head

en-noun

head (countable and uncountable, plural heads or head)

heads (plural)
head (plural)
heed (alternative obsolete)
hed (alternative obsolete)
'ead (alternative UK pronunciation-spelling)

→ Japanese: ヘッド (heddo)

Sranan Tongo: ede

Aukan: ede

Saramaccan: hédi

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *kap-
Proto-Indo-European *káput-
Proto-Germanic *haubudą
Old English hēafod
Middle English heed
English head
From Middle English hed, from Old English hēafd-, hēafod (“head; top; chief”), from Proto-West Germanic *haubud, from Proto-Germanic *haubudą (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *káput.
The modern word comes from Old English oblique stem hēafd-; the expected Modern English outcome for hēafod would be *heaved (similar to the Middle English word). Doublet of cape, capo, caput, chef, chief, and Howth.
Cognate with Scots heid, hede, hevid, heved (“head”), Old English hafola (“head”), North Frisian hood (“head”), Dutch hoofd (“head”), German Haupt (“head”), Swedish huvud (“head”), Danish hoved (“head”), Icelandic höfuð (“head”), Latin caput (“head”), Sanskrit कपाल (kapāla, “skull”), Hindi कपाल (kapāl, “skull”).

頭

つぶり, tsuburi, つぃぶる, tsiburu, つぃぶるぃ, tsiburi

pää

principal operative part of a machine or tool

have one's head screwed on the right way

know one's head from a hole in the ground

run around like a chicken with its head cut off

would lose one's head if it wasn't attached

would lose one's head if it wasn't bolted on

would lose one's head if it wasn't glued on

would lose one's head if it wasn't screwed on

would lose one's head if it wasn't stuck on

would lose one's head if it wasn't tied on

would lose one's head if it weren't attached

you can't put an old head on young shoulders

you can't put a wise head on young shoulders

The content of a headline over a news story should be taken from the lead of the story. […] The head should give the same impression as the body of the story.

1968, Earl English, Clarence Hach, Scholastic Journalism, page 166:

(countable) The topmost, foremost, or leading part.

The topmost, foremost, or leading part.
Ellipsis of headline.


quality

en-noun

quality (countable and uncountable, plural qualities)

→ Japanese: クオリティ (kuoriti)

→ Korean: 퀄리티 (kwolliti)

→ Malay: kualiti

US, father-bother merger, weak vowel merger

From Middle English qualite, from Old French qualité, from Latin quālitās, quālitātem, from quālis (“of what kind”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- (“who, how”). Cicero coined qualitas as a calque to translate the Ancient Greek word ποιότης (poiótēs, “quality”), coined by Plato from ποῖος (poîos, “of what nature, of what kind”).

It is argued that in the last ten years or so, quality broadsheet newspapers have become more like the tabloids. Anthony Sampson has argued that 'the frontier between the qualities and popular papers has virtually disappeared'.

1998, Bill Coxall, Lynton Robins, Robert Leach, Contemporary British Politics, page 164:

(countable, UK, journalism) A newspaper with relatively serious, high-quality content.


accent

accent (countable and uncountable, plural accents)

From Middle English accent, from Medieval Latin accentus and Old French accent, acent, both from Latin accentus, past participle of accinō (“sing to, sing along”). The word accent had been borrowed into Old English already, but was lost and reborrowed in Middle English.

tongval

distinctive pronunciation associated with a region, social group, etc.

The name Cézanne is written with an acute accent.

(orthography) A mark or character used in writing, in order to indicate the place of the spoken accent, or to indicate the nature or quality of the vowel marked.

pilkku

geometry: mark indicating minutes and seconds of a degree

(prosody, poetry) Stress laid on certain syllables of a verse.


stylus

styli (plural)
styluses (plural)
stilus (alternative)

Borrowed from Latin stylus (“a stake or pale”). Probably not directly related to Ancient Greek στῦλος (stûlos, “a pillar”). Doublet of style.

иго́лка

граммофо́нная

(writing) An ancient writing implement consisting of a small rod with a pointed end for scratching letters on clay, wax-covered tablets or other surfaces, and a blunt end for obliterating them.

A small implement with a pointed end used for engraving and tracing.

(computing) A small device resembling a pen used to input handwritten text or drawings directly into an electronic device with a touch-sensitive screen.

ստիլուս

pen for writing on a touch-sensitive screen

[T]he pleasure of writing on wax with a stylus is exemplified by the fine, flowing hand of a Roman scribe who made out the birth certificate of Herennia Gemella, born March 128 AD.

2013 September 14, Jane Shilling, “The Golden Thread: the Story of Writing, by Ewan Clayton, review”, in The Telegraph:


small

en-adj

small (comparative smaller, superlative smallest)

smaller (comparative)
smallest (superlative)

From Middle English smal, from Old English smæl (“small, narrow, slender”), from Proto-Germanic *smalaz (“small”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mal-, *(s)mel- (“small, mean, malicious”). Cognate with Scots smal; sma (“small”); West Frisian smel (“narrow”); Dutch smal (“narrow”); German schmal (“narrow, small”); Low German small (“narrow”); Danish, Norwegian, Swedish smal (“narrow; thin; slender”); Latin malus (“bad”); Russian ма́лый (mályj, “small”).

inh

better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness

"I've got catholic tastes. Catholic with a small "c", of course."

1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 584:

(writing, not comparable) Minuscule or lowercase, referring to written or printed letters.

փոքրատառ

minuscule or lowercase, referring to written letters


yellow

en-adj

yellow (comparative yellower, superlative yellowest)

yellower (comparative)
yellowest (superlative)
yeallow (alternative)
yeller (alternative)

From Middle English yelwe, yelou, from Old English ġeolwe, oblique form of Old English ġeolu, from Proto-West Germanic *gelu, from Proto-Germanic *gelwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃wos, from *ǵʰelh₃- (“gleam, yellow”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian jel, jeel (“yellow”), West Frisian giel (“yellow”), Dutch geel (“yellow”), German Low German geel (“yellow”), German gelb (“yellow”), Swedish gul (“yellow”), Icelandic gulur (“yellow”). Compare also Welsh gell (“bay, tawny”), Latin helvus (“dull yellow”), Irish geal (“white, bright”), Italian giallo (“yellow”) Lithuanian žalias (“green”), Ancient Greek χλωρός (khlōrós, “light green”), Persian زرد (zard, “yellow”), Sanskrit हरि (hari, “greenish-yellow”), Russian жёлтый (žóltyj, “yellow”), Russian зелёный (zeljónyj, “green”).
The verb is from Middle English yelwen, ȝalowen, ȝolewen, from Old English ġeolwian, from the adjective.

cog

The denizens of the gossipy world of the pink press, purple prose and yellow tabloids are shivering over disputed photographs of Princess Caroline of Monaco.

2004 October 4, Doreen Carvajal, “Photo edict muffles gossipy press”, in International Herald Tribune, retrieved 2008-07-29:

(publishing, journalism) Characterized by sensationalism, lurid content, and doubtful accuracy.


vowel

→ Yoruba: fáwẹ̀lì

From Middle English vouel, from Old French vouel, a variant of voyeul (whence French voyelle), from Latin vōcālis (“voiced”), itself a semantic loan of Koine Greek φωνῆεν (phōnêen). Doublet of vocal and vocalis.

Facetiously is spelled with all six vowels in alphabetical order.

(orthography) A letter representing the sound of a vowel; in English, the vowels are a, e, i, o, u, w (sometimes), y (sometimes) .


hack

Abbreviation of hackney (“an ordinary horse”), probably from place name Hackney.

Dason is nothing but a two-bit hack.

He's nothing but the typical hack writer.

(derogatory, authorship) An untalented writer.


bad

en-adj

bad (comparative worse or (nonstandard) badder or (nonstandard) more bad, superlative worst or (nonstandard) baddest or (nonstandard) most bad)

worse (comparative)
badder (comparative nonstandard)
more bad (comparative nonstandard)
worst (superlative)
baddest (nonstandard superlative)
most bad (nonstandard superlative)

From Middle English bad, badde (“wicked, evil, depraved”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a shortening of Old English bæddel (“hermaphrodite”) (for loss of -el compare Middle English muche from Old English myċel, and Middle English wenche from Old English wenċel), or at least related to it and/or to bǣ̆dan (“to defile”), compare Old High German pad (“hermaphrodite”).
Alternatively, perhaps a loan from Old Norse into Middle English, compare Norwegian bad (“effort, trouble, fear”, neuter noun), East Danish bad (“damage, destruction, fight”, neuter noun), from the Proto-Germanic noun *badą, whence also Proto-Germanic *badōną (“to frighten”), Old Saxon undarbadōn (“to frighten”), Norwegian Nynorsk bada (“to weigh down, press”); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰ- (“to bend, press, push, oppress”).

unk

uncertain

der

æ-tensing, New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

Don't you dare speak to me with that bad language!

(of a word, speech, or writing) Vulgar, obscene, or blasphemous.


AP

(journalism) Initialism of Associated Press.


beat

→ Pennsylvania German: biede

From Middle English beten, from Old English bēatan (“to beat, pound, strike, lash, dash, thrust, hurt, injure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bautan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd- (“to hit, strike”).
Compare Old Irish fo·botha (“he threatened”), Latin confutō (“to strike down”), fūstis (“stick, club”), Albanian bahe (“sling”), Lithuanian baudžiù, Old Armenian բութ (butʻ)).

march to the beat of a different drummer

(authorship) A short pause in a play, screenplay, or teleplay, for dramatic or comedic effect.

As an adult, I became a journalist whose beat is the environment. In a way, I’ve turned my youthful preoccupations into a profession.

2020 April, Elizabeth Kolbert, “Why we won't avoid a climate catastrophehttps://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2020/04/why-we-wont-avoid-a-climate-catastrophe-feature/”, in National Geographic:

(by extension) An area of a person's responsibility, especially

(journalism) The primary focus of a reporter's stories (such as police/courts, education, city government, business etc.).


ear

Tok Pisin: ia

From Middle English ere, eare, from Old English ēare (“ear”), from Proto-West Germanic *auʀā, from the voiced Verner alternant of Proto-Germanic *ausô (“ear”) (compare Scots ear, West Frisian ear, Dutch oor, German Ohr, Swedish öra, Danish øre), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws (compare Old Irish áu, Latin auris, Lithuanian ausi̇̀s, Russian у́хо (úxo), Albanian vesh, Ancient Greek οὖς (oûs), Old Armenian ունկն (unkn), and Persian گوش (gôš)).

you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear

In journalism, ears flank the title as boxes in the left and right top corners of a publication (generally a newspaper).

2006, Richard Weiner, Charles M. Levine, The Skinny about Best Boys, Dollies, Green Rooms, Leads, and Other Media Lingo, page 26:

(journalism) A space to the left or right of a publication's front-page title, used for advertising, weather, etc.


leg

→ Finnish: legi

→ Hungarian: leg

From Middle English leg, legge, from Old Norse leggr (“leg, calf, bone of the arm or leg, hollow tube, stalk”), from Proto-Germanic *lagjaz, *lagwijaz (“leg, thigh”) (see it for more).
Cognate with Scots leg (“leg”), Icelandic leggur (“leg, limb”), Norwegian Bokmål legg (“leg”), Norwegian Nynorsk legg (“leg”), Swedish lägg (“leg, shank, shaft”), Danish læg (“leg”), Lombardic lagi (“thigh, shank, leg”), Latin lacertus (“limb, arm”), Persian لنگ (leng). Upon borrowing, mostly displaced the native Old English term sċanca (Modern English shank).

don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining

don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining

piss on someone's leg and tell them it's raining

A leg is one column of a story. It has two legs if it is set in two columns and three legs if it is set in three columns. Avoid legs longer than 10 inches and shorter than 1 inch.

