efinitions for minimax

1. a strategy of game theory employed to minimizea player's maximum possible loss.
2. Citations for minimax

   This is the principle of minimax : assume that theworst may happen and act accordingly; rememberthat lightning always strikes twice in the same place.This is a basic law known to all successfulgamblers.William S. Burroughs, The Adding Machine: Selected Essays, 1993

   Uncle Steve explained how they worked out a“minimax” search curve for each ship but I did notunderstand it; it involved a type of calculus we hadnot studied.Robert A. Heinlein, Time for the Stars, 1956

   Origin of minimax

   Minimax entered English in the 1900s and is a lexicalblend of the terms minimum and maximum.

Word of the day limpid

Definition

1

a : marked by transparency : pellucidb : clear and simple in style

2

: absolutely serene and untroubled

Examples

From where we stood we could see the glimmer of coins settled at the bottom of the limpidfountain.

Did you know

"He could converse—and converse easily, naturally, with idiom and parlance and a certain nonchalance—on all sorts of subjects: Tony Blair's earnest righteousness, Timberland boots, thelimpid prose of Bruce Chatwin." — Wendell Steavenson, The New Yorker, 16 Aug. 2015.

Since the early 1600s, limpid has been used in English to describe things that have the soft clearness of pure water. The aquatic connection is not incidental; language scholars believe thatlimpid probably traces to lympha, a Latin word meaning "water." That same Latin root is also the source of the word lymph, the English name for the pale liquid that helps maintain the body's fluid balance and that removes bacteria from tissues.

Word of the day

Definitions for galumph

1. to move along heavily and clumsily.
2. Citations for galumph

   It is at this point that one begins to feel embarrassedwhile other passengers galumph by with theirluggage.Stephanie Rosenbloom, “Flying Deluxe Domestic Coast-to-Coast forAround $1,000,” New York Times, January 23, 2015

   "Don't galumph around like that when you're comingdown the aisle," Sabrina had moaned at her sisterthe night before. “Be light on your feet and smile!”Kate Jacobs, Comfort Food, 2008

   Origin of galumph

   Galumph is a 19th century invention from the mind ofLewis Carroll, and is perhaps a blend of gallop andtriumphant.

Saudade

It describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. Moreover, it often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never return. A stronger form of saudade might be felt towards people and things whose whereabouts are unknown, such as a lost lover, or a family member who has gone missing, moved away, separated, or died.

Saudade was once described as "the love that remains" after someone is gone. Saudade is the recollection of feelings, experiences, places or events that once brought excitement, pleasure, well-being, which now triggers the senses and makes one live again. It can be described as an emptiness, like someone (e.g., one's children, parents, sibling, grandparents, friends, pets) or something (e.g., places, things one used to do in childhood, or other activities performed in the past) that should be there in a particular moment is missing, and the individual feels this absence. It brings sad and happy feelings all together, sadness for missing and happiness for having experienced the feeling.

In Portuguese, "Tenho saudades tuas" (European Portuguese) or "Tenho saudades de você" (Brazilian Portuguese), translates as "I havesaudade of you" meaning "I miss you", but carries a much stronger tone. In fact, one can have saudade of someone whom one is with, but have some feeling of loss towards the past or the future.

In Brazil, the day of Saudade is officially celebrated on 30 January.