Word of the Day
rueful
adjective
feeling, showing, or expressing sorrow, repentance, or regret.
More about rueful
The adjective rueful is easy to define: 鈥渇ull of rue,鈥� but what is rue? The noun rue comes from Middle English reu(e) 鈥減ity, someone or something causing sorrow, a disgrace鈥� (herte-reue means 鈥渟orrow in one鈥檚 heart鈥�). Reu(e) comes from Old English 丑谤脓辞飞 鈥渟orrow, regret, penitence, repentance,鈥� and is akin to Old Frisian 谤墨辞飞补, Old Dutch rouwe, Dutch rouw, Old High German (h)riuwa, German Reue, all meaning 鈥渞egret, remorse, repentance.鈥� The noun ruth 鈥減ity, compassion; sorrow, grief鈥� comes from Middle English reuth(e) (it has many extravagant spellings), a derivative of the adjective reu(e) plus the suffix –th, which forms nouns of action such as birth, bath, or of state, such as breadth, width. Lastly, the personal name Ruth comes from Hebrew 搁奴迟丑, possibly a contracted form of 谤蓹士奴迟丑 鈥渇riend(s), female friend(s).鈥� Rueful entered English in the first half of the 13th century.
how is rueful used?
A common refrain from writers on Twitter is that writing is hard. Often, this insight is accompanied by the rueful observation that tweeting is easy.
He stood for a moment with his hands held down and a rueful face, staring out over the waste that defied him.
rueful
paczki
noun
a traditional Polish doughnut, filled with jam or another sweet filling and covered with powdered sugar or icing.
More about paczki
The presence of cz in a word is enough to make one suspect we are dealing with Polish. Paczki, thus spelled, in Polish is the plural of the feminine noun paczka 鈥減ackage, parcel.鈥� The Polish word we want, however, is 辫膮肠锄办颈 (the 膮 is a nasal vowel, pronounced approximately as in French on). 笔膮肠锄办颈 is the plural of the masculine noun 辫膮肠锄别办 鈥渂ud (as of a flower),鈥� and also 鈥渏elly doughnut,鈥� a diminutive of the noun 辫膮办 鈥渂ud (of a flower).鈥� So while 辫膮肠锄办颈 with the ogonek is the more accurate spelling, paczki without the diacritic is more prevalent in English. The tasty treat it refers to is a celebrated indulgence for some the day before Ash Wednesday, known in some circles as Paczki Tuesday.
how is paczki used?
They are rich, jelly doughnuts that have traditionally been a Fat Tuesday treat. Customers line up at Polish bakeries to get boxes of paczki, which they share with their families and friends.
Every year, he鈥檇 come through the Capitol carrying a box of聽paczki鈥攖he Polish filled donuts鈥攔eminding his friends of the pride he had in his immigrant roots.
paczki
proclamation
noun
a public and official announcement.
More about proclamation
Proclamation, 鈥渁n official public announcement,鈥� comes via Middle English proclamacioun from Anglo-French and Middle French proclamacion 鈥減ublic announcement,鈥� from Latin 辫谤艒肠濒腻尘腻迟颈艒 (inflectional stem 辫谤艒肠濒腻尘腻迟颈艒n-) 鈥渙utcry, shout,鈥� a derivative of the verb 辫谤艒肠濒腻尘腻谤别, a compound of the prefix pro– and the simple verb 肠濒腻尘腻谤别 鈥渢o shout, shout out, utter a loud noise.鈥� The prefix pro-, usually meaning 鈥渂efore, forward,鈥� when used with verbs of utterance, such as 辫谤艒肠濒腻尘腻谤别 and 辫谤艒濒辞辩耻墨 鈥渢o speak forth, announce,鈥� adds the notion of bringing into the open or making public. Latin 辫谤艒肠濒腻尘腻迟颈艒 has no official or administrative senses, only a legal or quasi-judicial sense, 鈥渁n assertion of a claim (as of for free status) before a judge or court,鈥� a meaning that occurs in the commentaries and legal opinions of Roman jurists of the 3rd century a.d. Proclamation entered English in the first half of the 14th century.
how is proclamation used?
President Lincoln’s proclamation, which we publish this morning, marks an era in the history, not only of this war, but of this country and the world.
叠颈诲别苍鈥檚听辫谤别蝉颈诲别苍迟颈补濒听proclamation rescinded the national emergency declaration used by President Donald Trump to divert about $10聽billion from Defense Department accounts toward the barrier, one of the costliest federal infrastructure projects in U.S. history.
proclamation