2015, Homer L. Hall, Megan Fromm, Aaron Manfull, Student Journalism & Media Literacy, page 266:

(journalism) A column, as a unit of length of text as laid out.


slug

Nicoline van der Sijs
Slug (disambiguation)

Originally referred to a slow, lazy person, from Middle English slugge (“lazy person", also "sloth, slothfulness”), probably of either Old English or Old Norse origin; compare Norn slug (“lazy, slothful, sluggish”), dialectal Norwegian slugg (“a large, heavy body”), sluggje (“heavy, slow person”), Danish slog (“rascal, rogue”); perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sliǵ-ōn, from *sley- (“smooth; slick; sticky; slimy”) or otherwise from the root of Old Norse slókr (“lazy person, oaf”), whence Icelandic slókur (“laziness”). Compare also Dutch slak (“snail, slug”). Doublet of slotch.

inh

(journalism) A title, name or header, a catchline, a short phrase or title to indicate the content of a newspaper or magazine story for editing use.

(television editing) A black screen used to separate broadcast items.


ribbon

en-noun

ribbon (countable and uncountable, plural ribbons)

ribbons (plural)
ribband (alternative)
reebon (alternative obsolete)

→ Japanese: リボン (ribon)

→ Korean: 리본 (ribon)

From Middle English riban, ryban, ryband, from Old French riban, ruban ( > modern French ruban), of uncertain origin. Likely from a Germanic compound whose second element is cognate with English band. Compare Middle Dutch ringhband (“necklace”, literally “ring-band”).

cog

(journalism) A subheadline presented above its parent headline.


lead

en-noun

lead (countable and uncountable, plural leads)

leads (plural)
lede (alternative obsolete)
leed (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English leden, from Old English lǣdan (“to lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laidijan, from Proto-Germanic *laidijaną (“to cause one to go, lead”), causative of Proto-Germanic *līþaną (“to go”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyt- (“to leave, die”).
Cognate with West Frisian liede (“to lead”), Dutch leiden (“to lead”), German leiten (“to lead”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål lede (“to lead”), Norwegian Nynorsk leia (“to lead”), Swedish leda (“to lead”). Related to Old English līþan (“to go, travel”).

der

(US, journalism) The introductory paragraph or paragraphs of a newspaper, or a news or other type of article. (Sometimes spelled as lede for this usage to avoid ambiguity.)


bust

en-verb

bust (third-person singular simple present busts, present participle busting, simple past and past participle busted or bust)

busts (present singular third-person)
busting (participle present)
busted (participle past)
busted (past)
bust (participle past)
bust (past)

From Middle English busten, a variant of Middle English bursten, bresten (“to burst”). Compare German Low German basten and barsten (“to burst”). More at burst.

The temptation to squeeze in a favourite headline that busts by using the flexibility of new technology is often very strong.

1990, Paul Williams, The Computerized Newspaper: A Practical Guide for Systems Users, page 105:

If your headline busts (breaks the confines of the layout) you will know straightaway. Similarly, the computer will inform you, in terms of the number of lines, how much longer or shorter the copy is in relation to the space allotted.

2007, Rob Steen, Sports Journalism: A Multimedia Primer, page 167:

(journalism, intransitive) For a headline to exceed the amount of space reserved for it.


contraction

en-noun

contraction (countable and uncountable, plural contractions)

PIE word
 *ḱóm
From Late Middle English contraccioun, contraxion (“spasm, contraction; constriction, shrinking; act of pressing together”), from Old French contraction (modern French contraction), from Latin contractiō(n) (“a drawing together, contraction; abridgement, shortening; dejection, despondency”), from contrahō (“to draw things together, assemble, collect, gather; to enter into a contract”) + -tiō(n) (suffix forming nouns relating to actions or their results). Contrahō is derived from con- (prefix denoting a bringing together of objects) + trahō (“to drag, pull”) (probably from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to drag, pull; to run”)). By surface analysis, contract + -ion (suffix denoting actions or processes, or their results).

verkleining

Don’t is a contraction of do not; and ’til is a contraction of until.

Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.

A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.

(orthography) In the English language: a shortened form of a word, often with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe or a diacritical mark.


machine

→ Ainu: マシン

→ Bengali: মেশিন (meśin)

→ Cowlitz: məšín

→ Irish: meaisín

→ Japanese: マシン (mashin)

→ Korean: 머신 (meosin)

→ Maori: mīhini

→ Punjabi

Gurmukhi script: ਮਸ਼ੀਨ (maśīn)

Shahmukhi script: مشین (maśīn)

→ Swahili: mashine

→ Tok Pisin: masin

Borrowed from Middle French machine, from Latin māchina (“a machine, engine, contrivance, device, stratagem, trick”), from Doric Greek μᾱχᾰνᾱ́ (mākhănā́), cognate with Attic Greek μηχᾰνή (mēkhănḗ, “a machine, engine, contrivance, device”), from which comes mechanical. Displaced native Old English searu.

cog

perpetual motion machine of the first kind

perpetual motion machine of the second kind

Outline of machines on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

I am apt to think, that the changing of the Trojan fleet into water-nymphs, which is the most violent machine in the whole Æneid[…]

1712 May 2 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “MONDAY, April 21, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 351; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume IV, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

(poetry) Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit.


bridge

bridges (plural)
bridg (alternative obsolete)
brigge (alternative)

From Middle English brigge, from Old English brycġ (“bridge”), from Proto-Germanic *brugjō, *brugjǭ (“bridge”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerw-, *bʰrēw- (“wooden flooring, decking, bridge”).
Cognate with Scots brig, brigg, breeg (“bridge”), Saterland Frisian Brääch (“bridge”), West Frisian brêge (“bridge”), Dutch brug (“bridge”), German Brücke (“bridge”), Danish brygge (“wharf”), Icelandic brygga (“pier”), Gaulish briua (“bridge”).
The verb is from Middle English briggen, from Old English brycġian (“to bridge, make a causeway, pave”), derived from the noun. Cognate with Dutch bruggen (“to bridge”), Middle Low German bruggen (“to bridge”), Old High German bruccōn (“to bridge”) (whence Modern German brücken).
The musical connection sense is a semantic loan from German Steg, from Old High German steg.

ацҳа

construction or natural feature that spans a divide

if someone told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it

(poetry) A point in a line where a break in a word unit cannot occur.


tell

en-verb

tell (third-person singular simple present tells, present participle telling, simple past and past participle told or (dialectal or nonstandard) telled)

tells (present singular third-person)
telling (participle present)
told (participle past)
told (past)
telled (dialectal participle past)
telled (dialectal past)
tell (infinitive)
tell (first-person present singular)
told (first-person past singular)
tell (present second-person singular)
tellest (archaic present second-person singular)
told (past second-person singular)
toldest (archaic past second-person singular)
tells (present singular third-person)
telleth (archaic present singular third-person)
told (past singular third-person)
tell (plural present)
told (past plural)
tell (present subjunctive)
told (past subjunctive)
tell (imperative present)
telling (participle present)
told (participle past)

From Middle English tellen (“to count, tell”), from Old English tellan (“to count, tell”), from Proto-West Germanic *talljan, from Proto-Germanic *taljaną, *talzijaną (“to count, enumerate”), from Proto-Germanic *talą, *talǭ (“number, counting”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol- (“calculation, fraud”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian tälle (“to say; tell”), West Frisian telle (“to count”), West Frisian fertelle (“to tell, narrate”), Dutch tellen (“to count”) and Dutch vertellen (“to tell”), Low German tellen (“to count”), German zählen, Faroese telja. More at tale.

cog

Maria rewrote the section of her novel that talked about Meg and Sage's friendship to have less telling and more showing.

(authorship, intransitive) To reveal information in prose through outright expository statement — contrasted with show.


round

en-adj

round (comparative rounder or more round, superlative roundest or most round)

rounder (comparative)
more round (comparative)
roundest (superlative)
most round (superlative)
around (alternative)
ron (alternative)

From Middle English round, rounde, from Old Northern French roünt, rund, Old French ront, runt, reont ( > French rond), from both Late Latin retundus and the original Latin rotundus. The noun developed partly from the adjective and partly from the corresponding French noun rond. Doublet of rotund.

pyöreä

pronounced with the mouth in the shape of an "O"

(authorship, of a fictional character) Well-written and well-characterized; complex and reminiscent of a real person.


flat

flat (comparative flatter, superlative flattest)

flatter (comparative)
flattest (superlative)
flatt (alternative obsolete)
flatte (alternative obsolete)

bumpy

antonym(s) of “having no variations in altitude”

→ Portuguese: flat

From Middle English flat, a borrowing from Old Norse flatr (compare Norwegian and Swedish flat, Danish flad), from Proto-Germanic *flataz, from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”); akin to Saterland Frisian flot (“smooth”), German Flöz (“a geological layer”), Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús), Latvian plats, Sanskrit प्रथस् (prathas, “extension”). Doublet of plat and pleyt.
The noun is from Middle English flat (“level piece of ground, flat edge of a weapon”), from the adjective.
The algebraic sense was coined by Serre in a 1956 paper, originally as French plat.

inh

The author added a chapter to flesh out the book's flatter characters.

(figurative) Lacking liveliness or action; depressed; uninteresting; dull and boring.

(authorship, figuratively, especially of a character) Lacking in depth, substance, or believability; underdeveloped; one-dimensional.


rim

From Middle English rim, rym, rime, from Old English rima (“rim, edge, border, bank, coast”), from Proto-Germanic *rimô, *rembô (“edge, border”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *rem-, *remə- (“to rest, support, be based”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Rim (“plank, wooden cross, trellis”), Old Saxon rimi (“edge; border; trim”), Icelandic rimi (“a strip of land”).

cog

COPY READER — Journeyman, experienced makeup, now slot man on metropolitan midwest daily. Will travel for good rim job on large paper.

1953 September 26, Editor & Publisher 1953-09-26: Vol 86 Iss 40:

A copy chief with poor people skills makes life miserable for copy editors on the rim; […]

2004, John Russial, Strategic Copy Editing, page 130:

On the rim are copy editors who edit stories for accuracy, brevity and clarity.

2009, Gaylon Eugene Murray, Effective Editing, page 7:


dialogue

en-noun

dialogue (countable and uncountable, plural dialogues)

dialogues (plural)
dialog (alternative US)

Inherited from Middle English dialog, from Old French dialoge (French dialogue), from Late Latin dialogus, from Ancient Greek διάλογος (diálogos, “conversation, discourse”), from διά (diá, “through, inter”) + λόγος (lógos, “speech, oration, discourse”), from διαλέγομαι (dialégomai, “to converse”), from διά (diá) + λέγειν (légein, “to speak”).

der

The movie had great special effects, but the dialogue was lackluster.

In 1936, Anstey had co-directed Housing Problems, which featured direct dialogue recording - allowing the subjects of the film to speak for themselves. As Anstey said: "At the time nobody had done it, and we gave slum dwellers a chance to make their own films."

2021 March 10, Greg Morse, “Telling the railway's story on film”, in RAIL, number 926, page 42:

(authorship) In a dramatic or literary presentation, the verbal parts of the script or text; the verbalizations of the actors or characters.

