51吃瓜 of the Day
ex libris
an inscription in or on a book, to indicate the owner; bookplate.
More about ex libris
Ex libris is a Latin prepositional phrase meaning 鈥渙ut of, from the books (of).鈥� The phrase is composed of the preposition ex 鈥渙ut, out of鈥� (it governs the ablative case), and 濒颈产谤墨蝉, the ablative plural of liber (stem libr-) 鈥渂ook,鈥� whose original Latin meaning was and always remained 鈥渋nner bark of a tree, rind, bast.鈥� Liber comes from an unrecorded Latin luber or lubros, from lubh-, one of the variants of the Proto-Indo-European root leubh-, loubh– (also leub-, leup-) 鈥渢o peel, peel off.鈥� Leubh– regularly becomes laub– in the Germanic languages, as in Gothic laufs, Old English 濒脓补蹿 鈥渓eaf鈥� (from Germanic laufaz). Loubh– forms Lithuanian 濒耻产脿 鈥渂oard鈥� and 濒煤辞产补蝉 鈥渂ark,鈥� and Albanian 濒补产毛 鈥渞ind, cork.鈥� The Latin preposition ex comes from Proto-Indo-European eghs 鈥渙ut, out of,鈥� becoming Greek ex, Old Irish ess-, ass-, Welsh eh-, Gaulish ex– (Gaulish is an extinct Celtic language of ancient Gaul), and Old Prussian es(teinu) 鈥渇rom (now on).鈥� Ex libris entered English in the second half of the 19th century.
how is ex libris used?
What interested me wasn’t the title or the author but the ex-libris pasted to the inside cover. It incorporated a coat of arms, a motto … and a name engraved beneath in a heavy Gothic script: Anton Schwarz von Steiner.
ex libris
More about garboil
Garboil is the perfect word: it sounds exactly like its meaning, 鈥渃onfusion.鈥� Garboil comes via Middle French garbouille (16th century) 鈥渃onfused mess,鈥� whose further etymology is uncertain. Italian has garbuglio, charbuglio (15th century) 鈥渃onfused mess,鈥� but etymologists are not convinced. Past that lies confusion: garboil has been associated with garble 鈥渢o confuse, jumble鈥�; no one is happy with that, either. Garboil entered English in the first half of the 16th century.
how is garboil used?
Assuring your grace, that being this country in such garboil as it is, I would be loath to adventure to go to my Lord of Angus with any conduct that he would appoint me, unless the king’s pleasure be that I shall so do.
The trolley officials of the Auburn & Syracuse Electric R. R. and the motormen and the conductors are still in a garboil over the final settlement of a wage increase demand despite the fact that several conferences have been held between them but each with little success …
garboil
perfervid
adjective
very fervent; extremely ardent; impassioned.
More about perfervid
The English adjective perfervid comes from New Latin perfervidus. Perfervidus does not in fact occur in earlier Latin even though it is formed perfectly properly: The usual Latin adjective, not common, is praefervidus. The root word of perfervidus (and praefervidus) is the adjective fervidus, which by itself already means 鈥渟calding hot, burning鈥� even without a prefix. Fervidus is a derivative of the verb 蹿别谤惫脓谤别 鈥渢o boil,鈥� a Latin derivative of the very complicated Proto-Indo-European root bh(e)reu-, bh(e)ru 鈥渢o boil, bubble.鈥� This root also has a reduced form bher– that is extended by a w-suffix, thus bherw-, the exact source of f别谤惫脓谤别. The variant bherw– is also the source of Middle Irish berbaim 鈥淚 cook, boil,鈥� Welsh berwi 鈥渢o seethe, simmer.鈥� The prefixes prae– and per– are frequently used as intensifiers of adjectives and verbs: Latin has 辫别谤肠腻谤耻蝉 鈥渧ery dear,鈥� 辫别谤蹿辞谤尘腻谤别 鈥渢o form thoroughly,鈥� and 辫谤补别肠濒腻谤耻蝉 鈥渧ery famous.鈥� Greek offers the spectacular example in the proper name 笔别谤颈办濒锚蝉 鈥渧ery famous,鈥� from the preposition, adverb, and intensive prefix peri, and –办濒锚蝉, from –办濒茅脓蝉, from –办濒茅飞脓蝉, a derivative of the noun 办濒茅辞蝉, also 办濒茅飞辞蝉 鈥済濒辞谤测.鈥� Perfervid entered English in the first half of the 19th century.
how is perfervid used?
The fate of The Thorn Birds will certainly not hang on literary merit. With the broadest strokes and the most perfervid prose, the novel traces three generations of the Cleary family ….
But you have to watch Eileen. She sees things through the haze of a rather perfervid imagination. She sees this house, I’m sure, as it ought to be and Mrs. Wardell as a sort of Gainsborough duchess. She won’t see the show-off. The bad proportions of the hall. The excess of. glass in the chandelier.
perfervid