Word of the Day
camp
noun
something that provides sophisticated, knowing amusement, as by virtue of its being artlessly mannered or stylized, or self-consciously artificial and extravagant.
More about camp
Many explanations have been offered, but the etymology of camp “something that provides sophisticated, knowing amusement, as by virtue of its being artlessly mannered or stylized, or self-consciously artificial and extravagant” remains obscure. The term entered English in the early 1900s.
how is camp used?
Indeed the essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.
From “RuPaul’s Drag Race” to the current celebration of all things Warhol and Banksy’s self-destructing painting, Mr. Bolton sees the explosion of camp as a partial riposte to the corresponding rise of extreme conservatism and populism.
More about wilder
The rare, archaic verb wilder “to lead astray” is pronounced with a short –i– as in children, not a long –i– as in child. The etymology of wilder is difficult: it looks like a frequentative verb formed from the adjective wild, or an irregular derivative from wilderness that was influenced by wander. Wilder entered English in the early 17th century.
how is wilder used?
Many an older head than his has been wildered by that fatal uniformity, that endless wilderness of green, those seeming tracks, which only lead deeper and deeper into the heart of the deadly scrub.
… in such a manner as to wilder the soul into vast and unthought-of horrors.
More about avenaceous
The very rare adjective avenaceous, meaning “of, like, or pertaining to oats,” is used only in botany. Avenaceous comes straight from the Latin adjective avēnāceus “made from oats,” a derivative of avēna “oats,” which comes from the same Proto-Indo-European source as Lithuanian avižà and Slavic (Polish) owies, both meaning “oats.” Avenaceous entered English in the 18th century.
how is avenaceous used?
See birds that know our avenaceous store / Stoop to our hand, and thence repleted soar …
A spikelet, almost entire, of what seems to be a species of Poa, and the flowering glume of another grass, probably avenaceous, have also been found.