51吃瓜 of the Day
More about lilt
Lilt, 鈥渁 rhythmic swing or cadence; a light and merry song or song or tune,鈥� comes from the Middle English verb lilten, lulten 鈥渢o sound an alarm; lift up (one鈥檚 voice).鈥� Lilten seems to be related to the Middle English verb lulle(n), lullien, loulen 鈥渢o induce a baby to sleep by rocking or singing; lull.鈥� All of these words are possibly related to Dutch and Low German lul 鈥减颈辫别,鈥� lullen 鈥渢o lull,鈥� and Norwegian lilla 鈥渢o sing,鈥� and are likely to be imitative in origin. Lilt entered English in the 14th century.
how is lilt used?
No one knows what this thing is, or which neurons fire in the heads of the people who flock in droves to old Bob Ross videos on YouTube to bask in the unflappable lilt of his folksy patter and the calm, sure sound of his palette knife as it flicks and scrapes pigment onto the canvas.
My professor, Linda Heywood, was slight and bespectacled, spoke with a high Trinidadian lilt that she employed like a hammer against young students like me who confused agitprop with hard study.
lilt
stalwart
adjective
firm, steadfast, or uncompromising.
More about stalwart
Stalwart 鈥渟trong and brave; valiant鈥� or “firm, steadfast, or uncompromising” is in origin a Scots form of Middle English stalworth 鈥渟trong, sturdy, serviceable.鈥� Stalworth has many variant spellings in Middle English because its second syllable was confused with the adjective worth 鈥渉aving monetary value.鈥� In fact, stalworth comes from Old English 蝉迟忙虅濒飞颈谤迟丑别 鈥渁ble to stand a person in good stead; serviceable (of ships).鈥� 厂迟忙虅濒 is probably a contraction of stathol 鈥渂ase, support, bottom (of a haystack)鈥�; the Old English adjective suffix –wirthe, with the variants –飞颈别谤冒别, –飞测谤冒别, –飞别辞谤冒别 鈥済ood, worthy,鈥� survives in modern English worth. Stalwart in the sense 鈥渟erviceable鈥� entered English before 900; the other senses date from the late 12th century.
how is stalwart used?
Martha was envious, but she was a stalwart friend, and mordantly funny about women鈥檚 plight.
It would have needed a very stalwart young woman in 1828 to disregard all those snubs and chidings and promises of prizes. One must have been something of a firebrand to say to oneself, Oh, but they can鈥檛 buy literature too. Literature is open to everybody.
stalwart
More about cunctation
Cunctation 鈥渓ateness; delay; tardy action鈥� comes from Latin 肠耻苍肠迟腻迟颈艒 (inflectional stem 肠耻苍肠迟腻迟颈艒n-), a derivative of the verb 肠耻苍肠迟腻谤墨 鈥渢o delay, hang back.鈥� 颁耻苍肠迟腻谤墨 is a derivative of the Proto-Indo-European root kenk-, konk– 鈥渢o hang; hang back; vacillate.鈥� The root appears in Sanskrit 艣谩峁卥补迟别 鈥�(he) vacillates, doubts, fears,鈥� Hittite kanki 鈥�(he) hangs.鈥� In Proto-Germanic the original root konk– becomes hanh-, forming the transitive verb hanhan 鈥渢o hang (e.g., a malefactor)鈥� and the intransitive verb hanganan 鈥渢o hang, be suspended, be in suspense.鈥� Cunctation entered English in the second half of the 16th century.
how is cunctation used?
Lord Eldon, however, was personally answerable for unnecessary and culpable 鈥�cunctation,鈥� as he called it, in protracting the arguments of counsel and in deferring judgment from day to day, from term to term, and from year to year, after the arguments had closed and he had irrevocably decided in his own mind what the judgment should be.
Break off delay, since we but read of one / That ever prosper’d by cunctation.
cunctation