Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 20, 2011 is:

disseise • \dih-SEEZ\  • verb
: to deprive especially wrongfully of : to put out of possession or occupancy : dispossess

Examples:
The complainant declared that he or she had been disseised -- usually physically and sometimes even violently deprived -- of land unjustly and without judgment of a court. -- From a footnote by Janet Loengard in the 2011 book The Ties That Bind: Essays in Medieval British History in Honor of Barbara Hanawalt

Noting that Joann did not even become aware of the property until after her husband's death - nine years after the transfer of interests - the panel concluded she 'was not therefore disseised of her one-third interest until 1997….' -- From an article by Melissa P. Stewart, Esq., in Michigan Lawyers Weekly, October 15, 2007

Did you know?
Disseise, seisin (the possession of land or chattels), and seize are all 13th-century words derived from the Anglo-French word seisir, meaning to put in possession of. That’s the original meaning of English seize as well. (Seize can also be spelled seise in that sense.) The Magna Carta (the great charter of liberties, originally written in Medieval Latin and signed in 1215) is perhaps the most frequently quoted use of the word disseise: No free man shall be … disseised … except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

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akimbo: with hand on hip and elbow bent outward.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 19, 2011 is:

parable • \PAIR-uh-bul\  • noun
: example; specifically : a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle

Examples:
The priest opened his homily by relating the parable of the Good Samaritan that appears in the Gospel of Luke.

Look for no blameless in ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio,’ Carlo Collodi’s 1883 folk classic about a naughty puppet who longs to be a real boy. A far cry from Disney’s sanitized classic, Collodi’s masterly parable captures the spirit of childhood anarchy as few other works of children's literature have before or since. -- From a theater review by F. Kathleen Foley in the Los Angeles Times Culture Monster blog, March 3, 2011

Did you know?
Parable comes to us via Anglo-French from the Late Latin word parabola, which in turn comes from Greek parabolē, meaning comparison. The word parabola may look familiar if you remember your geometry. The mathematical parabola refers to a kind of comparison between a fixed point and a straight line, resulting in a parabolic curve; it came to English from New Latin (Latin as used since the end of the medieval period, especially in scientific description and classification). Parable, however, descends from Late Latin (the Latin language used by writers in the 3rd to 6th centuries). The Late Latin term parabola referred to verbal comparisons: it essentially meant allegory or speech. Other English descendants of Late Latin parabola are parole and palaver.

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corybantic: frenzied; agitated; unrestrained.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 18, 2011 is:

condign • \kun-DYNE\  • adjective
: deserved, appropriate

Examples:
A suspension without pay is condign punishment for breaking the company's code of business ethics.

Kara Mustafa's failure, ignominious retreat and condign punishment were greeted with glee in Western Europe. -- From Andrew Wheatcroft's 2009 book The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans, and the Battle for Europe

Did you know?
In his 1755 Dictionary of the English Language, lexicographer Samuel Johnson noted that condign was always used of something deserved by crimes. Even today, it is most likely to be used to modify punishment or a related word, such as redress, justice, or chastisement. And yet, condign (which traces to Latin com-, meaning thoroughly, and dignus, meaning worthy) once meant worthy or of equal worth or dignity in English. How did such a word get chained to punishment? It was apparently so condemned in the 1500s by the phraseology of the Tudor Acts of Parliament: Former statutes … for lacke of condigne punishment … be littell feared or regarded.

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scurrilous: grossly or obscenely abusive.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 17, 2011 is:

lavation • \lay-VAY-shun\  • noun
: the act or an instance of washing or cleansing

Examples:
Instead of careful lavations with a few of the miraculous water, she bathed daily in one or another of the springs, and imbibed gallons of the fabulous flow of the streams. -- From Jack Vance's 2004 novel Lurulu

In Maycomb County, it was easy to tell when someone bathed regularly, as opposed to yearly lavations: Mr. Ewell had a scalded look; as if an overnight soaking had deprived him of protective layers of dirt, his skin appeared to be sensitive to the elements. -- From Harper Lee's 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird

Did you know?
It sounds logical that you would perform a lavation in a lavatory, doesn't it? And it is logical: both words come from Latin lavare, meaning, appropriately, to wash. English picked up a few other words from this root as well. In medicine, the therapeutic washing out of an organ is lavage. There is also lavabo (in Latin, literally, I shall wash), which in English can refer to a ceremony at Mass in which the celebrant washes his hands, to the basin used in this religious ceremony, or to other kinds of basins. Even the word lavish, via a Middle French word for a downpour of rain, comes to us from lavare.

