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sobriquet SO-bri-kay noun a nickname 1906Lucas MaletThe Far Horizon'That is very taking and stylish; and it is just what I should like to have done with my Peachie.' This graceful sobriquet was generally understood to bear testimony to the excellence of Mrs. Porcher's complexion.1983Alan Dean FosterKrullErgo spoke the words and for a change lived up to his sobriquet, the Magnificent.2000Robin CookShock'Milk of amnesia' was Carl's humorous sobriquet for the anesthetic agent propofol, which was dispensed as a white liquid, and the term never failed to tickle her funny bone.Labels: Alan Dean Foster, Lucas Malet, Robin Cook
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anthropomorphic an-thruh-puh-MOR-fik noun, adjective human attributes attributed to non-human things 1912John BurroughsTime and ChangeScience has fairly turned us out of our comfortable little anthropomorphic notion of things into the great out-of-doors of the universe.1916Nikolai VelimirovicThe Religious Spirit of the SlavsAll the forces, whether friendly or unfriendly to man, are man like, anthropomorphic, and none of them are indifferent to human life and doings.1974Alan Dean FosterDream Done GreenThe mal standing in the foyer was not as large as some. La Moure's elephants were much bigger. But it was extraordinary in other ways. Particularly the head. Why ... it was exquisite! Truly breathtaking. Not an anthropomorphic beauty, but something uniquely its own.Labels: Alan Dean Foster, John Burroughs, Nikolai Velimirovic
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impute im-PYOOT verb to attribute to something or someone; responsibility or guilt credited to something or someone, often wrongly 1830John Galt The Life of Lord ByronHe formed his plan of travelling upon different reasons from those which he afterward gave out, and which have been imputed to him. 1920Talbot MundyFor the Salt He Had EatenYou, a mere subaltern, a puppy just out of his 'teens, an insignificant jackanapes with two twelve-pounders in your charge, daring to impute disloyalty to Mahommed Khan!—your impudence!1999Alan Dean FosterInto the Thinking KingdomsYou impute to your fellow humans a greater dignity than they deserve.Labels: Alan Dean Foster, John Galt, Talbot Mundy
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jejune ji-JOON adjective uninteresting; insipid; dull 1703William DampierA Voyage to New HollandIt has been Objected against me by some that my Accounts and Descriptions of Things are dry and jejune, not filled with variety of pleasant Matter to divert and gratify the Curious Reader. How far this is true, I must leave to the World to judge.1830Edward Bulwer-LyttonPaul CliffordTo the former decent alternative she knew Paul's great and jejune aversion; and she consequently had little fear for his morals or his safety, in thus abandoning him for a while to chance.1842Nikolai Vasilievich GogolDead SoulsInstantly it became plain that he at least was of an age of discretion, and not one of your jejune chatterboxes and harum-scarums; for, although his hair was still thick and black, he had long ago passed his fortieth year.1880Mark TwainA Tramp AbroadContrasted with the inconceivable antiquity of this modest fossil, those other things were flippantly modern—jejune—mere matters of day-before-yesterday.1922Samuel Hopkins AdamsFrom a Bench in Our SquareJust as decidedly she was quaint and piquant and quite new to his jejune but also somewhat bored experience.1980Alan Dean FosterCachalotHow jejune!Labels: Alan Dean Foster, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Mark Twain, Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, Samuel Hopkins Adams, William Dampier
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rara avis RAER-uh AY-vis noun a rare thing; a rare person 1917John GalsworthyBeyondThe soft air, the mellowness of this gay place, much music, a sense of being a rara avis among people who, by their heavier type, enhanced her own, had produced in her a kind of intoxication, making her what the baroness called 'un peu folle.'1983E. E. Doc SmithSubspace EncounterBun the Barmaid, and a truly rara avis of the ilk.' Deston laughed and led a round of applause.1999Alan Dean FosterPhylogenesisConfronted by the rara avis of actual, genuine emotion, he had no idea how to respond, did not know what to say.Labels: Alan Dean Foster, E. E. Doc Smith, John Galsworthy
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