Make Your Point > Archived Issues > BAILIWICK

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connect today's word to others: Your bailiwick is your area of expertise, your domain of authority, the scope of your proficiency.  If we zoom in closer on your bailiwick, we'll also find your m____r: a highly specialized skill of yours. (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) make your point with... "BAILIWICK" Centuries ago in England, a bailie, or bailiff, was a public officer who had authority over a specific district of land, called a bailiwick. Today, we use a figurative meaning for that word: someone's bailiwick is that person's specific area of skill, knowledge, or authority. The idea is still that you're knowledgeable about--and in charge of--your specific area. Pronunciation: BAY lih wick Part of speech: Countable noun. (Countable nouns, like "bottle," "piece," and "decision," are words for things that can be broken into exact units. You talk about "a bottle," "three pieces," and "many decisions." Likewise, talk about a bailiwick, the bailiwick, or someone's bailiwick. We don't often talk about multiple bailiwicks.) Other forms: none How to use it: Probably because of its origin--far away and long ago--"bailiwick" has a formal, serious tone. It can even sound a little snobby. Use it with care. Say that something is (or isn't) someone's bailiwick. Or, say that something is in, within, out of, outside, outside of, or beyond someone's bailiwick.  Alternatively, you can say that a person is in (or out of, or outside of) his or her bailiwick. And that should all make sense when you think of a bailiwick as a figurative district of land. Let's restate all that information by breaking it into sentence patterns. You can say:     "This is my bailiwick,"     "This isn't my bailiwick,"     "This is in/within my bailiwick,"     "This is out of/outside/outside of/beyond my bailiwick,"     "I'm in my bailiwick,"     and "I'm out of/outside of my bailiwick." What kinds of things fall into (or out of) someone's bailiwick? Any particular job, task, chore, skill, capability, action, audience, product, service, or aspect of something--like quality, courtesy, convenience, craftsmanship, timelessness, competitiveness, femininity, scholarship, etc. And it doesn't have to be an individual person who's in her bailiwick: you can talk about a team's bailiwick, a company's bailiwick, an industry's bailiwick, a country's bailiwick, etc.  Feel free to personify things, assigning them their own figurative bailiwicks. Here's Maya Angelou: "The pain was beyond the bailiwick of crushed aspirins." Finally, you can talk about staying within your bailiwick, straying from your bailiwick, expanding or narrowing your bailiwick, and so on. examples: I never feel so clueless, so far outside of my bailiwick, as when I try to design ads or market my services. I'm willing to tutor kids in their Algebra I and Geometry classes, but Algebra II and Calculus lie beyond my bailiwick. study it now: Look away from the screen to explain the definition in your own words. You’ll know you understand what "bailiwick" means when you can explain it without saying "area of expertise" or "jurisdiction." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "(Something you dislike, or something that's not your responsibility) is the bailiwick of (a certain group of people), and I'll leave them to it." Example: "Camping is the bailiwick of nature lovers, and I'll leave them to it." before you review: Spend at least 20 seconds occupying your mind with the game below. Then try the review questions. Don’t go straight to the review now—let your working memory empty out first. Our game this month is called "Quirky Keepers."  We’ll play with a bunch of bizarre, oddly specific words—words that deserve a place in our vocabulary, even though they're too wacky and rare to explore in full issues of Make Your Point. (I found most of these words in Charles Harrington Elster’s outrageously entertaining book, There’s A Word For It: A Grandiloquent Guide to Life.) Our goal as we play is to squirrel the words away in our memories. So, in each issue, we’ll check out a word; in the following issue, I’ll give you a new example of that word, and you see if you can recall it. We’ll start with short words and work our way up to the six-, seven-, and eight-syllable doozies. See if you can recall the word from the previous issue: Jackie Miley loves teddy bears. A lot. She has collected over 8,000 of them, many of which were on display at "Teddy Bear Town" in Hill City, South Dakota. What noun describes Ms. Miley? (It's four syllables.)  See the answer by scrolling all the way down. Today, let’s check out the word "psithurisma," which is the soft rustling sound of leaves. (It's from a Greek word for "whispering.") Pronounce it "SITH yur IZ muh." Remember, in the next issue I’ll give you an example of psithurisma, without mentioning the word—and you’ll try to recall it. That'll help you keep it in your memory. review today's word: 1. A close opposite of BAILIWICK is A. TAPROOT. B. TINDERBOX. C. TERRA INCOGNITA. 2. In an attempt to lure millennials, Pizza Hut introduced ingredients like roasted vegetables and fresh garlic: the kind that usually _____ the bailiwick of higher-end restaurants. A. cater to B. fall within C. up the cost of Answers are below. a final word: Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each weekday morning by Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From Liesl's blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes. Answer to the game question: She's an arctophilist: a collector of teddy bears. Answers to review questions: 1. C 2. B