Fawn

Word for the day is: Fawn

verb [no obj.] (of a person) give a servile display of exaggerated flattery or affection, typically in order to gain favour or advantage.

e.g. As soon as they realised that Wahab is a Dato', they began to fawn over him unashamedly.

Author's note: I think 'to fawn' is 'bodek' in Malay. I am not sure though.

Harangue

Word for the day is: Harangue

noun a lengthy and aggressive speech.
e.g. His long harangue was punctuated with emotions that were meant to tug at the voters’ heartstrings.

verb [with obj.] lecture (someone) at length in an aggressive and critical manner
e.g. I was harangued by my lecturer for being too stupid for his class.

Supercilious

Word for the day is: supercilious

Taken from The New Oxford Dictionary of English

adjective behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others

Example:
Malaysians are not racists, they just do not like supercilious people.

Xenophobia

Word for the day is: Xenophobia

Taken from The New Oxford Dictionary of English

noun - intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries.

Example:
A british columnist living in Malaysia claims that there is a wide and ugly sense of racism and xenophobia amongst Malaysians. If he actually stops looking down on them maybe he would see things differently.

Derivatives:
xenophobe
noun- someone who is suffering from xenophobia
xenophobic
adjective

Nascent

Word for the day is: Nascent

Taken from The New Oxford Dictionary of English:

adjective - (especially of a process or organization) just coming into existence and beginning to display signs of future potential.

Example:
Mr Cohen has reportedly raised $8.75m in financing to turn the BitTorrent technology and the associated website into a commercial download service. The deal is widely seen as giving that nascent service official approval.

Week 1

Words learnt last week:

sapodilla, julienne, inauspicious, apathetic, grasp the nettle, culpable, curmudgeon

Curmudgeon

Word for the day is: Curmudgeon

Taken from The New Oxford Dictionary

noun a bad-tempered or surly person

Even the greatest curmudgeon can't deny the brief thrill on opening the bedroom curtains and seeing the drabness of a British winter transformed into a pearly whiteness.

Culpable

Word for the day is: Culpable

Taken from The New Oxford Dictionary:

adjective - deserving blame

Example:
Liverpool missed a catalogue of chances with both strikers Peter Crouch and Fernando Morientes culpable.

Grasp the nettle

Idiom for the day: Grasp the nettle

Taken from The Oxford New English Dictionary:

idiom to tackle a difficulty boldly.

Explanation:
A nettle stings when touched lightly, but not when grasped firmly.

Example:
The government must grasp the nettle and make some tough decisions.

Apathetic

Word for the day is: apathetic

adjective - showing or feeling no interest, enthusiasm, or concern

Originated from the noun apathy; lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern

Example:
Pompey's apathetic display lent weight to the adage that a team always loses after its boss is named manager of the month.

Inauspicious

Word for the day is: Inauspicious

Taken from The New Oxford Dictionary:
adjective not auspicious; not conducive to success, unpromising

Example:
In what could be termed an inauspicious start to their World Cup campaign, Togo finished bottom place in a four-nation tournament in Tehran on Sunday.

Julienne

Word for the day would be: Julienne

Taken from dictionary.com:

noun Consommé or broth garnished with long thin strips of vegetables.

Taken from The New Oxford Dictionary:

noun a portion of food cut into short, thin strips

Example: a julienne of vegetables

verb [with obj.] cut (food) into short, thin strips.

Example: Could you julienne the carrot for me? I need it julienned for the coleslaw.

adjective - julienned

Sapodilla

Word for the day would be: Sapodilla.

Taken from The New Oxford Dictionary of English:

noun a large evergreen tropical American tree which has edible fruit and hard durable wood and yields chicle.

Example of usage:
- The weird malaysian student asked me to give you this fruit. I think its a sapodilla.

Malay word for Sapodilla: Buah Ciku.