is perhaps a corruption of hurly-burly, or the interjection halloo with rhyming reduplication.

apologia \ap-uh-LOH-jee-uh; -juh\, noun:
A formal defense or justification, especially of one's opinions, position, or actions.

Mr. Arbatov is well aware that he was perceived in this country as a spokesman at best and toady at worst for the regime. And he clearly wants this book to serve as his apologia.
--Bernard Gwertzman, "When Soviet Bureaucrats Were the Last to Know," New York Times, August 20, 1992

I should hasten to add that this volume is neither a dreary academic summary nor a tedious apologia by a politician who has just left office.
--Jack F. Matlock Jr., "Chinese Checkers," New York Times, September 13, 1998

John F. Lehman Jr. has written a lively and provocative apologia, in the classic sense of the word, to defend and justify his stewardship as Secretary of the Navy from 1981 to 1987.
--Richard Halloran, "Floating a Few Proposals," New York Times, February 19, 1989

The work is "a classic apologia, an aggressive defense of Roth's moral stance as an author," Harold Bloom said in The Book Review last year.
--Patricia T. O'Conner, New York Times, September 14, 1986

Apologia is from the Greek word meaning "a spoken or written defense," from apologos, "a story," from apo- + logos, "speech."

Trivia: Originally, apologia and apology had the same basic meaning: a formal justification or defense. Though apology is still sometimes used in that sense, it now usually indicates an acknowledgment expressing regret or asking pardon for a fault or offense. An apologia involves explaining, defending, or clarifying one's conduct, opinions, etc.

ignoramus \ig-nuh-RAY-mus\, noun:
An ignorant person; a dunce.

My "perfect" reader is not a scholar but neither is he an ignoramus; he does not read because he has to, nor as a pastime, nor to make a splash in society, but because he is curious about many things, wishes to choose among them and does not wish to delegate this choice to anyone; he knows the limits of his competence and education, and directs his choices accordingly.
--Primo Levi, "This Above All: Be Clear," New York Times, November 20, 1988

I am quite an ignoramus, I know nothing in the world.
--Charlotte Bronte, Villette

Ignoramus was the name of a character in George Ruggle's 1615 play of the same name. The name was derived from the Latin, literally, "we are ignorant," from ignorare, "not to know," from ignarus, "not knowing," from ig- (for in-), "not" + gnarus, "knowing, acquainted with, expert in." It is related to ignorant and ignore.

The correct plural form is ignoramuses. Since ignoramus in Latin is a verb, not a noun, there is no justification for a plural form ending in -i.

hardscrabble \HARD-skrab-uhl\, adjective:
1. Yielding a bare or meager living with great labor or difficulty.
2. Marked by poverty.

I remember it being green and humid, nothing like this hardscrabble land.
--Elmore Leonard, Cuba Libre

Most inhabitants scratched out a living from hardscrabble farming, yet these newcomers were hopeful and enterprising.
--Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

A scenic town fed by rich snowbirds who reside a few months a year in gated communities, High Balsam also is home to the hardscrabble residents who frequent Margaret's food-pantry giveaways.
--Deirdre Donahue, "A sweet 'Evensong,' " USA Today, December 2, 1999

Hardscrabble is formed from hard (from Old English heard) + scrabble (from Dutch schrabbelen, "to scratch").

embonpoint \ahn-bohn-PWAN\, noun:
Plumpness of person; stoutness.

With his embonpoint, Mr Soames appears to be wearing a quadruple-breasted suit.
--Simon Hoggart, "Roll up, roll up, to explore the Soames Zone," The Guardian, February 1, 2000

His embonpoint expands by the day and his eyes are buried in the fat of his cheeks.
--Quoted in Goethe: The Poet and the Age: Revolution and Renunciation, by Nicholas Boyle

Embonpoint is from French, literally "in good condition" (en, "in" + bon, "good" + point, "situation, condition").

gravid \GRAV-id\, adjective:
Being with child; heavy with young or eggs; pregnant.

For the moment the Cap'n Toby lies at rest outside the harbor, and the twelve-inch mackerels that Brian and I are cutting up for lobster bait are ripe, their bellies gravid with either blood-red roe or milt the color of sailors' bones.
--Richard Adams Carey, Against the Tide

In North America, in contrast, the British conquered an empire; New France disappeared from history. But-- Anderson's profound theme-- Britain's triumph was gravid with defeat.
--Jack Beatty, "Defeat in Victory," The Atlantic, December 2000

she is a bored society matron who seduces him before a carload gravid with already weary, now grossed-out morning commuters.
--Rita Kempley, review of The Adjuster (MGM/UA Studios movie), Washington Post, June 29, 1992

Gravid derives from Latin gravidus, from gravis, "heavy."

nascent \NAS-uhnt; NAY-suhnt\, adjective:
Beginning to exist or having recently come into existence; coming into being.

