Word of the Day!

[ksquared]

ksquared,Interesting piece on the LogMAR chart. How did you come across it?

Thank-you. Visual Acuity led me to do some reading on the Snellen chart which led me to the logMar chart. I hadn’t encountered the logMar chart before so thought it would be nice to do a comparison between the 2.

I actually liked logMar chart scoring system better than the Snellen as it seemed more exacting. There are even difference between the logMar charts themselves. Not all of them even use the same letters. I found one that rated each letter and than arranged them so each line had the same degree of difficulty.

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TMESIS (TMEE-sis) n.: in grammar and rhetoric, is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is inserted into another word, often for humorous effect. The insertion may occur between the parts of a compound word, of an infinitive (split infinitive)

Tmesis comes from the Greek word for an "act of cutting". The Greek verb that stands behind it is temno, meaning to "cut" or "prune" or "divide."

Examples:

"Forgive the quaint tmesis of his opening line:--How bright the chit and chat!"

"If on the first, how heinous e'er it be,
To win thy after-love I pardon thee."
--Shakespeare's tmesis of "however" in Richard II)

"His income-tax return, he remarked, was the 'most rigged-up marole' he'd ever seen." --Frederic Packard

"In two words, im possible." --Samuel Goldwyn

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PROCLIVITY (proh-KLIV-uh-tee) n.:an inclination or predisposition toward something; especially, a strong inherent inclination toward something objectionable

“Our proclivity to remember things selectively often means that memory simply cannot be relied on.”

Have you always had this leaning toward wanting to know about words and their etymologies? Maybe you even have a propensity to use the featured word several times in the course of the day -- due, of course, not to a proclivity for pretentiousness, but because you simply have a penchant for using a rich vocabulary. And perhaps you have a predilection for using lots of synonyms, such as "proclivity" (from "clivus," the Latin word for "slope"), referring to a tendency toward something bad, "propensity," suggesting an often uncontrollable inclination, "penchant," meaning an irresistible attraction, and "predilection," which describes a strong liking derived from one's temperament.


(not me....;) )

[ksquared]

PER CONTRA (per-KAHN-truh) adv.:on the contrary, by way of contrast, as an offset

“The male peafowl is distinguished by a large fan-shaped tail that shimmers with brilliant iridescent color; per contra,the female is drab and pallid.”

Luca Pacioli knew a thing or two about keeping the records straight. He was a Franciscan friar and mathematician who lived during the Italian Renaissance (he was, in fact, a friend of Leonardo da Vinci), and he is called the "father of accounting" because he was the first to publish a detailed description of bookkeeping practices that are still used today. Among his other counsel, Pacioli advised merchants to keep an accurate ledger with debits entered on the left side and credits on the right. The word "per contra" calls to mind this time-honored practice of balancing items on one side of a ledger against those on the other. The term comes from Italian, and it translates literally as "by the opposite side (of the ledger)."

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ENCROACH (in-KROACH) v.: to enter by gradual steps or by stealth into the possessions or rights of another, to advance beyond the usual or proper limits

“The police offered a compromise that kept the sidewalk clear without encroaching on the protesters' rights.”

The history behind "encroach" is likely to hook you in. First appearing in English in the 16th century, the word derives from the Middle English "encrochen," which means "to get or seize" and whose Anglo-French predecessor "encrocher" was formed by combining the prefix "en-" ("in") with the noun "croche" ("hook"). "Croche" also gave us our word "crochet," in reference to the hooked needle used in that craft. "Encroach" carries the meaning of "intrude" both in terms of property (as in "encroaching on one's land") or privilege (as demonstrated in our example sentence). The word can also hop over legal barriers to describe a general advancement beyond desirable or normal limits (such as a hurricane that encroaches on the mainland).

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ABERRATION (ab-u-rA-shun) n.: The failure of light, after reflection or refraction, to find a common focus. An aberration is a vision defect that occurs when light rays are improperly bent (refracted) in the eye. An aberration can occur because of a flaw in the structure of the eye, mainly the cornea or the natural lens itself. Some aberrations can be introduced or enhanced by the spectacle lens themselves, depending on the material used and the accuracy of the subjective refraction.

There are 2 main categories of aberrations.

Lower Order Aberrations
These are the familiar vision problems that effect our ability to focus near and far. They include myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness) and astigmatism (irregular cornea).