حِوَار

verbal part of a literary or dramatic work


broad

en-adj

broad (comparative broader, superlative broadest)

broader (comparative)
broadest (superlative)

thin

antonym(s) of “wide—regarding occupied space, width of an object”

skinny

antonym(s) of “wide—regarding body width”

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-der.?
Proto-Germanic *braidaz
Proto-West Germanic *braid
Old English brād
Middle English brod
English broad
From Middle English brood, brode, from Old English brād (“broad, flat, open, extended, spacious, wide, ample, copious”), from Proto-West Germanic *braid, from Proto-Germanic *braidaz (“broad”), of uncertain origin.
Cognate with Scots braid (“broad”), West Frisian breed (“broad”), Saterland Frisian breed (“broad”), Low German breed (“broad”), breet, Dutch breed (“broad”), German breit (“broad, wide”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Bokmål bred (“broad”), Norwegian brei (“broad”), Icelandic breiður (“broad, wide”).

inh

not be able to hit the broad side of a barn

Lee: I wrote that line for you. Maeve: A bit broad, if you ask me.

2018 April 22, “Journey into Night” (39:17 from the start), in Westworld, season 2, episode 1, spoken by Maeve Millay and Lee Sizemore (Thandie Newton and Simon Quarterman), via HBO:


heavy

From Middle English hevy, heviȝ, from Old English hefiġ, hefeġ, hæfiġ (“heavy; important, grave, severe, serious; oppressive, grievous; slow, dull”), from Proto-West Germanic *habīg (“heavy, hefty, weighty”), from Proto-Germanic *habīgaz (“heavy, hefty, weighty”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂p- (“to take, grasp, hold”).
Cognate with Scots hevy, havy, heavy (“heavy”), Saterland Frisian heeuwich, häwich (“violent, angry”), West Frisian hevich (“violent”), Dutch hevig (“violent, severe, intense, acute”), German Low German hevig (“violent, fierce, intense, angry”), German hebig (compare heftig (“fierce, severe, intense, violent, heavy”)), Icelandic höfugur (“heavy, weighty, important”), Latin capāx (“large, wide, roomy, spacious, capacious, capable, apt”).

cog

The comment may be offered here that the 'heavies' have been the Design Award's principal scorers, both in the overall bronze plaque days and, since, in the Daily/Sunday Class 1.

1973, Allen Hutt, The changing newspaper, page 151:

Reviewers in the heavies aim to impress with the depth of their knowledge and appreciation.

2006, Richard Keeble, The Newspapers Handbook:

(journalism, slang, chiefly in the plural) A newspaper of the quality press.


apostrophe

apostrophes (plural)
apostrophë (alternative)
apostrophy (alternative)

From French apostrophe, or Latin apostrophus, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστροφος (apóstrophos, “accent of elision”), a noun use of an adjective from ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō, “I turn away”), from ἀπό (apó, “away from”) + στρέφω (stréphō, “to turn”).

der

Since its inception the apostrophe has been a controversial piece of punctuation.

2021, Claire Cock-Starkey, Hyphens & Hashtags, Bodleian Library, page 30:

(orthography) The text character ’, which serves as a punctuation mark in various languages and as a diacritical mark in certain rare contexts.


stroke

The noun is derived from Middle English strok, stroke (“blow from a weapon, cut”), from Old English strāc, from Proto-West Germanic *straik, from Proto-Germanic *straikaz (“stroke”), from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“to rub, stroke; to shear; to strike”).
Sense 3.6.2.2 (“the oblique, slash, or virgule (‘/’)”) is a contraction of oblique stroke, a variant of oblique which was originally used in telegraphy.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Cognates
* German Streich (“stroke”)
* Middle Low German strēk (“stroke, trick, prank”)
* Scots strak, strake, straik (“blow, stroke”)

isku

one of a series of beats or movements against a resisting medium, by means of which movement through or upon it is accomplished

ход

single movement or thrust of a part (such as a piston) of a machine that moves back and forth; length of this movement

A single movement of a paintbrush, chisel, pen, pencil, or similar implement; a line or mark made by such an implement.

(linguistics, calligraphy, typography) A line making up a written character.

خَطّ

line or mark made on a surface by an implement for drawing, writing, etc.

筆畫 /笔画

line making up a written character; specifically, a Chinese, Japanese, or Korean character


hammer

From Middle English hamer, from Old English hamor, from Proto-West Germanic *hamar, from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz (“tool with a stone head”) (compare West Frisian hammer, Low German Hamer, Dutch hamer, German Hammer, Danish hammer, Swedish hammare). This is traditionally ascribed to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱmoros, from *h₂éḱmō (“stone”), but see *hamaraz for further discussion.
(declare a defaulter on the stock exchange): Originally signalled by knocking with a wooden mallet.

sense

Hammers are, in essence, reverse kickers. Instead of being set in smaller type like kickers, hammers are set in larger type than headlines.

1981, Harry W. Stonecipher, Edward C. Nicholls, Douglas A. Anderson, Electronic Age News Editing, page 104:

(journalism) Ellipsis of hammer headline.


femme

en-adj

femme (comparative more femme, superlative most femme)

more femme (comparative)
most femme (superlative)

Borrowed from French femme (“woman”). Doublet of feme, femina, and hembra.

Admittedly, Kiedis was concerned about the lack of femme rockers on the bill: the only women featured were in British band Lush, who would open each day's festivities before a few hundred curious onlookers.

2009, Jeff Apter, Fornication: The Red Hot Chili Peppers Story:

High heels are something like neckties for women, in that it can be harder to look both formal and femme without them.

2019 March 20, Summer Brennan, “Sex, power, oppression: why women wear high heels”, in The Guardian:

(chiefly Canada, US, journalism, entertainment) Pertaining to a femme; feminine, female.


leader

→ Catalan: líder

→ Czech: lídr

→ Galician: líder

→ Japanese: リーダー (rīdā)

→ Korean: 리더 (rideo)

→ Polish: lider

→ Portuguese: líder

→ Romanian: lider

→ Russian: ли́дер (líder)

→ Spanish: líder

→ Turkish: lider

→ Ukrainian: лі́дер (líder)

From Middle English leder, ledere, from Old English lǣdere (“leader”), from Proto-West Germanic *laidijārī (“leader”), equivalent to lead + -er. Cognate with Scots ledar, leidar (“leader”), West Frisian lieder (“leader”), Dutch leider (“leader”), German Leiter (“leader, conductor, manager”), Danish leder (“leader, manager”), Swedish ledare (“leader, conductor, director”), Icelandic leiðari (“leader, conductor”).

cog

Someone or something that leads or conducts.

(UK, journalism) The first, or the principal, editorial article in a newspaper; a leading or main editorial article; a lead story.


wire

en-noun

wire (countable and uncountable, plural wires)

→ Gulf Arabic: واير (wāyir)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: vaier, wire

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: vaier, wire

→ Swedish: vajer, wire

From Middle English wir, wyr, from Old English wīr (“wire, metal thread, wire-ornament”), from Proto-Germanic *wīraz (“wire”), from Proto-Indo-European *weh₁iros (“a twist, thread, cord, wire”), from *weh₁y- (“to turn, twist, weave, plait”).

score string

object used to keep the score in billiards

Breaking news reports have just come in to us over the wire.

(journalism, informal) Clipping of wire service and/or newswire.


pipe

en-verb

pipe (third-person singular simple present pipes, present participle piping, simple past and past participle piped)

pipes (present singular third-person)
piping (participle present)
piped (participle past)
piped (past)

From Middle English pīpe, pype (“hollow cylinder or tube used as a conduit or container; duct or vessel of the body; musical instrument; financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, pipe roll”), from Old English pīpe (“pipe (musical instrument); the channel of a small stream”), from Proto-West Germanic *pīpā. Reinforced by Vulgar Latin *pīpa, from Latin pipire, pipiare, pipare, from pīpiō (“to chirp, peep”), of imitative origin. Doublet of fife.
The “storage container” and “liquid measure” senses are derived from Middle English pīpe (“large storage receptacle, particularly for wine; cask, vat; measure of volume”), from pīpe (above) and Old French pipe (“liquid measure”). In specific contexts, calques similar units of measure such as Portuguese pipa.
The verb is from Middle English pīpen, pypyn (“to play a pipe; to make a shrill sound; to speak with a high-pitched tone”), from Old English pīpian (“to pipe”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

inh

[…] who ostensibly was handed an all-day sucker by a warm-hearted bandit in the act of robbing a candy store of $40, there was no moral outcry. "Find the girl," was the immediate response of competing editors to their reporters at police headquarters. The men of the press, who knew a piped story when they saw one, quickly found another little girl, presented her with a lollipop, and photographed her skipping rope in front of the candy store.

1981, Elie Abel, What's News: The Media in American Society, page 259:

If there was a lull in criminal activity, reporters were not above "piping" a story.

Reporters today supposedly do not use "piped" stories because they are unethical.

2008, Homer L. Hall, Logan H. Aimone, High School Journalism, page 91:

(US, journalism, slang) To invent or embellish (a story).


acatalectic

From Late Latin acatalēcticus, from Ancient Greek ἀκατάληκτος (akatálēktos, “leaving off”).

der

(poetry, prosody) Designating a line of verse having the required number of syllables in the last foot


acatalectic

(poetry, prosody) A verse which has the complete number of feet and syllables


splash

Probably an alteration of plash (compare spatter, spill for the initial s-).

So for a local newspaper, a splash on a fatal crash is just the first of a series of reports.

2006, Bob Franklin, Local Journalism and Local Media: Making the Local News:

After the brouhaha and the newspaper headline splashes, each of these contentious items would simply die its own quiet death to be replaced by a newer scandal: […]

2019, Victoria Hoffarth, When Turtles Come Home, page 69:

(journalism) A large, prominent headline or article.


ABC

en-noun

ABC (countable and uncountable, plural ABCs or ABC's)

ABCs (plural)
ABC's (plural)
absey (alternative)

From Middle English abece, ABC, from the first three letters of the Latin alphabet, standing for the whole alphabet.

(obsolete, poetry) A type of poem in which the lines start with the letters of the alphabet in order.


paragraph

en-verb

paragraph (third-person singular simple present paragraphs, present participle paragraphing, simple past and past participle paragraphed)

paragraphs (present singular third-person)
paragraphing (participle present)
paragraphed (participle past)
paragraphed (past)

/ˈpæɹəɡɹɑːf/

From Middle English paragraf, from Middle French paragraphe from Latin paragraphus (“sign for start of a new section of discourse”), from Ancient Greek παράγραφος (parágraphos), from παρά (pará, “beside”) and γράφω (gráphō, “I write”). Doublet of paragraphos.

der

(transitive, journalism) To publish a brief article, notice, or announcement, as in a newspaper.


metre

en-verb

metre (third-person singular simple present metres, present participle metring, simple past and past participle metred)

metres (present singular third-person)
metring (participle present)
metred (participle past)
metred (past)
meter (alternative)

From Old English, from Latin metrum, from Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure, rule, length, size, poetic metre”).

der

(poetry, music) To put into metrical form.


echo

en-noun

echo (countable and uncountable, plural echoes or echos)

echoes (plural)
echos (plural)
echoe (alternative)
eccho (alternative)

From Middle English eccho, ecco, ekko, from Medieval Latin ecco, from Latin echo, from Ancient Greek ἠχώ (ēkhṓ), from ἠχή (ēkhḗ, “sound”). Possibly from the same Proto-Indo-European root as sough.