But there are other nascent technologies that are widely predicted to play a major part in moving the world from a dependence on oil, nuclear energy and coal.
--"Out of thin air," The Guardian, October 31, 2001

By the time that John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839, Richford was acquiring the amenities of a small town. It had some nascent industries... plus a schoolhouse and a church.
--Ron Chernow, Titan The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

This surprising success prompted several other companies to enter this nascent market.
--Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz

Nascent comes from Latin nascens, "being born," present participle of nasci, "to be born."

commodious \kuh-MOH-dee-us\, adjective:
Comfortably or conveniently spacious; roomy; as, a commodious house.

Then there are the trousers, black check or blue check, with commodious pockets.
--Richard F. Shepard, "For Caring Chefs, Crowning Glory Is the Headgear," New York Times, August 15, 1990

This brought John to accept Benjamin Franklin's invitation to reside in his commodious quarters in Passy, a suburb at the city's edge.
--Paul C. Nagel, John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life

Fed by the melting ice packs, the ocean rose again, inundating coastal lowlands and pouring back through the Narrows, creating the commodious Upper Bay that would serve as the harbor of New York.
--Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898

Commodious derives from the Latin commodus, "conforming to measure, hence convenient or fit for a particular purpose," from com-, "with" + modus, "measure."

remonstrate \rih-MAHN-strayt; REH-mun-strayt\, intransitive
verb:
To present and urge reasons in opposition to an act, measure, or any course of proceedings-- usually used with 'with'.

transitive verb:
To say or plead in protest, opposition, or reproof.

If a hailstorm starts, surely instead of remonstrating with it, you try to take shelter.
--Victor Pelevin, A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia and Other Stories

When things went beyond the control of her forceful personality, inventiveness or charm, if the problem was something she could not alter or manipulate, she didn't pine or remonstrate, she merely buried what was threatening or damaging to her sense of worth.
--Colin Thubron, "Sophisticated Traveler," New York Times, October 10, 1999

Tories and Liberal Democrats remonstrated with each other.
--Matthew Parris, "Cockney market forces drive Ginger bananas," Times (London), May 16, 2001

Remonstrate comes from Medieval Latin remonstrare, "to show again, to point back to, as a fault," from re- + monstrare, "to show."

troglodyte \TROG-luh-dyt\, noun:
1. A member of a primitive people that lived in caves, dens, or holes; a cave dweller.
2. One who is regarded as reclusive, reactionary, out of date, or brutish.

When the survivalists emerged blinking into the sunlight to restock their caves after the terror, my first reaction was to say, "Bless their dotty, troglodyte hearts."
--Judy Mann, "Survivalists Flee Reality to Live in Fear," Washington Post, October 5, 2001

... an admitted electronics-averse troglodyte like myself, who writes with a fountain pen, shaves with a mug and brush, grinds his own coffee and spends summers in a Maine fishing town where the nearest latte is 45 minutes away.
--Frank Van Riper, "Another Door Opens," Washington Post, May 5, 2000

For the first time, opening a fashion magazine didn't make me feel like a cloddish troglodyte who needed fixing.
--Janelle Brown, "Keeping it real," Salon, June 4, 2001

Troglodyte comes from Latin Troglodytae, a people said to be cave dwellers, from Greek Troglodytai, from trogle, "a hole" + dyein, "to enter." The adjective form is troglodytic.

gambol \GAM-buhl\, intransitive verb:
To dance and skip about in play; to frolic.

noun:
A skipping or leaping about in frolic.

I've been told dolphins like to gambol in the waves in these waters, and that sighting them brings good luck.
--Barbara Kingsolver, "Where the Map Stopped," New York Times, May 17, 1992

The bad news is that while most of us gambol in the sun, there will be much wringing of hands in environment-hugging circles about global warming and climate change.
--Derek Brown, "Heatwaves," The Guardian, June 16, 2000

Then they joined hands (it was the stranger who began it by catching Martha and Matilda) and danced the table round, shaking their feet and tossing their arms, the glee ever more uproarious,-- danced until they were breathless, every one of them, save little Sammy, who was not asked to join the gambol, but sat still in his chair, and seemed to expect no invitation.
--Norman Duncan, "Santa Claus At Lonely Cove," The Atlantic, December 1903

Gambol, earlier gambolde or gambalde, comes from Medieval French gambade, "a leaping or skipping," from Late Latin gamba, "hock (of a horse), leg," from Greek kampe, "a joint or bend."

repletion \rih-PLEE-shun\, noun:
1. The condition of being completely filled or supplied.
2. Excessive fullness, as from overeating.

We have to earn silence, then, to work for it: to make it not an absence but a presence; not emptiness but repletion.
--Pico Iyer, "The Eloquent Sounds of Silence," Time, January 1993

With distended belly and bursting waistcoat, his eyes glazed with repletion, he picks listlessly at his teeth with a fork.
--Kenneth Rose, "Madness of King George's son," Daily Telegraph, November 14, 1998

He lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion.
--Jeff Guinn, "The Ghoul, the Bad, the Ugly," Arizona Republic, June 7, 1999

Repletion is derived from Latin replere, "to fill again, to fill up," from re- + plere, " to fill." Plenty is a related word.

sanctum \SANK-tum\, noun;
plural sanctums or sancta:
1. A sacred place.
2. A place of retreat where one is free from intrusion.

