bel·li·cose adjective \ˈbe-li-ˌkōs\: having or showing a tendency to argue or fight
Full Definition of BELLICOSE
: favoring or inclined to start quarrels or wars
— bel·li·cos·i·tynoun
Examples of BELLICOSE
<bellicose hockey players who always seem to spend more time fighting than playing>
Never in peacetime, perhaps, have the statements of our government officials been more relentlessly bellicose. Yet their actions have been comparatively cautious. —New Yorker, 24 June 1985
Origin of BELLICOSE
Middle English, from Latin bellicosus, from bellicus of war, from bellum war
It’s been a while since I’ve published the Word of the Day. It started with my daughter as explained in this post. We took a little break from the Word of the Day during the summer. I only taught her a handful of new words during that time.
When she told me she had to come up with a nickname at school using the first letter of her name and she settled on the Capricious Catfish (lol), I knew I had to resurrect the Word of the Day again. She chose the word because she likes it, not because it describes her. Seriously, she has one mood: happy.
I’ve decided to limit the post to Wednesdays. Today’s word appears in the lyrics from this past Musical Monday (OneRepublic’s Love Runs Out) and another from several months ago (Wrapped Around Your Finger by The Police).
: a short phrase that expresses a true or wise idea
Full Definition of APHORISM
1: a concise statement of a principle
2: a terse formulation of a truth or sentiment : adage
— aph·o·ristnoun
— aph·o·ris·ticadjective
— aph·o·ris·ti·cal·lyadverb
Examples of APHORISM
When decorating, remember the familiar aphorism, “less is more.”
<what does the aphorism“Hindsight is 20/20” mean?>
Confronted by a broadminded, witty, and tolerant cosmopolitan, for whom the infinite varieties of human custom offered a source of inexhaustible fascination, Thucydides presented himself as a humorless nationalist, an intellectual given to political aphorisms and abstract generalizations. —Peter Green, New York Review of Books, 15 May 2008
Origin of APHORISM
Middle French aphorisme, from Late Latin aphorismus, from Greek aphorismos definition, aphorism, from aphorizein to define, from apo- + horizein to bound — more at horizon
First Known Use: 1528
Related to APHORISM
Synonyms
adage, saying, apothegm, byword, epigram, maxim, proverb, saw, sententia, word
