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Wiktionary:Word of the day/Archive/2017/January

< Wiktionary:Word of the day‎ | Archive‎ | 2017

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Word of the day
for January 1
Janus proper n
  1. (Roman mythology) The god of doorways, gates and transitions, and of beginnings and endings, having two faces looking in opposite directions.
  2. (attributively) Used to indicate things with two faces (such as animals with diprosopus) or aspects; or made of two different materials; or having a two-way action.
  3. (chemistry, attributively) Used to indicate an azo dye with a quaternary ammonium group, frequently with the diazo component being safranine.
  4. (figuratively) A two-faced person, a hypocrite.
  5. (astronomy) A moon of Saturn.

  The word January is from a Latin word meaning “month of Janus”. Happy New Year from all of us at the English Wiktionary!

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Word of the day
for January 3
narcokleptocracy n
  1. (rare) Drug lords and others involved in organized crime as a dominant group in society; the influence or rule exerted by this group.
  2. (rare) A government influenced by such persons; a narcocracy.

  Manuel Noriega, the former military dictator of Panama, surrendered to the United States military on this date in 1990 following the US invasion of Panama. A 1988 report by a subcommittee of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations described the Noriega regime as a narcokleptocracy.

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Word of the day
for January 4
easement n
  1. (law) The legal right to use another person's real property (real estate), generally in order to cross a part of the property, or to gain access to something on the property.
  2. (architecture) An element such as a baseboard, handrail, etc., that is curved instead of abruptly changing direction.
  3. (archaic) Easing, relief.
  4. (archaic, euphemistic) The act of relieving oneself: defecating or urinating.
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Word of the day
for January 5
king cake n
  1. A decorative cake distributed among friends or visitors on Epiphany. In many traditions it contains a pea, a trinket or some other small object which entitles its finder to be the "king" for one day.

  Today is celebrated by many as Twelfth Night. King cakes are often baked on this day to be enjoyed on Epiphany, the next day.

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Word of the day
for January 6
Twelfthtide proper n
  1. (archaic or obsolete) The season including Epiphany (the twelfth day after Christmas) and the evening of the preceding day (Twelfth Night), regarded as the end of the Christmas season; Epiphany itself.

  In Western Christianity, today is Epiphany, which commemorates the visit of the Magi to the Christ child.

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Word of the day
for January 7
pantechnicon n
  1. (chiefly Britain) A building or place housing shops or stalls where all sorts of (especially exotic) manufactured articles are collected for sale.
  2. (chiefly Britain) Originally pantechnicon van: a van, especially a large moving or removal van.
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Word of the day
for January 8
sitting pretty adj
  1. (idiomatic) Having a comfortable or certain supply of money or resources.
  2. (idiomatic) In a favorable situation, especially a situation in which one possesses an advantage.
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Word of the day
for January 10
yucca n
  1. Any of several evergreen plants of the genus Yucca, having long, pointed, and rigid leaves at the top of a woody stem, and bearing a large panicle of showy white blossoms.
  2. (now proscribed, obsolete) The yuca (cassava).
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Word of the day
for January 11
oose n
  1. (Scotland) Fluff, particularly from a textile source such as cotton or wool.
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Word of the day
for January 12
filibuster n
  1. A mercenary soldier; a freebooter; specifically, a mercenary who travelled illegally in an organized group from the United States to a country in Central America or the Spanish West Indies in the mid-19th century seeking economic and political benefits through armed force.
  2. (politics, US) A tactic (such as giving long, often irrelevant speeches) employed to delay the proceedings of, or the making of a decision by, a legislative body, particularly the United States Senate.
  3. (politics, US) A member of a legislative body causing such an obstruction; a filibusterer.

  One of the first filibusters in the United States Senate, involving an attempt to prevent a censure of President Andrew Jackson from being expunged from the Senate record, began on this date in 1837.

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Word of the day
for January 13
Hilary term n
  1. The second term of the legal year, running from January to March or April, during which the upper courts of England and Wales, and Ireland, sit to hear cases.
  2. The second academic term of the universities of Oxford and Dublin, running from January to March. The term was modelled after the legal term, but does not begin and end on the same dates.

  Today is the feast day of Saint Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310 – c. 367), which occurs during this term.

