Word of the Day
backlins
adverb
Scot. and North England.
backward; back.
More about backlins
The extremely rare Scottish and northern English dialect adverb backlins, 鈥渂ack, backward,鈥� comes from the equally rare Old English adverb 产忙肠濒颈苍驳, used only in the adverbial phrase on 产忙肠濒颈苍驳 鈥渙n the back, behind, backward.鈥� On 产忙肠濒颈苍驳, moreover, occurs only in the Rushworth Gospels (ca. 975), in the Northumbrian dialect of Old English鈥攏ot even in late West Saxon, the standard literary dialect of Old English. Backlins is formed from the noun back, the uncommon adverb suffix –ling, as in middling, and the native English adverb suffix –s, as in always, sometimes.
how is backlins used?
Then backlins we hastened weel pleased wi the day, / Though some of our brithers had wandered away.
An auld man’s howff’s a tapsalteerie touer: / Time backlins gaes, my warld turns withershins, / Glaur’s in the lift, sterns skeenkle in the stour …
backlins
plaudit
noun
Usually plaudits.
an enthusiastic expression of approval: Her portrayal of Juliet won the plaudits of the critics.
More about plaudit
The noun plaudit, 鈥渁 round of applause; an enthusiastic expression of approval,鈥� first appears in print in English in 1600. It comes from the slightly earlier noun plaudite (pronounced as three syllables and probably pronounced plawditee), which appears in 1567. Plaudite comes straight from Latin plaudite 鈥渁pplaud!鈥�, the second person plural imperative of the verb plaudere 鈥渢o clap, clap (in approval), pat (on the back), beat (wings).鈥� Roman comic actors would cry plaudite to the audience at the end of a play. Plaudere, which has no reliable etymology, has an alternative form 辫濒艒诲别谤别, as in ex辫濒艒诲别谤别, 鈥渢o drive off the stage (by clapping, hissing, hooting), reject, eject鈥� (the modern sense “to burst violently; blow up” does not exist in Latin).
how is plaudit used?
On Tuesday, Dustin Hoffman and Mila Kunis became the latest A-listers to get plaudits for their recent acts of decency.
The ideologically divided [Supreme] court zigs left or right and earns cheers from the winning partisans. Then it zags in the other direction, and the plaudits turn to brickbats.
plaudit
tome
noun
a book, especially a very heavy, large, or learned book.
More about tome
The noun tome comes from Middle French tome, from Latin tomus 鈥渁 cut, slice, or bit; a piece or length of papyrus; a book (in general).鈥� Tomus is a borrowing of Greek 迟贸尘辞蝉 鈥渁 slice鈥� (e.g., of ham, cheese), (in geometry) 鈥渢he frustum鈥� (e.g., of a cylinder), 鈥渁 beam鈥� (of wood). By the 3rd century b.c. and in the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures, dating between the 3rd and 1st centuries b.c.), 迟贸尘辞蝉 had also come to mean 鈥�(papyrus) roll,鈥� and by the 1st century a.d. 鈥渢ome, volume鈥� (in the modern sense). T贸mos is a derivative of the verb 迟茅尘苍别颈苍 鈥渢o cut,鈥� from the Proto-Indo-European root tem-, tom– (with its extensions tend-, tond-) 鈥渢o cut.鈥� From the variant tem-, Latin derives templum 鈥渟hrine, temple鈥� (because the property has been cut out from, set apart from profane use). The variant tond- forms Latin 迟辞苍诲脓谤别 鈥渢o cut or clip (hair), shear (a sheep)鈥� and the agent noun tonsor (stem 迟辞苍蝉艒谤-) 鈥渂arber,鈥� with its derivative adjective 迟辞苍蝉艒谤颈耻蝉, from which English derives the not very serious adjective tonsorial “of or relating to a barber or barbering.” Tome entered English in the first half of the 16th century.
how is tome used?
That eight-hundred-page tome (with an additional three hundred pages of downloadable essays to accompany it) includes the whole Caesarian corpus, as well as hundreds of maps and illustrations.
The 240-page tome is less of a tourist guide than it is a primer for a future Washington “Jeopardy” category.
tome