Vocabulary

Each week, The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar -- another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. Use it in a sentence in a comment below, and the best sentence will be featured next week. This week's word: GNOMIC It means "wise" and "pithy," often with an overtone of obscurity, usually applied to aphorisms or the writer of aphorisms. The word, pronounced NO-mik, has only an etymological relationship with gnomes, garden or otherwise.

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar - another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: - See more at: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/bal-in-a-word-subfusc-20130219,0,1370566.story#sthash.2Canyfd4.dpuf Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar - another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary.

Each week The Sun’s John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar — another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week’s word: GRACILE Wallis Warfield Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, supposedly said some version of “A woman can’t be too rich or too thin,” a motto for anorexics and bony women everywhere. So the goal is to be wealthy and gracile. Gracile (pronounced GRASS-il)

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar - another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: PROLIX Prolixity, unless you are Robert Burton exploring the exquisite ramifications of melancholy, is not much prized in pose. To be prolix is to be florid or wordy, to use a superfluity of words, to grow tediously lengthy. In speech, the equivalent term is garrulous . The word is late Middle English, from the French prolixe (natch)

Each week, The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar -- another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. Use it in a sentence in a comment below, and the best sentence will be featured next week. This week's word: LACHRYMOSE If you are tearful or given to weeping, people may call you lachrymose. One of the most lachrymose figures in literature is Mary Magdalene, who was conventionally represented in the Middle Ages and Renaissance as tearfully mourning the death of Jesus.

A few other Persian Gulf war terms that have entered the American vocabulary:Attrite (a-trit): The verb form of attrition, meaning to lose troops under enemy fire.Bovine scatology: Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf's elongated version of the usual translation for B.S.Carpet bombing: A term for massive bombing in a limited space, usually by B-52s. Vietnam-era people date themselves by calling it "rolling thunder."Fog of war: The chaos and confusion of battle both in actuality and in the minds of soldiers trying to translate plans and maps into reality once the shooting starts.

Dennis Posey, 6, thinks he is learning sign language so he can communicate with deaf people. The Lansdowne Elementary School student is only partly right.Although the first grader will be able to communicate with hearing-impaired people, the primary reason he is learning sign language is to improve his reading skills.In a world where interest in the printed word is dwindling among young people and their elders alike, educators are searching out new methods to make reading an enjoyable experience.

"E" has become the nation's ubiquitous prefix: e-mail, eBay, e-commerce. You can purchase e-stamps, sign up for an eFax or ETrade account and e-file your taxes. But these days, using the letter "e" as part of a name almost pegs a company as anything but edgy. "You wouldn't want to call something 'e' so-and-so if you wanted the company to last more than five years," said Sam Birger, a linguist and president of Nomenon, a brand and identity firm based in Cambridge, Mass. "It is getting tired and hackneyed.

Theater: As this revue makes clear, the choreographer's works takes many turns. The tipped bowler hat, the jutting hip, the turned-in feet, the gloved hands with outstretched fingers. These were part of the vocabulary of Bob Fosse's distinctive choreography. That vocabulary was just one of the contributions to the American musical theater made by the late director/choreographer. His work is celebrated in the Tony Award-winning revue, "Fosse," which opens at the Mechanic Theatre Tuesday.

Harry Weinberg, Baltimore's lone billionaire, whose eccentricities were dwarfed only by his fortune, died yesterday at Queen's Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii, after an eight-year battle with bone cancer. He was 82.Mr. Weinberg, who accumulated a fortune in real estate, municipal transit companies and other ventures during the last half-century, was a local example of the familiar American success story -- the son of immigrant parents, he quit school at 12, worked in his father's auto shop, sold newspapers on the side and eventually parlayed a series of remarkably successful business deals into enormous wealth.

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar — another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: DESULTORY When you feel unfocused or find yourself proceeding haphazardly, the word to reach for to describe yourself is desultory (pronounced DES-ul-tor-ee). We get it in English from the Latin desultorius , or "leaping," from desilire , " to vault, "to jump down.

Each week The Sun’s John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar — another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week’s word: GRACILE Wallis Warfield Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, supposedly said some version of “A woman can’t be too rich or too thin,” a motto for anorexics and bony women everywhere. So the goal is to be wealthy and gracile. Gracile (pronounced GRASS-il)

Each week, The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar -- another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. Use it in a sentence in a comment below, and the best sentence will be featured next week. This week's word: LACHRYMOSE If you are tearful or given to weeping, people may call you lachrymose. One of the most lachrymose figures in literature is Mary Magdalene, who was conventionally represented in the Middle Ages and Renaissance as tearfully mourning the death of Jesus.

I enjoyed yesterday's paper with a "new" word in an article's headline ("Opposing votes limn difference in race," Sept. 7), even though at first I wondered if it was a typo. I'd like to think I have a good vocabulary, but that word prompted me to look it up in the dictionary. I then shared the definition with my husband (who really thinks he has a good vocabulary!) and with my two elementary school-aged kids. I think it's great that The Sun challenged us with vocabulary and provided a good way for me demonstrate a skill to my kids that I talk much about — looking up definitions.

A dog named Martha is talking - and talking and talking - on PBS, thanks to some errant alphabet soup and a University of Maryland professor. Martha Speaks, a children's show that debuted across the country Monday, is based on a series of books by Susan Meddaugh. It's all about a family dog who acquires the power of speech after slurping down a bowl of alphabet soup. ("The letters in the soup went up to Martha's brain instead of down to her stomach," the story goes. "That evening, Martha spoke."

The great thing about the English language is that it has so many words; you can be selective to ensure your message reflects your personality, as well as conveys your meaning. For example, if I were to describe the English language with the phrase, "It's got more words than you can shake a stick at!" I would appear down-to-earth and folksy. On the other hand, if I wanted to appear lofty or even pretentious, I might write: "Its myriad options give linguists and ordinary citizens, pari passu, unlimited opportunities to impart individuality."

I LEAN BACK in my chair. I talk to my computer. It types what I say. And. I. Do. Not. Have. To. Talk. Like. This.Computer dictation software has typically used a limited vocabulary or required you to train yourself to use "discrete" speech, pausing unnaturally after every word, or both.Recognizing large-vocabulary continuous speech, the way we normally talk, has long seemed a goal unreachable until some Jetsonian future. Until now.Dragon Naturallyspeaking, from Dragon Systems Inc., is the first program I have seen that really does let you dictate to a personal computer in an unforced way. It is far from perfect, but it is nonetheless the first speech recognition system I would seriously consider using in my work.

I enjoyed yesterday's paper with a "new" word in an article's headline ("Opposing votes limn difference in race," Sept. 7), even though at first I wondered if it was a typo. I'd like to think I have a good vocabulary, but that word prompted me to look it up in the dictionary. I then shared the definition with my husband (who really thinks he has a good vocabulary!) and with my two elementary school-aged kids. I think it's great that The Sun challenged us with vocabulary and provided a good way for me demonstrate a skill to my kids that I talk much about — looking up definitions.

Think technology business, and you'll likely imagine a company run by a 20-something or even younger upstart. At RWD Technologies Inc., a Baltimore consulting and training company, the founder turned 84 in March. But don't ask Robert W. Deutsch about his retirement plans. He doesn't have any. Deutsch is just as active in the company today as when he founded it 20 years ago. Deutsch, who gave up his chief executive duties four years ago but remains the board chairman, oversees the private company's research and product development efforts.