alfresco \al-FRES-koh\, adverb:
1. In the open air; outdoors.
adjective:
1. Taking place or located in the open air; outdoor.
Turner escaped from the entangled politics of London's art world, where the Royal Academy was marooned in petty disputes, to paint alfresco on the riverbanks.-- Siri Huntoon, "Down by the Riverside", New York Times, November 7, 1993
Outdoor sitting areas all have LAN connections, so that employees can work alfresco.-- Scott Kirsner, "Digital Competition - Laurie A. Tucker", Fast Company, December 1999
I sailed past alfresco cafes filled with young people reading the paper, past restaurants doing a thriving brunch business, and ended up dropping down a fairly steep hill to the water yet again, on an obscure street that ended near a big factory.-- Gary Kamiya, "An ode to Sydney", Salon, September 27, 2000
Alfresco is from the Italian al fresco, "in the fresh (air)," from al, "in the" (a, "to, in" + il, "the") + fresco, "fresh."
from: word of the day
Showing posts with label vocabulary of the day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vocabulary of the day. Show all posts
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Word of the Day
bailiwick \BAY-luh-wik\, noun:
1. A person's specific area of knowledge, authority, interest, skill, or work.
2. The office or district of a bailiff.
I'll give it a try, but this is not my bailiwick.-- Sue Grafton, 'L' Is for Lawless
He "professed ignorance, as of something outside my bailiwick."-- Marc Aronson, "Wharton and the House of Scribner: The Novelist as a Pain in the Neck", New York Times, January 2, 1994
Fund-raising was Cliff's bailiwick, anyway, and he seemed to have it in hand.-- Curt Sampson, The Masters
Bailiwick comes from Middle English baillifwik, from baillif, "bailiff" (ultimately from Latin bajulus, "porter, carrier") + wik, "town," from Old English wic, from Latin vicus, "village."
from: word of the day
1. A person's specific area of knowledge, authority, interest, skill, or work.
2. The office or district of a bailiff.
I'll give it a try, but this is not my bailiwick.-- Sue Grafton, 'L' Is for Lawless
He "professed ignorance, as of something outside my bailiwick."-- Marc Aronson, "Wharton and the House of Scribner: The Novelist as a Pain in the Neck", New York Times, January 2, 1994
Fund-raising was Cliff's bailiwick, anyway, and he seemed to have it in hand.-- Curt Sampson, The Masters
Bailiwick comes from Middle English baillifwik, from baillif, "bailiff" (ultimately from Latin bajulus, "porter, carrier") + wik, "town," from Old English wic, from Latin vicus, "village."
from: word of the day
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Word of the Day
otiose \OH-shee-ohs; OH-tee-\, adjective:
1. Ineffective; futile.
2. Being at leisure; lazy; indolent; idle.
3. Of no use.
Mr. Federspiel's surreal flourishes and commentaries straddle the line between interesting and otiose. Most of the surrealism is pretty but pointless.-- D. F. Wallace, "The Million-Dollar Tattoo", New York Times, May 5, 1991
Although the wild outer movements and the angular Minuet can take such clockwork precision, the Andante, with its obsessive, claustrophobic dialogues between strings and bassoons, seemed sluggish and otiose.-- Tim Ashley, "VPO/Maazel", The Guardian, April 16, 2002
The umlaut he affected, which made no difference to the pronunciation of his name, was as otiose as a pair of strategically positioned beauty spots.-- Peter Conrad, "Hidden shallows", New Statesman, October 14, 2002
One hazard for religions in which all professional intermediaries are dispensed with, and in which the individual is enjoined to 'work out your own salvation' and is regarded as fully capable of doing so, is that belief and practice become independent of formal organized structures which may in such a context come to be perceived as otiose.-- Lorne L. Dawson, "The Cultural Significance of New Religious Movements: The Case of Soka Gakkai", Sociology of Religion, Fall 2001
Otiose is from Latin otiosus, "idle, at leisure," from otium, "leisure."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for otiose
from: word of the day
1. Ineffective; futile.
2. Being at leisure; lazy; indolent; idle.
3. Of no use.
Mr. Federspiel's surreal flourishes and commentaries straddle the line between interesting and otiose. Most of the surrealism is pretty but pointless.-- D. F. Wallace, "The Million-Dollar Tattoo", New York Times, May 5, 1991
Although the wild outer movements and the angular Minuet can take such clockwork precision, the Andante, with its obsessive, claustrophobic dialogues between strings and bassoons, seemed sluggish and otiose.-- Tim Ashley, "VPO/Maazel", The Guardian, April 16, 2002
The umlaut he affected, which made no difference to the pronunciation of his name, was as otiose as a pair of strategically positioned beauty spots.-- Peter Conrad, "Hidden shallows", New Statesman, October 14, 2002
One hazard for religions in which all professional intermediaries are dispensed with, and in which the individual is enjoined to 'work out your own salvation' and is regarded as fully capable of doing so, is that belief and practice become independent of formal organized structures which may in such a context come to be perceived as otiose.-- Lorne L. Dawson, "The Cultural Significance of New Religious Movements: The Case of Soka Gakkai", Sociology of Religion, Fall 2001
Otiose is from Latin otiosus, "idle, at leisure," from otium, "leisure."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for otiose
from: word of the day
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