(poetry) A device in verse in which a line ends with a word which recalls the sound of the last word of the preceding line.


hook

sometimes in Northern England and Ireland, otherwise obsolete

From Middle English hoke, from Old English hōc, from Proto-West Germanic *hōk, from Proto-Germanic *hōkaz, variant of *hakô (“hook”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kog-, *keg-, *keng- (“peg, hook, claw”).
Cognates
Compare West Frisian heak, Dutch haak (“hook”)) (compare West Frisian/Dutch hoek (“hook, angle, corner”), Low German Hook, Huuk); also related to hake.

(authorship) A brief, punchy opening statement intended to get attention from an audience, reader, or viewer, and make them want to continue to listen to a speech, read a book, or watch a play.


mechanics

From Latin mēchanicus, from Ancient Greek μηχανικός (mēkhanikós), from μηχανή (mēkhanḗ, “machine, tool”).


protagonist

Penguin Books
The Independent
The Sense of Style
protagonist

From Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής (prōtagōnistḗs, “a chief actor”), from πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”) + ἀγωνιστής (agōnistḗs, “a combatant, pleader, actor”). By surface analysis, prot- (“first”) + agonist (“combatant, participant”).

der

πρωταγωνιστής

surf

(authorship) The main character, or one of the main characters, in any story, such as a literary work or drama.


Saturnian

en-adj

Saturnian (comparative more Saturnian, superlative most Saturnian)

more Saturnian (comparative)
most Saturnian (superlative)

(poetry) Involving a meter consisting of three iambics and an extra syllable followed by three trochees, employed by satirists in Ancient Rome.


acute

acute (comparative acuter or more acute, superlative acutest or most acute)

acuter (comparative)
more acute (comparative)
acutest (superlative)
most acute (superlative)

From Late Middle English acute (“of a disease or fever: starting suddenly and lasting for a short time; of a humour: irritating, sharp”), from Latin acūta, from acūtus (“sharp, sharpened”), perfect passive participle of acuō (“to make pointed, sharpen, whet”), from acus (“needle, pin”). The word is cognate to ague (“acute, intermittent fever”).
As regards the noun, which is derived from the verb, compare Middle English acūte (“severe but short-lived fever; of blood: corrosiveness, sharpness; musical note of high pitch”).

cog

The last letter of ‘café’ is ‘e’ acute.

A more conservative approach, particularly if your author is a skilled computer user, would be to replace the problem characters with simple words or codes that are guaranteed to transfer successfully between computers. For example, you could replace é with e-acute if that particular character is causing problems. […] The author could then do a search and replace to change all instances of e-acute back to é before publication.

2007, Geoff[rey J. S.] Hart, “Editing in Special Situations”, in Effective Onsceen Editing: New Tools for an Old Profession, Pointe-Claire, Que.: Diaskeuasis Publishing, →ISBN, page 404:

Commonly used European accents are available as below: / á Á a acute / […] / é É e acute / […] / í Í i acute / […] / ó Ó o acute / […] / ú Ú u acute

2017, [Michael] Mitchell, [Susan] Wightman, “Foreign Languages”, in Typographic Style Handbook, London: MacLehose Press, →ISBN, section 10.2.1 (Commonly Used Accents), page 143:

(orthography, postpositive) Of a letter of the alphabet, having an acute accent.

agut

(orthography) after a letter of the alphabet: having an acute accent


acute

The word ‘cafe’ often has an acute over the ‘e’.

The number of Notes in this Table, without either acute or grave marks (´ or `), is 75. Of those bearing one acute mark (´) it is 74, of those with two acutes (´´) 70, with three acutes (´´´ or ´³) 51, […]

1817 June, John Farey, Sen., “CI. On Mr. Listons, or the Euharmonic Scale of Musical Intervals, […]”, in Alexander Tilloch, editor, The Philosophical Magazine and Journal: […], volume XLIX, number 230, London: Printed by Richard and Arthur Taylor. […], →OCLC, page 445:

The five vowels marked with acutes over them, it is probable, were first contrived to assist the ignorant monks in reading the church service, that by this means they might arrive to a proper and settled pronunciation in the discharge of their sacerdotal duties; […]

1824, J[ohn] Johnson, “A Fount of Letter, as Considered by Letter Founders”, in Typographia, or The Printers’ Instructor: […], volume II, London: Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, […], →OCLC, page 34:


pyramid

en-noun

pyramid (countable and uncountable, plural pyramids)

pyramids (plural)
piramis (alternative obsolete)
pyramis (alternative obsolete)

From French pyramide, from Old French piramide, from Latin pȳramis, pȳramidis, from Ancient Greek πῡραμίς (pūramís), possibly from πῡρός (pūrós, “wheat”) + ἀμάω (amáō, “reap”) or from Egyptian pr-m-ws (“height of a pyramid”), from pr (“(one that) comes forth”) + m (“from”) + ws (“height”). Schenkel and K. Lang proposed hypothetical Coptic *ⲡⲓⲣⲁⲙ (*piram) or *ⲫⲣⲁⲙ (*phram) derived from Egyptian mr via metathesis as a source of πῡραμίς (pūramís) while Schenkel also suggested it being the source of Arabic هرم although the latter is considered far-fetched by Takacs.

der

[…] with a cross-line banner, a set of two-column pyramids beneath it in the middle, and on each side of these exactly the same thing,—something between a headline and a story—"$50,000 Reward for—" etc.

1924, Helen Ogden Mahin, The Development and Significance of the Newspaper Headline:

(journalism) An approximately triangular headline consisting of several centered lines of text of increasing length.


virgule

Borrowed from Middle French virgule, from Latin virgula (“twig; scratch comma”), from virga (“rod, branch”) + -ulus (diminutive suffix). Doublet of virgula.

(typography, dated) A pipe, ⟨|⟩.
(poetry) Used to mark metrical feet.

A pipe, ⟨|⟩.
Used to mark metrical feet.


reference

en-noun

reference (countable and uncountable, plural references)

From Middle French référence, from Medieval Latin referentia, nominative neuter plural of referēns, present participle of referō (“return, reply”, literally “carry back”). Morphologically refer + -ence.

verwysing

academic writing: identification of a source

(academic writing) A short written identification of a previously published work which is used as a source for a text.

(academic writing) A previously published written work thus indicated; a source.


reliable

en-adj

reliable (comparative more reliable, superlative most reliable)

more reliable (comparative)
most reliable (superlative)

/ɹɪˈlaɪəbəl/

(journalism, of a publisher) A member of the mass media, especially one with corporate sponsors and owners.


antagonist

[ɛə̯nˈtæɡənɪst]

From Latin antagonista, from Ancient Greek ἀνταγωνιστής (antagōnistḗs, “opponent”) (ἀντί (antí, “against”) + ἀγωνιστής (agōnistḗs, “a combatant, pleader, actor”)), from ἀνταγωνίζομαι (antagōnízomai, “to antagonize”).

der

ἀνταγωνιστής

So God forbid I'm seen just as an average human being / I mean, imagine if antagonists lacked any evil scheme

2022, Will Wood (musician), “The Main Character”, in In case I make it,, performed by Will Wood:

(authorship) The main character or force opposing the protagonist in a literary work or drama.


ghost

en-noun

ghost (countable and uncountable, plural ghosts)

ghosts (plural)
ghoast (alternative obsolete)
gost (alternative obsolete)

→ Japanese: ゴースト (gōsuto)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-ghost.wav

Inherited from Middle English gost, from Old English gāst, gǣst (“breath, spirit, soul, ghost”) (compare modern English Holy Ghost), from Proto-West Germanic *gaist, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysdos, derived from *ǵʰéysd- (“anger, agitation”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gäist, Jeest, West Frisian geast, Dutch geest, German Low German Geest, Geist, German Geist, Swedish gast.
The ⟨h⟩ in the spelling appears in the Prologue to William Caxton's Royal Book, printed in 1484, in a reference to the ‘Holy Ghoost’, likely introduced by Caxton's assistant, Wynkyn de Worde, as a result of Flemish influence, where it was spelled gheest at the time. Doublet of geist.

I've written both as a ghost for experts and under my name.


special

From Middle English *special, especial, especiall, from Old French especial (whence also French spécial), from Latin speciālis (from speciēs). In this sense displaced native Old English synderlīċ. Doublet of especial.

Coordinate term: stringer

(journalism) A journalist sent to the scene of an event to report back.

(journalism) A dispatch sent back by a special correspondent.


local

From Middle English local, from Late Latin locālis (“belonging to a place”), possibly also via Old French local; ultimately from Latin locus (“a place”).
The ring-theoretic senses derive from Krull, who first referred to Noetherian commutative rings with a unique maximal ideal as "Stellenring" (Stellen (“place”) + ring) in 1938. The term was inspired by algebraic geometry, where local rings encode information about the behavior of curves (surfaces, etc.) at points; hence, describe "local" behavior.

der

(US, slang, journalism) An item of news relating to the place where the newspaper is published.


synopsis

From Late Latin synopsis, itself from Ancient Greek σύνοψις (súnopsis), from σύν (sún, “with or whole”) + ὄψις (ópsis, “view”) meaning whole view.

(authorship) A brief summary of the major points of a written work, either as prose or as a table; an abridgment or condensation of a work.


Venus

en-noun

Venus (countable and uncountable, plural Venuses or Veneres)

From Middle English Venus, from Latin Venus.

Immoderate Venus in excess, as it is a cause, or in defect; so, moderately used, to some parties an only help, a present remedy.

(obsolete or poetry) Sexual activity or intercourse, sex; lust, love.


speaker

→ Brunei Malay: speaker

→ Belarusian: спі́кер (spíkjer)

→ Estonian: spiiker

→ French: speaker

→ Georgian: სპიკერი (sṗiḳeri)

→ Italian: speaker

→ Japanese: スピーカー (supīkā)

→ Malayalam: സ്പീക്കർ (spīkkaṟ)

→ Maltese: speaker, spiker

→ Norwegian Bokmål: speaker

→ Polish: spiker

→ Romanian: speaker

desctree

→ Russian: спикер (spiker)
→ Kazakh:
Cyrillic script: спикер (spiker)
Latin script: spiker

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Latin script: spiker

Cyrillic script: спикер

→ Spanish: speaker

→ Swahili: spika

→ Turkish: spiker

→ Ukrainian: спі́кер (spíker)

From Middle English speker, spekere, an alteration (with change of suffix) of Old English speca, spreca (“speaker”), from Proto-Germanic *sprekô (“speaker”), equivalent to speak + -er. Compare Saterland Frisian Spreeker (“speaker”), West Frisian sprekker (“speaker”), Dutch spreker (“speaker”), German Low German Spreker (“speaker”), German Sprecher (“speaker”).

puhuja

linguistics: producer of a given utterance

Popular culture often incorrectly attributes quotes from the speakers of poems or songs to the authors thereof, as when "I took the one less traveled by" is attributed to Robert Frost rather than to the speaker in Frost's "The Road Not Taken".

(especially in linguistics) The producer of a given utterance, whether speech or text.

(poetry) The literary character uttering the lyrics of a poem or song, as opposed to the author writing the words of that character.


copy

copies (plural)
coppy (alternative)
coppie (alternative)
copie (alternative)

Etymology tree
Middle English copy
English copy
From Middle English copy, copie, from Old French copie (“abundance, plenty; transcript, copy”), from Medieval Latin copia (“reproduction, transcript”), from Latin cōpia (“plenty, abundance”), from *coopia, from co- (“together”) + ops (“wealth, riches”). More at opulent.

ру́копись

для сда́чи в печа́ть

материа́л

для статьи́, заме́тки, книги, публика́ции

en:text that is to be typeset or similarly prepared and published

en:output of copywriters, as marketing or advertising matter

(typography, journalism, publishing) The text (words, content) that is to be typeset or similarly prepared and published.

