51吃瓜 of the Day
peculate
verb
to steal or take dishonestly (money, especially public funds, or property entrusted to one's care); embezzle.
More about peculate
Peculate derives from the Latin past participle and noun 辫别肠奴濒腻迟耻蝉 鈥渆mbezzled, embezzlement,鈥� derivative of the verb 辫别肠奴濒腻谤墨 鈥渢o embezzle,鈥� and itself a derivative of 辫别肠奴濒颈耻尘 鈥渨ealth in cattle, private property.鈥� Latin suffers from an embarras de richesses of terms relating to misappropriation of public funds, embezzlement, and peculation. The Latin root noun behind all the corruption is pecu 鈥渃attle, large cattle,鈥� the source of 辫别肠奴苍颈补 鈥渕ovable property, riches, wealth, money.鈥� Latin pecu comes all but unchanged from Proto-Indo-European pek-, peku- 鈥渨ealth, livestock, movable property.鈥� Peku- becomes fehu- in Germanic, feoh 鈥渃attle, goods, money鈥� in Old English, and fee in English. Peculate entered English in the 18th century.
how is peculate used?
The neglect of the Treasurer and the supineness of the President gave him the opportunity to peculate.
Right off the top of his head, James Madison could think of a lot of good reasons to impeach a President. He ticked off this list: 鈥淗e might lose his capacity after his appointment. He might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression. He might betray his trust to foreign powers.鈥� (To peculate is to embezzle.) It鈥檚 a very good list. Members of Congress might want to consult it.
seriocomic
adjective
partly serious and partly comic: a seriocomic play.
More about seriocomic
Seriocomic was first recorded in 1775-85. It links the words serious and comic with -o-, the typical ending of the first element of compounds of Greek origin, often used in English as a connective irrespective of etymology.
how is seriocomic used?
Suddenly, here toward the year’s end, when the new films are plunging toward the wire and the prospects of an Oscar-worthy long shot coming through get progressively more dim, there sweeps ahead a film that is not only one of the best of the year, but also one of the best seriocomic social satires we’ve had from Hollywood since Preston Sturges was making them.
Jonesy had seen representations of him on a hundred “weird mysteries” TV shows, on the front pages of a thousand tabloid newspapers (the kind that shouted their serio-comic horrors at you as you stood prisoner in the supermarket checkout lanes) …
tzimmes
noun
fuss; uproar; hullabaloo: He made such a tzimmes over that mistake!
More about tzimmes
Tzimmes comes from Yiddish tsimes and is related to Swabian German zimmes, zimbes 鈥渃ompote, stew鈥� and Swiss German zimis 鈥渓unch.鈥� The German noun is a compound word, originally a prepositional phrase, formed from Middle High German z, ze, an unstressed variant of zuo 鈥渁t, to鈥� (German zu) and the Middle High German noun imbiz, 颈尘产墨锄 鈥渟nack, light meal鈥� (German Imbiss). Imbiz is a derivative of Old High German 别苍产墨锄补苍 鈥渢o take nourishment,鈥� which is related to English in and bite. Tzimmes entered English in the late 19th century.
how is tzimmes used?
Don’t make a tzimmes out of it. You gonna upset the children …
Why do you have to make such a tzimmes over the maids’ stairs.