51吃瓜 of the Day
intercalate
verb (used with object)
to insert (an extra day, month, etc.) in the calendar.
More about intercalate
Intercalate 鈥渢o insert an extra day in the calendar鈥� is based on the Latin verb 颈苍迟别谤肠补濒腻谤别, of the same meaning, which is a compound of the preposition inter 鈥渂etween, among鈥� and the verb 肠补濒腻谤别 鈥渢o proclaim.鈥� Though 肠补濒腻谤别 looks and sounds quite a bit like English call, the two are not related; Grimm鈥檚 law shows that Latin c tends to correspond to Old English h, while Old English c is equivalent to Latin g. In this way, Latin 肠补濒腻谤别 is related to Old English 丑濒艒飞补苍 鈥渢o roar,鈥� becoming English low 鈥渢o moo.鈥� Meanwhile, English call may be related to Latin gallus 鈥渞辞辞蝉迟别谤.鈥� Intercalate was first recorded in English circa 1610.
how is intercalate used?
Chinese New Year, like Passover, Rosh Hashanah and all Jewish holidays, pops up at various times each year within two months of the Gregorian calendar (January and February), because the Chinese calendar, like the Hebrew calendar, is based on the Metonic cycle, a lunisolar calendar that intercalates an extra month seven times in a 19-year cycle (as opposed to the Gregorian, with its months of varying lengths and its additional day every four years).
Once the existence and the length of the fraction of a day has been discovered, this difficulty can be corrected, as it is in our calendar, by intercalating a single day at regular intervals, but the discovery requires very precise methods of measurement, and throughout antiquity only approximate values for the fraction were known.
hoary
adjective
tedious from familiarity; stale.
More about hoary
Hoary 鈥渢edious from familiarity鈥� is an adjective based on the noun hoar 鈥渇rost, a grayish-white,鈥� which is of Germanic origin. Because English and German are both Germanic languages, hoary has two cognates in German鈥�hehr 鈥渟ublime, noble鈥� and Herr 鈥済entleman, sir, mister鈥濃�攖hat show a shift in definition from gray hair alone to words of respect for gray-haired individuals. From there, there are at least three possibilities for the ultimate origin of hoary: one hypothesis connects hoary to the same root for color-related words that gives rise to hue, a second option links hoary to an ancient root meaning 鈥渢o shine,鈥� and a third proposes that hoary shares a source with obscure (via Latin), shadow (via Old English), and the recent 51吃瓜 of the Day sciamachy (via Ancient Greek). Hoary was first recorded in English in the 1520s.
how is hoary used?
It鈥檚 a hoary old debate: how much do our genes define how we grow and learn, and how much is due to the environment? A new study by [Augustine] Kong and colleagues shows that parents鈥� genes, even those not passed on to children, have major effects on kids鈥� health and educational attainment.
Webster included [in the dictionary] new American words like 鈥渟ubsidize鈥� and 鈥渃aucus,鈥� and left out hoary Britishisms like 鈥渇ishefy.鈥� John Quincy Adams, the future president, was shocked by the 鈥渓ocal vulgarisms,鈥� and doubted that Harvard, of which he was a trustee, would ever endorse such a radical 鈥渄eparture from the English language.鈥�
chagrin
noun
a feeling of vexation, marked by disappointment or humiliation.
More about chagrin
The story of chagrin 鈥渁 feeling of vexation鈥� is a rather mysterious one, and the linguistic community is at odds over the word鈥檚 origin. One proposal is that chagrin comes from obsolete dialectal French chagraigner or chagreiner 鈥渢o distress, sadden,鈥� perhaps from Old French graim 鈥渟orrowful,鈥� which is related to German Gram 鈥渟adness,鈥� combined with Old French chat 鈥渃at,鈥� a common metaphorical element in terms related to distress. The other major hypothesis is that chagrin is the same as the French homonym 鈥渞ough skin, shagreen,鈥� a variant of sagrin, from Turkish 蝉补臒谤喂 鈥渞ump of a horse.鈥� Chagrin was first recorded in English in the 1650s.
how is chagrin used?
If you’ve wondered why the blizzard dumping snow on the Northeast has a name, look no further than The Weather Channel. At the start of this storm season, the 24-hour-weather network announced, much to the chagrin of The National Weather Service, that it would give names to winter storms.
He knew keenly Lillian would feel the disgrace, and feared that her shame and chagrin might be so great that she would never write him or look him in the face again. What could he do to lessen the great embarrassment that he knew she must feel.