cupidity /kyoo-PID-ə-tee/. noun. Despite the sensual connotation of its Latin roots, cupidity now refers to non-erotic greed, covetousness, lust, or inordinate appetite for material things. From Latin cupidus (ardent desire); from cupere(desire); maybe from Proto-Indo-European root kup-(e)i- (to tremble; to desire). File under: words that might not mean what you think they mean. See also: avarice, rapaciousness and venality.
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cincture
cincture /SEENK-chər/. noun or verb. A girdle or a belt. More generally, something that encircles or surrounds. From Latin cinctura(girdle), from cingere (to gird, surround).
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contronyms
/KAWN-troh-nim/. noun. Words that have two opposite meanings. Coined in 1962 from the Latin contra- (against) with the Greek suffix -nym (used to indicate that something has the sense of a name).
colophon
colophon /KAWL-ə-fən/. noun. A section in a book detailing the book’s production. A publishers logo, emblem or mark.
crash blossoms
crash blossom. noun. An ambiguous headline, particularly one that yields comedic interpretations. Coined in 2009 by Danny Bloom based on the headline “Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms” in Japan Today, crash blossoms tend to occur in headlines because of space constraints. These linguistic gems are a kind of garden path sentence, in which one must backtrack to resolve an ambiguity, most often due to words that can be nouns or verbs, as in the classic example: “The old man the boat.”
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cuckold
cuckold /KUK-əld/. noun or verb. A man whose spouse has been unfaithful or the act making a cuckold of someone. Of late, a scornful political term embraced most strongly by white nationalists to describe their opponents, often abbreviated as cuck. From Middle English cukeweld (same meaning), from Old French cucuault: cocu (cuckoo) + pejorative suffix -ault.
The interesting aspect of the etymology is its roots in the behavior of the female cuckoo bird, some of which lay their eggs in the nests of—and leave them to be cared for by—other birds, leading to the figurative word we are becoming all too familiar with today.
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cark
cark /kark/. verb or noun. To vex, burden or harass…or to suffer from such. Also: a trouble, a burden, a weight. From Latin carcare (to load a wagon), from Latin carrus (wagon). Less commonly, to die, originally an Australian colloquialism, possibly derived from the caw of the carrion crow.
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