51吃瓜 of the Day
kaput
adjective
ruined; done for; demolished.
More about kaput
The adjective kaput 鈥渞uined, done for; out of order,鈥� is used only in predicate position, not in attributive position; that is, you can only say 鈥淢y car is kaput,鈥� but not 鈥淚鈥檝e got a kaput car.鈥� Kaput聽comes from the German colloquial adjective kaputt 鈥渂roken, done for, out of order, (of food) spoiled,鈥� which was taken from the German idiom capot machen, a partial translation of the French idioms faire capot and 锚tre capot, 鈥渢o win (or lose) all the tricks (in the card game piquet).鈥� Faire capot literally means 鈥渢o make a bonnet or hood,鈥� and its usage in piquet may be from an image of throwing a hood over, or hoodwinking one鈥檚 opponent. Unsurprisingly, kaput became widely used in English early in World War I.
how is kaput used?
鈥淚s it as bad as that?鈥� He shook his head. “It鈥檚 worse. If we get caught, all this is kaput. Kaput, you hear? Gone. Lost. Forever.鈥�
The business of a woman I know has gone kaput and 15 employees are facing the sack.
kaput
posterity
noun
succeeding or future generations collectively: Judgment of this age must be left to posterity.
More about posterity
Posterity 鈥渇uture generations鈥� is a straightforward word. It comes from Middle English posterite, posteriti 鈥渁 person鈥檚 offspring, a family鈥檚 successive generations,鈥� partly from Old French posterite, and partly from Latin 辫辞蝉迟别谤颈迟腻蝉 (stem 辫辞蝉迟别谤颈迟腻迟-), which has the same meanings as in Old French and Middle English. 笔辞蝉迟别谤颈迟腻蝉 is a derivative of the adjective posterus 鈥渇uture, later鈥�; its plural, 辫辞蝉迟别谤墨, means 鈥渙ne鈥檚 descendants; future generations.鈥� Latin posterior 鈥渓ater, later of two, younger鈥� is the comparative of posterus, and is familiar enough in English (the humorous, colloquial noun posterior or posteriors in the sense 鈥渂uttocks鈥� originated within English in the early 17th century; the sense does not exist in Latin). Posterity entered English in the 14th century.
how is posterity used?
Climate change is a tragedy, but Rich makes clear that it is also a crime鈥攁 thing that bad people knowingly made worse, for their personal gain. That, I suspect, is one of the many aspects to the climate change battle that posterity will find it hard to believe, and impossible to forgive.
The act of 1866 gave the Freedmen’s Bureau its final form, the form by which it will be known to posterity and judged of men.
posterity
bailiwick
noun
a person's area of skill, knowledge, authority, or work: to confine suggestions to one's own bailiwick.
More about bailiwick
Bailiwick nowadays means 鈥渙ne鈥檚 area of skill, knowledge, authority, or work,鈥� and less commonly, its original sense 鈥渢he district within which a bailiff has jurisdiction.鈥� Bailiwick comes from Middle English baillifwik (bailliwik, bailewik), a compound noun formed from bailliff 鈥渁n officer of the court; an official with minor local authority鈥� and wick (wic, wike, wicke) 鈥渄welling, home, village, town, city,鈥� from Old English 飞墨肠 “dwelling place, abode,鈥� from Latin 惫墨肠耻蝉 鈥渧illage; a block (in a town or city often forming an administrative unit),鈥� which appears in placenames such as Sandwich (on the coast of Kent), Old English Sandwic, Sondwic 鈥渕arket town on sandy soil, or Warwick 鈥渧illage by the weir (low dam).鈥� Bailiwick entered English in the mid-15th century.
how is bailiwick used?
He was spooning up gelato but talking about music, which is his bailiwick, if it鈥檚 anybody鈥檚.
I wasn鈥檛 surprised to see him there because this was an action venue that was right in his political bailiwick.听
bailiwick