Higher Order Aberrations
These include a range of vision problems that effect the quality of our vision. The high order aberrations include spherical and chromatic aberration, coma, and secondary astigmatism. Some become more apparent in low light situations and are often associated with night vision problems, glare and halos.

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SINECURE (SYE-nih-kyoor) n.:an office or position that requires little or no work and that usually provides an income.

“The organization recently restructured its workforce, eliminating several positions that had become mere sinecures.”

Sinecure comes from the Medieval Latin phrase "sine cura," which literally means "without cure." Not surprisingly, the earliest known use of "sinecure" referred to an ecclesiastical benefice without cure of souls -- that is, a clerical office in which the job-holder did not have to tend to the spiritual care and instruction of church members. Such sinecures were virtually done away with by the end of the 19th century, but by then the word had acquired a broader sense referring to any paid position with few or no responsibilities.

(hey, that's my job you're talking about here )

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JINGOISM (JING-goh-iz-um) n.:extreme chauvinism or nationalism marked especially by a belligerent foreign policy

“Albert Einstein found German jingoism in the 1930s so
objectionable that he left his homeland never to return.”

Jingoism originated during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, when many British citizens were hostile toward Russia and felt Britain should intervene in the conflict. Supporters of the cause expressed their sentiments in a music-hall ditty with this refrain:

We don't want to fight, yet by jingo if we do,

We've got the ships, we've got the men,

We've got the money, too!

Someone holding the attitude implied in the song became known as a "jingo" or "jingoist," and the attitude itself was dubbed "jingoism." The "jingo" in the tune is probably a euphemism for "Jesus."

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EMPIRICAL (em·pir·i·cal) adj.: relying on experience or observation alone often without due regard for system and theory. Empirical is most often used as a modifier of "knowledge".

Empirical is knowledge obtained by experience. We know things in a number of different ways. Some things we know through discoveries we make in the physical world when we use our senses to test our enviromental empirically. After gatheirng information, we draw conclusions we believe are justified by the evidance. Philosophers sometimes call this a posteriori knowledge.The vast bulk of the empirical knowledge that ordinary people possess is gained via a mixture of direct experience and the testimony of others about what they have experienced .

For example, "all things fall down" would be an empirical proposition about gravity that many of us believe we know; therefore we would regard it as an example of empirical knowledge. It is "empirical” because we have generally observed that things fall down, so there is no reason to believe this will change. This example also shows the difficulty of formulating knowledge claims. Outside of the Earth’s gravitational field, for example, things do not "fall down", as there is no "down".

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GAMUT (GAM-ut)n.:the whole series of recognized musical notes or an entire range or series.

“Jenny's musical tastes run the gamut from Bach to Janis Joplin to Usher.”

To get the lowdown on "gamut," we have to dive to the bottom of a musical scale developed by 11th-century musician and monk Guido of Arezzo. Guido called the first line of his bass staff "gamma" and the first note in his scale "ut," which meant that "gamma ut" was the term for a note written on the first staff line. In time, "gamma ut" underwent a shortening to "gamut" but climbed the scale of meaning. It expanded to cover all the notes of Guido's scale, then all the notes in the range of an instrument, and, eventually, an entire range of any sort.

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Bowl as in Super Bowl derives from the eating vessel bowl. Its first sports meaning was "football stadium," though such a stadium is no longer necessarily bowl-shaped. The Yale Bowl is an example of a football stadium so named. As a sporting event, it first referred to the Rose Bowl (1923) and, later, the Super Bowl.

Coach first referred to a cart or carriage and came to mean "a private tutor" in British universities around 1848. The sense of "an athletic trainer" (especially for a boat race) was first recorded in 1885.

The origin of football goes way back as an open-air game between two teams using an inflated ball. Mainly the ball was kicked, thereby football. A football game was played in China as early as 206 BC, and by 500 AD round footballs stuffed with hair were in use. In ancient Greece, a game with elements of football — episkuros or harpaston — was played. It migrated to Rome as harpastum by the 2nd century BC. Football has been associated with violence ever since 13th century England. The original form of the game, most often played on Shrove Tuesdays and other Holy Days, involved battles between neighboring villages and towns.

A quarterback is so named because originally the player was positioned between the forwards (now the offensive line) and the halfbacks. The term was first recorded in print in 1895 according to the OED.

Referee originally referred to a person appointed by the British Parliament to examine patent applications (1621) and was formed from English refer and -ee. The sense of "an arbitrator or person to whom a dispute is referred" was first recorded in 1690; by 1840 the word acquired the further sense of "the judge of play in games and sports."

