[par-uh-fer-neyl-yuh, -fuh-neyl-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation | 1. | (sometimes used with a singular verb) equipment, apparatus, or furnishing used in or necessary for a particular activity: a skier's paraphernalia. |
| 2. | (used with a plural verb) personal belongings. |
| 3. | (used with a singular verb) Law. the personal articles, apart from dower, reserved by law to a married woman. |
) dowry, deriv. of phérein to bear1 + -a neut. pl. n. suffix) + L -ālia, n. use of neut. pl. of -ālis -al1] —Related forms
[par-uh-fur-nl] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation, adjective
objurgate \OB-juhr-gayt\, transitive verb:
To express strong disapproval of; to criticize severely.
I objurgate the centipede,
A bug we do not really need.
-- Ogden Nash, "The Centipede"
The act about to be objurgated here calls on the Food and Drug Administration to oversee a broad revision of food labeling.
-- Daniel Seligman, "Federal Food Follies", Fortune, July 1, 1991
Objurgate comes from the past participle of Latin from objurgare, "to scold, to blame," from ob-, "against" + jurgare, "to dispute, to quarrel, to sue at law," from jus, jur-, "law" + -igare (from agere, "to lead").
lissom \LISS-uhm\, adjective;
also lissome:
1. Limber; supple; flexible.
2. Light and quick in action; nimble; agile; active.
Raphaelle Boitel moves with the lissom, contortionist plastique of a snake-woman.
-- Nadine Meisner, "Clowns real and imagined", Independent, April 20, 2001
Her foot touches the plate and sets off the trap, but so swift and lissome is she that her ankles evade the clash of the serrated iron jaws as they spring together.
-- John Bayley, Iris and Her Friends
Lissom is an alteration of lithesome, which derives from Old English lithe, "flexible, mild, gentle."
badinage \bad-n-AHZH\, noun:
Light, playful talk; banter.
Ken was determined to put the cares of the world behind him and do what he loved best -- having a few celebrity friends round and enjoying an evening of anecdote and badinage over a bottle or two of vintage bubbly and some tasty cheese straws.
-- Bel Littlejohn, "My moustache man", The Guardian, March 24, 2000
The badinage was inconsequential, reduced to who knew whom and wasn't the weather glorious in St. Tropez, or the Bahamas, Hawaii, or Hong Kong?
-- Robert Ludlum, The Matarese Countdown
Badinage comes from French, from badiner, "to trifle, to joke," badin, "playful, jocular."
inclement \in-KLEM-uhnt\, adjective:
1. Rough, harsh; extreme, severe -- generally restricted to the elements or weather.
2. Severe, unrelenting; cruel.
To make his misery complete he was forced to travel back in the winter, in the most inclement weather.
-- Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, The Sleeping Beauty and other Fairy Tales
Molly also noticed that the window frames had grooves of soft lead, less than an inch wide and shaped like blunt hooks, into which the glass could be slotted at night or during inclement weather.
-- Annabel Davis-Goff, The Dower House
Rosina concluded that a resident or guest had gone out back, possibly to use the privy, but this was a bit odd and certainly not routine, given the inclement weather and the availability of chamber pots in every room.
-- Patricia Cline Cohen, The Murder of Helen Jewett
Inclement is from Latin in-, "not" + clemens, "gentle, merciful."
kobold \KOH-bold\, noun:
�In German folklore, a haunting spirit, gnome, or goblin.
Witch, kobold, sprite. . . and imp of every kind.
-- A. J. Symington
This world and the other, too, are always present to his mind, and there in the corner is the little black kobold of a doubt making mouths at him.
-- James Russell Lowell, Among My Books
The Kobolds were a species of gnomes, who haunted the dark and solitary places, and were often seen in the mines.
-- Sir Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft
Cobalt, the metal, "the goblin of the mines," was named by those who had to work it after the kobold, since it caused them so much trouble, the ore being arsenical.
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