All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

Just in time for the holidays, a celebratory word.

brannigan, (BRAN-i-guhn) noun 1. a carouse. 2. a squabble; brawl. Also, a loud party.

Tonight is the CBS Evening News Holiday Party -- traditionally, quite a brannigan.

Watch this space next week for incriminating pictures.

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Here's a big word for something small.

diminutive(di-MIN-yuh-tiv) adjective 1. small; little; tiny.

No question about it, Katie's new pup is diminutive.

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Here's a word for the season.

clinquant(KLING-kunt), adj. 1. Glittering with gold or silver; tinseled. noun: 1. Tinsel; imitation gold leaf.

Have you hauled out the clinquant yet?

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Now, for something offensive.

affront(uh-FRUHNT) noun: 1. An open or intentional offense, slight, or insult. 2. Obsolete - A hostile encounter or meeting.

From the Middle English afrounten, from Old French afronter: Latin ad-, ad- + Latin frns, front-, face.

The White House condemned the conference of Holocaust deniers in Iran as "an affront to the civivilized world."

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Today's word is both ancient -- and in the news.

plesiosaur(plee-SEE-uh-sawr)noun. Any marine reptile of the extinct genus Plesiosaurus, from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, having a small head, a long neck, four paddlelike limbs, and a short tail.

Scientists have discovered a plesiosaur that bears a strong resemblance to the Loch Ness Monster.

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Here's a new one, or at least a word new to the "C&C" staff. It describes life out on 57th Street in Manhattan. (With wind chill, it feels like it's 19 degrees.)

algid(AL-jid) adj. cold; chilly.

Origin: 1620–30; from the Latin , meaning cold. Related forms: algidity, algidness, noun.

Don't forget your hat, because it's algid outside.

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As Emily Dickinson would say, this is a word to lift your hat to:

pertinacious (puhr-tin-AY-shuhs), adj.: 1. Holding or adhering obstinately to any opinion, purpose, or design. 2. Stubbornly or perversely persistent.

To some, President Bush's Iraq policy has been pertinacious.

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A familiar-looking word made a rare appearance today in the report from the Iraq Study Group:

lethality n: the quality of being deadly (syn: deadliness)

To quote the Iraq Study Group’s The Way Forward: "Violence(in Iraq) is increasing in scope and lethality

In short, it’s getting worse.

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For today, a word that describes what most of the world strives to overcome during the holidays.

solipsism (sol-ip-SIZ-uhm) noun 1. the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist. 2. extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption.

After eating too much the "C&C" staff teeters groggily toward solipsism.

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Here’s something you need to watch. It’s causing trouble right now for many Americans, and for a big American drug company, Pfizer.

cholesterol(kuh-LES-tuh-rohl, -rawl) noun. Biochemistry. 1. a sterol, C27H46O, that occurs in all animal tissues, esp. in the brain, spinal cord, and adipose tissue, functioning chiefly as a protective agent in the skin and myelin sheaths of nerve cells, a detoxifier in the bloodstream, and as a precursor of many steroids: deposits of cholesterol form in certain pathological conditions, as gallstones and atherosclerotic plaques. 2. the commercial form of this compound, obtained from the spinal cord of cattle, used chiefly as an emulsifying agent in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, and in the synthesis of vitamin D.

This time of year, the "C&C" staff tends to overdo it on egg nog and fruitcake, which is terrible for our cholesterol.

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