Word of the Day
indite
verb (used with object)
to compose or write, as a poem.
More about indite
Indite “to compose or write, as a poem” sounds identical to the verb indict, and there’s a good reason for that: both indite and indict were originally the same word, and while indite more directly preserves the Old French spelling of enditer, indict preserves the earlier Latin spelling of indictus “having been announced.” Indictus is the perfect participle of indīcere “to announce, proclaim,” which is based on dīcere “to say, tell.” Dīcere (stem dict-) is the source of speech-related terms such as contradict, valedictorian, and (of course) dictionary, and it comes from the same ultimate source as the recent Word of the Day vendetta. Indite was first recorded in English in the mid-14th century.
how is indite used?
After Chia Cheng had listened to these words, he pondered for a while. “These tablets and scrolls,” he remarked, “present however a difficult task. According to the rites, we should, in order to obviate any shortcoming, request the imperial consort to deign and compose them; but if the honourable consort does not gaze upon the scenery with her own eyes, it will also be difficult for her to conceive its nature and indite upon it!”
If answerable style I can obtain Of my celestial patroness, who deigns Her nightly visitation unimplor’d, And dictates to me slumbering; or inspires Easy my unpremeditated verse: Since first this subject for heroick song Pleas’d me long choosing, and beginning late; Not sedulous by nature to indite Wars, hitherto the only argument Heroick deem’d chief mastery to dissect With long and tedious havock fabled knights In battles feign’d
almsgiving
noun
the act of donating money, food, or other items to poor or needy people, especially as a spiritual practice.
More about almsgiving
Almsgiving “the act of donating to needy people” is a compound of alms “donations to needy people” and giving. The seemingly simple word alms has a complicated history; it is a contraction of Old English ælmesse, which was borrowed from Late Latin eleēmosyna, source of Word of the Day eleemosynary. While most words of Latin origin passed into Middle English by way of Old French, a minority of terms were borrowed into Old English directly from later versions of the Latin language. Other examples of early borrowings include chalk, cheese, cook, street, wall, and wine. Turning back to Late Latin, eleēmosyna derives from Ancient Greek eleēmosýnē “compassion,” from éleos “pity.” Almsgiving was first recorded in English long before the year 1000 AD.
how is almsgiving used?
Panhandling is a basic form of charitable solicitation with a long history. Almsgiving dates back to the days of ancient Greece and the Bible. Instead of asking for help on behalf of an animal shelter, food pantry or any other kind of nonprofit, the panhandlers ask for help satisfying their own personal need. In case after case, the courts have clearly ruled that the Constitution safeguards the right to make personal pitches the same way that it protects the ability of organizations to make their own asks.
The pandemic has given a boost to philanthropy in Latin America, but it is also a threat. Donors have less money to give or are shifting it to public health from other good causes …. The Latin American countries with the largest philanthropic sectors are Mexico and Colombia, according to a study published in 2018. Their foundations’ assets are worth 1% of annual gdp, compared with 4.8% in the United States. Ordinary folk seem less altruistic than in other regions, though the tradition of almsgiving through the church remains strong.
haček
noun
a diacritic (ˇ) placed over a letter in some languages, as Czech and Lithuanian, and in some systems of phonetic transcription, especially to indicate that a sound is palatalized.
More about haček
Haček “a diacritic (ˇ) placed over a letter to indicate that a sound is palatalized” is a borrowing from Czech háček “small hook,” a diminutive of hák “hook.” The resemblance between hák and English hook is not a coincidence; hák is adapted from Middle High German hāken (compare modern German Haken) and is cognate to English hook and heckle, Dutch haak “hook” and hoek “corner,” and Icelandic haki “pick” and hækja “crutch.” An alternative name for the haček is caron, which is of unknown origin, though one hypothesis—based purely on spelling similarity, so take it with a grain of salt—is that caron is based on caret (^) and/or macron (¯). Haček was first recorded in English in the early 1950s.
how is haček used?
There’s another way to type accents on the Mac and some people find it much easier. Simply press and hold the letter you want to accent and a pop-over menu will appear showing the options. So, e yields seven options and a has eight alternative versions … This means more accents can be accommodated. The inverted circumflex or caron or haček … does not have a keyboard shortcut. Instead, you need to follow the long-press technique on the letter c and it’ll appear as the third option. Again, without letting go of the c, tap the 3 key and you’re golden.
Four … consonants [in the Czech language] are created by adding a haček, literally a “little hook,” above the letters c, r, s, and z. As a result, č is equivalent to “ch” in “cheese,” š to “sh,” and ž to “zh” as in “leisure.” The sound ř, distinctive of the Czech language, is considered virtually unpronounceable by foreigners. Something like a combination r plus ž, it occurs, to give a famous and familiar example, in the name of the composer Antonín Dvořák (usually, “Dvor-zhak”).