(marketing, advertising) The output of copywriters, who are employed to write material which encourages consumers to buy goods or services.

Submit all copy to the appropriate editor.

(uncountable) The text to be set into newspaper articles, magazine pages, or similar.

This organization doesn't publish any copy that hasn't been edited by a good copy editor.

en:person employed to carry copy and run errands

(journalism) A person employed to carry copy and run errands.


peg

From Middle English pegge, from Middle Dutch pegge (“pin, peg”), from Old Dutch *pigg-, *pegg-, from Proto-Germanic *pig-, *pag- (“peg, stake”), from Proto-Indo-European *bak-, *baḱ- (“club, pointed stick, peg”). Cognate with Dutch dialectal peg (“pin”), Low German pig, pigge (“peg, stick with a point”), Low German pegel (“post, stake”), Swedish pigg (“tooth, spike”), Danish pig (“spike”), Norwegian Bokmål pigg (“spike”), Irish bac (“stick, crook”), Latin baculum (“staff”), Latvian bakstît (“to poke”), Ancient Greek βάκτρον (báktron, “staff, walking stick”). Related to beak.
This is one of the very few English words that begin with a p and come from Proto-Germanic. Proto-Germanic *p, when not in a consonant cluster beginning with *s, developed by Grimm's law from the Proto-Indo-European consonant *b, which was very rare.
(To indicate or ascribe an attribute to):: Assumed to originate from the use of pegs or pins as markers on a bulletin board or a list.

sense

[…] all news media keep a supply of features on hand, waiting for a peg to make them topical.

2004, Herbert J. Gans, Deciding What's News:

Journalists and prospective sources wishing to attract their attention are constantly on the lookout for pegs. The process by which a peg is identified is informed by news values.

2010, Barbie Zelizer, Stuart Allan, Keywords in News and Journalism Studies, page 111:

(journalism) A topic of interest, such as an ongoing event or an anniversary, around which various features can be developed.

ganxo

an event that triggers news coverage (journalism)


quinzaine

(poetry) A piece of verse having fifteen syllables.


interpolation

en-noun

interpolation (countable and uncountable, plural interpolations)

/ɪnˌtɜː.pəˈleɪʃən/

/ɪnˌtɜː.pəˈleɪʃən/

From French interpolation, from Latin interpolatio.
Morphologically interpolate + -ion.

Today a widely established convention encloses all editorial interpolations in square brackets [like so] for clarity.

Bentley wrote a letter […] upon the scriptural glosses in our present copies of Hesychius, which he considered interpolations from a later hand.

1830, Thomas De Quincey, Life of Richard Bentley:

We, who are born into the world's artificial system, can never adequately know how little in our present state and circumstances is natural, and how much is merely the interpolation of the perverted mind and heart of man.

1843, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The New Adam and Eve”, in Mosses from an Old Manse. […], part II, New York, N.Y.: Wiley and Putnam, published 1846, →OCLC, page 1:

(editing, content analysis) That which is introduced or inserted; in contexts of content analysis of centuries-old texts, especially something foreign or spurious.


strap

strap (countable and uncountable, plural straps)

straps (plural)
strop (alternative)
strope (alternative)

→ Japanese: ストラップ (sutorappu)

From a variant of earlier strope (“loop on a harness”), from Middle English strope, stroppe, from Late Old English strop, stropp (“a band, thong, strap; oar-thong”) and Old French estrope (“strap, loop on a harness”), both from Latin stroppus, struppus (“strap”), from Ancient Greek στρόφος (stróphos, “rope”) (compare strophe), from στρέφω (stréphō, “to twist”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *strebʰ- (compare Proto-West Germanic *stroppōn (“to twist, writhe”)). Cognate with Scots strap, strop (“strap, band, thong”), Dutch strop (“noose, strop, loop”), Low German Strop (“strap”), German Struppe, Strüppe, Strippe (“string, cord”), Danish strop (“strap”), Swedish stropp (“strap, loop”).

lak

a long, narrow, pliable strip of leather, cloth, or the like

kawerapa

part of a bag that goes over the shoulder

ивица

a narrow strip of anything, as of iron or brass


package

en-noun

package (countable and uncountable, plural packages)

Equivalent to pack + -age. Possibly influenced by Anglo-Latin paccagium or Old French pacquage.

(journalism) A group of related stories spread over several pages.


defective

en-adj

defective (comparative more defective, superlative most defective)

more defective (comparative)
most defective (superlative)

From Middle English defectif, defective, from Old French defectif, from Late Latin dēfectīvus.

(orthography, of a script) Not capable of representing all the phonemic distinctions of a language it is used to write.


chapter

chapters (plural)
chapiter (alternative)
chapitre (alternative)
chapiture (alternative)
chaptre (alternative)
chapyter (alternative)
chapytre (alternative)
chaptire (alternative)

→ Cebuano: tsapter

From Middle English chapitre, from Old French chapitre, from Latin capitulum (“a chapter of a book, in Medieval Latin also a synod or council”), diminutive of caput (“a head”); see capital, capitulum, and chapiter, which are doublets of chapter.

der

Detective novel writers try to keep up the suspense until the last chapter.

At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy ; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

(authorship) One of the main sections into which the text of a book is divided.

CHAPTER - One of the principal divisions of a book, and, in reference to the Bible, one of the larger sections into which its books are divided. This division, as well as that consisting of verses, was introduced to facilitate reference, and not to indicate any natural or accurate division of the subjects treated in the books.

1842, Walter Farquahar Hook, A Church Dictionary, published 1896:

At least thirty-two of the first forty-seven decretal chapters were received by English ecclesiastics,

1963, Charles Duggan, Twelfth-century Decretal Collections and Their Importance in English History, page 127:

il conclut: « No pope, no collection but the masters who served the one and commented on the other ultimately determined the content of this decretal chapter».

1983, Revue théologique de Louvain - Volume 14, page 127:

But unlike a similar annotation, it has not been turned into a chapter title because the annotation “de quodam hermita” (Of a certain hermit) immediately preceded it. If a scribe had also turned Liberauit Dominus hermitam into a chapter title, he would have created a chapter that consisted of a single sentence, which even for a rather dull scribe would seem unacceptable. […] While scribe A wrote the body of the text of the De nugis curialium, scribe X contributed the rubricated chapter headings.

2017, Joshua Byron Smith, Walter Map and the Matter of Britain, page 67:

While rubrics do not appear in paper manuscripts, eight paper manuscripts contain chapter titles, which serve the same function as the medieval rubrics.

2018, Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, Emily Lethbridge, New Studies in the Manuscript Tradition of Njáls saga, page xvii:

Characteristics: parchment; 92 fols.; 260 × 180 mm.; 32 lines; Italy; ca. 1430; two hands: humanistic rotunda with some Gothic features; marginal notes by first hand and names by a second hand; space left for initials; rubric inscriptions; superscript variants by first hand; chapters marked in margin; horizontal catchwords; quaternions.

2018, David J. Hunt, A Textual History of Cicero's Academici Libri, page 152:

From canon law, he cited Gratian's Decretum, Gregory's Decretales, the Sexto and Clementines Decretales, and the Extravagantes, and specifically referred to “the rules for understanding the Law” in a decretal chapter on Propterea.

2021, David T. Orique, The Unheard Voice of Law in Bartolomé de Las Casas’s Brevísima Relación de la Destruición de las Indias, page 97:

A section of a work, a collection of works, or fragments of works, often manuscripts or transcriptions, created by scholars or advocates, not the original authors, to aid in finding portions of the texts.


umlaut

Borrowed from German Umlaut in the 19ᵗʰ century, from um- or um (“around, re-, trans-”) + Laut (“sound”), from Old High German hlūt. More at loud.

(orthography) The diacritical mark ( ¨ ) placed over a vowel when it indicates a (rounded) front vowel

"Naïve" takes an umlaut because it is pronounced as two syllables.

(informal, orthography) Synonym of diaeresis.


fold

The verb is from Middle English folden, from Old English fealdan, from Proto-West Germanic *falþan, from Proto-Germanic *falþaną (“to fold”), from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to fold”).
The noun is from Middle English folde,falde, itself derived from the verb.

Newspaper editors know the importance of putting the most important information “above the fold,” that is, visible when the paper is folded and on the rack.

2007, Jennifer Niederst Robbins, Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to (X)HTML, StyleSheets, and Web Graphics, "O'Reilly Media, Inc.", →ISBN, page 43:

(newspapers) The division between the top and bottom halves of a broadsheet: headlines above the fold will be readable in a newsstand display; usually the fold.


alba

First attested in 1821; borrowed from Occitan alba, ultimately from Latin albus (“white”); compare Spanish alba (“dawn”).

(poetry) A type of lyrical poetry, traditionally Provençal, about lovers who must part at dawn.


boilerplate

en-noun

boilerplate (countable and uncountable, plural boilerplates)

The Star (1788)
boilerplate
boilerplate (spaceflight)

From boiler + plate. First use appears c. 1793 in the periodical Star.

[…] they have neither the responsibility nor the inclination to cover the real news of the community and consequently have little editorial expense, relying on handouts and cheap boilerplate materials to fill up the spots where they have no ads.

1966, Editor & Publisher, volume 99, page 46:


retrograde

en-adj

retrograde (comparative more retrograde, superlative most retrograde)

more retrograde (comparative)
most retrograde (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Middle English retrograd, retrograde (“of a planet: appearing to move in a direction opposite to the order of the zodiac signs, retrograde; unfortunate”), from Middle French retrograde and Old French retrograde (“of a celestial object: appearing to move backwards; moving backwards; reverse; palindromic; opposed to change”) (modern French rétrograde), and from their etymon Latin retrōgradus (“of a celestial object: appearing to move backwards”) (compare Late Latin retrōgradus (“reverse; palindromic”)), from retrō (“back, backwards; behind; before, formerly”) + gradus (“pace, step”). By surface analysis, retro- + -grade.
The adverb and noun are derived from the adjective.

cog

/ˈɹɛtɹə(ʊ)ɡɹeɪd/

/ˈɹɛtɹəˌɡɹeɪd/

retrògrad

reverting to an inferior or less developed state — see also declining, regressing

(poetry, archaic) Of verse: reading the same forwards or backwards; palindromic.


breve

From Middle English breve, variant of bref, from Old French brieve, breve (feminine form of brief, bref), from Latin brevis (“short”).

(orthography, printing) A semicircular diacritical mark (˘) placed above a vowel, commonly used to mark its quantity as short.


Sapphic

Sappho (Ancient Greek Σαπφώ (Sapphṓ)) + -ic, whence Latin Sapphicus. Sense related to sexuality alludes to Sappho's poetry discussing love between women (see also lesbian).

(poetry) Of a certain kind of verse reputed to have been invented by Sappho, consisting of five metrical feet, of which the first, fourth, and fifth are trochees, the second is a spondee, and the third a dactyl.


Sapphic

Sapphics (plural)
Sapphick (alternative)

His Sapphics, on the story of Bacchus and Ariadne, are easy, elegant, and poetical.

1824, Vicesimus Knox, The Works of Vicesimus Knox, D.D.: With a Biographical Preface:

The first line (which goes by the name of Aristophanes) is a Sapphic without the initial trochees.

1887, Horace, Horace: The Odes, Carmen Seculare, and Epodes, page 174:

"A real Sapphic," said Crane, dropping into a poetical tone, as an elocutionist does when he is hungry for an opportunity to recite a favorite sketch.

