51吃瓜 of the Day
foofaraw
noun
a great fuss or disturbance about something very insignificant.
More about foofaraw
Foofaraw, 鈥渁 great fuss over something very insignificant; excessive decoration or ornamentation, as on clothing or a building,鈥� originated on the western frontier of the U.S. in the mid-19th century. Foofaraw, spelled fofarraw, used as an adjective meaning 鈥済audy, tawdry鈥� first appears in print in June 1848 in a series of articles for Blackwood鈥檚 Magazine (published in Edinburgh) by George Ruxton, an English explorer and travel writer, who wrote about the Far West. Fofarrow used as a noun meaning “gaudy apparel” appears in the same magazine by the same author two months later, in August 1848. The sense “great fuss over something insignificant” dates from the early 1930s. The many variant spellings, such as fofarraw, fofarow, foofaraw, foofoorah, and 20 others, show that foofaraw has no reliable etymology. Speculations about the etymology of foofaraw include Spanish 蹿补苍蹿补谤谤贸苍, a noun and adjective meaning 鈥渂raggart, boaster鈥� (perhaps from Arabic 蹿补谤蹿腻谤 鈥渢补濒办补迟颈惫别鈥�). Foofaraw may also come from French fanfaron, a noun and adjective with the same meanings as the Spanish. The French dialect form fanfarou may also have contributed to the American word.
how is foofaraw used?
Last week, Swedish movie theaters created a media foofaraw when they announced that they would begin providing a rating based on the Bechdel test for the films they screen.
Pound for pound, City Lights is almost certainly the best bookstore in the United States. It鈥檚 not as sprawling as the聽Strand,聽in Manhattan, or聽Moe鈥檚 Books,聽in Berkeley. But it鈥檚 so dense with serious world literature of every stripe, and so absent trinkets and elaborate bookmarks and candles and other foofaraw, that it鈥檚 a Platonic ideal.
foofaraw
lucida
noun
the brightest star in a constellation.
More about lucida
Lucida is the feminine singular of the Latin adjective 濒奴肠颈诲耻蝉 meaning 鈥渂right, shining鈥�; the Latin phrase 濒奴肠颈诲补 stella simply means 鈥渂right star鈥�; the modern sense 鈥渢he brightest star in a constellation鈥� is a New Latin usage dating from the first half of the 18th century. 尝奴肠颈诲耻蝉 is a derivative of the verb 濒奴肠脓谤别 鈥渢o emit light, shine,鈥� which in turn is a derivative of the noun lux, inflectional stem 濒奴肠– 鈥渓ight, a light.鈥� Stella comes from an unrecorded Latin sterla, literally 鈥渓ittle star,鈥� from the Proto-Indo-European root ster– 鈥渟tar,鈥� which appears in Proto-Germanic as 蝉迟别谤锄艒苍-, and in the recorded Germanic languages as 蝉迟补铆谤苍艒 in Gothic, sterno in Old High German, stjarna in Old Norse, steorra in Old English, sterre in Middle English, and star in Modern English. Greek 补蝉迟岣梤 shares an initial a with Armenian 补蝉迟艂, both meaning 鈥渟tar.鈥�
how is lucida used?
Interestingly, the old astronomy books and sky charts, which depicted the constellations as allegorical drawings, placed the lucida (brightest star) of Lynx in the tuft of its tail. From these drawings it would seem that nearby Leo Minor, the Smaller Lion, is about to provoke a cat fight by biting Lynx鈥檚 tail.
At its [Scorpius’s] heart lies its lucida or brightest star, the red Antares, so named because its color makes of it a rival to Mars whenever that red planet is nearby.
lucida
propinquity
noun
nearness in place; proximity.
More about propinquity
Propinquity, 鈥渃loseness in space, time, kinship,鈥� comes via Middle English propinquite from Old French propinquite, from Latin 辫谤辞辫颈苍辩耻颈迟腻迟-, the inflectional stem of the noun 辫谤辞辫颈苍辩耻颈迟腻蝉. The English, Middle English, Old French, and Latin nouns even share the same meanings. 笔谤辞辫颈苍辩耻颈迟腻蝉 is a derivative of the adjective propinquus, itself a derivative of the preposition and adverb prope 鈥渘ear, nearby, close.鈥� The suffix –inquus is very rare in Latin, but it also occurs in the adjective longinquus 鈥渇ar, far off, remote,鈥� the opposite of propinquus. Prope and propinquus are the positive degree whose comparative degree is the regularly formed propinquior 鈥渃loser, nearer鈥�; the superlative degree is the irregular proximus 鈥渘ext, next to, nearest, adjacent,鈥� from which English derives proximate. Propinquity entered English in the first half of the 15th century.
how is propinquity used?
when he was called to New York, to become a partner in his father鈥檚 banking-house, I realized that our interests had already diverged, and that only propinquity had served to hold us together. For poor George had already allowed himself to be mastered by a fatal vice鈥攖he passion for money-making …
In the case of the pictures in 鈥�#nyc,鈥� closeness involves not just a physical propinquity but also a kind of psychic insight into others鈥� hearts and minds.
propinquity