random D words encountered online

* Daedelus: In Greek mythology, Daedalus (Latin, also Hellenized Latin Daedalos, Greek Daidalos meaning "cunning worker", and Etruscan Taitale) was a skillful craftsman and artisan.

* daemmerung: twilight 

* Daimler: a British motor vehicle manufacturing company, founded in 1896, and based in Coventry. The company became a subsidiary of BSA in 1910, and was acquired by Jaguar Cars in 1960.

* dariole molds: both a cooking mold and the food cooked and served in it. The word dariole comes from the Old French word that means a small, filled pastry. Darioles today do not necessarily contain pastry and can be filled with a variety of foods such as fish, pudding, vegetables or cake.

* das stimmt: Quite so, that's for sure that's right, verily

* dative: Noun 1(grammar): case used to express direction towards an indirect object—the receiver—and is generally indicated in English by to or for with the objective. They gave gifts to the sailors. They give water to the plants. Adjective dative (not comparable)1.(grammar) Noting the case of a noun which expresses the remoter or indirect object, generally indicated in English by to or for with the objective. 2. (law) In one’s gift; capable of being disposed of at will and pleasure, as an office or other privilege. 3. (law) Removable, as distinguished from perpetual; — said of an officer. 4. (law) Given by a judge, as distinguished from being cast upon a party by the law itself 5. (sciences) formed by two electrons contributed by one atom

D is not a long category without much that is interesting and a high percentage of easy to get foreign phrases. That's it for the da__ words. 

* de haut en bas: From high to low

* de jure vs de facto: De jure = 'Legally', De facto = 'In fact'. The terms de jure and de facto are used instead of "in law" and "in practice", respectively, when one is describing political or legal situations. In a legal context, de jure is also translated as "concerning law". A practice may exist de facto, where for example the people obey a contract as though there were a law enforcing it, yet there is no such law. A process known as "desuetude" may allow de facto practices to replace obsolete de jure laws. On the other hand, practices may exist de jure and not be obeyed or observed by the people.

* de mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendumest: "Of the dead, speak no evil," or, more literally, "Let nothing be said of the dead but what is good."

* decalogue: 10 commandments

* declamation: 1. A recitation delivered as an exercise in rhetoric or elocution. 2. a.Vehement oratory. b. A speech marked by strong feeling; a tirade.

* declarant: One who makes a declaration, as an alien who has signed a declaration of intent to become a U.S. citizen.

* décontracté: relaxed

* defalcation: amount of funds misappropriated by a person trusted with its charge; also, the act of misappropriation, or an instance thereof.  

* defenestrated: throw something/somebody out the window. 

* defiladed: to arrange (fortifications) so as to protect the lines from frontal or enfilading fire and the interior from fire from above or behind

* dégustation: a culinary term meaning a careful, appreciative tasting of various foods and focusing on the gustatory system, the senses, high culinary art and good company. Dégustation is more likely to involve sampling small portions of all of a chef's signature dishes in one sitting. Usually consisting of eight or more courses, it may be accompanied by a matching wine degustation which complements each dish. A dégustation experience takes 4 hours at The Fat Duck.

* deleterious: causing harm or damage

* dé·marche: a political step or initiative. 1.a line of action; move; countermove; maneuver, especially in diplomatic relations,or 2 formal diplomatic representation of the official position, views, or wishes on a given subject from one government to another government or intergovernmental organization. (of sums of money) Be expressed in a specified monetary unit. 2. Call; name.

* dentology: an approach to Ethics that focuses on the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves, as opposed to the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of those actions (Consequentialism) or to the character and habits of the actor (Virtue Ethics). the normative ethical position that judges the morality of an action based on the action's adherence to a rule or rules. It is sometimes described as "duty-" or "obligation-" or "rule-" based ethics, because rules "bind you to your duty." 