1888, Maurice Thompson, A Fortnight of Folly, page 41:


furniture

en-noun

furniture (usually uncountable, plural furnitures)

From Middle French fourniture (“a supply, or the act of furnishing”), from fournir (“to furnish”).

uder

It read: “This article was amended on 3 January 2023. The original furniture said the fireworks display was on Christmas Eve.”

2023 January 31, Elisabeth Ribbans, “The perils of using journalist jargon outside the newsroom”, in The Guardian:

(journalism) Any material on the page other than the body text and pictures of articles; for example, headlines, datelines and dinkuses, lines and symbols (though in earlier use, only non-text elements of page design, such as lines and symbols).


diaeresis

diaereses (plural)
diaresis (alternative)
dieresis (alternative)
diæresis (alternative)
diaëresis (alternative)

/daɪˈɛɹɪsɪs/

/daɪˈɪəɹɪsɪs/

/daɪˈɪəɹɪsɪs/

/daɪˈɛɹəsɪs/

/daɪˈɪəɹɪsiːz/

PIE word
 *dwís
Unadapted borrowing from Late Latin diaeresis (“distribution; division of a diphthong into two syllables”), from Ancient Greek δῐαίρεσῐς (dĭaíresĭs, “distribution, division; division of a poetic line when the end of a word and a metrical foot coincide; division of a diphthong into two syllables”), from δῐαιρέω (dĭairéō, “to divide; to distinguish; to resolve a diphthong or contracted form”) + -σῐς (-sĭs, suffix forming abstract nouns or nouns of action, process, or result). Δῐαιρέω (Dĭairéō) is derived from δῐᾰ- (dĭă-, prefix meaning ‘across; through; in different directions’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dwís (“doubly, twice; in two”)) + αἱρέω (hairéō, “to grasp, seize, take”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to grasp, seize, take”)).
The plural is borrowed from Latin diaeresēs.

diërese

separation of one syllable (especially a vowel which is a diphthong) into two distinct syllables

Diæreſis is vvhen tvvo points ouer a vovvell diuide it from another vovvel, as bouë, queuë, read bou-e, queu-e, not bo-ue, que-ue.

1611, Randle Cotgrave, compiler, “Briefe Directions for Such as Desire to Learne the French Tongue. And First, of the Vowels, and Diphthongs.”, in A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, signature Nnnn, recto, column 2:

The Diæresis is used to divide a diphthong into two syllables; as, Creätor.

1841, William Corry, “Grammatical Terms, with Their Respective Marks and Explanations”, in An English Spelling Book, with Reading Lessons; for the Use of the Parish and Other Schools of New Brunswick, St. John, N.B.: […] Henry Chubb, […], →OCLC, page 8:

An 85-year injustice has been rectified at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey with the corrected spelling of one of the greatest of all literary names. Reader, it is finally Brontë, not Bronte. An amended memorial to Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë was unveiled on Thursday with added diaereses (two dots) that ensure people pronounce it with two syllables. As if it rhymed with Monty, not font. The memorial was installed in 1939 and, for whatever reason, came without the diaereses that the Brontës used.

2024 September 26, Mark Brown, “Brontë sisters finally get their dots as names corrected at Westminster Abbey”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-10-05:

A separation of one syllable (especially a vowel which is a diphthong, that is, beginning with one sound and ending with another) into two distinct syllables; distraction.

(orthography) The diacritical mark consisting of two dots (¨) placed over a letter (especially the second of two consecutive vowels) to indicate that it is sounded separately, usually as a distinct syllable.

deelteken

diacritical mark consisting of two dots (¨) placed over a letter to indicate that it is sounded separately


avail

en-noun

avail (countable and uncountable, plural avails)

From Middle English availen (“to be of use”), from Old French a (“to”) + vail from valoir (“to be worth”), from Latin valere (“to be worthy, strong”).

While holding an avail yesterday, the candidate lashed out at critics.

(US, politics, journalism) A press avail.


tabloid

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-tabloid.wav

The noun is derived from tabl(et) + -oid (suffix meaning ‘having the likeness of, resembling’), originally coined by the United Kingdom firm Burroughs, Wellcome & Company as a brand name for their medicines and other products such as tea in tablet form and registered as a trademark on 14 March 1884.
Sense 2 (“compact or compressed version of something; especially something having a popular or sensational nature”) is influenced by sense 2.3 (“newspaper characterized as favouring stories of a popular or sensational nature over serious news”).
The adjective and verb are derived from the noun.

tiivistetty muoto

[…] Lyle Stuart, […] is known—notorious would be the proper word—for his publishing and writing in the fields of obscenity and extreme leftism: he puts out a sort of tabloid called "The Independent".

1967 May 17, Edward Hunter, “Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 [Exhibit 2: Anatomy of a Film Analysis of ‘Three Faces of Cuba’]”, in Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 90th Congress, First Session (United States Senate), volume 113, part 10, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 12998, column 2:

A public school in Moperville, where the local newspaper is sold in neighboring towns with all the regard of a tabloid. / We've got a reputation to protect! We can only report on confirmed monsters, like mega hogs, or Bigfoot!

2009 January 20, Dan Shive, “Sister 2: Part 5: Moperville News”, in El Goonish Shive (webcomic), archived from the original on 2024-11-05:

Train operating companies get plenty of column inches in the tabloids, usually for negative reasons. Happily, Southeastern is worthy of praise for having made The Sun for something positive.

2024 February 21, Nick Brodrick, “Inclusion and Development for All”, in Rail, number 1003, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 62:

(figurative) A compact or compressed version of something; especially something having a popular or sensational nature.

(newspapers) A newspaper having pages half the dimensions of a broadsheet, especially characterized as favouring stories of a popular or sensational nature over serious news.

تابلويد

newspaper especially characterized as favouring stories of a popular or sensational nature over serious news

小报 (xiǎobào, literally “small newspaper”)


tabloid

en-verb

tabloid (third-person singular simple present tabloids, present participle tabloiding, simple past and past participle tabloided)

tabloids (present singular third-person)
tabloiding (participle present)
tabloided (participle past)
tabloided (past)

The ‘tabloiding’ of local newspapers has resulted in a ‘dumbing down’ of the local press. The publication of shorter, brighter, ‘frothier’ stories and the increasing reliance on stories about entertainment, consumer items and ‘human interest’ stories, are the infallible hallmarks of the tabloid genre.

1998, Bob Franklin, David Murphy, “Changing Times: Local Newspapers, Technology and Markets”, in Bob Franklin, David Murphy, editors, Making the Local News: Local Journalism in Context, London: Routledge, →ISBN, part I (Local Newspapers and Local Media), page 15:

The first key developments in the tabloiding of British newspapers are defined initially and literally by the shift of the Sun to a tabloid format in 1969 and the Daily Mail in 1971.

2013, Martin Conboy, “Products”, in Journalism Studies (The Basics), Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 121:

(newspapers) To convert (a newspaper) into a tabloid (noun sense 2.3) format.

siirtää tabloidikokoon

to convert (a newspaper) into a tabloid format


rest

en-noun

rest (countable and uncountable, plural rests)

From Middle English rest, reste, from Old English ræst, from Proto-West Germanic *rastu, from Proto-Germanic *rastō, from Proto-Indo-European *ros-, *res-, *erH- (“rest”). Cognate with West Frisian rêst (“rest”), Dutch rust (“rest”), German Rast (“rest”), Swedish rast (“rest”), Norwegian rest (“rest”), Icelandic röst (“rest”), Old Irish árus (“dwelling”), German Ruhe (“calm”), Albanian resht (“to stop, pause”), Welsh araf (“quiet, calm, gentle”), Lithuanian rovà (“calm”), Ancient Greek ἐρωή (erōḗ, “rest, respite”), Avestan 𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬨𐬈 (aⁱrime, “calm, peaceful”), Sanskrit रमते (rámate, “he stays still, calms down”), Gothic 𐍂𐌹𐌼𐌹𐍃 (rimis, “tranquility”). Related to roo.

rest

stick used to support the cue in snooker

(poetry) A short pause in reading poetry; a caesura.


foil

en-noun

foil (countable and uncountable, plural foils)

From Middle English foyle, from Middle French fueille, from Old French fueille (“plant leaf”), from Late Latin folia, the plural of folium, mistaken as a singular feminine.
The literary sense is from the practice of backing a gem with metal foil to make it shine more brilliantly.
Doublet of folio and folium, distantly also with phyllo and phyllon.

As Puss comes to realize his legendary status is not a substitute for interpersonal connection, his interactions with Kitty and the therapy dog start to take on a surprising amount of weight, while Goldilocks serves as a well-realized foil who has more in common with Puss that is at first apparent.

2022 December 20, Leigh Monson, “Puss In Boots: The Last Wish review: Antonio Banderas leads the best film yet in the Shrek franchise”, in AV Club:

(authorship, figuratively) In literature, theatre/theater, etc., a character who helps emphasize the traits of the main character and who usually acts as an opponent or antagonist, but can also serve as the sidekick of the protagonist.

contrastfiguur

character who helps emphasise the traits of the main character


blank verse

blank verse (countable and uncountable, plural blank verses)

Milton's command of blank verse exceeds even Shakespeare's.

[T]here is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and beeing an absolute Iohannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey.

1592, Robert Greene, Groats-Worth of Witte, Bought with a Million of Repentance, London: imprinted for William Wright, folio F¹v:

I could have spoken in blank verse of Shakespearean beauty, all sorts of great ideas flashed through my mind; it was as though the bonds of my flesh had been loosened, and left the spirit free to soar to the empyrean of its native power.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “The Spirit of Life”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 288:

Soon after Surrey's translation of Virgil, blank verse became a persuasive rival to the heroic couplet.

2006, Philip Hobsbaum, “The heroic couplet”, in Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form, Routledge, →ISBN, page 18:

(poetry) A poetic form with regular meter, particularly iambic pentameter, but no fixed rhyme scheme.


septet

PIE word
 *septḿ̥
From Latin septem (“seven”).

A group of seven, particularly
(poetry) A set of seven lines.

A group of seven, particularly
A set of seven lines.


Shakespearean sonnet

Shakespearean sonnet (plural Shakespearean sonnets)

Named after English playwright and poet William Shakespeare (1564–1616) and strongly associated with his authorship.

named-after

(poetry) A sonnet comprising three quatrains and a final couplet, in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg.


Spenserian sonnet

en-noun

Spenserian sonnet (plural Spenserian sonnets)

Named after English poet Edmund Spenser (1552/1553–1599) and associated with his authorship.

named-after

(poetry) A sonnet comprising three quatrains with the latter rhyme part being carried over from one quatrain to the next, and a concluding couplet, therefore comprising a rhyme scheme of abab bcbc cdcd ee.


Petrarchan sonnet

en-noun

Petrarchan sonnet (plural Petrarchan sonnets)

Named after Italian scholar, poet and humanist Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), who did not invent but made large use of this form in his authorship.

named-after

(poetry) A sonnet comprising an octave and a closing sestet, following the rhyme scheme of either abba abba cde cde or abba abba cd cd cd or abba abba cce dde or abba abba cdd cee.


tag

From Middle English tagge (“small piece hanging from a garment”), probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Norwegian tagg (“point; prong; barb; tag”), Swedish tagg (“thorn; prickle; tine”), Icelandic tág (“a willow-twig”). Compare also tack.

cog

Seems here like Russ would be speaking. You could use a tag here.

(Can we date this quote?), michael, alt.fiction.original (Usenet):

If you want to start with talk, stick a tag in right away

(Can we date this quote?), Jane MacDonald, alt.fiction.original (Usenet):

You could combine these two paragraphs, I think, and rewrite to lose the tag portion of the third sentence.