(Go PATS!!! :cheers: )

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DEFEAT (dee-feet) N.: A coming to naught; frustration.

The act of making null and void.

To win victory over, to beat.

To prevent the success of; thwart.

An unsuccessful ending.

The feeling that accompanies an experience of being thwarted in attaining your goals.

The feeling of dissatisfaction that results when your exspectatns are not realized.

An act of hindering someone's plans or efforts.
A feeling of annoyance at being hindered.

Or to put it in more simplier terms : Failure to win.

VICTORY (vi-toor-eeee) n.:

A successful ending of a struggle or contest.

A win over something or somebody.
Defeat of an enemy or opponent.

Success in a struggle against difficulties or an obstacle.

The state of having triumphed.

If both sides in the struggle cannot share in the victory, there is no victory. The outcome must be something that will not injure either side, but will indeed benefit both sides in the long run. (I don’t think so…..please keep your propaganda out of my post)

Any successful struggle against an oppo­nent or obstacle.

That which we strive for in all competitive events.

Temporary delusion in opposition to the inevitable.

And finally a rarity; a three syllable word that cheerleaders CAN spell.

Congradulations Patriots

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CONVERSATION (kon-ver-sa-shun) n.: an oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas.

Today, let’s “turn things around” a bit and look at some observations that might help spark a conversation or two. Well, maybe not, since the word doesn't really have any controversy associated with it but I think it's worth taking a quick look none the less.

Our "turning things around" language recognizes the Latin origin of conversation: that word's ancestors meant "to associate with," literally "to turn around often." Appropriately enough, the meanings of converse (and conversation) have themselves taken a turn or two over the years.

Converse dates back to the days when Middle English was spoken, but the verb's familiar "exchange thoughts and opinions in speech" sense didn't appear until the late 1500s. So what were people originally talking about when they conversed? Way back when, to converse meant "to have dealings." It also meant "to have sexual relations," and it meant "to have acquaintance or familiarity from long intercourse or study."

Those senses are either obsolete or archaic, but the verb stayed the course. Late in the 20th century, converse developed its most recent sense familiar to those conversant with modern technology: "to carry on an exchange similar to a conversation, as with a computer."

[hcjilson]

Its proof that there is a lot we don't know about common words we take for granted,and use every day conversationally!

[ksquared]

DISMAYED (dis-mayed) adv.: to destroy the courage or resolution of by exciting dread or apprehension, to cause a loss of enthusiasm

DISAPPOINTED (dis-ap-point-ed) adj.: to fail to satisfy the hope, desire, or expectation of.

It would seem these days that dismayed has become synonymous with disappointed. Some could argue, "when one is dismayed, one is filled with a sense of personal fear"; to be dismayed, is more properly used to describe someone "filled with a sense of personal fear [which makes one] therefore daunted."

While it is true dismay once meant "to become daunted, disheartened, or terrified," that intransitive sense is now considered obsolete. Having said that, we must admit that dismay shares with appall, horrify, and daunt the following sense: to "unnerve or deter by arousing fear, apprehension, or aversion."
Are you now in despair over when to use dismay and when to use one of the other three terms? Don't be. Horrify seems to us the most distant in meaning from dismay: horrify stresses a reaction of horror or revulsion, as when one is "horrified" by cruelty. Appall implies one is faced with that which perturbs, confounds, or shocks, as when a person is "appalled" by another's behavior. Daunt suggests a cowing, disheartening, or frightening in a venture requiring courage, as when a would-be explorer is "daunted by the risks." Finally, there's dismay, which implies one is disconcerted, and at a loss with how to deal with something.

“I was dismayed to hear all the animosity directed towards the consumers. I will be disappointed if this results in any changes.”

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PARAPHERNALIA (par·a·pher·na·lia) n.: The articles used in a particular activity; equipment. Personal belongings. A married woman's personal property exclusive of her dowry, according to common law.

Even if you know your Latin and Greek, puzzling out the meaning of words that contain the prefix (or combining form) para isn't always easy. That's because para has so many (and so many similar) senses.

“Para” can mean "beside; alongside of.
And it can mean "beyond; outside of”.
It can mean "abortive,"
and it can mean "perversion."
Para can mean "faulty; abnormal."
And it also can mean "associated in a subsidiary or accessory capacity."
And that's to say nothing of the para that comes from parachute and
the -para born of the Latin verb meaning "to bring forth; bear offspring."

