Word of the Day
anecdata
noun
anecdotal evidence based on personal observations or opinions, random investigations, etc., but presented as fact: biased arguments supported by anecdata.
More about anecdata
Anecdata is a reworking of anecdotal data. Anecdotal comes from the Greek adjective anékdotos “unpublished,” formed from the negative prefix an-, a-, the preposition and prefix ex-, ek- “out of,” and the past participle dotós “given, granted.” Each of the three Greek elements corresponds in form, origin, and meaning to Latin inēditus “unpublished” (the negative prefix in-, the preposition and prefix ex-, ē-, and the past participle datus “given.” Data is the neuter plural of datus used as a noun, “things given.” Anecdata entered English in the late 20th century.
how is anecdata used?
Please. Stop letting yourself get carried away based on random anecdata from the Internet.
Again, industry stats support the anecdata. Publishers are reporting declining ebook sales but growing audiobook revenues, with audio filling the digital revenue gap that ebooks left.
inscape
noun
the unique essence or inner nature of a person, place, thing, or event, especially depicted in poetry or a work of art.
More about inscape
It is likely that the English poet and Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) coined the noun inscape. The obsolete noun inshape (i.e., internal form or inward shape) was a probable model. Hopkins also coined sprung rhythm and instress (i.e., the force sustaining an inscape). Inscape entered English in 1868.
how is inscape used?
Spanish chestnuts: their inscape here bold, jutty, somewhat oaklike, attractive, the branching visible and the leaved peaks spotted so as to make crests of eyes.
What we wanted to do was to marry the meaning with the “inscape” of the poem.
More about shavie
Shavie is a rare word used in Scottish poetry, first appearing in English in the 18th century and current for just a little more than a century after that.
how is shavie used?
But urchin Cupid shot a shaft / That play’d a dame a shavie …
‘Twas then that Love played him a shavie, / And strak his dart in donsie Davie.