(Can we date this quote?), bart_...@hotmail.com, alt.fiction.original (Usenet):

(informal, authorship) An attribution in narrated dialogue (eg, "he said") or attributed words (e.g. "he thought").


slot

From Middle English slot, from Old French esclot, likely from Old Norse slóð (“track”). As a gambling machine, via clipping of slot machine. Compare sleuth. The scheduling (calendar) sense is by a metaphor whereby the time span is equated with the segment of a page or part of a device that represents it.

The slot is not a glamorous job. It hasn't been discovered by Shubert Alley or the fiction magazines. To the cub reporter, eager for by-lines and self-expression, the whole copy desk looks like a backwater.

1940, LIFE, volume 8, number 17, page 111:

(journalism) The inside of the "rim" or semicircular copy desk, occupied by the supervisor of the copy editors.


quiescent

en-adj

quiescent (comparative more quiescent, superlative most quiescent)

more quiescent (comparative)
most quiescent (superlative)

Learned borrowing from Latin quiēscēns, quiēscentem.

lbor

The k is quiescent in "knight" and "know".


measure

→ Japanese: メジャー (mejā)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-measure.wav

From Middle English mesure, from Old French mesure, from Latin mēnsūra (“a measure”), from mēnsus, past participle of mētīrī (“to measure”). Largely displaced native Old English metan ("to measure" whence modern mete) and ġemet (“a measure”).

lainsäädäntötoimenpide

piece of legislation as course of action

a poem in iambic measure

(poetry) The manner of ordering and combining the quantities, or long and short syllables; meter; rhythm; hence, a metrical foot.

размер

poetry: manner of ordering and combining the quantities


BOM

balm (some speakers with the father-bother merger)

(journalism) Acronym of business-office must (“a story that must be published at the behest of the publication's business office”).


redundant

en-adj

redundant (comparative more redundant, superlative most redundant)

more redundant (comparative)
most redundant (superlative)

From Latin redundāns, present participle of redundō (“to overflow, redound”), from red- (“again, back”) + undō (“to surge, flood”), from unda (“a wave”).

(of words, writing, etc) Repetitive or needlessly wordy.


octave

From Latin octavus (“eighth”). Doublet of octavo, ochava, and oitava.

Octave in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

With mournful melody it continued this octave.

a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:

(poetry) A poetic stanza consisting of eight lines; usually used as one part of a sonnet.


leonine

Léonin
Pope Leo II
Pope Leo IV
San Clemente al Laterano

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English leonin, leonine (“of or pertaining to a person named Leo; specifically Pope Leo IV”), from Latin leōnīnus, from Leo (“man’s name”) (from leo (“lion”): see etymology 1) + -īnus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’).
Sense 2 (“being or relating to a kind of verse with internal rhyme”) is said to refer to a (possibly apocryphal) medieval monk named Leo or Leonius who composed verse with this characteristic; his identity is uncertain, but the composer Léonin (also known as Leo, Leoninus, or Leonius; flourished 1135–1201) has been suggested. Alternatively, the word may refer to Pope Leo II (c. 611–683): see the c. 1760–1761 quotation.
The noun is derived from the adjective.

leonine rhyme

In the Church of St. Dominick is a ſmall Picture of the Bleſſed Virgin, vvith the Infant JESUS in her Arms, vvell painted, and yet, appears to have been done in the Iron Age of Painting and other Arts, by the follovving verses, vvrit under it. […] Theſe Leonine Verſes, as plainly appears by them, expreſs a Senſe contrary to the Intention of the VVriter.

1712, [Bernard de] Montfaucon, “My Journey to Siena; […]”, in [John Henley?], transl., The Travels of the Learned Father Montfaucon from Paris thro’ Italy. […], London: […] D. L. for E[dmund] Curll […], E[gbert] Sanger […], R[obert] Gosling […], and W. Lewis […], →OCLC, page 403:

Observe, that, if the date of this poem be true, the general opinion, that the Leonine verse owes its name to Leonius, seems to be false; […] It is not therefore very likely, as Leonius flourished in 1154, that he should give name to such Latin verses upwards of thirty years before. Indeed some people have thought that it was called after Leo, probably the Second, who lived in 684, a pope who is said to have reformed the hymns and the music of the church.

c. 1760–1761 (date written; published 1814), Thomas Gray, “[Essays. Metrum.] Observations on the Pseudo-Rhythmus.”, in Edmund Gosse, editor, The Works of Thomas Gray in Prose and Verse. […], volume I (Poems, Journals, and Essays), London: Macmillan and Co., published 1884, →OCLC, pages 374–375:

[T]he Latin poetry, instead of Leonine rhymes, or attempts at regular hexameters almost equally bad, becomes, in the hands of Gunther, Gualterus de Insulis, Gulielmus Brito, and Joseph Iscanus, to whom a considerable number of names might be added, always tolerable, sometimes truly spirited; […]

1837–1839, Henry Hallam, “On the General State of Literature in the Middle Ages to the End of the Fourteenth Century”, in Introduction to the Literature of Europe, in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, volume I, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, paragraph 84, page 100:

(poetry) Being or relating to a kind of medieval Latin verse, generally alternative hexameter and pentameter, with rhyming at the middle and end of a line (that is, internal rhyme); also (by extension), of or relating to modern verse having internal rhyme.

leoniininen

being or relating to a kind of medieval Latin verse; of or relating to modern verse having internal rhyme


leonine

A[llen]. The Clink of Syllables call'd Rymes, / Brought in ith' barb'rous Runick times, / To ſober Criticks ſeems to be / A paultry part of Poetry, / Becoming Monkiſh dull Divines, / VVho traded much in Leonines. / J[ohn]. Altho' to ſpoil I ſhould be ſorry, / An undergraduate Antiquary, / Yet I'll produce a Line or tvvo / Of Leonines in Cicero, / Before the Monks long time ago.

1715, “Canto III”, in The Miller of Trompington: being an Exercise upon Chaucer’s Reeve’s Tale, London: […] Jonas Brown, […]; and sold by J[ames] Roberts […], →OCLC, pages 44–45:

[F]rom the jingling of the Greek couplet juſt before, and ſimilar inſtances of his taſte, I am perſuaded Sir VVilliam intended theſe as Leonines perfect in their kind.

1771 December, “Illustration of the Inscription on Sir W[illiam] Browne’s Monument. […] Continued from Our Last. The Notes.”, in The Town and Country Magazine; or, Universal Repository of Knowledge, Instruction, and Entertainment, volume III, London: […] A[rchibald] Hamilton Junr. […]; [a]nd sold by Robinson and Roberts, […], →OCLC, page 648, column 1:

The manuscript of Trinity College, Cambridge, which we have already mentioned, was written at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the proverbs which it contains are translations into Latin leonines of some of the more popular English, and, in one or two instances, Norman proverbs of that time.

1835 March, “Art. V.— […] 4. Collection of English Proverbs of the Twelfth Century, Translated into Latin Leonines. MS. Trin. Coll. Camb. O. 2. 45. (Unpublished.) [book review]”, in Cochrane’s Foreign Quarterly Review, volume I, number II, London: Whittaker & Co. […]; Edinburgh: Robert Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 395:

(poetry, chiefly in the plural) Synonym of Leonine verse (“a kind of medieval Latin verse, generally alternative hexameter and pentameter, with rhyming at the middle and end of a line (that is, internal rhyme)”).


chuff

en-noun

chuff (countable and uncountable, plural chuffs)

(scriptwriting, uncountable) Superfluous small talk that is free of conflict, offers no character development, description or insight, and does not advance the story or plot.


corona

A favorite and most attractive combination is that of the corona or series of sonnets, employed to frame or develop some one theme. A list of these corone is given by Biadene, who selects and publishes from among them a series of three by Petrarch, and the famous corona of the months by Folgore da San Gemignano.

1889 May, F. M. Warren, “The Sonnet. Morfologia del Sonetto nei secoli xiii e xiv. L. Biadene [Studj di Filologia Romanza, Fasc. 10.]”, in A. Marshall Elliott, editor, Modern Language Notes, volume IV, Baltimore, Md.: [Johns Hopkins University Press], →ISSN, →OCLC, column 308:

But the poets of Siena, and particularly the Academy of the Intronati, found the proper way of constructing coronas—since the ones mentioned above should really be called sequences ['catene'] rather than coronas.

1997, Michael R. G. Spiller, The Sonnet Sequence: A Study of Its Strategies (Studies in Literary Themes and Genres; 13), New York, N.Y.: Twayne Publishers, →ISBN, page 144:

[Lady Mary] Wroth alludes to these contexts as the corona of sonnets that crowns the sequence opens: "In this strang labourinth how shall I turne?" (Wroth, Poems 127).

2000, Mary B. Moore, “The Labyrinth of Style: Lady Mary Wroth and the Idea of Petrarchism”, in Desiring Voices: Women Sonneteers and Petrarchism, Carbondale, Edwardsville, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, →ISBN, page 125:

Both sets of echoes derive from the poets' first poems, and since first poems in Petrarchan sequences set stylistic, tonal, and thematic expectations, Robert [Sidney]'s double allusion to first poems should color readings of this, the first poem of his corona.

2015, Mary B. Moore, “Robert Sidney’s Poetry”, in Margaret P. Hannay, Mary Ellen Lamb, Michael G. Brennan, editors, The Ashgate Research Companion to The Sidneys, 1500–1700, volume 2 (Literature), Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN, part VI (Poetry), page 250:

(poetry) A series of sonnets linked together such that the last word of each is the first word of the next.


volta

[…][Larmona] Ash describes how “conversion arrives like a volta [poetic shift]^([sic]) in a person's life.” The metaphor is apt, imagining one's spiritual life as a poem, an authored thing, and not preserved on vellum either, but open to revision.

2025 May 31, Tanjil Rashid, quoting Lamorna Ash, “Finding their religion”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 9:

(poetry) A turning point or point of change in a poem, most commonly a sonnet.


banner

From Middle English baner, from Old French baniere (Modern bannière), of Germanic origin. More at band.

(journalism) The title of a newspaper as printed on its front page; the nameplate; masthead.


banner

en-verb

banner (third-person singular simple present banners, present participle bannering, simple past and past participle bannered)

banners (present singular third-person)
bannering (participle present)
bannered (participle past)
bannered (past)

At 8:11, bannering the headline “Cheney in Charge?” the Drudge Report runs a story speculating that the president may be incapacitated.

2008, Howard Rosenberg, Charles S. Feldman, No Time To Think:

(transitive, journalism) To display as a banner headline.


clarification

en-noun

clarification (countable and uncountable, plural clarifications)

/ˌklæɹɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/

/ˌklɛɹɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/

/ˌklæɹɪfɪˈkæɪʃən/

Borrowed from Middle French clarification, from Latin clārificātiō.

избистряне

physical clarification (wine, butter, etc.)

(journalism) A small piece of writing supplemental to a previously published text, intended to disambiguate, explain away obscurities, but not contradict or emend the text (as would a correction).


deck

From Middle English dekke, borrowed from Middle Dutch dec (“roof, covering”), from Middle Dutch decken, from Old Dutch thecken, from Proto-West Germanic *þakkjan, from Proto-Germanic *þakjaną. Formed the same: German Decke (“covering, blanket”). Doublet of thatch and thack.

rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic

shuffle the chairs on the deck of the Titanic

Coordinate term: strapline

If there's a strapline or subdeck, write these after the main deck and don't use the same words.

