Word of the Day (WOTD)

1.

Hazard:

Meaning: A chance of being injured or harmed Hazard- noun/verb Hazardous -adjective Hazardously-adverb Synonym: Dangerous, unsafe, chancy, and uncertain. Antonyms: Safe, secure, sure, certain, reliable. Etymology:

The name "hazard" is borrowed from Old French. The origin of the French word is unclear but probably derives from Spanish azar ("an unfortunate card or dice roll"), with the final -d by analogy with the common French suffix -ard. The Spanish word has been supposed in turn to come from Arabic, either from the name of a castle in Palestine, or from the word az-zahr ( )meaning "dice". In Western Europe the term came to be associated with a number of games using dice, which were learned during the Crusades whilst in the Holy Land. The term eventually took on the connotation of danger because, from very early on, games using dice were associated with the risky business of gambling and con artists using corrupted dice
Alternate origin: Hazard is an Old English game played with two dice which was mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in the 14th century. Usage: Terrain on most hills in Britain, avalanche hazard can be avoided completely by sensible choice of route. This site also provides a series of links focusing on tsunamis and volcanic hazards.

2.

Assassin:

Meaning: n. Murderer, generally somewhat professional; esp. one who murders a prominent figure. Assassin-noun Assassinate-verb Assasinative-adjective Synonyms: slay.

Antonyms: Victim Etymology:

During the time of the Crusades the members of a certain secret Muslim sect engaged people to terrorise their Christian enemies by performing murders as a religious duty. These acts were carried out under the influence of hashish, and so the killers became known as hashshashin, meaning eaters or smokers of hashish.Hashshashin evolved into the word assassin.
Usage: A deadly assassin, who wants to murder a prosecution witness on a plane, releases a whole crate full of vicious snakes! And last but by no means least is jade, trained assassin and an expert with any firearm known to man.

3.

Ecstasy

Meaning: a trance or trance-like state in which a person transcends normal

consciousness, a state which consists in total suspension of sensibility, of voluntary motion, and largely of mental power Ecstasy-Noun Ecstacize-Verb Ecstatic-Adjective Synonyms: delight, bliss, elation. Antonyms: Unhappiness, Despair Etymology:

The ancient Greek ancestor of our word ecstasy is ekstasis, formed of ek (outside or beyond) and stasis (standing, stature or standing still, stationariness or the place in which one stands or should stand, position, posture, station)
Usage: Charlotte hops around the living room in apparent ecstasy. The publisher of a study claims there's a link between ecstasy use and Parkinson's disease.

4.

Backfire

Meaning: To produce an unexpected, undesired result. Or the backward escape of gases or

cartridge fragments when a gun is fired. Backfire-Noun/Verb Synonyms: miscarry, boomerang; Etymology:

Originally "a fire deliberately lit ahead of an advancing prairie fire to deprive it of fuel," from back (adj.) + fire (n.). As a verb in this sense, recorded from 1886. The meaning "premature ignition in an internalcombustion engine" is first recorded 1897. Of schemes, plans, etc., "to affect the initiator rather than the intended object" it is attested from 1912, a figurative use from the accidental back-firing of firearms.
Usage: Six minutes were added to the match and the rams time wasting tactics backfired as the home side drew level in added time. Trying to be in control can sometimes backfire - you can lose what you might have gained.

5.

Quarantine

Meaning: Any forced stoppage of travel or communication on account of malignant, contagious disease, on land or by sea. Quarantine-Noun/Verb Quarantinable- adjective Synonyms: incarceration, isolation Antonyms: Improve. Vaporize, or perhaps exposure Etymology:

From the French quarante (=forty). Adding the suffix aine to French numbers gives a degree of roughness to the figure (like ish in English), so quarantaine means about forty. Originally when a ship arriving in port was suspected of being infected with a malignant, contagious disease, its cargo and crew were obliged to forego all contact with the shore for a period of around forty days. This term came to be known as period of quarantine.
Usage:

People potentially exposed to the virus are asked to quarantine themselves for 10 days to reduce the spread of the disease Some aid workers recalled that rescue dogs brought in after the 1995Kobe earthquake wer e put in quarantine for two weeks.

6.

