51吃瓜 of the Day
regale
verb (used with object)
to entertain lavishly or agreeably; delight.
More about regale
Regale 鈥渢o entertain lavishly; delight鈥� comes from the French verb 谤茅驳补濒别谤 鈥渢o feast, entertain,鈥� from the Old French noun regale, rigal(l)e, a derivative of gale 鈥渇estivity, feast, lavish meal.鈥� The prefix re– or ri– is borrowed from the verb (se) rigoler 鈥渢o amuse (oneself)鈥�; (se) rigoler in its turn is a derivative of galer 鈥渢o make merry.鈥� The French present participle of galer is galant, which in Middle English becomes galaunt, galant 鈥渕erry, gay, gaily dressed,鈥� English gallant. Regale entered English in the second half of the 17th century.
how is regale used?
It used to be that road-weary travelers would regale their nightly hosts with tales of rivers forded, vistas taken in, injuries sustained, and possibly even enemies vanquished.
One dinnertime, he regaled me with the story of how Lord Byron鈥檚 challenge to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to write a ghostly tale led to the creation of Frankenstein.
regale
crankle
verb (used with or without object)
to bend; turn; crinkle.
More about crankle
The uncommon verb crankle 鈥渢o bend, turn; crinkle鈥� is a frequentative verb derived from crank 鈥渢o rotate a shaft with a handle or crank.鈥� A frequentative verb is one that expresses frequent or repeated action. In English such verbs end in –er (as flutter from float, slither from slide) and –le (as dazzle from daze, bobble from bob). English frequentatives are a closed set, that is, English no longer produces frequentatives with the suffixes –er and –le. Instead, modern English expresses the frequentative by the plain present tense, e.g., 鈥淚 walk to school (habitually, usually),鈥� as opposed to the present progressive 鈥淚 am walking to school (right now).鈥� Crankle entered English at the end of the 16th century.
how is crankle used?
Two miles down, the river crankles round an alder grove.
She pleaded with Dagda not to take her child, but her pleading was no more than the sound that a river makes when听it crankles between stones.
crankle
obstreperous
adjective
noisy, clamorous, or boisterous.
More about obstreperous
Obstreperous 鈥渘oisy, clamorous鈥� comes straight from the Latin adjective obstreperus, a derivative of the verb obstrepere 鈥渢o make (a loud) noise against.鈥� Obstrepere is a compound of the preposition and prefix ob, ob– 鈥渢oward, against鈥� and the simple verb strepere 鈥渢o make a loud noise (of any kind), shout confusedly, clamor.鈥� The facetious, almost comic adjective obstropolous, in existence since the first half of the 18th century, is a variant of obstreperous. Unfortunately there is no further etymology for strepere. Obstreperous entered English at the beginning of the 17th century.
how is obstreperous used?
I could not have been the only one in that obstreperous crowd, made up overwhelmingly of Michiganders, to know the presumably important fact that, well鈥�those car plants听didn鈥檛 exist.
For one critic, the final movement [of Beethoven’s Ninth] was sometimes 鈥渆xceedingly imposing and effective鈥� but its 鈥淪zforzandos, Crescendos, Accelerandos, and many other Os鈥� would 鈥渃all up from their peaceful graves鈥� Handel and Mozart, to witness and deplore the obstreperous roarings of modern frenzy in their art鈥�.
obstreperous