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bastion

[ bas-chuhn, -tee-uhn ]

noun

anything seen as preserving or protecting some quality, condition, etc.: a bastion of solitude.

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More about bastion

The English noun bastion still looks French. It comes from Middle French, from Upper Italian bastione “rampart, bulwark, bastion,” an augmentative noun formed from bastita “fortified,” from the verb bastire “to build,” from Medieval Latin bastīre, possibly of Germanic origin and akin to bastille “tower, small fortress, bastion.” Bastion entered English in the late 16th century.

how is bastion used?

… Notre Dame went from being a football school to being not just academically respected but a bastion of intellectual freedom and ideological pluralism ….

Ann Hornaday, "The timely documentary 'Hesburgh' looks back fondly on a great conciliator," Washington Post, May 1, 2019

… he’d seen it as a bastion of the familiar and orderly, where negotiations took place the way they were supposed to, in high-backed chairs, with checkbooks and contracts and balance sheets.

T. C. Boyle, The Tortilla Curtain, 1995
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Word of the day

appellative

[ uh-pel-uh-tiv ]

noun

a descriptive name or designation, as Bald in Charles the Bald.

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More about appellative

Appellative comes from the Late Latin grammatical term appellātīvus “pertaining to a common noun” and nōmen appellātīvum “a common noun” (in contrast to nōmen proprium “a proper noun”). Appellātīvus is a derivative of the verb appellāre “to speak to, address, call upon, invoke.” Appellative in the sense “descriptive name,” as Great in Alfred the Great, is a development in English dating from the first half of the 17th century. Appellative in its original Latin sense entered English in the early 16th century.

how is appellative used?

In connection with this appellative of “Whalebone whales,” it is of great importance to mention, that however such a nomenclature may be convenient in facilitating allusions to some kind of whales, yet it is in vain to attempt a clear classification of the leviathan …

Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851

In addition too to this almost Cimmerian gloom was the agrément of a penetrating rain, known perhaps to some of my readers by the gentle appellative of a Scotch mist …

"Goodwood Races", The Sporting Magazine, Vol. 24, No. 144, September 1829
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Word of the day

fictioneer

[ fik-shuh-neer ]

noun

a writer of fiction, especially a prolific one whose works are of mediocre quality.

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More about fictioneer

The noun fictioneer is composed of the noun fiction and the noun suffix –eer denoting agency. The suffix is neutral in words like engineer and mountaineer, but it frequently has a pejorative sense, as in profiteer and racketeer. Fictioneer, too, has always had a hint of contempt in it: an early (1901) definition of fictioneer reads “a writer of ‘machine-made’ fiction.” Fictioneer entered English in the early 20th century.

how is fictioneer used?

If you were not a fictioneer, if you did not place a monetary value on the efforts of your imagination, I should be inclined to think that you were lying ….

Theodore Goodridge Roberts, "The Whisper," Munsey's Magazine, Vol. 54, 1915

That was long ago, and she’s a grandmother today, but still she can toss around the lingo of the Wild West with a fluency that would be the envy of a Hollywood scenarist or a fictioneer of the great open spaces.

Jean Ashton, "Revives Glories of 'Wild West'," Windsor Daily Star, August 30, 1941
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