Progression

temporize also temporise (TEM-puh-ryz) verb tr.

To delay so as to gain time or to avoid making a decision.

[From French temporiser (to bide one's time), from Medieval Latin temporizare (to pass the time), from Latin tempor-, from tempus (time).]

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=thesaurus

"Over the past several months, as the international community has continued to temporize, conditions in Sudan have worsened."

Editorial: Darfur, Continued; The Providence Journal (Rhode Island); Apr 19, 2005.

"They've a temper, some of them--particularly verbs, they're the proudest -- adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs --however, I can manage the whole lot of them!" boasts Humpty-Dumpty in Lewis Carroll's 1872 classic, "Through the Looking Glass".

If they are in fact as conceited as Humpty-Dumpty claims them to be, perhaps verbs can be forgiven for their hoity-toity ways -- after all they are the ones that bring a sentence to life. How many of this week's five verbs can you manage?

-Anu Garg

anu@wordsmith.org

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Posted by Keya at April 25, 2005 07:59 PM