A region usually adopts a lingua franca, or common language, when its inhabitants speak many different languages or dialects.
When people hear the term lingua franca, they often think of English. Although there are millions of people worldwide who don’t speak English, it has still become the lingua franca of many regions and areas of communication. One example is aviation — for airline pilots around the world, English is the lingua franca. The term means «Frankish tongue» in Italian, a reference to the original, 11th-century lingua franca, a mixture of Italian, French, Turkish, and other Mediterranean languages.
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What It Means
To MacGyver something is to make, form, or repair it with materials that are conveniently on hand.
// Social media websites are full of videos that show people MacGyvering everything from a life jacket out of a pair of pants to a stove using three metal cans and some dirt.
See the entry >
MacGyver in Context
“The artist [Mimi Park] MacGyvered her small-scale sonic, kinetic, and fog-emitting bricolages, which are variously activated by the viewer’s presence or a timer, using a combination of found objects, toys, motors, sensors, and craft materials.” — Cassie Packard, Hyperallergic.com, 14 Mar. 2022
Challenging Standardized Test Words, Vol. 2
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Did You Know?
Angus MacGyver, as portrayed by actor Richard Dean Anderson in the titular, action-packed television series MacGyver, was many things—including a secret agent, a Swiss Army knife enthusiast, and a convert to vegetarianism—but he was no MacGuffin (a character that keeps the plot in motion despite lacking intrinsic importance). In fact, so memorable was this man, his mullet, and his ability to use whatever was available to him—often simple things, such as a paper clip, chewing gum, or a rubber band—to escape a sticky situation or to make a device to help him complete a mission, that people began associating his name with making quick fixes or finding innovative solutions to immediate problems. Hence the verb MacGyver, a slang term meaning to “make, form, or repair (something) with what is conveniently on hand.” After years of steadily increasing and increasingly varied usage following the show’s run from 1985 to 1992 (tracked in some detail here), MacGyver was added to our online dictionary in 2022.
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
Тренировка произношения
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Definitions
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- adjective Turning sour; readily becoming tart or acid; slightly sour.
- noun A substance liable to become sour.
Examples
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A common cause of cramp is indigestion, and the use of acescent liquors; these should be avoided.
Burroughs’ Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889
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Being cut into pieces, and pressed close in a tub with aromatic herbs and salt, so as to undergo an acescent fermentation (which is arrested at that stage), Cabbages form the German _Saurkraut_, which is strongly recommended against scurvy.
Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure
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His first thought was to throw it away; but, his master coming up, he mixed this now acescent dough with some fresh dough, which he was working at.
The Book of Household Management
Note
The word acescent comes from a Latin word meaning ‘to turn sour’.
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History
Although there were several early attempts to begin a Word of the Day on Wiktionary, the first official WOTD was posted on 10 January 2006.
Considerable opposition to the now wildly popular WOTD was raised, as it was felt that one full year’s supply of terms should be prepared before it appeared on the Main Page. That took over a year to happen.
In 2007, the RSS feed was created, then an alternate feed (no longer operational) was later added. In July and August 2007, the WOTD was added to the Wikimedia Daily Article Mailing List.
Also in early 2007, the entries started being marked with {{was wotd}} to prevent duplicates, and an alphabetic index (which has since failed RFD) was added.
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