* depucelated: to deflower

* deracinate: to remove or separate from a native environment or culture especially : to remove the racial or ethnic characteristics or influences

* dernier cri: last cry, latest fashion

* de res: desirable residence. A real estate marketing term that has entered regular usage

* desiderata: desired things whether in religion, daily life, or political agenda

* desideratum: Something that is needed or wanted: "integrity was a desideratum".

* despond: lose confidence or hope; become dejected; "The supporters of the Presidential candidate desponded when they learned the early results of the ... Despondency; To give up the will, courage, or spirit; to become dejected, lose heart, extreme depression, he Slough of Despond (Slough of Despair) is a deep bog in John Bunyan's allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, into which the character Christian sinks under the weight of his sins and his sense of guilt. ...

* detent: pawl: a hinged catch that fits into a notch of a ratchet to move a wheel forward or prevent it from moving backward , a method, as well as the actual device, used to mechanically resist or arrest the rotation of a wheel, axle or spindle., locks or unlocks a movement; a catch, pawl, or dog; especially, in clockwork, the catch which locks and unlocks the wheelwork in striking

* diaeresis: two dots over a letter.  Diaeresis (prosody), pronunciation of vowels in a diphthong separately, or the division made in a line of poetry when the end of a foot coincides with the end of a word, Diaeresis (linguistics), or hiatus, the separation of adjacent vowels into adjacent syllables, not separated by a consonant or pause and not merged into a diphthong, Diairesis, a term in Platonic and Stoic philosophy, Diaeresis (diacritic), a diacritic consisting of two dots that marks disyllabicity

* dicastery:  divisions of the Heliaea from the time of the democratic reforms of Cleisthenes (c. 508-507 BC), when the Heliaea was transformed from an appellate court to a court with original jurisdiction. Each year 6,000 volunteers, who were required to be male citizens at least 30 years of age, were assigned by lot to sit on specific dicasteries, or court panels. Each group of about 500 dicasts (about 200 in matters of private law) constituted a court for the entire year. In more important cases, several dicasteries might be combined. The verdict was determined by majority vote; a tie vote acquitted. 

* diktat: 1. a harsh, punitive settlement or decree imposed unilaterally on a defeated nation, political party, etc. 2. any decree or authoritative statement: The Board of education issued a diktat that all employees must report an hour earlier.

* dimorphism: (chemistry) the property of certain substances that enables them to exist in two distinct crystalline forms, (biology) the existence of two forms of individual within the same animal species (independent of sex differences),  occurring or existing in two different forms; "dimorphic crystals"; "dimorphous organisms", two distinct forms of a single species that differ in one or more characteristics, such as coloration, size, or shape.

* dirigisme: an economy in which the government exerts strong directive influence. It designates a mainly capitalist economy with strong directive, as opposed to merely regulatory, economic participation by the state.

Most modern economies can be characterized as dirigiste to some degree – for instance, state economic action may be exercised through subsidizing research and developing new technologies, or through government procurement, especially military (i.e. a form of mixed economy). Since the late 1980s, the economy of the People's Republic of China can be described as a dirigiste economy, as it is a heavily state-directed market economy.

* disambiguate: to make (an ambiguous expression) unambiguous

* discommode: To put to inconvenience; trouble.

* discursive: digressing from subject to subject, (of a style of speech or writing) fluent and expansive rather than formulaic or abbreviated."the short story is concentrated, whereas the novel is discursive"

* disintermediate : In economics, disintermediation is the removal of intermediaries in a supply chain: "cutting out the middleman", The removal of funds from a financial institution such as a bank for direct purchase of financial instruments; The removal of an intermediary from a commercial transaction,  One that no longer acts as an agent between persons.

* dispositive: Relating to or bringing about the settlement of an issue or the disposition of property., Dealing with the disposition of property by deed or will. One way of remembering this is by looking at the stem, which turns out to be “dispose of,” as in “dispose of the question” (in the sense of “to deal with conclusively; settle”).

* disquisition: A formal discourse on a subject, often in writing.

