From: M-W's Word of the Day <mwwotd@wotd.m-w.com>
To: add1dda <add1dda@aol.com>
Sent: Thu, Sep 5, 2019 5:06 a.m.
Adscititious - plus, Words We're Watching: 'Editorial'
Updated, 9:48 p.m., Thursday, September 5, 2019
By Nicholas Stix
A couple of months ago, I switched from looking up English words on Google’s virtual dictionary, to a real one, Merriam-Webster. When I visited M-W for the first time, a prompt asked if I’d like to get on their mailing list for … whatever. Being a fella who can’t say no, I of course entered my eddress.
Well, that decision paid off in spades today.
In the age of minitrue and memoryholing, various media outlets frequently “disappear” items they’ve published, because whether five minutes or five years after initial publication, they got the memo with the new talking points, and recalled that we have always been at war with Eastasia.
Today, M-W’s Word of the Day feature, featured "adscititious," a new one on me, with examples from 1832 (Charles Caleb Colton) and 2002 (my VDARE colleague, John Derbyshire).
When John saw the example earlier today, he was careful to take a screen shot, and he has since been unpersoned. That’s right. A dutiful member of the thought police must have contacted M-W, to order it to disappear John’s example. But I have the original email!
“Lexicographical Fame: Derb Makes Merriam-Webster's ‘Word of the Day’–Until Deleted!
adscititious
adjective | ad-suh-TISH-us
derived or acquired from something extrinsic
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The Other Kind of 'Apostrophe'
'Cotemporary': The Archaic 'Contemporary'
Humorless Words for the Bodily Humors
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Did You Know?
Adscititious comes from a very "knowledgeable" family—it ultimately derives from scīscere, the Latin verb meaning "to get to know, ascertain, vote for, approve." The related scīre means "to know" and is fundamental to science, conscience, prescience ("foreknowledge"), nescience ("lack of knowledge"), as well as adscititious. Admittedly, adscititious is more akin to adscīscere, which means "to admit" or "to adopt." This explains why adscititious describes something adopted from an outside source.
Examples of ADSCITITIOUS
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'Cotemporary': The Archaic 'Contemporary'
Humorless Words for the Bodily Humors
Back to School Quiz
Adscititious comes from a very "knowledgeable" family—it ultimately derives from scīscere, the Latin verb meaning "to get to know, ascertain, vote for, approve." The related scīre means "to know" and is fundamental to science, conscience, prescience ("foreknowledge"), nescience ("lack of knowledge"), as well as adscititious. Admittedly, adscititious is more akin to adscīscere, which means "to admit" or "to adopt." This explains why adscititious describes something adopted from an outside source.
"I left the warm embrace of government work for adscititious reasons, driven not by boredom or indignation, but mainly by itchy feet."
"We should choose our books as we would our companions, for their sterling and intrinsic merit, not for their adscititious or accidental advantages."
— Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon, 1832
Word Family Quiz
Fill in the blanks to complete an adverb that means "that is to say" or "namely" and that is derived from Latin scīre, meaning "to know": s_ i _ i _ e _.
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Fill in the blanks to complete an adverb that means "that is to say" or "namely" and that is derived from Latin scīre, meaning "to know": s_ i _ i _ e _.
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My word of the day is "gunshots"--three of them. I just heard three loud distinct shots an hour ago.Police flying down the street.The tracking dogs went all over the area,but looks like they lost him.Ambulance and forensics showed up.Nothing on the news yet.
ReplyDelete--GRA
CLOSE TO HOME SHOOTING
ReplyDeleteGRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Police say one person was shot in the leg in Grand Rapids.
The shooting happened around 9:30 p.m. Thursday on the city's northwest side.
After being shot, police say the victim went to a house in the 1000 block of Lincoln Avenue. That’s where police found the victim, according to the Grand Rapids Police Department.
Officers say the victim’s injuries are not life-threatening
Police say no suspects are in custody.
Officers say they are not receiving much cooperation in their investigation.
GRA:The ghetto gets even closer.I live a short distance away--heard the gunfire and thought,were those shots or what?I suspected they were-and the cops appeared in 2-4 minutes to confirm.Interestingly,considering the distance from my house where it occurred,the shooting sounded like it happened right across the street.Quite loud.
--GRA
..."the distance from my house TO where it occurred" etc.It didn't happen at my house...lol.But blackie is on the run,so you never know about tomorrow.
ReplyDelete--GRA