Wiktionary:Word of the day/Archive/2018/December

2018
← Dec 2017	Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec	Jan 2019 →
1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31

1

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 1

Playboy Bunny n

A waitress at a Playboy Club, characteristically dressed in a strapless teddy, black pantyhose, cuffs, a collar and bowtie, bunny ears, and a short, fluffy tail. The first issue of Playboy magazine was published this month 65 years ago in 1953.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

2

3

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 3

archetype n

An original model of which all other similar concepts, objects, or persons are merely copied, derivative, emulated, or patterned; a prototype. An ideal example of something; a quintessence. (literature) A character, object, or story that is based on a known character, object, or story. (psychology) According to Swiss psychologist Carl Jung: a universal pattern of thought, present in an individual's unconscious, inherited from the past collective experience of humanity. (textual criticism) A protograph (“original manuscript of a text from which all further copies derive”).

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

4

5

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 5

shrinking violet n

(idiomatic) Often in the negative form no shrinking violet: a very shy person, who avoids contact with others if possible.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

6

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 6

Conté n

(art) A drawing medium, usually square in cross section, composed of compressed powdered charcoal or graphite mixed with a clay or wax base. French painter and army officer Nicolas-Jacques Conté, who invented the medium, died on this day in 1805.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

7

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 7

ohana n

(chiefly Hawaii) An extended Hawaiian family unit. On this day in 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attacked Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, leading to the entry of the United States into World War II.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

8

9

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 9

dame n

(British) Usually capitalized as Dame: a title equivalent to Sir for a female knight. (British) A matron at a school, especially Eton College. (British, theater) In traditional pantomime: a melodramatic female often played by a man in drag. (US, dated, informal, slightly derogatory) A woman. (archaic) A lady, a woman. English actress Dame Judi Dench was born on this day in 1934. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1988.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

10

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 10

deperm v

(transitive, chiefly nautical) To degauss or demagnetize; especially, to degauss a ship by dragging a large powered electrical cable along its side.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

11

12

13

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 13

plaque n

(countable) Any flat, thin piece of clay, ivory, metal, etc., used for ornament, or for painting pictures upon, as a dish, plate, slab, etc., hung upon a wall; also, a smaller decoration worn by a person, such as a brooch. (countable) A piece of flat metal with writing on it, attached to a building, monument, or other structure to remind people of a person or an event. (countable, biology) A clearing in a bacterial lawn caused by a virus. (countable, music) In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system: any flat, thin musical instrument. (countable, pathology) A broad patch of abnormal tissue distinguishable from surrounding tissue, especially a broad papule (“inflamed, irritated patch”) on the skin. (countable, uncountable, pathology) An abnormal accumulation of material in or on an organ of the body, often associated with disease. (countable, uncountable, pathology) An accumulation in artery walls made up of macrophage cells and debris containing lipids, (cholesterol and fatty acids), calcium, and connective tissue; an atheroma. (uncountable, dentistry) An accumulation of biofilm, or bacteria, on teeth.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

14

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 14

defervesce v

(intransitive, medicine) To experience an abatement or resolution of fever. (intransitive, figuratively) To become less agitated; to cool down.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

15

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 15

sinew n

(anatomy) A cord or tendon of the body. A cord or string, particularly (music) as of a musical instrument. (figuratively) muscular power, muscle; nerve, nervous energy; vigor, vigorous strength. (figuratively, often in the plural) That which gives strength or in which strength consists; a supporting factor or member; mainstay.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

16

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 16

prototype n

An original form or object which is a basis for other forms or objects (particularly manufactured items), or for its generalizations and models. An early sample or model built to test a concept or process. (computing) A declaration of a function that specifies the name, return type, and parameters, but none of the body or actual code. (semantics) An instance of a category or a concept that combines its most representative attributes.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

17

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 17

kiss someone's ring v

(idiomatic) To give respect or reverence to someone; to express servitude to someone. Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, was born on this day in 1936. Kissing the Pope’s ring is a traditional way of showing reverence to him.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