What's more, the babble of radios, televisions and raised voices from the other households in the condominium rarely penetrated this sanctum.
--Tim Parks, Mimi's Ghost

Seymour has spent most of her research time in that sanctum of the professional biographer, the London Library.
--John Mullan, "The agony and the ecstasy," The Guardian, December 23, 2000

Sanctum comes from the Latin, meaning "holy, sacred, or inviolable."

deign \DAYN\, intransitive verb:
To think worthy; to condescend-- followed by an infinitive.

intransitive verb:
To condescend to give or bestow; to stoop to furnish; to grant.

Not until I pour vodka on his shirt does he deign to acknowledge my existence.
--Jay McInerney, Model Behavior

Maybe the President does not deign to read op-ed pages, but his speechwriters surely do.
--William Safire, "The Wrong Way." New York Times, June 14, 1999

Like most healthy, normal people (if you deign to categorize yourself that way), you are probably fraught with worry so intense these days you are sleeping standing up with your eyes open.
--Lisa Napoli, "Every Little Thing's Gonna Be All Right!" New York Times, December 14, 1996

Deign comes from Old French deignier, "to regard as worthy," from Latin dignari, from dignus, "worthy." It is related to dignity, "the quality or state of being worthy."

efficacious \ef-ih-KAY-shuhs\, adjective:
Possessing the quality of being effective; producing, or capable of producing, the effect intended; as, an efficacious law.

Lawyers make claims not because they believe them to be true, but because they believe them to be legally efficacious.
--Paul F. Campos, Jurismania

Henri IV wrote to his son's nurse, Madame de Montglat, in 1607 insisting 'it is my wish and my command that he be whipped every time he is stubborn or misbehaves, knowing full well from personal experience that nothing in the world is as efficacious'.
--Katharine MacDonogh, Reigning Cats and Dogs: A History of Pets at Court Since the Renaissance

Plagued by rats, the citizens of Hamelin desperately seek some efficacious method of pest control.
--Francine Prose, review of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, as retold by Robert Holden, New York Times, August 16, 1998

Efficacious is from Latin efficax, -acis, from efficere, "to effect, to bring about," from ex-, "out" + facere, "to do or make."

idyll \EYE-dl\, noun:
1. A simple descriptive work, either in poetry or prose, dealing with simple, rustic life; pastoral scenes; and the like.
2. A narrative poem treating an epic, romantic, or tragic theme.
3. A lighthearted carefree episode or experience.
4. A romantic interlude.

Sheep are not the docile, pleasant creatures of the pastoral idyll. Any countryman will tell you that. They are sly, occasionally vicious, pathologically stupid.
--Joanne Harris, Chocolat

From too much looking back, he was destroyed,... trying to re-create an idyll that never truly existed except in his own imagination.
--Gore Vidal, The Essential Gore Vidal

She kept a diary that poignantly captured the sense of youthful gaiety shattered by events suddenly intruding on their teenage idyll.
--James T. Fisher, Dr. America

The Guevaras' honeymoon idyll, such as it was, did not last long.
--Jon Lee Anderson, Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life

Idyll ultimately derives from Greek eidullion, "a short descriptive poem (usually on pastoral subjects); an idyll," from eidos, "that which is seen; form; shape; figure." The adjective form is idyllic.

vagary \VAY-guh-ree; vuh-GER-ee\, noun:
An extravagant, erratic, or unpredictable notion, action, or occurrence.

Her words are a dreadful reminder that much of life's consequences are resultant of vagary and caprice, dictated by the tragedy of the ill-considered action, the irrevocable misstep, the irrevocable moment in which a terrible wrong can seem the only right.
--Rosemary Mahoney, "Acts of Mercy?" New York Times, September 13, 1998

Weather is one of the vagaries of blue-water racing, ruling the sport like a malicious jester.
--Martin Dugard, Knockdown

This thing called love was a total mystery to me, but the vagaries of passion and despair that accompanied each devotion kept my life in high drama.
--Jane Alexander, Command Performance

Vagary comes from Latin vagari, "to stroll about, to wander," from vagus, "wandering."

ancillary \AN-suh-lair-ee\, noun:
1. Subordinate; subsidiary.
2. Auxiliary; helping.

noun:
Something that is subordinate to something else.

The dining room, never used except as an ancillary larder, a cool place in which to set jellies and store meat, eggs and fish for the cat, is unchanged in essentials since I first came here in 1945.
--Angela Carter, Shaking a Leg

The forty-two active divisions, comprising 600,000 men, would on mobilisation take with them into the field another twenty-five reserve divisions and ancillary reserve units, raising the war strength of the army to over three million.
--John Keegan, The First World War

Narrow streets, reeking of horse and pig manure, were crowded with boardinghouses, countless shops and warehouses, and a sea of trade signs, all surrounded by a forest of masts, intricate webs of spars and rigging, shipyard ways, ropewalks, breweries, a distillery, and grog shops-- the innumerable ancillaries of a booming seaport.
--Richard M. Ketchum, Saratoga

Ancillary comes from Latin ancillaris, from ancilla, "female servant."