51吃瓜 of the Day
non sequitur
noun
something said or written that is unrelated to what immediately precedes.
More about non sequitur
The Latin sentence non sequitur, 鈥渋t doesn鈥檛 follow鈥� in English is used as a noun whose original meaning was 鈥渁n inference or a conclusion that does not follow from the premises,鈥� i.e., a logical fallacy, a usage established by Cicero in the 1st century b.c. A typical example of such a fallacy is: 鈥淚f X is true, then Y is true. But Y is true. Therefore, X is true.鈥� Nowadays non sequitur mostly means 鈥渁 statement containing an illogical conclusion,鈥� especially a conclusion that is amusing, whether intentional or not, or “something said or written that is unrelated to what immediately precedes.”
how is non sequitur used?
And who would want to forget, say, 鈥淢r. F鈥檚 Aunt,鈥� whose outbursts of demented rage at poor Arthur Clennam in 鈥淟ittle Dorrit鈥� make no sense at all. 鈥淭here鈥檚 milestones on the Dover Road!鈥� 鈥淲hen we lived at Henley, Barnes鈥檚 gander was stole by tinkers.鈥� … Mr. F鈥檚 Aunt鈥檚 malign non sequiturs would be immortal in whatever book Dickens had chosen to insert them.
But every day many people find themselves sitting across the table from a negotiation partner they can鈥檛 abandon or replace: their kids. How might parents manage these often fraught, exasperating conversations in which their counterpart, lacking self-awareness, sometimes seems to think it strategic to聽respond with complete non sequiturs?
non sequitur
More about inimical
Inimical 鈥渦nfriendly, hostile鈥� comes from the Late Latin adjective 颈苍颈尘墨肠腻濒颈蝉, first used by the 5th-century Christian author Sidonius Apollinaris, a major political, diplomatic, literary, and religious figure of Gaul (now France, more or less)鈥攊ndeed, of the Western Roman Empire. Sidonius Apollinaris had the delicate task of balancing the waning power of the Roman emperor against the rising power of the new Gothic kingdom comprising most of France and Spain, while at the same time also avoiding religious controversy. 滨苍颈尘墨肠腻濒颈蝉 is a derivative of the noun 颈苍颈尘墨肠耻蝉, a compound of the negative prefix in– 鈥渘ot, un-鈥� and a form of 补尘墨肠耻蝉 鈥渇riend鈥�; unsurprisingly an 颈苍颈尘墨肠耻蝉 is an 鈥渦nfriend.鈥� Inimical entered English in the second half of the 17th century.
how is inimical used?
I rolled over and tried to get back to sleep, but I kept seeing faces鈥攖he highway robber’s inimical glare, the kid’s grin, the mother’s distorted mouth and wild eyes.
In 1960, the CIA said 6,500 objects had been reported to the U.S. Air Force over the prior 13 years. The Air Force concluded there was no evidence those sightings were 鈥�inimical or hostile鈥� or related to 鈥渋nterplanetary space ships,鈥� the CIA said.
inimical
farraginous
adjective
heterogeneous; mixed.
More about farraginous
The adjective farraginous 鈥渉eterogeneous; mixed鈥� ultimately comes from the Latin noun 蹿补谤谤腻驳艒 (inflectional stem 蹿补谤谤腻驳颈苍-) 鈥渕ixed grains” (used for animal feed). 贵补谤谤腻驳辞 is a compound of far (inflectional stem farr-) 鈥渉usked wheat, emmer鈥� and the noun-forming suffix –腻驳艒 (stem 腻驳颈苍-). Other derivatives of far include 蹿补谤墨苍补 鈥渕eal, flour鈥� (English farina) and its adjective 蹿补谤墨苍腻肠别耻蝉 (English farinaceous). Far comes from the Proto-Indo-European root bhers– or bhares– 鈥渂arley,鈥� source of Old Icelandic barr 鈥済rain, barley鈥� and Old English bere, which forms the first syllable of modern English barley. Farraginous entered English in the first half of the 17th century.
how is farraginous used?
In general we suspect that the simpler the pasta dish, the more successful it is likely to be. … But fancier linguine alla grana (whole wheat pasta) was a disaster, a farraginous mound with bits of filet mignon and mushrooms in a fatty brown sauce.
For being a confusion of knaves and fools, and a farraginous concurrence of all conditions, tempers, sexes, and ages, it is but natural if their determinations be monstrous and many ways inconsistent with truth.
farraginous