51吃瓜 of the Day
vulgarian
noun
a vulgar person, especially one whose vulgarity is the more conspicuous because of wealth, prominence, or pretensions to good breeding.
More about vulgarian
The Latin noun vulgus (also volgus) meant simply 鈥渃ommon people, general public鈥�; it also meant 鈥渃rowd鈥� and usually had a derogatory sense, but there was nothing of the flashy, tacky nouveau riche in the noun itself or its derivative nouns, adjectives, and verbs, e.g., 惫耻濒驳腻谤别 鈥渢o make available to the public,鈥� 惫耻濒驳腻迟耻蝉 鈥漰opular, common, ordinary,鈥� 惫耻濒驳腻谤颈蝉 鈥渂elonging to the common people, conventional.鈥� The Romans claimed to have invented satire, i.e., the genre did not exist among the Greeks. The Romans also created the (literary) type of the current sense of vulgarian 鈥渁 vulgar person whose vulgarity is the more striking because of wealth, prominence, or pretensions to good breeding.鈥� The first example is Trimalchio, a character in the Satyricon, a Latin novel dating from the mid-first century a.d. written by Gaius Petronius (died ca. 66 a.d.). Trimalchio and most of the Satyricon are familiar nowadays from the movie Fellini Satyricon (1969) by the Italian director Federico Fellini (1920鈥�93). Vulgarian entered English in the early 19th century.
how is vulgarian used?
“Why, he is a perfect vulgarian,” she replied, “and I am astonished at Ethel for allowing him to be so much with her.”
… the vulgarian‘s restless jealousy of the class above him made him, on this score, especially intractable and suspicious.
ineluctable
adjective
incapable of being evaded; inescapable: an ineluctable destiny.
More about ineluctable
鈥淧roteus,鈥� the third episode of Ulysses, opens with the beautiful but opaque 鈥淚neluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes.鈥� At least the word ineluctable is easy to analyze, if not the entire sentence. Ineluctable comes directly from Latin 颈苍脓濒耻肠迟腻产颈濒颈蝉 鈥渇rom which one cannot escape,鈥� which consists of the negative or privative prefix in-, roughly 鈥渘ot鈥� (from the same Proto-Indo-European source as English un-). 膾濒耻肠迟腻谤墨 is a compound verb meaning 鈥渢o force one鈥檚 way out鈥�; it is formed from the prefix 脓-, a form of the preposition and prefix ex, ex- 鈥渙ut of, from within鈥� used only before consonants, and 濒耻肠迟腻谤墨 鈥渢o wrestle鈥�; the suffix -bilis is added to verbs and denotes ability. Ineluctable entered English in the 17th century.
how is ineluctable used?
The coming of a new day brought a sharper consciousness of ineluctable reality, and with it a sense of the need of action.
My world, on the contrary, has been thrown into extreme ethical confusion by my ineluctable connection with the crimes of Tsardom, forced on me by my birth into a family belonging to the minor nobility.
More about librate
The verb librate comes from Latin 濒墨产谤腻迟耻蝉, the past participle of 濒墨产谤腻谤别 鈥渢o balance, make level,鈥� a derivative of the noun 濒墨产谤补 鈥渁 balance, a pound (weight).鈥� The further etymology of 濒墨产谤补 is difficult. It is related to Sicilian (Doric) Greek 濒墨虂迟谤补 鈥渁 silver coin, a pound (weight),鈥� also a unit of volume, e.g., English litre (via French litre from Latin). Both 濒墨虂迟谤补 and 濒墨产谤补 derive from Italic 濒墨迟丑谤腻. L墨bra becomes lira in Italian, libra in Spanish and Portuguese, French livre (both coinage and weight). The abbreviation for 濒墨产谤补 (weight) is lb.; the symbol for 濒墨产谤补 (the coinage, i.e., the pound sterling) is 拢. Librate entered English in the 17th century.
how is librate used?
Watching them to the ground, the wings of a hawk, or of the brown owl, stretch out, are drawn against the current air by a string as a paper kite, and made to flutter and librate like a kestrel over the place where the woodlark has lodged …
At this period the balance of tropic and pole librates, and the vast atmospheric tides pour their flood upon one hemisphere and their ebb upon another.