51吃瓜 of the Day
supercilious
adjective
haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression.
More about supercilious
Supercilious comes from the Latin adjective 蝉耻辫别谤肠颈濒颈艒蝉耻蝉, which has only one meaning, 鈥渇ull of stern or disapproving looks.鈥� 厂耻辫别谤肠颈濒颈艒蝉耻蝉 is a derivative of the noun supercilium 鈥渆yebrow; the eyebrow and its underlying ridge; the eyebrow as used in expressing haughtiness, disapproval, sternness.鈥� Supercilium is a compound of the preposition and prefix super, super– 鈥渁bove, beyond,” and cilium 鈥渆yelid鈥� (unless cilium is a back formation from supercilium). At any rate, cilium is a derivative of the verb 肠脓濒腻谤别 鈥渢o hide,鈥� that is, the eyelid hides the eye. Supercilious entered English at the end of the 14th century.
how is supercilious used?
Culkin inhabits space with a squalid sort of entitlement, and he employs a supercilious side-eye as if twirling a mustache.
For, though elated by his rank, it did not render him supercilious; on the contrary, he was all attention to everybody.
supercilious
More about psephology
Psephology, 鈥渢he study of elections,鈥� comes from Greek 辫蝉锚辫丑辞蝉 鈥渟mall stone, pebble.鈥� (The Greeks used pebbles in counting and arithmetic functions; the ancient Athenians also used pebbles to cast votes in elections and trials.) The element –logy is the completely naturalized combining form used in the names of sciences (geology, biology) and bodies of knowledge (theology, astrology). The 20th-century British historian R.B. McCallum wrote in a personal letter that while with C.S. Lewis and other heavy-hitting philologists, he proposed the term electionology, which so offended the sensibilities of Lewis and the others that they proposed the etymologically correct psephology, avoiding the dreadful Latin-Greek hybrid. Psephology entered English in the mid-20th century.
how is psephology used?
You don鈥檛 need a degree in psephology from the Kennedy School of Government to figure out that without the female vote and the male vote it鈥檚 hard to be elected President.
Well, for one thing, we鈥檙e inveterate聽辫蝉别辫丑辞濒辞驳测听addicts鈥攂ut also, the more special elections that occur, the more data we have to identify patterns not only across special elections, but within them.
psephology
nimbus
noun
a cloud, aura, atmosphere, etc., surrounding a person or thing.
More about nimbus
Nimbus, 鈥渟hining cloud surrounding a deity; dense clouds with ragged edges,鈥� comes straight from Latin nimbus, 鈥渞ainstorm, rain cloud, cloud (of smoke), cloudburst.鈥� Nimbus comes from a complicated Proto-Indo-European root (e)nebh-, (n)embh– 鈥渄amp, vapor, cloud,鈥� as in Sanskrit 苍谩产丑补蝉– 鈥渇og, vapor, cloud, heaven,鈥� Latin nebula, Greek 苍别辫丑茅濒脓, 苍茅辫丑辞蝉 鈥渃loud,鈥� Old Irish nem and Welsh nef, both meaning 鈥渉eaven,鈥� Polish niebo 鈥渟ky, heaven,鈥� Hittite nebis 鈥渉eaven,鈥� German Nebel 鈥渇og, mist,鈥� and Old Norse nifl–heimr 鈥渉ome of fog, abode of the dead, Niflheim.鈥� Nimbus entered English in the early 17th century.
how is nimbus used?
She had a capacity for excess, and a nimbus of exhausted hedonism trailed along with her.
It is curious how certain words accumulate a nimbus of positive associations, while others, semantically just as innocuous, wind up shrouded in bad feelings.
nimbus