Word of the Day

[Katya]

expiate - to atone for (guilt or sin)

Learned this one in the MTC's TRC.

I'd heard it in a religious context before, but I didn't realize it actually meant "to atone."

[Katya]

farby - inauthentic to a time period (said of Civil War reenactors)

"Farb" is the noun form.

[Emiliana]

Meiotic: characterized by meosis. It literally pertains to the division of cells, but the phrase I found it in was "Christianity's meiotic tendencies." An interesting metaphor.

Source: Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian's Pilgrimage in Search of God in America by Jeff Chu

[Katya]

arraign - 1. Call or bring (someone) before a court to answer a criminal charge: "her sister was arraigned on attempted murder charges". 2. Find fault with (someone or something); censure: "the soldiers bitterly arraigned the government for failing to keep its word".

I wasn't familiar with the second definition.

[Portia]

desultory

Lacking a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm.
(of conversation or speech) Going from one subject to another in a halfhearted way; unfocused: "desultory conversation".

Encountered in this article on joyless, unsexy sex in television (recommended!) of Don Draper. I'd seen the word but couldn't have clearly defined it.

[Katya]

epicene - Having characteristics of both sexes or no characteristics of either sex; of indeterminate sex.

[Laser Jock]

valuta - from context, money (what I can find online refers to exchange rates, but this is a bit of a different meaning)

Source: Starship Troopers (would not recommend), by Robert A. Heinlein, pg. 201:

Churchill Road from the Base to the city is lined both sides with enterprises intended to separate painlessly a man from money he really hasn't any use for anyhow.... If you are able to get past these traps, through having already been bled of all valuta, there are still other places in the city almost as satisfactory...

[Katya]

ormolu - an 18th-century English term for applying finely ground, high-carat gold in a mercury amalgam to an object of bronze

[Giovanni Schwartz]

dot·tle (dtl)
n.
The plug of tobacco ash left in the bowl of a pipe after it has been smoked.

Found while reading The Desert Spear, by Peter V. Brett. Pretty decent book/series, with very real characters (although most of them are largely driven by sex).

[S.A.M.]

Bathophobia - A fear of depths. This can include things like deep wells, lakes, and pools, along with long dark hallways and other types of depths.

(Not the thing that some kids have about getting clean)

[Katya]

fleam - A handheld instrument used for bloodletting.

[S.A.M.]

fideism - A reliance on faith rather than reason in pursuit of religious truth.

[S.A.M.]

sobriquet - a well known nickname.

Banana slugs are often bright yellow (giving rise to the banana sobriquet)

[Portia]

Looking up "gradating" as found here, I found that it is a word and means

Pass or cause to pass by gradations from one shade of color to another.

It took me a minute to think what Tootles probably meant, and i can only guess self-degradating.

The act of degrading one's self, or the state of being so degraded.

[Portia]

Ooh! ooh! They are etymologically related, which pleases me.

gradation
degradation

They're basically antonyms! I vote that "self-gradation" now means to praise one's self or raise yourself in your own eyes.

[S.A.M.]

I vote that "self-gradation" now means to praise one's self or raise yourself in your own eyes.

That definition totally works for when the teacher lets you score your own test.

[Yarjka]

deontic (adj.)
of or pertaining to duty and moral obligation as ethical concepts.

People who have studied philosophy/law probably know this word, but it was a new one for me.

[mic0]

A great accident:

"I re-whined & watched that part again"

re-whined. I just... it's great.

[S.A.M.]

misconception - When you think you can get pregnant from kissing.

[Katya]

misconception - When you think you can get pregnant from kissing.