So your challenge today is this: which of these various para meanings is associated with the word paraphernalia? Paraphernalia, of course, refers to "personal belongings; articles of equipment or accessory items."

Give up????

If you know the earliest meaning of paraphernalia in English, you can probably pick out the para ancestor: it's the sense meaning "beyond." Originally, paraphernalia named "the separate real or personal property of a married woman that she can dispose of by will (and sometimes according to common law) during her life." Paraphernalia comes ultimately from the Greek word meaning "bride's property beyond her dowry."

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BRUMMAGEN (BRUM-ih-jum) adj.:not genuine:spurious; also :cheaply showy:tawdry

Example sentence:
The sales rep's case was filled with brummagem frames, not a single thing that anyone in their right mind would want to wear. But for those in their left mind.....

Did you know?
"Brummagem" first appeared in the 17th century as an alteration of "Birmingham," the name of a city in England. At that time Birmingham was notorious for the counterfeit coins made there, and the word "brummagem" quickly became associated with things forged or inauthentic. By the 19th century, Birmingham had become a chief manufacturer of cheap trinkets and gilt jewelry, and again the word "brummagem" followed suit—it came to describe that which is showy on the outside but essentially of low quality. Perhaps the term was something of an annoyance to the people of Birmingham way back when, but nowadays "brummagem" is usually used without any conscious reference to the British city.

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DESULTORY (DEH-sul-tor-ee) adj.:
1 : marked by lack of definite plan, regularity, or purpose
2 : not connected with the main subject
3 : disappointing in progress, performance, or quality

Example sentence:
"His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but he has amassed a lot of out-of-the-way knowledge which would astonish his professors." (Arthur Conan Doyle, "A Study in Scarlet")

Did you know?
The Latin adjective "desultorius," the parent of "desultory," was used by the ancients to refer to a circus performer (called a "desultor") whose trick was to leap from horse to horse without stopping. It makes sense, therefore, that someone or something "desultory" jumps from one thing to another. ("Desultor" and "desultorius" are derived from the Latin verb "salire," which means "to leap.") A desultory conversation leaps from one topic to another, and doesn't have a distinct point or direction. A desultory student skips from one subject to another without applying serious effort to any one. A desultory comment is a digressive one that jumps away from the topic at hand. And a desultory performance is one resulting from an implied lack of steady, focused effort.

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WANDERLUST (WAHN-der-lust) n.:strong longing for or impulse towards wandering.

Less than a year after Karen moved to New England, wanderlust set in again, and she decided to pack up her things and head out to the Nouthwest.

Did you know?
"For my part," writes Robert Louis Stevenson in "Travels with a Donkey", "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." Sounds like a case of wanderlust if we ever heard one. Those with "wanderlust" don't necessarily need to go anywhere in particular -- they just don't care to stay in one spot. The etymology of "wanderlust" is a very simple one that you can probably figure out yourself. "Wanderlust" is lust (or "desire") for wandering. The word comes from German, in which "wandern" means "to wander," and "Lust" means "desire."

[chip anderson]

Aberration: The failure of a refracting surface or lens to bring all rays from an object pont toward a desired image blur... Aberrations also result in the curvature in the image of a straight line..

common types:
1) Chromatic Aberration
2) Spherical Aberrration
3) Coma
4) Marginal Astigmatism
5) Barrell and pincushion Distortion
6) Birefringence.

For those who would know more I referr you to the excellent article in February 2005 Opticourier by Don McCarthy.

Illustrates a lot of good points, including why flatter isn't better.

[ksquared]

Well, thank-you Chip! Can always use more information. :bbg: k2

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VALENTINE’S DAY (val-in-tinz day) n.: February 14th

Roman Roots: The history of Valentine's Day is obscure, and further clouded by various fanciful legends. The holiday's roots are in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15. Pope Gelasius I recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496, declaring February 14 to be St. Valentine's Day.

Valentines Galore: Which St. Valentine this early pope intended to honor remains a mystery: according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by that name. One was a priest in Rome, another a bishop in Terni, and of a third St. Valentine almost nothing is known except that he met his end in Africa. Rather astonishingly, all three Valentines were said to have been martyred on Feb. 14.

