Word of the Day: Circumvent

Circumvent
-verb

Pronunciation:
SUR-kum-vent

Definition:
1. to go around or bypass: to circumvent the lake; to circumvent the real issues.

2. to avoid (defeat, failure, unpleasantness, etc.) by artfulness or deception; avoid by anticipating or outwitting: He circumvented capture by anticipating their movements.

3. to surround or encompass, as by stratagem; entrap: to circumvent a body of enemy troops.

Etymology:
mid-15c., "to surround by hostile stratagem," from L. circumventus, pp. of circumvenire "to get around, encircle, surround," in transferred sense "to oppress, assail, cheat," from circum "around" (see circum-) + venire "to come" (see venue). Meaning "to go round" is from 1840. Related: Circumvented; circumventing.

Quote with the word:
"If tragedy elicits our compassion, comedy appeals to our self-interest. The former confronts life's failures with noble fortitude, the latter seeks to circumvent them with shrewd nonchalance. The one leaves us momentarily in a mood of resignation, the other in a condition of euphoria."
- Henry Levin, American film director

Circumvent reminds me of a compass. It's the image I get when I hear/read it.

Who are you quoting?

Crap, still on this account haha. Hi, it's Jane.

Thought it was you when I saw the avatar. Hahah.

Edited it to add the quoter.

Even those who label themselves as cold and calculating cannot seem to circumvent emotion.

As the relatively inexperienced rabbi circumscribes the baby's penis, his nervous parents make chit chat in attempt to circumvent circumcision.

Having different rules and guildlines for members and moderators would circumvent the purpose of a members message forum.

Are we allowed to circumvent any message we do not agree with in one sided discussions?

Oh, don't worry. I was just speaking to Jane about it in a past post. She asked if I would like a hand at it seeing as I have a bit of a passion for words.

I don't want this to get out of control BUT Jordan is a linguist so I thought it was fitting to hand this baby to him. Seeing as others are taking interest, you can take turns? No member can go twice in a row, let's say, and you have to nab the next WOTD by calling next in whatever is the most recent word thread. Play nice, I'll be watching :)

You're blowing this out of proportion and I'm not surprised.
It was a thread I thought up and Jordan is a linguist by degree, not just by name... he studied this stuff at university. It was my decision to hand it to him, he was the first person to express a huge amount of interest since I decided in my head to pass it to someone else. I don't care if he's in my club.
Oh. My. Giraffe. Bob and Amanda, not everything is a nefarious conspiracy by me to ruin PnQ. Actually, nothing is.

I'm fine with letting other members do WOTD. Follow the rules I've laid out and it's all good.

I'm sorry about this, Jordan.

Amanda, I don't need to explain this crap to you. It was my thread to do with what I liked, I don't know when it became ok for you to take it over without asking first. Stop bringing clubs into everything only when it suits your conspiracy theories.
Someone needs to post respect as the next WOTD.

Damn can't let anyone in my club do anything without you 2 jumping at my throat. Jordan is a member, I don't care what club he's in (though apparently you 2 do), and I gave WOTD to him.

We want to open it up for all members? That sounds great, let's do it.

Don't call me a baby when I never start these petty wars.

Edit: So don't let my club members do anything and you'll stop bringing them up? Ha, nice try.

I think it's cool if members post it... I think the whole "asking Jordan or Jane" thing is merely a practical measure. It takes some organization to have somebody new post a themed thread every week (like when we were doing Life of a Poet), let alone every day. Having one person "in charge" means that it's more certain that there will be new posts, without having to go through the trouble of a sign up sheet, etc.

I think it would be neat to see Jordan in charge, if Jane isn't. He has a lot of experience with languages, and I think learning about the etymology behind these words is the most fun part! Since he's expressed interest, maybe he could be the "leader," so to speak, and then if someone else has an interesting word that they'd like to do, they let him know. I'm not meaning that as in "nobody else is allowed to post words," but more as an organizational matter, so they know who is doing which words on which days, and don't get them doubled up, etc.

"Why someone from your club and not just the general public?"

Am I really to believe if I had selected someone from outside my club, you would've thrown up the same fuss? I'm not that gullible.
Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about.

I don't have the temperament to continue this argument. What's done is done, anyone can do WOTD but please follow the "calling next" rule so we don't have a flood of words every day. Thank you.

Or what Sibs said. That's a good idea too. Whatever people can do without fighting or making a mess of the thing...

You don't know me, I don't know you. Fair enough. Maybe if we both accept that, our relationship will improve.
It's not about winning, however, if you would not like to do WOTD anymore... that's fine.
I'm sorry I scared you off it, and I'm sorry if I scared other members off it. The accusations thrown at me got me a little defensive, but I would love to see WOTD passed around by members.

Jordan, would you mind continuing with WOTD until someone else calls next (on whatever is your most recent thread)? And whenever nobody steps in to do it, we can count on you to post another? Does that work? Let me know :)

After circumventing the initial purpose of this thread, maybe we can get back to it.

"BTW if there's any leader it should probably remain Jane. But that's just the opinion of a member of this site."

With everything that's been going on in the mod room lately, we've been talking about redistributing some of the responsibilities. Jane decided to delegate the WOTD threads so that she would have more time to focus on some of the other modly things. I've been keeping the Daily Sip threads, just because it doesn't take long anyways, and I like doing it. Word of the Day is a little more intensive.

Amanda, if you're determined to not do any WOTD threads, maybe there are some other language/poetry ideas that you could start up? They wouldn't even have to be daily or weekly. It's an idea! Always looking for more literary themes here.

Amanda I am the 1 that suggested that we hand over wotd. I thought jordan would be good to start it off. If anybody wants to do wotd that is fine we have no problems with that. Jordan, can you keep in reading sheet for a sign up sheet of others that would like to do wotd? if so that would be excellent so every member can have a chance wotd.