18

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 18

dim-bulb adj

Slow-witted, stupid. On this day 140 years ago in 1878, English chemist, physicist and inventor Sir Joseph Swan first publicly demonstrated his incandescent carbon lamp, one of the earliest light bulbs, at a lecture for the Newcastle upon Tyne Chemical Society.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

19

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 19

turntable n

A circular rotating platform. (music) The circular rotating platform of a record player or a disk jockey's console on which the record rests during play; (by extension), a record player. (rail transport, road transport) A rotating platform placed in a circular pit, used for turning locomotives, cars, or trucks.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

20

21

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 21

chilly adj

Cold enough to cause discomfort. Feeling uncomfortably cold. (figuratively) Distant and cool; unfriendly. In the Northern Hemisphere according to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the winter solstice falls on this day in 2018.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

22

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 22

oneiromancy n

(uncountable, divination) Divination by the interpretation of dreams. (uncountable, in a weak sense) The interpretation of dreams. (countable, divination) An act of such divination or dream-interpretation.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

23

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 23

parse v

(transitive, linguistics) To resolve (a sentence, etc.) into its elements, pointing out the several parts of speech, and their relation to each other by agreement or government; to analyze and describe grammatically. [from mid 16th c.] (transitive, by extension) To examine closely; to scrutinize. (transitive, by extension, computing) To resolve (a string of code or text) into its elements to determine if it conforms to a particular grammar. (transitive, by extension, computing) To split a file or other input into pieces of data that can be easily manipulated or stored. (intransitive, computing, linguistics) Of a string of code or text, sentence, etc.: to conform to rules of grammar, to be syntactically valid.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

24

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 24

mistletoe n

(countable, uncountable) Any of several hemiparasitic evergreen plants of the order Santalales with white berries that grow in the crowns of apple trees, oaks, and other trees, such as the European mistletoe (Viscum album) and American mistletoe or eastern mistletoe (Phoradendron leucarpum), (uncountable) A sprig of one such plant used as a Christmas decoration, associated with the custom that a man may kiss any woman standing beneath it. Have yourself a merry little Christmas Eve!

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

25

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 25

Charlie Brown tree n

A Christmas tree considered unattractive and undesirable by normal standards, often small and sparse. Merry Christmas from all of us at the Wiktionary!

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

26

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 26

box v

(transitive) To place inside a box; to pack in one or more boxes. (transitive) Usually followed by in: to surround and enclose in a way that restricts movement; to corner, to hem in. (transitive) To mix two containers of paint of similar colour to ensure that the color is identical. (transitive, agriculture) To make an incision or hole in (a tree) for the purpose of procuring the sap. (transitive, architecture) To enclose with boarding, lathing, etc., so as to conceal (for example, pipes) or to bring to a required form. (transitive, engineering) To furnish (for example, the axle of a wheel) with a box. (transitive, graphic design, printing) To enclose (images, text, etc.) in a box. (transitive, object-oriented programming) To place a value of a primitive type into a corresponding object. Today is celebrated as Boxing Day in many countries.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

27

28

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 28

count coup v

(intransitive, US, historical) To win prestige in battle by performing an act of bravery in the face of the enemy (such as touching him and escaping unharmed), a ritual of the Plains Indians of North America.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

29

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 29

dashcam n

(automotive) A digital video recorder mounted on the dashboard of a vehicle or elsewhere inside the vehicle to record occurrences in the vicinity, such as traffic accidents that the vehicle has been involved in, to provide evidence for criminal prosecutions, insurance claims, etc.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

30

edit · refresh · view Word of the day for December 30

supine adj

Lying on its back; reclined. (figuratively) Reluctant to take action due to indifference or moral weakness; apathetic or passive towards something; lazy, lethargic, listless. (rare, now poetic) Inclining or leaning backward; inclined, sloping.

← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

31