Most scholars believe that the St. Valentine of the holiday was a priest who attracted the disfavor of Roman emperor Claudius II around 270. At this stage, the factual ends and the mythic begins. According to one legend, Claudius II had prohibited marriage for young men, claiming that bachelors made better soldiers. Valentine continued to secretly perform marriage ceremonies but was eventually apprehended by the Romans and put to death. Another legend has it that Valentine, imprisoned by Claudius, fell in love with the daughter of his jailer. Before he was executed, he allegedly sent her a letter signed "from your Valentine." Probably the most plausible story surrounding St. Valentine is one not focused on Eros (passionate love) but on agape (Christian love): he was martyred for refusing to renounce his religion.

In 1969, the Catholic Church revised its liturgical calendar, removing the feast days of saints whose historical origins were questionable. St. Valentine was one of the casualties.

Chaucer's Love Birds: It was not until the 14th century that this Christian feast day became definitively associated with love. According to UCLA medieval scholar Henry Ansgar Kelly, author of Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine, it was Chaucer who first linked St. Valentine's Day with romance.

In 1381, Chaucer composed a poem in honor of the engagement between England's Richard II and Anne of Bohemia. As was the poetic tradition, Chaucer associated the occasion with a feast day. In "The Parliament of Fowls," the royal engagement, the mating season of birds, and St. Valentine's Day are linked:

For this was on St. Valentine's Day,
When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.

Tradition of Valentine's Cards: Over the centuries, the holiday evolved, and by the 18th century, gift-giving and exchanging hand-made cards on Valentine's Day had become common in England. Hand-made valentine cards made of lace, ribbons, and featuring cupids and hearts eventually spread to the American colonies. The tradition of Valentine's cards did not become widespread in the United States, however, until the 1850s, when Esther A. Howland, a Mount Holyoke graduate and native of Worcester, Mass., began mass-producing them. Today, of course, the holiday has become a booming commercial success. According to the Greeting Card Association, 25% of all cards sent each year are valentines.

Hope you all have a “great” day!!!

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Define the Aberrations - part 2

BIREFRINGENCE (bi-re-frin-gence) n.: Optical distortion caused by a media that exhibits 2 refractive indicies which cause the light wave to travel at different velocities through the substance.

Birefringence is another name for double refraction. It occurs when a single beam of light is split into two directions. Both of the refracted beams are parallel with one offset from the other which produces 2 distinct images. If the index of refraction depends on the polarization of the light wave, the media is said to be birefringent. Calcite, peridot, zircon, tourmaline, quartz and crystals without a cubic lattice structure are all examples of a birefringent materials. Other medias, such as glass or plastic, become birefringent when subjected to mechanical strain.

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ULULATE (ULL-yuh-layt) v.:howl, wail

"People waved, ululated and punched the air with their fists, not bothered if those inside the motorcade were responding or even paying attention to the excitement outside." (_Africa News_, November 2004)

Did you know?"When other birds are still, the screech owls take up the strain, like mourning women their ancient u-lu-lu." When Henry David Thoreau used "u-lu-lu" to imitate the cry of screech owls and mourning women in that particular passage from his book _Walden_, he was re-enacting the etymology of "ululate" (a word he likely knew). "Ululate" descends from the Latin verb "ululare." That Latin root carried the same meaning as our modern English word, and it likely originated in the echoes of the rhythmic wailing sound associated with it. Even today, "ululate" often refers to ritualistic or expressive wailing performed at times of mourning or celebration or to show approval.

[ksquared]

Malthus and mathematic:

The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus was born on this date in 1766. Britain's first professor of political economy, Malthus was the father of the rather gloomy doctrine of Malthusianism, which posits that a population tends to increase at a faster rate than its means of subsistence, and that unless a population is checked by moral restraint or disaster, widespread poverty and degradation will inevitably result.

We make explicit two terms associated with Robert Malthus: geometric population growth and the arithmetic production of food. An arithmetic progression is explained simply: the difference between any term and its successor is constant. This means that each term in the progression is increased by adding the same number. So if X amount of corn was grown last year, this year, X plus Y corn will be grown; one year from now, X plus Y plus Y will be grown.

A geometric progression is a bit more complicated to understand: the ratio of a term to its successor is always the same, meaning that each term is multiplied by the same number. If the population of a given year is, for example, 100, and the ratio is one to two, then the population for the next year would be 200, 400 the following year, and so on. It's easy to see why Malthus was pessimistic, but the 18th century economist did not forsee an agricultural revolution or reliable contraception.