* dissimulation: concealment of one's thoughts, feelings, or character; pretense, pretense, dissembling, deceit, dishonesty, duplicity, lying, guile, subterfuge, feigning, shamming, faking, bluff, bluffing, posturing, hypocrisy "he was capable of great dissimulation and hypocrisy"

* dithyramb: a choral hymn sung by fifty men or boys, under the leadership of an exarchon, to honor Dionysus. The dithyramb became a feature of Greek tragedy and is considered by Aristotle to be the origin of Greek tragedy, passing first through a satyric phase. Herodotus says the first dithyramb was organized and named by one Arion of Corinth in the late 7th century B.C. By the fifth century B.C. there were dithyramb competitions between tribes of Athens. competition involved 50 men and boys from each of the ten tribes, amounting to 1000 competitors. Simonides, Pindar, and Bacchylides were important dithyrambic poets. Their content is not the same, so it is difficult to capture the essence of dithyrambic poetry.

* dobber: Scottish slang for someone who is stupid. a penis. Used in Glasgow and the surrounding places

* Donepezil: used to treat dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD; a brain disease that slowly destroys the memory and the ability to think, learn ...

* donicker: bathroom; toilet. Origin: probably alteration (with -er1) of dial. dunnekin outhouse or open cesspool; see dunny, -kin

* donnée: a set of artistic or literary premises or assumptions. [1875–80; < French: literally, given, n. use of feminine past participle of donner to give], "He worked outward from the donnée toward the expression of some general theme or idea" (Hugh Honour). A set of notions, facts, or conditions that governs and shapes an act or a way of life: "His heart, his mind, his body, composed the donnée of his life" 

* doxology: a hymn or verse in Christian liturgy glorifying God, A doxology (from the Greek doxa, belief or opinion + logos, word or speaking) is a short hymn of praises to God in various Christian worship services, often added to the end of canticles, psalms, and hymns. The tradition derives from a similar practice in the Jewish synagogue., An expression of praise to God, especially a short hymn sung as part of a Christian worship service

* Drāco: an Athenian legislator, who received special authority to organize and codify the laws in 621 BC, the first time the Athenian laws were put down in writing. Details of his legislation are not now known, but the laws were notoriously harsh (hence the adjective ‘Draconian’) with nearly all offences (including idleness) punishable by death. When asked why he decreed death as the penalty for most offences he said that small offences deserved death and he knew of no severer punishment for great ones. All his laws were repealed by Solon except those dealing with homicide (which entrusted trials for murder to the Areopagus), but although no one at Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries BC doubted that the homicide laws then in force were those of Draco, it cannot be assumed that in fact they had remained unchanged since his day. 

* dramaturgy: the study of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. a distinct practice separate from play writing and directing, although a single individual may perform any combination of the three.  Some dramatists combine writing and dramaturgy when creating a drama. Others work with a specialist, called a dramaturg, to adapt a work for the stage.

* Droit de seigneur: "the lord's right", often conflated with the Latin phrase "Jus primae noctis"), is a term now popularly used to describe an alleged legal right allowing the lord of an estate to take the virginity of the estate's virgins. Little or no historical evidence has been unearthed from the Middle Ages to support the idea that it ever actually existed.

* dudgeon: A state or fit of intense indignation; resentment; ill humor -- often used in the phrase "in high dudgeon."

* duffer: an incompetent or stupid person, especially an elderly one."he's the most worthless old duffer", a person inexperienced at something, especially at playing golf.

* Dunning–Kruger effect: The effect is about paradoxical defects in cognitive ability, in oneself and others. a cognitive bias in which unskilled people make poor decisions and reach erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the metacognitive ability to appreciate their mistakes.  The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their own abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority. Actual competence may weaken self-confidence, as competent individuals may falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. As Kruger and Dunning conclude, "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others"

* durbar: The court of an Indian ruler, A public reception held by an Indian prince or by a British governor or viceroy in India

* Dutch angle: Dutch tilt, Dutch angle, Dutch shot, oblique angle, German angle, canted angle, Batman angle, or jaunty angle (in non-cinematic static photography)