I agree that the word essentiallymeans “greater than the sum of its parts”, I’m not sure I agree with your “people” interpretation. While it absolutely has been used that way, mis-used IMHO, I don’t think it should apply to the concept of cooperation in the “working well together” sense. I think the fundamental meaning is that something is created out of the combination of two or more things which is bigger and better than before.
Synergy != Efficiency no matter how much the EVPs try to pretend it does.
Magnanimous doesn’t really mean generous in the charitable sense, while it probably wouldn’t be entirely wrong to use it that way.
It is much more a visceral description, illustrating how a person is of a very good nature. He’s generous with his emotions and feelings. Unselfish, very forgiving and generally interested in being the “bigger person”. To be magnanimous would be to offer forgiveness without it being asked, to be exceedingly gracious in receiving, and to generally act in others best interest without interest in reward. A magnanimous person would admit fault readily, take the brunt of critcism to avert a conflict and always take the high road in discussion.
Hmmm … dictionary.com also backs up your take on magnanimous better than it does my own.
Harumph. Magnanimous is one of the few words I can recall learning the meaning of through context in print. The passage I read noted traditional Arabs can be especially magnanimous to visitors. An example given was that upon complimenting an Arab host’s wristwatch, the visitor was surprised by the Arab’s prompt offer to give him the watch as a gift.
(referring to “butter wouldn’t melt in his (her) mouth”).
Unfortunately, no. It’s not a nice term at all. Full information here, but basically it means that a person is “overly demure and proper and has an insincere desire to please.”
Basically someone who’s cold, stiffly proper, and probably treacherous, likely looking to use his / her “properness” to either look down at you or stab you in the back. It’s never used in a nice way.
What about the British expression “What are you like?” I imagine this as a term of eye-rolling, arms-folded exasperation, usually spoken by a hot woman with a hot British accent (think of Elizabeth Hurley), but I don’t know exactly what it means. Does anyone actually say that?
On my mom’s side of the family, if you do something fast or efficiently they say you did it “like Grant took Richmond.”
I assume this is a civil war reference. But I know nothing about the battle for Richmond. Did Grant indeed take Richmond swiftly and efficiently? Any war buffs know the answer to this one?
IP is a poetry term refering to a specific rhythmic pattern within a line of poetry. Generally, the line has ten syllables made of five (penta) “feet.” Generally, again, each foot has one stressed syllable. In an iamb, there is one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. So each iamb has the stress pattern of “da DUM” like in the word “toDAY.”
So the line goes “da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM.”
shall I comPARE thee TO a SUMmer’s DAY
Sonnets are often written in this meter. It’s the most common meter for poems in English.
So “iambic” means “made of iambs.”
It comes originally from a card game played mainly by children. The players turn over cards and when two match in rank the first to shout “Snap” claims the pile of cards. Hence the use in your “thinking the same thing” situation.
In reality? No. The campaign for Richmond stalled quite a bit, especially in trench warfare around Petersburg, Virginia. To be completely on the up and up, Grant’s army never really took Richmond in the sense of a stand-up fight for it. Lee’s army surrendered before Grant even reached the capital city. Then again, when compared to his predecessors at the helm of the Army of the Potomac, Grant was a model of speed and efficiency…
I had to explain the phrase *to shoot through like a Bondi tram * to my nephew the other day. He’d heard my mother using it. Apparently the trams that ran from the city to Bondi beach, being express services, tended to whizz through the intervening suburbs very quickly. Interestingly the phrase is still in common usage despite the fact that the tram service to Bondi was discontinued in 1960.
al fresco. I think it means to dine outside, but in all my years of seeing this word, I refuse to look it up on grounds that I’m stubborn and forgetful.
It has to do with an issue or flaw that makes the entire situation/product unworkable for you. To use your example, someone might say “Cheating is a deal-breaker. I’d dump the guy/girl on the spot”. Regardless of how super-wonderful they might be, no matter how extenuating the circumstances, it’s something you can’t get over.
I’ve seen the term “deal breaker” used more in commercial transactions than in relationships. For example, if I find a car I like but it doesn’t have air conditioning, that would be a deal breaker.
I always thought a “deal breaker” was a condition without which there was no deal.
I never understood the term “bitchin’.” It was current when I was in high school (1957-1961), and you got in trouble for using it, probably becauase the adults associated it with “bitch.” I know it meant “outstanding” but I have no idea where it came from. “Bad,” meaning good, was in use at about the same time. I always assumed it was just generational contrariness.