| a dictionary of words and phrases on the verge of extinction — updated daily — for the word obsessed! |  |
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lingua franca LING-gwuh FRANG-ka noun a common language 1915The Sea Hawk'She will come! She will come!' he cried in the Frankish jargon—the lingua franca of the African littoral.1949Nineteen Eighty-FourExcept that English is its chief lingua franca and Newspeak its official language, it is not centralized in any way.Labels: George Orwell, Rafael Sabatini
ruck ruhk noun a scrum; a body of people; a throng 1901KimThe ruck of passengers, busy, with their babies and their bundles, had not noticed the affair.1936Keep the Aspidistra FlyingIt mightn't be a bad thing, if you could manage it, to feel yourself one of them, one of the ruck of men.1999MonsoonNone of their foes was able to lift his long musket in the close ruck of bodies…2003Blue HorizonHe could not see him in the ruck of fighting men…Labels: George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling, Wilbur Smith
sardonic sawr-DAW-nik adjective sarcastic humor; cynical; scornful; mocking 1934Burmese DaysHe deliberately exaggerated his Cockney accent, because of the sardonic tone it gave to his words.1984The SicilianHector Adonis prepared, with sardonic pleasure, to play the familiar comedy to come.1992All the Pretty HorsesHe managed a sardonic smile…Labels: Cormac McCarthy, George Orwell, Mario Puzo
contradistinction KAWN-truh-dis-tink-shuhn noun distinguishing something by contrasting it with something else 1911The Devil's DictionaryPANTHEISM, n. The doctrine that everything is God, in contradistinction to the doctrine that God is everything.1937The Road to Wigan PierIn order to symbolize the class war, there has been set up the more or less mythical figure of a 'proletarian', a muscular but downtrodden man in greasy overalls, in contradistinction to a 'capitalist', a fat, wicked man in a top hat and fur coat.1991The Road to Omaha...my title is 'general' in contradistinction to the civilian 'mister,'…Labels: Ambrose Bierce, George Orwell, Robert Ludlum
plutocracy PLOO-taw-kruh-see noun a government by the wealthy or moneyed class 1909A Gentleman From MississippiHe had his speech all really to warn the country that he thought a crowd of the plutocracy was goin' to get the bonds to resell to the public at advanced rates.1920The New JerusalemMeanwhile the Labour men talk about the need to 'nationalise' the mines or the land, as if it were not the great difficulty in a plutocracy to nationalise the Government, or even to nationalise the nation.1937The Road To Wigan PierBut if we do get it there will be a struggle, conceivably a physical one, for our plutocracy will not sit quiet under a genuinely revolutionary government.Labels: G. K. Chesterton, George Orwell, Thomas A. Wise and Joseph R. Grismer
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