51吃瓜 of the Day
daffadowndilly
noun
Chiefly British Dialect.
a daffodil.
More about daffadowndilly
Daffodil has given rise to many, many playful, fanciful variations: daffadowndilly, daffadoondilly, daffadilly, daffodilly, daffydowndilly. The Middle English word is affodil (also affadil and affedil) 鈥渁sphodel,鈥� the name of several plants, including the daffodil. Affodil comes from French affadille and Medieval Latin affodillus (also asfodillus), from Latin asphodelus, from Greek 补蝉辫丑贸诲别濒辞蝉 鈥渁sphodel.鈥� Spellings with and without initial d– have always existed side-by-side in English, but the initial d– in daffadowndilly (and daffodil) has never been satisfactorily explained. Daffadowndilly entered English in the 16th century.
how is daffadowndilly used?
With your kirtle of green and your gay yellow gown, Daffadowndilly.
Growing in the vale / By the uplands hilly, / Growing straight and frail, / Lady Daffadowndilly.
daffadowndilly
cosset
verb (used with object)
to treat as a pet; pamper; coddle.
More about cosset
The verb cosset 鈥渢o treat as a pet, pamper, coddle鈥� is a derivative verb use of the noun cosset 鈥渁 lamb raised as a pet.鈥澛燭he noun cosset has no certain etymology, but it has been suggested that it comes from Middle English 肠辞迟-蝉脓迟别 鈥渃ottage dweller, cottager,鈥� from Old English 肠辞迟-蝉牵迟补. 颁辞迟-蝉脓迟别, a rare enough word, is last recorded about 1400. Modern cosset (in the sense “pet lamb”) first appears in English in The Shepheardes Calender (1579) by Edmund Spenser, who uses words and spellings that were already archaic in his time.
how is cosset used?
It occurred to me, as I took my bag over, that it might be airline policy to comfort those who were going home for reasons such as mine with an upgrade, to cosset them through the night with quiet sympathy and an extra blanket or something.
We cosset and succor its every sniffle with enormous devotion, even as we more or less ignore the increasingly urgent fever that the globe is now running.
cosset
hero
noun
a person noted for courageous acts or nobility of character.
Why we chose hero
Heroes are everywhere right now, and we鈥檙e teaming up with Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans to say thank you. Share your message of gratitude with #EveryoneKnowsAHero and @RocketMortgage. Watch below to learn more.
More about hero
The English singular noun hero is formed from the plural heroes, which comes from Latin 丑脓谤艒别蝉, the plural of 丑脓谤艒蝉 鈥�(mythical) hero.鈥� 贬脓谤艒蝉 comes from Greek 丑岣梤艒蝉 (plural 丑岣梤艒别蝉) 鈥渉ero,鈥� a very ancient word that meant many things to the Greeks. A compound noun 迟谤颈蝉脓谤辞丑别颈, literally 鈥淭hrice Hero,鈥� possibly the name of a deity 鈥淐lan Ancestor (?),鈥� appears on a Linear B tablet from Pylos, dating to the 13th century b.c. In the Iliad, 丑岣梤艒蝉 means 鈥渨arrior,鈥� and often little more than 鈥渕an,鈥� and not a semidivine being. In later Greek, 丑岣梤艒蝉 was a semidivine being with his own cult, usually local, the only exception being Hercules (Heracles). (Greek 贬脓谤腻办濒茅脓蝉, also spelled 贬脓谤腻办濒锚蝉, means 鈥淕lory of Hera.鈥� 贬岣梤腻 is the Greek feminine form of 丑岣梤艒蝉; she is a daughter of Cronus and sister and wife of Zeus. Her name occurs next to the name of Zeus on the same Mycenaean Greek text, which makes likely the assumption that Hera was already honored as the consort of Zeus.) Unfortunately, 丑岣梤艒蝉 and its derivative noun 贬岣梤腻, like 60 percent of Greek vocabulary, have no satisfactory etymology. The various etymologies proposed suffer from various degrees of improbability. Hero entered English in the 16th century.
how is hero used?
Amid all the bleak news about the coronavirus pandemic, it鈥檚 important to remember that there are so many heroes in America right now.
Every crisis has its heroes, every disaster its displays of selflessness and sacrifice. … And now, amid the coronavirus聽pandemic, our health-care workers, doctors, nurses, EMTs and support staff who risk becoming infected themselves鈥攚ho risk infecting their own families鈥攁re making extraordinary sacrifices to care for the rest of us.
hero