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发信人: nova (晃来晃去的鱼儿), 信区: English
标 题: Word-of-the-Day:mote
发信站: 紫 丁 香 (Sun Oct 10 11:47:20 1999), 转信
mote ("MOWT") n.
origin: Old English, mot; corresponding to Dutch, mot =
dust.
1. Speck of dust.
"Some followers of Pythagoras, the ancient Greek
philosopher, thought that each mote had an immaterial
soul that told it what to do, just as they thought
that each human has a soul that gives us direction and
tells us what to do."
-- Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan "Shadows of Forgotten
Ancestors"
"One hot afternoon, the preacher sees -- what? 'Perhaps
a trick of the sun....Perhaps a mote of dust in my eye
or a drop of sweat glued to my lashes.' The apparition
assumes the voluptuous shape of an African woman
cradling a package. She appears to the wanderer in
fragments."
-- Gene Seymour reviewing "The Cattle Killing" by John
Edgar Wideman
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发信人: nova (晃来晃去的鱼儿), 信区: English
标 题: Word-of-the-Day:venal
发信站: 紫 丁 香 (Sun Oct 10 11:48:43 1999), 转信
venal ("VE-nul") adj.
origin: Latin, venalis from venum = thing for sale.
1. (Of a person) willing to act dishonestly or immorally,
or to sacrifice principles, for money.
"Or, if pressures from political, social and economic
change are mismanaged, China could someday implode,
much as the Soviet Union did and Russia may now be
doing, with venal barons fighting over the spoils."
-- The Economist, "The Fireworks to Come"
October 2, 1999
"In evil hour did Pope's declining age,
Deceived and dazzled by the tinsel show
Of wordy science and the nauseous flow
Of mean, officious flatteries, engage
Thy venal quill to deck his laboured page
With ribald nonsense, and permit to strew
Amidst his flowers, the baleful weeds that grow
In the unblessed soil of rude and rancorous rage."
-- Thomas Edwards on the Edition of Alexander Pope's
Works
"But our most formidable opponent has not been
opposing counsel nor any political party. It's been
the cynicism -- the widespread conviction that all
politics and all politicians are by definition corrupt
and venal. That cynicism is an acid eating away at the
vital organs of American public life."
-- Henry Hyde, Closing Remarks in Senate Trial of
William Jefferson Clinton
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发信人: nova (晃来晃去的鱼儿), 信区: English
标 题: Word-of-the-Day:palpitant
发信站: 紫 丁 香 (Sun Oct 10 11:49:21 1999), 转信
palpitant ("PALL-pih-tent'") adj.
origin: from the Latin "palpare", meaning "to touch gently"
1. Shaking; trembling.
"Since young brides have hearts that can be persuaded
easily, light things, palpitant to passion
as am I, remembering Anaktoria
who has gone from me."
--Sappho, "Remembering Anactoria" (c. 630 b.c.)
[translated by James Powell]
2. Undergoing pulsation; pulsating.
"And there, when day was breaking,
I knelt and looked around:
The light was near, the silence
Was palpitant with sound;
I drew my hate from out my breast
And thrust it in the ground."
--Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Blight" (1917)
*Editors' note:
Yesterday's Word-of-the-day had two errors which many of
you were kind enough to point out. The first is that
"senescent" is an adjective but we used the infinitive
form of a verb "to grow old" for the definition. The
definition, in its proper form, should have read,
"Growing old". Also, and this was horrifying beyond any
fictitious work, Edgar Allen Poe is, of course, spelled
Edgar Allan Poe. Our faces are crimson.
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※ 来源:.紫 丁 香 bbs.hit.edu.cn.[FROM: 202.118.239.80]
发信人: nova (晃来晃去的鱼儿), 信区: English
标 题: Word-of-the-Day:senescent
发信站: 紫 丁 香 (Sun Oct 10 11:50:23 1999), 转信
senescent ("sa-NES-sent") adj.
origin: Latin, senescere from senex = old.
1. To grow old.
"And now, as the night was senescent,
And star-dials pointed to morn-
As the star-dials hinted of morn-
At the end of our path a liquescent
And nebulous lustre was born,
Out of which a miraculous crescent
Arose with a duplicate horn-"
-- Edgar Allen Poe, "Ulalume - A Ballad"
"The Federation has found a planet colonized by the
Ba択u, a people who, 300 years ago, rejected
technology and switched to a simple, peaceful, agrarian
lifestyle. Thanks to unusual radiation around the planet,
they haven抰 aged. But now the Federation wants to
harvest this fountain of youth, which could be worth a
fortune. And a senescent race called the Son抋 also wants
it, to reverse their own decline."
-- Debbie Gilbert Review of Star Trek: Insurrection
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