Pedigree

Meaning: A line of ancestors; descent; lineage; genealogy; a register or record of a line of ancestors. Pedigree-Noun Pedigree less-adjective Synonyms: PEDIGREE, GENEALOGY refers to an account of ancestry. APEDIGREE is a table or chart recording a li ne of ancestors, either ofpersons or (more especially) of animals, as horses, cattle, anddog s; Antonyms: Crossbred Etymology:

Believed to be derived from the French ped de gru, which meant crane's foot (the modern French equivalent is pied de la grue). The crane's foot is said to resemble the/|\ symbol on genealogical trees. It has also been suggested that it comes from par degrs, the French for by degrees. A pedigree chart records the relationship of families by degrees.
Usage: If you ante up four figures, you can own a mechanical watch made by acompany with a rec ognizable pedigree. When you buy a pedigree puppy you have a good idea what the adult will look like.

7.

Phony (or Phoney) [foh-nee]

Meaning: not real or genuine; fake; counterfeit: Phony-verb Phoniness-noun Phonily-adverb Phony-Adjective Synonyms: fraud, imitation, hoax.

Antonyms: Genuine, Real

Etymology:

British thieves and swindlers of old used many secret codewords. One such word was fawney, which referred to a gilt ring. They would sell these, saying that they were made of real gold. But the rings were not genuine gold, and the word phony from fawney came to be used for anything that is fake or not genuine.
Usage: One theory holds that migr groups have launched a phony rebellion inan effort to disgui se their weakness. Phony checks have been the stock in trade of online fraud artists for years.

8.

Rigmarole [rig-muh-rohl]

Meaning: A lengthy and complicated procedure Rigmarole-Noun Synonyms:babble, balderdash, baloney, blather, bull, bunk,drivel, foolishness, gibberish, g obbledygook,hogwash, hot air, jargon, jive, madness, mumbojumbo, palaver, poppycock, p rattle, rubbish, Antonyms:"sense, straight talk" Etymology:

"a long, rambling discourse," from an altered, Kentish colloquial survival of ragman roll "long list or catalogue" (1520s), in M.E. a long roll of verses descriptive of personal characters, used in a medieval game of chance called Rageman, perhaps from Anglo-Fr. Ragemon le bon "Ragemon the good," which was the heading on one set of the verses, referring to a character by that name. Sense transferred to "foolish activity or commotion" c.1955, but known orally from 1930s.
Usage: Take the rigmarole it puts users through when they wish to close an account. Then there was all the rigmarole involving street names and zip codes

9.

Macabre [mkabr]

Meaning: having death as a subject/comprising or including a personalized representation of death. Macabre-Adjective Synonym: gruesome. Or tending to produce horror Antonym: agreeable, appealing, attractive, Etymology:

The word macabre is an excellent example of a word formed with reference to a specific context that has long since disappeared for everyone but scholars. Macabre is first recorded in the phrase Macabrees daunce in a work written around 1430 by John Lydgate. Macabree was thought by Lydgate to be the name of a French author, but in fact he misunderstood the Old French phrase Danse Macabre, "the Dance of Death," a subject of art and literature. In this dance, Death leads people of all classes and walks of life to the same final end. The macabre element may be an alteration of Macabre, "a Macabree." The Macabrees were Jewish martyrs who were honoured by a feast throughout the Western Church, and reverence for them was linked to reverence for the dead. Today macabre has no connection with the Macabrees and little connection with the Dance of Death, but it still has to do with death.
Usage: Macabre story of what happened at Libya was revealed only during the morning after the attack. One of the major tourist sites in Moscow, however, is a somewhat macabre reminder of communist Russias heyday.

10.

Machiavellian

[ma-k--ve-l-n], [mak-ee-uh-vel-ee-uhn]

Meaning: Suggestive of or characterized by expediency, deceit, and cunning Machiavellian-Adjective Machiavellianism-Noun Synonyms: cunning, crafty, ambitious Antonyms: artless Etymology:

according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct", deriving from the Italian Renaissance diplomat and writer Niccol Machiavelli, who wrote Il

Principe (The Prince) and other works. In this book he advises that acquiring and exercising power may require unethical methods. The word has a similar use in modern psychology where it describes one of the dark triad personalities. "Machiavellian" (and variants) as a word became very popular in the late 16th century in English, though "Machiavellianism" itself is first cited by the "Oxford English Dictionary from 1626.
Usage: Although Javed Miandad is more popular with most of the Pakistani players than the aloof Imran, they have seldom played so effectively under his Machiavellian leadership. Iago is the Machiavellian antagonist in William Shakespeare's play, Othello.