Word of the Day
More about sepulcher
Sepulcher comes via French from Latin sepulcrum “grave, tomb,” a derivative of the verb sepelīre “to perform the funeral rites, bury, inter.” The Latin verb comes from the Proto-Indo-European root sep- “to honor,” extended to sep-el- “sorrow, care, awe.” The same root appears in Sanskrit sapati “(he) worships, tends.” The Greek derivative of sep- is the root hep-, which usually occurs in compound verbs, e.g., amphiépein “to look after, tend to,” as in the last line of the Iliad, “Thus they tended to (amphíepon) the funeral of horse-taming Hector.” Sepulcher entered English in the 13th century.
how is sepulcher used?
The stale suffocating room felt like a sepulcher …
A clattering-rattling sound. A bony sound. Like the skeletons of long-dead men clawing their way out of a sepulcher.
gadzookery
noun
British. the use or overuse of period-specific or archaic expressions, as in a historical novel.
More about gadzookery
Gadzookery was first recorded in 1950–1955.
how is gadzookery used?
The language is convincing, and free of the gadzookery of Elizabethan pastiche.
Several other stories and verses that they jointly contributed to magazines are historical and melodramatic in tone, larded with archaic oaths and exclamations and general gadzookery.
timeserver
noun
a person who shapes his or her conduct to conform to the opinions of the time or of persons in power, especially for selfish ends.
More about timeserver
Timeserver was first recorded in 1565–75.
how is timeserver used?
He was labeled unreliable. He could even be thought a double-dealer or timeserver.
“I couldn’t marry Belinda to a time-server or a palace-worshipper,” said the King decidedly.