51吃瓜 of the Day
duplicitous
adjective
marked or characterized by deceitfulness in speech or conduct, as by speaking or acting in two different ways to different people concerning the same matter.
More about duplicitous
鈥淗ateful to me as the gates of Hades is the man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another鈥� (Iliad, book 9) is one man鈥檚 reaction to duplicity. That man is Achilles, and he is talking about his lord Agamemnon, but Achilles is addressing Odysseus, who himself knows a trick or two about cunning speech. Duplicitous 鈥渄eceitful in word or deed, as by behaving in different ways with different people about the same affair鈥� is a derivative of the noun duplicity, ultimately from a noun of Latin origin, 诲耻辫濒颈肠颈迟腻蝉 (stem 诲耻辫濒颈肠颈迟腻迟-), formed from the adjective duplex (stem duplic-) 鈥渢wofold, double, folded double; deceitful.鈥� Duplex is a compound of duo 鈥渢wo鈥� and the Latin adjective suffix –plex (stem –plic-), which has the same function (and same Proto-Indo-European origin) as the English suffix –fold (as in twofold). The first recorded meaning of duplicitous in English is in U.S. law: 鈥渋ncluding two or more offenses in one count, or charge, as part of an indictment, thus violating the requirement that each count contain only a single offense鈥�; the more common meaning “deceitful” occurs in the late 1950s. Duplicitous entered English in the early 1890s.
how is duplicitous used?
Cambridge Analytica obtained user data through duplicitous means, but similar data sets are widely and legally available; micro-targeting is commonplace on nearly all political campaigns.
Rather, like his own duplicitous identity, Twain’s texts are double-voiced, both in form and in their equivocal stances toward freedom.
duplicitous
satisfice
verb (used without object)
to choose or adopt the first satisfactory option that one comes across.
More about satisfice
It is easiest to take the verb satisfice, 鈥渢o choose or adopt the first satisfactory option, select or pursue the minimum satisfactory result鈥� as a blend of satis(fy) and (suf)fice. Satisfice contrasts with optimize, 鈥渢o make as effective or useful as possible; make the best of.鈥� A quote from the International New York Times shows this usage well: 鈥淏ig business executives don’t really try to maximize profits but 鈥榮atisfice鈥欌�攖hat is, they try to make enough profit to keep stockholders and boards of directors happy without bringing the wrath of government regulators, consumer groups or business competitors down on them.鈥� Satisfice, originally a northern English colloquialism, entered English in the first half of the 16th century.
how is satisfice used?
In the real world, neither people nor firms maximize utility. … What firms do instead is 鈥�satisfice,鈥� to use Simon鈥檚 term: they content themselves with results that are 鈥済ood enough.鈥�
Most people fall somewhere in the middle. A person can maximize when it comes to some decisions and satisfice on others.
satisfice
ex libris
an inscription in or on a book, to indicate the owner; bookplate.
More about ex libris
Ex libris is a Latin prepositional phrase meaning 鈥渙ut of, from the books (of).鈥� The phrase is composed of the preposition ex 鈥渙ut, out of鈥� (it governs the ablative case), and 濒颈产谤墨蝉, the ablative plural of liber (stem libr-) 鈥渂ook,鈥� whose original Latin meaning was and always remained 鈥渋nner bark of a tree, rind, bast.鈥� Liber comes from an unrecorded Latin luber or lubros, from lubh-, one of the variants of the Proto-Indo-European root leubh-, loubh– (also leub-, leup-) 鈥渢o peel, peel off.鈥� Leubh– regularly becomes laub– in the Germanic languages, as in Gothic laufs, Old English 濒脓补蹿 鈥渓eaf鈥� (from Germanic laufaz). Loubh– forms Lithuanian 濒耻产脿 鈥渂oard鈥� and 濒煤辞产补蝉 鈥渂ark,鈥� and Albanian 濒补产毛 鈥渞ind, cork.鈥� The Latin preposition ex comes from Proto-Indo-European eghs 鈥渙ut, out of,鈥� becoming Greek ex, Old Irish ess-, ass-, Welsh eh-, Gaulish ex– (Gaulish is an extinct Celtic language of ancient Gaul), and Old Prussian es(teinu) 鈥渇rom (now on).鈥� Ex libris entered English in the second half of the 19th century.
how is ex libris used?
What interested me wasn’t the title or the author but the ex-libris pasted to the inside cover. It incorporated a coat of arms, a motto … and a name engraved beneath in a heavy Gothic script: Anton Schwarz von Steiner.
ex libris