Word of the Day
kaleidoscopic
adjective
continually shifting from one set of relations to another; rapidly changing: the kaleidoscopic events of the past year.
More about kaleidoscopic
Kaleidoscopic comes from Greek 办补濒贸蝉 鈥渂别补耻迟颈蹿耻濒,鈥� 别卯诲辞蝉 鈥渟hape,鈥� and -scope, a combining form meaning 鈥渋nstrument for viewing.鈥� The suffix -ic is used to form adjective from other parts of speech in Greek and Latin loanwords in English. Kaleidoscopic entered English in the 1840s.
how is kaleidoscopic used?
The natural progress of her life, however, is fragmented in Hong鈥檚 kaleidoscopic fusion of reality and fantasy.
Things had happened, in the last few hours, with a kaleidoscopic rapidity–the whirl of events had left her mind in a dazed condition.
grinch
noun
a person or thing that spoils or dampens the pleasure of others.
More about grinch
The Grinch was the misanthropic central character in the children鈥檚 book How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957) by 鈥淒r. Seuss鈥� (Theodor Seuss Geisel). The book was made into a TV special in 1966 and a feature film in 2000.
how is grinch used?
I’d prefer not to be a grinch, but it鈥檚 always been beyond me why people like to argue about literary prizes.
Every family has a grinch: the person who wants to sleep in instead of opening presents, refuses to sing Christmas carols, or eats a Twix instead of plum pudding.
More about vivify
The English verb vivify comes from Old French vivifier, from Late Latin 惫墨惫颈蹿颈肠腻谤别 鈥渢o make alive, restore to life, quicken.鈥� 痴墨惫颈蹿颈肠腻谤别 breaks down easily to 惫墨惫耻蝉 鈥渁live,鈥� from 惫墨惫(别谤别) 鈥渢o live,鈥� from a very widespread Proto-Indo-European root with many variants: gwei-, 驳飞墨-, gwi-, 驳飞颈测艒- 鈥渓ive鈥� (gw- usually becomes v- in Latin). The Proto-Indo-European forms 驳飞墨飞辞蝉 and gwiwos 鈥渁live, life鈥� become 惫墨惫耻蝉 in Latin, bivus in Oscan (an Italic language spoken in southern Italy), 产铆辞蝉 in Greek (from 产铆飞辞蝉, from gwiwos). The Proto-Indo-European adjective gwigwos become kwikwaz in Germanic and ultimately English quick (in the archaic sense “alive,” as in the phrase 鈥渢he quick and the dead鈥�). The suffix -fy comes from Middle English -fi(en), from Old French -fier, from Latin -蹿颈肠腻谤别, a combining form for verbs of doing or making, from the adjective suffix -ficus, from the verb facere 鈥渢o do, make,鈥� from the very complicated Proto-Indo-European root 诲丑脓-, dho- (and many other variants) 鈥減ut, place,鈥� the same source for English do. Vivify entered English in the 16th century.
how is vivify used?
… he enlarged his sphere of action from the cold practice of law, into those vast social improvements which law, rightly regarded, should lead, and vivify, and create.
Faber vivifies the atmosphere and environment of the fictional planet, from its marked humidity to its insect life, with fascinating specificity.