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undertone: a color modified by an underlying color.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 16, 2011 is:

biophilia • \bye-oh-FILL-ee-uh\  • noun
: a hypothetical human tendency to interact or be closely associated with other forms of life in nature

Examples:
We live in an age in which it is easy to email Buenos Aires, and browse the internet from the Grand Canyon. We could just dial in from whatever sylvan spot appeals to our biophilia. -- From an article by Edward L Glaeser in The Independent [UK], March 23, 2011

For some, biophilia manifests itself in such ordinary ways as, say, owning four or five house cats. For myself and others … it means flying to the other side of the globe to see a fruit bat, a duck-billed platypus, or a parrotfish. -- From an article by Lisa Gosselin in Audubon magazine, September - October 1998

Did you know?
The term biophilia was popularized by psychoanalyst Erich Fromm in the 1960s. In his work, he used the word (from bio-, meaning life, and -philia, meaning friendly feeling toward) to describe the biological drive toward self-preservation. In the late 1970s, American biologist Edward O. Wilson extended the word's meaning, seeing it as the perfect word for the rich, natural pleasure that comes from being surrounded by living organisms. Recently, biophilia has been in the news as the title of Icelandic singer Björk's latest project, a multimedia production that (according to the website for the Manchester International Festival) celebrates how sound works in nature, exploring the infinite expanse of the universe, from planetary systems to atomic structure.

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vociferate: to speak or cry out loudly or noisily; shout; bawl.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 15, 2011 is:

terpsichorean • \terp-sih-kuh-REE-un\  • adjective
: of or relating to dancing

Examples:
One film critic speculated that this feel-good, terpsichorean movie would have tweens across the nation begging their parents to send them to dance school.

The Jazz Singer turned the industry on its ear, and Jolson's contribution can hardly be overstated. His vitality, inseparable from his ego, was tuned to a vocal, terpsichorean, and comedic pitch that nullified the need for microphones, scripts, or other actors. -- From Gary Giddins' 2010 book Warning Shadows: Home Alone with Classic Cinema

Did you know?
In Greek and Roman mythology, Terpsichore was one of the nine muses, those graceful sister-goddesses who presided over learning and the arts. Terpsichore was the patron of dance and choral song (and later lyric poetry), and in artistic representations she is often shown dancing and holding a lyre. Her name, which earned an enduring place in English through the adjective terpsichorean, literally means dance-enjoying, from terpsis, meaning enjoyment, and choros, meaning dance. Choros is also the source of choreography and chorus (those choruses in Athenian drama consisted of dancers as well as singers). The only other word we know that incorporates terpsis is terpodion, an obsolete term for a piano-like musical instrument that was invented in 1816 but never really caught on.

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moratory: authorizing delay of payment.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 14, 2011 is:

compurgator • \KAHM-per-gay-ter\  • noun
: one who under oath vouches for the character or conduct of an accused person

Examples:
As a compurgator, you do not have to believe in the innocence of the defendant, but you do have to feel confident speaking positively about that person's character.

To clear himself, the defendant required corroboration from a prescribed number of compurgators or 'oath-helpers,' which varied according to the nature and severity of the accusation. Neither the defendant nor his compurgators were required to present any evidence to the court. -- From Bruce L. Benson and Paul R. Zimmerman's 2010 book Handbook on the Economics of Crime

Did you know?
Compurgator is a descendant of the Latin verb compurgare, meaning to purify wholly. The root of that word, purgare, also gave English purge (to clear of guilt, to cause evacuation from, or to get rid of) and expurgate (to cleanse of something morally harmful, offensive, or erroneous). Compurgator has occasionally been used in a more general sense of one who supports or defends another, but its primary application is to the specific legal situation in which someone appears in court as a character witness for the defendant. Compurgator has been used in English with this specific legal meaning since the 16th century.

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praxis: practice, as distinguished from theory; application or use, as of knowledge or skills.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 13, 2011 is:

vestige • \VESS-tij\  • noun
: a mark or visible sign left by something that existed before; also: a minute remaining amount

Examples:
Viaducts, walls, and ancient baths remain as vestiges of the Roman occupation of Britain.

Outside her home flies a large American flag, but inside there are vestiges of her native France, with paintings all round of the City of Lights and its grand boulevards and striking architecture. -- From an article in the Gloucester Daily Times (Massachusetts), March 3, 2011

Did you know?
Vestige is derived via Middle French from the Latin noun vestigium, meaning footstep, footprint, or track. Like trace and track, vestige can refer to a perceptible sign made by something that has now passed. Of the three words, vestige is the most likely to apply to a tangible reminder, such as a fragment or remnant of what is past and gone. Trace, on the other hand, may suggest any line, mark, or discernible effect (the snowfield is pockmarked with the traces of caribou). Track implies a continuous line that can be followed (the fossilized tracks of dinosaurs).

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