51吃瓜 of the Day
piebald
adjective
having patches of black and white or of other colors; parti-colored.
More about piebald
The 51吃瓜 of the Day is piebald. Piebald is a compound of pie and bald, but not with their normal definitions. The pie in piebald refers to magpies, not to the tasty pastry, and comes from the Latin words for 鈥渕agpie鈥� and 鈥渨oodpecker.鈥� The connection is based on the magpie鈥檚 black and white plumage. The bald element in piebald means 鈥渉aving white on its head,鈥� as in bald eagle. Some linguists identify bald, which most often means 鈥渉airless,鈥� as an old derivative of ball鈥攚ith the shift in definition from 鈥渂all-shaped鈥� to 鈥渟moothed鈥� and then to 鈥渓acking hair.鈥� Other linguists connect bald to modern English blaze, meaning 鈥渨hite mark on an animal鈥檚 face鈥� or 鈥渕ark made on a tree to indicate a trail,鈥� as in recent 51吃瓜 of the Day trailblaze. Piebald was first recorded in English in the 1580s.
how is piebald used?
Piebald has nothing to do with pieing bald people in the face. In fact, piebald describes a physical characteristic found in many domesticated animals. Instead of walking around with the coat of their wild ancestors鈥攐ne that is well adapted for the natural environment and can provide camouflage鈥攄omestic animals show up to the party essentially wearing a colorful suit.
When the storm broke she emerged, a brilliant sunny morning, the light frantic with nowhere to settle. The cattle sensed her coming and shifted, sleep-eyed, red coats made piebald with matted ice and snow. The goats sprang from their shelter, kicking through the fluff, whether in disgust or delight she couldn鈥檛 tell.
dauntless
adjective
fearless; intrepid; bold.
More about dauntless
Dauntless 鈥渇earless, intrepid, bold鈥� is a compound of the verb daunt 鈥渢o overcome with fear鈥� and the combining form -less 鈥渨颈迟丑辞耻迟.鈥� Daunt comes from Old French donter and ultimately Latin 诲辞尘颈迟腻谤别 鈥渢o tame,鈥� a frequentative of 诲辞尘腻谤别, of the same meaning. Frequentative verbs indicate repeated or frequent action, and while English does not create new frequentative verbs today, many verbs ending in -le originally fell into this category; compare bobble from bob, sparkle from spark, and wrestle from wrest. Latin 诲辞尘腻谤别, and therefore daunt, is a distant relative of the words adamant 鈥渦nyielding in opinion鈥� and diamond, which both come from Ancient Greek 诲补尘芒苍 鈥渢o tame.鈥� Thanks to Grimm鈥檚 law, which states that Latin and Ancient Greek d correspond to English t, the English cognate of daunt is the verb tame. Dauntless was first recorded in English circa 1590.
how is dauntless used?
In some ways, kids are better equipped to be dauntless than [we are]. They are myopic to outcomes and consequences. And while it鈥檚 our job as parents to help them develop the foresight necessary to sustain them into independence, we should also take care to equip them against fear of the future.
With the intimate candor of autobiography, Russo-Young recounts the romance between her mothers Sandy and Robin, their dauntless decision to start an unconventional family in the still-small-minded 80s, and the ensuing legal campaign to keep it intact in the face of an external challenge from her biological father.
syncope
noun
the contraction of a word by omitting one or more sounds from the middle.
More about syncope
Syncope 鈥渢he contraction of a word by omitting sounds from the middle鈥� comes from Ancient Greek 蝉测苍办辞辫岣� 鈥渁 cutting short鈥� and is a compound of the elements syn- 鈥渢ogether鈥� and kop- (from 办贸辫迟别颈苍 鈥渢o cut鈥�). Syn- (becoming sym- before b or p) is the Ancient Greek equivalent of the Latin-origin prefix co- 鈥渢ogether鈥� (as in cooperate) and appears in terms such as syndrome (literally 鈥渞un together鈥�), sympathy (鈥渇elt together鈥�), and synthesis (鈥減laced together鈥�). The verb 办贸辫迟别颈苍 is related to comma, from Ancient Greek 办贸尘尘补 鈥渁 piece cut off,鈥� as well as to English hatchet鈥攖he latter because of Grimm鈥檚 law, which makes Ancient Greek k and Latin c tend to correspond to English h (compare heart and the recent 51吃瓜 of the Day cordiform). Syncope was first recorded in English in the late 14th century.
how is syncope used?
As for elisions in the middle of a word, called syncope, even purists do not hesitate to say bedlam (Bethlehem), bizness (business), can’t, don’t, I’ll, isn’t, … pacifist (pacificist), Wenzday (Wednesday). The syncopation of words ending in ary and ory (litry for literary, militry for military, labratry for laboratory) is an Anglicism which never fails to delight the American ear. Syncope is common in proper names: Bennett (Benedict), Dennis (Dionysius), Jerome (Hieronymus). Syncope between words is illustrated by don’t wantny (don’t want any). Pram (perambulator) illustrates both syncope and apocope.
The word “interesting” is pronounced today with either three or four syllables. [University of Michigan Professor] Anne Curzan explains the four syllable pronunciation, which often annoys the three-syllable camp, is actually the more traditional pronunciation …. 鈥淚f you look in modern standard dictionaries from the last ten years, they will show multiple pronunciations, three and four syllables,” says Curzan. The process of losing a syllable is not rare in the English language. 鈥淭he process of going from four to three, that losing of a syllable, is called syncope in linguistics, where an unstressed syllable just gets lost,” she says.
syncope
