51吃瓜 of the Day
faux pas
noun
a slip or blunder in etiquette, manners, or conduct; an embarrassing social blunder or indiscretion.
More about faux pas
Faux pas, from French and still unnaturalized in English, literally means 鈥渇alse step,鈥� nowadays referring to a breach in good manners, a social blunder. French faux comes from Old French fals, faus, from Latin falsus, past participle of the verb fallere 鈥渢o deceive, mislead.鈥� The French noun pas, source of English pace, comes from the Latin noun passus 鈥渁 step, stride, pace,鈥� a derivative of the verb pandere 鈥渢o spread (legs, arms, wings), spread out, open.鈥� Faux pas entered English in the second half of the 17th century.
how is faux pas used?
I sat for almost half an hour as they finished preparing, acutely aware of my social faux pas.
I accidentally exposed to them my entire desktop, which felt like a big faux pas despite the fact that there was nothing embarrassing on there at that moment.
faux pas
More about esurient
Esurient, 鈥渉ungry, greedily hungry, greedy,鈥� comes from Latin 脓蝉耻谤颈脓苍蝉 (stem esurient-), the present participle of the verb 脓蝉耻谤墨谤别 鈥渢o feel hunger, suffer from hunger,鈥� formed from 脓蝉(耻蝉), past participle of edere 鈥渢o eat鈥� and the desiderative suffix -耻谤墨谤别 (of unknown origin); thus 脓蝉耻谤墨谤别 literally means 鈥渢o desire to eat.鈥� Esurient may be familiar to those who like Johann Sebastian Bach鈥檚 Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), which contains the verse 膾surient膿s impl膿vit bon墨s et d墨vit膿s d墨m墨sit in膩n膿s, 鈥淗e [God] hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away.鈥� Esurient entered English in the second half of the 17th century.
how is esurient used?
The whole business of bribing, so far as it is carried on, will fall into disreputable hands, those of untrustworthy, esurient, broken attorneys, who will sell their clients very often …
However, this esurient eye for detail can, on rare occasions, cloud the larger picture.
esurient
simulacrum
noun
an effigy, image, or representation: a simulacrum of Aphrodite.
More about simulacrum
Simulacrum, 鈥渁 likeness, an image,鈥� comes straight from Latin 蝉颈尘耻濒腻肠谤耻尘 鈥渁 resemblance in sight or sound, an image, a statue (of a god).鈥� 厂颈尘耻濒腻肠谤耻尘 is a derivative of the verb 蝉颈尘耻濒腻(谤别) 鈥渢o simulate, pretend鈥� and -crum, a variant of -culum, a suffix denoting tools or instruments. 厂颈尘耻濒腻谤别 in its turn is a derivative of the adjective similis 鈥渓ike, similar,鈥� which through Medieval Latin 蝉颈尘颈濒腻谤颈蝉 and Old French similaire becomes English similar. Simulacrum entered English at the end of the 16th century.
how is simulacrum used?
Except for flakes of plaster in its streets, the little city is entirely undamaged. The simulacrum now more whole than the original.
A gallery of thumbnail-size co-workers on a laptop screen is a diminished simulacrum of the conference-table gatherings that drive so much of corporate life.
simulacrum