Word of the Day
More about librate
The verb librate comes from Latin 濒墨产谤腻迟耻蝉, the past participle of 濒墨产谤腻谤别 鈥渢o balance, make level,鈥� a derivative of the noun 濒墨产谤补 鈥渁 balance, a pound (weight).鈥� The further etymology of 濒墨产谤补 is difficult. It is related to Sicilian (Doric) Greek 濒墨虂迟谤补 鈥渁 silver coin, a pound (weight),鈥� also a unit of volume, e.g., English litre (via French litre from Latin). Both 濒墨虂迟谤补 and 濒墨产谤补 derive from Italic 濒墨迟丑谤腻. L墨bra becomes lira in Italian, libra in Spanish and Portuguese, French livre (both coinage and weight). The abbreviation for 濒墨产谤补 (weight) is lb.; the symbol for 濒墨产谤补 (the coinage, i.e., the pound sterling) is 拢. Librate entered English in the 17th century.
how is librate used?
Watching them to the ground, the wings of a hawk, or of the brown owl, stretch out, are drawn against the current air by a string as a paper kite, and made to flutter and librate like a kestrel over the place where the woodlark has lodged …
At this period the balance of tropic and pole librates, and the vast atmospheric tides pour their flood upon one hemisphere and their ebb upon another.
More about brio
The Italian noun brio comes from Spanish 产谤铆辞 鈥渆nergy, determination,鈥� ultimately from Celtic 产谤墨驳辞蝉 鈥渟trength鈥� (compare Middle Welsh bri 鈥渉onor, dignity,鈥� Old Irish 产谤铆驳 鈥渟trength, power鈥�). Celtic 产谤墨驳辞蝉 derives from Proto-Indo-European 驳飞谤墨驳辞蝉, a derivative of the very common and complicated Proto-Indo-European root gwer- 鈥渉eavy,鈥� which has many variations, including 驳飞别谤蓹-, 驳飞别谤蓹耻-, and 驳飞别谤墨-. From 驳飞别谤蓹- and its variants, English has 鈥済rave, gravid, gravity鈥� from Latin; the prefixes baro- 鈥渉eavy鈥� and bary- 鈥渄eep鈥� from Greek; and guru from Sanskrit. From 驳飞谤墨驳辞蝉, the same source as Celtic 产谤墨驳辞蝉, Germanic derives 办谤墨驳补锄 鈥渇ight, strife,鈥� German Krieg 鈥渨补谤.鈥� Brio entered English in the 18th century.
how is brio used?
Although Stopsack had probably never before directed such an undertaking, he performed his duties with brio, skillfully heaping verbal abuse on the manacled inmates …
Her work rustles with the premonition that she was obsolete, that her splendor and style and ferocious brio had been demoted to a kind of sparkling irrelevance.
More about axilla
Axilla, the Latin word for 鈥渁rmpit,鈥� is a diminutive of 腻濒补 鈥渨ing (of a bird or insect), fin (of a fish), armpit, flank (of an army).鈥� 膧濒补 comes from an earlier, unrecorded 补驳蝉-濒腻 (axla in Latin orthography), one of the Latin reflexes of Proto-Indo-European ages-, aks- 鈥減ivot, pivot point.鈥� Another Proto-Indo-European derivative, aks-lo-s, becomes ahsulaz in Germanic, eaxl in Old English, and axle in English. A third derivative noun, aks-is, becomes Latin axis 鈥渁xle, axletree, chariot, wagon,鈥� assis in Old Prussian (an extinct Baltic language), and 辞艣 in Polish. Axilla entered English in the 17th century.
how is axilla used?
There is a game of croquet set up on the lawn and my second cousin Sonsoles can be found there any hour of the afternoon, bent over, with a mallet in her hand, and looking out of the corner of her eye, between the arm and the axilla, which form a sort of arch for her thoughtful gaze, at the unwary masculine visitor who appears in the harsh afternoon light.
He recoiled from one odor to another until, in resignation, he accepted and his nose pumped steadily at the single generalized odor that was a meld of everything from axilla to organic debris and smelled like clam soil.