We both think he's a good pick to start things off.

Sorry guys, I'm ducking out if it's gonna cause this much trouble.

Don't think I'm offended, not in the least. I'd just rather stay out of this. If we figure something out, I'd certainly like to be involved but until then, peace.

I believe the trouble's been absolved and there should be no problems if you start us up again, Jordan, but if you want to duck out - no problem! I'll retake WOTD until someone else comes forward.

Let me know if you change your mind.

Sure! Also, what are everyone's thoughts on words from other languages being thrown in from time to time? There may not be the same depth of etymology all of the time, but it might be a neat twist now and again! (Also if I stay within the bounds of Indo-European languages, it would be relatively easy to show how they relate to English!)

-----EDIT!-----

Also, I saw Sib's post up there. Yeah! If I am to remain the main WOTD person (assuming that's cool), perhaps people could PM me for suggestions and whatnot? That way we can have everyone's two-cents worth without the fuss of a mess of people possibly trying to post at one time. Also I'd be more than happy to answer questions and whatnot, I'm going back to school in the fall soon (hopefully doing some etymology and historical linguistics courses) and also have quite a few books at my disposal. :)

Fine by me. Thank you!

Okay first of all let me apologize, I am on my cell phone so everything is not come out correct. I make a suggestion that we turn over w o t d to a member. Jordan was very active and wotd anyways, jane asked jordan if you wanted to post some of the w o t d's for the day I saw nothing wrong with this I cannot dispute it. the jane selected jordan to start it out I thought it was a good idea.

sorry if there is any misunderstandings on my part.

It is not my wish to circumvent the intent of WOTD
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

I just want to say, for the record that I control the petty minds of THE CLUB members, always have and I always will.

Jane is pawn...yes I GAVE JORDAN THIS CRAPPY THREAD!

*hands out rubber underpants to all the old folks so they can piss themselves in safety*

I am also Kaizer Soze.

Thank you, oh magnificent Kevin.

Bob, mods in the club do anything but solicit us to join threads in the main forums. Furthermore, I used to be quite active a few years ago and took a step back because I didn't enjoy coming into the main discussions while everyone was being so hostile. I decided to come back of my own volition. Mainly because I miss you guys. Yes even the ones who cause problems. There is no need to be suspicious or accuse mods or The Club of anything. We're just enjoying the site like everyone else. Honestly.

I don't know what else to tell you guys. Sorry?

YOU...GET ON YOUR KNEWS..AND OBEY...

THE COWGOD!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LggnaBS0vXQ

Long live "THE CLUB" and all who sail in her....harrrrr

We rule and nothing, no nothing, nor anyone can stop us !!!!!!

RIGHT! right.

I wasn't going to come in here, but then I felt this strange nagging feeling.... almost like I was being compelled. It's like my fingers couldn't even stop themselves from clicking on the forums. If I quiet the clacking of my typing I can just hear a voice on the edge of my consciousness. It's saying "Go...... play... forums... go...." It's weird, actually. Almost sounds like Jane.

Oh well!

I remember learning about "circumvent" in Latin. Cir.... circle, circumference, circumcise, ... circus? I wonder. And then "ven." To go around. Those Romans were pretty logical in the way they built their language, it seems. Or at least, the rules they used for compounding and altering the meanings of their words through additional elements seems to have given us a pretty nifty way of building our own vocab. If you know the tools, you can make up a bunch of words and have them be logically de-codable. (Codeable?) Cod... able. See. Not a word, but you know what I mean.

-Not a Linguist

Http://youtu.be/nppvKaKR2uI

Though I am not bilingual I have heard when in Rome do as the Romans do

You can take the comedy out of the drama but that does not circumvent the tragedy

All latin is not Greek to me.

Sibs! You'll find actually that all natural languages work this way! They break down individually into parts known as morphemes which break further into phonemes and phones, etc.

circum- 'around'
vent - 'go'

Even for English 'codable'
cod- 'code'
-able 'able'

Hahaha, where 'able' means something like 'able to be' or something of the sort.

Also, you've been hearing that voice, too? Eerie.

A morpheme is the smallest word part that carries meaning, right? And then phoneme is the sound? Or is it the other way around...

Oh Nicko...

You know that the club does not rule this site....

I wonder how many people from different clubs are active on the main boards?.....

Would be very interesting to find out.

Sibs, you were rightfirst. Morphemes carry meaning, phonemes encompass sounds and their variants within a language.

Hellon. You've got me excited! Rarely does anyone have any questions about this stuff when I'm around. Shall I start a new thread? If I do it'll have to be later, my break at ork isn't long enough.

Jordan! Please doooo! Linguistics is fun.
This may have nothing to do with anything, but the words "host" and "hostile" have somewhat contradictory meanings, yet they start the same. Is there a connection? Linguisize me, Cap'n!

Looked them up.

They seem to have a different original root in Latin which sort of began to resemble each other during their transition into French. "Host" is attested from the 13th century and it came from Old French where "hostile" is attested from the 25th century from Middle French. The roots resemble one another but hav a different meaning.

I love this stuff. I seriously do. Keep it coming!

I took a History of the English Language class when I was in Ireland, and it kind of rocked my world. I've liked learning about name meanings for a long time, though. I used to haunt baby name sites, learning about their meanings and histories.

Sorry, I just got excited.

Sibs, I think I might be you... can we share baby names?

Yes! My poor children are bound to have odd names. At LEAST crazy middle names, if I have to muster the decency to give them 'normal" first names.

Ahhh, good ol' baby name meaning sites... I'm all too familiar with them.

Jane means merciful.

Like "Janism?"

Also, who loves the names Malachi and Mordecai? Ahhhhhhhh I wish those were my names.