2005, Richard Keeble, Print Journalism: A Critical Introduction, page 114:

(journalism) A headline consisting of one or more full lines of text; especially, a subheadline.


embed

(journalism) An embedded reporter or journalist, such as a war reporter assigned to and travelling with a military unit, or a political reporter assigned to follow and report on the campaign of a candidate.


premise

premises (plural)
premiss (alternative)
præmise (alternative archaic)
præmiss (alternative archaic)

From Middle English premise, premisse, from Old French premisse, from Medieval Latin premissa (“set before”) (premissa propositio (“the proposition set before”)), feminine past participle of Latin praemittere (“to send or put before”), from prae- (“before”) + mittere (“to send”).
The sense "a piece of real estate" arose from the misinterpretation of the word by property owners while reading title deeds where the word was used with the legal sense.

der

In 1949, the simple premise of discovering ordinary people who have hidden, extraordinary talents came to prominence in the UK with Opportunity Knocks, which started out as a nationwide touring radio show, before moving onto TV in 1956.

2021 September 15, Laura Martin, “How talent shows became TV's most bizarre programmes”, in BBC:

(authorship) The fundamental concept that drives the plot of a film or other story.


scan

en-verb

scan (third-person singular simple present scans, present participle scanning, simple past and past participle scanned)

scans (present singular third-person)
scanning (participle present)
scanned (participle past)
scanned (past)

⇒ Lithuanian: skenuoti

From late Middle English scanne (“to mark off verse to show metrical structure”), from earlier scanden, from Late Latin scandere (“to scan verse”), from Classical Latin scandō (“I climb, rise, mount”), from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump, dart, climb, scale, scan”).

مَحَّصَ

to examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely

In such cases as these, almost any one with a good ear will "scan" the verse correctly enough without instruction. It is not proposed to give here a list of Shakspere's slurred and contracted words; […]

1886, Francis Barton Gummere, A Handbook of Poetics for Students of English Verse, page 218:

(poetry, transitive) To read or mark so as to show a specific metre.

escandir

to read or mark so as to show a specific metre

You're right, sir, it doesn't scan very well in the English, but in the Gaelic it's sheer poetry. Have you the Gaelic?

1998, Milton Acorn, Cedric Smith, edited by James Deahl, The Road to Charlottetown: A Play, UnMon Northland:

(poetry, intransitive) To conform to a metrical structure.


spike

en-verb

spike (third-person singular simple present spikes, present participle spiking, simple past and past participle spiked)

spikes (present singular third-person)
spiking (participle present)
spiked (participle past)
spiked (past)

From Middle English spike, spyke, spik, from Old Norse spík (“spike, sprig”), from Proto-Germanic *spīkō (“stick, splinter, point”), from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“to be pointed; sharp point, stick”). Cognate with Icelandic spík (“spike”), Swedish spik (“spike, nail”), Dutch spijker (“nail”), Old English spīcing (“spike”), and Latin spīca (“ear of corn”), which may have influenced some senses.

terästää

to covertly put alcohol or another intoxicating substance into a drink

Nicolaas, or Nick, as the family called him, wanted to turn professional but an ear injury, sustained during the war, spiked his plans.

1981, Chris Greyvenstein, The Fighters, page 145:

Instead, the "Beaver" declared he would spike the story about Wallis Simpson and make sure his fellow media moguls sat on it too.

2002 October 14, Jonathan Sale, “Edward VIII news blackout”, in The Guardian:

Anyway, on this day I was still struggling with how to use fewer than twenty words to sum up my day in Blackpool in a manner which would not prove too upsetting for my parents, when I learned that I'd got spiked. Again.

2010, Sharon Marshall, Tabloid Girl, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

With two such wildly contradictory versions of why and how NBC News spiked Farrow’s Weinstein story, it’s difficult to determine what objectively occurred.

2017 October 11, Lloyd Grove, “How NBC ‘Killed’ Ronan Farrow’s Weinstein Exposé”, in Daily Beast:

Last October, Bezos halted the Post’s practice of endorsing presidential candidates, spiking the editorial board’s plans to endorse former Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the general election.

2025 June 11, Gregory Svirnovskiy, “Washington Post announces new editor of opinions desk overhauled by Jeff Bezos”, in Politico:

(figurative, journalism) To discard; to decide not to publish or make public.


stave

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-stave.wav

Back-formation from staves, the plural of staff.

Let us chaunt a passing stave / In honour of that hero brave.

1815, William Wordsworth, Rob Roy's Grave:

(poetry) A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.

Ley, in his work on the Metrical Forms of Hebrew Poetry, 1866, has taken too little notice of these frequently occurring alliteration staves; Lagarde communicated to me (8th Sept. 1846) his view of the stave-rhyme in the Book[…]

1874, Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, page 73:

[The] stave that binds the two halves of the line together the on-verse must be classified as D in spite of the f-stave . . stave-rhyme (OED s.v. Stave sb.)

1974, John Collins Pope, Old English Studies in Honour of John C. Pope, page 193:

... consisting only of the two staves, folches . . . fehta. […] Line 63 contains the two-stave rhyme, aerist ... asckim; the suggested reduplicative rhyme [...] is technically doubtful according to the standards we have[…]

1975, Studies in Medieval Culture, page 11:

This may seem sparse and incomplete, but is reminiscent of the Old Norse stave rhyme technique in which one avoided two alliterating staves in one dipod – which the poets of that time considered superfluous.

(poetry, rare) The initial consonant, consonant cluster, or vowel of a word which rhymes with another word with the same consonant or vowel in stave-rhyme.


strain

From Middle English streen, strene, streon, istreon (“race, stock, generation”), from Old English strēon, ġestrēon (“gain, wealth”), from Proto-Germanic *streuną (“heap, treasure, profit, gain”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread, strew”) (cognate with Old Saxon gistriuni, Old High German gistriuni (“gain, property, wealth, business”), Latin strues (“heap”)). Confused in Middle English with the related noun strend, strynd, strund, from Old English strȳnd (“race; stock”), from strēonan, strȳnan (“to beget; acquire”). Related also to Dutch struinen (“to prowl, root about, rout”).

cog

Yet Keats, though for so many years he has given nothing to the world, is understood to have devoted himself to the composition of an epic poem. Some passages of it have been communicated to the inner circle of his admirers, and impressed them as the loftiest strains that have been audible on earth since Milton’s days.

1846, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “P.'s Correspondence”, in Mosses from an Old Manse:

A baby gurgled, a photographer dropped her lens cap, and the strains of the U.S. Army Brass Quintet echoed off the murals depicting seminal moments in American history.

2024, Christa Case Bryant, As US marks 9/11, a divided Congress unites to honor 13 fallen in Afghanistan, in: The Christian Science Monitor, September 11, 2024

(music, poetry) Any sustained note or movement; a song; a distinct portion of an ode or other poem; also, the pervading note, or burden, of a song, poem, etc.

напев

music, poetry: any sustained note or movement; a song; a distinct portion of an ode or other poem; also, the pervading note, or burden, of a song, poem, etc.


pentameter

en-noun

pentameter (countable and uncountable, plural pentameters)

pentameters (plural)
pentametre (alternative)

PIE word
 *pénkʷe
From Middle French pentamètre, by surface analysis, penta- + meter.

The best verses, more especially pentameters, are written on the principle of attracting and fixing the attention to their close.

1822, Robert Bland, Elements of Latin Hexameters and Pentameters, third edition, London: John Robinson, page vi:

(poetry, countable) A line in a poem having five metrical feet.

(poetry) Poetic metre in which each line has five feet.


tetrameter

tetrameter (countable and uncountable, plural tetrameters)

tetrameters (plural)
tetrametre (alternative)

(poetry) A line in a poem having four metrical feet.

tetrametër

a line in a poem having four metrical feet (poetry)


dimeter

dimeter (countable and uncountable, plural dimeters)

(poetry) A line in a poem having two metrical feet.

(poetry) A poetic metre in which each line has two feet.


desk

en-verb

desk (third-person singular simple present desks, present participle desking, simple past and past participle desked)

desks (present singular third-person)
desking (participle present)
desked (participle past)
desked (past)

From Middle English deske, desque, from Medieval Latin desca, modified from Old Italian desco, from Latin discus. Doublet of dais, disc, discus, dish, disk, and diskos. See also German Tisch, "table".

doublet

(transitive, journalism) To reject (an article submitted to a newspaper or academic journal etc.) on initial receipt, without reviewing it further.


seagull

seagulls (plural)
sea gull (alternative)
sea-gull (alternative)

From sea + gull. The second element is from a Brythonic language. Compare Welsh gwylan, Breton gouelan.

(orthography) The symbol ̼, which combines under a letter as a sort of accent.


diacritic

en-adj

diacritic (comparative more diacritic, superlative most diacritic)

more diacritic (comparative)
most diacritic (superlative)

/ˌdaɪəˈkɹɪtɪk/

/ˌdaɪəˈkɹɪtɪk/

[ˌdaɪəˈkɹɪɾɪk]

/ˌdɑɪəˈkɹɪtɪk/

[ˌdɑɪəˈkɹɪɾɪk]

Borrowed from Ancient Greek διακριτικός (diakritikós, “distinguishing, separative”), from διακρίνειν (diakrínein, “to distinguish, separate”), from διά (diá, “between”) + κρίνω (krínō, “I separate, distinguish”).

bor+

(orthography, not comparable) Denoting a distinguishing mark applied to a letter or character.


national

From Middle French national, corresponding to nation + -al.

I had a crush on Bardot / Fell in love with Monroe / Read about 'em in the nationals / All the juicy little scandals

1978, “Blondes (Have More Fun)”, performed by Rod Stewart:

(usually in the plural, journalism) A national newspaper.


cedilla

From Spanish cedilla (literally “little zed”), c. 1600. In Spanish cedilla referred to the letter ⟨Ç⟩, which had evolved from ⟨Ꝣ⟩, a Visigothic form of the letter Z (called a Z with copete); hence the name. The lower part of ⟨Ç⟩ (which came to be reinterpreted as a diacritical mark under a C) is the remnant of the original Z, after it gradually reduced in size; whereas the upper part was originally just an ornamentation over the Z (which increased in size until it resembled letter C, and finally came to be identified with this letter).

bor

(orthography) In the spelling of Catalan, French, Portuguese and some other languages, a mark ⟨¸⟩ sometimes placed under the letter c to indicate that it is pronounced /s/ rather than /k/, as in Catalan força, French menaçant, and Portuguese almoço, and also used in various other languages to change the sounds of other letters.


identical

The strictest construction of the rule requires complete and unvarying repetition of end-words, but some license is granted in the use of identicals.

1992, Clarence Hugh Holman, William Harmon, A Handbook to Literature, page 439:

(poetry) A rhyme on the same syllable, such as "leave" and "believe".


prompt

The adjective is from Middle English prompte, from Middle French prompt and its etymon Latin prōmptus (“visible, apparent, evident”), past participle of prōmō (“to take or bring out or forth, produce, bring to light”), from prō (“forth, forward”) + emō (“to take, acquire, buy”). Doublet of pronto.
The verb is from Middle English prompen, apparently from the adjective. The noun is from the verb.

der

(writing) A suggestion for inspiration given to an author.


waka

Borrowed from Japanese 和歌 (waka), from Middle Chinese 和 (ɣwa), a gloss for 倭 (ʔwa, “Japan”) + 歌 (ka, “song”).

“Hey, look. There's one of those Jap waka poems on the back of this cigarette package.”

1962, Philip K. Dick, “The Man in the High Castle”, in Four Novels of the 1960s, Library of America, published 2007, page 122:

(poetry) A kind of classical Japanese poem.