51吃瓜 of the Day
pharaonic
adjective
impressively or overwhelmingly large, luxurious, etc.
More about pharaonic
The adjective pharaonic, 鈥減ertaining to or like a Pharaoh; impressively or overwhelmingly large,鈥� is a derivative of the noun Pharaoh. Pharaoh comes via Late Latin 笔丑补谤补艒 (inflectional stem 笔丑补谤补艒n-) from Greek 笔丑补谤补峁� (inflectional stem 笔丑补谤补艒n-), from Hebrew 辫补谤士艒, from Egyptian pr–士示 (probably pronounced like the Hebrew 辫补谤士艒) 鈥済reat house鈥� (the order is the noun pr-, then the adjective 士示). In Egyptian 辫谤-士示 was not the name of a Pharaoh, but the name of a Pharaoh’s (palatial) residence, very like our own 鈥淭he White House.鈥� Pharaonic entered English toward the end of the 18th century.
how is pharaonic used?
He retired in 2017 to devote himself to new projects, notably raising funds for a somewhat pharaonic museum dedicated to East Africa鈥檚 ecology and its status as a birthplace of prehistoric man.
A teapot bunker retails for just shy of $40,000; a more pharaonic model, complete with swimming pool and hot tub, bowling alley, and home theater, goes for $8 million.
pharaonic
snollygoster
noun
a clever, unscrupulous person.
More about snollygoster
Snollygoster 鈥渁 clever, unscrupulous person,鈥� is an American slang term that first appears in print in 1845 in Marion County, Indiana. As with many, if not most slang terms, there is no reliable etymology for the word. Some authorities have suggested that snollygoster is a variant of snallygaster, a mythical monster that preys on poultry and children and is supposedly found in Maryland, but the earliest citation for snallygaster is 1940, nearly a century after snollygoster.
how is snollygoster used?
But the people will awaken, and all that will be left of the snollygoster will be an unsavory blotch on the history of American politics.
President Reagan has done for succotash what President Truman did for snollygoster: put the spotlight of pitiless publicity on an obscure Americanism.
snollygoster
prosopopoeia
noun
personification, as of inanimate things.
More about prosopopoeia
You can charge a lot for a learned Greek word like prosopopoeia, a term in rhetoric meaning 鈥減ersonification, as of inanimate things; imaging an absent or dead person as speaking or acting.鈥� Prosopoeia is very effective when a master like Demosthenes or Cicero uses it, not so much when it鈥檚 badly bungled in a sermon. Prosopoeia comes via Latin prosopopoeia from Greek 辫谤辞蝉艒辫辞颈铆补 鈥減utting speeches in the mouths of characters, dramatization.鈥� 笔谤辞蝉艒辫辞颈铆补 is composed of the noun 辫谤贸蝉艒辫辞苍 鈥渇ace, countenance, person鈥� and the Greek combining form –辫辞颈铆补 鈥渕aking, creating,鈥� a derivative of the verb 辫辞颈别卯苍 鈥渢o make鈥� (ultimate source of English poesy and poetry). 笔谤贸蝉艒辫辞苍, literally 鈥渙pposite the face (of the other),鈥� is composed of the preposition and prefix pros-, pros 鈥渢oward, in the face of鈥� and the noun 峁损蝉 鈥渆ye, face, countenance.鈥� Prosopopoeia entered English in the mid-16th century.
how is prosopopoeia used?
Over the 14 lines of the sonnet, the poem moves from making a negative comparison to the Colossus of Rhodes to animating the 鈥渘ew Colossus鈥� with a voice, an instance of what literary critics call personification or, to use the more unwieldy term, prosopopoeia …
Lord Byron’s very numerous comparisons, all admirable, and often under the form of a prosopopoeia, are indicative of the warm imagination which clothed inanimate shapes with the breathing realities of life …
prosopopoeia