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Word of the day
for January 14
illapse n
  1. (rare) A gliding in; an immission or entrance of one thing into another.
  2. (rare) A sudden descent or attack.
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Word of the day
for January 15
cut-out n
  1. A hole or space produced when something is removed by cutting. Also attributive.
  2. A piece cut out of something
    1. A free-standing, rigid print (usually life-sized), often displayed for promotional purposes; a standee.
  3. A trusted middleman or intermediary, especially in espionage. […]
  4. (electronics) Any of several devices that halts the flow of a current, especially an electric current; a trip-switch or trip.
  5. (telegraphy) A switch that changes the current from one circuit to another, or for shortening a circuit. […]
  6. (US, agriculture) The separation of a group of cattle from a herd; the place where they are collected.
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Word of the day
for January 17
knuckle sandwich n
  1. (slang) A punch to the face, especially to the mouth.

  American boxer and activist Muhammad Ali was born on this day in 1942.

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Word of the day
for January 18
pooh-pooh v
  1. (transitive) To dismiss idly with contempt or derision.

  English author A. A. Milne, who created the character Winnie-the-Pooh in children’s story books, was born on this day in 1882.

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Word of the day
for January 19
unpaid adj
  1. Not paid (for).
  2. Of work: done without agreed payment, usually voluntarily.
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Word of the day
for January 20
aul n
  1. A village encampment in the Caucasus, Central Asia or the Southern Urals.

  The Republic of Dagestan was established on this day in 1921 as the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

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Word of the day
for January 21
mundialization n
  1. An ideology based on the solidarity and diversity of global citizens and the creation of supranational laws, intended as a response to dehumanizing aspects of globalization.
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Word of the day
for January 22
posology n
  1. (pharmacy) The study of the dosages of drugs, especially the determination of appropriate dosages.
  2. (mathematics, historical, rare) In the works of English philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832): the study of quantity; mathematics.
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Word of the day
for January 23
forspeak v
  1. (transitive, dialectal, Northern England and Scotland) To injure or cause bad luck through immoderate praise or flattery; to affect with the curse of an evil tongue, which brings ill luck upon all objects of its praise.
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To bewitch, to charm.
  3. (transitive, obsolete) To forbid, to prohibit; to oppose.
  4. (transitive, obsolete) To say bad things about; to slander.
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Word of the day
for January 25
Burns night n
  1. An event held on the evening of 25th January in celebration of the Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns (born on that day in 1759), usually involving Scottish foods and recitals of his poetry.
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Word of the day
for January 26
mallee n
  1. (Australia) A type of scrubland with low-growing thick eucalypts, characteristic of certain parts of Australia.
  2. (Australia) Any semi-desert region of Australia where such scrub is the predominant vegetation.
  3. (Australia) Any of several low-growing eucalypts characteristic of such scrubland, especially Eucalyptus dumosa, Eucalyptus oleosa, and Eucalyptus socialis.
  4. (botany, Australia) The growth habit of certain eucalypt species that grow with multiple stems springing from an underground lignotuber, shared by species of related genera.

  Happy Australia Day from all of us at the Wiktionary!

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Word of the day
for January 27
sharawadgi n
  1. (historical or obsolete) A style of landscape gardening or architecture in which rigid lines and symmetry are avoided in favour of an organic appearance.

  English statesman and essayist Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, who first used the word in a 1690 work, died on this day in 1699.

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Word of the day
for January 29
receptacle n
  1. A container.
  2. (botany) The part of the flower stalk (peduncle or pedicel) to which the floral parts are attached; a thalamus, a torus.
    1. In the Asteraceae (aster or sunflower family), the end of the peduncle to which all of the florets of the flower head are attached.
  3. (phycology) A structure at the end of a branch of an alga containing conceptacles (reproductive organs).
  4. (electricity, US) A contact device installed at an outlet for the connection of an attachment plug and flexible cord to supply portable appliances or equipment.
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Word of the day
for January 30
redress v
  1. To put in order again; to set right; to emend; to revise.
  2. To set right, as a wrong; to repair, as an injury; to make amends for; to remedy; to relieve from.
  3. To make amends or compensation to; to relieve of anything unjust or oppressive; to bestow relief upon.
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Word of the day
for January 31
roughshod adj
  1. (farriery) Of a horse: having hooves shod with calks or horseshoes that have projecting nails to prevent slipping.
  2. (by extension) Brutal or domineering.
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